COVID19 Update - Day 221

US Tests: 115,469,073*

US Cases: 8,067,332*

US Deaths: 211,014*

Worldwide Cases: 39,608,809*

Worldwide Deaths: 1,108,800*

* - Numbers are a lower bound.  True numbers are being suppressed by the Trump administration

I'm getting a late start tonight, thanks to an epic Among Us game (and post-battle discussion) I just finished with some folks online.  So I will simply point everyone to the always-excellent Lawyers, Guns & Money blog, and these thoughts of Erik Loomis:

The first wave in April led to the national lockdown. The second in the summer at least mostly forced the recalcitrant states to force people into wearing masks and engage in at least the most basic precautions. And now? Nada.

I guess I’m not surprised by this. I thought from the beginning that Americans were always going to have very listen patience for getting in the way of their lives. They went along for awhile and now less so. Here in Rhode Island, which remains having low daily cases on a national basis but where it is still rising, from about a 1% positive rate a month or so ago to around 3% now, it is not from schools or restaurants (at least according to the governor). It’s from social gatherings. Families are getting back together. Young people are partying at houses. Older people are having dinner parties. And people aren’t masking at any of this. It’s really hard to see what to do about this. This Ed Yong story is from September, but I think has value today to think about this. He goes over a number of problems, ranging from our technological fetishism to solve all our problems to our disastrous political leadership.

I’m not real sure what a Biden presidency does to make this better, not at this point. A national lockdown starting January 20 is almost certainly a political nonstarter that would lead to a huge burning of political capital that may well forestall any other change happening. Sure, yes, we can once again have faith in the CDC to provide quality information, that vaccines will not be rushed for political reasons, etc. And this stuff is very important. It will help. But it seems far too late to lock down and start over.