COVID Economy

[TSmith34, Inc.]

From the NYT morning news:

Traffic deaths are surging during the pandemic.
'Social disengagement'
The United States is enduring its most severe increase in traffic deaths since the 1940s.

It is a sharp change from the recent norm, too. Deaths from vehicle crashes have generally been falling since the late 1960s, thanks to vehicle improvements, lower speed limits and declines in drunken driving, among other factors. By 2019, the annual death rate from crashes was near its lowest level since cars became a mass item in the 1920s.

But then came the Covid-19 pandemic.

Crashes — and deaths — began surging in the summer of 2020, surprising traffic experts who had hoped that relatively empty roads would cause accidents to decline. Instead, an increase in aggressive driving more than made up for the decline in driving. And crashes continued to increase when people returned to the roads, later in the pandemic.

Per capita vehicle deaths rose 17.5 percent from the summer of 2019 to last summer, according to a Times analysis of federal data. It is the largest two-year increase since just after World War II.

This grim trend is another way that two years of isolation and disruption have damaged life, as this story — by my colleague Simon Romero, who's a national correspondent — explains. People are frustrated and angry, and those feelings are fueling increases in violent crime, customer abuse of workers, student misbehavior in school and vehicle crashes.

"We're seeing erratic behavior in the way people are acting and their patience levels," Albuquerque's police chief, Harold Medina, told Simon. "Everybody's been pushed. This is one of the most stressful times in memory."

Art Markman, a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said that the emotions partly reflected "two years of having to stop ourselves from doing things that we'd like to do." He added: "When you get angry in the car, it generates energy — and how do you dissipate that energy? Well, one way is to put your foot down a little bit more on the accelerator."

Rising drug abuse during the pandemic seems to play an important role, as well. The U.S. Department of Transportation has reported that "the proportion of drivers testing positive for opioids nearly doubled after mid-March 2020, compared to the previous 6 months, while marijuana prevalence increased by about 50 percent." (Mid-March 2020 is when major Covid mitigations began.)

Other factors besides the pandemic also affect traffic deaths, of course. But those other factors tend to change slowly — and often counteract each other. Improving technology and safety features reduce traffic deaths, while the growing size of vehicles and the rise of distracted driving lead to more deaths. The only plausible explanation for most of the recent surge is the pandemic.

[JWags85]

Clearly from people wearing masks while driving

[rocket surgeon]

Man, did someone put $.50 in you today? Nads, you be you, aina?

Remember doc, most of these people put the ice cream Buffon in the house...heading right off a cliff and the "journalists" are worried about Russiarussiarussia yet?

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Clearly from people wearing masks over their eyes while driving

[Galway Eagle]

Remember doc, most of these people put the ice cream Buffon in the house...heading right off a cliff and the "journalists" are worried about Russiarussiarussia yet?

How is that worth saying? I could say the McDonald's buffoon about trump. The spray tan buffoon. The Coca-Cola buffoon. The golfing buffoon. See how it adds absolutely nothing? All it is is a fact "he like ice cream" followed by a personal opinion "I think he's a buffoon". There's no substance. If you're hung up on him getting ice cream that's fine but admit that you and doc aren't holding your guys to the same standard. Be partisan if that's your desire but at least acknowledge that the two of your not helping divides by holding two different standards.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Ice cream is, apparently, a very important issue.

[4everwarriors]

Remember doc, most of these people put the ice cream Buffon in the house...heading right off a cliff and the "journalists" are worried about Russiarussiarussia yet?

C'mon man, the demented buffoon is on the phone with Putin, as we type, fending off a showdown in the Ukraine, hey?

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Well, somebody in this discussion certainly has dementia.

[The Sultan]

How is that worth saying? I could say the McDonald's buffoon about trump. The spray tan buffoon. The Coca-Cola buffoon. The golfing buffoon. See how it adds absolutely nothing? All it is is a fact "he like ice cream" followed by a personal opinion "I think he's a buffoon". There's no substance. If you're hung up on him getting ice cream that's fine but admit that you and doc aren't holding your guys to the same standard. Be partisan if that's your desire but at least acknowledge that the two of your not helping divides by holding two different standards.

At least you know how to spell "buffoon" correctly though.

[tower912]

Trump would have sent troops to help his boss, Putin.
Then he would have put the correspondence in boxes and shipped it to Mar a Lago.   While having Mazars cook his books.

[4everwarriors]

Yesterday, FD Joe was lashing out at NFL owners for the lack of black coaches in the NFL. In Dr. Martin Luther King's, I Have a Dream Speech, King longed for the day that a man would be judged by the content of his character, rather than the color of his skin. Guess we haven't accomplished much over the past 60 years, hey?

[tower912]

We all are still longing for that day. 

[4everwarriors]

Absolutely Fahrenheit, hey?

[Uncle Rico]

Remember doc, most of these people put the ice cream Buffon in the house...heading right off a cliff and the "journalists" are worried about Russiarussiarussia yet?

10 of 10

I couldn't stop laughing after reading "Buffon".  You even capitalized it!  Tremendous work!

[jesmu84]

Yesterday, FD Joe was lashing out at NFL owners for the lack of black coaches in the NFL. In Dr. Martin Luther King's, I Have a Dream Speech, King longed for the day that a man would be judged by the content of his character, rather than the color of his skin. Guess we haven't accomplished much over the past 60 years, hey?

Correct we haven't. Wonder why???

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

10 of 10

I couldn't stop laughing after reading "Buffon".  You even capitalized it!  Tremendous work!

I believe that is Phoebe's last name from Friends.

[Uncle Rico]

I believe that is Phoebe's last name from Friends.

Close, that was Buffay.  Either way you cut it, I'm adding Buffon to my vocabulary.

[MU82]

C'mon man, the demented buffoon is on the phone with Putin

The demented buffoon you worship constantly gave in to Putin so that the pee-pee tape - or whatever else the puppetmaster has on the puppet - wouldn't be revealed.

Yesterday, FD Joe was lashing out at NFL owners for the lack of black coaches in the NFL.

Much better to lash out at athletes for peacefully protesting, something FD Don did both before and after he called himself "an ally of all peaceful protesters."

Remember doc, most of these people put the ice cream Buffon in the house...heading right off a cliff and the "journalists" are worried about Russiarussiarussia yet?

Ya gotta love a guy who, in the process of making fun of a person's intelligence, spels inteligents rong.

Bravo, roQQet, bravo!

[Lighthouse 84]

And we wonder why we can't have nice things???

[JWags85]

BUFFON

[Warriors4ever]

https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety

Instead of quoting one line and missing the context, try reading the entire speech....
It's a bit discouraging that in many ways he could give the same speech today and it would be apropos.

[The Sultan]

https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety

Instead of quoting one line and missing the context, try reading the entire speech....
It's a bit discouraging that in many ways he could give the same speech today and it would be apropos.

Old white guys quoting MLK out of context has become quite the tradition.

[Uncle Rico]

Old white guys quoting MLK out of context has become quite the tradition.

"To be or not to be." -MLK

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Close, that was Buffay.  Either way you cut it, I'm adding Buffon to my vocabulary.

I hear buffon goes good with covfefe.

[TSmith34, Inc.]