On today’s BradCast, we cover both COVID and SCOTUS and how to try and stay safe from and/or fight back against the very serious threats now posed by both of these hideous, rogue, all-caps acronyms. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
First up, it’s COVID. Specifically, the Omicron variant, as the CDC finds that, according to their latest data, unvaccinated people are 14 times more likely to die and 11 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who are vaccinated. Those numbers seem to refer to those vaccinated by two mRNA shots without a booster shot, which is now key to fighting the quickly rising threat of Omicron.
As Josh Marshall bluntly warns in one of his chilling recent updates on newly emerging data on the new, highly transmissible variant — which still include a number of unknowns — “A lot of people are about to get sick.”
New studies just coming in from around the world suggest that Omicron is incredibly aggressive, even for those with some immunity from two vaccine shots or previous infection. A booster shot, the studies are finding, help tremendously to ward off both the likelihood of infection, as well as the worst symptoms. Two doses and a booster will roughly offer the same protection against Omicron as two shots alone did against Delta. Marshall reports the data show “late December through January will be explosive in terms of numbers of infections” in the U.S. He repeated a similar warning based on newer incoming data on Omicron last night: “The rate of growth is simply explosive. There’s no other way to put it…we should expect a very, very large wave of infections in the coming weeks…The pace and scope of the surge looks likely to be something like the original one in the Spring of 2020.”
Too many people, I believe, have been placating themselves on the somewhat misleading data point suggesting Omicron infection appears to be less severe than previous variants. There are a number of reasons that it could be (including the fact that many now have at least some immunity due to vaccination or antibodies from a previous infection), but the severity level misses the point of the somewhat terrifying transmissibility numbers emerging right now and how that is likely to overwhelm health systems in this country and result in a lot of people dying. A more mild disease that infects 5 times more people is equally or potentially even more deadly.
The current surge under way in the U.S. is still almost entirely comprised of Delta cases. Once Omicron — which is really good at breaking through immunity created by both infection antibodies and vaccines — begins to rise over the next 2 to 4 weeks, things could get really bad on several levels. We are already seeing deaths spike again to more than 1,700 a day in the U.S., and that’s almost entirely from Delta.
Bottom line: Get boosted. “It’s not a marginal difference” from two shots, Marshall advises, based on a very close reading of emerging data and discussion with experts, “It’s a big one.” He goes on to write: “I would also seriously consider limiting obvious vectors of exposure: indoor activities in large groups, eating indoors, large crowds indoors or out. We all have our own levels of risk aversion and we can’t hide forever. But you should assume that your risk of being exposed to COVID is about to go up a lot. So plan accordingly.
Of course, he’s hardly the only one sending this similar message. “All the models right now are flashing bright red,” warns New York “Intelligencer” science writer David Wallace-Wells in one of his latest pieces headlined “Omicron is About to Overwhelm Us: The new COVID variant has all the makings of a mass wave.” Pay attention please. Get boosted.
Next up, it’s SCOTUS. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) penned a blistering — if absolutely correct on every key point — op-ed at Boston Globe yesterday, calling for the expansion of the Republicans “packed” and “stolen” and “corrupt” Supreme Court. The call comes not a moment too soon (and, perhaps a year or so too late). Still, it’s good to hear elected officials speak as directly about the threat now posed by this corrupted, partisan Court to “basis principles of law” which now “threaten the democratic foundations of our nation.”
We share most of her piece on air today. But if you don’t listen to the show, read her must-read piece. She breaks down precisely how Mitch McConnell’s hypocritical “Republican court-packing has undermined the legitimacy of every action the current court takes” as its illegitimate 6 to 3 rightwing “supermajority will continue to threaten basic liberties for decades to come.” Democrats, she advises, must exercise their Constitutional Article III, Section 1 authority to change the size of the Court, as Congress has done at least seven times before. That number doesn’t even include what happened after McConnell, corruptly “reduced the size of the court for over a year solely for … partisan gain and then turned around and jammed through another nominee days before losing the presidency.”
But, as welcome as op-eds are, action is better. So we were delighted when, immediately after the Supremes last week once again allowed Texas’ clearly unconstitutional six-week abortion ban law to stay in place, the Governor of California announced plans for actual action to push back. If its now judicially acceptable to write laws that both undermine Constitutional rights and evade judicial review by allowing private citizens to enforce it, as the Texas law does, the same can be done with other rights.
On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared his intention to “work with the Legislature and the Attorney General on a bill that would create a right of action allowing private citizens to seek injunctive relief, and statutory damages of at least $10,000 per violation plus costs and attorney’s fees, against anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in the State of California.”
“If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” the Governor noted in his brief statement. “If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, we should do just that.”
He seems quite serious. And so does New York Attorney General Leticia James who, when asked about whether her state might take similar actions to Newsom’s this week on ABC’s The View, cited the outrageous immunity against prosecution that gun manufacturer’s have been afforded by federal statute to say: “Yes! When I heard about that, I said to my team, we need to follow his lead.”
Good. It’s remarkable that the extremist radical rightwingers on the High Court either didn’t see this coming, or didn’t care. Of course, if the Supremes are cool with the Texas law as written, what is to stop any state from allowing “lawful” private, vigilante law suits against people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights by, say, wearing a MAGA hat or being members of the Republican Party? In truth, nothing stops that at all, which is why Sen. Warren’s op-ed is so on point.
Finally, as if those threats are aren’t enough, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with more threats to our climate than the Supreme Court should allow us to fit into six minutes…
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