Texas Progressives: Coronavirus, week 21, talking about 2021

The University of Washington agrees with former FDA head Scott Gottlieb and others — there's a good chance the coronavirus death toll in the US hits 300,000 by the end of the year. More masking and social distancing could reduce that. Easing up on the current leaky gas pedal, to mix metaphors, could make it even higher. Note that the assumes include NO VACCINE. Speaking of???

SocraticGadfly tells anybody wanting a coronavirus vaccine, whether the highly optimistic expecting one this year, or the somewhat more realistic eyeing 2021 not to bet on it, unless you want a Trumpian-type vaccine free of normal FDA testing rules, and thus to stay serious, or get more serious, about the disease.

Trump's mix of bashing the FDA on COVID treatments and bypassing it on tests is scary. (We're not going to have a vaccine before next year, if then, so, if he's not in the White House, he can't bypass it on vaccines.)

A number of California hospitals are treating employees, namely nurses, crappily. So far, Gov. Pothole, Gavin Newsom, hasn't done a lot to crack down on the hospitals. This in the wake of it turning out that his promise to take a voluntary salary cut was a lie. As the story notes, the same happened in New York State this spring under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, linking the two govs as failed blue heroes.

Speaking of Gov. Pothole, it's generally good that COVID has curtailed California's inmate firefighting program. On the other hand, inmates did get early parole. On the third hand, they should get other benefits from doing this work as well, as one inmate noted.

Packages, whose number has increased during COVID, as well as first-class mail, has seen more and more late deliveries under current Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. How much is specifically his fault is still open.

In Texas, 20 percent of the unemployed don't qualify for Trump's extra $300 per week.