Coronavirus week 37: A new 9/11 every day

That is, of course, the official prediction from the CDC's Robert Redfield.

That's as we in Merika have crossed the 300K mark on deaths, and before the end of the year, faster than I expected.

Right now, by death rate, Ground Zero for that new 9/11 is rural, red, and still mask-conflicted Gove County, Kansas. Like many such places, antimasking is part of Trumpland. Like many such places, it has limited hospital services. UNlike some such rural places, like my slice of north Texas, the Catholic hierarchy there is acting like most their wingnut Protestant brethren in not requiring masking at churches. Sadly, some in the hospital and nursing homes who know the need for masks say they're not here to tell other people how to live their lives. Folks, that's what the PUBLIC in public health means. If you're not wearing a mask in a place to affect me, I'll tell you.

Texas is running ever-lower on ICU space.

And, per the two paragraphs above? Bud Kennedy reports small-town Texans are "angry at COVID." From where I live, they're not angry enough to mask up like they should. He notes it's the same in places like Granbury. What this really is? Another form of American exceptionalism. "We're Merika, we shouldn't be getting bossed around by this little bitty V'uh-EYE-russ." 

Part of the problem is that most the red states, esp. the rural areas within them, don't want to read about it.

Your State Board of Education — now you know why they're anti-science in Tex-ass public school textbooks; they're anti-science on the public health of masks and social distancing.

Texas GOP chairman Allen West hosted a "Night of the Mask" event with Cooke County Republican Women to install officers. The event name apparently is facetious, as pictures indicate nobody wore them.

Last Friday, Trump's WH chief of staff, Mark Meadows, supposedly threatened FDA head Stephen Hahn with firing if Pfizer's vaccine wasn't approved by the end of day. Hahn claims the original story got it wrong, but doesn't really say how. Given that the vaccine was likely to be approved any day now, and that Trump isn't going to be president after Jan. 20, 2021, anyway, this is Bizarro World indeed.

How the vaccine distribution plan depends on a state-by-state definition of "essential worker" shows why Merika needs more than "just" single payer national health care, it needs federalized, or rather, nationalized, standards of care, treatment, credentialism and much more on health care provision.

Brendan Nyhan talks about how to get more people to trust in the vaccine and get shot. He offers the commonsense idea that getting family doctors to be the primary "salespeople" is a key point.

The EPA has (shock me) fast-tracked review of actual or alleged coronavirus disinfectants. A Texas company is a leading profiteer. Beyond spray disinfectants, and largely beyond the EPA's purview, the piece notes that the jury is still out about claims of the general efficaciousness, let alone coronavirus-specific efficaciousness, of UV light.