Written

A scale

Two-thirds of people hospitalized in Rhode Island with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

By Justin Katz | September 9, 2021 |

People on both sides of the argument over our response to COVID-19 are tending to act on emotion, but as often happens, review of the facts brings the topic back to individual decisions about risks and consequences.  Of course, the realization that a topic is up for debate counts as an argument against those who…

A water drop and ripples

Progressive state senator Tiara Mack is so pro-choice…

By Justin Katz | September 9, 2021 |

… she doesn’t think you should have a choice but to fund other people’s abortions:

A chemistry model

Apparently, the vaccine isn’t a waste if you’ve had COVID.

By Justin Katz | September 8, 2021 |

Michaeleen Doucleff reports for NPR (via Instapundit) that studies are finding that people who had COVID and then get vaccinated have a sort of super-immunity: Over the past several months, a series of studies has found that some people mount an extraordinarily powerful immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their…

A water drop and ripples

Here’s a response when people tell you the Delta variant is more dangerous for children.

By Justin Katz | September 8, 2021 |

Like a rumor about some new threat, the common wisdom is out there that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is more harmful for children than earlier versions.  A CDC study, however, suggests that current evidence suggests it’s not the case. After examining 3,116 hospital records from the period before Delta, and comparing them to 164…

Great Depression bread line

Hospital wait times result from bigger policy failures than failing to vaccinate everybody.

By Justin Katz | September 8, 2021 |

Credit is due to WPRI’s Courtney Carter for including at least this much nuance in her article about increasing wait times in hospitals in Rhode Island and across the country, although it takes several paragraphs and scary visions of up to 48-hour delays for emergency care to get to this: [Dr. Laura Forman, chief of…

A water drop and ripples

McKee jumped out of the municipal frying pan and into the 38 Studios fire.

By Justin Katz | September 7, 2021 |

This blows my mind.  As his former chief of staff, Anthony Silva falls issues a series of retirements, resignations, and property donations in an effort to put an influence-peddling scandal behind himself, Democrat Governor Dan McKee goes and fills his position with somebody who carries the stain of the 38 Studios scandal: On Tuesday, McKee…

A water drop and ripples

Let the students have their vaccine exemptions.

By Justin Katz | September 7, 2021 |

To watch RI political Twitter last week was to see a desire for outrage that around 1,080 students at URI (about one out of every 14 people in a classroom) has filed a religious exemption form from COVID vaccinations.  How could this have been permitted, the incredulous voices asked?  (Never mind that students who did…

A high school privilege walk

“Privilege walking” Providence teachers is like an identity politics perp walk.

By Justin Katz | September 7, 2021 |

Yesterday, Providence middle school teacher Ramona Bessinger posted on Facebook that her school principal conducted an ostensibly voluntary “privilege walk” using materials from Project Implicit: At school last week, the faculty was asked to “opt-in” to take a “privilege walk”. Needless to say, I opted-out. I’d rather spend my professional hours on lesson plans for…

A water drop and ripples

Teachers unions are the face of the arrogance of power.

By Justin Katz | September 6, 2021 |

From a GQ Pan article in the Epoch Times: The leader of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents more than 30,000 employees in the nation’s second largest public school district, said in a recently published interview that learning losses during the pandemic are a myth. “There’s no such thing as learning loss,” UTLA President Cecily…

Vaccine freedom protesters

Healthcare workers are not backing down, despite media ambivalence.

By Justin Katz | September 6, 2021 |

Healthcare workers (many of whom have no doubt had COVID and are therefore immune) continue to protest Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s mandate that they get vaccinated or lose their jobs.  John DePetro has video. The contrast with mainstream media coverage is striking. DePetro’s headline is “Front line protesters takeover WaterFire.”  The only coverage I see…