Bribes for Vaccines in Florida

Posted on by Thor

At a time hen many of Florida’s elderly were smuggling to find COVID vaccine doses, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making sure rich donators get first dibs on COVID-19 vaccine shots. An ultra-wealthy and exclusive community called Ocean Reef Club, on the northern tip of Key Largo received enough coronavirus vaccine doses for 1,200 residents over the age of 65, according to a Miami Herald report on March 3, 2021. Homes at Ocean Reef range from $900,000 condominiums to homes worth more than $10 million, according to the club’s website.

Former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner (R), who is from that exclusive community, was inspired to donate $250,000 to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s war chest. 17 other Key Largo residents have contributed to the Friends of DeSantis committee over the past four years.

Last month,  he organized a COVID vaccine pop up site in a mostly White, affluent part of Manatee County and then threatened to take vaccine away from counties where officials criticized his approach. Residents could only get the vaccine if they were from that exclusive zip code. “If Manatee County doesn’t like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it,” DeSantis said at a news conference in February 2021. “We’re totally happy to do that.”

Critics have also accused DeSantis of using the vaccine distribution plan to appeal to donors; he has raised more than $2.7 million in February alone since he began the “pop-up” clinics, the Herald reported. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried called for a federal investigation into Governor Ron DeSantis’ handling of the vaccine distribution.

Pre-Pandemic: The Accidental Historian

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The Accidental Historian Exhibition was at the Orange County Regional History Center through January 20, 2020, so the exhibit came down just prior to the start of the pandemic. On January 21, 2020, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in the United States in the state of Washington. The patient had recently returned from Wuhan, China.

The exhibit featured people who might be historians without even realizing it. That’s certainly true of many bloggers, urban sketchers, photographers, and more. This engaging exhibition, created at the History Center, was about individuals who are absorbed in documenting the world of today accidentally becoming some of Central Florida’s finest historians for the future. The exhibit offered a glimpse into some of our favorite collections that were created for the now – more than 100 years ago.

The Accidental Historian featured both historic and contemporary work and collections, including drawings by the renowned artist and teacher Ralph Bagley and Urban Sketchers Orlando, poetry by Orlando’s inaugural poet laureate Susan Lilley, audiovisual work by food blogger Ricky Ly, historic images by photographer T.P. Robinson, and more.

This panel discussion featured three contributors to the exhibit. At the podium Catherine Duffy asked each panelist questions in turn.

Photographer J.D. Casto had documented the Pulse Nightclub shooting’s aftermath. His photos capture Orlando’s love and hope following the shooting. One of his photos of an auditorium hung next to a similar photo from one hundred years ago and it was as if time had stood still.

Ricky Ly founded Tasty Chops, a blog for local foodies. The exhibition featured several of his videos of local restaurant owners discussing their offerings.

Robin Katz, is a member of Urban Sketchers Orlando. She uses her sketchbook as a journal to document the Central Florida community. Samples of Robin’s sketches were featured in the exhibit.

 

 

All Quiet on the Vaccine Front

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With vaccines slowly rolling out there is light at the end of the tunnel. My great great grandfather Augustus Arthur Thorspecken served in WWI and his army camp in Kansas was where Spanish flu broke out in America. I started to wonder what it must have been like for him at the end of the war as he hoped to avoid the flu and the final days of battle. Knowing the war was ending some soldiers let their guard down and that resulted in death.

All Quiet on the Western Front featured a soldier who was an artist and on the final day of battle he saw a butterfly. As he was distracted by the butterfly’s beauty he stood and was shot dead by a sniper from the enemy trenches.

As vaccines become available some state mayors have lost patience with mask mandates and trying to keep constituents safe. With only about 6% of people vaccinated there is no herd immunity. Only after about 70 to 95% or more of the population is vaccinated will it become safer to reopen state economies fully. Texas and Mississippi have decided to fully open which is a death sentence for people who will be subjected to new strains of the virus which will go unchecked. I had hoped that stupidity would end when the ex-president left office but there is plenty of stupid to go around.

We are all experiencing some form of pandemic fatigue but the solution is not to run into a machine gun firing line. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ignored the advice of health experts as he lifted his state’s mask mandates. Texas has had COVID deaths so far. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced March 22, 2021 that he’s lifting all state-imposed mask mandates and removing COVID-19 related restrictions on business operations. Mississippi has had COVID deaths so far. Of course I live in Florida and it is up to individuals to try and protect themselves from ignorant state leadership. Florida has had COVID deaths so far. Wear a mask, social distance and wash your hand often. State governors are trying to kill you.

Mad Mask Abbott

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Texas Governor Mad Max Greg Abbott announced on March 2, 2021 that the states mask mandate would be lifted and all business could open at 100% capacity starting March 10, 2021. The CDC had warned the day before that states should not ease public health safety restrictions. As of March 1, 2021, only 6.57% of Texans have been fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University.

