Special ACA enrollees top 1 million: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-1-million-americans-sign-up-healthcare-special-enrollment-period-2021-05-11/. Biden is making a difference in people’s lives by policy initiatives. The GOP seems oblivious to the potential effects of popular programs.
Vaccination levels by state: https://bestlifeonline.com/fully-vaccinated-states-news/ . If you assumed the bottom 25 were red states and the top 25 were blue, you’d be surprisingly close. The calculations are done on total population rather than just adult population. The current range is 25% (Mississippi) to 45% (Connecticut). This range translates to 32% to 58% of all adults (see “How many Americans …”, below). This is just ratioing, so the states’ rankings do not change.
Latest data on India’s “double mutant” variant: https://www.wsj.com/articles/india-covid-19-variant-11620722888 .
The latest on the effectiveness of vaccination: https://www.vox.com/22423098/covid-19-vaccine-coronavirus-protection-herd-immunity . Sigh. No one quoted in this article gets to the real unknown, the variants. We have conflicting data on the effectiveness of vaccination against these “new entrants”. We will know a lot more in the next two or three months. In my view, it’s best to be cautious until we know more.
How many Americans are vaccinated?: https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-05-11/cdc-35-of-americans-fully-vaccinated-against-coronavirus . Sigh. Let’s just confuse the hell out of everybody by changing the denominator from all adults to all Americans. As no kids are vaccinated yet, let’s convert these figures back to percentages of adults. Adults are 77% of the population, so 35%/0.77 means 45% of all American adults are fully vaccinated. Also, 46%/0.77 means 59.7% of American adults have at least one shot.
Biden’s goal of 70% of adults with at least one shot by July 4 is therefore reasonably close to being achieved. But we have to vaccinate a lot of the vaccine hesitant to get there.
Free rides to get vaccinated: https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-lyft-to-provide-free-rides-to-covid-19-vaccine-sites-until-july-4-11620745200 . Um, if there’s already a shortage of these drivers, it doesn’t seem like maximizing unvaccinated passengers is a great retention tool.
Vaccine data on children under 12 coming in about 6 months: https://www.wsj.com/articles/data-on-covid-19-vaccines-for-children-under-12-expected-by-late-fall-health-officials-say-11620757066
New Mexico GOP moves convention to Texas to avoid New Mexico gathering limits: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2021-05-11/gop-convention-moved-to-texas-to-avoid-coronavirus-rules . So, screw the Democratic governor and public safety, our local rules are for somebody else. I wonder how many of these jerks are unvaccinated. The New Mexico governor should consider roadblocks at the state line and make these folks quarantine. There will be cases.
No J&J vaccine will ship next week: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/11/states-johnson-johnson-vaccine-487070 . As mentioned regularly, Biden’s vaccine accomplishments have been enormous. J&J is needed for the situations where “one and done” is the way to go. With the current emphasis on convenience for the vaccine reluctant, this is a significant problem.
COVID cases rising in only 4 states: https://bestlifeonline.com/covid-cases-rising-may-11-news/ . This is very encouraging news.
“Black fungus” cases surge as an after-effect of COVID: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-05-10/black-fungus-complication-adds-to-indias-covid-woes . It is important to note that this illness has appeared outside India. Diabetics are at particular risk.
India’s problems increase: https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/covid-desperation-is-spreading-across-india (NY Times link replaced 5/23/21). Remember that 70% of India’s population is rural. What would be happening that over 100 corpses washed up on the riverbanks of one location? We are never going to have accurate data on the global scope of this tragedy.
More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-12/coronavirus-in-india-variant-and-deaths-spur-new-lockdowns-as-crisis-grows . The 70 million doses per week figure mentioned here translates to 5 million potential vaccinations per day. This is if everything goes well and the supply chain holds. Relative to my recent guess of 3 million vaccinations per day, this could reduce the time to the 70% vaccination level to around the end of 2021. Natural immunity from the high current infection rates could further shorten this time. The variants remain a massive unknown.
