unclevlad

If it mutated to be more infectious?  That's not certain, but if so, yeah, I suppose...but that speculation is seriously premature.  It's too facile of an explanation;  by my lights, it's the Holmesian explanation.  If you can eliminate everything possible, then whatever remains, must be the truth.
 
And as pointed out, even if there are fewer deaths, it's tossing out massive ripples.  And there are the non-fatal, but very long-term damage cases, and the likely opportunistic infections in its aftermath.

LOL!!!!
 
Someone in the Niners' social media department is going on the naughty list for that one....

Meir Shahar, Diamond Body in Chinese Martial Arts or just Shahar!

Adamant.  Tying back to the archaic usage of impossibly hard and tough, which is the sense used to get adamantine.  That would be a bit too in-the-face, but I like Adamant.  Especially if he has a strong moral code along with it, because now it can refer to both strong body and strong character.

"Look, I celebrate our breakup with fireworks! I blow things up!"
 
 

They govern by proxy.  They don't need to be the mayor, police chief, etc. when those people are in their back pocket, or controlled by them in some manner.

This is for when you absolutely, positively want to enforce personal space...............

Why is it either/or?
 
There's PLENTY of things you can elect to fight within the structure that "no humanoid races are implicitly evil."  Evil cults.  Despotic tyrants.  Uncontrollable ravagers like trolls or bulettes.  
 
And just because the statement is "orcs are not implicitly evil"....doesn't mean bands of them aren't.  
 
Saying "all orcs (drow, etc) are EVIL" is just stupid and lazy.

Ron Rivera says Redskins name change is a 'discussion for another time'
 
If not now, when?

Cthulhu mythos deities were included in very early DDG...as were the gods of Lankhmar.  Yes, well, that's copyrighted material there;  they were explicitly even using the names.  There's no folklore or mythological link for Azathoth or Cthulhu;  they're pure Lovecraft.  Lankhmar is pure Lieber.  So using them for commercial purposes is a clear copyright violation.  
 
Now, the argument for eliminating "demon" and "devil" in favor of something more fantastic...THAT was PC.  The flap that "D&D promotes demonology!!!" goes back to at least the 80s when I was playing.  This was when Falwell was railing about most anything even remotely counterculture;  it might be fair to say it was the reaction to the days of the Warren Court, Vietname protests, etc.  

Why is it either/or?
 
There's PLENTY of things you can elect to fight within the structure that "no humanoid races are implicitly evil."  Evil cults.  Despotic tyrants.  Uncontrollable ravagers like trolls or bulettes.  
 
And just because the statement is "orcs are not implicitly evil"....doesn't mean bands of them aren't.  
 
Saying "all orcs (drow, etc) are EVIL" is just stupid and lazy.

The Unbearable Baggage of Orcing

HA and HKA are generally Strikes.  When they're plain, it's a pointless way to proceed, but as you note, here, there's gonna be other advantages.  A 2d HKA would be 4 dice with Piercing...and if you want to add the STR, which will NOT be Piercing, it's Strike at +3/4.  If you want 4D killing, it's easiest to buy it as 8d6 Blast, Piercing, No Range.  40 points, 8 END.  
 
In something like this, my take for the +1/4 Strike is to describe a touch-based alternate attack...for example, I like giving healer-types the anti-heal...in 6E, perhaps an AVAD vs. Power Def.  If you make it the +1/4 Strike, then you can gain the benefits of martial maneuvers and levels with, say, Martial Punch.
 
EDIT:  1D6 Normal isn't equivalent to 1D6 killing.  It's not right to think of them converting at a +2 advantage.  From a pure damage output, 1d killing is close to 3 dice normal.  BODY damage:  3 1/2 vs. 3.  Average STUN:  9 1/3 for the killing, 10 1/2 for the normal.  About as close as you can get.

The problem with Hero's killing attacks is their *massive* variability.  Most of the time they're likely to be completely ineffective...but sometimes they're *devastatingly* effective...and quite often it's based on the roll of one single die, the stun mult.  The intent was to keep an attack that can *hurt*...but is far less likely to one-shot kill, or knock someone out for a month.  

