Pandemic Posts Ii: From Pandemic to Endemic

By Jeanne Cohen

On July 4,2021, Americans celebrated with a renewal sense that we were crushing the Coronavirus and the president and encouraged us to enjoy the fireworks with friends and family as a way to mark our "independence" from Covid-19. "This year the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging the darkness of a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss," he said. But his optimism, and my own, were misplaced.

Pandemic Post II picks up six weeks after the First Volume wrapped up when it became clear we were not 'crushing' anything except, perhaps, our collective psycho.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663248213

Book preview

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Pandemic

Posts II

from Pandemic to Endemic

Jeanne Cohen

PANDEMICPOSTS II

FROM PANDEMIC TO ENDEMIC

Copyright © 2022 Jeanne Cohen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4822-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4821-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922184

iUniverse rev. date:  12/19/2022

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1     September 2021

Chapter 2     October 2021

Chapter 3     November 2021

Chapter 4     December 2021

Chapter 5     January 2022

Chapter 6     February 2022

Chapter 7     March 2022

Chapter 8     April 2022

Chapter 9     May 2022

Chapter 10   June 2022

Chapter 11   July 2022

Chapter 12   August 2022

Chapter 13   Early September 2022

Appendix

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I want to thank my best pal, Annie, for her support and encouragement during the process of writing this volume of Pandemic Posts II From Pandemic to Endemic.

When I required soothing, she was always there. When I needed levity to offset the sadness I was describing, she was there. She was always a source of light, even in the darkest days of this pandemic.

Annie is a 13-year-old, 13-pound mixed breed dog who is loving, constant, comical, bright, and beautiful. Good girl, A.

I am equally indebted to another terrific female, this time a human, named Mari Tompkins. Mari made the difficult seem easy, always with patience and a smile. Thank you, Mari.

I must also thank my lifelong friend, Fred Kail, for lending his design talents to creating the cover design concept. Fred is a wonderful artist, sculptor, and designer located in Baltimore, Maryland. Many warm thanks, Fred.

Preface

Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in American history, whose work I find both inspired and ethereal, wrote this about her recent poetry collection: I write to preserve the public memory of a pandemic because nothing is as harrowing as the thought that the lessons of this moment might be lost to collective amnesia.

I agree with Ms. Gorman as those were also the thoughts that prompted this second volume of Pandemic Posts From Pandemic to Endemic.

On July 4th of 2021, I ended the first volume of Pandemic Posts Notes from Inside when the country had made sufficient progress against the virus to believe a return to normal life was in process. Deaths and hospitalizations were at an all-time low and we had nearly reached the president’s goal of 70% of eligible Americans receiving at least one shot of vaccine.

We celebrated July 4th 2021 with a renewed sense that we were crushing the virus and the president encouraged us to enjoy the fireworks with friends and family as a way to mark our independence from Covid.

He and the first lady hosted an Independence Day 2021 party with 1,000 essential workers and military families on the South Lawn and when he spoke to them his words showed his optimism.

This year the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging from the darkness of a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss, he said. But his optimism, and my own, were misplaced.

On August 2nd 2021 we DID reach the 70% vaccination milestone for those eligible, yet health officials continued to caution us to adhere to mitigation protocols as they closely monitored the spread of the worrisome Covid Delta variant.

Since July 4th 2021, the Delta variant ripped through the country and Omicron was about to pounce, making us vulnerable anew.

Most Americans succumbing to Covid-19 were unvaccinated.

Yet vaccination rates slowed despite governmental and private sector initiatives and younger people were becoming more at risk of infection.

Earlier in 2021 we were seeing 10,000-15,000 new cases of the virus each day; that number increased tenfold. Hospitalization numbers also rose.

Colleges and universities across the country, as well as elementary, middle, and high schools, all scrambled to protect students as the new school year began. The American College Health Association recommended vaccination requirements for all on-campus students for the fall semester.

Experts again encouraged the vaccinated to get boosted and the unvaccinated to get vaccinated.

And natural occurrences only exacerbated the virus challenges in hardest hit states. In Louisiana and Mississippi, hurricane Ida wreaked havoc, resulting in forced evacuations, loss of life, and profound property damage before setting its sights on parts of the northeast. Both areas are still grappling with the carnage.

