Thanks, Consuela. So much damage has been done, but the lifetime appointments are ones that will cause damage for too many years to come.

You misspelled hundreds of thousands.

I don't think we've quite hit that point yet. The estimates I've heard are that even under the best realistic conditions (i.e., a Clinton Presidency keeping all the measures Obama set up in place) we'd still be looking at about 85,000 deaths in the US so far instead of the 128k we have. COVID-19 is just too deadly, infectious, and unfamiliar for even doing everything right to have done more than slow the rate of infections/deaths down by about 1/3. We were never going to be able to respond as effectively as places like South Korea or New Zealand. Twitler's responsibility will almost certainly reach six digits by fall, though.

In my extended family there is a person long suspected of having the "wrong" father. My biggest concern is that this trend not hit me personally until people who would be broken-hearted over this have died.

This was the case in my family. My cousin who lost her (super close) sister last year recently discovered that a friend she grew up with is actually her half sister. It's happy for her to have a new connection after all the loss we've had the last few years, but she's also ticked that they decided not to tell them until all of the bad actors in this scenario had passed away. So her dad never acknowledged this third daughter, and her sister never knew they had another sister.

I did genetic testing for the heritage results (turns out we're another one of those families who thought they had Native American blood but were mistaken). I thought finding relatives would be cool - we have NO connections on my mom's side (Grandma was adopted, Grandpa's family didn't stay in touch after he was killed when my mom was a baby). But so far, other than some possible 2nd and 3rd cousins, the only relation it connected me with is one of my dad's sisters - with whom I'm already pretty close.

Something similar happened in Ex's family. Ex took the genetic test and started pushing everyone he knew to do the same. He persuaded his sister to take the test -- and found out that she didn't have the same genetic makeup. Based on her results and family history, she didn't have the same father that her brothers had.

She was devastated, and everyone who could explain had died a long time ago.

I may dig deeper into ancestry.com's database, but I have no interest in the saliva test.

Timelies all!

I have signed up to get a COVID-19 test(the nasal swab test) tomorrow at work. They've been pushing for all employees to do it, so I am.

He persuaded his sister to take the test -- and found out that she didn't have the same genetic makeup. Based on her results and family history, she didn't have the same father that her brothers had.

Were you basing this just on the ethnicity estimates, or on the amount of DNA shared between the two of them?

My dad's middle brother was his half brother. It was an open secret. But still weird.

I found out my sixteen year old kid can do a spot on Ben Shapiro imitation. And he is hilarious. My kid, not Shapiro.

Agreed with Hil. I was just talking to a nurse who was a genetics expert who had a patient think this, but they had done testing with his sister (he was a bone marrow recipient and she was the donor) and they were really misreading the results.

My half neice came up my cousin on 23 and Me as well. Which sort of makes sense.

On the other hand, my uncle, who I always suspected had a different father because of looks matched me completely as an uncle.

Were you basing this just on the ethnicity estimates, or on the amount of DNA shared between the two of them?

A combination of the two, I think. The paternal grandparents had immigrated from Italy. Ex's results showed that his DNA was almost half Italian. Sister's results showed no Italian, but quite a bit of Scandinavian that wasn't in Ex's DNA.

It's anxiety attack Tuesday, apparently. How are you all doing?