Knee Surgery

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Pam and I have two dogs, Sprout who is older and Donkey who is a rambunctious and large pup. One day donkey jumped off the bed onto Sprouts back and he let out an ear piercing squeal. He is usually stoic and silent so this was very out of the ordinary. In the days that followed Sprouts back leg began to shake any time we went for a walk. His vet only prescribed pain medications and some vitamins.

Over time however Sprout stopped using this back leg preferring to hobble about on three legs. Pam finally found a better vet who looked deeper into what was happening.

A ligament called the Cranial Cruciate Ligament had torn. This ligament holds the two bones together allowing the knee to rotate. When it is torn the joint floats forward and back grating the bones against one another. A meniscus acts as a shock absorber and because of the way the joint was broken it began to tear.

The vet decided to do surgery. He drilled a hole in the bone and used essentially a string to substitute for the torn ligament. He also removed a bone spur. The surgery resulted in a 4 inch long suture down and over the knee joint. We were given a series of instructions for his care in the weeks to follow. He came home with a cone around his neck to keep him from licking or tearing at the wound. We took off the cone when he got settled in. Pam had set up two dog crates and several gates to make him an open space in the living room. He is not allowed to jump up on furniture or the bed so he stays confined. He was so drugged up and woozy from the gas that he immediately passed out.

That evening however Pam discovered that his stitches had torn open. There was a one inch gaping wound on his knee. Thankfully it wasn’t bleeding but the muscles poked to the surface. I have first aid bandages and let Pam do her best at covering the open gash so we could get him to an emergency vet. The vet who had performed the surgery was out of the office until the next week due to the Labor Day weekend. We waited in the vets office for an eternity. We waited much of the time in our car to avoid the other people in the waiting room. 9 out of 10 people who entered to vet wore face masks. As I did this sketch I could hear a girl crying for about half an hour in the waiting room. I also over heard a phone conversation about a dog that had overdosed on a bottle of its owner’s Claritin.

A vet finally took Sprout out back and we waited for her to sew his knee back up. When we got back home late that night once a gain Sprout immediately collapsed and we went to bed.

Professors COVID-19 Die In

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Thousands of students across the country are already in quarantine over COVID-19 exposures. More than 500 universities have said they will require coronavirus vaccination and masks this year.

However, professors at dozens of universities with less stringent health requirements are using protests, petitions and even resignations to press their demands for tighter coronavirus prevention methods. Much of the protest is coming in states where Republicans politicians, have fiercely opposed vaccine or mask requirements, leaving universities with few tools to combat the spread of the virus.

A University of Georgia professor resigned August 31, 2021 after a student in his class refused to wear a mask. Irwin Bernstein, 88, was teaching a psychology seminar when a female student allegedly arrived at the class without a mask. She was told to retrieve one from the advising office and offered a mask by another student, which she reportedly did not wear over her nose. Bernstein reportedly asked the student again to pull up her mask, but when she refused, he resigned from his teaching role and left the classroom.

“At that point I said that whereas I had risked my life to defend my country while in the Air Force, I was not willing to risk my life to teach a class with an unmasked student during this Pandemic,” Bernstein said in a statement to the Red and Black, the school’s independent student newspaper. “I then resigned my retiree-rehire position.”

At Georgia College and State University, Dr. Meridith Styer asked a rhetoric class  to wear masks because she had a family member for whom COVID could be fatal, she said one student declined. Styer, who holds a doctorate in rhetoric and political culture, resigned last week over her institution’s response to the incident in her class. “I am leaving because of USG policy and the way it’s being enforced on Georgia College’s campus,” she said. “The USG’s policies caused me to make this choice and I would make the same choice to put family above my job again.”

Jeremy Fischer, a tenured ethics professor at the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH), has resigned his position after expressing his disagreement with the school’s COVID-19 policy. Fischer, who has been at the school for seven years, posted his resignation letter, which he addressed to the university president, provost, college dean and department chair, on Twitter. “We know what it takes to protect community health and very likely save lives, and we have the ability to do it; what is lacking is the collective willingness to do so,” he wrote. “And I find myself compelled to consider whether my continued relationship with UAH might render me complicit in a moral atrocity. Therefore, I have decided to resign my position as associate professor of philosophy, effective immediately.”

