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Morning Briefing: What Is This? Good News? Feels Weird

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | November 5, 2021 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | November 5, 2021 |

jenna-ryan-twitter.jpeg

Here’s something we don’t experience every day. Or even every month? Year? But today, amid all the other garbage news (Jacob Wohl, for instance, demanding that Jews assimilate into a “Christain country” by hanging Christmas lights), we have some decent news to report.

For instance, the job numbers this morning are great! Really great. The economy added 531,000 jobs in October, beating estimates. Not only that, but job numbers for the last two months were revised upwards by around 360,000 more jobs. The unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.6 percent (down from 6.3 percent when Biden entered office), and the economy has recovered 80 percent of the jobs lost during the pandemic.

Not only that, but the jobs that folks are coming back to are better paying thanks to some rare leverage by employees who have demanded better pay, better working conditions, and fewer hours. The pandemic was obviously terrible — over 750,000 people in the US have died — but it did at least force Americans to reprioritize their lives. I still can’t get a burrito at Chipotle, but it’s a small price to pay.

Speaking of the pandemic, this week shots began to go into the arms of kids ages 5-11 (my twins got their first shots on Wednesday), boosters are ramping up (I’m getting mine this afternoon), 80 percent of adults have had at least one shot in the United States, and those numbers will continue to grow because 84 million workers at large private companies will be required to be vaccinated by January 4th or be tested weekly (that includes you, Aaron Rodgers).

We also learned this morning that Pfizer’s new antiviral pill had lights out test results, cutting hospitalizations and deaths in those at high-risk by 89 percent. The results were so good that they were able to discontinue the trial before it even finished. Now everyone over the age of 5 is eligible for the vaccine, we have two antiviral pills to treat it, and the infection numbers continue to fall. Scott Gottlieb — former commissioner of the FDA — believes that the pandemic is coming to an end in the United States.

Finally, a little justice goes a long way, as a January 6th rioter who bragged that she wouldn’t be sent to prison because she is blonde and white has been … sentenced to prison.