United States of America eSeries: 'A message from the US government'

'A message from the US government'

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April 4, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'A message from the US government'

In just one day this weekend, a record four million Covid-19 injections went into American arms, presaging the return of some kind of normal life.

Far-flung families are slowly beginning to reunite. People can make plans to go on vacation again. Easter might turn out to be the final holiday that grandparents and their grandkids can't celebrate together. "It's going to happen, it will," Fauci told CNN on Saturday, arguing that at some point soon, people will be able to gather in large numbers again — even raising the possibility that mask wearing will be optional for those vaccinated if studies suggest it is safe.

The staggering acceleration of vaccines shows the United States has finally brought its wealth and resources to bear on vaccines -- unlike in its initial pandemic response, which has led to more than half a million deaths. The four million milestone was not an outlier. The daily average of shots in arms is now three million. Some 106 million people have had one dose while 61 million are fully vaccinated. Whether by luck or leadership, President Joe Biden has lived up to his promise to roll out vaccines fast.

Still, the nightmare is not over. New, extra-contagious variants are spreading like wildfire, turning the crisis into a race between vaccinations and infections. The US recorded more than 60,000 new cases on Saturday. But several Republican governors are ignoring the rising cases, throwing their states open for the sake of politics, not science.

A backlash against "Covid passports" could again enshrine America's corrosive partisan divisions in a public health debate. Many Republicans remain skeptical of the vaccine. And since the US is on pace to vaccinate any willing American within months, it's time to think about how to help other nations that lack its wealth and pharmaceutical industry. No one will be truly safe until Covid-19 is eradicated all over the world.

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Jordan accused King Abdullah's half-brother of plotting to "destabilize" the country.

Argentina's President Alberto Fernández has Covid-19, despite being vaccinated.

And 22 ancient mummified Egyptians were paraded through Cairo.

Meanwhile, the US placed around 28,000 radio ads in Latin America to discourage emigration.

AstraZeneca will move out of the Baltimore plant that botched 15 million J&J vaccine doses.

And Florida's governor banned the use of vaccine 'passports.'

'A message from the US government'

"Guatemala is your homeland, your people. You can make a living here. Don't abandon what's yours, or put your family or community at risk by contracting coronavirus. A message from the US government," argues a deep voice against emigration, in a Guatemalan radio ad sponsored by the Biden administration. But for families that lost everything twice in last year's twin hurricanes, staying put and making a living may be easier said than done.

On the House

John Boehner is, unapologetically, an old-fashioned politician. The cover of his explosive new book "On the House" shows the bronzed former Republican Speaker in a club style chair with a generous goblet of claret, cigarette smoke curling from an ashtray -- an image that his publisher plays up in contrast to newfangled fads like vegetables and exercise.

If early excerpts are any guide, expectations that the garrulous Boehner, 71, would produce a classic, rollicking Washington memoir will be fully repaid. Take an extract published by Politico for instance about the 2010 midterm election. "You could be a total moron and get elected just by having an R next to your name — and that year, by the way, we did pick up a fair number in that category," Boehner wrote.

The former speaker goes on to slam "the crazy nonsense" perpetrated by conservative media titans over Obama's birthplace. He is scathing about Fox News and its conspiracy fueled commentators and business model of turning "fringe characters into powerful media stars." Boehner reserves particular animus for Texas Senator and a once and possibly future Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz: "There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he's smarter than everyone else."

Boehner was a nemesis for liberals and Obama administration officials, and went head to head with former President Barack Obama in bruising showdowns over spending and health care. But he spent more time trying -- and failing -- to keep his caucus together during populist uprisings that predated Donald Trump.

Boehner differs from the current generation of nihilist Republican radicals in an important respect. He believed that being elected to Congress implied an obligation to govern. In what Boehner describes as the "Crazytown" of post-Trump era Washington, Congress has become a stepping stone for shock jock politicians like the suddenly scandal-tainted Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene to become conservative TV fixtures -- in the image of their now-retired smash-mouth hero in Mar-a-Lago.

Welcome to a new week.

On Monday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appears at the opening session of the evidence phase of his corruption trial. Ireland's coronavirus lockdown is expected to end. Chile's borders close to both foreign nationals and Chilean citizens.