Viral News: While the coronavirus pandemic still rages, some studies have found that the now-dominant Omicron strain is less severe because it doesn’t attack the lungs like previous evolutions, pretty much remaining in the nose, throat, and windpipe. Cases are climbing, but hospitalizations and deaths are dropping.

  New cases are up 204 percent over the past two weeks, but deaths are down three percent.

  Dr. Anthony Fauci said that in monitoring the pandemic, it’s more important now to focus on the number of people landing in the hospital rather than the number of positive cases. He said, “The real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalization?” 

  Fauci went on to say, “I’m still very concerned about the tens of millions of people who are not vaccinated at all because even though many of them are going to get asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic, a fair number of them are going to get severe disease.” 

Last Tweet: Speaking of the virus and Covid-19, Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of Georgia’s loudmouth Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s been a font of misinformation and lies about election fraud, the coronavirus, and vaccines. Greene had ready been temporarily suspended three times last year.

  She still has an official Congressional account that she has used benignly.

  Twitter suspended her personal account after she tweeted on Saturday a false assertion about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.” 

  Greene said in a statement that she was suspended for tweeting statistics from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. “Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” Greene said. “That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.”

Winter Fire: Three people are missing and feared dead in the Colorado wildfire last Thursday that’s now confirmed to have burned 991 homes. Investigators are looking for the cause and there’s some suggestion that it may have been arson. The search is hampered by a foot of snow that’s fallen since the fire.

Trump Cards: If there’s any doubt about former President Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, just look north to Alaska.  The state’s Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has accepted Trump’s endorsement for election to a second term with the condition that the governor does not endorse Sen. Lisa Murkowski for reelection. 

 Murkowski, who has served three terms, was one of seven Republican Senators who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment for inspiring the January 6^th insurrection. Trump called her a “disaster from Alaska.”

  “Please tell the president thank you for the endorsement,” Dunleavy said in the statement. “With regard to the other issue, please tell the president he has nothing to worry about. I appreciate all 45 has done for Alaska and this country.”

  Just Three days from the anniversary of the January 6^th insurrection inspired by the former President, a new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans believe this country’s democracy is “in crisis and at risk of failing.” 

  Alarmingly, the poll finds, less than half of Republicans are willing to accept the results of the 2020 election, agreeing with the statement that, “voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election.” 

  Also, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds that about 1 in 3 Americans say they believe violence against the government can at times be justified. The Post says it’s the biggest percentage of Americans to say that in 20 years.

   White Americans endorse the possibility of violence much more than Black citizens, 40 percent to 18. The justifications given for violence by those polled were “autocracy,” “tyranny,” “corruption,” and loss of freedoms. 

The Spin Rack: More than 2,700 flights were cancelled yesterday and 9,000 delayed as the holiday travel nightmare drags on. As many as 1,700 flights have already been cancelled today. — The jury is set to begin a seventh day of deliberations in the criminal fraud trial for Theranos executive Elizabeth Holmes. — A civil settlement between the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre is set to be released on today, giving lawyers for Britain’s 

Prince Andrew hope that their client could be released from liability in the case against him brought by Giuffre, who accuses Andy of sexual assault when she was 17.

The Obit Page: Sitcom actress Betty White, who worked in television almost since the invention of television, died last Friday just three weeks short of her 100^th birthday.

 White played the middle-aged nymphomaniac Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the sweet but dim Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls.” She was a master of the sexual double entendre that pushed the boundaries of television standards in her prime years. In one scene from “The Golden Girls,” she said, “I didn’t sleep a wink all night. I feel wonderful.”

  White hosted Saturday Night Live at age 88. Recalling her time in the early days of television she said shows were live because they didn’t know how to tape anything and “I don’t know what this show’s excuse is.”

Out of Bounds: The buzz of the NFL is the dramatic exit from yesterday’s game by the now former Tampa Bay receiver Antonio Brown. The 33-year-old threw a fit on the sidelines, stripped off his jersey and shoulder pads, threw them in the stands, and stormed off.

  Afterward, Tampa Bay Coach Bruce Arians tersely said, “He is no longer a Buc.”

  Brown seems to have emotional problems. He had already had fallouts with Oakland and New England. Star quarterback Tom Brady helped him Brown get a job with the Buccaneers and said sympathetically after the game, “I think everybody should hopefully do what they can to help him in ways that he really needs it.” Brady said, “We all love him. We care about him deeply. We want to see him be at his best.”

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