COVID case numbers have fallen since the insanely high numbers of January driven by the holidays, New Years Eve and the Super Bowl. However the number of new cases have leveled off at about the worst of the summer surge which was the worst imaginable horror at the time. Since new cases of COVID-19 have been leveling off at about 50,000 new cases a day, there is a risk that there could be a 4th wave driven by states lifting health guidance too early. New variants of the virus are spreading and some are resistant to the vaccines being distributed. In Brazil, people who recovered from the COVID virus at the beginning of the pandemic are getting re-infected. The second infections are more severe and deadly.

A team of researchers in Houston, Texas, has sequenced the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from 20,400 COVID-19 patients treated at a single health system there, and they’ve found cases of all the major variants that public health experts say could increase the transmission of the virus or the severity of infection.

Ironically President Joe Biden‘s fast vaccine roll out is partly the cause of governor Abbott letting his guard down. President Joe Biden slammed Abbott on March 3, 2021 for putting lives at risk by clinging to “Neanderthal thinking” rather than heeding advice from the nation’s top scientists. “I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers. “We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we’re able to get vaccines in people’s arms….The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask. Forget it. It still matters.”

Biden noted the death toll, 511,874 Americans at last count. “We’re going to lose thousands more…. We’ll not have everybody vaccinated until sometime in the summer,” Biden said. “It’s critical, critical, critical, critical that they follow the science. Wash your hands, hot water. Do it frequently, wear a mask and stay socially distanced. … I wish the heck some of our elected officials knew it.” To date, Texas has lost 43,266 lives.

“We at the CDC have been very clear that now is not the time to release all restrictions,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asked about Texas’ change of policy during a White House briefing. “The next month or two is really pivotal in terms of how this pandemic goes.”

COVID PAC

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The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is the country’s largest meeting of conservative activists and politicians, and usually gives insight into the direction of the Republican Party. It was held in Orlando February 25 to February 28 2021 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Hotel employees are required to wear protective masks and gloves during their time on-site. The Hotel also implemented social distancing guidance in public areas and other health and hygiene requirements to keep guests safe.

When organizers got on the stage, which was designed in the shape of the Odal Rune, a Nazi Symbol, and they asked the audience to wear masks they were met with angry boos.

The big star of the conference was a golden statue created by Mexican artist, Tommy Zegan. Attended worshiped the golden calf with red white and blue shorts by posing for selfies. The ex-president gave his first speech sine loosing the election. It was a droll rather boring rehash of his past grievances. He also begged for money since he made a whole lot of cash loosing to president Joe Biden.

Mask wearing at the event was spotty at best with plenty of chin straps and ear dangling decorations rather than properly fit masks.  Florida’s Grim Reaper, aka lawyer Daniel Uhlfelder, raised money to have a plane troll thee conference with a banner that read, “Welcome Insurrectionists!”

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the hotel where the Conservative Political Action Conference met did its very best to comply with COVID-19 restrictions. “Signs were posted throughout the hotel and announcements were made to make sure the attendees were aware of the masking order,” Demings said. “However, we know that some of the attendees were non-compliant.” The hotel lacked the balls to  enforce the mask mandate. This like all of the former president’s events, will be a superspreader.

PPE Pollution

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Reports from around the world suggest COVID-19 pollution is becoming a global issue. In Hong Kong, for instance, surgical masks and gloves litter hiking trails and wash up on beaches. Clean-up crews on beaches in the United Kingdom have reported surges in discarded takeout containers and hand-sanitizer bottles.

During the pandemic, personal protective equipment (PPE) has driven increased plastic pollution. To fill the high PPE demand among the general public, health care workers, and service workers, single-use face mask production in China soared to 116 million per day in February 2021, about 12 times the usual quantity. The World Health Organization (WHO) has requested a 40% escalation of disposable PPE production. If the global population adheres to a standard of one disposable face mask per day after lockdowns end, the pandemic could result in a monthly global consumption and waste of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves.

Face masks and gloves are polluting the oceans. Waterlogged masks, gloves, hand sanitizer bottles and other coronavirus waste are already being found on our seabeds and washed up on our beaches, joining the day-to-day detritus in our ocean ecosystems. French clean-up charity Opération Mer Propre is among those calling for action. “There are more masks than jellyfish,” Laurent Lombard from the organization said in one Facebook post. The quarantine economy has driven more people online, resulting in greater packaging waste from deliveries.

Plastic decomposes over hundreds of years. That means the same PPE that today is washing up in gardens, overflowing in landfills and sinking in the ocean could be a problem for our great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren. And their grandchildren as well.

