Debra Schrishuhn for PDA National Staff

*Reporting delays.

**France surpasses Turkey in number of cases.

***Spain and Italy surpass Iran in number of cases.

**** Still 44 countries report more than one million cases of COVID-19, with the remainder being Iran), Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, Poland, Mexico, Ukraine, South Africa, Netherlands, Philippines, Malaysia, Czechia, Peru, Thailand, Canada (surpassing Belgium and Iraq), Belgium (surpassing Iraq), Iraq, Romania, Chile, Vietnam  (surpassing Japan), Japan, Bangladesh, Portugal (surpassing Serbia, Pakistan, Slovakia and Israel) Israel, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden (surpassing Serbia and Pakistan), Serbia (surpassing Pakistan) Pakistan, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Kazakhstan, and Jordan.

Top Ten states with COVID-19 cases:

• California 5,515,613

• Texas 4,578,763

• Florida+ 4,166,392

• New York 3,555,047

• Illinois 2,154,058

• Pennsylvania+ 2,059,613

• Ohio+ 2,016,095

• Georgia 1,798,497

• Michigan 1,706,355

• N. Carolina++ 1,685,504

Top Ten states with COVID-19 deaths:

• California 76,709

• Texas 76,062

• Florida 62,504

• New York 59,072

• Pennsylvania 36,714

• Illinois 31,017

• Georgia 30,283

• Ohio+++ 29,447

• New Jersey 29,053

• Michigan++++ 28,984

+Florida tops 4 million cases; Pennsylvania and Ohio top 2 million cases

++Now 19 states post more than 1M cases, the remainder being New Jersey, Arizona, Tennessee, Indiana, Massachusetts (surpassing Wisconsin), Wisconsin, Virginia, and newcomers Missouri and Minnesota.

+++Ohio surpasses New Jersey in number of deaths.

++++Still 27 states with more than 10K COVID-19 deaths, the remainder being Arizona, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Indiana, , Alabama, Missouri, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland  (surpassing Oklahoma), Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado (surpassing Mississippi),and Mississippi.

Politico, 12/30: “The Marine Corps announced Thursday that it has kicked out more troops for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine. The total number of discharges has risen to 206, up from 169 last week. Military.com says the Marines have “reviewed most of the several thousand claims for religious exemptions and thus far granting none.”

New York Times, 12/30: “The South African government said Thursday that data from its health department suggested that the country had passed its Omicron peak without a major spike in deaths, offering cautious hope to other countries grappling with the variant.”

New York Times, 12/30: “Airlines have been preparing for the holiday season for months, reviewing plans and readying reserves of workers. But that wasn’t enough to mitigate the effects of the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus and of heavy snow and strong winds in the West. The impact continued to be felt on Thursday, with more than 1,100 cancellations of flights to, from or within the United States by midday… By Thursday morning, the site was also showing more than 500 cancellations for Friday.”

Political Wire, 12/30: The CDC advises that travelers avoid all cruise ships due to “very high” levels of Covid-19, regardless of vaccination status.

Washington Post, 12/30: “In a statement, the agency said cruise lines reported 5,013 covid-19 cases on ships operating in U.S. waters between Dec. 15 and 29, a massive increase from the 162 cases reported over the prior two weeks.”

Bulwark, Jonathan Last, 12/30: “We’ve been doing more than 1,000 deaths a day since August 21. For most of this stretch, the daily average has been in excess of 1,500 deaths per day. Just do the math. Unless the daily deaths change, we’re headed to a million dead by spring. Republicans are going to use this fact to attack the Biden administration, saying that Biden handled Covid worse than Trump, because there were more deaths on his watch.

“This is an obscene argument. Republicans have done everything possible to prolong Covid and prevent the implementation of measures that would have saved lives. It’s like an arsonist pouring gasoline, throwing matches, and then complaining about the fire department not putting out fires fast enough. But as a political matter? I suspect the Republican argument will be effective with voters.”

Wall Street Journal, 12/30: “The limited availability of test kits is frustrating people seeking tests and complicating efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus when most needed… As a result, Omicron cases could continue to rapidly increase and possibly overwhelm strapped healthcare systems. People across the country aired their exasperation on social media, detailing their often fruitless searches for tests at government sites, drugstores, hospitals and even fire departments. Helicopters dispatched by local newscasts showed crowded test sites on the ground below, and friends texted one another in search of information about where at-home test kits might be available.”

The Guardian, 12/30: “Armed police in Jingxi, in southern China, have paraded four alleged violators of Covid rules through the streets, state media reported, a practice that was banned but which has resurfaced in the struggle to enforce a zero-Covid policy.”

