Over 60 Infected at the Olympics So Far

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Over 60 people working at the Olympics in Japan have tested positive for COVID Since July 1, 2021. Athletes or others who may have arrived early for training camp but are not yet under the “jurisdiction” of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are not included in the count, an official told the Associated Press.

Table Tennis player Ryu Seung-min of South Korea was the first IOC member to test positive. Two South African soccer players who were the first athletes inside the Olympic Village also tested positive.

Team South Africa confirmed the coach of its rugby sevens team also tested positive at a pre-Olympics training camp in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima. He is in isolation there and will miss the entire rugby competition, the team said. The British Olympic Association said six athletes and two staff in the track and field squad are isolating at the team’s pre-Olympic base in Yokohama after being deemed close contacts of a person who tested positive following their flight to Japan. U.S. tennis player Coco Gauff didn’t travel to Japan after testing positive for the coronavirus.

The planned arrival of over 11,000 people is stoking fear that the Games will be a major superspreader event. Tokyo reported 1,008 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the 29th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previously. It was also the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases. The Olympics will open under a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures.

COVID K9

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Bristol County in Massachusetts is the first County in the United States to have COVID-19 sniffing K9 dogs. The dogs can sniff out the disease in a similar way the dogs detect drugs or weapons. The K9s began their new job starting July 15, 2021.

Bristol Count Sheriff  Thomas Hodgson said “Bristol County and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have come so far since the pandemic started last year,” Hodgson said. “Today, festivals are happening, restaurants are full and concert venues are packed. We’ve made so much progress, and our new COVID-19 detection program is one way the people of Bristol County can stay ahead of the curve.”

The detection program was developed by Florida International University’s (FIU) International Forensic Research Institute. “This is all science,” Bristol County Capt. Paul Douglas. “This program was developed by professors, doctors and scientists at FIU, and we couldn’t be more proud or excited to execute it here in Bristol County.”

Douglas is paired with Huntah, a 9-month-old female black lab, while Officer Theodore Santos will work with Duke, a 9-month-old male golden lab and retriever mix. The dogs were born two weeks apart with the same father and different mothers.

The dogs are available for use at schools, town buildings, non-profits, nursing homes, Councils on Aging, public safety facilities, and medical facilities in Bristol County. COVID detecting dogs were first employed at an airport in Helsinki, Finland. I am glad to see the United States starting to catch  up with Europe in employing dogs to sniff out the disease. At the University of Helsinki, researchers found that dogs can identify a Covid-19 case days before a person begins showing symptoms. They even believe dogs are more accurate that available COVID test kits, and the results are instant.

Delta Wave

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The Delta variant wave has begun in America. While many governors are opening their states fully, the Delta Variant is causing a rise in COVID-19 cases across the country.

President Joe Biden encouraged Americans to get out for the 4th of July as his vaccination plan to have 70% of Americans fully vaccinated fell short of his goal. The CDC shows that 48.2% of the American population is fully vaccinated. The vaccine initiative has ground to a halt as Americans cling to medical misinformation and partisan politics over their health needs.

July 4th weekend events were most certainly super spreader events. Cases usually rise two weeks after a super spreader and cases are on a steep incline doubling in the last two weeks. The unvaccinated account for 99% of fatalities.

“We’re losing time here. The delta variant is spreading, people are dying, we can’t actually just wait for things to get more rational,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told CNN July 14, 2021.

Elsewhere, Indonesia set another daily case record of 54,517 and has overtaken India as the Asian epicenter of the pandemic, CNN reported. At least 991 fatalities were recorded in the nation of about 170 million people on July 14. 2021 to push the total to 69,210. In China, local governments are moving aggressively to push residents to get vaccinated and some are planning to bar them from accessing public venues if they refuse, The Wall Street Journal reported.

England is experiencing a huge spike in cases because so many people fled India where the Delta variant first ignited. England plans to fully open on July 19, 2021 while cases soar towards 100000 a day.The government in England seems to be pushing for a herd immunity strategy by just letting everyone get infected.

A cluster of COVID cases at a hotel hosting Olympic athletes is raising concerns coming just over a week before the opening ceremony, Reuters reported. Adding to the gloom, Tokyo has just recorded its highest number of new COVID cases in six months.

 

After Pulse: Jessica Brooks

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At the time Pulse happened, Jessica Brooks was an emergency communications specialist for the Orlando Police Department. On that evening she was a call taker.  A call taker answers the 911 calls as well as non emergency calls and they collect all the information and they put it in the computer. A dispatcher then get that information and gets it out to the officers who are responding.

