Miami Cranes

Posted on by Thor

In a press briefing on April 29, 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about Miami-Dade which has to remain under lock down as he opens up the state… “Before this “Dade Broward and Palm Beach we’re all doing so well… You drive in Miami, you couldn’t move 10′ without seeing a crane somewhere.” He was referring to the building boom in downtown Miami, but with fewer people and cars on the streets, wildlife is finding its way back. An image search on google images shows an amazing array of wildlife reclaiming cities around the world.

Phase one of the Governors plan to re-open Florida includes:

  • Schools must keep distance learning
  • Visits to senior living facilities are prohibited
  • Elective surgeries can resume
  • Restaurants may offer outdoor seating with six feet of space between tables
  • Indoor seating at restaurants must be at 25% capacity
  • No change for bars, gyms and personal services, like hair dressers
  • Vulnerable individuals should avoid close contact with people outside the home
  • Everyone should maximize physical distance from others while in public
  • Avoid socializing in groups of more than 10 people in circumstances that do not “readily allow for physical distancing”
  • Face masks are recommended for those in face-to-face interactions and where you can’t social distance.

The Governor’s reopening plan applies for all Florida counties except Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Governor DeSantis said. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said it could be a while longer before
businesses begin reopening in his county because they will need more
time to prepare for the new guidelines. Central Florida  has seen the most cases of Covid-19.  A curfew remains for all of Orange County from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily.
The mayor said he has no plans to lift that anytime soon. Demings didn’t give an exact date for when businesses would reopen but
said he doesn’t want to rush it and risk seeing a spike in Covid-19
cases.

The mayor said under the
governor’s order restaurants and retail shops can reopen in the county
if they are able to comply with the guidelines, including 6-feet between
customers and maintaining a 25% occupancy. “In the
absence of recommendations from our task force that they can get to me
in a timely manner, those entities will be able to reopen on Monday as
long as they do so in compliance with the governor’s order.” Demings
said. There is a nationwide shortage on personal protective equipment as well
as hand sanitizer, two requirements of the governor’s mandate.

The Guidelines for Reopening Businesses Group is expected to
put out a finalized list of guidelines businesses would have to follow,
both recommendations and mandates. The group, which included major
theme parks and business leaders, met Wednesday morning, turning to
health care officials with both Orlando Health and AdventHealth for
guidance on what those guidelines could look like.

The group is expected to meet again Thursday and Friday to continue developing a plan to safely reopen the county.

At last check, there were more than 33,690 confirmed cases in Florida with 1,268 deaths. There were 1,339 confirmed cases in Orange C0unty with 30 deaths. Florida Medical Examiners Commission chairman Dr. Stephen Nelson said that state officials asked them to withhold Covid-19 death figures. The pause in reporting, has been occurring for nine days. The blackout comes as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis contemplates how Florida will begin to reopen amid the pandemic.

83 Seats

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83 people died in Florida on Tuesday April 28, 2020, the highest total so far for a single day. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided it was the best day to fly to Washington D.C. to visit Donald Trump and tell him what a great job he has done to keep the state safe. I started to wonder what that flight to DC would have been like. How many seats would be on that plane? Then I realized that 83 people could have flown on that flight had they been alive. People with husbands, wives, children and friends. People DeSantis seems to feel are acceptable collateral damage as he makes plans to reopen Florida to help Trumps re-election plans.

The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday reported
a total of 1,171 deaths and nearly 33,000 confirmed cases, although the
true number of infections in the state is believed to be significantly
higher. Meanwhile, Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity has
struggled to process nearly 2 million unemployment claims in a state
where the economy relies heavily on tourism and hospitality.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Trump has not been back to his Mara Lago estate in Florida since the beginning of March and he fired his whole staff. His popularity in Florida has been slipping away to his opponent Joe Biden. I can’t imagine what he might have said to make his numbers drop.  Florida has been the recipient of critical personal protective equipment. Trump is pushing states to reopen businesses “as quickly as possible.” DeSantis is falling lock step in line. The planned meeting was mired in confusion after the White House
abruptly announced the two men would hold a formal press conference,
then abruptly announced they would not.

