The top story today continues to be Covid, specifically the BA.5 variant that’s currently making the rounds. Cases are way up, hospitalizations are up, and people seem to have stopped caring entirely. Maybe it’s because BA.5 is a more contagious but less severe strain overall, or maybe it’s just general fatigue from the past two years. The result is that masks have become something of a rarity, even on planes and public transportation, and those in power seem content allowing a few hundred people to die from it every week.
“I’m actually pleased to see the pandemic is not top of mind, it means we’re making progress. The last thing I want as the Covid response coordinator is for us to get back to the point where Covid dominates our lives in scary ways.”
-Dr. Ashish Jha, Biden’s Covid coordinator/World’s worst room-reader
Now, rather than improving public health or preventing more deaths, we can instead focus on the other things dominating our lives in scary ways; climate disasters, gun violence, and the ever-expanding possibility of global war. At work yesterday, I had a man explain (mansplain?) to me that people are prepping out there: stockpiling food, water, and weapons, just in case things take a turn. It sounded comical considering we were standing next to dehydrated green curry and pad thai meals, but when I realized he was serious I hesitated to laugh. You never want to be the last person prepping for the end of the world.
Side Items
A funeral was held for Ivana Trump yesterday, she’s dead now
After Boris Johnson’s disgraceful exit earlier this month, Britain’s next PM will be either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, spoiler alert, they’re both trash
For the second time this month, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario “It’s a-me!” Draghi offered his resignation, deepening the country’s political crisis