Briefs
• Covid-19 - (Dec 13) Nelson County has seen an alarming surge in daily new cases. Currently there are an average of 5 new cases per day, up from 3 cases/day only a week ago. Overall, there have been 247 cases and 3 deaths in the county.
• Meanwhile, Nelson County’s newly elected congressman Bob Good addressed a pro-Trump rally in Washington. He looked out over the crowd and said “I can’t tell you how great it is to look out there and see your faces. This looks like a group of people that gets it. This is a phony pandemic.”
• President Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani contracted the virus and was hospitalized for three days. Even though he is 76 with a number of risk factors, Giuliani passed through the ordeal largely assisted by special treatments arranged by the White House that ordinary patients do not have access to. Upon his release from the hospital, Giuliani characterized Covid-19 as “a curable disease.” In a work setting where prevention efforts are poo-poohed from the top, over 40 members of the administration have contracted the illness, including the President himself.
• Sweden’s “herd immunity” approach to the coronavirus crises is being abandoned. This strategy, championed by Dr Scott Atlas, President Trump’s latest favorite health advisor, did not result in naturally acquired immunity stopping the disease. Currently Sweden suffers eight times more cases per capita than neighboring Finland, and three times that of Norway. The government has now banned gatherings of more than eight people, and is banning the sale of alcohol after 10 PM.
• An important reason the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was abandoned: it would never make money. The practice of fracking, which has been hailed as a “game changer” in energy production is turning out to be something less than that. In June, the company that led the fracking boom, Chesapeake Energy, filed for bankruptcy. The big difference between fracking and conventional wells is that fracked wells have to be drilled again and again, while many conventional oil wells have been producing for decades. Because of this, fracked oil and gas is highly sensitive to demand and price. As long as oil costs $60 a barrel, fracking is a winning business proposition. However, current prices are depressed to the $40 range because of the emerging popularity of renewable energy sources, electric cars, and the impact of COVID-19. According to Pioneer Energy CEO Scott Sheffield growth in the field will be very slight in the coming years: “I don’t think the industry will ever get back to where they were before the crisis.”