Virus, Vaccines, Votes and News Deserts
By Hank Silverberg
The numbers are staggering. I can't give you an exact toll because the figures will change dramatically between the time I write this and the time you read this.
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| (Courtesy of umd.edu) |
I remain flabbergasted at the number of people who still won't wear masks or social distance, and who still find it necessary to get together at bars or large social gatherings without ANY precautions at all. That includes religious events where uninformed or seemingly uncaring clergy have exposed their flock to death.
With the holiday season in full swing, many people who may have been following the rules for the last 11 months may be letting their guard down.
I don't usually pay attention to comments from so called "celebrities," but this tweet from musician Peter Frampton was just plain common sense.
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This week we have heard some really good news. There are now THREE vaccines that are almost ready for distribution. They have proven effective in clinical trials and we are told they could be ready for distribution in a week or two. The CDC has come up with recommendations on who should get the vaccines first (health care workers), and there are 300 million people in this country alone to vaccinate, so it could be several months before we all can get the shots.
Sounds great. But don't plan that summer cruise just yet. There will be substantial distribution issues made more complicated by the outgoing Trump administration's refusal to cooperate with the incoming Biden administration on any plans that might already be in place.
3 vaccine executives say that after approval, distribution will be the main challenge (nbcnews.com)
And there are considerable concerns that people with influence and money will usurp the distribution system and get the vaccine before they are technically eligible, forcing the average citizen to wait a bit longer with considerable risks.
What does this mean for most of us? You should probably keep that mask handy. YOU WILL NEED IT INTO NEXT SUMMER. Once people start to get vaccinated, my biggest worry is that everyone will stop wearing a mask or not social distance, and that everything will re-open without limitations before enough people are protected by the vaccine to eradicate the virus.
There's also significant concern about the large number of people who don't believe the vaccines are safe or that possible side effects are worse. (All the clinical studies produced few or no side effects with efficacy over 90%, and that is what the FDA is taking a close look at before approving each vaccine.)
That would leave a significant number of people vulnerable. As we saw with measles and chicken pox in 2019 there can still be serious outbreaks among people, especially children, who are not vaccinated.
Mr. Biden has been getting briefed by infectious disease experts as he works on the transition of power, and he has already said he will urge everyone to continue wearing their masks for the first 100 days of his administration. That would be until the end of March, 2021. Let's hope enough people take that advice or Covid-19 could be with us for much of 2021 and maybe into 2022. That would kill thousands more people and leave the economy in ruins.
Disinformation Factory
So, who won the election? Rational thinking people, no matter which
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| (Joint session of congress 2019 house.gov) |
party they are in, know that former Vice President Biden is now the President-Elect and will be sworn in as our 46th President on January 20th. That makes me wonder about this statistic. There are 249 Republicans in the House and Senate. A survey by The Washington Post found only 27 of the Republicans who were willing to say publicly that Donald Trump lost the election to Joe Biden.
Just 27 of 249 Republicans in Congress willing to say Trump lost, survey finds (msn.com)
Why? No, they are not all stupid. Most of them are afraid to alienate the 70% of the rank and file Republicans in the electorate who express the same views. This despite the 46 failed court cases on possible voter fraud that went nowhere because there was no evidence of elections fraud. It's almost humorous that many of those same lawmakers were re-elected to Congress in an election they erroneously say was riddled with fraud.
Here are the only facts that matter. Joe Biden won enough states to collect 306 electoral votes (270 needed to win). That will be confirmed on December 14th in 50 state capitals when the "electors" from each state meet and cast their votes based on who won the popular vote in their state.
It's an archaic system that may need to be updated. But it's right this time. Look at the final popular vote totals in this chart.
2020 Presidential General Election Results (uselectionatlas.org)
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The chart above shows final vote counts with Biden at 81.2 million votes (51.2% ) to Trump's 74.2 million votes (46.8%). No doubt at all who won.
Update: Plastic Oceans
Here is an update on a story I wrote about last year.
