A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine finds evidence that Republican-leaning counties in Ohio and Florida have had significantly higher Covid-19 death rates than Democratic-leaning counties.
The Steep Cost of DeSantis’s Vaccine Turnabout
New York Times: “Floridians died at a higher rate, adjusted for age, than residents of almost any other state during the Delta wave, according to the Times analysis. With less than 7 percent of the nation’s population, Florida accounted for 14 percent of deaths between the start of July and the end of October.”
“Of the 23,000 Floridians who died, 9,000 were younger than 65. Despite the governor’s insistence at the time that ‘our entire vulnerable population has basically been vaccinated,’ a vast majority of the 23,000 were either unvaccinated or had not yet completed the two-dose regimen.”
Quote of the Day
“My message is, I don’t care if you’re a Trumper, MAGA, or hard leftist, or anyone in between. Depression comes across the spectrum, and get help with it. It’s not a Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania saying this. No. I’m just a husband and a father, somebody that was suffering from depression and got help… before it was too late.”
— Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), in an interview with Time.
A Positive Covid Milestone
“The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal,” the New York Times reports.
“Excess deaths, as this number is known, has been an important measure of Covid’s true toll because it does not depend on the murky attribution of deaths to a specific cause. Even if Covid is being underdiagnosed, the excess-deaths statistic can capture its effects. The statistic also captures Covid’s indirect effects, like the surge of vehicle crashes, gun deaths and deaths from missed medical treatments during the pandemic.”
“During Covid’s worst phases, the total number of Americans dying each day was more than 30 percent higher than normal, a shocking increase.”
FDA Approves Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill
“The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a birth control pill to be sold without a prescription for the first time in the United States, a milestone that could significantly expand access to contraception,” the New York Times reports.
Biden Quietly Reverses Trump’s Sabotage of Obamacare
Catherine Rampell: “Slowly but surely, President Biden is repairing the U.S. health-care system, reversing Trump-era sabotage and ensuring millions more Americans get access to affordable coverage.”
“The latest of these efforts came on Friday, in a little-noticed but significant decision to protect Americans from junk health insurance.”
Arizona Allows Over-the-Counter Contraceptives
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) ordered that contraceptive medications be made available over the counter at a pharmacy without a doctor’s prescription, the AP reports.
Wisconsin Republicans Block Vaccine Requirement
“The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Wednesday voted to stop Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration from requiring seventh graders to be vaccinated against meningitis,” the AP reports.
“The state Senate and Assembly, with all Republicans in support and Democrats against, voted to block the proposal. There is no current meningitis vaccination requirement for Wisconsin students.”
Nearly a Quarter of Americans Haven’t Had Covid
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that almost 1 out of 4 people in the U.S. still hadn’t been exposed to COVID-19 by the end of 2022 after nearly three years of the pandemic, The Hill reports.
Russian Bank Executive Falls to Her Death
“The glamorous vice-president of a Russian bank has reportedly plunged to her death after falling from the window of her Moscow apartment,” the Daily Mail reports.
The Golden Age for Medicine
New York Times: “We may be on the cusp of an era of astonishing innovation — the limits of which aren’t even clear yet.”
U.S. Intelligence Report Sheds Little Light on Covid Origins
“Freshly declassified U.S. government intelligence about the origins of the covid-19 pandemic reveals some new insights into China’s virus research but no additional clarity about how the global outbreak began and is unlikely to settle that debate, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Beijing and fueled a heated dispute among scientists, lawmakers and government officials,” the Washington Post reports.
How Billions in Covid Relief Was Stolen or Wasted
An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in Covid-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent.
Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in Covid relief aid.
Merck Sues Over Law Empowering Medicare
“The pharmaceutical company Merck sued the government on Tuesday over a federal law that empowers Medicare for the first time to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers,” the New York Times reports.
“Merck’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, is the drug industry’s most significant move so far to fight back against a substantial change to health policy, which will go into effect in 2026. Democrats pushed through the Medicare-negotiation program last summer as a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act, framing it as a way of lowering drug prices.”
Baby Boom in Red States and a Bust in Blue States
Scientific American: “Early in the Covid pandemic, pundits predicted a baby boom because they believed that people who were forced to stay home to avoid the virus had more time to conceive children. Instead the opposite happened: a baby bust. Yet while the country as a whole saw declines in fertility rates in the pandemic’s first year, a recent study suggests that the rates in some states increased.”
“The states and regions that had the biggest declines in fertility were more likely to have a higher percentage of Democrats and nonwhite residents and more social distancing. In contrast, states with more Republicans, fewer nonwhite residents and less social distancing were more likely to experience fertility increases.”
Democrats Think Twice About Clawing Back Covid Funds
“Congressional Democrats are having second thoughts about taking back unspent coronavirus funds as part of a debt limit deal, concerned that doing so could have serious consequences for myriad public health initiatives,” Axios reports.
Surgeon General Issues Warning About Social Media
“Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, long a proponent of mental health awareness, has issued a warning that social media use is a main contributor to depression, anxiety and other problems in the nation’s teenagers,” NBC News reports.
The Deadliest Drug Epidemic in History
“The United States is suffering the deadliest drug epidemic in its history,” Foreign Affairs reports.
“Overdoses claimed the lives of more than 100,000 Americans between August 2021 and August 2022 alone. Over the span of just a few years, drug deaths have doubled. Most of these overdoses involve fentanyl, which now kills around 200 Americans every day.”
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