The Governor said he would be reviewing a document issued by his re-opening task force. Phase one of the DeSantis plan to re-open Florida will begin Monday May 4, 2020. The plan will allow limited reopening of stores and restaurants everywhere except
the hardest-hit counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach
counties. Capacity for retail stores and dine-in restaurants will be limited to 25
percent, more conservative than the 50-percent threshold in neighboring
Georgia, which began reopening last week. He stressed the importance of social distancing and continued
testing in the first phase, but sought to convey a sense that the state
was committed to moving forward. Then he mangled FDR, saying, “The only thing we have to fear is letting fear overwhelm our sense of purpose and determination,”

Florida should test potentially triple the number of people now
being tested every day to re-open safely. But DeSantis said Tuesday that Florida’s testing
capacity exceeds current demand. However, without testing, you have no idea how many are infected. Like Trump he loves to deny reality. “We have challenges. This is not an easy situation,” DeSantis said. “But
I have less than 500 people in a state of 22 million on ventilators as
of last night. And I have 6,500 ventilators sitting unused in the state
of Florida.” DeSantis’ month-long stay-at-home order expires on Thursday April 30, 2020.

During this pandemic airlines are still packing flights full with no social distancing measures in place. It is business as usual. After seeing a viral video about the viral flight crowding, American Airlines announced it will start distributing face masks, sanitizing wipes and gel to passengers in May. Starting May 4, 2020 Jet Blue Airline will require passengers to wear face masks saying, “This is the new flying etiquette.” Air Asia has come up with new flight attendant uniforms that consist of long sleeves, a face mask and hood.

It turns out that none of this should matter to Ron DeSantis, because he flies a 15.5 million dollar business jet. This is good for him since he doesn’t know how to put on a face mask. The airplane model is a Cessna Citation Latitude from Textron Aviation Inc.
The company advertises it as a jet with “elegant and lean design,” an
electronic door, touch-screen avionics and a spacious 6-foot standing
cabin.  The plane is being funded by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Which is of course funded by you.

To date there have been 1,171deaths due to Covid-19 in Florida.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article242339311.html#storylink=cpy

What Do You Have To Lose?

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At the beginning of the pandemic, Trump handed off the Covid-19 response to Vice President Mike Pence because “He didn’t have anything to do.” Pence actually conducted some informative briefings though he continues to ignore science like showing up at the Mayo clinic without a mask. Every visitor at the Mayo clinic must wear a mask. When Trump saw the ratings of Pences briefings, he decided he indeed had time to stand in front of the microphone. The White house Covid-19 briefings became mini rallies and a chance for Trump to play the blame game. His concern didn’t seem to be the health and well being of the nation but his re-election chances.

On April 4, 2020 Trump was pushing an anti malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine as a cure   to Covid-19. From the podium he pushed the rug like a snake oil salesman, saying, “What do you have to lose?” “I may take it. I have to ask my doctors,” he added. The Mayo Clinic
released a warning for healthcare providers last week about the dangers
the drug could pose on some patients, which includes it potentially
causing sudden cardiac death when taken. The European Commission
also announced on Tuesday there was no proof hydroxychloroquine or
chloroquine, which is also used for malaria, could treat Covid-19.

His April 23, 2020 briefing was historic. He made the following  comments after Bill Bryan, the head of the science and
technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed
some research about how COVID-19 reacted to sunlight. This is a transcription of what Trump said… “So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you’re into
that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit
the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very
powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but
you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light
inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some
other way, and I think you said you’re gonna test that too, sounds
interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out
in one minute, and is there a way you can do something like that by
injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the
lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it’d be
interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical
doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we’ll see. But the whole
concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that’s pretty
powerful.”

As Trump made the comments the reaction of Dr. Deborah Birx sat quietly on the sidelines, her face contorted in agony at what he was saying. Any respect for the doctor was lost as she sat silently. To keep her job she could not directly contradict the POTUS. She has had to defend his fantasies in the following days.

Injecting oneself with bleach or some other sort of disinfectant is not only incredibly dangerous and even life-threatening, but it would not be an effective treatment or cure for COVID-19. In the wake of Trump’s press conference, both doctors and manufacturers of cleaning products like Lysol warned people not to ingest or inject disinfectants.

New York City’s Poison Control Center saw a spike in the number of
people ingesting household cleaners after United States President Donald
Trump raised the possibility of using disinfectant inside people’s bodies to fight Covid-19. The non-profit National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the center
registered 30 cases in an 18-hour period ending at 3pm on Friday (April
24), as opposed to only 13 cases for the same time frame a year ago. Nine of the cases were related to exposure to Lysol, 10 were
“specifically about bleach” and 11 were exposures to other household
cleaners, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokesman
Pedro Frisneda told NPR.

