Texas progressives: coronavirus, week 20

Just a short one, this week, but as some Texas schools start a new year this week, and others will do so next week, this corner of the Texas progressives has another week of splitting coronavirus news from the rest of its roundup, and while it has few links, offers some longer ones.

Texas

Gov. Abbott is continuing to try to be a legal hairsplitter on COVID, the power of local health authorities, and school opening. A metropolitan health official needs to go ahead and issue a blanket ban to set up legal action against Strangeabbott.

COVID has hammered a Houston-area nursing home. Texas Observer has the big picture on for-profit nursing homes in Texas' COVID issues. (The company that is its focus does not own the problematic Missouri City home, nor another in Corpus, which means the problem is that bad.)

Zeph Capo argues against reopening schools without a robust plan to keep everyone safe.

National

After a week, with some public black eyes, Georgia schools get an F on COVID issues. Paulding County may well confirm Peter Hotez' claim that the push to open schools is bound to fail. That said, Hotez oversimplifies the problem. It's not just national. When, as in the case of Paulding County, your superintendent and board president are both COVIDIOTS, any federal malfeasance is being weaponized at the local level.

Wired talks in depth with Bill Gates. Among his observations? Nasal swab tests are badly inaccurate, something that's been getting more and more airplay. (Unfortunately, this is something else that will likely become fuel for conspiracy theorists.) On the second, or third, or whatever hand, I think Gates has dubiously sourced optimism when he says that "for the rich world, we should be able to largely end this thing by the end of 2021." He's naively optimistic on both when a vaccine will be developed but how efficacious it will be.

Global

Melbourne (Australia, not Florida) illustrates what happens when it appears coronavirus is contained, but isn't. Fines of almost $4K American for contagious people. Strict rules on essential business. Police actually enforcing mask rules. And, in at least one case, being assaulted. (The NYT doesn't mention the cop's head getting smashed into the cement.) Australia, other than national health care and a higher minimum wage (not so much different on PPP terms as some Americans think) is a lot like America in a lot of ways. Laissez-faire, unless you're an immigrant from SE Asia. So, there's parallels to America. The issue of enforcement is one of them. I have no doubt that if American police challenged anti-mask Karens, we'd see some of the same same behavior from alleged law and order folks.

A picture of an US Olympic swimmer balancing chocolate milk on her head while swimming is viral on Twitter. That said, there's a growing chance she's not going anywhere in 12 months. A strong majority of Japanese overall, and a slim majority of Tokyo residents, agog at growing cost overruns and expectations of diminished revenue, want their country to just drop the delayed Games. And you know what? Beyond coronavirus, killing the increasingly bloated, hypercapitalist, classist Olympics would be fine by me?