California continued to deal with massive wildfires, which lasted until the end of the year.

Our politics, too, were sobering.

We withdrew our troops from Afghanistan, marking the end of the longest war in our history, but that withdrawal was chaotic and resulted in American deaths. And despite our promises to protect the locals who aided our military during the war, most were unable to be evacuated.

Andrew Cuomo stepped down as New York’s governor while Texas passed the most restrictive abortion and voting rights legislation to date. Other states were following the Texas governor’s lead. And California’s governor, Gavin Newsome, faced a recall election. And all of this occurring against the background of the continuing pandemic.

But all was not bleak. Scientists and medical researchers stepped up to offer their scientific and medical expertise, Nobel prizes were announced that enriched life on the planet, and the president signed Covid relief legislation that provided financial and medical support to struggling Americans and vaccines to poor countries. And national politics…well, they just kept rolling along.

I wanted to enable a more accurate understanding of life during a worldwide pandemic by looking at a more complete picture of it. After all, life is not one-dimensional.

With renewed interest I again picked up my pen and started writing.

Jeanne Cohen

Delray Beach, Florida

August 2022

Please note: The data in this book were harvested from Johns Hopkins University Covid Tracking Project, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, local and state government sites, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News and myriad other sources.

Not all tracking sites use the same sources or reporting dates, so case and death numbers can differ somewhat from day to day.

Chapter One

September 2021

For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.

~President Joe Biden

Today is September 7th, the Tuesday after a long Labor Day weekend and Rosh Hashana for Jews.

The New York Times reports today that 648,779 Americans have now been lost to the Coronavirus and we have surpassed 40 million reported cases.

Here in Florida, my now-home state, our case numbers are on the rise and children are among them in numbers greater than before. This does not bode well for the new in-person school year. We have neither a mask nor a vaccination mandate for children or adults in Florida.

Our governor has bullied public school districts, along with teachers and staff, with threats to withhold funding if they disrespected his vaccine and mask dictates. School districts have challenged him, however, citing their responsibility to protect children under their care. I applaud them for their courage.

Georgia and Texas have comparable stories—vaccinations are optional and mask wearing cannot be mandated on campuses. Professors may strongly encourage students to mask-up, but they may not force them to comply. Even students with Covid-like symptoms may not be asked to leave classrooms.

Texas schools have reported more than 50,000 confirmed Coronavirus cases in the days since schools have reopened, and it led the country in the number of child deaths from Covid-19 as of September 3rd.

Hospitals throughout the state of Texas as of this writing have only 81 pediatric intensive care beds available, and less than 200 regular ICU beds in a state with a population of 29 million.

Clearly, it’s impossible to separate the politics from the resurgence.

The Wall Street Journal today cites a recent NBC poll that found 91% of Biden voters are vaccinated compared with only 50% of Trump voters; death statistics reveal comparable results.

Regardless, Texas state leaders have spent their time pushing through controversial legislation to restrict abortion access,¹ voting rights,² and bail reform rather than tackling the Covid surge head-on. In fact, the Houston Public Media Organization reports that Gov. Abbott has ‘been fighting local governments over their efforts to stem the spread of the disease.’ He’s taken a page from my own governor’s playbook.

Dr. David Portugal, a cardiologist from Sugarland, Texas, said Governor Abbott has failed us. These leaders should be held accountable and asked to explain how they can justify taking actions that are killing their fellow Texans.

I am crossing all appendages that Texans do hold them accountable in the mid-term elections.

Today is September 8th: CNN is reporting that President Biden will deliver a major address tomorrow re: our response to the next phase of the pandemic. He will discuss how climbing Covid-19 infection numbers effect schools, private companies, and federal employees.

Here in Florida, in Miami-Dade County, officials and local teachers unions report that public schools have lost 13 school employees to Covid-19 since August 16th: four teachers, one security monitor, one ‘worker,’ and seven school bus drivers, each of whom was unvaccinated. And yet our governor still refuses to issue vaccine or mask mandates.

Today’s New York Times reports that our country’s Covid-19 death toll has now reached 650,998 and that Europe has imposed new travel restrictions for visitors from the U. S.

