Connecting the Dots

Last week President-Elect Joe Biden revealed a pandemic relief proposal. The list was mostly predictable: direct cash payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, vaccine funding, help for state and local governments.

“Houston, we have a problem,” said the Apollo 13 crew. Now Houston is a problem as some of its largest hospitals reach 100% ICU occupancy. 

Many have optimistic outlooks because they expect the COVID-19 pandemic to end this year. They vary mainly on when the inevitable boom will start. But nearly all assume…

Christmas is a little different this year. I haven’t been to any shopping malls but I hear they are not exactly crowded. 

Here we go again. The much-anticipated winter surge is here and COVID-19 cases are filling hospital wards across the US. Some governors have responded by, among other things, forbidding indoor restaurant service in their states.

Governments around the world met this pandemic in various ways, ranging from brutal, near-universal lockdown in China to Sweden’s laissez-faire voluntary approach. And everything in between.

A new economic narrative is forming: Vaccines will make next year better. By mid-2021 business should start going back to normal.

We’ve learned a lot about COVID-19 since the pandemic started. There’s still no cure, but we have better treatments. Highly effective vaccines seem to be coming, too.

Here we go again. US hospitals are filling with COVID-19 cases, and some governors are tightening restrictions. Is this really necessary?

So a few important things happened last week. The US election was one—but, in the short-term, not necessarily the most important.

On Election Day four years ago I wrote about healthcare. 

George Washington’s Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in painfully harsh conditions.