Plastic pollution continues to be a major problem in the earth's oceans. Eleven million tons of plastic is dumped at sea each year and that amount could TRIPLE by 2040, according to new research by the Pew Charitable Trust. Plastic, from bags to tooth brushes to toys has been found on virtually every coastline in the world and in some of the deepest parts of the ocean. The plastic can be devastating to fish and other sea life, which also provide a large portion of the world's human food supply. Plastic "islands" have also blocked the flow of rivers and drainage areas which increases flooding.
But there is hope. The report says some basic changes in the production, design, sale and use of plastics could reverse the trend by 80%.
The suggestions to turn things around include:
*Reduction in plastic production
*Substitute paper and compostable materials
*Design products and packaging for recycling so they are reusable
*Expand waste collection in low income countries
*Develop plastic-to-plastic chemical recycling
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| (Courtesy Hamer Museum ucla.edu) |
Confronting Ocean Plastic Pollution | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)
Of course all this would require world cooperation, which doesn't come easily. Many governments have passed half-way measures. For example, the European Union has banned plastic shopping bags and one-use straws. But if the whole world did that it would only reduce the overall amount of ocean plastic by 7% by 2040. You can do your part by limiting your own use of plastic when possible.
Look for recyclable products.
Use paper bags rather than plastic, or plant based plastic that's biodegradable.
Recycle at home and find ways to reuse plastic items.
And please don't throw anything away near a body of water or on the shoreline.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
The plethora of fake news may be doing more damage to our democracy than those Congressmen mentioned above. For much of my adult life, whenever I went on vacation or was covering an out of town story, I would turn on local radio stations and listen to local newscasts just to see what was going on in that area. I would often stop at a news stand somewhere in town and pick up a local paper. The reason? I wanted to know what the local job market was like, the cost of housing, and local political issues that might be different from where I was living and have an impact on my story. It helped me as a reporter to better understand local politics and the local people if I was there to cover something. Or if I was there as a tourist it was just out of curiosity. But I can't do that anymore. The news desert is growing faster than the climate change impact on the Sahara.
Some folks at the University of North Carolina have been keeping track of these deserts, places that no longer have any routine local news coverage. Here are some of the findings for 2020:
300 newspapers closed, another 6,000 journalists employed by newspapers vanished, and print newspaper circulation declined by 5 million.
- Consolidation also increased, with the largest chains, backed by private equity firms and hedge funds, racing to merge with the last surviving publicly traded companies and form mega-chains with hundreds of newspapers, and management focused on shareholder return over journalism’s civic duty.
- Despite the efforts of other media, including commercial television and digital sites, to step into the breach, they have failed to thwart the rise of news deserts, especially in economically struggling regions of the country. Independent digital sites, once seen as potential saviors, are failing to achieve long-term financial security. While more than 80 local online sites were established in 2019, an equal number went dark.
Death of local news has made political divisions worse - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
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It's not just quality of life issues. There is no local newspaper to expose corruption in local government or tell you where a community's elected leaders stand on big decisions like your property taxes, which directly impact you more than anything Congress or the President does. (I should add that some politicians like it this way where you don't know what they are doing)
In thousands of communities across the United States the only local information you are getting is from social media, where facts are almost nonexistent and conspiracies are born. That information comes not from trained journalists with no agenda other than the truth, but from partisan hacks or from people who may mean well, but really don't have accurate information and aren't trained on how to get it.
Then there is the trickle-up concept. Those small town newspapers and radio stations (the demise of local news is worse on radio) are a training ground for young journalists who get valuable experience at covering politics, news writing and reporting, and learn that journalism is a calling, and not about fame and fortune.
Those City Councilmen in New Brunswick, New Jersey, or those County Legislators in Kingston, New York, gave me the experience I needed to accurately cover Congress and world events.
(50% of the radio newsrooms I worked in over the last 40 years don't exist anymore)
Newspapers and small town radio news broadcasts are dying for many business or economic reasons that are to complicated to go over here. But there are some efforts to save those that are left. Let's hope the news desert doesn't continue to grow.
Otherwise Democracy may die from thirst.
(Your suggestions or comments on this blog are welcome)
(Copies of my book "The Campaign" are available at:
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