September 9th: Forbes is reporting today that Marjorie Taylor Greene [R-GA], one of my favorite dunces in our House of Representatives, was fined $2,500 by the House Sergeant-at-Arms on August 2nd for her repeated refusal to mask-up on the House floor as required. Greene has not filed an appeal. Representative Greene was previously fined $500 in May for having violated the mandate a second time, losing her appeal to the Ethics Committee.

The Capitol physician, Dr. Brian Monahan, reimposed the mask mandate in late July, after having lifted it in June. Surely our elected officials should model safety suggestions put forward by our public health experts.

The New York Times Coronavirus Tracker reports 653,216 Americans have now died of Covid.

In today’s talk to the nation, President Biden showed his growing frustration with those who still refuse to comply with public health recommendations for vaccinations and masks.

We can and we will turn the tide on Covid-19, the president said. We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.

He then announced the implementation of sweeping new vaccine mandates for approximately 1.8 million federal employees, health care workers, and private-sector employers, saying to the unvaccinated, Your refusal has cost all of us.

The Labor Department will require all businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested weekly. Lack of compliance will result in fines for each non-compliant employee.

Dr. Anthony Fauci commented that suppressing the virus is the endgame, meaning reducing new daily cases to 10,000 or below.

I have little doubt that governors Ron DeSantis [Florida] and Greg Abbott [Texas], among others, are scrambling to find ways to circumvent the mandates.

September 10th, the day before the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on our country and the day after President Biden spoke to us about his new ‘action plan’ for crushing the continuing Covid pandemic.

Not surprisingly, red state governors are considering battle lines as they hover with their legal experts to challenge the president’s mandates.

Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina has said, "Biden and the radical Democrats [have] thumbed their noses at the Constitution," and the American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley claimed that changes like this should be negotiated with our bargaining units…

Others, however, praised the president’s new action plan, including the American Medical Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable.

Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, described this struggle: This has become so politicized that people can’t see the value of a vaccination that can save their lives. Our own divisions are preventing us from ending a pandemic.

Previously, I mentioned Texas’s new abortion bill, the so-called Texas Heartbeat Act. Like the majority of Americans, I support Roe v. Wade and the protections it provides for a woman’s right to choose, so I was angry to learn about the untenable restrictions this legislation imposes on those protections.

A friend recently shared with me an article sent to her by a friend that lays out all of the reasons why no court should ever vacate Roe and I want to share it here. It’s neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democrat. It’s a description of what real women in real life face more often than we’d care to admit.

"I’m not pro-murdering babies.

I’m pro-Becky, who found out at her 20-week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life sustaining organs.

I’m pro-Susan, who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later.

I’m pro-Theresa, who hemorrhaged due to a placental abruption, causing her parents, spouse, and children to have to make the impossible decision on whether to save her or her unborn child.

I’m pro-little Cathy who had her innocence ripped away from her by someone she should have been able to trust and her 11-year-old body isn’t mature enough to bear the consequence of that betrayal.

I’m pro-Melissa, who’s working two jobs just to make ends meet and has to choose between bringing another child into poverty or feeding the children she already has because her spouse walked out on her.

I’m pro-Brittany, who realizes that she is in no way financially, emotionally, or physically able to raise a child.

I’m pro-Emily, who went through IVF, ending up with SIX viable implanted eggs requiring selective reduction in order to ensure the safety of her and a SAFE amount of fetuses.

I’m pro-Jessica, who is FINALLY getting the strength to get away from her physically abusive spouse only to find out that she is carrying the monster’s child.

I’m pro-Vanessa, who went into her confirmation appointment after YEARS of trying to conceive only to hear silence where there should have been a heartbeat.

I’m pro-Lindsay, who lost her virginity in her sophomore year with a broken condom and now has to choose whether to be a teenage mom or just a teenager.

You can argue and say that I’m pro-choice all you want, but the truth is: I’m pro-life. Their lives. Women’s lives…"

As this writer says, it’s not about which stories you don’t agree with, it’s about fighting for the women in the stories that you do. Shame on Texas.

As of today, America has lost 656,477 souls to the pandemic.