Which is why the rush to reopen was so horrifically misguided.  

That's the name of his wannabe villain rival.

Adamant.  Tying back to the archaic usage of impossibly hard and tough, which is the sense used to get adamantine.  That would be a bit too in-the-face, but I like Adamant.  Especially if he has a strong moral code along with it, because now it can refer to both strong body and strong character.

P. 387:
 

The point being, slapping on an OIAID gives you a lot of points for a very narrow window, in many cases.  (Pretty easy to put 100-150 points as OIAID, giving you an extra 20-30 to use.)  The key may be, how often does the GM expect to have this window?  
 
Look at the other options.
--Perceivable (inobvious to obvious), typically for defenses.  The fact that it's obvious means your hero ID is blatant, so it's full-time.
--Costs END only to activate.  This one's sweet in many ways...but on the 0 END defenses, they go from Persistent to Constant.  They *stop* if you're stunned or KOd.  
--Concentration 1/2 DCV.  Also has the "can't dodge" aspect, and applies all the way through to his next phase.  (I'm talking about the simple form, with a constant or persistent power.)
--Linked.  Who needs a 1/4 limit when you can get 1/2?  Define the baseline power that creates the conversion from normal to hero form (stun-only Damage Negation anyone?) and hang a ton of Links onto it.  Yes, this is seriously rude.
 
Limitations are meant to cause you problems sometimes.  With OIAID, those problems can't happen most of the time...so when that window's there, it kinda has to be a nasty one.
 

There's a term for what I've been doing since January: Doomscrolling.

"Good vs evil is melodrama.  Good vs good is tragedy.  Evil vs evil is business as usual."

I think the connection is too loose, altho it could well have contributed.  The resentment, tho, is real...can't do this, can't do that, masks are a pain.  Now couple that with the views that others aren't doing it...the protests are only one such...and by and large, the impossibility of broad enforcement, and still viewed as the scattershot risk (I suspect)...those still willing to Do the Right Thing will be in the decline.
 
And we can't ignore the complicity of the White House.  The coronavirus task force met the press today;  I caught one question to Pence, asking about the conflict between saying "follow your local leaders" and holding rallies in Tulsa against local desire.  Pence responded with a total BS "free assembly" argument.  I shut it down right there...that was way past my limit.  We can't deny the effectiveness of the long-term disinformation campaigns related to science generally, and to this situation in particular.  Proof of that was the rant about the devil, and masks making you sick, posted recently.

I don't disagree with your sentiment, but Wizards didn't create the problem.
 
Gygax and Tactical Systems Research ("Research!"  HA!     ) created the problem.
 
For what it's worth, I don't care if they leave the alignment system in or not, because _screw_ D&D.         However, I've never been really big on accepting "this whole race is evil; deal with it."   I am _totally_ cool with "this particular dickhead right here, _he_ is totally evil."  I'm _way_ fine with that.  I just can't figure how a race of mortals with any sort of society can all just "be evil" and a society is still maintained.  I'm willing to be that even Mayans weren't chucking people onto the altar every stinking day.....
 
 

I've stayed out of D&D since 3rd Ed.
 
I don't have a problem with this either, in large part because the alignment system was so bad.  Plus, I *loathed* the notion of alignment, a seriously nebulous psychosocial concept, was in fact a manipulating and manipulable force...else, how does Protection from Evil/Holy Word work?  It's ok, perhaps, to use that concept with extra-planar critters...if nothing else, it's a feature of the life-forms that develop in those planes.  

And Houston has become on of the country's biggest Coronavirus hotspots. Jim Crane wants to set upa  situation where thousands of people will be in the same outdoor arena in conditions where masking is very difficult for long periods and distancing would be impossible to enforce, in a city where the virus is communicating itself like crazy. It takes a special kind of arrogance to put that forward now, with everything that is going on..