Covid-2019

In "Recommended Reading," we highlight yet another New York Times "human interest" story exploiting the tragedy in Uvalde to titillate its readers -- this one about the constant state of anxiety that besets schoolchildren. But for the last two years, until Uvalde, what was it that was making schoolchildren anxious, and what "newspaper of record" led the way in stoking that anxiety? You have one guess.

Interesting lesson in epidemiology from China's experience. Until the last several months, it had the highest case-fatality ratio in the world, between 4% and 5%. That's because the first wave of the virus in early 2020 was especially lethal before we knew how to treat it. Then there was more than a year with almost no new cases (at least not reported), so the ratio remained in place. Then China's 2022 case-wave came, associated with very few deaths (at least as reported). So China's case-fatality ratio has fallen from worst in the world to best, at 0.43%. A dropping ratio is typical in epidemiology -- but no place shows it more starkly and suddenly than China.

In "Recommended Reading," a penetrating examination of the Biden administration's ambivalence about Covid -- is it finally time to "turn the page"? They can't quite seem to decide.

In "Recommended Reading," new research points to Monkeypox being mostly sexually transmitted. Meanwhile, AirBnB says enough is enough on lockdowns, and gets out of China.