The Pandemic Blog

On the morning of March 22, 2020, I read an email I’d received about 20 hours earlier, but which I had put off reading. A friend had sent me this article about what was known as the “novel coronavirus”. I had certainly read about it, and I knew it was something to be taken seriously. I knew a lot of people had died in Wuhan, China in January and early February, but I also knew that quick action by the Chinese authorities (after an unfortunate period of trying to pretend it didn’t exist, which of course may have turned what could have been just a serious local disease outbreak into a catastrophic worldwide pandemic) had seemed to put it to bed. Yes, the novel coronavirus had come to the US, and a few people had already died of it; and we all watched in horror at what unfolded in Italy in February, comforting ourselves that their government had made some serious mistakes early on, that would certainly not be repeated by other world leaders. And even though President Trump was trying h...

Here are (in order from highest to lower) the states with highest total Covid deaths per 1 million population during the pandemic so far: Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Louisiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky. Other than New Jersey, New Mexico and Michigan, all of these states are very firmly in the “pro-life” camp in the abortion debate. What does “pro-life” mean in practice? I can’t think of a better example than Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who a few days ago sued the federal government because – I kid you not – HHS had reminded all hospitals that they’re required to do whatever they can to save a human life, including performing an abortion when the mother’s life requires it. Here’s the first paragraph of the press release on the AG’s web site : Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding their use of the Emergency Medical Treatment...