Yup, still thinking about "The Stand"

OK, I guess that's not enough.

Still have that nagging feeling we're living in a cockeyed (or would that be croweyed?) version of The Stand.

Still fighting the journalist's urge to document everything for posterity.¹ But is there a need? A former colleague, Ryan Teague Beckwith, half-joked on Twitter, "Everybody's locked at home with good internet access, smartphones and cheap computers. This is going to be the most over-documented historical crisis ever."

True. Unless there's some kind of disaster with The Cloud, future historians will be up to their eyeballs in digital eyewitness accounts from 2020.

I cannot, however, resist the urge to aggregate some of the insanity swirling around us this week. Here are some headlines and tweets that might leave you with the distinct impression that the healthiest thing you can do right now is to not read the headlines and tweets. This is straight out of Stephen King...

• 3 BILLION NOW ON LOCKDOWN
• Patients 'charged with attempted murder' for failing to self-isolate
• Rural America watches pandemic erupt in cities as fear grows
• How govt can track social media posts to enforce quarantines
• Supermarkets install protective barriers between staff, customers
• Maggie Haberman: The increased wail of ambulances in our Brooklyn neighborhood is haunting over the last few days.
• Fired Americans Send Unemployment Websites Crashing Down
• MAYOR: HALF OF NEW YORKERS WILL GET INFECTED
• MORGUES NEAR CAPACITY
• SICK TROOPS NOT BEING TESTED
• Pentagon orders halt of overseas movement for military
• Meredith (@thisismeredith): I feel I must tweet because the press does not reflect our reality. The deluge is here. Our ICU is completely full with intubated COVID patients. We are rapidly moving to expand capacity. We are nearly out of PPE. I anticipate we will begin rationing today.
• TRUMP CABINET BIBLE TEACHER BLAMES PANDEMIC ON GOD'S WRATH
• Pastor: Virus Of Demonic Origin
• Thousands of inmates released as jails face virus threat
• Man Who Licked Products at WALMART Charged with Terror Threat
• PRINCE CHARLES TESTS POSITIVE
• FEARS FOR QUEEN
• Londoners spooked after mystery air raid siren goes off
• Donald Trump: The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!
• Hillary Clinton: Please do not take medical advice from a man who looked directly at a solar eclipse.
• 'We are collapsing': Virus pummels medics in Spain and Italy
• Senate rushes to approve $2.2 trillion coronavirus bill
• Meredith: One problem is the sheer number of patients. Another is that we are early intubating these patients given data suggesting improved outcomes and also to avoid aerosolizing procedures to protect staff.
• Hospitals consider universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients
• Brazil’s Bolsonaro, channeling Trump, dismisses coronavirus measures — it’s just ‘a little cold’
• Analysis: President Trump is as popular as he's ever been right now
• World Health Organization praises Trump's leadership in response to coronavirus pandemic
• Meredith: Tough day. Floor beds were converted to ICU beds on the fly as a cascade of patients in the ED and on the floor required emergent intubation. Inspiring to watch RN, NP/PA and MD administration come together to find a way to care for these patients.
• Testing blunders crippled response
• Biden Slams Trump 'Failure'
• Fear and foreboding in New York
• California needs 50,000 more hospital beds
• San Fran warns of surge: 'Worst yet to come'
• Meredith: Staffing these beds requires incredible resources. Hard to say which will run out first — staffing, physical beds, ventilators, or other life support devices, e.g. CRRT machines to run continuous dialysis for the many patients developing renal failure.
• City dwellers fleeing to deserts and mountains
• Florida Spring Breakers Begin Testing Positive
• Domestic Passenger Flights Could Shut Down
• Meredith: Today was the worst day anyone has ever seen, but tomorrow will be worse. We are on the precipice of rationing. Needless to say, these decisions run counter to everything we stand for and are incredibly painful.
• VIRUS LINGERS ON SURFACE FOR 17 DAYS
• COPS USE DRONES FOR LOCKDOWN
• NOVEMBER ELECTION BY MAIL?
• Survivalists feel vindicated
• National Guard arrives at JAVITS to build first of 4 emergency hospitals
• Priest dies after giving respirator to younger patient
• Meredith: I am ending my night by delivering acetaminophen to a co-resident who spiked her first fever today. She is one of many in recent days. This is where we are.

Footnote
1. Went for a walk at 7:30 tonight.
Just past sunset, before full dark.
The gloamin, they call it.
A walk of almost complete silence.
Except for the birds, chattering. So much chattering.
No other sounds.
Houses dark, except for glowing screens behind front windows:
A game show. Disney+. A black-and-white Space Invaders game five feet wide.
It's quiet.
Driveways filled with cars.
Campers in driveways and on the street. Many campers.
I passed one soul, walking in the opposite direction.
She: Hi.
Me: Good evening.
Ten feet apart, we were.
Darker now.
Jesus glowing from a window, filling the whole frame.
The birds are silent.
My footsteps the only sound.