Last week, the Centers for Disease Control acknowledged "the pandemic is over for most people."
If anyone was still waiting for official permission from the nation's top health officials to resume life as normal, it is here. By signaling that the universal masking-and-social-distancing phase of the pandemic is now over, the CDC has conceded that the U.S.' COVID-19 prevention strategy should now revolve around protecting those who are at heightened risk.
And perhaps most importantly: Schools in areas of the country where community spread is low or medium do not need to require general mask wearing.
Put another way: the United States is now where Sweden was at the beginning of the pandemic, or "we are all Florida 2020 now." Potbellied dictator J. B. Pritzker,however, has not yet ended the emergency decrees. These posts will continue until the emergency decrees end, or the governor leaves office.
A service called Worldometers has been keeping track of coronavirus infections and deaths, disaggregated in a number of ways. With local, state, and federal governments in the United States changing the way they count infections (and they might be rethinking how they classify deaths) I'm not sure how valid any numbers, even from a service consistently used from month to month, is.
The latest report from Sweden counts 2,551,996 infections, up by 23,830 from last month, and 19,497 deaths, a change of 327 from that report.
The latest report from Illinois counts 3,620,877 infections, an increase of 124,863 over last month and 39,108 deaths, adding 371 to the Pritzker Body Count in one month. Local media say little about hospital utilization.
As of this afternoon, the state counts around 29 million doses of the various vaccines administered; they've updated their tally to disaggregate among finished and partial vaccinations. The state no longer counts the scary variants. The end of July mix of infections is almost all BA.x strains of Omicron.
Let me reiterate: if the potbellied dictator and the rest of the Combine are returned to office in November, Illinoisans can expect no sympathy from me when the retail taxes go back on, and go up, and the power goes off.
At Bastille Day, the governor trailed by 19,567.
At Flag Day, the governor trailed by 19,295.
At Syttende Mai, the governor trailed by 19,149.
At Patriots Day, the governor trailed by 19,243.
At St. Patrick's Day, the governor trailed by 19,580.
At Valentine's Day, the governor trailed by 19,533.
At the National Day of Service, the governor trailed by 17,062.
Note the time series: a margin of terror that used to be growing by hundreds in a week was growing by less, that is, until the ukases went back into effect. The details for earlier in 2021 and the end of 2020 are on page 2.
2021 ...
At Beethoven's birthday, the governor trailed by 14,796.
At Veterans Day, the governor trailed by 13,981.
At Leif Erikson Day, the governor trailed by 13,101.
At the start of the professional football season, the governor trailed by 12,307.
At Roller Coaster Day, the governor trailed by 11,502.
As of 7 June, 10,887.
As of 1 June, 10,810.
As of 24 May, 10,645.
As of 17 May, 10,520.
As of 10 May, 10,417.
As of 3 May, 10,310.
As of 26 April, 10,216.
As of 19 April, 10,167.
As of 12 April, 10,169.
As of 5 April, 10,167.
As of 29 March, 10,125.
As of 22 March, 10.095.
As of 15 March, 10.070.
As of 8 March, 10,017.
As of 1 March, 9,933.
As of 22 February, 9,857.
As of 15 February, 9,693.
As of 8 February, 9,623.
As of 1 February, 9,662.
As of 25 January, 9,739.
As of 18 January, 9,727.
As of 11 January, 9, 860.
As of 4 January, 9,595.
2020 ...
As of 28 December, 9,057.
As of 21 December, 8,414.
As of 14 December, 7,815.
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