UNESCO promotes “Open Science”: https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-donald-trump-europe-coronavirus-pandemic-technology-42e3ec63750a7084b727237ac3ebd815 . This would be very difficult to square with capitalist incentives to invest in research.
WSJ: Americans move out of cities in 2020: https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-up-and-moved-during-the-pandemic-heres-where-they-went-11620734566 . Cool graphics — the household movement looks like a “planes in the air” graphic.
WSJ: China census indicates population growth has stalled out, population is aging rapidly: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-says-its-population-rose-slightly-in-2020-11620698964 . A declining birth rate is the primary factor here. The fertility rate is 20% lower than the US rate.
GOP “fake economics” gathers steam: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ill-informed-cruel-growing-number-gop-led-states-move-end-n1266900 . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-states-to-reject-extra-300-payment-for-unemployed-11620763973 . It is obvious that termination of these benefits by states will hurt many in their unemployed population. The feds pay for this benefit, so no cost to the state. It is not at all obvious that any significant percentage of these people can find jobs in their community for which they are qualified. It is also not obvious that these jobs provide a living wage, especially if the work is part-time or without benefits.
Why are all these governors willing to accept “free” federal infrastructure projects but not direct support to their labor force? This aid also helps their local economies. Remember that this financial help is temporary anyway. This is just disgusting politics, which is apparently now the GOP brand. Remember Medicaid expansion? Same crap, designed to hurt the poor. These governors prove there is no such thing as white supremacy.
Traditional GOP figures to support third party: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/100-republican-ex-officials-prepare-to-defect-from-gop-over-trumpism/ar-BB1gDgbx?li=BBnb7Kz . The GOP tent continues to shrink.
Liz Cheney defiant: https://news.yahoo.com/liz-cheney-renews-attacks-on-trump-ahead-of-gop-vote-to-oust-her-from-leadership-003418970.html . WSJ: More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/liz-cheney-says-in-floor-speech-gop-cant-ignore-trumps-election-lie-11620782863 . As noted previously, Liz Cheney is not going away. Good for her. McCarthy will get only tepid support from GOP Senators after this.
The GOP circular firing squad continues: https://www.mediaite.com/trump/gop-rep-goes-after-stefanik-a-day-before-vote-to-oust-cheney-her-voting-record-embodies-what-led-to-our-a-kicking-in-2018/ . Are these dimwits just realizing that Orange Julius has no grasp of or interest in policy?
House GOP members are pissed off at McCarthy’s incompetence: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/05/11/could-mccarthy-face-a-cheney-backlash-492797 . This clown has always been the last choice for leadership, because he’s clearly not capable and he has rotten political judgment.
Another GOP clown fails as a university president: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/552902-university-president-to-step-down-after-being-censured-over-trail-of . This is reminiscent of Ken Starr’s demonstration of incompetence at Baylor.
And then there’s Josh Hawley, a perennial Idiot Olympics contender: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/552796-republicans-marriage-bonus-is-social-engineering-at-its-worst . Having all day to do nothing, this is what a graduate of Yale Law School dreams up for legislation? Yale needs to reassess its mission and results. His former mentors agree on flushing this jackass: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/josh-hawleys-former-academic-mentor-says-he-blames-himself-for-helping-the-senator-rise-to-power/ar-BB1gCDxG?li=BBnb7Kz .
Voting rights legislation: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/11/schumer-mcconnell-democrats-election-reform-bill-487029 . So, getting 10 GOP votes appears hopeless, even with a very stripped-down bill. Isn’t the only path (1) rewrite the bill to something Manchin can vote for, and (2) amend the Senate rules to require only a simple majority on voting rights legislation? We have known this for months.
Putin scores 8 goals: https://sports.ndtv.com/othersports/vladimir-putin-scores-8-goals-in-ice-hockey-gala-match-watch-2439552 . As far as I can tell from the footage of this game, the other players believed that if they checked Putin, a sniper would pick them off.