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.

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.

Freedom From Fear

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With the full FDA approve of the Pfizer vaccine now called Comirnaty, there is a faint hope that more Americans will step forward to get vaccinated to stop the horrible spread of the virus now ravaging the country. With K-12 students reentering schools this also raised the possibility of soon vaccinating children.

Once a drug or vaccine has been FDA-approved, doctors have the leeway to prescribe it “off label” — that is, for a use for which it wasn’t specifically approved. After rigorous clinical trials, the FDA authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use in people 16 and up in December 2020 and in adolescents ages 12 to 15 in May 2021. Significant data does not yet exist for children under the age of 12 yet.

Trials in children between the ages of 5 and 11 should be completed in September 2021, Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla told NBC News anchor Lester Holt. Trial data for even younger children should be landing soon after that. That however leaves children unvaccinated as the Delta variant spreads through the school systems.

The American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledged that August 23rd’s regulatory action “means it is legally permissible for physicians to administer the vaccine off-label for children aged 11 and younger, who currently have no available vaccine.” But the organization said in a statement that it “strongly discourages that practice.” FDA officials were also quick to discourage prescribing of the vaccine for younger children.

This is a deeply stressful time for parents of younger children, given that COVID-19 has largely now become a scourge of the unvaccinated. And it’s nerve-wracking to send those unvaccinated children out into school where they’ll be exposed to other people indoors for long periods of time. The best advice for parents is to wait for the FDA give a definite green light.

Freedom of Speech

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The Guardian reported, School board meetings have become the front line in the culture war battle over wearing masks to keep children safe. These meeting have the energy of a Trump rally or January 6th insurrection. The few are by far the loudest.

I spend the day as I painted watching videos of school board meeting about the issue of children wearing masks in school. The level of anger and disrespect shown by many parents who do not want their children wearing masks was amazing. Some meetings devolved into out of control shouting matches.

Many meetings have been disrupted or even cancelled. In Bend, Oregon, proceedings had to be put on hold twice in two weeks, as angry parents shouted at school board members and heckled a Spanish-language translator. “School boards are a uniquely vulnerable spot in the culture war landscape, because they’re open to everyone and they’re not really prepared for it,” said Adam Laats, a Binghamton University professor who studies the history of education in the US.

In Texas, one parent assaulted a teacher by tearing a mask off her face, Eanes Independent School District Superintendent Tom Leonard said in a statement August 24, 2021. “A parent physically assaulted a teacher by ripping a mask off her face, others yelling at a teacher to take off her mask because they could not understand what the teacher was saying while her face was covered,” he said.

A California teacher was hospitalized after a parent physically assaulted her when a discussion about the use of face masks heated up. The teacher suffered “lacerations on his face, some bruising on his a face and a pretty good knot on the back of his head,” KCRA reported.

In a parking lot after a school board meeting in Franklin, Tennessee, parents harassed medical professionals who had spoken in favor of masks in schools. “We know who you are. You can leave freely, but we will find you.”

Freedom

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Americans are dying in the name of Freedom. They fear the virus will control them or that it is an unproven poison. God rather than science is the only form of salvation from the pandemic in their minds.

Being in the deep south of Florida, I get to see this play out in real time as half of Floridians refuse to get the vaccine and who fight tooth and nail to send students back to school with no masks and no vaccine. Some honestly believe that a piece of cloth over a students mouth and nose is a greater threat than COVID-19.

More than 90% of patients in Central Florida ICU wards are Unvaccinated. Individual freedoms has become more important than personal health. These individual rights and freedoms result in a wide variety of excuses to refuse to get vaccinated. Rare breakthrough cases have resulted in people believing that the vaccine does not work. Unfounded online rumors circulate that the vaccinated are spreading the virus. Some actually believe that the shot is an excuse to inject a micro chip which is magnetized. Politicians actively ban mask mandates and vaccine passports. Political ambitions trump public health.

75 doctors from South Florida hospitals staged a walk out to protest the deluge of unvaccinated patients they must watch die. The walk out was staged to urge people to get the vaccine. One doctor now refuse to treat any patient who has not been vaccinated. Florida is now dealing with the highest number of new COVID-19 infections in the country. On August 23, 2021 Florida reported 21,329 new cases and the state has 17,215 people hospitalized, which is an increase of 24% over the previous 14 days. 228 people died on this day, an 86% increase over the past 14 days. To keep the public in the dark, the state no longer reports the numbers daily, only reporting once a week.

The state of Alabama finds itself overrun with COVID-19 patients.  Patients are left on ambulance stretchers until a bed opens up. 2743 patients have filled every available hospital bed. The University of Alabama predicted that the state may see over 5000 people hospitalized a month from today. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo called that scenario “potentially apocalyptic.”

People still go about everyday life believing they are invincible, going mask less and unvaccinated. Their personal freedom may result unknowingly in someone else’s death. Freedom today is about dying alone gasping for breath in a hospital bed. Those hospital beds however are becoming a scarce commodity.

Belief Dependent Realism

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Michael Shermer said, “What we believe determines our reality, not the other way around.” These belief systems can be quite irrational. COVID-19 is something that is invisible and therefor unless a person is themselves sick they can choose to not believe it exists.

We are a country of narcissists who only believe in “ME” not in the greater good, the “WE.” We have become a country with no empathy. When people express concerns of weakness they are attacked online.

I find myself researching various scientific papers and news sources to come up with my illustration concepts each day. However most people only look at sources that support what they already believe to be true. That is why misinformation is so widely consumed without question. That is how the Q Anon cult has been allowed to sweep the nation, creating a death cult.

Regardless of weather information is scientifically proven, a person will defend, justify and rationalize even the strangest and irrational ideas. If questioned, most will defend, deny, deflect, and double down. Truth is not as important as being right.

I get to see this play out over and over again as people react to my art online. They want me to site my sources but I am fully aware that they will not read the research if it is provided. If the source is a major news outlet, they will cry “Fake News.” mirroring the repetitive talking point of the former president of the United States.

Early in the pandemic most Americans were willing to make the sacrifice to lock down to control the spread of the virus. However after it became known that more African Americans were dying of the virus, white Americans began to invade state capitols demanding that the lock downs cease. A wave of white supremacy  continues to sweep the country fueled by the virus.

Parents are stuck between a rock and a hard place having to sent their children back to school knowing that they are not safe from the Delta variant of COVID-19. Thousands of children are already in quarantine over COVID-19 exposures. In Mississippi, 20,000 students from 800 schools are in quarantine after being exposed to the virus, and 4,500 students have been diagnosed with COVID-19. More than 10,000 students and staff in Florida’s Hillsborough County Public Schools district are in quarantine or isolation, just a week into the school year. There have been 2,640 COVID-19 cases in students and staff, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard on Friday.

Politics around masks could hinder the nation’s fight against Covid-19. When schools follow the science: classes can go on without disruption as long staff and students wear masks. But when staff and students do not wear masks, Covid-19 can spread, forcing people to stay home to quarantine and classes returning to virtual learning. When we are young, we are taught not to look directly at a solar eclipse. When we learn to drive we wear seat belts. Yet this simple piece of fabric has become a political football. Some conservative parents are willing to sacrifice their children’s health to prove their politics are correct.