In the second week of December, there were 3,124 Covid-19 deaths in one day. A new record. More Americans died that Wednesday than on the first day of the Normandy invasion during World War II, or in New York on September 11, 2001.
We reached a horrific apex of the pandemic. Thanksgiving infections had begun to manifest, and we were approaching the Christmas break, where many more Americans would ignore CDC protocols. First responders were at their breaking point. The ICU system was on the verge of collapse.
The Pfizer vaccine was submitted to the FDA for emergency approval. Upon the agency’s presumed consent, it would go for vetting at the CDC. California’s first shipment included 327,000 doses and reached hospitals that week. The vaccine required two shots spaced 21 days apart to reach the 95% efficacy they showed in clinical trials. By year’s end, the state of California expected to give the first dose of the vaccine to at least 2.16 million people who were in the top tier of ranking – healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities.
Widespread access was still not expected until spring. It was going to be a deadly winter regardless. Folks were about to become even more lackadaisical once they started presuming a vaccine was imminent. It was a false security, something we Americans embrace wholeheartedly. Most folks didn’t bother versing themselves in the science. All they saw was a light at the end of the tunnel, and what ended up happening was anything but surprising…they attempted to return to their former lives sooner than later, whether they’d had the vaccine or not.
Patience was not a strong trait in Americans, as locally evidenced by the outrage from Governor Newsom’s newest shutdown, particularly from restaurant owners suffering from restrictions on outdoor dining options. Local officials largely allowed outdoor dining to continue all year long, it should be noted. The initial bans back in April and May weren’t readily followed by very many restaurateurs. They continued to cry foul, claiming there wasn’t enough evidence to support the idea outdoor dining was a significant risk for transmission (yet there was indeed ample evidence). They didn’t want to acknowledge the obvious, that eating around others was one of the highest risk activities one could engage in when there was a raging, aerosol-based virus floating around.
According to estimates from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the ratio of contagious people through the L.A. basin infected with Covid at that time was 1 in every 145 residents, as opposed to two months prior when it was 1 in every 880. Despite that sobering change in status, tourist destination cities like Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach made subversive moves to end-run the ban, with a number of their restaurants declaring their outside tables as ‘public spaces,’ in order for takeout patrons to sit there and still remain law-abiding citizens.
Meanwhile, That Guy continued to sulk and completely ignore the raging apocalypse outside, focusing all of his energies on continued lawsuits challenging the election results. Those lame duck efforts weren’t going to succeed, but the fact so many Republicans were willing to back him was, and remains, saddening. Most Republican-run states and conservative members of Congress continued to support the idea of election fraud. They were afraid of losing support from their constituents.
A new lawsuit from Texas was filed with the Supreme Court, who already threw out an appeal to overturn Pennsylvania’s election results, claiming the election in four swing states was fraudulent because of what they called ‘unconstitutional irregularities.’ The attorney generals of 17 red states backed the lawsuit, and more than half of the Republican House of Representatives did as well. It was concerning not because it had any real chance of success, but because so many of those folks were operating in an atmosphere of fear, tiptoeing around their base.
The problem was, though they knew the election results were valid, their refusal to validate them and their need to appear in solidarity with the incumbent fueled the ongoing growth of disinformation, as well as a proliferation of threats of violence against election officials, especially in swing states. Those states fought back, deeming such lawsuits seditious. If not outright treasonous, the litigation was certainly baseless, not one of them having provided even a shred of evidence of fraud.
For what reason the proponents of the Texas lawsuit thought they could intrude into other states’ business was unknown, since nothing in the Constitution supported a view that one state can dictate to any fellow states how to conduct their elections simply because that state doesn’t like the vote outcome from those other states.
That Guy tweeted out yet another soft-shelled attempt at coup: “Now that the Biden administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what everybody knows has to be done. They must show great courage and wisdom. Save the USA!!!”
Translation: I appointed half of you, so it’s time to scratch my back.
Tallying up that regime’s scandals is going to provide decades of historian chum, what with the porn star payoffs, the rampant cronyism, the isolation and torture of ICE children, the slapdash attempts at autocracy, the constant embracing of conspiracy theories, the endless attacks on our rules of law, an impeachment for obstruction of justice, countless criminal trials, a half-assed, white trash style insurrection, and the inept bungling of a response to the worst event to transpire within U.S. borders since the Civil War.
And yet, a ray of light broke through the clouds. The Supreme Court said no dice, summarily rejecting that Texas bid. Evidently even his SCOTUS appointees wanted no part of facilitating the charade. Nonetheless, That Guy’s level of narcissism wasn’t about to be satisfied after losing a contest he had convinced himself he was going to win, a victory that would’ve captured the country’s brightest spotlight for four more years, no matter what he did or didn’t do.
Like clockwork, That Guy tried to take credit for the pending vaccine arrival: “The Swine Flu (H1N1) and the attempt for a vaccine by the Obama administration, with Joe Biden in charge, was a complete and total disaster. Now they want to come in and take over one of the ‘greatest and fastest medical miracles in modern day history. I don’t think so!”
It was so weird.
That Guy really did need to reconsider his obsession with Obama. It ran all the way back to That Guy’s early first term, and that correspondent dinner, and all that birther conspiracy racist bullshit. It became embarrassingly obvious since That Guy felt he wouldn’t have a chance in an actual dick measuring contest, he made it a singular goal to dismantle or discredit Obama’s administration’s impact at any and all costs.
Therapy, bruh.
Never too late.
Best of all in that mid-December tweet tantrum? This doozy: “I just want to stop the world from killing itself!” Such altruism! Such care and concern. A Twitter user brought out a belly laugh in me that morning with his response to That Guy’s attempt at pariah-hood: “Oh shit, he’s at the ‘listening to The Smiths records’ stage of the breakup.” I doubt That Guy knew who Morrissey was, or what the Goth movement entailed, but I’d have paid good money to see him in black eyeliner smoking a clove cigarette.
That Guy taking in any way, shape, or form a self-appointed hero role to humanity was insufferable. He managed to oversee the Covid deaths of 300,000 Americans, he fast-tracked a number of death row executions before his pending departure, he consistently scoffed at clean energy sources and climate change, he green-lit reversals on protected land restrictions for industrial interests, he seriously inquired to his advisors about the viability of nuking a hurricane to abate it, he alienated our allies and snuggled up to dictators, and he left Puerto Rico to drown and California to burn.
He was no Mother Theresa.
His part in rescuing humanity from itself would’ve been a gracious exit.
That would’ve done nicely.
Alas, ‘twas not to be.
Alternatively, on the helpful side of the spectrum, Anthony Fauci reassured a nervous Black community about the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. That week he spoke at a National Urban League event and discussed the history of Black American distrust of medical research, pointing out that a Black American woman, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett of the National Institute of Health, was one of the team leaders in developing the Moderna vaccine. A joint study conducted by the COVID Collaborative, Langer Research, and the NAACP showed only 14% of Black folks trusted a new vaccine would be safe for them to take, and only 18% believed it would be effective either way. Among Latinos, only 34% trusted its safety and only 40% trusted its effectiveness.
And what might be the reasons why Black and Brown folks tended to distrust upper class initiatives in health care?
By now, assuming you’ve read this diary from the get-go, you well know the answer.
How soon is now, indeed.
That one’s for you ex-Wavers.
*Compiled from December 11, 2020