POLITICO NIGHTLY: How to spend our Covid vacation

 

BY JOANNE KENEN A person visits a Covid-19 testing site along a Manhattan street in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images A LULL, NOT A BYE-BYE — So now what? As Nightly told you last week, we’re probably heading into a pandemic lull. Not today, but soonish. Fewer cases, fewer hospitalizations, fewer deaths. All good. But a lull doesn’t mean an end. And if we want to use the lull wisely to prepare for the next wave — or a future pandemic — we need public health to do a better job communicating to avoid a repeat of the whiplash, anger and distrust that’s worsened division and prolonged the mess we’ve been in. We, the public, also need to do a better job of listening to nuance but admittedly, based on what we’ve seen over the last two years, that’s a tall order. Everyone really wants the pandemic to be over (and for those of you who have decided it already is, let me remind you that Covid was the second leading cause of death in the U.S. in January. Deaths are still running around 2,500 a day). But this virus doesn’t care what we want. So we have to change how we talk about the future, Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown’s School of Public Health, suggested in an interview with Nightly. Right now “living with the virus” is often short-hand for ignoring it. What it should mean, instead, is respecting its cadences and knowing when to dial up and dial down our protective responses. When we can do most of what’s really important to us — and when we need to slow it down. Maybe not another “hot vax summer” but a pretty enjoyable spring. Jha in a recent tweet thread likened virus precautions like masks to rain boots and umbrellas. You don’t need to use all of them when it’s drizzling, but you are way better off having them when it pours. And sometimes it’s going to pour. But public health hasn’t always done a good job of conveying that uncertainty, so some people feel betrayed or manipulated or lied to when the advice changes. That’s when the demonization of “lying” scientists gets ugly. And counterproductive. Jha and other experts also worry that there’s a growing belief out there — a hardening but inaccurate conventional wisdom — that viruses always evolve to get less dangerous. “That’s wrong,” he told Nightly. “They can be more deadly,” he told Nightly. Omicron may have been milder than its predecessors, but it’s possible that son (or daughter or third cousin) of Omicron could be a whole lot worse. Or not. We just don’t know. There’s also too much faith in our acquired immunity, he said. Yes, we have built up a lot through vaccination, natural infection or both. But that immunity, while probably pretty strong right now, is impermanent. It won’t go away entirely — our immune systems are smarter than that. But based on what researchers are seeing to date, it’s likely to wane. “People who think natural infection is their ticket to ride for the rest of this pandemic are looking forward to multiple rounds of infection,” Jha said. More variants — and more surges — are almost certain, Johns Hopkins virologist Andrew Pekosz and his colleague Crystal Watson, an expert on public health risk assessment, told a Bloomberg School of Public Health media briefing this week. But we also have more tools to cope with that: vaccines, first and foremost, but also new medicines, better understanding how to treat people who get sick, and more abundant testing and supplies. So public health officials say the lull is a time to keep preparing: stockpiling tests and drugs and vaccines and supplies. And if we end up not needing them, terrific. As Jha pointed out, we spend a huge amount of time and money stockpiling defense equipment and running strategic planning exercises year after year. If there’s no attack, nobody gets mad or makes death threats against the Pentagon’s equivalent of Anthony Fauci. Having adequate, reliable supplies of those pandemic-fighting tools — which we didn’t have in 2020 — without panicked scrambling will help us manage future outbreaks, said Mandy Cohen, who stepped down a few weeks ago as North Carolina’s top health official. Public health officials should acknowledge, even lean into, the uncertainty. “Talking in absolutes has gotten folks in trouble,” said Cohen, who did something like 150 public briefings during her tenure, with graphs and data that shed light on both the known and the unknown. Not to make hope the strategy. But to have a strategy that enables us to hope. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author on Twitter at @JoanneKenen.   HAPPENING THURSDAY – A LONG GAME CONVERSATION ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS : Join POLITICO for back-to-back conversations on climate and sustainability action, starting with a panel led by Global Insider author Ryan Heath focused on insights gleaned from our POLITICO/Morning Consult Global Sustainability Poll of citizens from 13 countries on five continents about how their governments should respond to climate change. Following the panel, join a discussion with POLITICO White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López and Gina McCarthy, White House national climate advisor, about the Biden administration’s climate and sustainability agenda. REGISTER HERE.     