Our Best Stuff From a Week We Started Talking Lockdowns Again

GOP dysfunction, Biden's foreign policy, and more.

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Did anyone else experience a case of pandemic-inspired whiplash this week? When the news came out Monday that the Pfizer vaccine was shown to be 90 percent effective, I felt more than relieved. Almost giddy, even. Not only was it the first bit of good news in what seemed like ages, it was better than expected. (This piece we ran by James Capretta and Scott Ganz recently discusses the vaccine trials and why the CDC and WHO set a threshold of 50 percent efficacy for approval.) Sure, it might not be widely available until April, but at least we knew it was coming. 

But then, as the election craziness receded, the gruesome reality of the pandemic came back to the forefront. The situation both in the United States and around the world has been getting worse for weeks now, but it was easy to avoid thinking about it in the leadup to the election and in the days that followed. No more. 

As experts predicted over the summer, the coronavirus gained strength—as viruses do—as the weather got colder and people headed indoors. I remember early in the pandemic, I wrote in one of these newsletters about how awful it felt watching the John Hopkins COVID tracker tally the 100,000th American case. Now we are seeing far more cases than that every day. 

And so now states are talking about going into lockdown. Here in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine announced this week that he would close bars, and restaurants, and gyms as early as next week if the “trend continues.” Like many states, we are seeing record-level cases almost every day. Last Sunday, there were about 4,500 new cases. By Friday? We recorded 8,000. I don’t see how that trend changes within a week.

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  1. LucyTrice

    Here's an idea: lets have a functional definition of "lockdown" . Measures vary state by state, country by country so one cannot assume.

    Attempt at clear communication. Crazy idea, I know.

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  2. Fatigued Testudine

    Every news outlet, including the Dispatch and seemingly a majority of the commenters on this site are absolutely certain that "all there is are conspiracy theories being promulgated by right wing nuts. It appears that since Trump is involved it must therefore be so. I am reminded of an earlier time when the Standard for the Democrat Party and the Media was clearly enunciated by then Speaker of the House Tom Foley who stated their approach to any allegation. Tom Foley said, “The seriousness of the charge mandates that we investigate this.” “Even though there is no evidence,” he said, “the seriousness of the charge is what matters,” No longer, since the charges are being made by Trump and his supporters. This morning, on Fox with Maria Bartiromo, there was some very troubling "serious charges" made by Sidney Powell about the provenance of Dominion and their software and how it can easily be manipulated, backed up with sworn depositions. Same for Rudy Giuliani's interview with him stating it is backed up by sworn statements. I know this will be poo pooed, but if even one of these allegations of tampering with the election is true, every citizen, no matter their affiliation should be mad as hell. I mean as Tom Foley demanded that the standard should be: “The seriousness of the charge mandates that we investigate this.” “Even though there is no evidence,” he said, “the seriousness of the charge is what matters,” Enjoy the day.

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    Earl King

    DF is engaged with sophism. He has begun the de-Trumpification from our collective history. I imagine he will start the process of justification for the re-education camps that will be needed in order for Trump supporters to re-enter society. Like Clockwork Orange they'll be made to watch Trumps speeches until they find the formal fallacy in each. Sheesh. I mean it's all going to be ok. DF does not need to full Howard Beale. This will all be over this week. In reality this is of benefit to Joe Biden. Unlike the Democrats who contested Trump election for four years there will only be a small few will remain convinced the election was stolen. Thank god it won't be Russians however....what the hell, how is Adam Schiff going to get thru the day? Who is Hillary going to blame now?
    Trump will resign. have Pence pardon him....something I said a month or more ago. Our country is slipping in to a banana like state. The NY AG is going after him....I do think Biden would authorize the DOJ to look at something....after all he agreed with spying on his campaign.
    Anyway by end of week, all lawsuits will be gone. It will have been good to look at all election irregularities. Certainly due to to the participation mail in balloting will be present in 2024.
    So in contrast to DF assertion there is dysfunction in the GOP.....my my. They are all have been home in their districts. Giving their President the space to make his legal case is not dysfunction. Stacy Abrams never conceded and continues to say her election was stolen. She is star in the Democrat Party. While Hillary technically conceded, she then proceeded to say her election results were tainted....Neither of these two created a crisis in America and nor will Trumps look see in to voting irregularities. So take a breath....I am wishing for DF to put down the steel balls and recognize the Strawberries were not stolen the Steward ate them....We all be ok. So will the GOP and the country....It would be nice to lower the hyperventilating going on by both never Trumpers and the Democrats......but I don't expect it to happen.

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    MarqueG68

    This seems worth sharing here. The German government fast forwards us 50 years into the future to look back on the corona heroes (with English subtitles):
    https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1327742389507813376

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    Hrodland

    My recommendation isn't escapist, but can give some insights into our current problems. I would recommend the old Icelandic work Njal's Saga, or Burnt Njal. It's not about TV Vikings, but real people.

    It tells how, despite the best efforts of the two main protagonists, the animosity between two families radiates out and eventually engulfs their whole society. In the end, the eponymous Njal is burnt in his home by people who had nothing to do with the original quarrel. The non-fiction Great Feuds of Texas describes the same phenomenon.

    But again, if you want escapism, might be best to go elsewhere.

