January 8, 2022

A beautiful winter hike – Death of another anti-vaxxer – Misstatements from Supreme Court Justices – Preventative measures carried to an extreme – An unexpected discovery – Evening statistics

I led the Lake Fairfax Loop hike today for the Capital Hiking Club.  It was a wonderful day, perfect winter weather:  dry and clear, with sunlight radiating from a cloudless sky intensified by its reflection from the snow-covered earth.  It has been a long time since I’ve experienced such a hike, for the past two winters have not seen many snowfalls sufficient to coat the ground with a quantity of snow that did not all melt away in a day or so.  There was indeed less snow on the paths than I anticipated, but there was enough to provide detours around the icy patches.  The temperature when we began the hike was a little over 20 degrees, which precluded any possibility of mud.  Later on it warmed up – a bit more than I wanted, actually, for in the last few miles the trails became a little muddier than before; but not unduly so.  Only three people showed up, the others being, I suppose, daunted by the cold weather.  But it is easier to lead a small group than a large one, and they were all strong hikers, progressing at a good speed (though we stopped from time to time to take photos) and navigating the icier portions of the trails with sure-footed confidence.  The hike ended descending a meadow that sloped gently down to the main road of the park not far from the entrance, and what would have been a rather ordinary-looking field on warmer days provided a magnificent picture when covered with pristine snow whose glossiness almost dazzled the eyes.

Yet another prominent anti-vaxxer has passed away from COVID, after repeatedly denouncing the vaccines and throwing in for good measure that Dr. Fauci “needs to be hung from a rope.”  Cirsten Weldon used her online platform to urge not only her followers but perfect strangers whom she passed on the street not to take the vaccines and to ignore government restrictions. Her followers number in the thousands. Some time after posting the edifying footage of herself screaming in a frenzy at people lining up to receive booster shots, she contracted the disease and died in the hospital a few days after being placed on an oxygen mask.  One of her claims was that “only idiots would die from the virus”; and whether or not the hundreds of thousands in this country who have lost their lives to COVID were deficient in this respect, of her own idiocy there can be no doubt.

Weldon at least has the excuse that she is merely one of many merely spouting her own opinions as a private citizen and – not holding any high office – is under no particular obligation to do anything else, however misinformed her opinions might be.  The same, however, cannot be said of Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsach, who, after hearing oral arguments for and against President Joe Biden’s mandate that large companies require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested weekly for the novel coronavirus., asserted that influenza kills “hundreds of thousands” annually and yet there are no flu vaccine mandates.  In fact, the estimates for deaths from influenza in the country vary considerably, ranging from 12,000 to 52,000 at the utmost.  In the past year COVID has swept away nearly one half-million. 

He is not the only member of the Nine Wise Men who appears confused on the subject.  Sonia Sotomayor has also made hyperbolic claims, albeit in the opposite direction.  She claimed that “over 100,000 children” are hospitalized with COVID, “many on ventilators.”  According to the CDC, the seven-day average of pediatric hospitalizations was approximately 3,700 this week.  COVID is undeniably a scourge; but children, while not immune, are happily among those least at risk from the disease.

Needless to say, right-wing commentators are calling out Sotomayor’s gaffe while serenely ignoring Gorsach’s, and left-wing commentators are hooting at Gorsach and maintaining a discreet silence about Sotomayor.  So perhaps it is best for readers to get their information from me, whose surly disapproval, like rain, falls upon conservatives and liberals alike – at least when, as in the examples cited above, either is making such gross displays of misinformation without the slightest amount of data to back them up.

Medical ignorance is apparently becoming a national hobby. Sarah Beam, a teacher in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, northwest of Houston, went to somewhat unusual lengths on Wednesday to protect herself from the virus. Her 13-year old son had recently tested positive for the virus.  She arrived at a COVID testing site to get tested herself shortly afterwards.  She told the district’s director of health services, who was gathering information from people waiting at the drive-thru site, that her son was in the trunk so that she didn’t get exposed to the virus while driving.  The horrified official directed her to open the trunk and place him on the back seat, while hastening to notify the police.  She has since been arrested on a charge of child endangerment.

Another somewhat unexpected passenger was found in a car trunk yesterday in Pennsylvania.  Officers with the Newberry Township Police Department in York County were making what they thought was a routine DUI stop and, as part of the procedure, requested the driver, an unidentified 19-year old woman, to open the trunk.  To their astonishment, they found a live deer inside.  The driver told the officers that she had hit the deer with her car and that she and her passenger placed it in the trunk, thinking it was dead.  Later they realized that in fact it was still alive, but kept on driving anyway.  The police directed the passenger to take the deer out and release it into the wild, while the driver was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

When I compare the relatively even tenor of my own life with the zanier antics of some of my compatriots, there are times that I wonder whether they and I are living in alternate universes.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 305,872,815; # of deaths worldwide: 5,501,970; # of cases U.S.: 60,954,028; # of deaths; U.S.: 859,046.