Accelerated pace of vaccine distribution in Fairfax County – Signs of the pro-Trump faction beginning a retrospective justification of the COVID response – Evening statistics
At long last Fairfax County has moved on from those who registered on January 18th. The total number of people who registered during the period January 19-22 is just under 42,000. The vaccine distribution must be moving at a faster rate than earlier, for it was not long ago that it was reported that 37% of those who registered on the 18th still remained to be scheduled. Perhaps getting a vaccine sometime in March may be possible; at all events getting it by the end of April seems quite probable. The county will be receiving shipments of the new vaccine this week, which should facilitate matters to an even greater extent.
“Of course the crisis was awful, but on balance, overall, the United States handled it as well or better than many of the world’s most advanced countries.”
This statement comes from the Washington Examiner. Its analysis concentrated primarily on the rollout of the vaccines. In that respect our nation probably has done as well as, or even better than, many EU nations. But a significant period elapsed between the onset of the virus and the development of the vaccines. During that time Americans accounted for 25% of the world’s COVID cases and over 20% of the deaths – a fairly disproportionate amount for a country with 4% of the world’s population. Only the Czech Republic and a handful of micro-states have a higher incidence of the disease than we do, and the U.S. is 10th on the list of countries with the highest death rates (and three of the countries with higher death rates are micro-states). So I do not see how Byron York, the analyst who wrote the article, was able to arrive at this conclusion.
The article adds, further, that the “vast majority of Americans of all ages have been wearing face coverings since April,” implying that Biden’s contribution in this respect to enforce the measure is negligible. This statement, however, glosses over the extraordinary virulence on the part of those who, encouraged by our former president, resisted facemask-wearing in this country, staging violent protests in places such as Lansing. I do not believe the violence of their opposition has been equaled in any other nation. Just this past Friday one John Shallerhorn tried to attend a basketball game at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans without a mask. He got into an argument with a school staffer about this issue. At that point Martinus Mitchum, a Tulane police officer, intervened, trying to de-escalate the situation. Shallerhorn responded by pulling out a gun and shooting Mitchum in the chest, wounding him fatally. In how many other countries would a police officer be likely to lose his life for trying to enforce the wearing of a facemask at a public event?
It may be wondered why I expend so much attention to a single article; and it is, of course, not important in itself. I believe, however, that it represents the beginning of a trend that will increase over the next several months, in which defenders of the pro-Trump faction will attempt to cover up the past with a patina of foresight and responsibility on the part of the administration, and thereby pave the way, as they hope, in influencing the 2022 elections to recover the ground they have lost this previous November.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 114,982,194; # of deaths worldwide: 2,549,635; # of cases U.S.: 29,311,446; # of deaths; U.S.: 527,171.