Today I want
to talk about the passing of two humble and special people. I have been proud
to be associated with Explore Mars, Inc. for almost 11 years. Debbie Cohen was
part of this organization for all this time. She was very competent. She got
things right. She was always warm, friendly, and helpful. She touched so many
lives in a good way. Debbie, you left us much too soon. You will be remembered
fondly and missed.
Ray de Monia is someone whom none of us
have met. Ray spent his entire life in the small town of Cullman, Alabama
(between Birmingham and Huntsville.) By all accounts, he was a decent and
well-liked person. Ray had what medical professionals call "a serious
cardiac event." I would translate that as a serious heart attack. To save
his life, he needed a bed in the Intensive Care Unit. His local hospital's ICU
was full of Covid-19 patients. To the credit of the hospital staff there, they
mounted a brave effort to find an ICU bed for him. They called 43 hospitals.
They heard the same story time and again. Each hospital was overwhelmed with
Covid-19 patients. They got him admitted to a hospital in Meridian,
Mississippi. Ray died there. The consensus is that if he got to the ICU faster,
he had a good chance of survival.
My statistical system shows that as of
this morning we have 680,274 coronavirus deaths in the US. Not counted in this
death toll are all the people like Ray.
When this pandemic began, I read The Great
Influenza by Doctor John Barry of my university-Tulane. I'm not a genius with
numbers like Dr. Pedro Peres, Dr. Seth Shostak, or Dr. James Kremer, but I am
competent. I developed a model with over one million deaths in the US from
Covid-19. My worst nightmare appears to be heading toward reality.
Everyone, stay healthy and drive carefully.
The last thing you want now is a situation where you need an ICU bed!
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