Chauvin’s verdict in doubt – “Breakthrough” COVID cases – Giuliani appeals (vainly) to Trump for aid – Evening statistics
Some depressing news: Brandon Mitchell, one of the jurors in the Derek Chauvin, has admitted to concealing his having attended a Black Lives Matter rally calling for Chauvin’s imprisonment before the trial began – an offense that may invalidate the verdict and necessitate the trial being conducted a second time. People do not seem to comprehend that the Queen of Hearts’ motto, “Sentence first – verdict afterwards,” was intended as satire and has no place in real-life trials. If I had been summoned to be a juror in such a case I would have admitted during the screening process to believing beforehand in the defendant’s guilt; but if ordered to serve on the jury I would have listened attentively to the arguments on both sides before participating in the decision for the verdict. Mitchell’s dishonesty on this point may easily result in a mistrial and he himself could be charged with jury tampering. At times it seems as if those who are the most greatly affected by Chauvin’s crimes are the ones most determined to shield him from their consequences. Already Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, has filed a motion for a mistrial on account of the jurors not being sequestered for the duration of the trial (which meant, among other things, that while pondering their verdict they were thoroughly aware of Maxine Waters’ threats against them if they failed to find Chauvin guilty); and the sole result of this episode of juror misconduct will be to bolster his case.
There is a cautionary tale in the headlines as well. Alan Sporn, the owner and president of Spornette International – a firm that supplies brushes for the beauty supply industry – died of COVID about six weeks after being fully vaccinated. He contracted the disease through attending dinner in a restaurant with friends, one of whom was discovered afterwards to have been infected. Sporn had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2019; and although he had not required treatment, this condition had lowered his antibody count by a considerable margin. Anyone who has had an auto-immune disease such as lupus or cancer or HIV, it turns out, is at risk even after getting the vaccine. In one study from King’s College, data showed that three weeks after one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, an antibody response was found in 39% of solid cancer patients and just 13% of people with blood cancer, compared to 95% in healthy individuals. Up to this point about 5,800 people have become infected after getting vaccinated and 74 have died – which actually is a fairly small number, considering that over 106 million Americans are fully vaccinated by now and nearly 148 million have received at least one dose.
Rudy Giuliani’s allies are pressing Donald Trump’s team to help him pay for his growing legal bills. They might just as well have spared themselves the effort. We all know by this time how Trump repays the loyalty lavished upon him by his followers and how he clings to his money with a fidelity that his wives have never experienced. In addition to the recent seizure of his records by the Justice Department, Giuliani is contending with defamation suits from two voting machine companies, Dominion and Smartmatic, each of which is seeking over $1 billion in damages. Giuliani is certainly in need of assistance; about a year ago he complained (thinking that he was off-line when in fact he had forgotten to terminate his telephone conversation with a reporter from the Daily News) that he had “about five friends left.” That number has certainly not increased over the past several months. He will wind up like the majority of Trump’s erstwhile supporters: ruined in reputation, mired in lawsuits, mocked, scorned, and deserted.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 154,963,911 # of deaths worldwide: 3,240,515; # of cases U.S.: 33,273,847; # of deaths; U.S.: 592,396. There is a sobering statistic in the midst of the current optimistic mood. The cumulative number of COVID infections reached just over 10% today: over one person in 10 in our nation has by now been infected with the disease. Our mortality rate is slightly under 1.8%, which is lower than the global average but which has resulted, as can be seen above, in nearly 600,000 deaths.