Unmasking the Court

Posted on by Thor

On April 28, 2021 the CDC most recently updated its guidance on outdoor use, saying those who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear face coverings unless they are in a big crowd. Along with people who have been vaccinated, the CDC is also saying those who are unvaccinated can go without masks outdoors in some circumstances. On May 10, 2021 Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN that the CDC may soon be relaxing their guidelines on indoor mask use but that hasn’t happened yet.

On May 7, 2021 the CDC published updated guidance that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an airborne threat, explicitly stating that transmission and subsequent infection with the novel coronavirus can occur via inhalation of very fine respiratory droplets as well as aerosolized particles from further than six feet away.

Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis suspended all local COVID-19 emergency orders on May 3, 2021 and signed a proposal lawmakers approved that limits the local government’s ability to impose mask requirements and other social distancing measures used to combat the coronavirus this past year.

Orange County Governor Jerry Demings had a plan in place to lift mask requirements by June. His response to DeathSantis’s order was, “In review of the governor’s executive orders, I am not surprised. He first indicated that the order would not take effect until July 1, 2021, and then quickly changed it to be ‘effective immediately.’ He then offered new language that invalidates a local government’s ability to take action during a public health emergency. Orange County Government will continue to review its statutory authority and will respond accordingly. Gov. DeSantis has been slow to act in responding to the pandemic, which has caused local elected officials to take action to fill the void and keep their residents safe. I want Orange County residents to know that I will continue to make decisions in the best interest of their health, safety and welfare and will not wait on the governor to tell me what to do. This immediate past legislative session is proof positive of how the state is preempting local home-rule powers – that is not good for democracy. When I ask myself, “What is really the purpose of the governor’s actions?” I conclude that his actions are part of a larger partisan strategy by the Republican Party to usurp the authority of Democrat-led urban counties and cities across America. We expect better from the governor of Florida.”

After DeathSantis lifted all COVID safety precautions, signage in the Orange County Courthouse to wear masks will be removed. On February 8, 2021 the Court began conducting some in person business. Some court business is being done virtually, but if you go to court, it looks like you will soon be risking our life unless you are fully vaccinated. I am betting that many of the mindless masses pressing into the court are not vaccinated.

400 Children 10 days

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More children are getting infected by COVID-19 i the second wave than in the first wave in India. There was a 51 per cent rise in infection among children within a period of a month in the state of Maharashtra India. As many as 1,34,470 children as young as 10 years have been infected versus 88,827 on April 3, 2021. More than 75,387 children were infected within 25 days in the state.

400 children under the age of 10 have been infected by COVID-19 Mumbai India the last 10 days.

Over 470 children below the age of 10 have been infected with COVID-19, since the beginning of this month in Bengaluru, as the city is witnessing a spike in infections.

According to some experts, unlike in the past children are now vulnerable because they are more exposed to outdoor activities, functions and gatherings, as also schools reopening for a certain age group, which was not the case earlier due to lock downs. Along with the serious health impacts, UNICEF warns that children are facing a multitude of physical, mental, social and economic risks. UNICEF representative in India, Yasmin Ali Haque, says children are losing parents and caregivers to the virus. This is leaving many destitute and without anyone to care for them.

At least 706 government school teachers and other employees have died of coronavirus due to poll duties during the Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections, alleges the state-level teachers’ association. The minister of state for basic education, Satish Chandra Dwivedi reacted to the allegation of teachers’ deaths saying, “There’s no specific audit done by basic education department about the number of teachers’ death. It is wrong to say all those who were engaged in election duty died due to Covid. How do we know that teachers were not infected when they came for election duty? And how does anyone know that teachers, after returning from the election duty, got infected for some other reasons?” This response is typical of government officials to deflect and blame. The vaccine roll out has been deathly slow in India.

Children make up 22% of new U.S. COVID-19 Cases in the United States and account for about 3.1% of hospitalizations. As more and more adults continue to get their COVID-19 shots, infection rates are slowly falling. Dr. Grace Lee, a pediatric epidemiologist at Stanford Children’s Health said if vaccines are approved for children, those infection rates would also likely plummet.

Bees Detect COVID-19

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Researchers in the Netherlands have trained bees, which have an unusually keen sense of smell, to identify samples infected with COVID-19, a finding they said could cut waiting times for test results to just seconds.

