Today is the first of May and the Coronavirus death count just went north of 62,000, more than the number of US troops who died in Vietnam. The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the nation is nearing 1.1 million. It is also the date that many states plan to begin relaxing their COVID-19 restrictions while not meeting the most minimal of federal guidelines.

As the states begin turning to business as usual, nobody knows what will happen. Almost the entire scientific and medical community tells us it is too soon and we can expect to see the number of confirmed virus cases and deaths explode. Approximately 85% of the population thinks it’s too soon to open the gates. At the same time, Orange of the White House and his tribe of anti-science Mad Maxers argue that making money and checking out asses at the beach is more important than grandparents dying.

Given the disagreement, May 1st may be the perfect day to reset the counters and start anew. Let’s make it the day we let the dogs out and then begin a new count, one that we can keep track of until August 1st and then compare with the current three month’s totals.

In reality, however, it won’t make any difference. Whatever the August 1st numbers the Trump administration will loudly claim, right (when did that happen?) or wrong, that they have always been correct and that they have done one hell of a job managing the most costly crisis this nation has faced since the darkest days of World War II.