September 11th: the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on our country. I listened as former president George W. Bush spoke in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the site of the demise of Flight 93 on that fateful day. He was gracious, grateful, and appropriate as he described the heroes on board who attacked the extremists on the flight and thwarted the plane’s ability to attack Washington, D.C. Here is part of what he said: "At a time when religious bigotry might have flowed freely, I saw Americans reject prejudice and embrace people of the Muslim faith. That is the nation I know."

He compared those violent extremists to our own domestic extremists of today, describing them as children of the same foul spirit.

Former president Bush has not been bashful about characterizing the violent mob of Trump minions who stormed our Capitol on January 6th as insurrectionists, saying at the time, This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic.

In addition to former President Bush, President Biden also spoke eloquently, as did former President Barack Obama.

President Trump, on the other hand, chose to be the Guest Host of a novelty pay-per-view boxing match today, which New York Magazine described as a "vision from an alternate reality."

The magazine also reported that on September 11th 2001, Donald Trump honored the then unknown number of dead in lower Manhattan by pointing out that the collapse of the World Trade Center meant that he now owned the tallest building downtown.

Because I now live in South Florida in the seaside town of Delray Beach, I have tried to learn about my new hometown and much of what I’ve learned has surprised me.

I discovered that before the September 11th attacks, Delray Beach and other nearby towns unknowingly provided home bases to the terrorists as they readied themselves for their strikes.

Twelve of the 19 hijackers spent much of the three months leading up to the attacks here in Palm Beach County, fitting in and drawing little attention to themselves.

They shopped at Winn-Dixie and Target, banked locally, purchased pharmaceuticals at Huber Drugs in Delray Beach, and visited Lion Country Safari, all while preparing to unleash the deadly attacks on our homeland.

Mohammed Atta, 33, and Marwan al-Shehhi, 23, piloted the planes that hit the World Trade Center’s North and South towers. Atta, an urban planner, and his younger colleague, al-Shehhi, a university student known to have spent hundreds of dollars on sex toys and porn in Broward County, entered the U. S. in the early summer of 2000. They lived in two communities in Delray Beach—the Hamlet Country Club, and the other near the Delray Racquet Club.

They used the internet at our local library, and the services of a local Mailboxes, Etc. They spent time at businesses headquartered at an airport located in Lantana, another small town 10 minutes north of Delray.

Three other hijackers lived in Boynton Beach, a town that abuts Delray Beach to the north, where they banked, grocery shopped, and visited the mall.

Still others lived briefly in Lake Worth and Greenacres, Florida, where they hid in plain sight. In Greenacres, the terrorists bought gym memberships to keep in shape. These were subsequently referred to as the ‘muscle hijackers’ as they were the ones charged with taking control of the planes.

Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lantana, Lake Worth Beach are all holding remembrance ceremonies today, along with other communities within the county, to honor the 2,977 lives lost 20 years ago [2,753 lives lost in New York, 184 people perished at the Pentagon, and 40 people died on Flight 93].

I also learned that in the days following the attacks in 2001, fear, uncertainty, and anger hung over Delray Beach. Citizens wondered if other terrorists were residing here and if Delray could be a subsequent target.

Our police department responded to the fears by enlisting the help of local veterans to extend their reach into the community, and in March of 2002 the Homefront Security volunteer force was born.

Members of the force donned signature berets, worked in pairs, and scoured potential targets, including government buildings, our water plant, our tennis center, and other potential sites to spot anything out of place.

Any questionable findings by the force were reported to the police.

While many of those volunteers have died in the intervening years, others have stepped up to take their place. The community still values their work, and the force will return to action when Covid-19 allows.

Today’s New York Times’ Coronavirus Tracking Project reports the current American Covid-19 death toll to be 658,865.

Despite the continuing surge, an appeals court has allowed Florida to continue its ban on school mask mandates, at least for now.

The ruling by the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee means our Department of Education can continue to punish local school officials who impose mask mandates without opt-out provisions.

September 13th is cloudy and rainy here in South Florida, an appropriate backdrop to report that American deaths from Covid-19 have now reached 659,806.

Hospitals in Washington state continue being pushed to a near breaking point, yet they are now accepting patients from Idaho, where that state’s hospitals are being pushed beyond theirs.