Daily Beast, 12/30: Alex Jones threatened to “dish all the dirt” on Donald Trump to get back at the former president for his embrace of the Covid-19 vaccines by saying they save lives. Said Jones: “It’s not to hurt Trump, it’s so people can know how pathetic he is when you think he is playing 4D chess, going to save you and he’s not!”

Washington Post, 12/30: “The altered guidance, ambiguous research findings and continuing unknowns about omicron — and, perhaps most of all, the overwhelming desire after two years of a pandemic to return to normal life — have left people once again in the predicament of making personal risk calculations that may be not terribly better than wild guesses.”

New York Times, 12/29: “With a caseload nearly twice that of the worst single days of last winter, the United States shattered its record for new daily coronavirus cases, a milestone that may still fall short of describing the true destruction caused by the Delta and Omicron variants because testing has slowed over the holidays. As a second year of living with the pandemic was drawing to a close, the new daily case total topped 488,000 on Wednesday.”

AP, 12/29: “An Arkansas judge on Wednesday struck down a state law that prevents schools and other governmental entities from requiring face masks.”

Washington Post, 12/29: “If your plans are to go to a 40-to-50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year? I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that.”— Dr. Anthony Fauci

Axios, 12/29: World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned during a press conference Wednesday that the circulation of both the Omicron and Delta variants “is leading to a tsunami of cases.” Said Tedros: “This virus will continue to evolve and threaten our health system if we do not improve the collective response.”

New York Times, 12/29: “Across Europe, records for new coronavirus infections are falling by the day as the Omicron variant tears through populations with a swiftness outpacing anything witnessed over the past two years of the pandemic.”

New York Times, 12/29: “During a recent marathon session in the House, two Republican lawmakers from Georgia sat in full view of television cameras. Neither was wearing a mask. It was the latest act of defiance by the pair, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde, against a rule requiring legislators to wear masks on the House floor. Most Republican lawmakers, however grudgingly, have complied with the mandate, which can carry fines that quickly add up to hefty amounts. But Ms. Greene and Mr. Clyde have repeatedly, and proudly, flouted it. To date, the two have incurred more than $100,000 combined in fines, which are taken directly from their paychecks.”

Daily Beast, 12/29: Conservative radio host Wayne Allyn Root wants to stage an “intervention” with Donald Trump over the former president’s support for the Covid-19 vaccine. Said Root: “He’s been right on everything except this issue. He’s so horribly wrong on this issue, and the best way to put it, ironically, is that he’s dead wrong, because people are dying!” He added: “When everyone I know dies, you are getting the blame, President Trump!”

Japan Times, 12/29: Researchers in Tokyo are developing a “dream” Covid-19 vaccine that offers lifetime efficacy, in what would be a game-changer as the fight against the coronavirus drags on into its third year.

Associated Press, 12/29: “The mayor of one of Florida’s largest counties on Tuesday blasted Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying he has been missing in action during the latest wave of Covid-19, as some counties brought back mask mandates for government workers and other municipalities opened up new testing sites in response to overwhelming demand.” Said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings: “We have not received any assistance from the state of Florida at our testing sites. All Florida residents should be outraged … where is Ron DeSantis now?”

Wall Street Journal, 12/29: “As states grapple with how to rein in the spread of the Omicron variant, many governors and other state officials are applying a lighter touch than during previous surges, as they are armed with more tools to combat the virus and increasingly mindful of the economic harm caused by sweeping restrictions. Many decision makers say they are trying to avoid strict measures enacted during previous Covid surges by encouraging vaccinations, increasing capacity for rapid testing and closely watching factors such as hospital admissions and booster-shot uptake.”

Washington Post, 12/29: “Health officials’ recommendation this week to shorten the isolation period for people with asymptomatic coronavirus infections to five days was driven largely by the concern that essential services might be hobbled amid one of the worst infection surges of the pandemic.”

New York Times, 12/28: “The CDC estimated that the Omicron variant now accounts for roughly 59% of all Covid cases in the United States, a significant decrease from the agency’s previous estimate. The update shows how hard it is to track the fast-spreading variant in real time and how poorly the agency has communicated its uncertainty.”

Washington Post, 12/28: “The lightning spread of the coronavirus’s omicron variant in the United States pushed the seven-day average of new daily cases to 253,245 as of Tuesday afternoon, surpassing the previous high of 248,209 cases on Jan. 12.”

