Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday, I had surgery to repair my broken ankle at the Orthopaedic and Special Surgery  Center in Danbury, Connecticut.  Two screws were needed to put my left ankle back together.  Dr. Yariv Maghen performed the operation and as of right now, I feel much better.  I hope to say the same after the pain blocking medicine wears off.

The Orthopaedic and Special Surgery  Center opened a couple of years ago and it is the first time I have been treated there.  It is owned by doctors including several of whom belong to the Somers Orthopaedic Group that has facilities in four locations north of New York City. and with whom I have been a patient for 16 years. I can only say that I was completely satisfied with the services I received at the Center from everyone including receptionists, administrators, nurses, and doctors.  All knew their professions well and treated me in a most competent and efficient manner.  The ambience of the entire facility breathes with care and consideration for the patients.

If you have the need for any orthopaedic surgery, I highly recommend this facility.

Lastly, I thank my wife Elaine, my family, friends, colleagues, and students who have been good enough to send me get well wishes.  It means a lot!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

My colleague, David Bloomfield, passed an article on to me that appeared in the World on February 9th.  It considers services provided children with dyslexia including the creation  of a specialized school for this population.  I agree with David’s comment that:

“The sheer scale of the problem is daunting,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law, and policy at the CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College. He worries that a stand-alone dyslexia school will serve only a fraction of the students who need help. Instead, he said schools should use COVID-19 funding to staff every school with reading specialists and experts trained in phonics instruction.

While Bloomfield agrees that students at a dyslexia-specific school will benefit from extra intervention, he is concerned the results won’t last: “My worry with schools like this is they may start out with great fanfare and great attention, but because they’re segregated, and isolated, they tend to diminish in quality over time.”

The entire article is below.  Well worth  a read!

Tony

Naomi Peña’s four children have dyslexia. In fall 2020, as her son Lucas learned virtually from home in New York City during the pandemic, she realized just how far behind he was at his public school.

“Mom, I have a small brain,” her son, now 12, would tell her.

After a pricey neuropsychological evaluation, school officials offered some extra support but ultimately couldn’t provide the structural literacy program Lucas needed, according to his mom. By March 2021, Peña began looking for a school more tailored to his needs. She found a private school for students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities and decided to enroll him. The city Department of Education will pay the school’s $75,000 annual tuition, but Peña had to hire an educational attorney to ensure that she followed proper procedures to receive that reimbursement.

Peña is the co-founder of the Literacy Academy Collective. For the past two years, she and six other moms have been advocating for a new public school for students with dyslexia in New York City. In late January, city Department of Education Chancellor David Banks announced plans for just that. A new school for dyslexia students will complement Bridge Preparatory Charter School, a dyslexia-focused school that opened on Staten Island in 2019. No location or opening date information for the new school has been announced. But while many education advocates agree that NYC students with dyslexia need more support, they disagree over whether a dedicated school is the right approach.

According to data from the city’s Department of Education, one-fifth of the school district’s roughly 1 million students have disabilities. Of those, more than 67,000 have been diagnosed with a learning disability. Students with dyslexia have difficulties learning to read and matching letters with sounds.

“The sheer scale of the problem is daunting,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law, and policy at the CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College. He worries that a stand-alone dyslexia school will serve only a fraction of the students who need help. Instead, he said schools should use COVID-19 funding to staff every school with reading specialists and experts trained in phonics instruction.

While Bloomfield agrees that students at a dyslexia-specific school will benefit from extra intervention, he is concerned the results won’t last: “My worry with schools like this is they may start out with great fanfare and great attention, but because they’re segregated, and isolated, they tend to diminish in quality over time.”

Emily Levy, founder of the New York–based EBL Coaching tutoring service, estimates that more than a fifth of her company’s 200 students have dyslexia. She said that while some students with milder forms of dyslexia may be able to adapt well in mainstream classes, students with more severe needs would likely benefit from an all-school model. She also pointed out that a multisensory, structured literacy approach to reading instruction that includes phonics and decoding skills not only works best for students with dyslexia but also often transfers well to other students: “Kids first off seem to enjoy the multisensory approach—it helps the information stick in their long-term memory.”

