Hiking around Burke Lake – Giuliani’s license suspended – The Loudoun County school board meeting – Vaccination rates – Evening statistics
Not wishing to drive much today, I fell back on my old standby, the 11-mile Burke Lake/Lake Mercer circuit. There were fewer people than I expected. Admittedly today was a weekday, but it was also a day during summer vacation for the schools. Moreover, the weather was wonderful, in the mid-to-high 70s, not at all humid, a blue sky with many cumulus clouds veiling any glare from the sun, and with many cool breezes in the shade. No one was wearing a mask out of doors, in great contrast to what I saw during my last visit in February. There were only a handful of people on bikes, again forming a contrast to what I have seen on this trail earlier. I can only speculate on the possible causes of the difference. Are more people out of town now that the summer holidays have begun? Or are people lapsing into their former indolent habits as the COVID-related restrictions have been disappearing? Whatever the reason, I was able to pause in solitude at the viewpoints along the little peninsulas that jut into the lake, which I have not been able to do for many months.
Justice has been progressing with leaden feet as far as Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani are concerned, but a measure of retribution has overtaken Giuliani at last. He is now suspended from practicing law in New York state by an appellate court that found he made “demonstrably false and misleading statements” about the 2020 election. Of course this judgment makes little difference to him financially and equally of course he has issued a blustery denial of wrong-doing; but at some level he must feel the impact of this rejection from his professional peers. So one should never despair: perhaps, after all, that sanguine hope I keep indulging about Giuliani (as well as his master) being reduced both in reputation and in fortune to utter destitution will come to pass eventually.
Loudoun County has come into national prominence today: specifically, a school board meeting in Ashburn, in which parents re-acted explosively to the school district’s proposed transgender policy, as well as to the claims that critical race theory is being rammed down students’ throats. The Loudoun County school board has already come under fire about the transgender issue a month earlier, when Tanner Cross flatly refused to refer to biological boys as “she” and biological girls as “he.” Cross is a physical education teacher, and by the very nature of his position he is familiar with the havoc that a transgender policy can wreak in locker rooms. He was dismissed from his position in consequence of his refusal to back down, but a Virginia judge ruled that he had to be reinstated. The school board meeting had to be closed abruptly as a result of the turmoil, which resulted in one person being arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and another cited for trespassing. Brenda Sheridan, the Loudoun County school board chair, denies that critical race theory is part of the curriculum and says that teachers have merely undergone diversity training. At all events, it appears that the trends being displayed by the Loudoun school board are a fair indication of what is going in public schools in the nation at large, and the trends are anything but wholesome ones. It requires no gift of prophecy to foretell a great increase in homeschooling at this rate, as more and more parents revolt at the idea of racial division and sexual identity confusion being instilled in their children at an early age.
“Breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the month of May, or about 0.1%; while about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people, about 0.8%, or five deaths per day on average. Currently the nation is averaging about 300 deaths per day, but it appears that this figure could be greatly reduced if the unvaccinated would receive vaccines. But people are still resistant to the vaccine in various areas: Arkansas, for instance, has only 33% of its population fully vaccinated, which is the lowest in the country. Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said modeling suggests the nation will hit 1,000 deaths per day again next year as the winter season approaches if a large segment of the population will not accept the vaccine. At this point 56.2% of adults nationwide are fully vaccinated and 65.7% have received at least one dose; for seniors the figures are 77.4% and 87.5% respectively. Virginia is doing slightly better than the national average, with 60.8% of adults fully vaccinated and 70.3% having received at least one dose. Maryland is doing very well, with 73.4% of adults fully vaccinated and 76% having received at least one dose.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 180,746,276; # of deaths worldwide: 3,915,450; # of cases U.S.: 34,463,723; # of deaths; U.S.: 618,617.