Storm and calm – Influx of undocumented immigrants – Trump comes to the forefront again – Outbreak of Ebola – Troubles in the DRC – Evening statistics
There was another winter storm this morning, but this one, although it made driving inadvisable while it lasted, consisted mainly of cold rain and sleet rather than snow. The temperatures were high enough to melt any snow that fell, as well as a good deal of the residual ice from previous snowfalls. While it is still too early in the year to be confident that this will be the last snowfall of the season, we will at any rate not be seeing any in the next ten days, when the temperatures will be in the forties and fifties. There was even some sunshine towards the end of the afternoon, and the next few days should be clear, a welcome change for the series of snowfalls and overcast skies that predominated over the last several weeks.
Like the rain that falls on the just and the unjust, my disapprobation can extend to Republicans and Democrats alike. Biden on the whole has conducted himself well during the first month of his Presidency and his response to the emergency in Texas has been in every way admirable, but he has embarked on a policy that I cannot help thinking unwise. On Friday he opened the doors for about 25,000 undocumented migrants from Mexico seeking asylum. I have no doubt that conditions are miserable there, but this maneuver does not seem advisable at a point when we are just beginning to mitigate the effects of a pandemic. Considering the number of critics who praised countries such as New Zealand and Vietnam for closing their borders as the COVID virus gained in intensity, it is rather strange that they are now stricken with silence. At the very least the measure will delay our recovery from the effects of the virus, and it has lasted more than a year already. Although the hospitalization and death counts per day are declining, we still have daily increases that are well over twice the amounts we have seen during the past summer.
Donald Trump has re-entered the headlines again, but as has been the case in recent weeks, not of his own free will. The Supreme Court has refused to intercede in the suit brought against him by the Manhattan district attorney, who now is able to enforce a grand jury subpoena for his tax records. This does not mean that his records will become public, but the prosecutors will have unlimited access to them, a move that Trump has bitterly opposed. The Supreme Court has also denied an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans to challenge the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to allow votes received up to three days after the election date to be counted. The case has been described as one of the last of the “kraken” cases. The votes in question total to 10,000 in all and their exclusion would not be sufficient to overturn the Pennsylvania election results. The decision thus is mainly symbolic; but at any rate the Supreme Court has sent a clear message that it is not interested in getting involved in squabbles about the election results. In one case the Court’s determination not to be drawn into Trump’s private concerns worked in his favor: it dismissed the defamation claim by Stormy Daniels against Trump, leaving in place the lower court opinions that went against her.
There is a good deal of turmoil going on in various African nations. The Ebola virus has emerged again in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). At least five people have died of it in Guinea and one in the DRC. Health authorities are racing to stop it from spreading further. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Ivory Coast have all been placed on alert on account of their proximity to these two countries. Ebola is not airborne and it does not spread in the manner that the COVID virus does, but bodies of those who die from Ebola are particularly infectious and can incubate the virus for up to three weeks. Many communities in these countries have a tradition of relatives and neighbors helping to wash the body before a funeral, and authorities will have to ensure that this custom is placed in abeyance until the disease is contained. Many in these countries’ health care professions are apprehensive that the effort to contain Ebola will strain the resources needed to combat the COVID virus. African nations have fared relatively well in comparison with others: there are less than 4,000,000 cases and a little over 100,000 deaths for all African countries combined, less than 4% of the cases worldwide and slightly over 4% of the deaths. But in general their health care systems have fewer resources than those of most other nations, and this added burden will not be easy to cope with.
The DRC has had trouble of a different kind. Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the country, was killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy during a field visit. A member of the Italian Carabinieri (the official Italian police) and a driver were killed as well. The attack occurred near Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which is located in the eastern part of the country near the border with Rwanda. Attanasio was participating in a delegation that was traveling from Goma to the eastern town of Rutshuru to visit a school feeding program run by the World Food Program (WFP), the food-assistance branch of the U.N. A number of other passengers traveling with the delegation were injured in the attack. It is not clear at this point who was responsible for the killings; but the DRC has numerous rebel groups, especially in the eastern provinces, and many villagers have been murdered there as a result of their forays. As might be expected, the unrest in this region is hindering the efforts of the health authorities to contain the Ebola virus.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 112,254,821; # of deaths worldwide: 2,484,821; # of cases U.S.: 28,826,230; # of deaths; U.S.: 512,589.