Animal Reservoirs

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Some have theorized that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was circulating widely in populations of mice before it found its way back into human hosts. That would explain why the variant was so completely different that the previous variants of COVID. It came out of left field, unrelated to strains of the virus that had been mutating in the human population.

Humans as a rule tend to think of themselves as the center of the universe. They are however only a fraction of the life on the planet. Scientists have known for a long time that animals can catch COVID-19. However research has been scant as to exactly which animals have contracted the virus and more importantly how often animals have passed the virus back to humans.

Undoubtedly people have passed the virus to their pets as they become infected multiple times. COVID may have infected over 500 other mammal species. Humans have become complacent about the virus spreading from human to human so of course there is little concern about the virus spreading among animals. The only problem is that the virus tends to mutate differently in other mammals. COVID is not a human virus it is a virus that attacks many species. Mutants of the virus could become more transmissible but no one knows it that has happened.

17 million mink were murdered in Finland in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. China began killing pet store hamsters in another effort stop the spread. It is fascinating how murder is often considered the best solution to a public health issue. Animals who get the virus are often asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. That is another reason people seem blissfully ignorant of this issue.

White tailed deer in America have been rather susceptible to the scourge of the virus. Since hunters wander the woods to kill the deer they might be the ones spreading the disease to the deer population. Researchers test some of the deer killed and an amazing number are infected. Of 481 deer tested, 30% were infected. Another surprise is the the variants found are different that those circulating among humans. One bit of advice to hunters is that they should not eat the brains of their kill.

Sars Ani-Vis has built a site that shows the animal species that are becoming infected and where they are found. The deer population in America has the largest number of documented cases followed by dogs and cats. The numbers however are very small compared to the millions of humans that have died from COVID-19. Not many researchers are following this lead. There is probably not much money in knowing animals are getting infected.

COVID Bauble

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A bauble is a small, showy trinket or decoration. COVID is so tiny it can not be seen and therefor it is easy to ignore until someone in your family dies. China which had a zero COVID policy has decided to follow the lead of the United States and ignore that the virus ever existed. The reason the China zero COVID policy could not work was because countries like the United States let the virus rip through the country with little to no mitigation. America has had over 1.1 million deaths from COVID. Omicron was supposed to be milder, but with so many more people infected, more people died during the Omicron surge than any other surge.

Now China is facing the possibility of millions of deaths. The government did a complete 180. A week ago they spoke of the virus an an enemy that had to be defeated at any cost. Now they are encouraging citizens to go to work even if they are infected. The official death count from the Chinese government was 5 on Tuesday December 20, 2022. China now only counts those who die from respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia as an official COVID death. The actual count is of course much higher.

Crematoriums in cities across China are straining to deal with an influx of bodies amid a widening COVID-19 outbreak, as authorities scramble to install hospital beds and build fever-screening clinics.

In the capital, Beijing, security guards were seen patrolling the entrance of a designated COVID-19 crematorium, where more than a dozen vehicles were waiting to enter.

Crealde Pandemic Study

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With my Crealde Urban sketching class, we focus in one class on sketching fellow students. I only give 5 minutes for these studies.Much of the class is on getting something on the page other than just the figure. I used the classroom tables as a way to frame the composition. I always stress to use foreground elements to point into the picture.

Monkey Business

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The race to develop new COVID vaccines has enriched monkey poachers. Orient Biomedical Center and it’s competitors are being accused by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of an international monkey smuggling ring which is trapping endangered primates and shipping them to United States bio medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies.

Last month the Justice Department charged eight people, including two Cambodian wildlife officials  who conspired to poach monkeys from the wild and supply them to researchers in the United States with false papers saying they had been bread in captivity.

There is a massive demand for monkeys at research facilities in America so this poaching has been going on for years. The recent cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The race for a COVID vaccine exponentially accelerated the demand much like a COVID wave. The U.S. leads the world in its demand for endangered Macaque monkeys for research.

China was the lead supplier of monkeys before the start of the pandemic but they banned the export of monkeys after the spread of the deadly virus. Because of the pandemic demand, a single long tailed monkey could fetch up to $40,000 whereas it cost $3,000 just a couple of years earlier.

Conservationists bcgan to notice an increase in reports of monkeys being pulled of of the wild in Cambodia and South East Asia. In 2019 Cambodia supplied 8,571 monkeys and by 2021 that number had more than doubled to 18,870 monkeys.

In July 2022 the population of Macaque monkeys went from being vulnerable to endangered, because they are being hunted to extinction of the sake of research. Most monkeys die in research facilities. There is money in monkeys, so the dark trade will continue.

COVID Dummies

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A new study in  The American Journal of Medicine has shown that people who have not gotten the latest COVID vaccine are assholes on the roadways. People who have skipped getting a COVID vaccine are more likely to get into a car crash according to the study.

During the summer of 2021, Canadian researchers examined the encrypted government-held records of more than 11 million adults, 16% of whom hadn’t received the COVID vaccine. They found that the unvaccinated people were 72% more likely to be involved in a severe traffic crash—in which at least one person was transported to the hospital—than those who were vaccinated.

