Evening statistics – Our COVID status in global terms – The “What, me worry?” attitude of the populace – Mike Pence
Normally I end my entries with the statistics from the evening, but I cannot forbear dwelling on them at the beginning of this one:
# of cases worldwide: 64,816,274; # of deaths worldwide: 1,498,296; # of cases U.S.: 14,309,270; # of deaths; U.S.: 279,845.
As bare numbers these may not seem very meaningful, but the increase of new cases today was nearly 200,000 and the number of deaths nearly 3,000. In global terms, we accounted today for more than 31½% of the new cases and nearly 23% of today’s deaths. There are many countries that are suffering greatly from the inroads of the virus, but not at the rate ours is undergoing. We have now surpassed France and Mexico in number of deaths in proportion to the national population. Florida now has over 1,000,000 cases total, the third state to endure such a large number. Up to this point, hospitalizations are still well under the number of available beds in every state, but there is a shortage of nurses and other medical aides. It’s not easy to find people willing to work in hospitals under such stressful conditions, let alone finding those with sufficient qualifications.
And in the meantime people continue to flout the guidelines with serene indifference. The following is a typical incident: a couple from Hawaii going to their home from San Francisco tested positive for the virus while going through the pre-screening that is now imposed on all airplane travelers. They managed somehow to board the airline anyway. Derek Kawakami, the mayor of Kauai (where the couple lives) has since announced that they have been arrested and are facing charges of second-degree reckless endangerment. All very well, as far as it goes – but now every single one of their fellow-passengers and every member of the flight crew are in a state of wearing suspense as to whether any of them have gotten infected by the actions of this enterprising duo.
In other developments, Mike Pence has been making some effort to distance himself from Trump’s baseless voter fraud claim. As a former governor himself, he is said by insiders to be quite displeased with Trump’s attacks on Governors Kemp (Georgia), DeWine (Ohio), and Ducey (Arizona). He has not lent his name to any of the fundraising Emails from Trump’s campaign for legal overturns of the election results since November 25th. He has also actively campaigned on behalf of Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in a November 20 rally in Georgia, and has publicly participated in the swearing-in of Senator Mark Kelly (a Democrat) a week ago, thereby tacitly admitting that such elections are not “rigged,” as Trump claims they are. But while many believe that he thinks Trump’s legal campaign is counterproductive and doomed, he has never uttered even the slightest breath of criticism directed towards Trump. When it comes to the art of sitting gracefully on a fence, Mike Pence must be acknowledged as one of its most distinguished practitioners.
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