WSJ: US round-up: https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-latest-news-09-11-2020-11599811667 . News on India and Guam is in last paragraphs.
WSJ: FDA civil servants fight back: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-officials-say-vaccine-decisions-will-be-guided-by-science-not-politics-11599762805 . Here is the FDA op-ed: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/10/sound-science-to-meet-covid-challenges-fda-career-officials-column/5756948002/ . If there is any bottom line to all of this, it is that the current FDA commissioner is a joke – he’s bent to Trump, then reversed course and apologized, and now has lost his working relationship with the staff. This sorry mess is only going to increase vaccine skepticism, which is what we are seeing in the public opinion polls.
College openings fuel largest current US outbreaks: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/09/11/covid-cases-college-us-outbreak-rate-tracker/5759088002/ . It turns out that yesterday’s story on the University of Missouri was just the tip of the iceberg – note that Missouri also makes the list in this story.
WSJ: The future of health data: https://www.wsj.com/articles/protecting-health-data-after-covid-19-more-laws-less-privacy-11599750100 . The article mixes various categories of health data, and its analysis suffers as a result. As to true medical data – meaning medical history, test and examination results, hospital records and so on – the patient benefits when this information is consolidated in one place and available to his/her medical providers. Such a consolidated record could be maintained in the cloud and updated on a real-time basis, but must be subject to the highest levels of confidentiality protection. There should be some minimum level of protection for all personal data. Health data outside the medical record should be considered on a category-by-category basis to determine what if any protection it is entitled to beyond the minimum.
Three-judge panel finds against Trump plan to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the Census: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/908768472/court-blocks-trumps-attempt-to-change-who-counts-for-allocating-house-seats . The decision was 3-0, apparently by 3 white men, and in my view an absolutely obvious result. Racial prejudice against Italians in the early 20th century led to a derogatory phrase from the term “without papers”, which is how most immigrants have arrived in this country over the years and certainly at the time the Constitution authorized the census. The census has always counted all residents, including the slaves (although at 3/5 a (white) person, a number created to balance the voting power of the free and slave states). WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/court-blocks-trump-plan-to-exclude-some-immigrants-from-2020-census-to-allocate-house-seats-11599783571 .
Using immigrants to move federal agents: https://thehill.com/latino/516035-report-ice-flew-detainees-to-virginia-so-agents-could-quell-dc-protests . Pretty much the Keystone Cops with a plane.
Arriving in today’s mail, a postcard from the US Postal Service, addressed to this address from a post office address in Washington, DC, with a checklist on how to apply for a mail-in ballot and mail your ballot back. Swell. Oregon has voted exclusively by mail for over 20 years; there’s no ballot request process here. Your tax dollars are hard at work, destroying trees for no reason.
Congress still nowhere on relief package: https://apnews.com/e3c76c85cc49f88fe58eae3795d18ec3 . Absolutely no economist is advocating “skinny” economic aid at this time. The Republican approach is difficult to understand. WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/skinny-bill-brings-gop-unity-but-doesnt-resolve-splits-on-covid-19-aid-11599741315 . Since the previous Republican offer was $1 trillion, this is either 2/3 or 1/3 of the prior offer – completely ridiculous.
WSJ: Cuomo’s management of COVID-19 crisis in New York: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuomo-covid-new-york-coronavirus-de-blasio-shutdown-timing-11599836994 . Cuomo stepped into the federal vacuum, made some mistakes, and ultimately brought New York through the first wave. The point of this article is unclear.
WSJ: NYC executives complain to de Blasio: https://www.wsj.com/articles/business-leaders-urge-mayor-de-blasio-to-stop-new-york-citys-decline-11599782687 . And given the city’s budget situation, what exactly is their plan to fund their demands? This is exactly why state and local governments need federal stimulus funds.
HHS pursues Rural Health Initiative: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/09/03/hhs-releases-rural-action-plan.html . Here is the HHS plan for rural telehealth: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/09/01/fcc-hhs-usda-team-up-for-rural-health-initiative.html .
WSJ: Feds fine Smithfield over COVID-19 in the workplace: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-regulators-fine-pork-giant-smithfield-over-covid-19-outbreak-11599776324 . So the outbreak sickened 1,300 workers, over 1/3 of the total workforce, and killed 4, and the federal fine is $13,494, the maximum allowed by law?
WSJ: More on PPP fraud oversight: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-says-it-is-cracking-down-on-ppp-fraud-11599758039 .
WSJ: Fed debate continues: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-debates-how-to-implement-new-policy-strategy-11599730201 . Not much meat on this bone.
WSJ: Europe’s efforts to keep schools open: https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-keep-schools-open-as-covid-surges-europe-isolates-infected-students-11599757836 . The comment in the article about “mounting evidence” that children play a small role in virus transmission does not match the current science.
WSJ: More on slowing global recovery: https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-economy-on-track-for-big-rebound-but-slower-grind-looms-11599807742 .
WSJ: Western wildfires: https://www.wsj.com/articles/west-coast-wildfires-wreak-havoc-amid-high-winds-and-temperatures-11599763813 . To clarify yesterday’s newsletter, the 500,000 Oregon evacuees has been walked backed by the state. That figure refers to people under level 1, 2 and 3 evacuation orders; only level 3 is mandatory evacuation. The state now estimates mandatory evacuees at 40,000; there are however substantial numbers in the lower levels who have voluntarily evacuated. Still, this is the worst natural disaster we have faced. For the second day in a row, Portland has the worst air quality of any city on the planet, and the air quality is not expected to improve until Monday.
Here’s the history of emergency phone numbers, from the British perspective: https://www.neas.nhs.uk/news/2019/september/9/national-emergency-services-day-the-history-of-999.aspx (link replaced 10/28/21; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-1-1 ). So 911 is an American invention. I have always wondered if bin Laden chose September 11 for the reason that it was the American emergency number. The (late British/American) critic Christopher Hitchens argues an alternate view: bin Laden deliberately chose the date, but based on the Ottoman defeat on September 11, 1683: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/03/september11.usa2 . Certainly, bin Laden obsessed over the 9/11 date after 2001: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/al-qaedas-911-obsession/ .
September 11 is for me a day of reflection, much like Memorial Day. I have been thinking about progress lately, when this morning’s mail led me to this opinion piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/opinion/united-states-social-progress.html . Kristof notes that we have outstanding wealth and resources, but we are failing miserably in providing the general population access to those resources. I dislike the slogan “Defund the police”, but it has appropriately drawn attention to address social emergencies with a full range of responses and not exclusively police-based tactics. “When you see something, say something” should not be just a homeland security phrase, it should be an action phrase to engage in improving our communities and the world for all of us, and the generations to come.
Armies no longer fight wars on battlefields; it is not progress to fly airplanes into skyscrapers or for the Saudis to use American military hardware to bomb Yemen’s cities – we know these actions to be war crimes: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/yemen . It is not progress to deny or ignore science; it is not progress to lie. Certainly no one of us can solve every problem in the world. But we can reflect on the principles taught to us in childhood; we can make a constant effort to live our lives by our principles, and support others doing the same. And we can pay forward the good fortune we had to grow up in this country and on this planet.