9 in 10

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A New York City study has found that 88% of 2,600 patients who had Covid-19 and were put on ventilators died. The study examined outcomes for Covid-19 patients who were admitted between March 1 and April 4 to 12 hospitals in New York City and Long Island that are part of the Northwell Health System. When you have a very bad case of Covid-19 it feels like you are drowning, only you are drowning in the fluid in your own lungs.

Overall, the researchers reported that 553 patients died, or 21%. But
among the 12% of very sick patients that needed ventilators to breathe,
the death rate rose to 88%. The rate was particularly awful for patients
over 65 who were placed on a machine, with just 3% of those patients
surviving, according to the results. Ventilators involve inserting a breathing tube into the windpipe so a
ventilator can pump air into the lungs. The danger of this method of treatment is that it can do possible harm to the lungs.

As a result, some doctors are questioning their use in Covid-19 patients,
and have been trying to find methods for keeping Covid-19 patients
off them when possible. Doctors at the University of Chicago Medicine are seeing “truly
remarkable” results using high-flow nasal cannulas (HFNC) rather than
ventilators and intubation to treat some COVID-19 patients. HFNCs, are non-invasive nasal prongs that sit below the nostrils and
blow large volumes of warm, humidified oxygen into the nose and lungs. Dozens of COVID-19 patients who were in respiratory distress were given HFNCs instead of putting them on ventilators. Only one patient then had to be put on a ventilator. The HFNCs are often combined with prone positioning, a technique where patients lay on their stomachs to aid breathing. This treatment does have risks in that the air being blown into the nostrils can also cause the Covid-19 virus to go air born in the hospital room. Staff have to have the best personal protective equipment to stay safe themselves.

However not all the news is bad. Nurse Taylor Campbell told a heart warming tale of a patient on a ventilator who had been unresponsive, but then squeezed her hand. She had been on the ventilator for 15 days. Taylor had talked to the woman every day. Since the woman was unresponsive she wasn’t sure she was being heard, but the talked calmly to the woman anyway. The worst thing about having the virus is that you have to be separated from friends and family. On this day the woman’s grip was stronger that usual and she would not let go. She was extubated that afternoon and Taylor held her hand the entire time. A few minutes later the woman mouthed the words, “I love you.” Taylor cried into her N95 mask as she held the woman’s hand. A minute later the woman was able to speak the words. Taylor asked if she had heard what she had said to her over the last 15 days, and the woman heard every word.

Yesterday I saw a chart that showed the overall number of new cases in
America starting to level off from it’s meteoric rise. Of course that
does not mean the crisis is over. It might level off for some time
before the numbers start to drop. Then the rate of decline become
important. Before we can return to a new normal, there has to be massive
testing and tracking to be sure work places are safe. They have found
that the air born virus can travel much further than at first though. It
can attach to a tiny pollution particle and re main in the air for 30
minutes. The 6 foot cushion is not enough. That cushion should be more
like 30 feet.

The United States is fast approaching One Million cases at 987,160 with 55,413
deaths. 

Pre Pandemic Orlando Urban Sketchers Drink and Draw

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By February 27, 2020 Covid-19 which started in Wuhan China had spread to 37 locations internationally, including cases in the United States. This week however life was normal. I was sketching rehearsals in theaters and I sketched in a crowded theater.

The CDC was making the following recommendations at the time…

  • Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer between hand washings
  • Cover your cough: Use tissues or cough into your sleeve.
  • Stay home when you are sick.
  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces
  • Get Vaccinated: CDC recommends vaccination for everyone aged 6
    months and older, especially for those people who are at high risk of
    serious complications from the flu. (This step we now know would have no effect on Covid-19. There is no vaccine for Covid-19.)

15 days later, On March 13,, 2020 Donald Trump would Tweet, “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages
between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the
economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of
CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”

Orlando Urban Sketchers held a drink and draw at the Bear and Peacock Brewery, 1288 N Orange Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789. Pam and I arrived a bit late and found everyone crowded around a table. With no where to sit, we decided to get our own table in the corner and I sketched the group huddled together. Gay Geiger had picked the venue because her co-workers wanted  to go out after work for a drink. Her co-workers never left so we had two groups crushed together for drinks and conversation. This sort of scene is unimaginable today in our new reality.