Nursing Home Numbers

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At the beginning of the pandemic I was impressed by Andrew Cuomo‘s power point daily briefings about the COVID-19 crisis. He seemed a voice of reason and the former 45th U.S. President was pushing bleach and hydoxycloriquine as miracle cures. They are not cures they are deadly distractions.

In the early days Cuomo required nursing homes to accept Covid-19 positive patients when New York’s hospitals were overflowing. There was a statistically significant increase in resident deaths in nursing homes that accepted hospital transfers.

Now he has admitted to hiding data about deaths of New York State nursing home residents. He obscured public health data for political gain. The state’s official COVID-19 death count in nursing home is roughly 8,700 right now. A 56 percent increase on that count would bring the total deaths to well over 13,000.

The Cuomo administration managed to keep much of that nursing home data under wraps until late January, 2021 when the dam broke. The Democratic state attorney general published a bombshell accusation that the administration under counted nursing home deaths by more than 50%. The Associated Press showed more than 9,000 recovering Covid-19 patients were transferred from nursing homes to hospitals, which was 40% higher than the previously disclosed number. The New York Post then reported that one of Cuomo’s top aides claimed the administration hid data on nursing home deaths to avoid political retribution from Trump.

It remains unclear what level of accountability Cuomo will face. Even if Cuomo dodges criminal or civil liability, he will still face political accountability at the hands of voters. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is touting his success battling the virus but the state has surpasses 10,000 nursing home deaths as well.

Pre-Pandemic: The Cloisters NYC

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While in NYC in October of 2020, Pam and I visited The Cloisters in the northern climbs of Manhattan. The subway station let us out at the base of the highest hill in Manhattan and we took a trail that chris crossed its way upwards.I once lived in Washington Heights so I have quite a few prints and sketched of the area around the Cloisers.

The museum in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it contains a large collection of medieval artworks shown in the architectural settings of French monasteries and abbeys. Its buildings are centered around four cloisters—the Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem, Bonnefont and Trie—that were purchased by American sculptor and art dealer George Grey Barnard, dismantled in Europe between 1934 and 1939, and moved to New York. They were acquired for the museum by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other major sources of objects were the collections of J. P. Morgan and Joseph Brummer. The Cloisters were built right before WWII.

We took a guided tour but I lagged behind doing several sketches along the way. I spent some time doing a sketch of the Tomb of Ermengol VII the Count of Urgell who died in 1314, and a quick study of a standing sculpture of the Virgin and child by Nicolaus Gerhaert Von Leiben. Nicolaus was a seminal artist of the generation preceding Albrecht Dürer’s, and was presumably born in Leiden  active in Strasbourg and Vienna, as well as in several cities between them. The tour guide stopped for a long time in front of the limestone doorway of Moutiers-Saint-Jean.

I miss sketching while traveling. I miss traveling in general.

Chicago Gym Outbreak

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The CDC reported that in August 2020, over 55 people became infected with COVID-19 after attending exercise classes at a Chicago Gym. Less than a quarter of gym-goers wore masks during their workouts, and almost none socially distanced. The gym had precautions like temperature checks, but some people went to class with symptoms anyway.

The outbreak was linked to several high-intensity interval training (HIIT) classes held indoors. More than half of all the people who attended classes became infected.

The report recommends that people shouldn’t just rely on social distancing or symptom screening to prevent outbreaks indoors – mask wearing is still key. Masks were required to enter the gym but they were not required during workouts. Only one in four people said they wore masks consistently during workouts.

Twenty two people who attended the workouts had symptoms the same day they went to work out, including fever, cough, headaches, and loss of smell and taste. Three people went to class who tested positive for COVID-19 that day or before. While no one died as a result of the outbreak, two people later went to the ER for treatment, and one person had to be hospitalized for over a week.

Starry Variants

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I am seeing signs that the arts in Central Florida are looking to make a come back. I have been invited to mount an exhibition in Winter Park at The University club at the end of next month. April Fools Day, April 1, 2021 is the opening date. Rather then having an in person opening reception, I plan to have a virtual tour of the exhibition online.

Van Gogh Alive, was an exhibition that was mounted at the Dali museum in Tampa during the pandemic. The exhibition features more than 3,000 Van Gogh images at enormous scale, viewed through high-definition projectors and synchronized to a powerful classical score. The exhibit remains pen through April 11, 2021.

Snap Orlando now has an  exhibit called the The Van Gogh Affect. Photographers Lynn Johnson and Patricia Lanza followed Van Gogh’s footsteps through the places he lived, studied, and paid tribute to what they see as his “most enduring muse, the sun.”

As the country races to vaccinate as many Americans as possible against COVID-19, both New York and California are reporting new virus variants that might be more contagious than the original strain. Florida is still leading the country in coronavirus variants, with more than 400 cases have been reported to the CDC, far surpassing any other state.