Corona, Corona

     The pandemic fad worries me more than the pandemic itself.  Most recently, it has mutated with this quadrennial's version of Presidential Derangement Syndrome and produced two new variants, one of them a slight variation of a recurrent strain of the disease and the other a new type:

     COR20-T1(coup) claims Mr. Trump will use the virus as an excuse to postpone the 2020 elections (forever) and seize the reins of power.
     There is a vaccine, which is to remember that the individual states run the elections, parties essentially run their own primaries and that the State and local Election Boards and local party organizations are grubby little petty fiefdoms, with a tight hold on their own power.  If you think your local organizations are going to step aside because the Chief Executive in Washington has taken the Imperial crown from the hands of the Pope and crowned himself, you haven't been paying any attention to how things work in this country.  The party out of power will howl loudest, of course, but neither one will go along.

     COR20-T2(dupe) says the coronavirus will bring Mr. Trump down and rubs its hands in glee, welcoming the virus as a liberator.
     Presumably this will occur in much the same way as the influenza pandemic of 1918 brought down President Wilson,* which it did not.  I do not care to speculate about the smallness of a mind that is delighted by the prospect of a pandemic disease sweeping this country and the world, or that thinks it will do anything except bring Americans closer together in the effort to cope with it, rallying around the banner of our shared response rather than for or against any particular politician.

*  *  *      As for the actual coronavirus, it's not here yet and when it does arrive, you're not going to get it from the handle of a shopping cart or a toilet seat.  It will be sneezed to you.

     Yes, it can linger on surfaces, but you're washing your hands before you touch your face or make a salad, aren't you?  Everything I can find online from actual medical sources says this thing isn't spreading by greasy handprints but by bad manners.

     Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze; if you haven't got a hankie or a tissue, use the inside of your elbow -- and then go wash up.  (If you were a real sport, you'd wear a disposable face mask as soon as you realized you were sick.  Sneezing in one is unpleasant, but it's contained.)  Hot water and soap work; hand sanitizer works; good manners work -- if you use them consistently.
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* The odious Wilson, who re-segregated the Federal government.  I make a point of mentioning this, because his racism is all too often whitewashed and it did untold damage to this country.