Daily over 2000 Americans are dying from Covid-19 this week. Over 2 Million people have died world wide. 37,154 people have died in America so far from the virus. The inaction of the president has resulted in a massive death rate that didn’t need to happen if testing was being done on a massive scale to find and isolate those infected. 

Trump is now effectively calling for protests in Minnesota Michigan and Virginia where followers are protesting stay at home orders. A similar protest took place yesterday March 17, 2020 in Orlando Florida outside the Administration building downtown, with no social distancing among the protesters gathered.

Pre-Pandemic Major Carl T. Langford Park

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This sketch is from my series of sketches of Orlando’s significant trees. An Orlando parks department map shows seven locations around Orlando of Significant trees and so I was going to each location to sketch. Carl T. Langford Park (1808 East Central Boulevard, Orlando FL) is a natural refuge near Downtown Orlando, filled with Large Shumard Oak, Swamp Chestnut and Laurel and live Oaks. I had 3 more trees to sketch before the pandemic shut the city down.

One location was Harry P. Leu Gardens which remains open daily but I refuse to enter a crowded botanical garden during a pandemic. The  Gardens are still open until further notice. All events,
classes, memorials, weddings and meetings have been canceled through
April 30. The gift shop will close starting Friday, March 20, 2020. The
historic museum remains closed due to hurricane damage that has yet to be fully repaired.The idea that this park remains open astounds me.

A photographer set up a swing on a tree and was taking family photos as I did this sketch. The mom in a flowing red dress was pregnant. She posed with her husband and her two small children.  There was so much love and hope in the photo shoot. I am hoping there was enough social distancing during the shoot. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable sketching outside, but the pandemic had not yet been officially announced yet. That wouldn’t happen until March 13, 2020.

Researchers in Washington state who are studying the spread of COVID-19,
are now saying Florida is expected to see the worst of the outbreak about April 21, instead of the beginning of May. As of April 26, 2020 there were 1074 deaths in Florida with 31,528 confirmed cases of Covid-19. Projections show between 18,000 people dying of the virus in Florida or as little as 1,700 deaths depending on how well people adhere to social distancing measures. To date, 30 people have died in Orange County with 1290 confirmed cases.

#StayHome, #StopTheSpread, #SaveLives.

Second Wave

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There were 3 different waves of illness during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, starting in March 1918 and subsiding by summer of 1919. The pandemic peaked in the U.S. during the second wave, in the fall of 1918. This highly fatal second wave was responsible for most of the U.S. deaths attributed to the pandemic. The virus infected 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims.

President Donald Trump claimed the danger of a second wave  was “fake news” and said “Covid-19 virus might not come back at all.” CDC Director Robert Redfield told The Washington Post that there could be a second wave of the coronavirus this winter, combined with flu season, ‘will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went
through.’ Trump pulled Redfield up to the podium during a press briefing to dispute the report but after splitting hairs between “worse” and “more difficult or more complicated” he confirmed that he was quoted correctly by the Post. Dr. Anthony Fauci, referenced the possibility of a “second wave” of the Covid-19
pandemic in the fall, following expected slower growth rates of COVID-19 cases during the summer. He said, “By then, the country will be better equipped to fight the illness.

On March 31, 2020 Captain Brett Crozier of the USS Roosevelt Aircraft Carrier, sent an emotional letter, pleading for a more decisive response to his ship’s COVID-19 outbreak. He had asked for permission to let all but 10 percent of crew get off in Guam for their protection.That letter leaked to the news media. 

On April 2, 2020 he was removed as the ship’s skipper by then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. Video of the crew when he had to leave the ship was brimming with the respect they had for their captain. The Navy secretary then flew to Guam where the the war ship was docked in the midst of a pandemic and delivered in person a petty, obscenity-laced speech denigrated the captain and his crew. Modly said, “If he didn’t think the information was going to get out into the public, in this information age, then he was either -A too naive or too stupid to the commander of a ship like this.” The crew could be heard literally shouting “What the F#ck?!” The acting Navy Secretary’s comments were widely criticized. Clearly he was too naive or too stupid to realize that his comments would have consequences.  He resigned.

 At least 840 sailors on the war ship have since tested positive for the virus. The number could climb as a “small number” of results are still pending. The Navy has tested the entire 5,000-member crew of the Nimitz class, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Of the positive cases, 88 sailors have since recovered, the Navy
said. Four sailors remain in the hospital, down from six Wednesday, with
none in intensive care. One sailor from the Roosevelt died last week.

