It's the Stupid Economy

"The count that worries me? Over 100,000 COVID-19 cases yesterday. Deaths up 21 percent."

"There has been silence on this from the White House and the Dems. This is a tsunami ..."

"Pay attention."

Gregg Gonsalves, epidemiologist, assistant professor of public health, Yale

 

"Hospitals are full. don't look at 'beds' available on websites. Hospitals are already running at capacity."

"Health care workers are burning out. If all we needed were beds, we could just put people into hotels."

"[There should be a legislated] mask mandate [across the country to prevent further deaths]."

"People are dying, hospitals are collapsing ... We can survive with good leadership."

Eli Perencevich, epidemiologist M.D. University of Iowa

 

"I got news for you, pal. COVID-19 is over. It's done. We have therapeutics, so deaths are way down; we are very close to a vaccine. We've got to ride it out now."

"But if we don't have a strong economy there is no way we can do anything. Trump is correct. Without a good economy, there is no way to dig our way out of this."

Nick Arnone, owner, HLSM software, Plains, Pennsylvania

Cases and hospital admissions have been steadily rising   EPA

A poll taken just prior to November 3 resulted in a surprising result, given that the election pundits were confident that the number one issue in this U.S. general election that would decide whether President Donald Trump would be given a second four-year term, was COVID-19 uppermost in most people's minds as the foremost concern in popular opinion. What was discovered was that roughly 35 percent of voters responded that the economy was their most important issue.

 

Correspondingly, about 17 percent cited the pandemic, while roughly two in ten polled said they were most motivated by racial inequality. Slightly over fifty percent of voters stated containing the virus is more important despite that it does harm to the economy, and at the same time slightly over four in ten felt that the most critical issue would be to rebuild the economy -- even if that process impairs ongoing work to control the virus. A country in wild and wide disagreement on every issue front and centre to the nation's cohesion.

 

Cohesion? There is no 'united' on the issues, parked sloppily on opposite sides of the political divide. The new view is that of the Disunited States of America. On entitlements, on race issues, on equality, on how to best  handle a raging infection rate that is reaping huge benefits for the Angel of Death. A record number of new COVID cases was reported on Wednesday, tipping over 100,000 for the very first time, and all indications prevail that it will not be the last time.

Over 9.4 million Americans infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus to date, a staggering 233,000 of whom have died of COVID effects. Totals that distinguish the United States as having the worst tolls globally, in absolute terms. In one day alone 102,831 new infections were logged accompanied by 1,097 deaths in a 24-hour period Wednesday, numbers provided by the Johns Hopkins University case trackers.

More cases have been recorded in the past seven days than in any other week in twenty-three states. Another five states; Colorado Indiana, Maine, Minnesota and Nebraska; all set new single-day case records and while the number of daily deaths remains considerably less than in April, their incidence has increased by 21 percent in the last two-week period.

In some states, health officials have sounded the claxon warning their ability to handle an influx of new hospital admissions as winter flu season approaches will be impeded with dual demands staggering he health care system. For many people, however, a larger concern than COVID troubles their lives, the daunting prospect of an inability to pay their bills or send their children to school. Normalcy has been turned on its head o spin helplessly.

And then came Friday, with the revelation that Wednesday's troubling statistics have been outdated and outdistanced as the United States set yet another record of 122,000 daily coronavirus infections surpassing the previous record, and Covid-19 hospitalizations continue to climb, even as health experts issue dire predictions. 

 

Friday's 122,626 new coronavirus cases -- the highest single day reporting since the pandemic began also marked the third straight day the country has surpassed 100,000 daily coronavirus cases, with an additional 1,110 deaths.

 

Members of the Wisconsin National Guard operate a mobile COVID-19 test centre on the grounds of Miller Park on Oct. 29, 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisc. (Scott Olson / Getty Images / CNN)