Some private schools have found a niche serving students with special learning needs. Molly Arthur founded Educational Pathways Academy in Naples, Fla., in 2017, a Christian school that now serves 82 students from first to 10th grade. All of the school’s students have reading difficulties similar to dyslexia, though not all have a clear dyslexia diagnosis. Some students were adopted after being exposed to drugs prenatally, Arthur said, and one student has a chromosomal disorder. All have average or higher IQ: One sixth grader has an IQ of 135 but reads at a second grade level.

Students at Educational Pathways spend about half of each day in peer groups corresponding to their age and ability and the other half following an independent schedule. Students move to a new classroom and a new teacher every 40 minutes—a design Arthur said is also helpful for her students with ADHD.

Arthur knows the emotional toll dyslexia can take: Her dyslexic sister dropped out of school when she was 16. Many students come to the school with self-doubt, she said, and she wants to focus on the child as a whole person. “God didn’t forget to give you the ability to read well or write well or comprehend well—He doesn’t make mistakes,” she said. “We really try to instill in them that you are made by God for a plan, for a purpose.” She said parents have told her that their children are enjoying school for the first time since coming to Educational Pathways.

Back in New York, Peña said she and others at the Literacy Academy Collective are working toward launching a teacher training residency program. Teachers would receive training and experience by teaching in a dyslexia-specific school, then could take dyslexia-friendly education methods, such as structured literacy, into their district schools.

Meanwhile, Lucas has thrived in his new classroom. “He literally told me last week that his favorite class is reading and writing,” Peña said. “This is a kid that could not string together a couple of sentences to make a paragraph or read a couple of lines.”

Dear Commons Community,

ABC/Getty Images

Dear Commons Community,

New York Times columnist, Charles Blow, has piece today entitled “The Beauty of ABC’s Abbot Elementary.”  He looks at the new popular television show and relates it to his own family, several of whom including his mother, are teachers.  He also comments on wider societal and political issues related to culture wars, diversity, mask mandates, and the attrition in the profession.

His conclusion:

“The teachers in ‘Abbott Elementary,’ particularly the young, Black, idealistic ones, show us what is at stake as we tighten the vise on educators. They remind us that these are not just pawns in a political game, but real people, often the best kind of people, doing the best they can with too little and not been applauded nearly enough.”

The entire piece is below.

Tony

————————————————–

The New York Times

The Beauty of ABC’s ‘Abbott Elementary’

Charles Blow

Feb. 9, 2022

My mother has worked in the school system since I was in preschool. For most of that time she was a teacher. When she retired, she ran for the school board and won. She is now serving her third term. She’ll be 80 years old in November.

My brother is also a teacher, as is his daughter.

All my life I have seen up close the struggles and joys of teaching: the papers spread out on the dining room table, separated into two stacks, the ones that had been graded and those that had not. I would help my mother with her bulletin boards in the beginning of these years and help her process through the long parent-teacher conferences in the middle of these years.

I remember the home visits she made, sometimes to talk about a student who was struggling, sometimes to take dinner to a family that was hard on its luck.

I remember the students in our home as my mother bounced back and forth between helping them through homework and making dinner, so deeply connected to the children that they all called her Mama.

Maybe that is why the series “Abbott Elementary” has struck such a chord with me, because it reminded me of the beautiful struggle of people like my mother, who take on the all-consuming task of teaching.

That show is about a gaggle of well-meaning teachers — both Black and white — at a struggling, majority-Black Philadelphia elementary school with an aloof and incompetent principal. But it could well have been set anywhere.

The show is a sensation. It set ratings records for ABC and is only growing in popularity, resonating with many more people than just teachers and the people who love them.

The show illustrates that while there may be inequities in funding for these schools, there is no shortage of teachers who care and are determined to do the best they can for their students.

It refocuses the lens on the nobility of the profession, the way that teachers are driven more by mission than money, more by the need to make a difference than to make a killing.

There is a purity and innocence in it. It offers comfort in a time of strife and anxiety. Race is always present but not always central. This is a story about shared humanity.

It reminds you that many teachers are everyday heroes, not only teaching our children, but inspiring them, loving them and protecting them.

It is interesting that this show has burst onto the scene at the same time that a culture war is playing out in our schools and the teaching profession is straining under the weight of the pandemic.

Republicans in state after state are introducing bills to prevent educators from teaching a comprehensive, accurate version of American history, with all its complexities and trauma, especially as it relates to race. A report by the education website Chalkbeat last week found that at least 36 states have “adopted or introduced laws or policies that restrict teaching about race and racism.”