Admiral Michael Gilday, who is the Navy’s highest-ranking officer, is
reported by the Associated Press to have met with Joint Chiefs Chairman
General Mark Milley on Tuesday and with Defense Secretary Mark Esper Friday
to recommend the fired captain’s reinstatement. On April 20, 2020 the recommendation was made that Captain Brett Crozier be put back
in command of the Covid-19 plagued aircraft carrier USS Theodore
Roosevelt. Crozier’s reinstatement is likely to be the first time that a
ship’s commanding officer who had been relieved of command for a loss of
confidence has been restored to command.

The heroes in this crisis are those that seek to protect those around them, while government leadership looks for ways to cover up or ignore the crisis exists. Captain Brett Crozier is one such hero.

Walkers Rush to Jacksonville Beach

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On April 1, 2020 Ron DeSantis issued a sat at home order which was to last 30 days. The order limits movement outside homes to providing or getting
essential services or carrying out essential activities and applies to
interaction with other people outside of residents’ homes. 17 days later he issued an order allowing Florida beaches to open. With the state experiencing 27,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry was the first to decide to open it’s beach prompting #FloridaMorons hashtags on Twitter. On the day DeSantis allowed municipalities to open their beaches, there were 1,400 new infections, in the state’s highest one-day jump yet. Curry seems to feel that by limiting gatherings to less than 50 people will keep the beaches safe. Jacksonville has the largest population of any city in Florida at 900,000 people. With 794 cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths so far it has become a hot spot.

Other cites including Coco Beach are planning to open their beaches soon. Coco will allow locals to sunbathe and sit in chairs on beaches, as long as
people practice social distancing and don’t gather in groups of more
than five people.

Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Omari Hardy weighed in on Twitter, “When a person
doesn’t believe in science, they do dumb things. When a person in power
doesn’t believe in science, they do dumb things that hurt the public.
This move is so dumb that I had to make sure it wasn’t fake news. You
guys, it isn’t fake news.”

According to DeSantis, “You look at how this disease is transmitted, it’s transmitted
overwhelmingly when you are in close, sustained contact with people,
usually in an indoor environment,” DeSantis said. “Going forward, we got
to be promoting people to get exercise, do it in a good way, to do it
in a safe way.” However recent research shows that the virus spreads much further then 6 feet and an ocean breeze is a perfect vehicle to allow the spread.

The Mayor of Miami Beach, Dan Gelber, said in a video statement, “I’m
sorry but we will just have to do without beach access for the near
future,” adding that it’s unlikely that Miami’s beaches will reopen
before early June. Miami-Dade County closed its beaches on March 19, after thousands gathered at the beach
for Spring Break. As of April 22, there are more than 10,000 confirmed
cases and more than 200 deaths of COVID-19 in Miami-Dade county.

Some from Orlando must have also flocked to Jacksonville, where hundreds crowded together in line and then rushed the beach when it opened at 5pm on April 17, since vehicles with surf boards strapped to the roof were seen leaving town. Social distancing seemed to be the last thing on anyone’s mind when the beach opened. Thousands of people were seen on the beach within 26 minutes of the beach opening. The decision to open beaches goes against Trump’s re-opening recommendations that cases should have declined for 14 days. 



As of today April 23, 2020 Florida has 28,576 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 927 deaths. 60 people died today from the virus.

Counter Protest

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2804 Americans died yesterday April 21, 2020, making it the highest death toll since the Covid-19 pandemic began. America continues to surpasses every other country in the number of daily deaths. Despite this, Americans across the country felt it was prudent to stage crowded protests against state wide stay at home orders. They gathered in large groups sometimes sporting assault weapons. What may kill those gathered is the virus rather than the guns.

As a counter protest in Colorado a health care worker silently stood in the middle of the street to block a huge SUV. A woman wearing an American flag T-shirt and holding a
sign that read “land of the free” shouted, “Go to China if you want
communism.” She also dropped the F bomb many times. The health care worker was one of a few who tried to counteract the
protest yesterday that hundreds attended in Colorado, where over 400 people have died from Covid-19.

The protest was part of a wave of demonstrations against the lock down orders across the country, encouraged by President Donald Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweets over the weekend. He tweeted “LIBERATE MINNESOTA,” and then, “LIBERATE
MICHIGAN” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It
is under siege!” He wants division and if people are angry enough they might ignore of forget how he has denied science and been a roadblock to resolving the pandemic. Healthcare workers have to fight an uphill battle without sufficient protective equipment against his ignorance. He now only has his eyes on the election and is willing to sacrifice thousands more unnecessary deaths.

