Premature Ejaculation (COVID-19 version)

Some states (and especially their governors) just don’t seem to have any self-control …

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Rebekah Jones is Fired Up

Rebekah Jones is fired up. Especially since she got fired.

Rebekah Jones, a 2012 Syracuse University graduate, designed Florida’s coronavirus dashboard. She said she was fired for refusing to manipulate data to help the state reopen. (Provided photo via Tribune News Service)TNS

Oklahoma: America’s Most Racist Cops?

From USA Today:

A police commander in Oklahoma is “under review” after he said that officers are shooting African Americans “less than we probably ought to be” during a local radio interview.

It’s true that police kill fewer black Americans than white Americans — because there are fewer black people for them to kill.

Taking population into account (i.e., per capita), the rate at which police kill blacks over the last seven years is more than three times the rate at which they kill whites (data):

Black Lives Matter: Important Speech

Worth listening to. Closely.

Step 1: Trump has got to go

For over a decade I’ve blogged about the need to deal with the climate crisis. I certainly don’t know all the answers, I know it will be immensely difficult, largely because so far, we’ve bungled the job terribly.

Trump Makes War on America

Make America Sick Again

The south’s gonna fall again. The deep south. The rural deep south.

I’ve mentioned that when the caseload rate for COVID-19 (the number of new cases per day per million population) gets above 100, I call it the “critical zone.” That’s when the strain on the health system degrades the quality of care — and when suicide rates go up because health care workers sometimes have to choose who lives and who dies. They don’t want to.

New York was hit so hard, so early, they couldn’t prevent a long stay in the danger zone. They paid a heavy price, in lives lost, but with perseverence they’ve got the caseload rate below 100. They’re just now dipping below 50 — even leaving what I call the “danger zone” (50 to 100 per day per million population).

Other states reaped a great benefit from the advance warning we got from New York, managing to stay out of the critical zone entirely. Some even avoided the danger zone, mostly or entirely. But the deep south states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia are losing their grip on restraint, and their caseload rates are on the rise again. Mississippi has even entered the critical zone, with Alabama not far behind:

Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer saves lives

Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, has been steadfast in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. Even though some of her efforts have been thwarted by political opponents, she has triumphed in making social distancing and lockdown actually work.

This is why

Urban COVID

Per capita, many of the places hardest hit by COVID-19 aren’t urban, but rural (blue circles mark areas with at least 50 cases per day per million population, red circles those with at least 100):