There’s snow across the South and the East Coast with hundreds of thousands left periodically without power. This storm system is now forming into a huge bomb cyclone that could hit the British Isles and Europe. This weather wreaked havoc with ground and air transportation. Thousands of drivers got stranded overnight on the I-95 in Virginia in a snowstorm. The National Guard was NOT deployed to help these motorists:
🚨#BREAKING: Thousands of drivers are Stranded since yesterday
Thousands of motorists are stranded on I-95 in Virginia for 15+ hours after a crash brought traffic to a halt from yesterday heavy snow storm. The national Guard are on standby to help drivers pic.twitter.com/lKXsWJzjup
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) January 4, 2022
Folks have also been similarly stranded on Amtrak trains:
“Over the public address system, Kip said, an Amtrak employee called for passengers to stop fighting. Another asked if anyone had spare diapers for passengers.” The nightmare of the Amtrak trains stopped for seven hours or more during Monday’s snowstorm:https://t.co/DpMYcEWoh8
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) January 6, 2022
Despite all the rain and snow dumped on the Western US by recent atmospheric rivers, the region is still in a drought:
The recent rains in the west have been great, but the drought persists. Keep saving water — every gallon you don’t use stays in our rivers and reservoirs for later.
Here’s the end-of-the-year Drought Monitor. pic.twitter.com/DETb6EcUev— Peter Gleick 🇺🇸 (@PeterGleick) January 4, 2022
Americans are broke and prices (for everything) are way too high. Half of households would struggle to purchase an average used car. Although, to put things in perspective, an average used car is now almost $30K:
Half U.S. households lack income considered necessary to buy average-priced used car as prices soar https://t.co/Err0dQwKGS
— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) January 4, 2022
Americans are still quitting their jobs in huge numbers, and much of this turnover is in the restaurant and hospitality industry:
JUST IN – Record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November (AP)
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 4, 2022
Out of control Russian rocket debris with a dry weight of over 4.4 tons re-entered the atmosphere yesterday afternoon and burned up over the Pacific. It was an uncontrolled re-entry:
Russian rocket part from failed launch makes uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere https://t.co/YdN4r1jPDN
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 6, 2022
Kazakhstan wants Putin to help quash civil unrest:
Putin must be wondering whom to invade first. https://t.co/qNkH5Ege8Y
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) January 5, 2022
The world has 300.5 million COVID cases. The world has gained a staggering 13.2 million cases in the last week. There have been nearly 5.5 million deaths in total. The US has had a cumulative 59.5 million cases—over 4.1 million cases were added in the last week. Over 855,000 Americans have died—about 11,000 in the last week. The US is still leading global daily case gain followed by India, Brazil, the UK, and France. The US added over 704,000 new cases Wednesday and about 647,000 by late afternoon Thursday. One million cases were added to the US tally on Tuesday.
In line with these huge case gains, community positivity rates are VERY high:
The percentage of #Covid_19 tests coming back positive in Alabama is now up to 41%. The state added 11,075 new cases in the last 24 hours: https://t.co/ZTC49u8pVF pic.twitter.com/GYW0yUYW9M
— #WVTM13 (@WVTM13) January 5, 2022
Germany, France, and Italy are making it very hard for folks who are unvaccinated. Fines, mandates, and restrictions on participation in community life are quite heavy. The EU as a whole is also considering the implementation of broader and more restrictive COVID mitigation measures. The Philippines is threatening the unvaccinated with jail time if they leave their homes for non-essential reasons. A political theorist notes that governments that do not respond with authoritarian actions to quell crises like the pandemic and climate change are viewed by the public as less legitimate in the near future. Noting these trends I’d say it’s a good bet that we’ll all see more authoritarian government responses to crises in the future:
Italy makes Covid vaccinations mandatory for everyone 50 and older. The gov’t also approved rules to prevent the unvaccinated from entering businesses, including banks, post offices & some stores. The measures go into effect Feb. 15 https://t.co/aGcD3J4QKP pic.twitter.com/jv1dZAk900
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) January 6, 2022
Evidence is building for swabbing the throat, then the nose for detecting Omicron in a timely manner. This method has still not been endorsed by official agencies or the makers of over-the-counter COVID tests:
Nasal-swab rapid tests failed to identify omicron infections for 2 to 3 days after saliva-based PCR tests identified high concentrations of viral RNA.
A new paper from @DrBlytheAdamson @robbysikka @awyllie13 and Prem Premsrirut has the details. 👇👏 1/4https://t.co/AXOoK83kWw pic.twitter.com/GDAosY5voU
— Dan Larremore (@DanLarremore) January 5, 2022
New York City is doing good work to help folks who are isolating at home with COVID. I wish this were more ubiquitous in this country:
If you have covid, NYC will provide a whole menu of services to help you safely isolate at home.
==> Meal delivery, Rx, medical check-ins, mental health support, pet services etc
After you test positive you’ll get a call from a contact tracer who will set you up w/ services. 1/
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) December 19, 2021
Source
News roundup for Fri, Jan 7, 2022 – The Prepared is written by Stephanie Arnold for theprepared.com
