The Jaffe Briefing - January 12, 2022
STATEWIDE – Another day, another redeclared public health emergency in New Jersey. Gov. Phil Murphy says the state is buried under this “omicron tsunami,” in which it seems you either have COVID or can’t secure a rapid test to confirm your suspicions. There are tens of thousands of reported cases each day – as you likely know – and many, many more people who are asymptomatic or frankly no longer care if they are walking around with this highly-contagious infection. Murphy does care, he says, redeclaring his public emergency declaration. That means he is redeclaring the ongoing rules in place to try and control things. For example, it is redeclared that teachers and health care workers must still be vaccinated, it is redeclared that students must still wear masks and everyone else redeclares we are sick and tired of this whole redeclaration.
STATEWIDE – But, hey, there’s a pill for that. In all the impressive medical innovation surrounding this pandemic, there’s now a convenient antiviral pill at your local Walgreens. Have COVID? No problem! These pills, now in more than 50 Walgreens (while supplies last), help fight severe cases and – most importantly – avoid hospitalizations. New Jersey is one of more than 30 states that have received this wonder drug, in the form of Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s Molnupiravir. Still amazed at who actually names new drugs, perhaps scientists named Mr. Paxlovid and Ms. Molnupiravir. Regardless, this new medication offers at least some relief from the “omicron tsunami.” Of course, finding these outpatient therapies will be the trick, based on “crushing demand,” “rampant hoarding,” “supply chain issues” and all the other buzz words of early 2022.
TRENTON – Besides COVID, there’s also a state to run. And as the new state Legislature was seated yesterday to do the people’s business, Murphy kicked things off with his annual “State of the State,” delivered virtually, perhaps from a hidden, COVID-free bunker. He is promising no increase in state income taxes, as New Jersey has billions of dollars in aid from the feds. Murphy also used the pulpit for a victory lap on fighting gun violence, preserving reproductive freedom, addressing climate change (to whatever degree one state can do) and preserving maternal health. He is also touting the fledgling cannabis industry as well as the state’s strong – yet completely unaffordable – real estate market. Expect four years on three themes: opportunity, affordability, and fairness.
BRIEFING BREATHER
McDonald's introduced drive-through service near a military fort in Arizona, as soldiers were not allowed to wear uniforms in public.
STATEWIDE – U.S. News and World Report is out with its rankings of the best jobs in 2022. But – being sadistic and all – we are much more interested in the absolutely worst jobs of the year, prompting the need to scroll, scroll, scroll all the way to the bottom. And here’s what’s mired in the dregs: The bottom six: #95 is the Elementary School Teacher who deals with runny noses and crazy parents, #96 is the MRI Technologist who squeezes frantic patients through that giant tube, #97 is the Medical Secretary who takes abuse all day, #98 is Taxi Driver for obvious reason, #99 is the Community Health Worker who gets paid next to nothing on the front lines of this pandemic and, finally, #100 is Nurse Midwife. The hours are awful; the workplace in constant crisis, no break for coffee. The link.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
PORTAGE, Ind. — Town employees are finally getting paid from last year. Portage finance officials didn’t realize there were 27 pay periods in 2021, as opposed to the traditional 26. So, when the pay date of Dec. 31, 2021 appeared, there was no cash left in the kitty, the Northwest Indiana Times reports. “The clerk’s shameful decision to delay payroll without adequate notice would be a total disappointment at any time of the year. But to do this right before the holidays shows a complete lack of respect and consideration for the city’s workers,” says a local union head. Adding to the seething anger was the fact that the town’s treasurer discovered the problem a few weeks back, but didn’t alert employees because all their shouting would have upset the payroll clerk. Finally, though, everyone appears to have been paid. But the grumbling won’t subside until February.
LOS ANGELES – The voices of LAPD officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were frantic as they launched into hot pursuit, plotting an intercept course down 11th Street and up on Crenshaw. “We got four minutes,” Mitchell bellows to Lozano, huffing and puffing on foot. It’s unclear if they ever caught the alleged suspect they were pursuing, but they lost their jobs in 2017 when the higher-ups heard this recording of the clueless cops playing Pokémon Go when they should have been responding to a call of a robbery in progress at a nearby mall. This week, the New York Times reports that the officers also lost their appeal to get their jobs back, leaving them with plenty of time to look for Psyducks, Zubats, Pidgeys and other popular Pokémon Go characters.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
It was this day in 1971 that the very first toilet flush was heard on television, courtesy of “All in the Family,” premiering on CBS.
WORD OF THE DAY
Mimesis – [muh-MEE-sis] – noun
Definition: Imitation, mimicry
Example: I thought my little sister was my nemesis, but she’s more like a mimesis.
WIT OF THE DAY
“Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said, nor what you intended.”
-Saddam Hussein
BIDEN BLURB
“Our president is not above the law.”
-Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Better