A decade ago, I looked back at Sept. 11, 2001, on its 10th anniversary, recalled its crashing planes, burning buildings, tumbling bodies and noted, it hardly needs to be recounted now.
Of course not. Because the wounds of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the hijacked flight that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were too fresh to require much description but too raw to overlook
Remembering was a duty. The lives lost that day almost 3.000 demanded attention. Demanded to be put into context, to understand how enormous a loss it really was.
More Americans died on 9/11 than in the War of 1812, I wrote. It was the bloodiest morning on American soil since the Civil War.
Things have changed. In 2021, we dont need to reach into the 19th century in search of perspective. We can look back to a week ago Thursday 9/2 a date which will live in obscurity, when 2,937 Americans were killed by the current foe attacking our country, COVID-19.
Or Feb. 10, when 3,254 died. Or Jan. 21: 4,135. Or hundreds of other days. About 650,000 Americans slain, out of sight, the nation hardly noticing, never mind honoring its loss. Yet killed all the same by a far more lethal foreign assailant.
Its impossible to weigh 9/11 without looking around at today.
Okay, it is possible. Lots of Americans do it. Post the black velvet painting of an eagle shedding a tear, crank up Wind Beneath My Wings.
Too many Americans wallow in that kind of thing, indulging their infinite capacity to portray themselves as victims, continually attacked, suborned, betrayed, their recent election victory snatched away by forces they cant identify, in a fashion they cant explain, never mind prove.
To them, 9/11 is a gift, the gift of being wronged, which gives them carte blanche to unleash their inner demons. A convenient moment to take out the syringe of self-pity and shoot up. A godsend, a chance to hate the people they already hated, to lash out at immigrants, the dark-skinned, people of a different religion.
Could there be a greater disrespect? To turn 9/11 into an excuse.
Sept. 11 hurt our nation, and caused unfathomable suffering to the innocent. But those precious lives lost were only the start, the initial hurt, the center of an expanding shock wave of damage that followed.
The wars in countries that had scant connection to the attack: Iraq, Afghanistan. Installing a ridiculous security theater that has billions shuffling shoeless through airport checkpoints, losing lifetimes in a different way.
Creating a sadistic mockery of our legal system at Guantanamo Bay. Failing to care for those first responders who rushed to help, who worked the pile and came down with diseases from the airborne debris. Easy to venerate a photo of three firefighters raising a flag on the rubble. Much harder to treat them for leukemia.
Sept. 11 made many Americans afraid, and a frightened population will follow a supposed strong man peddling the addictive drug of perceived safety, a fraud who promises to keep all the enemies at bay, then tries to wish away the ones he cant, like a rapidly spreading disease.
Sept. 11 led to 20 years of American policy failure. Yet how can the response to 9/11 be criticized when COVID-19 represents failure on a grander scale?
From the botched early reaction, when the disease was ignored and minimized, to now, when the intellectual heirs of that initial shameful surrender are seen across the country, unashamed, vigorously causing new deaths through vaccine refusal and an almost insane bias against masks and social distancing.
How can we even pretend to solemnly mark a disaster of 20 years ago in the midst of such a widespread, ongoing calamity? Its like holding a little candle ceremony in the chapel of the airport, joining hands and singing Amazing Grace, while an army of terrorists slip box cutters into their carry-ons and set out on todays attack through unguarded gates.
How can you pretend to honor first responders of 20 years ago while mocking the nurses and doctors battling on the front lines right now? You cant. Or at least, you shouldnt. We suffer a Sept. 11 of loss every day. Sept. 11 was an outside attack, committed by enemies. COVID-19 is an outside attack magnified by our own ignorance, malice, fear, disunion and distrust.
Remember that on Saturday.
BISMARCK, N.D. Gov. Doug Burgum released the following statement in response to President Joe Bidens plan released Thursday to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Biden's misguided plan steers our country down a dangerous path away from states' rights and the freedom of private businesses to make their own decisions on vaccinations. We stand opposed to this blatant federal overreach, Burgum said. Safe, effective vaccines remain our best tool for preserving hospital capacity and ensuring access to care, but forcing a vaccine mandate on private employers is not the role of the state or federal government.
