Scattered Acres

There is light at the end of the tunnel. COVID-19 vaccine is on the way. It may not be here for all of us for a while and it may not be soon enough for some who will succumb to the virus. The vaccine is welcome news, nevertheless. But the pandemic didn’t have to be so bad. Trumpian leadership failed from the beginning. The president’s vanity trumped the simplest of defenses - a mask, social distancing, limited travel. That a vaccine was developed at warp speed is a tribute to the science that Trump has so disparaged.  A second pandemic is upon us. It’s the assault on truth. It may turn out to be far more dangerous, more widespread, and long-lasting than the coronavirus pandemic that we know. Again, it didn’t have to be this way. President Trump is on record for tens of thousands of lies. As a narcissistic sociopath and pathological liar he is under the delusion what what he says is true. And a good many millions of people believe what he says. His lies have gone viral . Trump’s pow...

TW3 was a TV program of the sixties that satirized the week's political, social and cultural events and actions. Among the luminaries on the screen were David Frost, Nichols and May, with cameo appearances by Gloria Steinem, Tom Lehrer and many others. But what could they have done with the week just passed?  Number 1, Saturday: Trump announces the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace the recently deceased RBG on the Supreme  Court. He couldn’t have picked a more polar opposite justice. McConnell promises to rush Senate confirmation, negating his principle of not elevating a nominee to the court so close to a presidential election.  Number 2, Sunday: The New York Times publishes information about Trump’s tax returns and his business losses. Trump paid $750 in the first two years of his presidency and nothing in many preceding years. As a businessman, his business loses were staggering.  Number 3, Tuesday: Trump blusters interruptions at what was billed was the...

Maine, where I live, is one of the states least affected by the coronavirus. Here, about one out of every 313 people in the state has been touched by the virus. And my county is even safer with one case recorded for every 990 people.  So you can imagine how surprised I was to learn that a case arrived next door. Arrived is the correct word, because it came from away . It was the middle-aged son or our neighbor whom I see in my imagination arriving home saying, "Mom, I'm sick." It turns out that the gentleman lives in a far away state and seems to have caught the bug at a wedding. Weren't we all warned about that? I don't know where the wedding was held, but here's a story from Millinocket, Maine, the gateway to Mount Katahdan and the terminus of the Appalachian Trail. They had a wedding reception there with 65 people gathered in a church with reception to follow. 26 folk tested positive with 6 more probables. About half the people caught COVID-19 at the weddi...

Here’s some data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as of August 3 as reported by the Boston Globe . For the population from 20 to 79 years of age, the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 ranges from about 1,700 to 2,000 per hundred thousand people. This means that one out of every 50 to 60 people in that age range has experienced a coronavirus event. By contrast, for people over 80, it one out of every 18 people.  The death rate from COVID-19 climbs with age regardless. At 70 to 79 one out of every 303 people in the Commonwealth dies from coronavirus; at 80 and older it’s one out of every 54. It is inescapable that the old folks among us are more apt to suffer from the virus and we are more likely to die from it.  I am alarmed at the incompetence of the COVID-19 challenge at the highest level of government. For oldsters, the risks of disease and death are much higher than the general population - and unacceptably and massively greater than the risks from guns or ...

Maine, Vacationland , is a case study in the tradeoffs between keeping COVID-19 under control and keeping the economy running.  Maine is a beautiful state with a variety of draws for vacationers and tourists - the rugged sea coast with tidal rivers, sandy beaches, a myriad of pristine lakes, wildlife, challenging mountains, and a foody scene in Portland second to none. These attractions generate a lot of income. Tourism is a mainstay of the Maine economy.  And it’s partially shut down to the chagrin of those dependent on the industry.  Maine is second only to Vermont in having the lowest number of new coronavirus cases per capita in the last week. It is among the three lowest states in total cumulative cases per capita. And that’s the way we want to keep it.  How does Maine do it? First, it has the geographical advantage being at the “end of the line”, with the Canadian border closed. (But so does Alaska with a much high infection rate.) Second it has a ...

The coronavirus, COVID-19, is on a rampage spreading pestilence throughout the land. Our defenses are meager and porous before the onslaught. We have already lost many of the best and the brightest, but many more proportionally among the disadvantaged. The fatalities exceed those from every war back beyond the Korean conflict; exceeding those in World War I. We have more than forty 9/11 losses and counting.  Why is it that the USA is on a par with the Brazil caseload and along with Russia, barred from the European Union?  The single most harmful act by American leadership was Trump's refusal to wear a mask. Thus he became a model for behavior for his followers and others alike. From the beginning of the pandemic, the Trump administration has promulgated mixed messages and contradictory policies. It has not mobilized the country for war. It is little surprise that there is no national will to combat the coronavirus....

As we pass the dubious distinction of marking 100,000 deaths attributable to COVID-19, one has to wonder why the United States of America has worst record in the world among countries with populations of more than a few million for the per capita incidence of the disease. We knew it was coming. One only had to look how it jumped to Iran from China and then Italy. The global spread was obvious and ominous. We now know that precious weeks were lost in mobilizing to meet the invading virus. First it was denial that a threat existed. That is, denial in the Oval Office. And when it was recognized as a global pandemic, the weapons with which to fight were in insufficient supply. This, after the specter of a pandemic had been envisioned for years. So, at the top, we have unwillingness to heed obvious warnings and an inability to take the lead in assembling the needed resources to fight the disease. Statisticians have concluded that delay - that is, inadequate leadership - may have cost as m...

It's Memorial Day observed. A day of remembrance of those killed in the line of duty for the United States. The numbers are significant. The Civil War was the deadliest of all with estimates of more or less 700,000 dead or almost 2.4% of the population. World War II took away over 400,000. Since then we have had the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Middle East wars, and numerous lesser skirmishes with fatalities. The deaths in all of these battles add up to a bit over 100,000. The United States has secured no clear victories since World War II and many have come to see these wars as inadvisable if not disastrous. We have a present enemy and we are at war again. It's the coronavirus. And we are not doing well. Here are the numbers. They are non-partisan. The NY Times reported more than 1,650,000 cases. That's 505 cases per 100,000 or one in every 198 people. That puts us on a par with the very worst numbers coming out of Europe from Ireland, Spain and Belgium and way wor...

The United States leads the world in the total number of Covid-19 cases with over 1.3 million incidents and attributable deaths of more than 78,000. That's because we are a big county (but not the biggest). Before we compare our numbers with other countries it is well to recognize that the counts are done in different ways and for different reasons. Nevertheless, the numbers are telling. The numbers that really count are those that compare the case rate with the population - say, as the New York Times does in presenting cases and deaths per 100,000 people. Today, May 10, American cases per hundred-thousand is 402. This case load exceeds that of all other major countries except Spain (479) and Belgium (460) along with some mini- and micro-states and others with populations of a few million. Canada, our neighbor to the north has an incidence rate 183, less than half of ours. What the American case rate of 402 means is that there is coronavirus case for every 248 Americans coast t...