Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 09, 2022

AM to FM to wherever we are now — Cheers

According to worldometers.info, as of Oct. 9 there had been 98,549,246 cases of coronavirus in the US, leading to 1,087,873 deaths; 95,646,286 were considered to have recovered.

Worldwide, the corresponding figures are 626,457,143, 6,560,573, and 606,047,762.

Thus the United States, with 4.25% of the world’s population, has accounted for 15.7% of the cases and 16.6% of the deaths. Note that these ratios are probably somewhat high, since figures from the rest of the world are probably under-reported.

Counting from the 2020-01-07 Presidential Daily Brief wherein the then-president read “Analysts concluded [coronavirus] could be a cataclysmic event.”, we’ve since gone 143 weeks up to 2022-10-09, for an average of 7,608 fatalities per week.

 For comparison …

1941-12-07 • Pearl Harbor attack: 2,403

2001-09-11 • terrorist attacks: 2,977 (5 weeks after PDB warned Bush about it)

Korean War (33,686) + Vietnam War (58,220) + Afghan War (6,301): 98,207

WW1: 116,516 (83 weeks for US; 1403/week)

WW2: 418,500 (195 weeks for US; 2146/week)

Civil War: ~620,000 (213 weeks; 2911/week)

Spanish flu: ~675,000 (~117 weeks; 5769/week)

Yep, we can try our ‘best’ but nature is way better at killing us than we are.

The twindemic aproacheth. Got Vax?

Got my fifth shot Saturday. I’ve had so many shots in 81 years, I’m a pincushion.

just logging in to give a smile of support

I’ve never heard of anyone celebrating their upcoming extinction.

Hopefully there will be such parties for Trump, Putin, etc.

Sars-Covid has joined the list of other respiratory viruses (colds, flu) which will constantly mutate to new forms and will always be with us.

Looks like Covid borrowed Uncle Duke’s sunglasses.

Enjoy it all while you can. What we have right now my be just the eye of the storm:

Salon: Rising cases of variants BQ.1 and XBB could make COVID drugs all but useless, study finds https://www.salon.com/2022/10/04/bq1-xbb-variants-resistant/

Covid19 is still around. My 24 year old daughter and her roommate had it a few weeks back. Both have asthma so got Paxlovid, which helped. It still kicked their butts. They have a pesky cough.

Still waiting for one of those bugaboos to be named “B-R-549”.

Just got my 5th booster yesterday. Except for this squishy spot in the middle of my forehead, no side effects.

Did you notice that this comic doesn’t actually include the words “COVID” or “COVID-19”?

Technically, in panel #4 of today’s “Covid” themed strip…it should have read “HEAR, HERE.” Not “Hear, Hear.”

I wish COVID – variants and all – was extinct for good!

I love it – I have all my boosters! I also have a bad cold, or flu at the moment, so I’m host to one of the minor variants or related viruses.

In 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition from Obama to Trump intact. Its mission was the same as when the Obama administration established it after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. They set up clinics in hot spots all over the world, whose job was to monitor the local situation and immediately send for adequate help to contain any threat. One of those clinics was in the Chinese province where Covid originated. One year later, the Trump White House dissolved the office, as part of the budget cuts needed when he cut taxes. The job of a White House pandemics office would have been to get ahead: to accelerate the response, empower experts, anticipate failures, and act quickly and transparently to solve problems. It’s impossible to assess the full impact of the 2018 decision to disband the White House office responsible for this work, but it is clear that eliminating the office contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response. What’s especially concerning about the absence of this office today is that it was originally set up because a previous epidemic made the need for it quite clear. When asked about the slow roll-out of coronavirus tests in the U.S. on March 13, President Trump responded, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” Trump is not just responsible for it. He owns it. The Trump Plague is not just his responsibility. It and all the problems it caused are his fault.

Well, I’m looking forward to another bout of idiots whining “this disease can’t be killing me; it’s not real!”.

Not over yet. Mutation still happening.

Of course, COVID is nowhere near extinct. Mutated versions are now building yet another wave in Europe with higher resistance to the original vaccines and treatments. “It ain’t over till it’s over.” (Not when we would like it to be over.)

Thousands of people are still dying of COVID every week in the U.S.

Thanks to ‘45’ s ignorance and the stupidity of the ‘conservatives’.

Way off topic, and not saying it to be mean, but I’ve been trying for a while to think of who “Wicked-Witch-of-the-Wild-West” Boebert reminds me of (in appearance, not behavior); it just hit me the other day, while watching old SCTV stuff: Edna Boyle, of Tex And Edna’s Organ Emporium.