Hospitals in Idaho have moved to ‘crisis standards of care,’ meaning they are rationing care; its vaccination rate is only 40%, one of the lowest in the country.

By accepting patients from Idaho, Washington state is now close to reaching its own breaking point and it, too, is considering adopting crisis standards of care. This proves how unvaccinated people endanger innocent others.

Meanwhile, in South Dakota, new Covid-19 cases soared tenfold in August, exacerbated, no doubt, by the state’s annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The rally drew 550,000+ attendees from across the country.

And schools in New York City fully reopened for in-person learning today, the first time since March 2020. One million students returned.

While 63% of eligible Americans are vaccinated against Covid, 37% of us are not. And reactions to President Biden’s new vaccine mandates for federal workers and contractors, companies with more than 100 employees, and health care workers, keep rolling in.

A hospital in New York ceased delivering babies after maternity unit staff resigned rather than comply with the state’s vaccine mandate. No doubt, others will follow. I wholeheartedly support the mandates and don’t understand why professional nurses and other health care workers, themselves scientifically educated, do not support them as well.

The House of Representatives is slated to release its proposed $3.5 trillion budget package today. Funding for the package will come from increased taxes on the country’s wealthiest, those making in excess of $400,000 per year, and from corporations with incomes in excess of $5 million.

Today is also the day before the recall election in California for Gov. Newsom, elected in 2018. All voters received mail-in ballots and millions of them have already spoken. Thus far, voting is supporting no-recall.

Also in California, the Dixie fire continues to ravage the state, burning 960,335 acres thus far.

And last but far from least, tropical storm Nicholas is heading for coastal residents still reeling from Hurricane Ida.

September 14th: Today’s New York Times’ Coronavirus Tracker reports a total of 661,579 Americans have now died from Covid.

The Times also reports that Vladimir Putin is isolating after exposure to Covid-19 from his inner circle; allegedly, he had been vaccinated with the two-dose regimen of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

Meanwhile, Greece has introduced new restrictions on its unvaccinated citizens, and Cuba has begun vaccinating children as young as two.

Closer to home, a judge in Iowa blocked the state from enforcing its ban on school mask mandates.

And here in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said yesterday that cities and counties in the state that mandate vaccinations for public employees against Covid-19 will face fines of $5,000 for each employee fired over the requirement. He also reinstated a state law enacted this year that prohibits both government and private sector businesses from requiring proof of vaccination from their customers.

In related news, CNN announced today that the American Academy of Pediatrics reports a 240% rise in Covid-19 cases among American children since July. Youngsters now account for 29% of all cases nationwide.

These numbers are sobering and likely to climb as kids return to classrooms across the country. Vaccine mandates may be the only way to keep in- person classes viable.

Hurricane Nicholas made landfall along the Texas coast this morning, hammering everything in its path and raising fears of storm surges of 18 inches or more.

And the recall election in California gets underway today; Newsome is likely to survive it but Republicans there are already calling fraud.

And Broadway in NYC is hopefully back. Tonight’s the night the biggest shows reopen and Broadway is determined to rebound. Let us all hope for a successful evening.

Broadway is a major employer as well as a barometer of the city’s well- being, emotionally and economically. May the curtains rise to applause and descend to bravos.

It’s September 15th and I awoke after a night of steam and rain to a pretty morning. The air smells fresh and the flowers are blooming.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsome, survived his state’s recall election. My sister lives in California and I’m sure she’s feeling relieved knowing that Newsome’s leading opponent, Larry Elder, who promised to wipe out the mandates for vaccines and masking, won’t get the chance.

As of today, the number of Americans lost to the pandemic has reached 664,231, according to The New York Times’ Covid Tracking Project. To add perspective, our population was 331.4 million as of April of this year.

Also of interest, Bob Woodward has teamed up with Robert Costa of The Washington Post and they have written what is likely to be a blockbuster book titled Peril.

Their book describes secret actions taken by officials to limit Trump’s ability to order dangerous military actions, including launching nuclear weapons, after the January 6th insurrection. I cannot wait to get a copy.

And finally, print and electronic media all agree: Broadway Is, Indeed, Back!

Today, September 16th is the holiest day of the year for Jews, Yom Kippur. On this sacred day, Jewish believers set aside daily diversions to reflect and atone. It’s a tradition that I find appealing, especially in these challenging times.