Using the Pavlovian training methodology, researchers gave the bees sugary water as a reward after showing them samples infected with COVID-19. The bees would get no reward after being shown a non-infected sample.

The bees  are put in harnesses much like a horse at a race track. When presented with a COVID positive sample the bees would extend their tongues to receive a reward. The extending of the bees’ straw-like tongues to drink is confirmation of a positive coronavirus test result, according to the researchers.

It can take hours or days to get a COVID-19 test result, but the response from the bees is immediate. The method is also cheap, potentially making it useful for countries where tests are scarce, researchers said. The technique of “insect sniffing” was effectively tested by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to detect explosives and toxins in the 1990s. The notion of harnessing bees to have them sniff COVID samples all day could be inhumane as well. If you were to give me a sip of Mountain Dew every time I sniffed a COVID sample I would be a happy camper.

No Oxygen in India

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People in India are dying gasping for oxygen. Hospitals are full so many are turned away and some dye at hospital entrances. Even empty oxygen cylinders are hard to find. With more than 300,000 coronavirus cases a day in India for the past two weeks, medical supply chains have broken.

NPR reported that On May 4, 2021, as many as 24 patients died after the Chamarajanagar district hospital in the southern state of Karnataka ran out of oxygen. On May 1, 2021, 12 COVID-19 patients died at Delhi‘s Batra Hospital after an oxygen delivery was delayed by just 90 minutes. Several more such incidents have been reported across the country.

The Allahabad High Court in northern India on Tuesday declared that hospital deaths from oxygen shortages amount to “genocide.”This humanitarian nightmare is being called callus criminal negligence.

A Sikh house of worship in Delhi allows people to come sit in front of the temple where they can breath free oxygen. Another organization has converted empty buses into oxygen waiting areas. The buses are parked in front of hospitals to help people who can not get in.  Many other countries including the US have pour aid into India. Including empty cylinders and oxygen concentrators. On April 28, 2021 the U.S. dispatched to the Indian capital its first shipment, which included more than 400 oxygen cylinders and 960,000 rapid-testing kits. Much of that aid became mired in customs queues. The aid was still not distributed a week later.

India has banned the use of oxygen for industries and is diverting most of it for medical use. The problem is distribution. Liquid medical oxygen is flammable and in most cases can’t be flown. It has to move by road, rail or sea freight. Many oxygen-tanker drivers got sick with COVID-19 right at the moment when oxygen demand skyrocketed. Officials had to arrange replacement drivers, and it took time. According to the Delhi government, hospitals are asking for close to 1,000 metric tons of liquid oxygen per day on average, but only 40% of that is being supplied. The biggest problem is that government bureaucracy has slowed things down.

Pre-Pandemic: Field of Dreams

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The Timucua Arts Foundation (2000 South Summerlin Avenue Orlando, FL 32806) presented a staged reading of Field of Dreams. This staged reading was presented by, Michael Finn, an active film maker who gets incredible actors to read classic films. He reads the actual director’s notes, making the experience unique and fascinating. Here are a couple of the actors who are performed on February 23, 2021:

Cameron Francis – as Doc Graham & Archie Graham (plus other roles).

Kelly Tinsley (playing “Annie”).

Tom Nowicki – as Ray.

J LaRose – as Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Veronica Nia Kelly – as Karin (plus other roles).

Kenny Babel – as Terrance Mann & “The Voice”.

John Connon – as “Mark” & other roles.

Jenna Meyer – as “Veda” & other roles.

This was a fun new way to experience the classic film. As the film played silently the actors read the parts in the script while staying in sync. It was much like Rocky Horror meets the open Iowa farmlands. Look how close the actors sat next to one another. I miss documenting intimate theatrical evenings like this. If you vaccinate it will come.

Orlando City Soccer in a Pandemic

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In March of 2020 Major League Soccer suspended the season due to COVID-19. That included the Orlando City Lions.  Five months later Orlando City Soccer re-opened to fans. At that time, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said only 20% of the stadium’s capacity would be permitted and those fans must be season ticket holders. He estimated about 6,000 fans could attend. In October of 2020 a match was canceled because two staff were infected with COVID-19.

