FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE:
Today's US coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers in the US
From the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
Confirmed US cases: 80,705,007
Confirmed US deaths: 901,172
COVID update: It's remarkable that even though COVID-19 cases have increased by anywhere from 25 to 145 percent in 30 or so US states in just the past two weeks, hospitalizations and deaths continue to drop overall.
It's a testament to the power of the vaccines, the effectiveness of treatments like Paxlovid, and the fact that tens of millions of Americans have been infected and therefore have some measure of protection (although not as much as a vaccine provides). All have served to blunt the virulence of the disease.
Look, COVID-19 is still killing more than 400 Americans every day. And that number could rise if the uptick in cases turns into more of surge or a new variant crops up. Don't forget that of all the American children (ages 5 and older) and adults who are eligible to get the shots, only 70 percent are fully vaccinated.
And clearly, with the dramatic rise in home tests, the number of actual COVID cases is obviously far, far higher than is reflected in official numbers. Nonetheless, the dramatic decline in people ending up in ICUs or dying is good news.
Travel mask mandate: What to make of the federal court decision voiding the Biden Administration's mask mandate for public transit? I have no idea whether it was legally sound, and the Justice Department may not bother to appeal it.
But the federal judge in Florida who made the ruling is certainly worth scrutiny, if only because Trump picked her. US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who was 33 at the time of her nomination, was deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association because she had not been practicing law for long enough.
The ABA recommends that nominees for federal judgeships have at least 12 years of experience practicing law. Seems reasonable. Mizelle? She had never tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel. She did four federal clerkships, including for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She worked at a law firm for 10 months, and spent about three years in government practice. That's it.
The bottom line for the ABA was that she simply did "not meet the requisite minimum standard of experience necessary to perform the responsibilities required by the high office of a federal trial judge."
Elections matter, folks.
MTG in trouble? It will be interesting to see how far this court case that's trying to disqualify US Representative Majorie Taylor Greene from running for re-election goes.
A group of Georgia voters are arguing that Greene helped facilitate the Jan. 6 violent insurrection that tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, action that they claim violates a section of the 14th Amendment that says that no one can serve in Congress "who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same." (It was designed to stop lawmakers who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War from running for re-election.)
The group has already won once: a federal court judge ruled yesterday that the case can proceed. Greene has frequently used language encouraging violence on the Capitol, and called the Jan. 6 insurrection "our 1776 moment." Whether other courts find that Greene actually engaged in insurrection is an open question.
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