*Readers, I have not written as ignorantly in the past as I did in the Intro to the post below. At least I don’t think I have. I have lined it through but am leaving it there as defaced monument to my ignorance and substituting this:
Of course action beats inaction. There have always been only two ways to beat COVID-19: 1) masks 2) vaccines. Operation Warp Speed is Donald Trump’s great achievement; his refusal to endorse nationwide masking, his disgrace.
This is a tenacious virus. It refuses to take man’s imprint. It finds any gap in human defenses. It thrives in human intercourse. Only total war defeats it. The graph of the virus’ course through America could not be clearer: when lockdowns were in effect the virus was suppressed. When they were lifted, it oppressed. Without even the example of the president the maskless culture abounded and the virus pounced. Trump quit and waited on the vaccines. Inaction was at a cost hundreds of thousands of dead and millions sickened.
President Biden inherited Trump’s monument and his disgrace. Neither Trump nor Biden can mandate masks, no president can. Trump’s 2020 refusal to endorse masks, his calls to “LIBERATE!” states from restrictions on human intercourse, his downplaying of the virus, crippled whomever was elected in November from reversing the culture in which the virus flourished. Trump put all the chips of the office of president on vaccines. America lost, Trump lost, the office of president lost, and Biden assumed the office and the losses.
March 31, 9:52 pm
Intro: After doing this for so many days, weeks, and months, I think President Biden has not made a fundamental change in the trajectory of this thing. Deaths have plunged, but as I understand it that is due to the vaccines rather than the virus giving way to the relentless efforts of POJO. The Deaths-to-Hospitalizations percentage, my own invention, and a key metric to me, has never fallen to 2.43%, the rate in Trump's last week. The decline in Deaths certainly is not due to a decline of Cases! And vaccines, Trump gets the credit for them. Operation Warp Speed was a godsend and shot us ahead of Europe by a mile. Trump would have gotten as many shots in arms as Biden has, I strongly think. Cases and Hospitalizations peaked before Trump left office. They were on a steep, relentless, seemingly unstoppable decline when POJO took over. But the unstoppable stopped on February 21, five and one-half weeks ago. Nothing Biden did or didn't do or that Trump would or would not have done did, or would have, reversed the course Cases have taken since: an up and down leveling until March 22, and a clear, fairly steep upward trajectory since. The virus is exceedingly stubborn in the face of inaction and best effort. The predictions that scientists made of a Spring surge in late March have come true in spite of President Biden. That's a key marker. If POJO had beaten the predictions, he would deserve credit. That he hasn't means he doesn't. Thought for the day.
14-day changes
+20% Cases.-2% Hospitalizations.
-23% Deaths.
7-day daily averages (through March 30 unless indicated)
66,064 Cases. Up.40,068 Hospitalizations. Up.
Daily numbers (March 30 unless indicated)
62,045 Cases. Down! Shockingly, by over 8k! WEIRD.40,709 Hospitalizations. Up.
948 Deaths. Up.