Orlando City Soccer Re-opened on April 16, 2021. All City Soccer Staff are supposed to have been vaccinated. On May day of 2021 the Lions played Cincinnati at home. Pam Schwartz had been offered a chance to watch the game from box seats so we decided to go. The mask mandates had just been changed by the CDC allowing people who have been vaccinated to not wear masks when outside. The CDC warned that masks should continue to be worn at any crowded stadium setting.

We were able to park right next to the stadium and security was surprisingly lax. There was a temperature check and hand sanitizer available at the entrance. I just had to raise my hands above my head and walk right through a metal detector. I usually have to empty out my pockets which were full of art supplies. My pencils are often mistaken for weapons, but not on this day.

In NYC fans can get a vaccine as they enter Yankee Stadium or Mets Stadium. On top of that the ticket is free if the fan gets a vaccine. A growing number of venues are asking visitors to prove they’ve gotten their shots by displaying what’s called a “vaccine passport.” Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, are among a growing list of sports spaces that now require digital vaccine verification’s. Those teams and others have been using an app called Health Pass from tech company Clear for COVID-19 screening.

The NBA has employed COVID sniffing dogs. Researches have found that the dogs are amazingly accurate at detecting people who are infected. Anyway other than a temperature check there was no assurance that infected individuals were not entering the Orlando City Soccer game. I had my vaccination card in my wallet but it was not needed.

Pam and I have both had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine so we are both about 95% protected. We were assured that everyone in the box where we watched the game were also fully vaccinated, but how can you really be sure that is true? The box seats offered some separation from the crowd. Fireworks went off during the Star Spangled Banner and I could smell the gun powder through my mask which was a stark reminder that everyone in the stadium was swapping air. The bleachers to my left were full of the more fervent fans. They stomped on the bleachers. A drum corp and flag waving fans shouted through out the match. I noticed many fans felt they needed to remove their mask in  order to shout their anger during the game. That kind of defeats the point of the mask. In those stands there was no social distancing. Shirtless men danced up and down the aisles belly to belly and one guy flung his beer all over the crowd around him. You would think there never had been a pandemic in Orlando. The COVID-19 numbers slowly continue to drop in America but the fervent COVID denial-ism that I saw in the stands will most certainly help circulate more infections in Orlando.

India is experiencing a devastating Covid-19 second wave killing thousands people every day. Despite the carnage, the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament is playing on less than a mile from hospitals filled to capacity.  “I’m advised that the Indian government is of the view that playing the IPL while the population is in lock down provides a few hours of joy and respite each day at an otherwise difficult time for the country,” Pat Cummins wrote in a statement on Twitter.

It felt good to be out and about sketching in public again, and I hope that the box seats, vaccine and mask were enough to keep me safe. I had a beer, but never drank it since I didn’t want to take my mask off. I thought getting back out to sketch on location would involve incremental steps, but this was like jumping into the deep end of the pool. 11,503 fans filled the stadium which can hold 25,500 fans. Is that too crowded? Only time will tell.

There have been 34,817 new cases of COVID-19 in Florida in the past week. 434 Florida residents died from COVID-19 this week. There have been 3,841 new cases this week. 31 Floridians died today, May 2, 2021.
Orange County Florida does not meet the criteria for the next phase of reopening according to the Florida Community Dashboard.
Decrease in ER Visits for COVID-like illness: NO
Decrease in ER Visits for influenza-like illness: NO
Decrease in new cases by date: NO
Decrease in percent positivity OR positivity below 10%**: NO  

India’s Double Mutant Arrives in Nevada

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Seven cases of India’s Double Mutant have been identified in Nevada. This mutant has been contributing to the devastating surge of COVID-19 in India.

Residents with cases of the variant “did not appear to have traveled,” said Heather Kerwin, epidemiology program manager for the Washoe County Health District. This indicates that there is community spread.

Mutations make the COVID Virus better able to evade the body’s immune defenses produced through immunization or prior infection. Early evidence indicates that vaccines still protect against it, though the level of protection might be somewhat lower, Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. said.

Based on a CDC recommendation, the U.S. announced April 30, 2021 that starting May 4, 2021 it will restrict travel from India because of the sharp increases in cases and deaths there.