We have reached out to the North Dakota Attorney Generals Office to discuss options for mounting a legal challenge to this mandate, which goes against everything I believe as a governor, a business owner and an American, Burgum continued. The White House needs to be reminded that the states created the federal government, not the other way around, and we will always vigorously defend states rights.
The Biden administration is releasing more than $25 billion in relief funds to health organizations from money Congress granted last year to cover financial losses from the Covid-19 pandemicafter pressure from congressional lawmakers and medical groups who say hospitals are being financially pummeled by the surge in Covid-19 cases.
This funding includes $8.5 billion from the American Rescue Plan for providers who serve patients in rural areas and are covered by federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, according to federal officials. An additional $17 billion is for a range of providers who can document revenue loss and expenses associated with the pandemic. About $7 billion remains in the fund to cover claims for the uninsured patients with Covid-19.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Friday 26,062 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 197 additional deaths since reporting last Friday.
More than 79% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 62% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of Illinois total population, more than 66% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 51% of Illinois total population is fully vaccinated.
IDPH reports a total of 1,564,386 cases, including 24,261 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois.
Since reporting last Friday, laboratories have reported 578,943 specimens for a total of 29,756,833.
As of Thursday night, 2,346 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 549 patients were in the ICU and 311 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 3-9, 2021 is 4.5%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from September 3-9, 2021 is 5.1%.
A total of 14,149,453 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 20,514 doses.Since reporting on Friday, 143,596 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
For Immediate Release: September 10, 2021
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the following actions taken in its ongoing response effort to the COVID-19 pandemic:
The FDA recognizes the increased demand for certain products during the COVID-19 public health emergency and has prioritized the review of generic drug applications for potential treatments and supportive therapies for patients with COVID-19. We remain deeply committed to facilitating access to safe and effective medical products to help address critical needs of the American public.
The FDA issued this guidance so that the development of generic drugs and submission of applications can continue during the COVID-19 public health emergency, ultimately helping ensure Americans continue to have access to safe and effective generic drugs.
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Boilerplate
The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nations food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.
09/10/2021
Illinois health officials on Friday reported 26,062 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 197 additional deaths and over 143,000 new vaccine doses administered.
In all, 1,564,386 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 24,261 confirmed COVID fatalities.
The state has administered 578,943 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 29.7 million tests conducted during the pandemic.
The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests dropped to 4.5% from 5% last week, which was up from 5.7% the week before, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests also dropped to 5.1% from 5.4% the week before.
Over the past seven days, a total of 143,596doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents - down from around 185,000 the week before. The latest figures brought the states average down to 20,514 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.
More than 14.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 62% of adult residents in the state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with more than 79% receiving at least one dose.
As of midnight Thursday, 2,346 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 549 are in ICU beds, and 311 are on ventilators.
This week in coronavirus: The virus has now killed one in every 500 Tennesseans The Tennessean
The new poll finds 69% of Americans say things in the country today are going badly, below the pandemic-era high of 77% reached in January just before President Joe Biden took office but well above the 60% who felt that way in a March CNN poll.
And 62% say that economic conditions in the US are poor, up from 45% in April and nearly as high as the pandemic-era peak of 65% reached in May 2020.
Biden's approval rating stands at 52% approve to 48% disapprove, with disapproval up since April. The survey was conducted throughout August and early September, and Biden's ratings shifted over that time, with his approval rating in the first half of August (55%) more positive than in later interviews (50%).
Vice President Kamala Harris' approval rating matches Biden's, with 52% approving and 48% disapproving, marking a 10-point increase in disapproval compared with April.
