Neanderthal thinking wins bragging rights

Back on March 3, Joe Biden criticized Texas "for lifting Covid-19 restrictions against pleas from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top public health officials." At the time, Biden said "I think it's a big mistake. Look, I hope everybody's realized by now, these masks make a difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we're able to get vaccines in people's arms. The last thing -- the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters."

Apparently, Texas will get the last laugh in the matter. Texas reported "zero deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, just two months after Gov. Greg Abbott drew heat from the White House for rolling back business restrictions and lifting the state's mask mandate."

Once again, the 'experts' weren't right. One of the experts that Biden listens to is Michael Osterholm. Dr. Osterholm is "is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota."

Recently, Dr. Osterholm said "This virus is telling us loud and clear. It is not done with us. It is not done with us. And while we surely are focused on what's happening in the United States, there is every reason to also be concerned about what's happening globally."

"This past week, the case numbers have basically been stable from the previous week at about 5.7 million new cases. We understand that the under-reporting particularly from countries like India are substantial. So we know those numbers are higher, but nonetheless, it still points out the burden of disease," he continued. "We're seeing that it is far in excess of what we've seen previously—global deaths continue their ascent with more than 93,500 reported last week. This is the seventh straight week of increasing deaths, less than 6,000 deaths short of the record high reported this week of January 25th."

What's happening on the other side of the planet is probably relevant to someone. It isn't relevant to Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas. He's responsible for what's happening in Texas. Last week, nothing approaching a COVID catastrophe happened in Texas.

Osterholm "also pointed out that 'death is a lagging indicator,' and 'so the cases that we're seeing now at these very high levels will be the deaths that we'll be talking about in two to four weeks.'" That was true before people started getting vaccinated in the US. Thanks to therapeutics like Regeneron, Remdesivir and others and the vaccines, the percentage of cases that turn into deaths has dropped.