January 1, Experts Predict 400k COVID Deaths by 2021

This Day in History | 1995

Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks Lou Gerig’s record for consecutive games played in Major League Baseball. Ripken’s 2131st straight game surpassed Gerig who had his career ended early due to MLS. 

Good morning Middle Americans, 

The latest models from the experts tracking COVID-19 deaths and cases is predicting a grim number,  400,000 dead Americans by the end of the year. That number could be significantly higher if people don’t wear masks and practice social distancing. The question is, will people actually listen to the so-called experts. So far their predictions on cases and death rates have been pretty accurate. The reason why we call them so-called experts is because people don’t seem to care how right they are, when they are right. What stands out more are all the changes that have been made to the protocols and policies. Chances are, if you’ve lost someone close to you during the pandemic, you’re listening. 

President Trump just landed an endorsement from someone nobody probably asked for: Osama Bin Laden’s niece. Also today, The Trump administration has instructed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity trainings that address topics like white privilege and critical race theory, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda.”

Read all about it. 

-Fraser Dixon

Coronavirus Model: U.S. Deaths will Surpass 400,000 by End of Year

(CBS News) – A coronavirus models projects deaths due to the virus in the United States will top 400,000 by the end of the year, with 410,000 projected by January 1, according to new data. That would more than double the current U.S. death toll, which stood at more than 188,000 as of Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which has been cited by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said this week that deaths could skyrocket to 3,000 per day in December if current trends continue. The projections are based on data including cases, deaths, antibody prevalence, testing rates, mobility, social distancing mandates, mask use, population density, age and pneumonia seasonality.  

Get the latest info here

Osama Bin Laden’s Niece Endorses Trump

(New York Post) – President Trump just landed an endorsement from someone nobody probably asked for: Osama Bin Laden’s niece.

Noor Bin Ladin (who spells her name differently from her notorious terrorist uncle) tells the New York Post that “only Trump can prevent another 9/11.”

“ISIS proliferated under the Obama/Biden administration, leading to them coming to Europe. Trump has shown he protects America and us by extension from foreign threats by obliterating terrorists at the root and before they get a chance to strike,” bin Ladin, 33, told The Post in her first-ever interview.

Find out more here

Trump to Agencies: End ‘Critical Race Theory’, ‘’White Privilege’ Training

(NPR) – The Trump administration has instructed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity trainings that address topics like white privilege and critical race theory, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda.”

In a letter to federal agencies Friday, the director of the Office of Management and Budget said the president recently became aware of the racial sensitivity programs, which encourage frank conversations about race in the workplace and discuss potential actions to combat systemic racism.

The memo, issued by OMB Director Russell Vought, reads in part:

“All agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.”

Read more here