Flu cases down dramatically - Could it be the mask?
Texas politicians rewriting history
The Front Page
Morning Update
Friday, May 21, 2021
By Ken Tingley
As fully vaccinated citizens, we have been going about our daily routine as tourists this week while still taking precautions.
By midweek, about half the people had abandoned wearing masks in the hotel where were were staying even though it was still a possible. Outside, it was till about 50-50.
One naked couple - of masks - invited me into the elevator telling me there was lots of room. I declined.
We visited Sea World in San Antonio on Thursday and found few people wearing masks outdoors. There was no instructions from Sea World staff about when or if we should be wearing masks. We still chose to wear ours when in close quarters or when we went indoors.
We did all those great all-American family things like ride rollercoasters and get soaked on the raging river.
I found this one little tidbit to be fascinating about how the use of masks dramatically reduced the number of flu cases in 2020.
According to Eili Klein, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, the flu season generally peaks between December and February each year with about 45 million illnesses, 810,000 hospitalizations and 61,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This year, however, as of Feb. 5, there have been only 1,455 cases in the U.S.
That is a startling statistic and makes me wonder if hospitals and nursing homes will make mask-wearing by visitors and personnel a regular best practice, especially during flu season in the winter.
It might also be a message for seniors and any other people at risk of infection for keeping that mask at the ready.
Texas news
Following Texas news has been a real eye opener this week.
The governor signed a measure earlier this week that said local government could not impose a mask mandate even though most private businesses still require it.
He then signed an executive order that allowed citizens to sue a doctor if an abortion was performed after detection a fetal heartbeat.
And then there was this one where the Texas house passed a law to limit what teachers could say about current events, prohibit students from getting extra credit for volunteering in civil rights groups and ban teaching of the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning “1619 Project” on the legacy of slavery because it reframed American history. Teachers in Texas classrooms would also be limited from discussing ways in which racism influenced the legal system in the state. Another bill would create a committee to “promote patriotic education” about the state’s secession from Mexico in 1836, largely by men fighting to expand slavery, while a third bill would prohibit exhibitions at the Alamo from explaining that the major figures in the Texas Revolution were slave owners.
As someone who spent most of his life at a newspaper writing the first draft of history, I find politicians attempts to rewrite that history appalling.
Quotes of the Week
“You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia
“If you look at the vote to impeach, for example, there were members who told me that they were afraid for their own security -- afraid, in some instances, for their lives. And that tells you something about where we are as a country, that members of Congress aren't able to cast votes, or feel that they can't, because of their own security."Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Tweets of the Week
Whenever I see anything about Texas, even a license plate, I will think Terrible, dangerous Texas.