John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center 1-21-2022
US Totals:
Infections: 70,035,568
Deaths: 864,142

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"One year of COVID-19 vaccines: Millions inoculated, but hundreds of thousands still lost."

“Two years ago, on Jan. 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first domestic case of coronavirus. The positive patient was a man from Washington state, who had recently returned from Wuhan, China. Now, two years later, the U.S. has confirmed more than 70 million COVID-19 cases, and 859,000 deaths, the highest in the total for any country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And the nation, despite the wide availability of highly effective vaccines and novel treatments, is experiencing its most significant surge on record due to the highly transmissible omicron variant and tens of millions of eligible Americans remaining unvaccinated.

“These last two years have brought transformational advancements spanning vaccines, treatments and testing. Though these tools are having a clear impact on reducing poor outcomes, we are still seeing one of the worst surges to date,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
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17 million cases in a month

"Two years into the pandemic, federal data shows that hundreds of thousands of Americans are still testing positive for the virus every day, and more than 1,600 others are dying from COVID-19.
In the last month alone, there have been more than 17.1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 44,700 reported virus-related deaths. In addition, more than a year into the U.S. domestic vaccine rollout, 62 million eligible Americans who are over the age of 5, about 20% of that group, remain completely unvaccinated. The U.S. is still averaging more than 750,000 new cases a day, about three times the surge from last winter in 2021.

"More than 160,000 virus-positive Americans are currently hospitalized across the country, a pandemic high. It was just over two weeks ago that we hit 100,000 COVID-19 positive Americans hospitalized.

"Nevertheless, hundreds of millions of Americans are now inoculated -- but tens of millions of others remain completely unvaccinated, an ongoing hurdle that experts say will likely result in the loss of tens of thousands of more lives. And nationally, 99% of U.S. counties are still reporting high transmission. Out of the 3,220 U.S. counties, just 16 counties are not reporting high transmission.” ABC News

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Law Suits

“Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Friday filed a new lawsuit against
Columbia Public Schools over its temporary mask mandate.
Schmitt had previously sued the school district over its mask requirement.
CPS was just one of 35 districts Schmitt sued by the end of Friday.” Columbia Daily Tribune
***
“Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sues 11 Kansas City-area school districts over mask mandates."
"Schmitt also sued Liberty Public Schools over their mask mandate." KSHB News
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Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas responded to the attorney general's lawsuits Friday saying that the suits were a ‘clear but unsurprising political stunt.’" KSHB News
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“Despite the looming threat of legal action from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Springfield school leaders are seeking a temporary return to required masking. ‘As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the district and community, additional options for mitigating the spread are needed,’ said Superintendent Grenita Lathan. ‘The impact of the virus on the learning environment is undeniable.’ She said Schmitt, who filed more masking-related lawsuits against districts Friday, was ‘doing everything in his power to make life hell for the school districts.’

"‘This virus should have always been framed as a public health issue and not one of extreme political discourse and backlash,’ she wrote."
Springfield News-Leader
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“Missouri attorney general sues St. Louis area school districts over mask mandates. Tuesday, Schmitt accused nearly every school district in the St. Louis region of defying the law by requiring students and teachers to wear masks at school.” KSDK News

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Schools cancelled

“Mid-Missouri school districts cancel classes amid covid, staff shortages. Whether it be due to outbreaks of the coronavirus or the effects the virus has brought, several school districts in mid-Missouri have been forced to maneuver.”
KRCG News
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“North Kansas City: 300 teachers were out due to COVID-19, and the district was only able to come up with 100 substitutes because many of them are also ill. It's not clear how the district is addressing the other 200 absences.”
KSHB News
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“JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State education officials say COVID-19 has caused 62 Missouri school districts to temporarily close in January. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said that is 12% of the state's school districts.” Associated Press

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Missouri Hospitalizations Continue to Increase.

Doctors in Missouri are concerned that low vaccination rates in the state are impacting children in greater numbers.
Children's Mercy Hospital of Kansas City is seeing more COVID cases,
with some children being admitted to the ICU." CBS News

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“In his annual State of the State address, Gov. Mike Parson nearly hour-long speech, he praised the state’s approach to the pandemic.” FOX News

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Change

Facing a continuation of 1 Million new US COVID infections almost daily,
not to mention the also daily worsening news of US hospital health systems being overwhelmed by COVID patients and infected staff,

I will now be reporting on US COVID Infection “Milestones” only once or twice a week at most.

Doing this as a "Milestone" blog daily (even if it does reflect history) is just too depressing…