A large number of Republicans, of course, believe that the virus is no big deal and don’t even attempt to practice the non-pharmaceutical interventions necessary to slow the spread or ensure that they will contract only a light case. This has been modeled by leaders, starting at the top. Not following guidelines about how to avoid illness is starting to take its toll, however. Republican leaders have been contracting coronavirus and dying from it recently. Many continue not to wear masks or social distance.[6]

Early death might be the COVID outcome that most of us are fearing, but coronavirus seems to have other lasting effects even for survivors. A recent study published in The Lancet suggests people who contracted COVID-19, even those with relatively mild symptoms, are experiencing significantly higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses.[7] Teenagers who did not have many symptoms but were put in coronavirus quarantine are suffering from increases in anxiety, though it is hard to know if the anxiety is caused by the virus or the stress of being sick and alone.[8]

Truly, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine news this week was exceedingly encouraging, even though it’s coming to light that they made their original announcement from a tiny sample size of 94 participants. And even though Pfizer’s own vaccine volunteers complain that the symptoms induced by their synthetic mRNA vaccine turn out to be much worse than advertised.[9] And even though we now learn, disconcertingly, that Pfizer’s CEO dumped 60% of his stock for $5.6 million on Monday.[10]. Still, there will be a vaccine, a functional one, an effective one. Eventually.

Perhaps in that indeterminate waiting time before the vaccine is available, what Americans are going to need to keep on going are some formerly illicit drugs, now made legal during the past election. War on Drugs over! Drugs won! Now that decriminalization of drugs has begun in earnest, even in conservative parts of the country, the US will have a job releasing men and women incarcerated for possessing legal amounts.[11] The era of New Jim Crow might be slipping away.

Meanwhile, in this year like no other, another tropical storm rammed through the United States today, causing floods hundreds of miles away from where it made landfall. Tropical Storm Eta had already walloped Central America last week as a major hurricane, killing hundreds in landslides and floods, and displacing thousands who will, no doubt seek out shelter elsewhere.[12] The storm then turned north through Cuba and the Florida Keys before regaining hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico and then crossing the northern Florida peninsula today. It is number 28 of the 29 named storms this year—a record—and the twelfth named storm to make mainland US landfall—another unwelcome record for 2020.[13]

Notes

[1] Leslie Aguilar, “Lexington, Missouri Fire Chief Makes Plea to the Community amid Rising COVID-19 Cases,” KCTV Kansas City, November 10, 2020, https://www.kctv5.com/coronavirus/lexington-missouri-fire-chief-makes-plea-to-the-community-amid-rising-covid-19-cases/article_813c5020-23a8-11eb-8669-d780e55a5c24.html; James Hamblin, “How Trump Sold Failure to 70 Million People,” The Atlantic, November 10, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/trump-voters-pandemic-failures/617051/; Alexis C. Madrigal Kissane Erin, “The Worst Day of the Pandemic Since May,” The Atlantic, November 10, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/11/pandemic-coronavirus-hospitalizations-new-record/617061/.

[2] Boseley, Sarah. “Six of the Most Promising Treatments for Covid-19 so Far.” The Guardian, August 24, 2020. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/six-of-the-most-promising-treatments-for-covid-19-so-far.

[3] Eli Lilly and Company. “Lilly Statement Regarding NIH’s ACTIV-3 Clinical Trial.” Lilly.com, October 26, 2020. https://www.lilly.com/news/stories/statement-activ3-clinical-trial-nih-covid19.

[4] AleDeena Beasley, “U.S. Infectious Diseases Group Seeks More Data on Lilly COVID-19 Antibody Drug,” Reuters, November 12, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-antibody-idUSKBN27S2NL.xander, Barbara D., and Rajesh T. Gandhi. “Statement on the Emergency Use Authorization of Bamlanivimab.” IDSA, November 12, 2020. https://www.idsociety.org/news–publications-new/articles/2020/statement-on-the-emergency-use-authorization-of-bamlanivimab/.

[5] Katherine J. Wu, Carl Zimmer, and Jonathan Corum, “Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker,” The New York Times, July 16, 2020, sec. Science, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-drugs-treatments.html.

[6] Long list compiled by Clevon MD, https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1327494611338608640.html

[7] Maxime Taquet et al., “Bidirectional Associations between COVID-19 and Psychiatric Disorder: Retrospective Cohort Studies of 62 354 COVID-19 Cases in the USA,” The Lancet Psychiatry 0, no. 0 (November 9, 2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30462-4.

[8] Emma Goldberg, “Teens in Covid Isolation: ‘I Felt Like I Was Suffocating,’” The New York Times, November 12, 2020, sec. Health, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/health/covid-teenagers-mental-health.html.

[9] Varsha Rani, “Volunteers Who Took Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine Complained of ‘Severe Hangover,’” Vice, November 12, 2020, https://www.vice.com/en/article/88anzp/pfizer-vaccine-trial-volunteers-side-effects-like-hangover.

[10] Tom Dreisbach, “Pfizer CEO Sold Millions In Stock After Coronavirus Vaccine News, Raising Questions,” NPR, November 11, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/11/11/933957580/pfizer-ceo-sold-millions-in-stock-after-coronavirus-vaccine-news-raising-questio; Lauren Fruen, “Pfizer CEO Sold $5.6M of Stock on the DAY of the Vaccine Announcement,” Daily Mail Online, November 11, 2020, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8938065/CEO-sells-stock-worth-5-6-mln-day-Pfizers-COVID-19-vaccine-update.html.

[11] Vox, Weed Was the Real Winner of the 2020 Election (Vox.com, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To8PwGTMBoY.

[12] Matt Rivers and Natalie Gallón, “The Fallout from Hurricane Eta Is Just Beginning in Central America,” CNN, November 12, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/americas/hurricane-eta-guatemala-honduras-intl/index.html.

[13] Jason Samenow, Andrew Freedman, and Matthew Cappucci, “2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season Breaks All-Time Record While Leaving Gulf Coast Battered,” Washington Post, November 10, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/10/record-hurricane-season-atlantic/.