The upcoming end of the pandemic – An impressive example of translating gobbledygook into English – Another Capitol assaulter imprisoned – Abortion ban in Indiana overturned – A reaction against aged statesmen – The strange forlorn hopes of Dan Cox – Evening statistics
There is so much to do after returning from a trip that even the day after I deplaned I was not able to update the journal. And yet much has happened during the interval.
President Biden announced that the pandemic is at an end. This, however, is not quite true from an official point of view. COVID has been declared to be an emergency on a quarterly basis for several quarters by now and it therefore must remain so until the end of September at the very earliest. It seems likely, moreover, that its status as an emergency will be renewed on October 1st for the fourth quarter of the year as well. However, there is a distinct possibility that for the first quarter of 2023, it will be classified as an emergency no longer. If so, the pandemic can be said to be officially at an end by that date, at any rate in this country.
During the trip I asked AN, who is involved in medical research, about this issue; and she confirmed that indeed COVID is on the road to becoming truly endemic, just like the flu.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, however, has refrained from endorsing Biden’s claim for the moment. During an interview with anchor Terry Moran, she gave vent to the following remarks: “We continue to encourage people to do all the things they can do to protect themselves. We have the tools right now to protect ourselves. You can get your primary series if you haven’t yet gotten it. You can get year updated fall bivalent vaccine. And then, should you actually get an infection, we have tools like Paxlovid so that you can protect yourself against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. If you look at the big picture, things are very different. Hospitals are not overwhelmed. People are back to work. Schools are open again. I think those are critically important metrics.” To which Moran responded, “I’ll take that as a no, that it is not entirely over.” I am somewhat critical of journalists in general but I must admit that they have their uses on occasion; sometimes they are only ones who are able to translate the pronouncements of public officials into intelligible English.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli is an ex-Army reservist who described his participation in the assault on the Capitol as “exhilarating.” He appears to be somewhat less elated after being sentenced to four years in prison. One of his attorneys, Nicholas Smith, pleaded that his client’s upbringing was like “something from Oliver Twist” – a somewhat unfortunate comparison, for, as readers of Dickens’ novel might be aware, Oliver Twist displays no criminal tendencies whatever despite his disadvantages; and there are many disadvantaged children in real life who display similar strength of character in resisting the corruption that surrounds them.
Special Judge Kelsey Hanlon of the Owen County Circuit Court has suspended Indiana’s ban on abortions, which means that they will be available in the state to women up to 20 weeks after fertilization or 22 weeks after the last menstrual cycle. Hanlon, it may be noted, is a Republican. Not all Republicans support the anti-abortion movement by any means; there is considerable dissension within the GOP as to the validity of overturning the availability of abortions to so many women who require them and, possibly, as to the advisability of pursuing a policy that is so decidedly misogynistic, thereby alienating at least half of the nation’s voters.
I have repeatedly stressed how the U.S. government is in danger of becoming a gigantic gerontocracy, and I am happy to say that one poll, at least, suggests that many agree with me on this point. An Insider/Morning Consult poll surveyed 2,200 respondents, of whom 76% said that Biden was too old to serve as President and 57% said the same about Trump. Regardless of a presidential candidate’s political opinions, it simply is not advisable to have a president in office well into his eighties. Or a Senator. Or a Representative. Or a Supreme Court judge.
Our Supreme Court is actually relatively young at the moment, with four of the justices being in their fifties. The average age of our Senate, on the other hand, is 63 years, with five members being 80 or older. Our House of Representatives is slightly younger, with an average of 58 years, 11 of whom are 80 or older. More than 50 of them (over 10% of the total) are 70 or older.
Donald Trump will be holding a fund-raiser for Dan Cox, the GOP gubernatorial candidate for Maryland, at Mar-a-Lago. Cox has not the remotest chance of winning, for Wes Moore, his opponent, currently leads in the polls by 53% to Cox’s 31%. There are far too many Marylanders who work in Washington or its environs not to resent Trump’s assault on the Capitol and who thus will not be sympathetic to Cox’s endorsement of Trump’s claim of a stolen election. In any case, Cox’s evident belief that Trump’s exertions will actually place money into his own coffers instead of those of Donald Trump are such patent delusions, so woefully devoid of any basis in reality, so strangely ignorant of Trump’s determination to enrich no one but himself, as to make me who hate him pity him.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 618,968,542; # of deaths worldwide: 6,535,975; # of cases U.S.: 97,786,586; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,080,819. The last week I recorded statistics was on September 9th, the day before my trip, nearly two weeks ago. Since then we have had about 20,000 deaths globally and slightly under 5, 000 nationally – not trivial amounts by any means, but far better for any comparable period of time during the previous year. The U.S. still accounts for a disproportionate amount of COVID-related deaths; even though it ranks 58th among nations for the incidence of COVID, its mortality rate is the 16th-highest among all countries.