WSJ: CDC reverses prior advice: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-reverses-controversial-guidance-on-covid-19-testing-11600452908 . There is a message here about political interference with the CDC, but it’s doubtful the administration hears it.
CDC issues new school re-opening guidelines: https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-09-17/new-cdc-guidance-for-reopening-schools-creates-color-coded-risk-scale?src=usn_nl_coronavirus . So, 88% of the US population lives in the two highest risk categories. What are we doing here?
WSJ: Global round-up: https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-latest-news-09-18-2020-11600416747 .
Ex-senior advisor on Coronavirus Task Force blasts US response, endorses Biden: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/17/olivia-troye-ad-trump-coronavirus-417428 .
WSJ: Hospitals improve COVID-19 preparedness: https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-and-hospitals-are-better-prepared-to-treat-covid-19-this-fall-11600426801 .
WSJ: Should employers impose mandatory vaccinations?: https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-an-employer-require-you-to-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-11600434001 . There are surprisingly few legal barriers to doing this.
WSJ: After failure on hydroxychloroquine, Lancet works to upgrade peer review process: https://www.wsj.com/articles/lancet-medical-journal-changes-peer-review-process-amid-flurry-of-covid-19-research-11600451859 .
Massachusetts parents send child with COVID-19 to school: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/18/covid-massachusetts-parents-knowingly-send-sick-child-school/5825520002/ . Sigh …
WSJ: Continuing resolution to fund the government stumbles over farm aid, election security: https://www.wsj.com/articles/farm-aid-election-security-stall-spending-bill-11600462212 .
WSJ: More on Fed guidance: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-s-kashkari-says-new-forward-guidance-could-have-been-stronger-11600434073 . The failure to articulate standards leaves the impression that the Fed intervention supported the big guys (by avoiding a market crash) while the lack of a new relief package has screwed the little guys. The net result is to increase wealth concentration at a time of unprecedented wealth concentration in the US. That is bad economic policy. WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cleveland-fed-vast-majority-of-public-unaware-of-feds-new-strategy-11600464666 . The Fed expects the public to understand monetary policy?
WSJ: TikTok jam: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-shouldnt-improvise-way-out-of-tiktok-jam-11600452272 . We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re doing it faster … WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-tiktok-wechat-ban-11600012256 . WeChat is a dominant app in China, with over 1 billion users worldwide. The primary effect of banning WeChat in the US is to disrupt Chinese-Americans’ ability to communicate with their contacts in China. This could be considered racist. UPDATE: WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/wechat-ban-rattles-chinese-communities-in-u-s-11600466552 . Well, at least they corrected the oversight in their reporting. Nice to know this has pissed off Chinese-Americans. WSJ: Still more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-to-hear-arguments-on-trumps-wechat-restrictions-11600450365 . And more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-says-he-will-ban-wechat-use-in-u-s-after-sunday-night-11600429988 .
WSJ: 3 online COVID-19 travel tools: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-navigate-covid-travel-restrictions-11600423522 .
WSJ: Federal funds to Puerto Rico: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-to-announce-11-6-billion-in-aid-for-puerto-rico-11600440469 . Hurricane Maria was September, 2017. Lack of aid to these American citizens caused many to flee to the continental US. And now aid is being provided 3 years later to gain Puerto Rican votes in Florida? Drain the swamp …
London looks at another lockdown: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/18/new-lockdown-measures-for-london-increasingly-likely-says-sadiq-khan .
Apparently people who speak English as a first language cannot manage contact tracing: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/18/troubled-covid-test-and-trace-programme-drafts-in-management-consultants . So, “hands, face, space”. Also, “person, woman, man camera, TV”. (In case you forgot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZyHIZpzoM ).
Is India about to surpass the US as the country worst-affected by COVID-19?: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/09/17/913475045/india-is-on-track-to-surpass-u-s-as-the-country-worst-affected-by-covid-19 . No. At 1.38 billion people, India’s population is over 4 times the US population, so India currently has less than 25% of the US cases per million. India has suffered 85,000 deaths, about 42% of the US’s 203,000; India’s 61 deaths per million is 10% of the US rate of 610. The US rate means that 1 of every 1,640 Americans has died this year from COVID-19. India’s low death rate relative to the number of cases is in part attributable to the much younger median age in India (28.1) versus the US (38.1) (2018). Both countries are currently recording about 1,000 deaths each day.
WSJ: Brazil: Zika children suffer during pandemic: https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-brazil-covid-19-deals-new-blow-to-children-disabled-by-zika-11600421401 . Loss of physiotherapy is a major concern.
The rain has significantly helped air quality in Portland. There will likely be significant slide activity in burned areas once the rainy season hits. WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rain-brings-fire-relief-in-oregon-but-raises-mudslide-concern-11600458496 .
Ruth Bader Ginsburg died today (Friday). The ACLU published this tribute: https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/in-memory-of-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-1933-2020/ . RBG, who was first in her class at both Harvard Law (first two years) and Columbia Law (third year), worked at the ACLU. Like Sandra Day O’Connor, no law firm would hire her. Despite a personal recommendation from the dean of Harvard Law, Justice Frankfurter denied RBG a clerkship because she was a woman. It was 14 years later (1973) that she won Frontiero, where (as the ACLU notes) she quoted the nineteenth-century women’s-rights advocate Sarah Grimkè: “I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” Forty-seven years before the knee on the neck of George Floyd.