As the beast of a floating, swirling disease covers the planet in fear, a couple of tunes — the first, a look skyward:

And a lyrical strange:

This coronavirus is indeed spreading — 442 cases in the US, so far impacting 32 states. Of course, the numbers change as fast as I can type out this shit.
A first case in DC, and along with one victim who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), COVID-19 is becoming the main topic of anything, except for the T-Rump who doesn’t git a fat-rat’s ass — he and Mike Pence visited CPAC.
About DC and the CPAC episode: ‘Asked if he was concerned about the virus getting closer, Trump said: “No, I’m not concerned at all. No, I’m not. We’ve done a great job.”‘

Asshole! Wrong!
A good, detail expose on the history of how bungled the US response to this serious affair can be found at the Washington Post from this morning, how the White House and the T-Rump fucked us all — main points:

The repeated false claims by the president that the virus was being contained exacerbated the problem.
They made it difficult for public health officials to lay out the need to prepare for what happens next, even after most experts had begun to fear the virus was already here and spreading.
There was also a ripple effect, with health officials and others not taking the threat as seriously as they should have because Trump kept on making faulty assurances, such as his claim at a Feb. 26 news conference that within the United States, the number of cases was “going to be down to close to zero.”
Confusion in the ranks below Trump made things worse.
…
Yet there was Trump, touring the CDC in a red “Keep America Great” campaign hat and offering an alternative reality just 24 hours later during a chaotic appearance: “Anybody who wants a test will get a test, that’s the bottom line,” said Trump, who went on to describe the coronavirus testing kits as being nearly as “perfect” as his phone call with the Ukrainian president last summer, which ultimately led to his impeachment.
Then Trump ended the day by injecting yet another note of chaos into an already frenetic period, tweeting out news of a major staff shake-up.
“I am pleased to announce that Congressman Mark Meadows will become White House Chief of Staff,” he wrote, pivoting away from coronavirus, at least briefly.

Read the whole, etc. if you want to upset your vitals.
And add this note from Adam Rogers at Wired this evening on the T-Rump’s visit to the CDC yesterday — reality of horror:

As a reporter, in general I’m not supposed to say something like this, but: The president’s statements to the press were terrifying.
That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions.
It was full of Dear Leader-ish compliments, non-sequitorial defenses of unrelated matters, attacks on an American governor, and—most importantly—misinformation about the virus and the US response.
That’s particularly painful coming from inside the CDC, a longtime powerhouse in global public health now reduced to being a backdrop for grubby politics.
During a public health crisis, clear and true information from leaders is the only way to avoid dangerous panic.
Yet here we are.

Yes, here we be…

(Illustration: Edvard Munch‘s ‘The Scream,’ lithograph version, found here).