Since the mutations have already arrived, this is clearly too little too late. As long as residents vaccinate they could stop this virulent mutation from spreading. The variant has also been found in Michigan which is experiencing a huge spike in COVID Cases in recent weeks.

The variant has been identified in at least 17 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

A Wave of Maternal Deaths

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The Guardian reported that Brazil has recorded 803 pregnant and postpartum deaths since February 2020. Authorities are warning women to delay pregnancy. “If possible, (the women should) postpone the pregnancy a bit to a better time so that (they) can have a more peaceful pregnancy,” Secretary of Primary Health Care of the Brazilian health ministry Raphael Camara said April 16, 2021.

23-year-old, Maria Laura Prucoli,  died from COVID-19 after her daughter Lavínia, was delivered by emergency C-section in Rio’s deprived outskirts.

On April 23, 2021,  a 20-year-old woman who was seven months pregnant died in the midwestern state of Mato Grosso after waiting four days for an intensive care bed.

A study suggested that 77.5% of the world’s Covid-related maternal deaths had occurred in Brazil. The pandemic deepened historically high rates of maternal deaths. Some suspect new forms of coronavirus, such as the P1 variant linked to the Brazilian Amazon, may also be partly responsible although there is still no concrete evidence of this.

Last year, most victims were non-white women from poor areas with risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. This year, white women with no risk factors have been dying as well. the health ministry this week include them in the priority vaccination group. So far, however, fewer than 10% of Brazilians have received two doses meaning most pregnant women will face a long wait.

Vaccinated

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The Atlantic reported that, vaccine hesitancy is actually COVID-19 denialism.  As older adults are getting vaccinated,  they are no longer being hospitalized. Instead younger adults are being hospitalized and dying.

Young conservatives are now denying that the virus is real and they don’t want the shot to save themselves or their loved ones.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation polling, 13 percent of Americans say they definitely won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine. Hesitancy is particularly high among people who live in rural areas and white evangelicals—for whom increased church attendance correlates with increased hesitancy, according to a survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.

Some Americans believe that not getting vaccinated is a defense of their freedom. The same demographic are less likely to wear masks so they can spread the virus more efficiently. One young republican troll explained his stance simply, “I dislike the people who want me to take it, and it makes them mad when they hear about my refusal.”

The QAnon theory offers the simple minded some straight forward though strange theories, that , American elites, are a cabal of sex-trafficking pedophiles, and  they are trying to take over the government. Republican Matt Gaetz seems a perfect target for this sex trafficking QAnon theory but I haven’t heard of them being upset by his possible sex with a minor. They seem more upset that he is being investigated.  Gaetz has had COVID-19.

Beautiful, intelligent and patriotic Americans are getting vaccinated and the trolls will keep spreading the virus among themselves.

Pre-Pandemic: Panera’s

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Prior to the pandemic, I often took Elite Animation Academy students to Panera Bread. The lesson we learned this was was how to do thumbnail sketches rather than a larger sketch. Right now I am teaching classes virtually.

All of these thumbnails were done from the same table as we sipped a drink and watched people come and go. Some people spend time at Panera Bread doing work which makes them the perfect subject to sketch. If a group is just eating, then I pay attention to how much food they have and how high their drinks are to try and judge how much time I have to do a sketch before they leave.

I haven’t sketched in a restaurant or bar for over a year. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has allowed restaurants and bars to re-open at full capacity but I am not tempted to partake.

An MIT study showed that people who maintain 60 feet of distance from others indoors are no more protected than if they socially distanced by just 6 feet.  This study challenges social distancing guidelines adopted across the world. There really isn’t much of a benefit to the 6-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks. The researchers have developed a method of calculating exposure risk to Covid-19 in an indoor setting that factors in a variety of issues that could affect transmission, including the amount of time spent inside, air filtration and circulation, immunization, variant strains, mask use, and even respiratory activity such as breathing, eating, speaking or singing. The most important factor is how long you are inside with an infected person. The longer you are inside, the higher the chance of transmission. Weather 6 feet or 60 feet, distant,  you are at a higher risk of infection if you are in the room with someone who is infected.

On April 23, 2021 Florida saw 5,464 new COVID-19 infections, and 63 more Florida residents died. 34,759 Florida residents are now dead.