Today is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who was born in 1820. She was a British social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. She rose to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War where she organized care for wounded soldiers. As part of celebrating her birthday, Sarah my wife set up a stand in front of our home today with a handmade sign commemorating Nightgale’s birthday, since this is National Nurse’s Week. There is a Palo Alto Medical Clinic at the end of our street and all kinds of medical professionals walk past our house each day. So Sarah put out a large ice cooler offering free sodas to health care workers as they strolled to and from work. Many of them took stopped by, grabbed a soda and offered kinds words of thanks.
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The U.S. Senate held a special coronavirus hearing today to discuss issues around reopening the country, saying at home, testing and more. “The testing so far is impressive but not nearly enough,” said Lamar Alexander, Senator (R-TN) chair of the meeting. The group was made up of 23 bipartisan members. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the group that there are currently eight candidates for a possible vaccine for Covid-19. He said that, at the beginning of the current crisis, it looked like a vaccine was 12-18 months away. Testing of possible vaccines got underway on Jan. 14. Fauci was optimistic that one vaccine in the works was now entering a “phase 2” trial, and showed signs of possibly being ready for testing by late spring or early summer and that results could be known by late fall or early winter.
Currently, there are 82,004 U.S. fatalities, but Fauci warned that that number was likely higher. There are 1,365,421 cases in the U.S. In Monterey County, there are 288 cases with six deaths and 142 recoveries. Santa Cruz County has 141 cases, two deaths and 114 recoveries. And in San Benito County there are 56 cases, two deaths and 53 recoveries.
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Comedian and actor Jerry Stiller has died of natural causes at 92. He was a staple on the comedy stage as far back as the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s when he appeared in the comedy duo, Stiller and Meara. Anne Meara was his wife of 62 years. After starring in umpteen movies and other productions, Stiller reignited his career with role in the highly popular TV comedy Seinfeld as the father of the character George.
