Kevin McCarthy, American Commissar – Alabama’s dearth of storage for bodies – Increase in vaccinations – A traveler’s tale – Evening statistics
Kevin McCarthy has threatened telecommunication companies to discourage them from cooperating with the House select committee investigating the riot of January 6th. “If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States,” he posted on Twitter. It is not clear that they would be violating any law by complying with behests from a duly empaneled Congressional committee, but that’s a detail. According to ethics rules expert Norm Eisen, McCarthy’s threat to companies could be deemed a violation of a House rule prohibiting members from acting in ways that discredit the House and thereby form the basis for an ethics probe. However, Eisen’s expertise in the matter has to be taken with a grain of salt: he was one of the Democratic advisers for the first impeachment of Donald Trump, and we all know how that ended. Some decades ago, people spoke of Ronald Reagan as the “Teflon president” for his uncanny ability to avoid incurring blame; but surely his gifts in this field are insignificant compared with the abilities of Trump and his thugs to avoid incurring any penalty for their blatant disregard of the national laws.
Yet another state has come to the end of its capability for handling the bodies of those who have succumbed to the virus. Alabama has been seeing more than 3,000 per day hospitalized and an average of 32 COVID-related deaths daily. As of August 18th, the number of patients who require ICU beds was 29 more than the number of ICU beds available. According to state health officer Dr. Scott Harris, the state government had to activate two of their four refrigerated trailers to hold bodies for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Vaccination rates are increasing, partly in response to the surge in hospitalizations since June and partly on account of mandates in various corporations and government agencies. In mid-July, the daily average of vaccinations was about 500,000; towards the end of August, it went up to 900,000. Polls indicate that only 20% of American adults are opposed to taking vaccines, the lowest number to date. However, there is a way to go. At this point 70% of adults in the EU are fully vaccinated, whereas in the U.S. only 61.5% of adults are.
The lengths that some people are willing to go to avoid the vaccine are – extreme, shall we say. Hawaii at this point has the strictest rules for entering the state of any in the country. Anyone who travels to Hawaii must quarantine for 10 days, unless he or she can show proof of having been vaccinated in the U.S. Upon traveling from Illinois to her dream vacation in Oahu, Chloe Mrozak confidently displayed her vaccination card – which, however, roused some suspicions when a sharp-eyed official noticed that the name of the vaccine on the card was “Maderna.” After it was determined that the card was faked, she was promptly arrested. She is currently being held on $2,000 bail and could face a year in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. It is unknown whether her sentence may also include going back to school for spelling lessons.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 219,220,760; # of deaths worldwide: 4,543,563; # of cases U.S.: 40,326,507; # of deaths; U.S.: 659,874.