Monday, November 16, 2020

In The News (14)



Karl Rove to helm massive GOP fundraising drive for Georgia runoffs Rove is serving as national finance chair for a joint fundraising effort between the NRSC and Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. ......... Haley is also seen as a likely 2024 presidential contender. ....... the fund, which was formed by NRSC chair Todd Young, took in nearly a quarter of its overall goal since it was launched last week. 

I Was a Military COVID Planner. The Vaccine Rollout Is Going to Be a Nightmare. WHAT CAVALRY? Our long winter with COVID could turn into a slog through the spring and summer, even with an effective vaccine. ........... The incoming administration will inherit one of the most daunting challenges any president has ever faced: planning and executing a national mass-vaccination campaign in the middle of a global pandemic. ........... With cases spiking to over 10 million, the virus is everywhere, and spreading deeply into every corner of the country. ............. in 2019, Texas budgeted $17.7 million for infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and epidemiology—and over $400 million for border security. So even when a vaccine is delivered, it will be going to a state that is understaffed and underfunded. .............  The Pfizer vaccine, now the leading contender, will require ultra-cold storage of at least -94 degrees Fahrenheit and two rounds of shots. Another leading vaccine candidate from Moderna also requires cold storage, albeit not to the same extent, according to the company. Typically, hospitals and large clinics have this capability. Small towns lacking even the most basic health clinics do not. .............. An uncoordinated federal roll out of vaccines requiring ultra-cold storage could leave state and local governments competing for resources much like they were competing for PPE earlier in the pandemic. .......... it just isn’t realistic to think the military can replicate the hard work of state and local health-care planners. ....... Instead of a military miracle, it will take nearly flawless coordination between local, state, and the federal government to execute the plan. Our long winter with COVID could turn into a slog through the spring and summer even with an effective vaccine. ...........  One can also hold out hope that a successful vaccination campaign can begin to restore America’s tattered faith in its public institutions. Either way, the people in isolated, underserved communities from rural Texas to hallowed-out manufacturing cities to the overwhelmed Dakotas deserve our best shot.

Fauci says Biden transition is key to quick distribution of Covid vaccine  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the "incompetent" Trump administration has not "thought through" the vaccination distribution process. ........  by the end of December, there will be doses of vaccines available for people in the high-risk category from both Pfizer and Moderna ..... "The vaccines are effective. We want to get it approved as quickly as we possibly can. We want to get doses to people starting in December, and then we want to really get the ball rolling as we get into January, February and March," Fauci said.

‘We could effectively end this pandemic in 2021’ with Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines Both Pfizer and Moderna are using mRNA-based vaccines, a new technology that uses genetic material to generate an immune response.   

Sunday, November 15, 2020

In The News (13)

The Pandemic Is Showing Us How Capitalism Is Amazing, and Inadequate Why big business needs big government and vice versa.

What Democrats Are Up Against in Georgia The Senate contenders face not just Republicans but also the state’s political history, which shows that change doesn’t come easy.........  Georgia has almost 160 counties, second in number only to the state of Texas. The story goes that the legislature carved out small counties so that a farmer in a mule-drawn wagon could make it to the courthouse and back in a single day. The real consequence was that under Georgia’s county-unit system, the more rural counties there were, the more leverage they would have against urban interests in Atlanta. ........... The field general of the conservative culture wars of the 1990s was a Georgia Republican, Representative Newt Gingrich, who played a singular role in bringing forth the scorched-earth tactics of the modern Republican Party.  ...........  “One of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty,” Mr. Gingrich told the Georgia College Republicans in 1978 during his third, and ultimately successful, race for Congress. “We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around the campfire, but are lousy in politics.”  ......... What Mr. Gingrich pioneered in culture-war politics Mr. Trump has escalated. Two days after Election Day, Donald Trump Jr. was in Georgia at a rally outside Republican Party campaign headquarters, castigating Republicans who did not defend his father’s specious claims of fraud. ............. Two Democratic victories would not only give Democrats control of the Senate but could also help turn the page on Donald Trump’s influence in American politics.

The Evolving Travel ‘Experience’: Virtual, Actual and In Between Socially distanced craft classes, virtual tango lessons, a city tour accompanied by an avatar guide: how experience companies — which now include Amazon — are adapting to the pandemic.

How to Have Better Family Meals 

Biden Can’t Be F.D.R. He Could Still Be L.B.J. He has the power to make transformational progress look like “C’mon Man” common sense. Will he use it? 

How the Polls Got the Election Wrong, According to One Pollster Who Got It Right

COVID-19 Is Out of Control. What Can We Do? We need a one-two punch to knock the virus down and then keep it down.

सहरभरि शंकास्पद संक्रमित उपत्यकाका मेयरहरुलाई गृहमन्त्रीले भने , ‘लकडाउन गर्ने योजना बनाउँदैछौं ।’

Japan’s New Leader Sets Ambitious Goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2050 The announcement, coming weeks after a similar pledge by China, will require a major overhaul of the infrastructure in Japan, which remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels.


A New Breakthrough Just Brought City-Wide Quantum Communication Into Reach