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As we say in the media, “Of course, we’re focused on COVID.”
The pandemic news is not good today, and I’m not even talking about this:
We are a house divided, with little consensus whatsoever about how to deal with both the present and near future.
Recalling that this is a disease that has a major impact on the elderly, here is one of the more frightening bits of new news:
After sharp drops in infections over the last several months, the number of Covid cases among U.S. nursing-home residents and staff roughly tripled from the week of July 4 to the week ending July 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency’s data show that cases of Covid among residents had risen to 1,312, the highest figure reported since early March. (New York Times)
Speaking of high risks, this is also a troubling development:
The latest wave of Covid-19 hospitalizations is crashing into patients returning for care for other ailments, overtaxing some facilities and exhausting their doctors and nurses.
Surgeries and treatments for cancer, heart disease and other common conditions have rebounded this year, filling beds at many hospitals. At the same time, other respiratory viruses, such as RSV, have re-emerged along with public gatherings, adding to hospital strain.
Now some hospitals are treating more Covid-19 patients than ever before as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads, particularly where vaccination rates are lower. This new chapter of the protracted pandemic has exhausted hospital staff. (Wall Street Journal)
And the Red-Blue divide continues to stoke conflict – and spread the virus.
This event will be a topic of hours of fascination:
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Crowds of bikers are rumbling their way towards South Dakota’s Black Hills this week, raising fears that COVID-19 infections will be unleashed among the 700,000 people expected to show up at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
The rally, which starts Friday, has become a haven for those eager to escape coronavirus precautions.
And it isn’t just in the United States; much of the world is facing a resurgence as well, as in:
Japan warned on Wednesday that coronavirus infections were surging at an unprecedented pace as new cases hit a record high in Tokyo, overshadowing the Olympics and adding to doubts over the government's handling of the pandemic. (Reuters)
The elite consensus of what to do about all this is mass vaccination, but a new survey suggests that getting the rates higher is still a challenge:
More unvaccinated adults in the United States view the coronavirus vaccine as a greater risk to their health than the disease caused by the virus itself, a poll found.
The Kaiser Family Foundation released a survey Wednesday that found there was a big split between unvaccinated and vaccinated adults in what they perceived as the bigger threat during the pandemic.
Just over half of unvaccinated adults (53 percent) said they believed getting vaccinated posed a bigger risk to their health than getting infected with the coronavirus. “In contrast, an overwhelming majority (88 percent) of vaccinated adults said that getting infected with COVID-19 is a bigger risk to their health than the vaccine,” the report found. (Washington Post)
So the Biden administration can only play triple whack-a-mole, at home, within the military, and abroad:
The Biden administration is taking the first steps toward requiring nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, a White House official said Wednesday. (Associated Press)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is fighting a three-front war of his own, against the virus, against his local governmental entities who are defying his anti-mask orders, and against the Biden administration:
In other COVID news, as landlord groups challenge the Biden eviction ban extension, both the Wall Street Journal ed board and Rich Lowry make the compelling Red case for why the president’s move is a Trumpian challenge to the rule of law.
Two essential related reads for you, one philosophical and one practical.
A Wall Street Journal op-ed piece reminds us of the folly of making public policy or personal choices based on the dream of a covid-free future:
Much of the pathology underlying Covid policy arises from the fantasy that it is possible to eradicate the virus. Capitalizing on pandemic panic, governments and compliant media have used the lure of zero-Covid to induce obedience to harsh and arbitrary lockdown policies and associated violations of civil liberties.
And Leana Wen gives advice about how to go about our daily lives based on the current scientific research and public policy recommendations, with attention paid particularly to what parents should do. It’s very wise and should be read.
That’s your pandemic news minute.
I’m Mark Halperin.
We will be back in a moment with more news.
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[A moment.]
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Finally this morning, a question: Is the Democratic Party now controlled by the far left of AOC or the moderate middle of Joe Biden?
That is a pretty important debate in our politics at the moment, and you have to make time for three essential reads before reaching your own conclusion.
First, a Washington Post story that suggests the left is ascendent after its eviction win.
Then another Washington Post story that suggests the jury is out, but closes veering center:
[Nancy] Pelosi has faced these battles before and has almost always come out on top. Back in 2009, leaders of the Progressive Caucus declared that they would not support the Affordable Care Act if it did not include a public health option.
By March 2010, Pelosi had knitted together 219 votes for the ACA — without any defections from the Progressive Caucus.
Finally, leaning hard center is a New York Times article that draws heavily on the most recent election results:
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a top member of House leadership, said in an interview Wednesday that Democratic voters were clearly rejecting candidates from the party’s most strident and ideological flank.
Where some primary voters welcomed an angrier message during the Trump years, Mr. Jeffries said, there is less appetite now for revolutionary rhetoric casting the Democratic Party as a broken institution.
“The extreme left is obsessed with talking trash about mainstream Democrats on Twitter, when the majority of the electorate constitute mainstream Democrats at the polls,” Mr. Jeffries said. “In the post-Trump era, the anti-establishment line of attack is lame — when President Biden and Democratic legislators are delivering millions of good-paying jobs, the fastest-growing economy in 40 years and a massive child tax cut….”
Mainstream Democrats, Mr. Jeffries said, are not “going to act like punching bags for the extreme left.”
“Let me put it this way: The majority of Democratic voters recognize that Trumpism and the radical right is the real enemy, not us,” Mr. Jeffries said. “Apparently the extreme left hasn’t figured that out.”
As a certain cable news host would say, “Only time will tell.”