The Oklahoman, 12/28: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) told The Oklahoman that he does not plan on getting a Covid-19 booster shot despite state health officials urging all eligible people to receive the additional vaccine dose. Said Stitt: “I’m perfectly healthy, and my doctor hasn’t told me I need to get it.”

Political Wire, 1/1: More than 2,500 domestic flights have been canceled so far on New Year’s, with poor weather contributing to delays already exacerbated by the Omicron variant.

New York Times, 1/1: “In two short weeks, as the year closed out, the Omicron variant drove coronavirus case counts to record levels, upended air travel and left gaping staffing holes at police departments, firehouses and hospitals. And that was at a time many people were off for the holiday season. Now comes Monday, with millions of Americans having traveled back home to start school and work again, and no one is sure of what comes next.”

Wall Street Journal, 1/1: The global coronavirus pandemic has led to a major breakdown in scientific collaboration between the western world and China — hampering the efforts to build a “global early warning and surveillance systems for new viruses, and establish new protocols for sharing information when outbreaks occur.”

New York Times, 12/31: “In studies on mice and hamsters, Omicron produced less damaging infections, often limited largely to the upper airway: the nose, throat and windpipe. The variant did much less harm to the lungs, where previous variants would often cause scarring and serious breathing difficulty.”

NBC News, 12/31: Democrats charge that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “has been missing in action as Covid cases in the state have spiked to new heights.” Said Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D): “Counties are overwhelmed with lines that stretch for miles. It’s every man/woman for themselves, because leadership is MIA.” DeSantis, a Republican and outspoken opponent of vaccine and mask mandates, last held a Covid press briefing on Dec. 17. Covid cases have reached new highs in Florida since then, including a record level of more than 58,000 new cases on Wednesday.

Reuters, 12/31: “U.S. health experts on Thursday urged Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks as the rising wave of Covid-19 cases led by the Omicron variant threatened hospitals, schools and other sectors impacting their daily lives.”

Gizmodo, 12/31: Fox News spent the better part of 2021 telling its viewers blatant lies about the covid-19 pandemic. The network has claimed covid-19 vaccines are dangerous, that masks don’t help slow the spread of the virus, and that immigrants are worsening the pandemic in the U.S. Tucker Carlson, the most popular host on Fox News, even claimed covid-19 is somehow making men more feminine.

A recent study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Fox News viewers are more likely to believe covid-19 falsehoods than people who consumer other mainstream news sources. And yet, Fox News itself has a covid-19 vaccine mandate, despite talking heads on the channel railing against them.

Fox News: The U.S. Government Is Hiding Deaths From the Covid-19 Vaccine. According to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the U.S. government is hiding deaths from the covid-19 vaccine. It’s a claim Carlson made multiple times in 2021, like on May 5, when he pulled numbers from the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. “Between late December of 2020 and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the covid vaccine in the United States—3,362,” Carlson said. “That’s an average of roughly 30 people every day.”

As Politifact points out, Carlson is being misleading. Dying after you get vaccinated, which is the only thing that was being crowdsourced from the general public in this data, isn’t the same thing as dying from a vaccination. And anyone can send in a report to VAERS, which doesn’t fact check the claims. That didn’t stop Carlson from making wild accusations though. And it certainly wouldn’t be the last time.

Fox News: Ivermectin Is a Great Way to Treat Covid-19. Fox News host Laura Ingraham has repeatedly suggested that ivermectin is a great drug for treating people who get covid-19. “You never hear Fauci talk about that, or D3 or ivermectin, because they haven’t even given emergency use authorization for ivermectin—haven’t even put out anything about that. They’re way behind all these other countries,” Ingraham said on the March 5 edition of her show, The Ingraham Angle.

Often derided as merely “horse dewormer,” ivermectin is actually an incredibly useful drug for treating parasitic infestation in humans, as Gizmodo reported back in August. But research thus far hasn’t found it to be useful for treating covid-19. 

Fox News: Covid-19 Is Making Men More Feminine and Weak. On the December 8, 2021 edition of Tucker Carlson’s online show, the Fox News host claimed that covid-19 was making men more feminine.“So somebody who knows him told me, and I’d be interested in getting your take on this, that getting covid emasculated him, it changed him, it feminized him, it weakened him as a man,” Carlson asked. Nigel Farage, a far-right figure from the UK, said that covid-19 made people very ill and that co-morbidities included being overweight, but even he couldn’t bring himself to say that men were somehow being “feminized” by the disease. “But the virus itself, this is true, does tend to take away the life force in some people I notice. I mean it does feminize people. No one ever says that but it’s true,” Carlson insisted.