A Florida bill, backed by that state’s governor, would prohibit schools and private businesses from making people (read “white people”) feel “discomfort” or “guilt” based on race. Good luck enforcing that. Exactly how does one measure discomfort and guilt? Are those floating emotions, presenting differently in different people?

Every Black child, or child of color, or gay kid could argue that the absence of accurate representation of their groups in class discussions makes them feel discomfort. The blindfold can always be flipped.

Furthermore, there is a raging debate about masking and vaccination in schools as the pandemic has been politicized. As an Axios/Momentive poll from August found, a parent’s political party tended to align with their opposition to school mask mandates, with 56 percent of Republican parents opposed to the mandates versus 24 percent of Independents and 4 percent of Democrats.

Because of this, the threats to teachers have increased dramatically, so much so that in October, the United States attorney general directed the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorneys’ offices to discuss strategies for addressing what it called a “disturbing trend”: “an increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools.”

On top of all that, and perhaps because of it, teachers are leaving the profession in droves, including Black teachers. According to a report by the RAND Corporation last year, “nearly one in four teachers overall, and almost half of Black teachers in particular, said that they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020-2021 school year.”

The teachers in “Abbott Elementary,” particularly the young, Black, idealistic ones, show us what is at stake as we tighten the vise on educators. They remind us that these are not just pawns in a political game, but real people, often the best kind of people, doing the best they can with too little and not been applauded nearly enough.

Dear Commons Community,

Eileen Gu is one of the finest freeskiers in the world, graceful and daring and utterly fearless. Off the skis, she possesses model-level poise, speaks two languages fluently, plays deft piano, is preparing to attend Stanford this fall, and exhibits the kind of compassion and empathy that allows her millions of social media followers to feel they truly know her.

In an Olympics, she would be at the forefront of Team USA … if she weren’t already skiing for China.

Gu — who competes as Gu Ailing in China — captured gold in freeskiing big air yesterday morning,  in the first of three events she’s slated to run during these Games. Next week, she’ll compete in slopestyle (a combination of rails and jumps) and halfpipe, and she’s the odds-on favorite to win both of those as well.   The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in Yahoo Sports.

One look at her exuberance, her joy, her absolute confidence in the air above Beijing, and it’s easy to see why the entire nation of China has fallen in love with her. Gu’s face adorns billboards, commercials and products all over China, and Olympic gold will only magnify her already massive reach.

But why China and not the United States for Gu? That’s a complex story, and one that will have significant political ramifications going forward, no matter how much Gu wants to stay out of the fray.

Eileen Gu was born in San Francisco in September 2003, the child of an American father and a Chinese mother. Raised by her mother and maternal grandmother, Gu maintained a deep connection to China even as she grew up American. She attended a private high school where she competed in track, and steadily began making a name for herself on the international skiing scene.  

Her skiing accolades piled up. She was the first woman to land a double cork 1440 — two flips, three rotations — in competition. She won seven golds in international competitions, such as the X-Games and World Championships. And then she made the most momentous decision of her life.

On June 7, 2019, Gu declared her intention to ski for China in an Instagram post. “I am proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringings,” she said, and then laid out her intentions.

“The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love,” Gu wrote. “Through skiing, I hope to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations. If I can help to inspire one young girl to break a boundary, my wishes will have come true.”

Social media greeted her decision with suspicion and scorn; critics lobbed the usual accusations of greed, naïveté and lack of proper patriotism in Gu’s direction, and likely will even moreso now that she’s carrying through on her Olympic dream. Given China’s stated intention to become a winter sports powerhouse, many critics believe Gu is being used as a glittering, gold-medal-winning pawn in the ongoing geopolitcal chess match between China and the United States.

Gu isn’t the only American athlete competing for China; figure skaters Beverly Zhu and Ashley Lin, as well as several hockey players, are among China’s contingent at the Olympics. But Gu is by far the most notable, most famous, and most likely to bring home hardware.

“It is possible that this decision will work well for Ms. Gu,” said John Soares, an adjunct assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame with experience in Olympic history. “She might become a hero in both the USA and China. It is possible, too, she could end up being denounced in both countries.”

