Less of nothing

Several readers have been alerting me to the fact that the State of Oregon's daily Covid report is no longer giving details of the newly reported deaths. The readers seem to be thinking that this is some sort of coverup. But as someone who has looked at every one of those daily Covid reports since late spring, I can assure you that not much is being hidden.

That is because the "details" that the state has been dishing out have been pretty meaningless all along.

"Oregon's {1,454th} Covid death is an {82}-year-old {man} in {Josephine} County who tested positive on {June whatever} and died at {home} on {July whatever}. He had underlying conditions."

No kidding. If you meet anyone over age 50 who doesn't have "underlying conditions," let me know. That could mean anything from high blood pressure to being overweight to whatever.

And so the "details" we aren't going to get any more were never too revealing. They were meant to show some respect for the deceased, but whatever respect there was, the announcements didn't tell the public anything it didn't already know by looking at the statistics.

Yeah, the dead were virtually all old people. They had normal old-people bodies. 

Well, the state isn't going to bother telling you anything about them individually any more. The important thing now is vaccinating all those 20-something gym teachers. It's not so much a coverup as a not-give-a-damn.