CNN: Elon Musk's possible takeover of Twitter is unsettling for many Black users

New York Times: Democrats Aim to Use Abortion Rights to Jolt State Legislative Races

Huff Post: Pence Says He Hopes 5 Justices In Leaked Opinion Will Have ‘Courage’ To Overturn Roe

Trending On The Right

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US: Dow tumbles 1,000 points for the worst day since 2020, Nasdaq drops 5% (CNBC)

US: Karine Jean-Pierre to become White House press secretary, the first Black and out LGBTQ person in the role (CNN)

World: Ukrainian troops unlikely to get easy exit from steel mill (AP)

US: Senate Democrats tee up likely doomed vote on protecting nationwide abortion access (ABC)

US: Biden approves disaster declaration for wildfire-hit New Mexico (Reuters)

US: Howie Mandel: Dave Chappelle attack is 'beginning of the end of comedy' (NY Post)

US: America is diversifying, but Rust Belt cities lag (The Hill)

US: Boeing moving its headquarters from Chicago to Virginia (Chicago Sun-Times)

US: Tech companies face a legal nightmare if Roe v. Wade is overturned (Protocol)

World: Russian oligarch's $300 million mega-yacht, the Amadea, seized in Fiji (CBS)

US: Why it's so hard to buy a house (Axios)

Since beginning in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed 1 million American lives, according to data gathered by NBC News. At the same time, US health officials say they're closely tracking a recent uptick in case numbers.

News Coverage from the Left: 'Better Than Omicron' Is Still Pretty Bad (The Atlantic)

News Coverage from the Right: NBC's Lester Holt suggests 'free will' is partly to blame for the 1 million COVID deaths (Fox News)

From the Flag: While many pandemic-related measures have eased, commentary continues to both address the current situation, and look back on the past two years. Here's more from both sides.

• The measures taken to combat the virus represented an extreme response to a disease that wasn’t fatal to most of the population.
• The hysteria over COVID-19 was disingenuous, and hospitals were pressured to lie about the number of fatalities.
• Those responsible for pushing damaging measures on children need to face consequences.

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“Between Natural and Vaccine Antibodies, When is Enough Enough?” Brian C. Joondeph, MD, American Thinker: “Does COVID have an end, as in a final chapter or act? … As viruses mutate, they generally become more contagious but less lethal… This also serves to prolong the life course of the virus that would rather spread far and wide as opposed to killing its host, stopping spread. … COVID cases numbers are up, but what does that really mean? … Has COVID become like the common cold or a mild version of the flu? While case numbers, meaning positive nasal swab tests, are rising in some areas, hospitalizations and deaths are down significantly. … Dragging this on indefinitely has consequences. Such as the economic carnage from COVID, the US inching toward a recession with high inflation, also known as stagflation. There are mental health consequences to add to our collective misery. 50 percent of young adults currently report symptoms of depression according to a recent COVID survey.

“The Covid Regime’s Cassandra” John M. Atlas, The American Conservative: “In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Scott Atlas of Stanford’s Hoover Institution was puzzled by the overreaction from public health officials. There was insufficient evidence to justify the policies being recommended. Lockdowns almost always cause more harm than good… Had public health officials used the more accurate infection fatality rate—a number based on all who had been infected, whether or not they had symptoms—rather than the case fatality rate, less public hysteria would have been generated. But for many government officials and media executives, generating hysteria was the goal. Covid only threatened the old and sick, but public health officials declared without evidence the existence of a grave danger to the entire population. … Atlas did not report what happened next: When Covid patients did not materialize in the numbers predicted, hospital administrators pressured doctors to exaggerate the fatalities on death certificates to receive government money and avoid financial bankruptcy.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: There must be consequences for those who put restrictions on children during COVID Zachary Faria, Washington Examiner

• Science was needlessly politicized, and the death toll wouldn't have gotten this high if we simply did what we were supposed to do.
• The pandemic revealed ways in which we need to improve various government agencies and the healthcare sector while overcoming a general sense of mistrust.
• We need to take this opportunity as a society to prepare for the next pandemic and invest in forward-thinking measures.

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“We weren't supposed to get anywhere near 1 million COVID deaths in the US; then we did” Nicholas Goldberg, LA Times Opinion: “...We didn’t have 100,000 deaths, or 240,000 deaths either. … Instead, we’re now closing in on 1 million deaths…with 400 more Americans dying each day. … But this virus doesn’t appear to be done with us. In the US and abroad, new variants are still emerging. Delta has receded, and Omicron is well past the high point it reached in mid-January… In California, COVID case numbers are creeping back up, in part because of the relaxation of indoor masking rules and vaccination-verification requirements. Worst of all, we continue to fight among ourselves about masking requirements, about whether to open up or shut down, about how to protect our schoolchildren, about the benefits of immunization. Untruths continue to pervade social media. Science and health remain senselessly politicized. Admittedly, this is a confusing moment. The danger has lessened. And by now, even liberal…are very sick of hiding out from this disease. We all want our lives back.”

“How Millions of Lives Might Have Been Saved From Covid-19” Zeynep Tufecki, New York Times Opinion: “When the pandemic is over, the temptation will be to move on and reclaim what had been normal life. For individuals that will be fine. But the cracks revealed in our governments and public health institutions by two years of inertia, mistakes and resistance to evidence make it crucial that a broad, tough dissection of what happened take place if we are to choose the correct course in future challenges. National and international commissions need to help us see where we went wrong, without scapegoating, and how to respond to future outbreaks, without defensively excusing what public health authorities and national leaders did this time, even if well-meaning. … At a time of growing international distrust we need to work to increase trust and mutual cooperation. We need to better understand how to rapidly incorporate evidence into scientific policy and to better understand human response to such major, complicated events.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: More Covid-19 funding is needed to stay ahead in the next battle Dr. Ashish Jha, CNN Opinion

According to a poll released Wednesday, Americans are most concerned about issues other than COVID-19. Just 5% identified the pandemic as their top worry, down from 20% last November. Meanwhile, 50% say the economy is their top concern (SSRS/CNN).

In connection to the one million death milestone, 40% of American adults say they know one or more people who died of the disease, according to a survey conducted by the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States.

Flag Poll: Do you know someone personally who passed away from coronavirus? Join our discussion here.

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Today I Learned a Turkish mother that read lecture notes for four years to her blind daughter in law school has been awarded an honorary degree with the daughter.