Coronavirus week 41: RFK the loon, new strains, more

We passed 400,000 dead last week, as Fauci's warning about a 9/11 every day almost looks like an understatement, with multiple days this year having more than 4,000 deaths, and curves on both the active case rate and the death rate are accelerating. Globally, we're over 2 million dead now. Within that, China continues to claim less than 5,000 deaths, a claim I find laughable.

SocraticGadfly, in his weekly roundup of coronavirus news for the Texas Progressives roundup, led off with COVIDIOTS in a Love Field baggage carousel and went on to note the airport's and Southwest Airlines' lack of responsiveness.

Researchers report two new strains of coronavirus have evolved here in the US. Both, like the British strain, are more virulent than the original, though neither is more lethal by death rate of those infected. That said, simple math says both will kill more people than the original. If the original strain would have infected 1,000 out of 100,000, and the new strains infect 1,200 out of 100,000, and both have a 1 percent lethality, 12 deaths per 100K is more than 10 deaths per 100K. #Math.

RFK Jr. hates being called an antivaxxer, even though he is. He also hates being called an antimasker, even though he is. Orac gives kudos to Terri Gross, host of NPR's Fresh Air, for having pro-science people on an episode calling Bobby the Spade a spade. Orac also notes RFK Jr is down with anti-5G nuttery and more. He does get one thing wrong, as I told him on Twitter. And, that's that, contra Orac, it's not just TrumpTrain riders signed up for the full panoply of nonsense. Plenty of Greens (the question is, per my blog post about some claiming Jan. 6 was a psyop, HOW many? a plethora, jefe?) are down with all these claims, too.

Trump is once again wrecking the economy (and Mulish Mitch opposing larger stimulus payouts is helping) as unemployment surges again.

Texas beat out California to become the first state to deliver 1 million vaccine doses. But how? Per the Trib, Trump's rollout didn't stiff California on doses. So either Strangeabbott and his minions are genyuses or Cal gov Gavin Newsom is a fuck-up, or six of one, half dozen of the latter. (I'll take that.)

If there's a battle over truth, whether over vaccine distribution or something else, between Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, my money is on Jenkins.

The U.S. State Department claims that researchers from Wuhan Institute of Virology had something that looks like COVID in the fall of 2019. (True, or US government lies about coronavirus to counter Xi Jinping Thought lies in China?)

Dr. Peter Hotez says only the vaccine can save us now.