A video posted on Twitter showed an absolutely packed Virginia Tech footballs stadium with over 65 thousand screaming fans. It is tiring to have to keep documenting such insane super spreader events. Colleges just don’t give a damn about mitigating the spread of the virus. College football is a huge money maker. Bling always trumps public health. It is no longer a matter of if you might be infected, but when.

COVID-19 Test

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My girlfriend had not seen her family in over 18 months. She usually visits them every holiday. Several children had been born that she had never seen other than on social media videos.

We have both been extremely careful by self isolating and wearing masks. We were both vaccinated the first chance we had.  In some ways she is even more careful them I am. When she said she had to get back out to the Midwest to see family therefor, I supported her. I have no desire to travel by plane in a pandemic but if anyone can do it safely she is the person. I stayed behind to watch her dogs while she was gone.

Her parents live on a wide open farm but they look after the grandchildren quite often and that means the home is a it like Grand Central station. Both parents had been vaccinated because they knew their daughter would not visit otherwise. The siblings and their children, some being too young to get vaccinated, however were another issue.

My girlfriend was so thankful for the time she got to spend with family. She took a COVID home test at her parents and another test when she got back home. She tested negative with the home test kit she had purchased. Then she got a call from her mom. Someone in the family had just tested positive for COVID-19. Home test kits aren’t 100% accurate so we both decided we had to get nasopharangeal Swab PCR tests to be sure. I needed to teach a class on the weekend and wanted to be sure I was not infected. We decided to go to the Econ Soccer field test site. We got there an hour early in the morning and cars were already lined up. It must be horrible to live in this neighborhood that has so many cars waiting for COVID tests.

Once 9 Am rolled around the cars inched up quickly. We had to register online and we quickly filled out the information as we inched forward. My girlfriend was swabbed first. The test involved scrapping deep inside her nose until she cried. I was afraid my testor might be just as gung ho but my nasal swabbing didn’t bother me as much. I was hoping to get the results before my class but it became clear that wouldn’t happen. It takes several days for results. I tried to set up a virtual class with my students, but couldn’t wrangle them all. It was safer just to cancel the class and reschedule.

My girlfriend got her results first and she tested negative. That was some relief but I was still anxious to see my results. I have been coughing for weeks, which I assumed  was allergies. Finally, three days later I got my results. Getting to the results however was a major digital nightmare of forms and pop up windows along with setting up a digital password. All I wanted to read was negative or positive. It took about half an hour to navigate thorough the site. I then finally read the sentence I was searching for, “The reference interval for this assay is negative. A negative result does not rule out the presence of PCR inhibitors in the patient specimen.” What is a reference interval? What is an assay? Whatever, I sighed relief and started another horrific COVID-19 illustration.

The Pietà

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Michelangelo’s sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding Christ is titled The Pietà which translates  to The Pity.

Kristen McMullen, a 30 year old Brevard County, Florida mom, died from COVID-19 just days after undergoing an emergency C-section and was able to hold  her baby for only “a few short minutes” before she died from COVID-19 ten days later.

She was able to see her newborn a few more times through FaceTime before her condition became worse and she was put on a ventilator. She was then rushed to the ICU and was put on a ventilator shortly after, her family said.

McMullen, who died on August 6, 2021 reportedly began to develop symptoms of the virus roughly three weeks before she was due to give birth.

On July 21, 2021 she was taken to hospital with COVID pneumonia, and was then sent home after four days and given antibiotics. Less than 48 hours later, however, McMullen was taken back to hospital with breathing difficulties, and doctors prepared to perform an emergency C-section to deliver her baby weeks before her due date.

When asked if Kristen had been vaccinated, Melissa Syverson said: “We personally feel that whether a pregnant woman is or isn’t [vaccinated] or whether they wear a mask or don’t wear a mask, we feel like they’re at a huge risk potentially for it to be deadly for them or their baby.”