On June 11, 2016 she was on the 3PM to 3AM shift taking calls. The entire week had been insane to the point where they wondered what was going on. They were busier than they have ever been. They thought that maybe the Christina Grimmie murder at the Plaza Live was the end of the insanity. Everyone was burnt out. There had been a car jacking that day as well.

Six call takers worked the lines. She was handling six radio channels. She had worked as a dispatcher for eight hours and for her last four hours she became a call taker. Things usually slow down between midnight and two. At to AM it can pick up because that is when the clubs let out. She was on her last break and it was just before 2AM. She took a bathroom break and when she walked back in the room, the phones were ringing off the hook. Co-workers wee standing up. She heard there was an active shooter at Pulse nightclub. She wasn’t sure it was legit. She decided to plug back into her headset and take a few calls and she would take a break later.

She doesn’t remember many of the calls. The first call she does remember was the worst call she had ever taken. It was a female who was stuck in a bathroom. She was scared and begging for help. She encouraged her and let her know there was an officer on the scene. Then Jessica heard gun shots. They were not in the bathroom but they were close. Then they were in the bathroom. She heard screaming and horrible things. There was moaning for a while and then silence. She stayed on the line putting it on hold and handled other calls hoping she could go back to the line and get a response, but she didn’t.

The next call was a minor traffic accident with no injuries and she had to inform the driver that there were no officers available. Some of that evening is a blur. She took another call from someone what was trapped in an office at Pulse. She was on the phone with him for a while. There were ten others in the room. She got his basic information and kept him calm. Inside she was panicking because of hat had happened to her last caller. She didn’t want that to happen to him. Ultimately she got to hear who went in and pulled him get out. She could hear her co workers talking to people in bathrooms, and the same room as her survivor. She knew of parents who were texting their children who were trapped in the bathrooms.

It was a loud insane night. The final call she took that night was from the shooter. She couldn’t hear him because it was so loud in the room. He claimed his allegiance to an Islamic state. He said, “I am the Orlando shooter.” She muted her phone, and told her supervisor that she had the shooter o the phone. One of the lieutenants was there and he made his way to her so he could take over the call. She asked the shooter where he was, and he said he was at Pulse. Her computer screen showed a map, that map shows where the call is coming from. He was indeed right at Pulse. He spoke in another language at another point. Then he hung up on her. The lieutenant took her console and she was done for the night. She wanted to stay but they wouldn’t let her. Some people worked 16 hour shifts but they must have seen on her face that she had enough. The first call is what got to her the most. She could not sleep for 48 hours.

At home she did click on the news which announced that 20 had died. She felt sick and turned it off. She felt she would never be the same. A friend came over from work along with a pastor and she was surrounded by love. The next day she went to church in search of hope. She was off work for 4 days.

 

After Pulse: Deacon David Grey

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Deacon David Grey is from the Dioceses of Greater Orlando. Catholic Deacons, priests and the bishop provided pastoral care and leadership to the Hispanic community and the Orlando Community following the Pulse nightclub massacre.

On June 12, 2016 David as sitting at home on the front porch following a run. They found out what had happened. He connected with the chief operating officer at the Diocese. There tragedy was just down the street from the church. They needed to be involved in doing something. David needed to get dressed and get down there.

He ended up at the hotel which became the staging point. It was very chaotic since no one had experienced something of this magnitude before. Families clung to the hope that they would find out what happened to their loved one but those in charge needed to know who next of kin were. Finally at the end of the day news was not forthcoming for the families. It just wasn’t possible.

A Federal Response team was on route to Miami for a training exercise and they were diverted to Orlando. The Federal agents took control form city and county agencies. This threw off notifications. Some notifications were done. There was chaos and anger. One person walked around with a cell phone with a photo and he told people , “If this is your son, he is not coming home.” He was frustrated and angry. Pizzas came in that were ordered by people from California. People wanted to help in any way they could so there was food and water. Translators started manning tables and taking in supplies.

Word went out among the priests in the hospitals that there needed to be a response. Because of his position, as a deacon, David knows most of the priests. They needed to find priests who speak Spanish. He called Catholic Charities, to find people who were bi-lingual. He assembled a team who were bi-lingual and they immediately came down. This was on a Sunday when they had to juggle masses. The day was open and unstructured as they walked with families in their moment of uncertainty and need. The bishop had flown to California and when he landed he heard about the Pulse massacre and he got right back on a plane to Orlando.