WHAT'D I MISS? — Congressional staffers start unionization push with Democrats’ support: Congressional staffers launched an effort today to unionize their workplace as part of a growing reckoning with poor pay and hostile working conditions, encouraged by a groundswell of lawmaker support. The group, dubbed the Congressional Workers Union, said in a statement online it seeks to “unionize the personal offices and committees” throughout Congress. Currently, staffers in personal offices of members and committees can organize but there is not a process in place for them to codify a union or exercise collective bargaining rights. — North Carolina Supreme Court strikes down GOP-drawn congressional map: North Carolina’s state Supreme Court handed Democrats one of their biggest legal victories yet in the fight over redistricting, striking down a GOP-drawn congressional map that could have given Republicans control of 11 of the state’s 14 districts. — Biden gets a good news-bad news job report: The government’s latest employment report defied economic forecasts and gave President Joe Biden a sudden burst of good news: a flood of new jobs, surging wages and more workers participating in the labor force, even as Omicron surged. Yet the stock market tumbled after the numbers were released. That’s because the report was so solid — 467,000 jobs were created in January and the totals were revised upward by more than 700,000 for the previous two months — that it provides more fuel for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. The Fed’s goal is to bring down inflation, but hiking borrowing costs could also slow economic growth. — Pence rebukes Trump: ‘I had no right to overturn the election’: In a speech to the conservative Federalist Society, former Vice President Mike Pence rebuked his one time boss, Donald Trump, decrying the notion that he could have overturned the election results on the 45th president’s behalf. “Our Founders were deeply suspicious of consolidated power in the nation’s capital and were rightly concerned with foreign interference if presidential elections were decided in the capital,” Pence said. “But there are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress, I possessed unilateral authority to reject electoral college votes. And I heard this week, President Trump said I had the right to ‘overturn the election’. President Trump is wrong. … I had no right to overturn the election.” — GOP censures Cheney, Kinzinger, moves to pull out of debates: Republican Party officials voted to punish GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their work on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection and advanced a rule change that would prohibit candidates from participating in debates organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates. GOP officials took a voice vote to approve censuring Cheney and Kinzinger at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City. On Thursday, members of an RNC subcommittee decided to advance the censure resolution against the pair instead of calling for their expulsion from the party. — Michael Avenatti convicted of stealing from Stormy Daniels: Michael Avenatti was convicted of charges he cheated the porn actor Stormy Daniels out of nearly $300,000 she was supposed to get for writing a book about an alleged tryst with Trump. It was another crushing defeat for the California lawyer, who has faced a host of legal problems after briefly rising to fame as one of Trump’s leading antagonists on cable news early in his administration. — CDC advisers recommend fully approved Moderna Covid vaccine: CDC’s independent vaccine advisory panel voted unanimously today to recommend Moderna’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine series for all adults, following the FDA’s formal approval of the product. The recommendation sets up CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to give her endorsement and give the U.S. two fully licensed vaccines in its Covid arsenal.   DON’T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE.     AROUND THE WORLD Fireworks in the shape of the Olympic rings go off over the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. | Li Xin - Pool/Getty Images LET A WILD GAMES BEGIN — International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach urged world leaders to “give peace a chance” at the outset of the Winter Games in Beijing — an apparent nod to the ongoing security crisis along Ukraine’s borders and Western criticism of China’s human rights abuses. “In our fragile world — where division, conflict and mistrust are on the rise — we show the world, yes, it is possible to be fierce rivals while at the same time living peacefully and respectfully together,” Bach said in an address at the games’ opening ceremony, which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “In this Olympic spirit of peace,” Bach added, “I appeal to all political authorities across the world: Observe your commitment to this Olympic truth. Give peace a chance.” Bach’s remarks come as tensions continue to escalate in Eastern Europe, where Russia has massed roughly 100,000 troops around Ukraine in a military build-up that has sparked concern in the United States and other NATO nations. NIGHTLY NUMBER 49 The number of states in which new daily cases of Covid are declining. PARTING WORDS The Salt Lake City skyline. | Getty Images PITCH IMPERFECT — Salt Lake City’s pitch this week for the 2024 Republican National Convention seemed to be going well. There were helicopter rides, Wagyu steaks and tours of facilities built for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Then