The survey shows a significant decline since April in approval for Biden on his handling of the coronavirus. All told, 56% approve of the way he is handling it, down from 66% in April. That shift comes amid widespread concern about the virus. Americans' worries about the coronavirus pandemic in their local community stand at a higher level than last summer, before vaccinations against the virus were available, with 70% now saying they are very or somewhat worried compared with 60% last summer. Democrats continue to express the deepest worry about the pandemic (58% are very worried), but sharp worry has climbed among Republicans, from 9% late last summer to 27% now.
At the same time, 77% of Americans say they are worried about the state of the economy in their community, up sharply from 58% who said the same last summer. That increase is largely driven by a negative shift among Republicans (from 28% worried last year to 85% worried now), but majorities across parties express concern about the economy (70% among Democrats, 76% among independents), and overall assessments of the state of the economy have worsened since the spring. In April, 54% said the economy was in good shape, the first time that figure had crossed 50% since before the start of the pandemic, but now, only 38% say the economy is in good shape, with declining ratings coming from both Democrats and Republicans.
The survey also finds a rise in concern about the risk of crime in the communities where Americans live, with 57% now saying they are worried, up from 37% late last summer. That shift has also come across party lines, with worry up 26 points among Republicans, 20 points among Democrats and 16 points among independents.
Coronavirus (36%) and the economy (20%) are most frequently mentioned as the most important issues facing the country. No other issue is named in an open-ended question by more than 9% of Americans. And when Americans are asked to name the top economic problem facing their family today, rising prices and the cost of living are the overwhelming top issue, with 43% naming something related to inflation or the cost of living as their most pressing problem.
Although just 4% name an issue related to crime or guns as the most important problem facing the country, most Americans (55%) say it is very important to them that the federal government address the increase in gun violence, slightly ahead of the share who say it's important that the government enact stronger laws to counteract racist policies and institutions (52% very important) and take aggressive action to slow the effects of climate change (51%). About half say it is very important for the federal government to make a significant investment in improving infrastructure (49%) or pass legislation that would expand access to voting (47%). A similar share, 49%, say it is very important for the federal government to take action to stop the movement of undocumented immigrants into the United States.
Americans' perceptions of how important these issues are, however, is deeply divided by party. Among Democrats, roughly 8 in 10 say it is very important to counteract racist policies, address gun violence, slow climate change and expand voting access, while fewer than 3 in 10 Republicans say the same. Republicans consider stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants far more important than do Democrats, 84% very important vs. 22%.
Americans express widespread anger about how things are going in the US, with 74% saying they are at least somewhat angry about things in the country today. That is about as widespread as last summer, but the feeling is less intense now. While 51% described themselves as "very angry" last year, just 26% feel the same way now, squarely between the level of intense anger measured in the first years of Donald Trump's (31%) and Barack Obama's (23%) presidencies.
The partisan dynamic behind those angry feelings has shifted in the last year. Anger has grown nearly 20 points among Republicans, while dropping almost 30 points among Democrats, but even with those shifts, majorities across parties say they are at least somewhat angry about the state of America today.
The new CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS August 3 through September 7 among a random national sample of 2,119 adults initially reached by mail. Interviews were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
The change in methodology means that shifts in results compared with prior CNN surveys may be at least partly due to differences in the ways respondents answer questions when they are filling out a survey themselves online vs. when they are talking to an interviewer on the phone, and in the increased number of poll-takers who express an opinion on most questions.
Earlier this year, some self-administered surveys found higher ratings and lower no opinion responses when asking about Biden's approval rating than did some telephone polls. For example, in April, around the 100-day mark of Biden's presidency when many pollsters were conducting research at roughly the same time, the AP-NORC Center poll, which, like the new CNN poll, is conducted mostly online with some telephone interviews, found Biden's approval rating at 63%, and a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted entirely online around that same time pegged his approval rating at 58%. CNN's April telephone poll stood at a lower 53% approval rating, with a higher share expressing no opinion on Biden's presidency. Both CBS News and AP-NORC released polls in late August that showed high-single digit declines in Biden's approval ratings. Polls conducted by phone over that same time have shown similarly sized drops in Biden's approval numbers, including an 8-point shift in the ABC News/Washington Post poll and a 10-point drop in NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist.