Gu has not addressed the question of whether she renounced her U.S. citizenship, although the IOC requires athletes to hold passports in the name of countries they represent. Article 3 of China’s Nationality Law notes that China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national. Late last month, the Wall Street Journal inquired about a story on Red Bull’s website that indicated Gu had given up her American passport, and shortly afterward, the story was altered to remove any mention of Gu’s passport

After her gold medal win Tuesday, Gu once again sidestepped the question of her citizenship, saying “I definitely feel as though I’m just as American as I am Chinese … Both continue to be supportive of me because they understand my mission is to use sport as a force for unity.”

In the weeks leading up to the Games, Gu’s public image has focused exclusively on the joy of being an Olympic athlete, and the rosy possibilities that have arisen for her … and, not coincidentally, for the greater nation of China.

“I’ve always said my goal is to globally spread the sport I love to kids, especially girls, and to shift sport culture toward one motivated by passion,” Gu wrote on Instagram last week. “Now, after hearing that over 300 MILLION Chinese people have started winter sports for fun, I’m blown away by how far we have come. I’m proud to have done my best to spread a positive and personal message, and to have reached audiences willing to listen to me.”

Gu counts American companies such as Red Bull, Victoria’s Secret and Oakley among her sponsors, and she’s modeled for Estee Lauder, Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton. She’s a regular fixture in fashion magazines and on action-sports tours … but those environments aren’t ones where she’ll face hard questioning about the political realities of her decision to align herself with China. Her recent essay for the New York Times delves eloquently into the mechanics of overcoming fear while avoiding any mention at all of nationality.

In an environment where American athletes speak their minds on every social and political subject of the moment, Gu’s silence is notable. She has shut down all public communication outside of purely sport-related quotes, focusing entirely on what she intends to do to help promote skiing in China prior to the Games, and on how her first runs have gone while in Beijing.

Going forward, the question for Gu will be how much she’s truly able to carry through on her intention to inspire children, particularly girls. Promoting the value of winter sports is one thing, but Gu’s profoundly Western sensibilities are sharply at odds with modern Chinese rule and aims. Speaking up in America can result in a Twitter apology; speaking up in China can result in so much worse.

“Even if an athlete works hard to stay on officials’ good side, there are risks in dealing with Communist regimes,” Soares said. He pointed to Eastern Europe during the Cold War as a comparable example.

“When sports officials wanted a Czechoslovakian athlete, a world-class tennis and ice hockey player, to focus on hockey, the state bank refused to let him withdraw the money he needed to buy tennis rackets,” Soares said. “More ominously, in 1950 a number of Czechoslovakian hockey players were arrested and sentenced to hard labor in uranium mines. Their supposed crime was plotting to flee the country — even though they had passed up opportunities to defect at earlier international events.”

Whether she wants it or not, Gu is a visible symbol of the extreme tension that now exists between China and the United States. Athletes do leave Team USA to compete for other countries, but rarely at the top of their game; for most, the decision to compete for another nation based on family lineage is an easier path to the Olympics.

So the fact that Gu is now winning gold for China, not the United States, is a massive public relations win for a nation fully willing and prepared to dominate the world conversation going forward.

“It is hard to know how this situation will play out,” Soares said. “There are few precedents for this course of action.” Soares cited the case of Zola Budd, a South African runner who competed for Britain in the 1980s because South Africa, then in the era of apartheid, was banned from the Olympics. Budd’s decision drew criticism from both countries, but her situation differs from Gu’s in that she had no option to compete for her home country. Gu, on the other hand, would have led Team USA, both on the snow and in pre-Olympics coverage.

“I’m American when I’m in the U.S., and Chinese when I’m in China,” Gu has often said, most recently in the mixed zone after winning gold Tuesday. It’s an easy line, but the Chinese government may not be so glib about Gu’s two worlds. What she does and says in America, for instance, could have severe repercussions in China.

And yet, Gu continues to insist that her mission, and her focus, are purely apolitical, charitable and motivational. After her gold medal victory, she addressed the question of whether she could satisfy fans, and critics, of both nations.

“I’m not trying to keep everyone happy,” she said. “I’m an 18-year-old girl out here living my best life. I’m out here having a great time … It doesn’t matter if other people are happy or not. I’m doing my best. I’m enjoying the entire process and using my voice to create as much positive change as I can in an area that is personal and relevant to myself.”

Then Gu addressed her critics more directly. “If other people don’t believe that’s where I’m coming from, that just reflects they don’t have the empathy to empathize with a good heart, because maybe they don’t share the same morals I do. I’m not going to try to placate people who are uneducated and are probably never going to experience the kind of joy and gratitude and love that I am fortunate to experience on a daily basis.”