Some doctors are also warning of an uptick of severe cases among pregnant women, a group with a low vaccination rate that has also been found to be subject to a high risk for complications related to the virus. Amid the delta variant’s spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has moved to encourage expectant mothers to get vaccinated, as research shows they are more likely to require admission to intensive care and use of ventilators than non-pregnant women.

“As the rest of society has higher and higher rates of vaccination, the pregnant population has lagged,” she said. “So they are exposed to more virus and they are not immune at all. And so that’s the consequence of what we’re seeing right now.”

Misinformation regarding the vaccine’s effects on pregnancy and fertility has spurred hesitancy since the shots first became available. Yet the CDC updated its recommendation September 1, 2021, encouraging pregnant women to be inoculated after it found no increased risk of miscarriage.

In Jacksonville Florida, 2 children, including a new born, died within 24 hours at Wolfson Children’s hospital from COVID-19.

Anti Vaccine Suicide Bombers

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Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education under the Obama administration, wrote in a since-deleted tweet, “Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions are between the suicide bombers at Kabul’s airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here? They both blow themselves up, inflict harm to those around them and are convinced they are fighting for freedom.”

At least two suicide bombers killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of people on August 26, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan 
as the United States withdrew from the 20 year war in the country.

Former head of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency Michael Hayden responded to a Twitter user’s posts that read, “Can we send the MAGA wearing unvaxxed to Afghanistan, no use sending that plane back empty?” He replied on August 22, 2021 “Good idea.”

Anti Maskers are assaulting teachers and school board leaders. Anti-masking (and unmasked) protesters yelled angry taunts at Kansas school officials, comparing them to the Taliban. Police respond to school board meetings in Pennsylvania and Nevada when enraged anti-mask audience members became verbally aggressive. Anti-mask demonstrators heckled masked people, some being are Doctors and nurses, leaving an August 8, 2021 Williamson County, Tennessee school board meeting.  They followed one man to his car and shouting “we will find you” and “we know who you are.”

 

Canaries in the Coal Mine

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With schools open, children have become the canaries in the coal mine. Pediatric hospitalizations are surging due to COVID-19, pushing hospitals and health care workers to the limits. In Florida, there are more people dying of COVID-19 than ever before. There are also more children being infected than ever before.

Florida is averaging 250 COVID-19 deaths a day. 14 refrigerated mobile morgues have been moved to central Florida hospitals to handle the overflow of bodies. August deaths match the peak fatalities from the last wave of infections in January 2021.

Florida added 151,749 coronavirus cases. Nearly one out of every three infections was suffered by those age 19 and under.

More and more, COVID-19 is afflicting the state’s youngest residents. Ages 19 and under account for 32 percent of infections, or 48,215 cases. More than 9,000 Florida children test positive for coronavirus in two weeks since schools reopened.

Young Floridians also continue to lead all age groups in positivity rates: Ages 12-19 have a 23 percent positivity rate, the highest in the state. Children ages 12 and under have the second highest rate at 19 percent — and those 11 and under cannot be vaccinated.

Florida hospitals had 215 pediatric cases with confirmed COVID-19 as of Friday, the highest number of child hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic.

Five children under 16 have died from COVID-19 in Florida in the past four weeks.

Despite all this, Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis is still trying to keep local school boards from issuing mask mandates. A judge ruled August 20, 2021 that Florida school districts may impose mask mandates. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper agreed with a group of parents who claimed in a lawsuit that DeathSantis’ order is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. Despite his court loss, the governor has begun withholding the salaries of school district administrators who have refused to comply with his unconstitutional executive order prohibiting them from enforcing mask mandates in schools.

Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS), a district in Tampa, Florida, reopened to students for its first day of classes on August 10, 2021. The district had about 208,500 enrolled students as of the third day back at school.

The Orange County, Florida school district mandated masks after 400 COVID cases were reported in one day. The 60-day mask mandate requiring face coverings was institutes as the very contagious Delta variant ravages the state. The Orange County school board approved the mandate at its August 31, 2021 meeting, one day after the district confirmed more than 400 new cases of COVID-19 contracted by students and employees. The mandate goes into effect at the start of next week for all schools from pre-K through 12th grade. 382 students and 37 employees tested positive on August 30, 2021 . On August 31, 2021, the number of those quarantined was updated to 557. Orange County is the ninth Florida county to institute a mask mandate, going against the wishes of Republican Gov. Ron DeathSantis.