Its a very emotional thing for some families, whether or not they want it on the death certificate, Dr. Gill said. It shouldnt be. Its a public health matter.
In spring 2020, Dr. Gill said, he became concerned that Connecticut was overlooking Covid-19 deaths, especially among nursing home residents whose complicated medical histories can sometimes obscure causes of death. In a few hundred cases, he said, the medical examiners office conducted deep nasal swabs on bodies at funeral homes. The team found a number of cases.
With China refusing to share more information about its own early cases, the World Health Organization recently said that it was helping researchers dig into reports of cases in late 2019 outside of China. In Italy, researchers have reported coronavirus antibodies in blood samples from September 2019, as well as signs of the virus in a patients skin sample from November of that year. Some scientists, though, have questioned both findings.
The further back you can go, the more informative it may be if you do have true, confirmed cases, said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist whose lab retested the Italian blood samples and could not confirm the earliest cases. She added, For declaring a much earlier introduction of the pandemic virus into a region, you have to have a high level of certainty.
An analysis of American blood tests published this summer suggested that the virus may have been circulating in Illinois as early as Dec. 24, 2019, though scientists have said that those methods, too, are fallible.
Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and lead author of that study, said that small clusters of cases could have developed without igniting a full-blown epidemic. Where Covid was seeded in the U.S. is not fully known, she said, but it wasnt likely to have been a single seed.
Alyssa Lukpat contributed reporting, and Susan Beachy contributed research.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 223.1 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.6 million. More than 5.6 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
Viet Nam plans to reopen the resort island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists from next month.
The US Transportation Security Authority is doubling fines for first-time offenders who fail to wear masks. Repeat offenders could face fines as high as $3,000.
Australia's new confirmed daily COVID-19 cases topped 1,900 for the first time in the pandemic on Friday.
Moderna announced yesterday it is working on a single vaccine that combines a booster dose against COVID-19 with its experimental flu shot.
The Italian government has expanded the list of jobs where proof of COVID-19 immunity is required, extending mandatory vaccination and the use of the so-called 'Green Pass'.
Japan has extended emergency COVID-19 restrictions in Tokyo and other regions until the next of this month.
Los Angeles County school officials have voted to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all students aged 12 and over - the largest school district in the US to take the step.
Each of our Top 50 social enterprise last mile responders and multi-stakeholder initiatives is working across four priority areas of need: Prevention and protection; COVID-19 treatment and relief; inclusive vaccine access; and securing livelihoods. The list was curated jointly with regional hosts Catalyst 2030s NASE and Aavishkaar Group. Their profiles can be found on www.wef.ch/lastmiletop50india.
Top Last Mile Partnership Initiatives to collaborate with:
US President Joe Biden has announced a number of new measures to tackle COVID-19, in particular resistance to having vaccines. He announced policies requiring most federal employees to get a jab and pushing large employers to have their workers vaccinated or tested weekly.
The measures would apply to about two-thirds of all US employees - those who work for businesses with more than 100 workers.
"We've been patient," Biden told the tens of millions of Americans who have declined to get coronavirus shots. "But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us."
The moves are expected to be subjected to political and legal challenges. You can see more details of the plan here.
World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday called for more to be done to tackle vaccine inequity.
"There has been a lot of talk about vaccine equity, but too little action," he told a media briefing.
Some 5.5 billion vaccines doses have been administered globally, he explained. But, 80% of these have been given in high- and upper-middle-income countries.
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered by country income group.
Image: Our World in Data
He called on high-income counties and vaccine manufacturers to fulfil promises to donate doses. "We don't want any more promises. We just want the vaccines."
Dr Tedros also extended his call for a global moratorium on booster doses from the end of September until at least the end of the year "to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population".
Written by
Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