It’s not true.

Fox News: People Under 30 Shouldn’t Be Vaccinated. Fox News guest Peter McCullough, a cardiologist who has made debunked claims on other shows like the Joe Rogan Experience, said on Laura Ingraham’s show on July 7 that people under the age of 30 shouldn’t be vaccinated.“Overall, the equation is very unfavorable for vaccination of anyone below age 30,” McCullough said.“Unless we really have a compelling case, no one under age 30 should receive any one of these vaccine,” McCullough continued.

The vaccine has been shown to be both safe and effective in those under 30 and has been authorized for emergency use in kids as young as 5. Incredibly, that wasn’t even McCullough’s most ridiculous claim in the media this year. McCullough went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and said that the pandemic was planned and suggested it was essentially a false flag orchestrated by the government.

Fox News: The Covid-19 Vaccine Is Dangerous for Children. Former advisor to President Donald Trump, radiologist Scott Atlas, appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show on September 20 to spread misinformation and fear about the vaccine. “All they did was they demonstrated that if you inject an experimental drug into a child, you will be able to measure antibodies on a blood test,” Atlas said. “That’s not what vaccines are for. Vaccines are for protecting against serious illness.” The chyron even said “Profits’ Over Kids Safety,” just in case you didn’t get the hint or were watching TV with the sound off.

President Trump himself has spoken out in favor of the vaccines and booster shots, but was recently booed at an event with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for saying the vaccines were good. Maybe Dr. Atlas didn’t get the memo.

Fox News: Migrants Are Spreading Covid-19 Worse Than the U.S.-Born Population. Tucker Carlson is known for his white supremacist ideas, previously calling Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys” and saying that immigrants to the U.S. made the country “dirtier.” So it’s no surprise that Carlson tried to blame the covid-19 pandemic on immigrants during some of his segments in 2021. “Illegal aliens are now exempt from the public health measures that have been imposed by force on the rest of us by the U.S. government. Illegal aliens come and go as they please. No one seems to care if they spread deadly viruses to the rest of the American population. It’s hard to believe that’s actually happening, but it is happening,” Carlson said on March 17.

But it’s simply not true. Doctors have looked at this issue again and again, explaining that the surges in case numbers during 2021 were not found to be the result of people moving along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it should be no surprise that Carlson would try to float this idea that migrants are inherently dirty. It’s been a common anti-immigrant trope throughout history.

Fox News: Masks Don’t Slow the Spread of Covid-19. Fox News host Martha MacCallum made the claim on March 9 that masks probably weren’t helping in the ways being promoted by the U.S. government, albeit belatedly. “Yeah, I always think we’re going to look back at these studies and wonder about the true effectiveness of masks and whether or not they really did make a difference. I think that story continues to be studied and we’re learning more about it to be sure,” MacCallum said.

But studies have shown repeatedly that masks, while imperfect, really do help slow the spread of covid-19, as Gizmodo reported back in September.

Fox News: Mass Shooters ‘Probably Got Vaccinated.’ Fox News “expert” Pat Brosnan, a former detective for the NYPD, made quite a claim in May, suggesting that there’s a link between covid-19 vaccinations and mass shootings in the U.S., after a mass shooting in San Jose earlier this year. “This is a time that I wish I was wrong with my prediction, which I mention to anybody who would listen, that once covid starts to lift, these cowardly shooters will come out exactly in tandem with the number of vaccinations. You can be sure they probably got vaccinated, they were just scared to come out,” Brosnan said.  “And they’re coming back. And you see the numbers don’t lie, shootings are up dramatically, skyrocketing actually on active shootings in the United States,” Brosnan continued.

Brosnan’s claim that mass shooters, who often end their own life or are killed by police, would care about their vaccination status before conducting a mass shooting is just absurd on its face. But we’re not exactly working with geniuses here at Fox News.

Washington Post, 12/31: “The rapid surge of omicron infections in the United States may be relatively brief, measured in weeks rather than months, according to infectious-disease experts who have been astonished by the speed of the coronavirus variant’s spread — and who are hoping this wave ebbs just as quickly,” the Washington Post reports.

BBC, 12/31: World Health Organization (WHO) chief says he is optimistic that the coronavirus pandemic will be defeated in 2022, provided countries work together to contain its spread.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu warned against “narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding” in a new year statement. His comments come two years since the WHO was first notified of cases of an unknown pneumonia strain in China. Global Covid cases now stand at 287m, while nearly 5.5m people have died. Across the world people are marking the new year but celebrations are muted, with many countries wanting to discourage crowds gathering.