I. Children's Virus Immunity
President Trump has been spreading the word that children have a "virtual"
immunity to Covid-19. At one point, he even put in a qualifier that indicated that he wanted to go beyond "virtually," but he couldn't get to a position of absolute immunity. More than 97,000 kids in the U.S. were infected in the last two weeks in July. At least 338,000 children have been infected since the pandemic began.These figures are from the America Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.
A South Korean study found that pre-teens and teens starting at age 10, have about the same capacity to spread the virus as do adults. We also know that those under the age of 10 are increasingly becoming infected, in line with the downward trend in the ages of those becoming infected.
II. Trump's Faltering School Reopenings
Trump has been conducting a long-running effort to get all public schools to open, regardless of the level of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the areas surrounding the schools. It hasn't been any secret that Trump wants as many children in K-12 schools as possible, as it will free-up their parents to go to jobs. Trump is desperate to get the unemployment rate to go down by any means necessary. Health care experts are warning that in areas with high virus infection rates, it might be advisable to start with online learning, and then switch to in-school teaching when the infection rate drops below a certain level.
The picture of students jamming a Georgia hallway, with sharp-eyed observers being able to detect only four students wearing masks has been widely publicized. Subsequently, six students and three staff members tested positive. Within the past two weeks, there were 2,000 students, teachers, and non-teaching staff under quarantine due to infected children or adults. More recently, more schools have closed or locked-down due to virus infections.
The scene has shifted to colleges and universities, with some students who violated community spread or mask-wearing rules being sent home. Notre Dame and North Carolina State, I believe, are switching to on-line education.
III. In-Mail Voting Ire
If here is anything hat has fed the ire of President Trump more fiercely than school openings, it is his crusades against in-mail voting. He has created a vision of millions of in-mail ballots coming in from all over the world, or found in heaps on he ground. Trump,himself, votes by mail, and he likes Florida's mail ballot system, because it has a Republican governor.
The most comprehensive study of fraudulent voting, whether it be by mil-in voting or in a voting booth, has been done by the Brennan Center, which found that the rate of voter fraud was .0000 before a digit over 0 appears. A former New Mexico Republican Secretary of State shared Trump's views on voter fraud. Somehow she managed to get the New Mexico State Police to do a voter fraud study. When the results came in showing two "possible" cases of fraud, the secretary said: "Even one case of fraud is not acceptable."
The emerging scandal engulfing Trump is the sabotage of the Unites States Postal Service by his hand-picked postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a long-time donor for Trump. DeJoy has eliminated overtime, fired some 23 supervisors or managers, and tore out some of the mail-sorting machines around the country -- an Iowa postal manager blew the whistle when DeJoy took out one of the mail-sorting machines in Iowa. Some of these mail-sorting machines have been reported as being destroyed. Why destroy these highly efficient machines if your stated objective is to cut costs?
The extent to which DeJoy is willing to go to screw up the postal service is illustrated by the action of removing t blue mail collection boxes nationwide. A picture showing an open-back truck crammed with blue collection boxes exposed the diabolical plot in Oregon. Montana became a focal point when a long list of the locations of these collection boxes on television. The major candidates for high office wrote letters of protest to DeJoy. Removing revenue-producing boxes doesn't make any sense.
Louis DeJoy and the board of governors chair are scheduled to testify before a U.S. House committee. Speaker Pelosi has said that DeJoy has told her by phone that he doesn't intend to end what he describes as cost-cutting actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment