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Conservative doctors were more likely to see hydroxychloroquine as effective
Conservative doctors were more likely to see hydroxychloroquine as effective, Philip Bump, The Washington Post
From the earliest months of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a partisan divide in the nation’s approach. Then-president Donald Trump fostered this, certainly; his eagerness to get the country back to some semblance of normal with his reelection approaching was unsubtle. But his audience was receptive. Ingrained Republican skepticism of authority was parlayed into skepticism about recommended approaches to containing the virus: distancing, masking and, eventually, vaccination.

One result was that polling repeatedly showed Republicans as less likely to express concern about the virus or to take steps to prevent infection. After vaccines became widely available, Republican-voting counties were more likely to see covid-19 deaths relative to their populations than Democratic-voting ones. In fact, research has shown an explicit gap in the death toll between Republicans and Democrats.

Not only were Republicans more likely to reject recommended approaches to the virus, they were more likely to embrace unproved ones. Trump’s effort to hype hydroxychloroquine as a solution to the virus — and thereby to tout his “expertise” against government doctors — was echoed among others on the right despite a lack of evidence that it worked. Later, the anti-parasite medication ivermectin was hailed as an effective treatment. That too lacks credible evidence, but it became an article of faith among Trump supporters that there were cheap, effective medicines that drug companies were trying to hide. Research showed that counties Trump won in 2020 were more likely to see prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Research being published next week helps explain that latter finding. It turns out that doctors who are politically conservative were actually more likely to consider hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment, despite the understood research.
Biden set to deliver speech in House under new management
Biden set to deliver speech in House under new management, Niels Lesniewski, Roll Call
Always in question is just how much of the speech will be directed at foreign policy, where there’s likely to be more common ground with Republicans especially when it comes to support for Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to respond to the invasion by Russia. There’s also always the issue of the news of the minute, in this case the presence in U.S. airspace last week of an allegedly wayward Chinese balloon that was eventually shot down off the South Carolina coast Saturday.

The Associated Press reported on Sunday that the speech would reference the balloon incident in the context of the U.S. response to China’s military and economic influence. The report also said Biden would in fact be touting what his advisers say are his wins on the economy.

“It’s constantly being reworked and it will be until the very last moment,” Jean-Pierre said Thursday. Biden was at Camp David over the weekend working on the speech.

The address will also kick off traditional post-speech presidential travel with an itinerary that looks like the setup for the president to launch his 2024 reelection campaign. Biden has stops in Wisconsin and Florida planned while Vice President Kamala Harris, who will be sitting next to McCarthy behind the president during the speech, will be heading off to Georgia and Minnesota.
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Turkey’s earthquake death toll might be more than just a natural disaster
Turkey’s earthquake death toll might be more than just a natural disaster, Asli Aydintasbas, The Washington Post
In 1999, we quickly learned that it wasn’t the earthquake itself but human-made concrete blocks that kill people. The blame went to contractors who used cheap materials, to the officials who failed to enforce Turkey’s relatively loose building codes, and, of course, to a government that has failed to develop a nationwide earthquake response strategy.

Ironically, it was for just such reasons that the 1999 earthquake inspired a huge grass-roots desire for change that ultimately benefited the Justice and Development Party (AKP) — the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. When it came to power in 2002, the AKP was all about reform and closer ties with the European Union. E.U. funds flowed into the construction of safer schools and other public buildings in accordance with European building codes.

Yet as Erdogan has expanded his own power (and as Turkey’s European dream has faded), the government’s interest in living up to European safety norms has eroded. In 2018, nearly two decades after the massive 1999 earthquake, Turkey finally passed much-awaited earthquake legislation. But those rules have been more honored in the breach than the observance. Erdogan has frequently described the construction industry as the crown jewel of the economy — encouraging a tacit lack of oversight. Turkey’s big public contracts tend to go to the same government cronies. Make what you will of this.
Revisiting the Summer of Stagflation
Revisiting the Summer of Stagflation, Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Well, the red wave was more of a ripple. And recent economic numbers have been astonishingly favorable. Half a million jobs were added last month, bringing total job creation under Biden to 12 million so far, with the unemployment rate dropping to 3.4 percent, its lowest level since 1969. Inflation was high in 2021 and part of 2022, but it has plunged since; over the past six months, consumer prices have risen at an annual rate of less than 2 percent.

If the economic news seems too good to be true, that’s probably because it is. Most of the experts I talk to think that monster employment report for January was a statistical anomaly. The inflation numbers reflect various temporary factors, although these go in both directions; I won’t be surprised if inflation rises somewhat in the months ahead, but that’s by no means certain. What is clear, however, is that until a few months ago many if not most economic prognosticators were far too negative about America’s prospects. In particular, we went through what I think of as the summer of stagflation — a period, actually extending some way into fall, when many influential economists were making extremely grim pronouncements about what it would take to bring inflation under control.

And I think it’s important to ask why they were so wrong.
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Biden’s economic success may reset the 2024 race
Biden’s economic success may reset the 2024 race, Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
Forget the polling showing Biden’s disapproval exceeding his favorables. The days of positive ratings for any president might be a thing of the past, given the persistence of tribal politics and the gloomy cast of news coverage. As we saw in the midterms, elections are choices, in this case between earnest Democrats working on popular economic proposals, and unhinged MAGA extremists. Put differently, if the economy remains strong, Biden’s chances of reelection will be high. (Recall that President Barack Obama’s approval in 2012 was less than 50 percent as well.)

Biden clearly senses that his political fortunes have improved. “For the past two years, we’ve heard a chorus of critics write off my economic plan. They said it’s just not possible to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” he said in announcing the January jobs numbers. “And they said we can’t bring back American manufacturing. They said we can’t make things in America anymore, that somehow adding jobs was a bad thing … or that the only way to slow down inflation was to destroy jobs.”

He added with relish, “Well, today’s data makes crystal clear what I’ve always known in my gut: These critics and cynics are wrong.”

On the GOP side, Biden’s economic success deepens their dilemma: If they nominate former president Donald Trump, the subject of multiple criminal probes, many rightly fear he’ll bring political disaster up and down the ticket. If he doesn’t run as the Republican nominee, a third-party bid threatens to hopelessly divide the party, with as many as 28 percent inclined to follow him, according to a recent poll.
President Biden Should Aim Higher in His State of the Union Address
President Biden Should Aim Higher in His State of the Union Address, Felicia Wong, Washington Monthly
Each year, the State of the Union is an unmatched opportunity for a president to speak directly to the nation. In 2022, more than 38 million people tuned in across broadcast and cable news networks, a massive viewership on par with Sunday night NFL games. But while the audience was there for Biden’s first State of the Union address, a clear narrative was not. As The New York Times’s coverage of the 2022 speech noted, the address “barely mentioned topics included some of the biggest on Democrats’ agenda.”

This year, President Biden should aim higher—and he can, because he now has the policy successes and the proof on the ground that he needs to deliver the visionary, inspirational speech that meets the moment.

The 117th Congress was the most productive in decades, which is even more remarkable given the president’s razor-thin margins in the House and the Senate. (Since then, he’s, of course, lost the House and picked up a seat in the Senate.) The administration’s hard-won 2021 and 2022 legislative victories—spending to keep families and small businesses whole during a crisis, investing in the industries and infrastructure of the future—didn’t just rescue the economy. They set it on a new path by applying a new understanding of how today’s economy works—and how it can work better. Biden’s new economics jettisoned austerity and put government investment and the crafting of productive markets at the center of a more equitable economic growth strategy. This was a 180-degree pivot from the trickle-down approach that still guides too many politicians, most of them on autopilot, and it’s paid off with the fastest economic recovery in decades. We now know that relentless tax cuts and starving government of talent and ambition pave a road to nowhere.

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