We had a spike in COVID cases over the Thanksgiving holiday. No shock due to the millions who traveled to see their families, which is not an act of evil, a narrative the liberal media peddled for days. People were going to travel, folks. We’re pandemic-fatigued. And it’s Thanksgiving. This was bound to happen. So, now that the holiday season is drawing to a close—are we still in the midst of a COVID spike? If you watch CNN and MSNBC, well, you’d think half the population contracted it over Christmas. Not the case, in fact, COVID cases nationally would be declining if it weren’t for one state: California.
Both New York and California have become the Mecca and Medina for this virus. New York, by far, has a higher death rate and the number of infections than the red state outbreaks that the media tries to pass off as similar in size and scope. It’s not. For starters, in most red states, their COVID outbreaks are part of a first wave that never touched them back in the spring. At the same time, that doesn’t mean as a governor you don’t force facilities housing those who are most susceptible to die from COVID to accept such patients, which led to the deaths of thousands of people. Almost half of all COVID deaths in the US come from nursing homes.
And this isn’t conservative media or Fox News making this point about California. It’s the Mercury News:
As other regions of the country finally see some relief from the insidious coronavirus, California’s surge has grown so large it now claims a dark distinction in the nation’s outbreak: Without the Golden State, U.S. numbers would be dropping.
That’s according to The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic, which analyzes data from across the country.
It took more than nine months for California to record 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.
— Harriet Blair Rowan (@HattieRowan) December 24, 2020
It has taken less than six weeks to see 1 million more.https://t.co/473cZLNE2r pic.twitter.com/xnTCfQwxDx
Politico has more on the spike:
America's most populous state has become one of the nation's worst epicenters for the disease, setting new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths almost every day. Things are so bad in Southern California that some patients are being treated in hospital tents, while doctors have begun discussing whether they need to ration care.
The turnabout has confounded leaders and health experts. They can point to any number of reasons that contributed to California's surge over the past several weeks. But it is hard to pinpoint one single factor — and equally hard to find a silver bullet.
[…]
“If we have a surge on top of a surge," she added, "we will definitely break."
At more than 100 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, California’s case rate is second only to that in Tennessee, according to the nonprofit tracking site Covid Act Now — though it's a state that does not mandate mask wearing and allows indoor gatherings of up to 10 people. The website Covid Exit Strategy shows a 97 percent rise in Covid throughout California, which has gone in the opposite direction from its West Coast counterparts, Oregon and Washington.
In Los Angeles, officials have said all along that people were gathering too often. They blamed celebrations and postseason viewing parties when the Dodgers and Lakers won championships this fall.
Some have blamed the strict rules themselves, saying that cooped-up Californians couldn't take it any longer and decided they need to live their lives. Others have said congregant settings remain a severe concern in a housing-constrained state, especially in low-income communities where residents live in tight quarters and must continue to work in-person to survive.
Again, it’s an airborne virus. It will spread. But we’re missing positives here. Besides California, cases are dropping. It’s still a virus where the vast majority, 90+ percent, will recover—and that’s across all age groups.
I contracted COVID in late November. It was no picnic, but I got better. Some people only have a runny nose. Some go to the hospital, unfortunately.
Myles Garrett, defensive end for the Cleveland Browns and the number one overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, had a horrible bout with the virus. Chris Collingsworth noted that he was working with a respiratory therapist to get his lung capacity back to pre-COVID levels for good reason; the Browns season isn’t done. They have a shot to make the postseason.
And then, there’s Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, who rushed for 94 yards against the Dallas Cowboys in his first game back on December 8. He accounted for nearly one-third of the rushing yards the Ravens had against the Cowboys. They ran all over them. Jackson did say in the post-game interview that he still couldn’t taste or smell. It impacts everyone differently, but the good news is most will recover.
Also, and I don’t mean to marginalize the tragedy that has befallen the families of the 300,000+ Americans who have died from COVID, but a huge chunk of the fatalities would have died from something else in the very near future. Now, a new study suggests that’s not the case. I’ll let you all debate that, but the prolonged lockdown measures and their impacts have killed more people than COVID. The liberal media hysteria has been more damaging than the virus as well.
Go down the line. Every bit of advice, or warming, has been wrong. The mask advice was botched from the start. Contracting it through surfaces has vanished from the news cycle. Schools will become mini mortuaries as reopening schools is akin to the Death March to Bataan. All wrong.
Bars and restaurants account for only 1.4 percent of COVID spread in New York. We have two vaccines now. They’ve been approved and are being distributed. Light is at the end of the tunnel and we can thank President Donald Trump for that.