BUT MAH FWEE-DUMBS!

Surprise surprise, again (not):

Meet Federal judge Kathryn Mizelle, a former clerk to Clarence Thomas who was appointed to the federal bench at age 33 - making her the youngest Federal judge ever - despite the American Bar Association finding her unqualified for the appointment due to “not meeting the requisite minimum standard of experience necessary to perform the responsibilities required by the high office of a Federal trial judge” She was was nominated and confirmed as the 2020 lame-duck session was winding down. Eight years out of law school, she had never tried a case of any kind. Her husband was chosen to be acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security through his connection to that noted devotee of the Constitution, Stephen Miller. She had no experience, but she had the golden resume.

She ruled today that the Federally-required mask mandate for travel on U.S. air lines and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking, making the rule an unconstitutional abuse of federal regulatory power.

In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected to it in the lawsuit. “Because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends, the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate.”

This despite the fact that COVID 19 variant BA.2 - the 30 percent more-transmissible variant of the highly-transmissable Omicron variant - has now been joined by the further sub-mutations that appear to be even more transmissible.

At the height of the previous omicron surge this past December, reported daily cases reached into the hundreds of thousands. On April 14, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases rose to 39,521, up from 30,724 two weeks earlier, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

BA.2 may well have the same effect in the U.S. as it did in Israel, where it created a “bump” in the chart measuring cases. Keeping the new surge somewhat in check is a higher level of immunity in the U.S. from vaccination or past infection compared with this past winter.

However, right now in Europe, the BA.2 surge is “substantial” in some places that had comparable levels of immunity.

BA.2 will move through the country gradually. The Northeast has been hit hardest so far, with more than 90% of new infections caused by BA.2 last week compared with 86% nationally.

As of Thursday, the highest rates of new COVID cases per capita over the past 14 days were in Vermont, Rhode Island, Alaska, New York and Massachusetts. In Washington, D.C., which also ranks in the top 10 for rates of new cases, Howard University announced it was moving most undergraduate classes online for the rest of the semester because of “a significant increase in COVID-19 positivity” in the district and on campus.

Some states, such as Rhode Island and New Hampshire, saw the average of daily new cases rise by more than 100% in two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins data.

In Rhode Island, state statistics show 99% of adults are at least partially vaccinated and 48% have gotten the booster dose that scientists say is key in protecting against severe illness with omicron. This likely has bearing on the fact that right now only 55 people have been hospitalized with BA.2

Vermont also has relatively high levels of vaccination and fewer patients in the hospital than during the height of the first omicron wave. But hospitalizations and the numbers of patients in intensive care units are both up slightly, although deaths have not risen. Data from the Centers for Disease Control shows that new hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 were up slightly in New England and the New York region.

As the wave moves across the country, experts said states with low rates of vaccination may face substantially more infections and severe cases that wind up in the hospital.

So of course it makes excellent sense to have people take their masks off in airplanes, that travel from one part of the country to the other, and are among the best spreaders of disease, whether of COVID or anything else.

Vigilance is a good strategy because the coronavirus is constantly throwing curveballs. Even more contagious subvariants of BA.2 found in New York state, known as BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1 are now the majority of new infections. And scientists warn that new and potentially dangerous variants could arise at any time.

But Mah Fwee-dumbs!!!!!

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