Universal prayer services were planned soon afterward. A timetable structure had to be developed so that Spanish speaking priests could meet with families. Then came funeral arrangements. Family were coming in from other countries. In the midst of a challenge like this you have to have hope. That can be hard to come by. There were challenges in the family structures in the midst of the tragedy. Unity was the primary message moving forward in both the city response and the church response. We stand together, Orlando Strong.

COVID 911

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Orlando officials confirmed July 13, 2021 that 16 employees at a 911 Communication Center had tested positive for COVID-19. 15 of those employees were unvaccinated. All of the employees are self-isolating and six other employees are in quarantine, due to possible exposure and possible symptoms.

The Orlando Sentinel reported, that, in all, 22 employees are out, with two hospitalized.

The Communication Center took the following measures as a result of the outbreak:

  • Staff are required to wear a face mask at all times unless at their desk.
  • Temperature checks are made upon entry.
  • A cleaning crew cleans twice a day at the facility, especially high-touched surface areas.
  • An Aeroclave unit, which is a machine equipped to disinfect and decontaminate spaces and surfaces, is utilized weekly to further sanitize commonly shared areas.
  • Hand sanitizer stations are deployed throughout the building.
  • Any vendors or visitors are not able to go inside the facility at this time.

At a Commissioner’s meeting, a director bragged that there were no cases of COVID-19 among his departments. However when each department gave a report they contradicted him, reporting may cases of COVID-19. He stood corrected. It would seem Orange County  Government isn’t aware or chooses to ignore the infections in their own ranks. On July 12, 2021 Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings recommended that all residents, vaccinated and unvaccinated, wear face masks indoors as the county reports a nearly 8 percent 14-day rolling positivity rate. Ironically most of the people at the Commissioner’s meeting on July 14, 2021 were mask less. Commissioner’s were separated by plexiglass barriers but plexiglass does not stop an airborne virus.

The highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread among unvaccinated people. 100% of new cases and deaths on July 11, 2021 were unvaccinated people. Get the shot people.

Two Americas

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Dr. Fauci said on an interview with Don Lemon of CNN, “When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions — be they states, cities or counties — you are going to see these individual types of blips. It’s almost like it’s going to be two Americas. You’re going to have areas where the vaccine rate is high, where more than 70% of the population has received at least one dose. When you compare that with areas where you may have 35% of the people vaccinated, you clearly have a high risk of seeing these spikes in those selected areas. The thing that’s so frustrating about this, Don, is that this is entirely avoidable, entirely preventable. If you are vaccinated, you diminish dramatically your risk of getting infected, and even more dramatically your risk of getting seriously ill. If you are not vaccinated, you are at considerable risk.”

In Florida Cruise ships have started sailing and unvaccinated guests are being allowed to board. Vaccinated guests, identified with special wristbands, get full run of the ship, while those unprotected from the virus won’t even be able to walk into the bar, casino, or spa. Since June there have already been cases of guests testing positive for COVID-19 while at sea. Two unvaccinated teenagers who tested positive and had to be flown back to the states from the Bahamas and  two asymptomatic guests testing positive on a ship from St. Maarten. Two vaccinated guests and one unvaccinated crew member on an Alaska cruise tested positive for COVID-19 as well.

The CDC recommends at least 95% of passengers and crew be vaccinated. However Florida’s governor Ron DeatSantis filed a lawsuit insisting that unvaccinated people must be allowed to sail. Norwegan Cruise Line is suing the state of Florida because of this ban on vaccine passports. The unvaccinated want total freedom and the vaccinated resent having to wear masks because unvaccinated lower class are on board. The only way to keep both sides happy is to insist that only vaccinated guests can go on the ships. Quite honestly anyone who wants to sail on a cruise death trap during a pandemic is insane. It turns out there are plenty of insane Americans.

The Rural Unvaccinated

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The number of American getting vaccinated fr COVID-19 has plummeted over the past several months. The number of people getting vaccinated each day has dropped 88% from April of 2021. Americans have been offered free beers, scholarships and multi million dollar lottery prize but many don’t want the vaccine. States with the lowest vaccination rates supported the former president.nws is specifically encouraging it’s viewers to not get vaccinated.