Colorado-based photographer Alyson McClaran took photos of the healthcare worker’s counter protest. A video shot from perhaps an apartment window several stories high of a healthcare worker blocking a huge SUV reminded me of a photo of the 1989 protest in Tienanmen Square. A single man blocked the advance of the tanks.  Estimates of the death toll in Tienanmen square vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. The stakes are even higher today with far more deaths daily. The frustration of health care workers is palpable in a Facebook post by Nurse Eric.

I spoke with an actress named Mikaela A. Duffy who went from Orlando to NYC to attend an acting school. She suddenly found herself at ground zero of the pandemic. I asked her for advice on what to paint, and she said “Oh man have you seen pictures of Times Square? It’s absolutely desolate. I bet you could make something super powerful with that image.

Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed out that thanking health care workers is nice but it would be even better if the federal government provided hazard pay for essential
public workers on the front lines, proposing a 50 percent bonus for
these workers for risking their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.  “They are the true heroes in this crisis.” he said. It is hard to imagine Trump rewarding anyone for their sacrifice during a crisis. He just fires his entire staff at his infamous Mar-a-Lago estate.

“When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility,
then [they] ceased to be free.”  – Edith Hamilton, Edward Gibbon, The
History and Fall of the Roman Empire.

#StayHome

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As County Mayor Jerry Demings and City Mayor Buddy Dyer were giving a Covid-19 pandemic briefing inside the County Administration Building, an itty bitty crowd of protestors assembled outside. Protestors were demanding that the state re-open in the midst of the pandemic.  Jerry Demings said “In my humble opinion, it’s much of a circus. Perhaps one person has
the right to risk their health and safety, but they don’t have the right
to endanger the health and safety of others in the community. I
wouldn’t want to play Russian roulette with myself like that.” 

Buddy Dyer said, “So, there are some people that don’t accept science or facts, and I
suspect that’s a bunch of them that are out front. What I’d probably do
is suggest they speak to family members of someone who has died of
COVID-19. Maybe that would wake them up a little bit.”

Facebook has begun closing down some sites that promote the anti say
at home protests. They will not close every site. The protests run afoul
of the states’ social distancing guidelines, Facebook spokesman Andy
Stone said. The problem is that the POTUS himself who in a series of
tweets on Friday appeared to condone people
disobeying rules intended to blunt Covid-19, many based on his
own recommendations.
People are justifiably on edge, with unemployment souring and the
promise of the next meal on the table is uncertain. Strange conspiracy
theories flicker to life in this wasteland of despair. 

As far as reopening the state’s economy, Gov. Blue Glove (DeSantis) has faced criticism for suggesting that schools could soon reopen. On Monday April 20, 2020, just 18 days into his 30 day stay at home order, he unveiled his Re-Open Florida Task Force, a 22-person panel
that has until Friday to come up with recommendations for cracking open
the state’s economy more than a month after it started to seize up. Gov. Blue Gloves instinct is to open the state quickly.

He announced that beaches were permitted to reopen Friday April, 17, 2020, if they
could do so safely; by early evening, some beaches in north Florida had
removed police barriers, allowing residents to stroll and surf. Photos of huge crowds on Jacksonville beaches triggered the well deserved hashtag #FloridaMorons. “No chairs, coolers, sunbathing, or towels/blankets laid out to sit on,”
read a tweet from the city of Jacksonville’s official account. Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was and continues to be haphazard. He only closed the beaches when images of spring breakers partying in large crowds garnered headlines.

Cumulative cases of Covid-19 have been rising steadily in Florida. Daily deaths from COVID-19 also showed a glimmer of hope in the past
several days in Florida, according to FDOH’s provisional data. Daily
deaths in the state from the new virus peaked at 43 deaths on April 6,
but dipped to 14 deaths on April 18.

Some modelling of the disease shows signs of hope, as well. The
University of Washington model, relied on by the White House at the
beginning of the outbreak, this week lowered its prediction
to 1,363 deaths in Florida from the virus by Aug. 4, down from an April
4 run of the model that had predicted 6,770 deaths in Florida through
the Aug. 4 “first wave,” with a high estimate of 11,242 deaths and a low
estimate of 3,629 deaths in the state. However low case numbers result from inconsistent and or insufficient testing.

As of April 21. 2020 the number of Covid-19 cases topped 27,000 with 823 deaths in Florida.