Give me liberty and give me Covid!


Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott seem to be locked in a contest to see who can rack up the better record for increasing the number of Covid deaths in their state lately, since both states have banned both mask mandates and vaccination mandates.

Up until yesterday, I would have said the Ron DeSantis was the odds-on favorite to win this race, but it seems that Gov. Abbott doesn’t have the quittin’ spirit in him, so he just promulgated a new executive order that promises to lead to a significant increase in deaths of his citizens – and the younger ones, no less. So I guess I can’t rule him out of the running for this treasured prize. Of course, the prize they’re both after is the GOP nomination for president in 2024, and it seems that polls tell them the number one issue GOP voters will be concerned about in that year is who can demonstrate they’ve caused the most Covid deaths – because that’s owning the libs, dontcha know.

Gov. Kristi Noem was an early leader in the 2024 speculation, because she did such a spectacular job in South Dakota, which leads both Texas and Florida in deaths per one million population. DeSantis and Abbott have been grabbing the spotlight yesterday, but Gov. Noem can’t be ruled out, especially since she’s about to host the second Sturgis Superspreader Rally. The last one was tremendously successful, and almost by itself assured that the US would go through a third wave, which peaked in January with 4,000 deaths a day. Thanks, Kristi! While it’s a little late for you to claim credit for the current fourth Covid wave (and the first Delta wave), I’m sure if you try really hard, you can lay the foundation for a big fifth wave! Just make sure that you don’t let any more vaccinations take hold in your state. You might want to consider instituting the death penalty for anybody who proposes a vaccination mandate; that should do the trick.

But I digress. Gov. Abbott proved he’s a real canny fighter in this article that Kevin Perry forwarded me yesterday. Just in case you don’t believe your eyes when you read it, here’s the big news: The Texas Education Agency has come out with new guidelines for schools. To quote the article, “The new guidelines state that schools don't have to inform parents of positive cases; schools do not have to contact trace; and parents can choose to send a student to school if he or she has been in close contact with a positive case, among other updates.”

Folks, I don’t know what to say. Gov. Abbott was obviously worried about Florida creeping up on Texas’ number of Covid deaths per 1 million population. Currently, Florida is close to tying Texas, with 1,848 deaths per million population vs. 1,858 for Texas. I can’t blame Gov. Abbott at all for being concerned, and for looking for new ways to increase the death count. I agree with him that schools should be a fertile source of new Covid deaths, since the Delta variant seems to be doing very well among younger adults. Why not try to get the numbers up among children, too? Even better, no kids under 12 have been vaccinated, so they’re sitting ducks for the Delta variant when they’re back in school. Take that, DeSantis!

I’ll close with the last two paragraphs of the article:

"What is this new guidance from the Texas Education Association meant for? It's clearly not to protect students, teachers or staff at their schools,” Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University, told Yahoo Finance. 

“This is conservative virtue signaling. It's meant to send a message: We don't care about public health expertise or guidance, we are all about liberty and freedom unconstrained by any responsibility to others. Give me liberty and give me COVID."

I couldn’t have said it any better myself!

The numbers

These numbers were updated based on those reported on the Worldometers.info site for Sunday, August 9.

Month

Deaths reported during month

Avg. deaths per day during period

Deaths as percentage of previous month’s

Month of March 2020

4,058

131

 

Month of April

59,812

1,994

1,474%

Month of May

42,327

1,365

71%

Month of June

23,925

798

57%

Month of July

26,649

860

111%

Month of August

30,970

999

116%

Month of Sept.

22,809

760

75%

Month of Oct.

24,332

785

107%

Month of Nov.

38,293

1,276

157%

Month of Dec.

79,850

2,576

209%

Total 2020

354,215

1,154

 

Month of Jan. 2021

98,604

3,181

119%

Month of Feb.

68,918

2,461

70%

Month of March

37,945

1,224

55%

Month of April

24,323

811

64%

Month of May

19,843

661

82%

Month of June

10,544

351

53%

Month of July

8,833

287

84%

Total Pandemic so far

633,116

1,188

 

 

I. Total deaths (as of Sunday)

Total US reported Covid deaths as of last Sunday: 633,116

Average deaths last seven days: 534

Average deaths previous seven days: 353

Percent increase in total deaths in the last seven days: 0.6%

II. Total reported cases (as of Sunday)

Total US reported cases as of Sunday: 36,543,338

Increase in reported cases last 7 days: 744,414 (= 110,631/day)

Increase in reported cases previous 7 days: 517,471 (= 73,924/day)

Percent increase in reported cases in the last seven days: 2.2%  

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com.

 

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