The legal battle over school re-openings, which have continued into this week, landed in court August 30, 2021 when Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson sided with the Florida Education Association and granted a temporary injunction against the state’s order that required brick-and-mortar schools to reopen. The mandate, Dodson wrote in his ruling, “arbitrarily disregards safety.” Since Aug. 9, 2021 another child has also died, bringing the total to eight. How many canaries must die in the Governor’s political power play to send kids back to school without CDC advised safety precautions?

Class Half Full, Class Half Empty

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On May 19, 2021, an elementary school teacher in Marion County, California took her mask off to read to her class of students under the age of 12 and within days half of her students were infected by the Delta Variant. The school had otherwise been cautious by spacing the desks 6 feet apart and students wore masks. Windows were open on two walls and there was some sort of air filter in the room.

The selfish and irresponsible teacher however was UNVACCINATED. Most of the infected children were in the first two rows closes to the teachers desk. Six children had symptoms and six were asymptomatic. Several children did not get tested.

The teacher tested positive for COVID-19 two days after reading to her students without a mask. At all other times, she tended to wear her mask. The outbreak spread to other classes and student siblings and parents, some who were fully vaccinated.

Tracy Lam-Hine, the epidemiologist for the county said, “Everyone lets their guard down, but the thing is Delta takes advantage of any slippage from any kind of protective measures.”

A computer model found that without masking and testing each student who is infected could infect four other students. More than 75% of susceptible students will become infected within 3 months.

With comprehensive mask wearing each student could still infect two other students. The proportion of students infected drops by about 50%.

Mask wearing combined with twice weekly testing results in 22% of students infected if mask wearing is low, 16% if mask wearing is medium and if all student wore masks the percent infected would drop down to 13% of students infected over the course of a semester.

The report concluded, that without interventions in place the vast majority of students will become infected throughout the semester. Universal masking can reduce the infections by 26% to 78% and biweekly testing can reduce infections by another 50%. To prevent infections in the community, masking and biweekly testing should be implemented especially for students under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccine.

After Pulse: Roxy Santiago

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Roxy Santiago became involved after the Pulse Nightclub massacre helping the community. Th month before the tragedy she had been asked to be on the board of the Center. Her start date was to be June 28, 2016 but Pulse happened. She was also a volunteer with the Red Cross action disaster team.

Roxy woke up at about 5AM on June 12, 2016 because there were so many updates on her phone. A message said, “I hope Kay is OK.” Kay, a good friend was dating a bartender at Pulse. She scoured the internet and saw what had happened at Pulse. She couldn’t believe it at first.

She decided to text The Center. She decided that is where she needed to go to help out. She arrived about 7:30AM. She opened her laptop and started to find out what was needed, water food. She worked through Human Rights Campaign, Democratic Caucus, and her own Facebook. The phones were blowing up. Water was needed at the blood bank and then there was an immigration issue. It was four days of non- stop communication and gathering of resources.

At 9:30AM she had to go down to Pulse and do a live interview on TV representing The Center. There was so much going on that there wasn’t even a moment to shed a tear. After a hug you might well up but then you would have to get back. There was a real bond between the seven of so people who were there for the four days. A men’s clothing store donated the clothes for the funerals. So many elements came together that you normally do not thin about. Golden Chorale donated a refrigerator truck for the water. The truck couldn’t handle all the water, so The Track Shack let them use their warehouse space to store it. Whatever came in, went right out the back door to families.

Days later she went home and there was a program on TV where Lady Gaga read the names. For the first time tears flowed. She pulled herself back together and went right back to the Center. At the Dr. Phillips vigil she helped Patty Sheehan with the Spanish section of her speech. She didn’t make it to Lake Eola.

For the one year remembrance she wore the angel wings and went to Pulse at 2AM. That experience made her heart feel a little better and it kept her going. The work was ongoing.

