A group of Kentucky partygoers recently attended a “coronavirus party.” The event, which appears to be a pandemic-themed soiree, as you might imagine, was not a civic-minded effort to promote social distancing practices and best hand-washing practices, but a slap in the face to everyone else’s collective efforts to not kill our parents and grandparents. The party mocked the virus, and the coronavirus gods were angry. One of the twentysomething attendees of the ill-advised gathering in the midst of a national emergency tested positive for the virus Tuesday. “This is one that makes me mad, and it should make you mad,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said of the case. “This is the part where I, the person that tells everybody to be calm, have to remain calm myself.”

The karmic revelation came as part of Beshear’s announcement Tuesday that the virus was spreading in the state with 39 new cases. Four people in Kentucky have died from the coronavirus. The state is ratcheting up its mitigation efforts, closing down what Beshear described as all businesses not considered “life-sustaining,” such as grocery stores, banks, and pharmacies. Beshear admonished partygoers who flouted the public health warnings. “Don’t be so callous as to intentionally go to something and expose yourself to something that can kill other people,” Beshear said. “We ought to be much better than that.” So far we really haven’t been.

• Kentucky
• Coronavirus