The Covid-10 death count in Merced County is 318; the rate of infection is 14.7 percent. Although some may have had a better experience, the Badlands editor has had a frustrationg, chaotic experience with contant attempts to get vaccine for which he qualifies according to the county Public Health Department website. But, this may not be a death sentence. One health worker I talked to in a clinic office indicated that she might have been skeptical about the vaccine. Meanwhile, the doctors urge strongly that elderly with one or more underlying conditions get vaccinated immediately.
As we begin to take a historical perspective on the Covid-19 pandemic, including its yearlong siege, the change of political regime and the possibility of better government choices in the near future, we begin to look for precedents in the past. AIDS may be to Covid-19 like the Korean War was to Vietnam -- sometimes history at least rhymes -- and some of the leaders are the same and the pathos and fear in the gay community in the 1980s certainly mirrors that of the elderly and vulnerable in the 2020s pandemic. -- blj
The reader of the article below about a plantation of 100,000 pistachio trees in the Mojave Desert should also consider that Ridgecrest is the driest corner in Kern County, in extreme drought at the moment. -- blj
American society no longer values the work of excellent veteran newspaper investigative reporters. Never has this been more evident than in the response to the riot in the Capitol last week. It is remarkable, given the opposition to actual news writing and analysis by interests that have always been opposed to it, that anyone still bothers to try to write the kind of article we have posted below. The article requires more than a glance or a quick read; it deserves and rewards real study. -- blj
MERCED (BLJ) Two hundred and eighty-seven people have died of Covid-19 in Merced County since the pandemic began early last year. The post-holiday-season infection rate has risen to 15.7 percent. The County notified the public today that there are vaccinations available for all essential, "frontline" personnel, from doctors to grocery clerks, but there is not yet any vaccine available for vulnerable citizens not deemed "essential." This follows the pattern the County established for tests.
When US Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, looked squarely into the cameras to address the darker heart of America the evening after the riots, he argued for a special commission to examine the legality of the General Election vote and the electors of Pennsylvania, I saw that he had been completely carried away by dirty sophistry in the service of white-nationalist ideology and that disaster lay in his immediate future. An image of the downfall of this pathetic product of Stanford and Yale came to mind and stayed there in the following days.
On December 30, 2020, the total number of dead in Merced County from Covid-19 reached 252 and the nation's top epidemiologists predict a sharp increase in infections in a couple of weeks, due to holiday travel and large gatherings. But, not to worry, the vaccine is being distributed by capable military personnel. Today, four-star Army General Gustave F.
A close colleague at the Independent in war correspondence from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, Patrick Cockburn, reflects on the character and work of Robert Fisk. Lebanese scholar As`ad AbuKhalil, a professor at CSU Stanislaus, has another view. All we know about it is that Fisk reported from the front of the battle while AbuKhalilopined from Turlock. -- wmh