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    1. Fatigued Testudine

      Nuttin' like a good Texas or Tennessee feud story to liven the day! ;-)

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    BikerChick

    No more lockdowns...just NO!! https://tomwoods.com/podcasts/

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    2sequoia

    This is a tough call. Businesses need to be open. And individuals need to be taking personal responsibility, but they aren’t. There are still people where I live walking around without masks. The number of cases have skyrocketed and hospitals in my county are becoming dangerously understaffed. Statewide (Montana) 4 hospitals are beyond 100% capacity. It’s almost impossible to get any kind of a quick test. And there are still people who think this is a hoax. How did Americans get to the place where individual freedom trumps the greater good? I don’t get it.

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      Bonzai30

      When you cast doubt on the efficacy of masks and social distancing and define your political tribe as being opposed to commonality sense disease prevention measures (I want my freedom!), you get dangerous, deadly behavior.

      Nine out of the ten worst states for disease penetration per capita are Republican states. This is not random. It’s ignorance, and tens of thousands (if not more than a hundred thousand) excess deaths will occur in red states as a result.

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        BikerChick

        I will never shame people for wanting to live. Try having a child with a mental illness and worrying every day about how much longer he can take the isolation.

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        1. deathtomcmansions

          I'm sorry to hear about your family's difficulties. I hope you can find some outdoor activities that can be done with others, where masks aren't as necessary. Don't know if you live where rowing is a sport, but the camaraderie and teamwork can be amazing. Everyone has to work together and there is no bench -- once you push off the dock for a race, you all have to finish together. And no one else's parents are trying to coach your kid, they're all too far away...

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            BikerChick

            No rowing here, too cold. His only outlet is the gym. If the gym closes, I don't know what he will do. Honestly, it will likely break him. I am not being dramatic. This is having a devastating impact on our 20 something kids. I'm in a college parent facebook group, the comments about how lonely the kids are in the dorms are heartbreaking.

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  8. Kaweeka

    Time for The Dispatch Weekly to jump on Michael Mina’s team (Harvard Public Health) and help him get his bridge to the vaccine (and beyond) built. It’s a war, we are losing, and we have to fight smart!

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    Emily

    You totally nailed how I feel about this second wave. I can’t imagine how even the people who have taken the pandemic most seriously, even those who accepted the first lockdown as a grim necessity, how will we go back into that isolation? We’ve all expanded our social bubbles, at least a little, and it seems impossible to do without that interaction. And it’s winter, ugh!

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  10. The original Optimum.net

    We are all paying a price for some not recognizing (nay, demonizing) how serious this virus is.

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      BikerChick

      The lockdowns have cost 90k excess deaths NOT related to the virus.

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        Tom B.

        Is your number from subtracting confirmed COVID deaths from excess deaths? Because if so, that's complete balderdash.

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          BikerChick

          You also have to consider "years of life lost." Most Covid deaths are people over age 70 so the years of life lost for one person is quite low. Compare that to a 20 year old who commits suicide.

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          BikerChick

          Excess all cause mortality as of 10.31 is 334,138. It's NOT balderdash. https://twitter.com/EthicalSkeptic/status/1327809456739119104/photo/1

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            Tom B.

            It is balderdash. Numerous unjustifiable assumptions baked in, including that we're catching all deaths from COVID (we're not) AND that any other excess deaths are due to lockdowns (good luck showing this).

            People have been having interesting discussions about COVID deaths vs excess deaths for 6 months. It's an interesting, if morbid, topic, with lots of good discussion.

            Here are a couple of useful write-ups:

            https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/12/us/covid-deaths-us.html

            https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/01/us/coronavirus-deaths-new-york-new-jersey.html

            Also note that COVID-19 often causes problems with clotting and causes heart damage, facts that were not appreciated early in the outbreak, and which could lead to misclassification of deaths.

            I'm sure there have been stress related excess deaths. I'm sure there are excess deaths from failure to seek medical care (e.g. for heart attack or stroke). I'm sure there are even excess "deaths of despair." (Though so far, there seems to be no change in the suicide rate in the U.S. for 2020). But classifying every excess death without a COVID diagnosis as "due to lockdowns" is flat nonsense.

            Ethicalskeptic declared in June that COVID was over. I'd be rightly *skeptical* of anything he posts.

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          2. deathtomcmansions

            I asked one of the editors at sciencebasedmedicine.org about the ethical skeptic. It was a short email -- he's a research oncological surgeon in his day job so his time is limited -- but he doesn't consider ethical skeptic to be legitimate. I wish I had more material than just his statement, so that I'm not arguing an appeal to authority, but I've followed him for about a decade and have found him to be an outstanding resource when trying to make sense of medical-related news, especially things that look questionable. Thus I take his word for it because I've developed a long-standing trust in that website.

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      2. deathtomcmansions

        Maybe. They still have to be analyzed to see what may have been unrecognized virus deaths, and yet, when you realize that the projected upper limit of one model at the onset (based on NO actions taken to protect people) was over 1 million people, it's tough to know what's the deal there. And, a lot of people seem to think that number was ridiculous -- but when you realize that was not for a normal flu season length of time, it was until 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 was attained, and here we are almost a quarter of the way there, that's sobering.

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