the local TV weatherman took the floor Tuesday at the host committee’s luncheon. After talking about the region’s ideal summer weather and low humidity compared to the three other finalist cities — Milwaukee, Nashville and Pittsburgh — he began showing footage of ping-pong ball-sized hail and flood waters gushing through the city as trash bins floated along. He brought up the tornado of August 1999 — assuring the RNC site selection committee members that only one person died in the event. Some in the audience watched “aghast,” said one member of the committee, which is tasked with selecting the city that will host the party’s next presidential nominating convention. The member, who asked not to be identified, chuckled recounting the presentation — as did three other people present at the luncheon. The Salt Lake City weather pitch wasn’t the only wrinkle in the RNC’s convention city selection process in recent days. Pittsburgh’s prospects suddenly nosedived. Nashville’s odds skyrocketed. A location announcement for the GOP’s summer 2024 convention isn’t expected to come until the RNC summer meeting in August, when the full body will likely vote to affirm the site selection committee’s decision.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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Friday, February 4   |  Follow Teresa on Twitter

Pence finally says Trump is wrong, Stormy spanks Avenatti, the Olympics begin, and the antisocial GOP By Teresa M. Hanafin, Globe Staff Good day! It's Friday, Feb. 4. It's Rosa Parks Day in New York, California, and Missouri. Sunrise in Boston was at 6:54 a.m. and sunset will be at 5:02 p.m. for 10 hours and 8 minutes of sunlight. The waxing moon is 15 percent full. The Old Farmer's Almanac says if you want to make your own toilet water (a less concentrated version of perfume), all you need is an ounce of honey-water, two ounces of Eau sans Pareille, about five drachms of jasmine-water, an ounce of clove-water, an ounce of violet-water, two drachms of Cyprus-water, two drachms of sweet Calamus-water, two drachms of lavender-water, and ten drops of Spirit of Neroli or Oranges. Easy peasy. What's it like outside? Rainy, sleety, freezy. The weekend will be sunny but cold, in the 20s, with Sunday's wind chill making it feel like it's below zero. Breaking: Former VP Mike Pence said today that "President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election." Word is that fire engines are screaming their way to Mar-a-Lago to deal with a massive explosion that is spewing orange smoke all over Palm Beach. Also, oily lawyer Michael Avenatti was convicted today of stealing $300,000 from former adult film actress Stormy Daniels, money she was supposed to get for writing a book about an alleged tryst with Trump while he was married to Melania. Hey, sport: It's bad enough that the Giants conducted a sham head coaching interview with former Patriots assistant coach Brian Flores (makes you wonder how many others have happened). But Flores' claim that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per game to intentionally lose games in 2019 so that the team could secure a higher draft position is just as explosive and could spell a boatload of trouble for the Dolphins and Ross in particular. With Red Sox DH David Ortiz's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the retirement of QB Tom Brady, the Globe's Chad Finn asks: During the two-decade dominance of Boston teams, including Celtics and Bruins championship, what period of that era was the very best? He has an interesting answer. Today's US coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers in the US From the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University Confirmed US cases: 76,165,124 Confirmed US deaths: 899,895 From The New York Times COVID-19 map and case count: VACCINATIONS Fully vaccinated (two shots): 64 percent of all Americans Boosted: 27 percent of all Americans Partially vaccinated: 11 percent of all Americans No shots: 25 percent of all Americans Seven-day average of daily vaccinations: 709,875 A month ago: 1.4 million INFECTIONS New cases yesterday: 312,238 A month ago: 885,906 HOSPITALIZATIONS Yesterday: 123,279 people infected with COVID-19 were in the hospital A month ago: 116,187 people DEATHS Yesterday: 3,022 Americans died from COVID-19 A month ago: 1,650 Americans died in one day The COVID-19 vaccines work. So it's pretty mind-blowing that people are willing to die rather than get one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Take this guy in North Carolina whose kidneys are failing. He needs a transplant, but his transplant center, like most, requires that would-be recipients meet certain criteria -- including being vaccinated against COVID-19 to improve their chances of surviving with their new organs. He would rather die than get the vaccine. Say hello to God for me. Then there's the Washington state trooper who was fired because he refused to get vaxxed. In his final signoff in October, broadcast over his police radio, Robert LaMay whined about his situation, then launched a vulgar insult at the state's governor, Jay Inslee. So classy. Naturally, he became a hero to conservatives, and many right-wing TV and radio hosts interviewed him on air, celebrating his refusal. LaMay died last month. Of Covid-19. And not one of those radical right hosts who celebrated him in October have told their viewers he died. They just moved on to other vaccine refuseniks who