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JULY 16, 2021
AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
AUGUSTARX.COM
INVASION OF THE
MUTANTS
No sci-fi movie is complete without a deadly invasion of mutants. Naturally the script calls for a happy ending, but there will be some tense moments before the credits roll. The stars of the show will ultimately defeat the invaders, but not before the mutants have eaten, incinerated, or vaporized any number of hapless extras. There will be times when victory seems well in hand, only to be snatched away by an unexpected plot twist. Which brings us to everyday life in 2021. At this point 2021 is starting to look like one of those TV shows where it seems like everyone is about to live happily ever after, but then you think, “Hold on, it can’t end this soon; we’re only 35 minutes into a 1-hour show.” In similar fashion, not long ago it seemed like the pandemic was all but defeated, at least in this part of the world. But then came the plot twists. In place after place around the country and the world, the Delta variant, so-called because it is the 4th major version of the original (following the first three letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, beta, and gamma), is causing
significant spikes in new coronavirus cases. If anyone is listening — and plenty of people don’t seem to be — public health experts are quite concerned, especially for those who have for whatever reason not yet been vaccinated. Earlier this week the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said, “In the last 24 hours, close to 500,000 new cases have been reported and about 9,300 deaths. That is not a pandemic that’s slowing down.” True, those are global numbers, but the globe being referred to is the one all of us happen to live on. U.S. numbers are a fraction of that because we are a fraction of the world’s population, but here is a dose of good news/bad news numbers for context: Earlier this week, U.S. COVID figures for the previous 30 days totaled 428,910 new cases and 8,573 deaths. Those numbers are absolutely horrible. But from a historical perspective they are absolutely great. The record for new cases in 30 days was set last December at more than 6.4 million. So by comparison, nearly 429,000 new cases doesn’t look bad at all. Those 8,500 deaths in the past month look super-duper compared to the record-setting month of January 2021, during which more than 97,000 Americans died. The danger at hand, then, is a nasty case of coronavirus relativism. Flashback: on March 9, 2020, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster announced the discovery of a new COVID case, bringing the total for the state to 7. Seven cases in the entire state! Within a week, Gov. McMaster had declared a state of emergency, and within 10 days (with the state total now at Please see MUTANTS page 3
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