Killing Covid                                                  #170

By Hank Silverberg 

We are at a key point in the battle against Covid-19. More than 100 million Americans have been vaccinated against the virus and the distribution of the vaccine, once it got going, has been quite efficient in most areas.  At this point in much of the country, Covid-19 cases and deaths are down again. But this pandemic is not over and will never go away unless an overwhelming majority of the public gets with the program. Here in he United States that has run into a road block. A good portion of the pandemic-weary public just won't follow the rules.

You are still being asked to wear a mask when inside someplace other than your own home or when you are with with large groups of people anywhere, even if you are fully vaccinated. Really large crowds are still discouraged and banned in much of the country. But the differences in attitudes and practices are obvious. 

The best example I found was at baseball stadiums. My beloved Red Sox finished their longest

homestand of the season last  week, playing each game before about 4,500 masked and socially distanced Fenway Park fans. When they played the Mets at the start of their road trip at Citifield in  the Big Apple which usually has a 41,922 capacity, there were about 8,500 with mask restrictions.  

When the Red Sox arrived to play the Rangers at the new stadium in Arlington, Texas this past weekend, there were 25,000 to 35,000 mostly unmasked fans in a 40,000 seat stadium to watch. There was no social distancing. To put this into perspective, Boston had about 1,400 new cases of the Coronavirus last week, while 24% of the population in the city has been vaccinated.  In the Arlington, Texas area, there were about 4,800 new cases with about 26% of the population vaccinated.  The infection rate in the Arlington, Dallas, Forth Worth area is about 13.6% higher than the national rate. 

download (mass.gov)

percentage of covid 19 cases in tarrant county, texas - Bing

Mass. health officials announce 1,179 new COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths with a positivity rate of 1.7 percent – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

So I ask, what are they thinking in Texas? 

The ideological slant on science continues to plague this country, literally. Until that stops, we are in continued trouble. 

MLB does not control crowd size at stadiums. That's up to local jurisdictions. But the league itself gets the science. Their players must wear masks in the dugout and continue other Covid-19 protocols. That means not dining out or socializing with others outside the team employees until 85% of their players and team personnel are vaccinated. It's part of their effort to keep their players and staff healthy. Only nine teams have reached that plateau so far, though the league isn't saying which ones. The team vaccinations continue.  The Covid-19  "positive test" rate among MLB personnel, despite all their travel and close quarters, has been only   .03 %.    

MLB: 9 teams reach 85% vaccination rate for easing protocols - The Washington Post

Let's hope politicians follow the lead of Major League Baseball before loosening restrictions. Texas politicians sure haven't. If they don't, 2021 could be a repeat of 2020, something none of us want.  If you think loosening restrictions now will work then take a closer look at what is now happening in India here 392,000 new cases were confirmed last week after restrictions on large gatherings were lifted.  

As for anyone who doesn't get vaccinated, they are playing with fire. It could turn into arson if we don't reach that magic 85% this summer. I hope we don't all get burned AGAIN by ignorant people who don't care about their family, friends or neighbors.      

The Honeymoon May Be Over , But The Marriage Looks Heaven-Sent:

Anyone who has watched politics for a while knows that ALL politicians lie, or at least stretch the truth at times. But "liar-in-chief"  was not a phrase used much until Donald Trump came along. Now that he's fading from public discourse (hopefully forever), it's back to checking the little discrepancies from what a president says and what is real. Joe Biden's first 100 days are now in the book, so fact checking is underway. In the latest poll, the public believes that Mr. Biden has faced bigger challenges than his predecessor in the first 100 days, and has performed better on most key issues.   

New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: At 100 days, Americans say Biden has faced bigger challenges and performed better than Trump (msn.com)

For example, 57% of those asked say he's handled the pandemic better than Trump. Biden gets higher marks (49%-38%) on the economy, climate change (47%-36%)  and foreign policy (44%-39%). Trump scored higher only on how he handled immigration and guns. But it should be noted that Trump faced very few real challenges in his first 100 days, while Biden took office in the middle of a pandemic and the economic turmoil it caused.

On assessing Biden's first 100 days, we should note there have been NO scandals unless you count his unruly dog "Major," who got banished from the White House until he gets more training. But there have been some missteps. Most notably is the situation on the southern border, which frankly Biden has pretty much ignored.

