The Worm Turns: Covid

The drugmaker Merck reports that it has developed an experimental pill that can successfully treat people with Covid. The evidence is preliminary but signals the possible beginning of the permanent end of the pandemic.

All this year we have been monitoring the dance between the virus as it mutates, the vaccines as they age, and the ongoing struggle between those steadfastly refusing to vaccinate and the rest of us.

For some time, public health officials have accurately predicted that the pharmaceutical industry will be able to stay one step ahead of the mutating coronavirus by creating what you might call a mutating vaccine.

The disease changes, the protection against it adapts.

But the next step in the dance has to be proactive, not reactive. And that is what the news from Merck connotes.

Think back on the AIDS crisis and how after a terrifying beginning when nearly all cases seemed to be fatal, the pharmaceutical industry was able to develop treatments that eventually reduced HIV to a controllable disease.

I'm not a medical expert but that seems to be where we are headed with Covid-19.

And while I've got your attention, get the damn flu shot this winter!

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THE HEADLINES:

* As Need in Afghanistan Grows Dire, Aid Groups Plead for Help -- Health clinics are closing. Temperatures are dipping. Prices are rising. Food and money are scarce. A calamity looms, humanitarian groups warn. (NYT)

* Drugmaker Merck said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus, potentially a leap forward in the global fight against the pandemic. (AP)

* Merck Pill Intended to Treat Covid-19 Succeeds in Key Study (WSJ)

* Gunmaker Smith & Wesson to relocate from Mass. as state considers ban on making assault weapons (WP)

* China’s Power Shortfalls Begin to Ripple Around the World (WSJ)

* More Than Half of Police Killings Are Mislabeled, New Study Says (NYT)

* Who Will Win the Space Tourism Race? (WSJ)

* VIDEO: Lawmakers Blast Facebook Over Its Effect on Children (AP)

* Citizen Journalist Who Documented Covid-19 in Wuhan Resurfaces After 600 Days (WSJ)

* Democrats' spending bill includes plan to get free health care to uninsured Americans (NPR)

* Infowars host Alex Jones, who has promoted the lie that the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was faked, lost two lawsuits filed against him by victims' relatives after he failed to comply with orders to hand over documents. The judge excoriated Jones and ordered default judgements against him because “an escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse.” [HuffPost]

* 5 Midwestern governors agree to create a network to charge electric vehicles (NPR)

* Australia to End Travel Ban in Pivot to Living With Covid-19 (WSJ)

* Last year, protesters tore down a controversial statue of Spanish missionary Junipero Serra at the state capitol in Sacramento. New legislation makes way for a monument to Native people in its place. (NPR)

* California recently became the first state to offer free breakfast and lunch to all schoolchildren. (Cal Today)

* Fires in the Brazilian Amazon retreat in September (Reuters)

* Breaking: All Of World’s Problems Solved Overnight While You Were Sleeping (The Onion)