Covid-19

December will mark the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and it continues to imperil people all around the world — especially those who haven't been vaccinated for it. But the fact that COVID-19 has killed more than 4.5 million people worldwide (according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore) doesn't stop far-right Republicans from either pushing anti-vaxxer ideas for being afraid to offend anti-vaxxers. And the Miami Herald's editorial board is slamming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for ignorant comments he's made about COVID-19 vaccines.

Back in July, DeSantis spoke the truth when he said, "These vaccines are saving lives. They are reducing mortality" — and the Herald agrees with that statement. But on September 3, DeSantis said of vaccination, "It's about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn't impact me or anyone else."

Always determined to attack Democrats any way he can, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio has been loudly pushing anti-vaxxer ideas. On Monday, September 6, the far-right Republican congressman tweeted that "vaccine mandates are unamerican." And it didn't take Twitter users long to remind Jordan that in fact, vaccine mandates have a long history in the United States.

From businesses to the U.S. Armed Forces to schools, vaccine mandates existed in the United States long before the COVID-19 pandemic. And one of the medical experts who gave Jordan a badly needed history lesson was Houston-based Dr. Peter Hotez, who has made countless appearances on MSNBC and CNN in 2021. In response to Jordan, Hotez tweeted:

Identical twins from California, including one who admitted to formerly being an anti-vaxxer, now have a different perspective after they were both hospitalized with COVID-19, ABC30 reports.

Sean and Shane Harrell celebrated their 47th birthday on Monday. Speaking to ABC30, Sean admitted that he was a former anti-vaxxer and his brush with the virus "changed my perspective." Sean spent 27 days in the hospital. Shane was in the hospital for six days last month.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) on Tuesday announced it has implemented a hospital care rationing program due to a "massive increase" in coronavirus patients in the northern part of the state that is causing a "severe shortage of staffing and available beds." The goal is to "save as many lives as possible," suggesting a rationing of resources means some may not receive normal standards of care.

Governor Brad Little says this is "an unprecedented and unwanted point in the history of our state," and urged Idahoans to get vaccinated.

A woman in Nebraska was caught on video coughing on shoppers and harassing them in a grocery store.

According to Twitter user @davenewworld_2, the incident occurred at a Super Saver in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A Florida fire chief has died from COVID-19 after the virus sidelined 75 percent of his department last month.

Officials in Lake City said they do not know whether Fire Chief Randy Burnham, who died Sunday after battling the virus for several weeks, had been vaccinated. A fire department lieutenant in Lake City, 60 miles west of Jacksonville, is also currently hospitalized with COVID-19 and on a ventilator, according to Channel 4 news.

As the Texas war over mask mandates rages in the courts and in school board meetings, state legislators decided to stay out of the fight and leave Gov. Greg Abbott to his own devices.

To stop a growing number of school districts from defying Abbott's ban on mask mandates, the governor had called on Texas lawmakers to put a bill on his desk that would once and for all bar school officials from requiring students, teachers and other school employees to wear face coverings — and put an end to the constant back-and-forth in the courts that has created a confusing patchwork of mask rules across the state.

After her daughter went viral for flipping off anti-mask protesters in front of Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont, Fiona Downey is praising her daughter Meagan.

The daughter grew exasperated with the protesters who are out in front of her school each morning.

Nashville Public Radio on Saturday released a story titled, "Tennessee ICUs Full Of Vaccine Regret."

The station interviewed Joe Gammon from his ICU bed.

The culture war battles playing out in school board meetings are spreading thanks to smartphones and video streaming, but are nothing new in American history.

"America's school board meetings are out of control," Michelle Cottle wrote for The New York Times. "Today's gatherings are ground zero for some of the nation's nastiest brawls over the hyper-politicized issue of mask mandates. Meetings are being overrun by protesters voicing their objections to face-coverings in classrooms — replete with mask-themed conspiracy theories, accusations of fascism and biblically themed condemnations."

One of the ways to gauge the severity of a COVID-19 surge in a particular state or city is how busy funeral homes become — and in Florida, according to CBS News, employees of funeral homes are absolutely swamped.

In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that one in five new COVID-19 cases in the United States was occurring in Florida. Ron DeSantis, Florida's far-right Republican governor, has been receiving a great deal of criticism for his response to the COVID-19 surge; DeSantis has opposed social distancing measures, forbidden public schools from having mask mandates, and tried to score cheap political points with his MAGA base by railing against expert immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.

A wide range of responses to the current COVID-19 surge are coming from governors in the United States, from far-right MAGA Republican governors who are downplaying the surge's severity (Florida's Ron DeSantis, Texas' Greg Abbott, South Dakota's Kristie Noem) to non-MAGA Republicans (Vermont's Phil Scott, Maryland's Larry Hogan, Massachusetts' Charlie Baker) and Democrats who are taking it seriously. One of the centrist Democrats who is sounding the alarm is Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who described the situation as "dire" during a September 5 appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Beshear said, "If I had the ability to do it right now, we would have a masking order when you are in public and indoors. We know that's a proven way to slow the spread of the virus and ultimately help our health care capacity…. Our situation is dire."