 The administration was so focused on the pandemic that they missed the surge in illegal immigrants, especially children. It's a release of pressure built up during the four years of Trump's  xenophobic policies, but the Biden administration hasn't moved fast enough to provide proper housing and processing of those who rushed across the border expecting a more open policy. 

There were a couple of other small missteps, but in general it's a breath of fresh air compared to the "former guy " who created a crises-like atmosphere every time he tweeted. 

Biden did get some numbers wrong about job creation since he took office when he spoke to Congress this week. The economy did reach its worst point since the Great Depression during the later half of 2020 because of the pandemic, but by the time Mr. Biden took office it had recovered a bit and was on the upswing.  

But this may be a matter of interpretation. It's hard to gauge how much of that upswing was simply from optimism after Trump lost the election or from anything the government did or didn't do.    

In general, it's been a smooth 100 days with a few hiccups that are expected in every new administration. Fox News and other conservative talking heads have tried to create controversy where there really is none. All that baloney about Dr. Seuss being banned is a good example. Biden did nothing. The publisher of the Dr. Seuss books decided on their own to pull back just a few titles that included some offensive racial stereotypes. But to Fox News that was Biden banning Seuss. 

We can expect to see the right wing make mountains out of little mistakes for the next three years at least. And on occasion Biden must be corrected when the facts get a little lost in the rhetoric. But after three years of twitter attacks, fake news, name calling and hate mongering, it will seem quaint. It will be a throwback to things like George Bush's premature "Mission Accomplished" sign on an aircraft carrier, or when Ronald Reagan changed school lunch menus to list ketchup as a vegetable.   

Space! 

Welcome home, Crew 1! You may have missed the early morning spashdown of the four member crew of the Space X Dragon Resilience capsule on Sunday. They had just completed a 168 day space mission that included 2,688 orbits on the International Space Station. That's about 68 million miles altogether when you add on the trip to get there. It was only the second nighttime splashdown for NASA. The other was Apollo 8 in 1968. This time though, the capsule is not going to a museum. The craft is designed to be refit and reused multiple times. Astronauts Mike Hopkins, Soichi Noguchi, Shannon Walter and Victor Glover left some friends behind. 

Here's the tweet from Astronaut  Glover shortly after they landed. 

Victor Glover

@AstroVicGlover

·

12h

What a ride! Thanks to the

@NASA

,

@SpaceX

, and

@USCG

teams for a safe and successful journey back to Earth. Another step closer to family and home!

Quote Tweet

NASA

@NASA

· 12h

Let’s give NASA's @SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts a hand!

Welcome home. In the most fitting fashion, their mission, which certified the return of astronaut launches from the U.S., ended with an equally historic nighttime splashdown at 2:56am ET (06:56 UT): https://go.nasa.gov/3xIk9zw

SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts come home with rare pre-dawn splashdown - CBS News

At one point the ISS had 11 people on board. It continues to be occupied by Space X crew 2, which arrived on April 24th and will stay until July 15. 

Combine this with the successful flight on Mars last week by the Ingenuity helicopter, and it's been a good year so far for NASA and their private sector partners. 

Dumbest Quote of the Week:

This week's dumb quote goes to former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum. No real surprise because he says a lot of dumb things, but this quote is about as off the mark as you can get. 

He was speaking to a group called  the "Young America's Foundation," which  is a right-wing group that apparently centers around young people. Thanks to Media Matters for finding and pointing this one out. 

Here's what Santorum said:

"We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean there was nothing here. I mean yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."  

I am not sure how Santorum makes a living these days other than his occasional pontifications on CNN that are usually off base. 

But let's thank heaven that he is not teaching history. This comment waves off centuries of genocide on the indigenous population of North America.

Note to Santorum: American history did not start with Jamestown or Plymouth Rock. Archeologists have estimated the Pre-Columbian population of the western hemisphere at more than 54 million people. By 1492, about ten million lived north of  the Rio Grande. Today there are 6.7 million Native Americans living in the United States. Their culture is just as viable as any other people in America, despite concerted efforts by White Europeans in the 18th and 19th century to wipe it out.   

1600-1754: Native Americans: Overview | Encyclopedia.com

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