Tag: COVID-19
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Hey, Virginia State Workers, Take Off Your PJs
by Kerry Dougherty Hey, Virginia state employees, it’s time. Time to close those laptops, take off your pajamas and head back to work. I know, I know, it’s been fun sitting home with your cats since early 2020, when Gov. Ralph Northam shut down the commonwealth to slow the spread of COVID-19. And we all…
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Virginia’s COVID Performance Rates a D
by James A. Bacon Virginia performed worse than 35 other states during the COVID-19 recession, based on an analysis that encompasses mortality rates, economic performance and educational performance. The Commonwealth fared better than average in health outcomes, worse than average in economic performance, and near the bottom in school closures. The overall ranking: D. Nationally,…
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COVID Hospitalizations Rapidly Receding
COVID data junkies might want to check out the latest iteration of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association COVID hospitalization dashboard. It now provides a regional breakdown. After winter’s Omicron surge, the numbers are heading down fast, and could well dip lower than the level Virginia enjoyed last summer. The seven-day moving average of COVID…
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ACLU Wants Masks on Kids
by Kerry Dougherty It’s official. One of the most malignant organizations in Virginia is the ACLU. These far-left lawyers, who are supposed to be concerned with civil liberties (hey, it’s in their name: the American Civil Liberties Union), sucked their thumbs as Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam stomped all over the civil rights of Virginians for…
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The Real March Madness
by Kerry Dougherty I can’t watch. It raises my blood pressure. I’m talking about the NCAA Basketball Tournament. For the first time in years I’m not glued to my TV during March Madness. I have my reasons: First, none of the teams that matter to me made the tournament. Second, I’m not in a pool…
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When COVID Hysteria Meets Safetyism
by James A. Bacon The percentage of Northern Virginia’s adult population grappling with anxiety and depression more than tripled during the COVID-19 epidemic — from 8% to 28% — according to data published by the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. The percentage peaked at 39% in February 2020, affecting 755,000 individuals, but abated to 545,000…
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Bad Memories: 15 Days to Slow the Spread
by Kerry Dougherty Happy anniversary, America. It was two years ago today that we surrendered our civil liberties due to hysteria over a virus. Yep, it was March 16, 2020 that we were told to stay home for 15 days to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Health officials demonstrated how this would work…
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When the Numbers Stopped
by Joe Fitzgerald The Virginia Department of Health began posting daily COVID numbers on March 17, 2020, and effectively quit Thursday. A press release on the VDH website explains the changes, but doesn’t include enough real information to make it worth the trouble of linking there. For two years, though, VDH produced daily information that…
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Too Bad RTD Didn’t Read “Lies, Damn Lies and Race-Obsessed Statistics”
by Carol J. Bova Almost a year ago, I wrote about a March 3, 2021 Virginia Department of Health blog post, in which VDH claimed in an article about COVID-19: In Virginia, Hispanic and Black age-specific death rates are much higher than White age-specific death rates. The age group with the largest disparity was 35-44…
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Torturing Statistics Until They Confess: An RTD Primer
by James A. Bacon Sabrina Moreno with the Richmond Times-Dispatch has written a three-piece series arguing that disinvestment in the Virginia Department of Health led Latinos to being “the most likely to get infected, hospitalized and die” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth paragraph of the story makes the following extraordinary assertion: Three months after…
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The Incredible Shrinking Virus
It’s amazing how quickly COVID-19 has faded from the headlines. I guess good news is no news. A recent Centers for Disease Control study estimates, based on antibody testing, that 43% of all Americans have been infected by the virus. Naturally acquired resistance plus the high percentage of the population that has been vaccinated (76%…
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Naked Politics: No Masks for the SOTU!
by Kerry Dougherty It’s a miracle! After two years of constantly hectoring us to wear masks, public health officials and Democratic leaders have now decided that it’s time to lose the face diapers. Just in time for the State of the Union Address! Exquisite timing. Remember, this is just two weeks after Virginia Democrats howled…
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The Governor’s Surge
We’ll know soon if the rest of us get what the unvaxed voted for. by Joe Fitzgerald Virginia’s governor ran on a platform to protect children from critical race theory and expose them to COVID. The first goal was moot, since CRT wasn’t often mentioned in public schools to begin with. How well the second…
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CDC Chicanery
by Kerry Dougherty Looks like the jig is up for the CDC. Someone needs to tell the secretive political animals running the agency that when you’ve lost The New York Times, you’re done. On Sunday, The Times published a story criticizing the Centers for Disease Control for hiding massive amounts of data from the public.…
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A COVID Swan Song
by Scott Lingamfelter Pandemics are not new. They have been around as long as the human race has been and will be in the future. Before COVID arrived on our shores from China, the 1919 Flu Pandemic originated in the trenches of World War I and spread rapidly, picking up the name Spanish Flu, a…