With the Delta variant spreading like wildfire across the country, the unvaccinated are falling sick and dying. Frustratingly those deaths are “completely avoidable” now that vaccines are available. Across the country, more than 99% of US Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Coronavirus case numbers are rising sharply in the Sunshine State once again as the Delta variant spreads. The Florida Department of Health reported more than 23,000 new coronavirus cases last week — an 8,000-case increase over the previous week. Only 58% of the eligible population in Florida has gotten vaccinated. A sharp rise in COVID-19 cases has prompted Orange County to abruptly change course and suggest that all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks when in crowded environments. The announcement by Mayor Jerry Demings came late Monday July 12, 2021 at an Orange County coronavirus news briefing. “A pandemic within a pandemic is starting to occur,” he said. Orange county’s 14-day rolling positivity rate hit 7.8% on Monday, almost double that of 4.28% two weeks ago. 406 cases of new infections were reported to Florida department of health July 11, 2021. The party only ends one way for the unvaccinated.

Playalinda Beach

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After I finished teaching on Sunday at Crealde, Pam, her niece and I headed out to Playalinda beach. We had never been to this beach before so it was an adventure for all of us. Playalinda is known for having a nude beach section and research on the road trip indicated the nude section was at the 13th parking lot.

Being a park on the Canaveral National Seashore, it costs money to get into Playalinda. A car load costs $20. For $40 you can get a yearly pass and Pam decided to get that since it would be paid off in just two beach trips. We quickly realized that these beaches are much less crowded than at Coco Beach. The water was a magnificent turquoise and deep blue and there were no rocks leading out to the surf.

Even I have to admit that the water was warm and delightful. The waves were gentle and rolling rather than threatening.

I decided I was not getting a sun burn this beach day. Sun screen was slathered on at home and I kept my white t shirt on even when I went out inn the waves. I stayed under the beach umbrella and kept my white Pocahontas beach towel over my legs the whole time to be sure my legs didn’t turn beat red. The last beach day I slathered some sun screen on my chest and shoulders and found out the next day that I had only applied sunscreen to a few patches and the resulting red pattern made me look like a camouflaged burn victim. Hopefully this trip I avoided getting to much sun. I suppose I will know by tomorrow.

Pam and her niece wanted to see the nude beach, so we drove to lot 13. They walked out to the beach to have a look but I stayed behind in the air conditioned car. If there isn’t enough time to sketch naked butts, I am not interested. Apparently there were quite a few very large naked men on the beach.  The larger the man, the smaller the dangling bits tend to appear.

After Pulse: Roberta Blick

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Roberta Blick moved to Orlando in 1986. She became a member at Windermere Union Church teaching oil painting. Nancy Rosado another member of the church came in on Sunday morning, to enlist volunteers to help first responders at Pulse. Roberta wanted to participate. She said, “What can I do?” Her son heard her and he said, “Do what you  do best mom, and make a quilt.”

So she sat down in her hospice chair, and she watched the TV seeing all those beautiful people from Pulse. Their gorgeous eyes looked at her. It broke her heart. She had to do something with all those wonderful people. She got to know them. She gathered pictures of each of the 49 young people and she transferred the photos onto plain white cotton. She began making the quilt out of her white squares of fabric.

When she got all the squares finished she had to lay them all out on the floor of her sewing room. She called some people from church and they helped her make a nice big square out of it. It became a big quilt with all 49 pictures on it. She worked on it all week and that next Sunday she brought it to church. Nancy Rosado was there and she sat down next to her. Nancy took the quilt to share with others. Nancy got so many amazing people to sign it. The first names o the quilt were fellow church members.

It pleased Roberta so much that something we were doing helped others. Nancy said that some of the people who came into her office didn’t even have a picture of their child. That must be such an awful feeling to not have a picture of the child they love so much. Anyone who is a mother would know that. Her first thought was to create something that would have a beautiful picture. Friends from church wrote the name of each one of the children, and the names went above their picture.

The quilt traveled everywhere.  Nancy would sit down beside Roberta to tell her who had signed the quilt. She said President Obama had signed it. He had put a special thanks to Roberta because he heard she was an old woman. That meant so much. The only thing that hurts is that she did not think to start doing it earlier of the Sandy Hook babies and others who died needlessly. Think of the impact walking into a room an having all those beautiful eyes looking back at you. Think of the impact for all of those mothers and fathers. Think of all the beautiful people who have been killed. Look what they have done.

At a one year remembrance exhibit the the Orange County Regional History Center, 453 family members of victims saw Roberta’s quilt in one and a half hours. Thousands of photos must have been taken of that quilt on exhibit. Roberta Blick died December 20, 2017 from cancer.