haven't died yet. That celebration of anti-vaxxers is typical of today's anti-facts Republican Party. Take the Republican National Committee: Today it voted to censure US Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for agreeing to serve on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The RNC also declared that the attack on the US Capitol, the attempt to overturn the presidential election, and the plan to stop the peaceful transfer of power, was merely "legitimate political discourse." Honest to God, when my knee starts aching, I want some of whatever it is that they're smokin'. Some Republicans were horrified by the committee's actions, including US Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, whose niece, Ronna Romney McDaniel, is the RNC chairwoman. Awkward! He wrote on Twitter: Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan also took to Twitter: The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth. It's a sad day for my party -- and the country -- when you're punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies. NY Times columnist Paul Krugman argues that these stances and moves are all part of a whole: The right's constant attacks on essential government functions, be it public health (the vaccines), free and fair elections, keeping Americans safe by implementing gun control, even protecting the electric grid in Texas. His conclusion? The Republican Party today is antisocial: As Thomas Hobbes could have told you, human beings can only flourish, can only avoid a state of nature in which lives are "nasty, brutish and short," if they participate in a "commonwealth" — a society in which government takes on much of the responsibility for making life secure. The modern American right is antisocial because its members reject any policy that relies on social cooperation, and they want us to return instead to Hobbes's dystopian state of nature. We won't try to keep guns out of the hands of potential mass murderers; instead, we'll rely on teacher-vigilantes to gun them down once the shooting has already started. We won't try to limit the spread of infectious diseases; instead, we'll tell people to take drugs that are expensive, ineffective, or both after they've already gotten sick. In the end, none of this will work. Government exists for a reason. But the right's constant attacks on essential government functions will take a toll, making all of our lives nastier, more brutish, and shorter.   Back to the Jan. 6 insurrection: CNN is reporting that the House select committee has found out that US Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio spoke with Trump for 10 minutes the morning of Jan. 6. Remember Jordan's evasive, stammering answers that he couldn't recall whether he spoke with Trump that day, or maybe he spoke with him, or maybe it was Don Jr. or maybe it was Barron ...   As we know, Jordan later that afternoon objected to Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Hmm. Wonder where he got that idea.   Meanwhile, Biden's having a great few days. The economy added 467,000 jobs in January, meaning that his administration created 6.6 million jobs in the first year of his presidency, the most since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The military killed the leader of ISIS, the country's GDP grew 5.7 percent last year (highest since 1984), wages also have grown 5.7 percent, and the House passed a Biden priority: A bill worth billions to strengthen the country's semiconductor industry and shore up supply chains. Sure, inflation is at 7 percent, but the Fed thinks its plan to raise interest rates next month will deal with that.   The Olympic Games in Beijing have started, and China thumbed its nose at the world by having an athlete with a Uyghur name help light the cauldron at the close of the elaborate opening ceremonies this morning. (You can watch a repeat of the ceremonies at 8 tonight on NBC.) As you know, the US and other countries are conducting a diplomatic boycott of China because of its ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims. Trump bestie Vladimir Putin was the guest of honor at the opening ceremonies, showing the West that Putin and Xi Jinping are teaming up, with the common goal of expanding their autocratic rule -- Russia to Ukraine, China to Taiwan. Meanwhile, the US has had some victories in the preliminary competitions: The women's hockey team beat Finland, 5-2, for example, and figure skater Nathan Chen finished first in the men's short program. Medals will start being awarded tomorrow; here's a full schedule for you and how to watch. And you can sign up for our free Olympics newsletter to keep up with all the news.   Finally, if you're looking for good TV to watch as ice coats every square inch of your yard and neighborhood, the Globe's Matthew Gilbert lists his 10 favorite miniseries that were created specifically for streaming (i.e., not cable shows that later moved to streaming channels). Enjoy. Thanks for reading. After writing so much about Republicans, I'm looking forward to watching Matthew's suggestion of the miniseries "Normal People." E-mail comments and suggestions to teresa.hanafin@globe.com, or follow me on Twitter @BostonTeresa. See you next week.   Please tell your friends about Fast Forward! They can sign up here. The Globe has lots of other e-mail newsletters that are almost as good as this one, from breaking news alerts to sports, politics, business, and entertainment -- check them out.