Freedom From Want

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In 1933 when FDR first took office, the country was in the depths of the Great Depression. Thus, from the start of his first administration, President Roosevelt placed a high priority on securing “freedom from want,” seeing it as essential to the nation’s long-term strength and future.

In 2020 when COVID-19 first swept through the country people hoarded toilet paper, clearing grocery shelves. Fights broke out over what was considered a precious commodity in the lock down.

The bleak scenes at the big-box stores may be making a comeback, thanks to the COVID delta variant sweeping the U.S. Most shoppers also say they’re planning to do some hoarding because of the delta surge. Stores could respond by slapping new limits of purchases of basic items, like toilet paper.

People on Twitter say they’re seeing evidence that another round of COVID-related hoarding may be underway.

One twitter user reported, “Saw a parked car stacked with Toilet Paper in the passenger seat. I sense this is more fear mongering than actually a shortage.” A man in Las Vegas wrote, “What is wrong with people? Did we not learn from last year at all? I pulled up to Costco and they are out of toilet paper and water. These people never learn.”

Inmar Intelligence, a research and data firm, released date on August 12, 2021 that is telling retailers they need to be ready for new shortages and hoarding. It based its warning on a survey it commissioned of 1,000 U.S. adults. Nearly 7 out of 10 consumers (69%) say they’re planning to buy toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer and similar items, to replenish pandemic stockpiles of that kind of stuff that they started keeping last year.

“This behavior has created a new shopper segment dubbed ‘The Squirrels”, those who will always have an established stockpile in their homes. Of course in Florida the hurricane season has started as well which adds to the hoarding of supplies.

Freedom of Worship

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Pope Francis dubbed the COVID-19 vaccine an “act of love.” He encouraging people around the world to get the COVID-19 vaccine in a new public service advertisement. “Thanks to God and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from COVID-19.” In an August 18, 2021 tweet he said, “Vaccination is a simple way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable.” He continued, “They grant us the hope of ending the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we work together.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted religion in various ways, including the cancellation of the worship services of various faiths and the closure of Sunday schools, as well as the cancellation of pilgrimages, ceremonies and festivals. Many churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples have offered worship through live stream as an alternative to in person worship during the pandemic.

Gallup says that the halting of in-person worship “is one of the most significant sudden disruptions in the practice of religion in U.S. history. Some pastors defied CDC health guidelines that restrict indoor gatherings. On July 26, 2020 Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church had his flock gather indoors in Sun Valley to sing hymns, defying California regulations that aim to limit the spread of COVID-19. This is only one of many examples of pastors defying health guidelines.

On February 26, 2021 the Supreme Court of the United States issued a  decision that could foretell sweeping limitations for public health measures related to the free exercise of religion. The Court’s ruling in the case, Gateway City Church v. Newsom, blocked a county-level ban on church services, despite the fact that the ban applied across the board to all indoor gatherings. This religious exceptionalism is emerging as a key trend in recent Supreme Court decisions, particularly those related to COVID-19 restrictions. This ruling could become a serious health threat as the highly contagious, deadly Delta variant continues to be a public health disaster.

A pastor in Riverside County, California, told his congregation in the spring that the vaccine was “unclean” and directed them to a downloadable form Christians could use to claim religious exemptions. Some Catholic clergy and groups have made such resources available, despite the pope’s very clear opposing position on the matter. Greg Locke, a right-wing evangelical head pastor of Tennessee’s Baptist Global Vision Bible Church, told a cheering congregation that “elites” were trying to push an unsafe vaccine on the public while injecting themselves with sugar water. It is sad that some houses of worship have become conduits for misinformation that can spread sickness and death.

Daniel Darling, senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters, was fired on August 27, 2021 after refusing to say his pro-vaccine statements on Morning Joe were mistaken. Darling, an evangelical pastor and author, told host Joe Scarborough about how his faith motivated him to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Darling described the vaccines as an amazing feat of discovery by scientists, some of whom share his Christian faith.

Darling said he was proud to be vaccinated.

“I believe in this vaccine because I don’t want to see anyone else die of COVID. Our family has lost too many close friends and relatives to COVID, including an uncle, a beloved church member and our piano teacher,” Darling told Scarborough.