Yesterday, gymnasts abused by Larry Nassar, the team physician of the United States’ Women’s National Gymnastics team for 18 years, testified before the Senate. Speaking on behalf of themselves and the other young girls he sexually abused, the women outlined how the FBI mishandled their cases, causing them to feel assaulted once again.

These are courageous young women and I applaud their tenacity and strength.

The New York Times’ Tracking Project reports Covid deaths in the U.S. have now reached 666,816.

Internationally, China claims to have fully vaccinated one billion people while North and Central America are driving a surge in Covid infections. The pope is urging everyone to get a Covid vaccine and I hope his followers listen and act.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post regarding the upcoming launch of Peril, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s new book about the Trump administration, CNN’s Editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza, has ferreted out specifics in the book that provide a chilling behind-the-scenes peek at Trump’s last weeks in office. A sampling follows.

Cillizza writes: Here’s a fact you may have missed amid all of the coverage of the allegations and revelations in the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa: The top general in the country believed that President Donald Trump was in significant enough mental decline that he took countermeasures to ensure he didn’t start a war with China on his way out the door.

Yes, that actually happened, according to Peril. Here’s the relevant passage: Woodward and Costa write that Joint Chief Chairman Mark Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, [referring to the January 6th insurrection], ‘was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.’’’

Milley worried that Trump could go rogue, the authors write.

You never know what a president’s trigger point is, Milley told his senior staff.

Think about that for a minute. Milley, the top military adviser to the president, a man who undoubtedly spent considerable time with Trump during this time, believed that he was in ‘serious mental decline’ triggered by his election loss.

"And here’s the thing: Milley wasn’t the only person who noticed a change in Trump’s behavior in the wake of the election. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a loyal ally of the President, felt the same way. Again, the Woodward/Costa book sheds light:

"The book details a private call McCarthy had with Trump the night before Biden’s inauguration. According to Woodward and Costa, McCarthy told Trump, ‘I don’t know what’s happened to you in the last two months…You’re not the same as you were for the last four years.’

‘McCarthy then repeatedly pleaded with Trump to call Biden.’ ‘You’ve done good things and you want that to be your legacy. Call Joe Biden,’ McCarthy said, according to the authors.

"‘Do it for me,’ the GOP leader continued. ‘You’ve got to call him. Call Joe Biden.’"

So, writes Cillizza, not only the top general in the country but also one of the two top Republicans in Congress—and a Trump ALLY—believed that the election had changed something in Trump. And, at least in the case of Milley, believed that Trump’s mental health had declined to the point where he needed to intercede with China so that a war didn’t get started by an unhinged Trump. That is, in retrospect, terrifying, he writes.

These are sobering insights, especially knowing Trump’s contemplating a 2024 run.

September 17th brings the total American death toll from Covid-19 to 670,231. And today the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee meets to review current data and hopefully clear up the confusion around booster shots for Pfizer recipients.

Internationally, Hong Kong will not reopen until 80% of its population is vaccinated.

Italy has introduced sweeping Covid pass mandates, the first EU country to do so. And Sydney and Auckland, Australia are the least open destinations according to Bloomberg News.

Here in America, President Biden’s mandate that American employers with 100 workers or more are vaccinated or tested weekly, is raising concern among health experts that demand for tests will double. If so, they believe our existing testing capabilities will be inadequate.

Jennifer Nuzzo, lead epidemiologist for Johns Hopkins University’s Covid- 19 Testing Insights Initiative says, There’s simply not enough tests available to do the testing that’s being called for.

In response, President Biden announced last week that his administration will earmark $2 billion for about 280 million rapid tests, and he will activate the Defense Production Act to aid in their production.

In other news, a recent CNN poll found that 78% of Republicans still believe the election was stolen from Trump and more than half of Trump’s supporters now describe the events of January 6th as patriotic and defending freedom. Which tv channel were they watching?

So here we are, erecting seven foot high fencing around our Capitol buildings in preparation for a weekend rally in support of those who participated in the January 6th insurrection.

September 18th, the day of the planned rally in Washington, D.C. in support of the insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol, inflicted great pain and damage, caused