And finally, the coup de grace: “If people don’t believe me and people don’t like me,” she said, “that’s their loss. They’re never going to the Olympics.”          

A most interesting person.  Good luck to her!

Tony              

Mitch McConnell

Dear Commons Community,

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell clashed yesterday with the Republican National Committee’s recent censure of two GOP lawmakers, as well as its characterization of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. As reported by NBC News.

“We all were here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was,” McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters at his weekly news conference.

His remarks added to a backlash from Democrats and numerous Republicans after the RNC approved a resolution Friday accusing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” a reference to the Jan. 6 committee. Cheney and Kinzinger are the only GOP members of the House panel.

McConnell also said Tuesday that the RNC shouldn’t be “in the business of picking and choosing Republicans who ought to be supported,” adding that the national committee’s role is to back all members of the party.

“The issue is whether or not the RNC should be, sort of, singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC,” he said.

McConnell’s comments also contrast with those of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who has evaded questions about the RNC’s depiction of Jan. 6. But McCarthy criticized Cheney and Kinzinger when asked about the censure resolution.

“This is a pure political committee. I think those two individuals would have a hard time ever coming back to Congress,” McCarthy said Friday on Fox News. (Kinzinger is retiring; Cheney is running for re-election but faces a GOP primary challenger.)

The tactical split between the two Republican leaders points to their contrasting strategies for the 2022 midterm election.

McCarthy’s approach is to stay closely aligned with former President Donald Trump, energize core GOP voters and rely on conservative enthusiasm to power Republicans back to the House majority, while counting on Trump’s support to become speaker. McConnell has sought to distance his caucus from some of the radical undercurrents in the conservative wing of the party and attract swing voters by making the November election a referendum on President Joe Biden.

“On the substance, I don’t think it was a good idea,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said of the RNC resolution.

Other Republicans said it was a distraction from the GOP’s goal of maximizing its prospects in the midterm election.

But Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said most Republicans in his state “probably agree” with the RNC’s move, although he declined to say whether he agreed with it.

“Listen, whatever you think about the RNC vote, it reflects the view of most Republican voters,” he said. “In my state, it’s not helpful to have a bunch of D.C. Republicans commenting on the RNC.”

We need more McConnells and Wickers speaking up in the Republican Party and fewer McCarthys and Hawleys!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, announced yesterday that free community college tuition is no longer a part of the Build Back Better Bill. In the brief video clip above, she laments that this vital part of her husband’s agenda has been scuttled at least for now. 

First lady Jill Biden said  that she was “disappointed” one of her key causes, free community college, was cut  Build Back Better agenda.

“My husband Joe has had to make compromises,”she said of her husband’s $2.2 trillion spending plan during remarks at the Community College National Legislative Summit in Washington, DC.

“Congress hasn’t passed the Build Back Better agenda — yet. And free community college is no longer a part of that package. We knew this wouldn’t be easy — Joe has always said that. Still, like you, I was disappointed,” she added.

Biden, a longtime educator currently working as an English professor at a Northern Virginia community college, has for the last several years pushed for the inclusion of two years of free community college for eligible students as part of then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign platform and then as part of the Biden administration’s legislative agenda. 

The President’s Build Back Better plan has faced an uphill battle inside Congress, involving intense negotiations after receiving significant pushback from key Senate Democrats, notably centrists Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

The original Build Back Better bill included $45.5 billion for states to offer two years of free community college tuition for a period of five years. However, in a news conference last month, President Biden told reporters he was worried that component of his spending plan would not make the final cut.

“There’s two really big components that I feel strongly about that I’m not sure I can get in the package,” he said. “One is the child care tax credit, and the other is help for cost of community colleges.”

The admission Monday by the first lady in her remarks to the assembled community college leaders was the first time she had confirmed that this agenda item was dead.

Those of us who live in states with free community college tuition, know its benefits well.

Sad day!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday I slipped on the ice and broke my ankle in two places.  I spent a painful day at the hospital and will be having surgery over the next week or so, hopefully this Friday.

Tony

Marc Short

Dear Commons Community,

Former President Donald Trump received bad advice from “snake oil salesmen” who falsely told him Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short said.

“Unfortunately, the president had many bad advisers who were basically snake oil salesman giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do,” Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday.

