COVID-19 Update

World

New Cases:   575,798 (⬆︎ .58%)
New Deaths:    13,888 (⬆︎ .66%)

USA

New Cases:   172,913 (⬆︎ .68%)
New Deaths:      3,427 (⬆︎ .81%)

Vaccination Scorecard

Total Vaccinations:          17.4 million
Total Priority Population: 15.2%
Total Population:               5.2%

While there's plenty of news regarding COVID-19 and the ongoing problems of the pandemic as a whole and of the lingering effects the disease can have on individual patients, the Press Poodles have shifted their focus back to the narrative they were deprived of 4 years ago. ie: those impish rascally Republicans and the hapless lovable loser Democrats.

So fuckin' sick of that shit.

Buried more than halfway down the page, requiring extra navigation, and behind the pay wall, NYT teases a few stories about a contagion that's killed more Americans in a year than were killed in almost 4 years of WW2:

Here’s what you need to know: (pay wall)

• ‘An incredible scale of tragedy’: The U.S. records 25 million virus cases.
• Thousands of vaccine appointments are canceled as hospitals run out of doses.
• How many lives will Covid claim? Projecting virus deaths in the U.S. has proved to be difficult.
• The virus is surging through the many overcrowded homes in Los Angeles.
• The University of Michigan suspends athletic activities after finding cases of the variant first detected in the U.K.
• Major businesses are offering to help the U.S. government with the vaccination rollout.
• The Wuhan virus outbreak was a tragedy — until Beijing changed the narrative.
• Hong Kong and Madrid tighten lockdowns amid concerns over the new variant.

This is the story. It's the COVID, stupid. We don't solve this one, we don't get to do anything else.

So:

Joe Manchin is not playing hardball as he tries to thread that West Virginia needle.

McConnell is not being shrewd or maybe a little recalcitrant.

The Press Poodles are not calling balls and strikes and just trying to report the facts.

All of those assholes are contributing to thousands of Americans dying every day from a disease that should be at the top of every news site and every broadcast every fucking day.

Press coverage should be focused on whether or not politicians and businesses and individuals are helping or hindering the overall effort to get a handle on the one thing that's dominating everything we do.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but...

If we're going to let the science guide us thru this thing, then 

LET THE FUCKING SCIENCE GUIDE US

THRU THIS FUCKING THING.