United States – Page 32 – Desdemona Despair

Fake photo of rafts at the National Butterfly Center dock in Mission, Texas, composed and disseminated by Brian Kolfage as part of a QAnon/MAGA disinformation campaign. Kolfage was indicted in 2021 for fraud for his “We Build The Wall” fundraising scheme and had his Twitter account suspended for repeated violent threats. The National Butterfly Center was forced to close for the weekend of 28 January 2022 because of credible threats from QAnon/MAGA conspiracy theorists. Photo: National Butterfly Center

January 29, 2022

QAnon conspiracy theorists force National Butterfly Center to shut down for the weekend – “We simply cannot risk the safety and lives of our staff and visitors during this dangerous time”

By Shoshana Wodinsky 28 January 2022 (Gizmodo) – After spending years coming after furniture and pizza, QAnon followers are finally ruining life for butterflies and those who enjoy them. Far-right conspiracy theories have latched onto baseless claims that major Texas butterfly sanctuary is a hub for sex trafficking, leading to real-world threats against the sanctuary’s staff. On Thursday, […]

Nurse Marie-Laure Satta wipes her face during a pause in her New Year’s Eve shift in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at La Timone hospital in Marseille, France, 31 December 2021. Photo: Daniel Cole / AP Photo

January 29, 2022

“COVID parties” spread the virus on purpose. That’s “Russian roulette”, doctors warn

By Lisa Gutierrez 21 January 2022 (Kansas City Star) – Thinking about intentionally exposing yourself to the coronavirus? Thinking that you’ll probably get away with a mild case and become immune to COVID-19? You need to think again. Even if you’re fully vaccinated. If you get COVID on purpose, there’s no guarantee you’ll only get […]

COVID-19 daily cases per 100,000 people in Tennessee, 26 January 2022. Graphic: Covid Act Now

January 28, 2022

The rise of anti-vaccination social movements in a COVID-19 Infodemic era – “This pandemic has driven the largest-ever human behavior change at scale”

By Hazel Wallace 22 January 2022 (LinkedIn) – According to the World Health Organization (WHO), immunisation is a global health success story. Thanks to vaccines that help prevent over 20 infectious diseases, 2-3 million lives are saved every year. These vaccinations are one of the greatest investments for primary healthcare to underpin global health security […]

Cumulative global insured losses by peril in 2021. Aggregated costs for insurers have been largely dominated by the Tropical Cyclone and Severe Weather perils this century. The two perils combined for more than $1 trillion, or 60 percent of the total cumulative industry losses, of which roughly 74 percent was incurred in the United States. The Severe Convective Storm peril has also increasingly separated itself as accounting for the highest number of billion-dollar events. Graphic: Aon

January 27, 2022

Aon: 2021 was third costliest year on record for weather and climate-related events – Germany, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, and China recorded the costliest insurance industry events on record

CHICAGO, 25 January 2022 (Aon) – Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today published its 2021 Weather, Climate and Catastrophe Insight, which evaluates the increasing frequency and severity of disruptive natural disasters and how their resulting economic losses are protected globally. This data serves as the foundation for insights that can help […]

Annual synthetic opioid mortality in the United States, 2000-2020. Data: CDC. Graphic: Families Against Fentanyl

January 23, 2022

“The deadliest drug we’ve ever known”: author Sam Quinones on how fentanyl and meth saturated the U.S.

By Erin McCormick 23 January 2022 (The Guardian) – For the last nine years, Sam Quinones has been studying the changing face of drug use, sales, and addiction in the United States. In his new book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, he tracks […]

Coronavirus in the U.S., January 2020-January 2022, showing case rates, hospitalizations, and mortality. Data: Johns Hopkins University / Department of Health and Human Services. Graphic: CNBC

January 21, 2022

Two years since Covid was first confirmed in U.S., the pandemic is worse than anyone imagined – “Everybody wants to get to this thing called endemic. I still don’t know what the hell that means.”

By Spencer Kimball and Nate Rattner 21 January 2022 (CNBC) – A 35-year-old man returned to the U.S. from Wuhan, China on Jan. 15, 2020 and fell ill with a cough and fever. He had read an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan […]

Florida Department of Health in Orange County director Dr. Raul Pino speaks during the press conference that Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings help on 13 April 2020 to discuss COVID-19 and County updates. On 19 January 2022, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis put Dr. Pino on leave and threatened criminal prosecution for encouraging his staff to get vaccinated. Photo: Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel

January 19, 2022

DeSantis administration puts Florida health director on leave for encouraging vaccinations for his staff – “I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public health and not practice it”

By Frank Gluck 19 January 2022 (Fort Myers News-Press) – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, already facing criticism for downplaying the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations, has put on leave Orange County Health Director Dr. Raul Pino for encouraging his staff to get vaccinated. Pino had written in a 4 January 2022 email to his staff: “I […]

Leonard Rieser, chairman of the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, moves the hand of the Doomsday Clock back to 17 minutes before midnight at offices near the University of Chicago on 26 November 1991. Photo: Carl Wagner / Chicago Tribune

January 19, 2022

The story of how the Doomsday Clock began ticking 75 years ago, the brainchild of a Chicago artist

By Ron Grossman 13 January 2022 (Chicago Tribune) – Martyl Langsdorf designed just one magazine cover, but it has had considerable staying power. A prolific painter of abstract and figurative canvases, she was commissioned 75 years ago by the scientists who built the atomic bomb that ended World War II. By 1947 the Cold War […]

U.S. hospital utilization by facility, 10 January 2022. By mid-January 2022, at least 18 states had less than 15 percent capacity remaining in their ICU facilities, as the United States grappled with surging COVID-19 cases, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. Graphic: HHS Protect

January 14, 2022

ICUs nearing capacity in at least 18 U.S. states – “The sudden and steep rise in cases due to omicron is resulting in unprecedented daily case counts, sickness, absenteeism, and strains on our health care system”

By Monique Beals 13 January 2022 (The Hill) – At least 18 states have less than 15 percent capacity remaining in their ICU facilities as the United States grapples with surging COVID-19 cases, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. The states include Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, […]

Map showing natural catastrophe loss event worldwide in 2021. In 2021, natural disasters caused overall losses of $280 billion, of which roughly $120 billion were insured. Alongside 2005 and 2011, the year 2021 proved to be the second-costliest ever for the insurance sector (record year 2017: $146 billion, inflation-adjusted) – overall losses from natural disasters were the fourth-highest to date (record year 2011: $355 billion). Graphic: Munich Re

January 13, 2022

For the insurance industry, 2021 was the second-highest loss year on record, after 2017 – “The 2021 disaster statistics are striking because some of the extreme weather events are of the kind that are likely to become more frequent or more severe as a result of climate change”

10 January 2022 (Munich Re) – Worldwide, natural disasters caused substantially higher losses in 2021 than in the two previous years. Based on provisional data, storms, floods, wildfires, and earthquakes destroyed assets worth US$ 280bn. Losses in the previous year amounted to US$ 210bn, while in 2019 they were US$ 166bn. Roughly US$ 120bn of […]