Short’s comments came two days after Pence rebuked Trump in a speech to the conservative Federalist Society, saying Trump was wrong to suggest the vice president has the power to overturn an election.

“I believe that Joe Biden is the duly elected President of the United States,” Short said on Sunday. “The reality is that there was not enough significant fraud that was presented that would have overturned any of those states’ elections.”

Short, who was with Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn the election results, recently appeared before the House Select Committee investigating the siege to answer questions.

During the attack, some of the rioters shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” and one now-convicted https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-seeks-four-years-prison-capitol-rioter-qanon-shaman-2021-11-17 Trump supporter known as the “QAnon Shaman” left the vice president a note that read: “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

Last week, the National Archives announced it would be turning over Pence’s records to the panel, after Trump lost a legal bid to block the committee from seeing them.

Short did not discuss the details of his testimony on Sunday, saying only that he was complying with a subpoena.

However, he cast doubt on whether Pence would ever appear before the committee to testify, telling NBC “that would be a pretty unprecedented step.”

“I think it is very different to subpoena a former vice president to talk about private conversations he had with the president,” Short said. “It’s never happened before.”

View the full interview.  There are a number of interesting comments from Short.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Propelled in part by the contagious Omicron variant, the US death toll from Covid-19 hit 900,000 on Friday, less than two months after eclipsing 800,000.

The two-year total, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Indianapolis, San Francisco, or Charlotte, North Carolina.

The milestone comes more than 13 months into a vaccination drive that has been beset by misinformation and political and legal strife, though the shots have proved safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness and death.

Despite its wealth and world-class medical institutions, the US has the highest reported toll of any country and even then, the real number of lives lost directly or indirectly to the coronavirus is thought to be significantly higher.  As reported  by The Guardian.

“It is an astronomically high number. If you had told most Americans two years ago as this pandemic was getting going that 900,000 Americans would die over the next few years, I think most people would not have believed it,” said Dr Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

He lamented that most of the deaths had happened after the vaccine gained authorization.

“We got the medical science right. We failed on the social science. We failed on how to help people get vaccinated, to combat disinformation, to not politicize this,” Jha said.

“Those are the places where we have failed as America.”

Just 64% of the population is fully vaccinated, or about 212 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nor is Covid-19 finished with the United States: Jha said the US could reach 1 million deaths by April.

The toll came as Omicron is loosening its grip on the country. New cases per day have plunged by almost half since mid-January, when they hit a record-shattering peak of more than 800,000. Cases have been declining in 49 out of 50 states in the last two weeks, by Johns Hopkins’ count, and the 50th state, Maine, reported that confirmed infections were falling there, too, dropping sharply over the past week.

The number of Americans in the hospital with Covid-19 has declined 15% since mid-January to about 124,000.

Deaths are still running high at more than 2,400 per day on average, the most since last winter. And they are on the rise in at least 35 states, reflecting the lag time between when victims become infected and when they succumb.

Still, public health officials have expressed hope that the worst of Omicron is coming to an end. While they caution that things could still go bad again and dangerous new variants could emerge, some places are already talking about easing precautions.

Los Angeles County may end outdoor mask requirements in a few weeks, Public Health Director Dr Barbara Ferrer said Thursday.

“Post-surge does not imply that the pandemic is over or that transmission is low or that there will not be unpredictable waves of surges in the future,” she warned.

Experts believe some Covid-19 deaths have been misattributed to other conditions. And some Americans are thought to have died of chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes because they were unable or unwilling to obtain treatment during the crisis.

The death toll reached 800,000 on December 14th. It took just 51 more days to get to 900,000, the fastest increase of 100,000 since last winter.

“We have underestimated our enemy here, and we have under-prepared to protect ourselves,” said Dr Joshua M. Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We’ve learned a tremendous amount of humility in the face of a lethal and contagious respiratory virus.”

Jha said he and other medical professionals are frustrated that policymakers are seemingly running out of ideas for getting people to roll up their sleeves.

“There aren’t a whole lot of tools left. We need to double down and come up with new ones,” he said.

Covid-19 has become one of the top three causes of death in America, behind heart disease and cancer.

“We have been fighting among ourselves about tools that actually do save lives. Just the sheer amount of politics and misinformation around vaccines, which are remarkably effective and safe, is staggering,” Sharfstein said.

He added: “This is the consequence.”

So many of these deaths could have been avoided!

Tony