Of course, skipping a COVID vaccine does not mean that someone will get into a car crash. Instead, the authors theorize that people who resist public health recommendations might also “neglect basic road safety guidelines.” In other words they are assholes.

Why would they ignore the rules of the road? Distrust of the government, a belief in freedom, misconceptions of daily risks, “faith in natural protection,” “antipathy toward regulation,” poverty, misinformation, a lack of resources, and personal beliefs are potential reasons proposed by the authors.

The authors advise, that that primary care doctors should consider counseling unvaccinated patients on traffic safety—and insurance companies might base changes to insurance policies on vaccination data.

After Pulse: Bryan Batien

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Bryan Batien is a psychologist at the Orlando Veterans Administration Medical Center. After the Pulse nightclub massacre the Orlando VA offered significant volunteer counseling to members of the community, victims families and survivors.

The morning after the Pulse nightclub shooting Brian’s wife turned on the TV. News of the shooting was on all of the channels. They sat and watched all of the updates, feeling helpless. His wife is also a psychologist and they are used to working with trauma so they knew how devastating this would be for the community. They both wanted to help. They both work with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and realized this might trigger some of the vets they work with. They realized there might be a flood of people going to the Lake Nona clinic.

He texted his chief of psychology and said he could go into the VA if needed. Half an hour later he got a text back about the emergency response team. Bryan had been to the Institute of Disaster Mental Health so he and his wife had training in psychological first aid and responding to disasters and emergencies. The text response asked if he could get to the Hampton Inn in 45 minutes. This is where the families of victims and survivors were meeting. He had no idea what he would be doing at the location.

The Va sent several giant buses that can be used as portable offices and medical exam rooms. Families were there because they could not get a hold of their loved ones. Families were starting to collect there and waited, not knowing. A briefing was vague, they were asked to do what they can and answer questions. Give people water, guide them if they don’t know where to go. Just be there if people need to talk. As they identified the victims,  both in the hospital and deceased, they slowly figured out how to notify families. That went on throughout the night.

The second day they went to the Beardall Center and the process was much the same. They pulled in families one at a time, and the psychologists would be there with the family. Families saw other families come out of those rooms, so they suspected the outcome. But there is always the hope that their loved on was recovering in the hospital.

This was the first time he had to be involved in giving death notifications. The first time he entered one of the rooms with a family, he didn’t know what to expect. After being told, the family would be in the room for quite a while.  When hope was shattered there would be a floodgate of emotion, grief, sadness, loss, and pain. It took a long time to get to a place where they could leave. As a psychologist he is used to working towards a goal, but here, he could do nothing. The process became a blur.

 

 

After Pulse: Olga Molina

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Olga Molina is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Central Florida (UCF). On June 12, 2016 Olga was in her car and turned on a Spanish speaking radio station. She heard announcements that blood was needed and that people were lining up at blood banks. Something terrible must have happened. For the longest time they didn’t say what had happened. When she got back home, she turned on the TV and started seeing the images of people coming out of the nightclub. She didn’t know how many had been killed yet. The community came together very quickly, bringing water to those in line to give blood.

Several days later she went to a conference in New York City. There she met the executive director of Hispanic Family Counseling who said that they were short of bilingual social workers. They were being overwhelmed with the number of clients they were seeing. There are not enough bilingual social workers in Central Florida. Olga volunteered. They were doing a lot of home visits since people were so frightened that they didn’t want to leave their homes.

Olga began a Spanish speaking support group for survivors. These were people who were in the nightclub on the night of the attack. About 6 survivors came into the group. They met for about eight sessions. Then people were transferred to therapists. That happened between June and October of 2016. The meetings happened once a week for about two hours. The stories were horrific. Confidentiality and safety and trust were important. It was about mutual aid. They were the only ones who had gone through this experience and so they would best know how to help each other.

Some could not sleep at night. Many lost their jobs. Several became homeless because the FBI was asking questions and the landlords didn’t want problems. Anxiety was high. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder had to be overcome just to go to the meetings.

They exchanged phone numbers, and began contacted each other during the week. After the group meeting they would go across the street to the coffee shop and talk for several more hours. They became friends, some attended church together, Some took English classes together. It was empowering.

After the eight weeks they decided they wanted to keep meeting and so a new counselor was brought in to continue the sessions. They worked with the new counselor for several more months and then decided to end the group. Progress was made as they shared and made their way back to society. The eight weeks were not enough for any type of full recovery but everyone made their own progress. People are still hurting and there are long term consequences of the attack. Bridges still need to be built.

After Pulse: Zebra Coalition

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Heather Wilke is the director at Zebra Coalition. After the Pulse nightclub massacre the Zebra Coalition provided significant services for the LGBT community. Zebra assists LGBT youth. Heather was at Zebra for about a year and experienced an exciting year of growth and then Pulse happened. Things turned for the entire community. Zebra was suddenly in the spotlight. Everyone was in crisis. For two weeks media was swarming everywhere. As the director she kept getting calls from media for at least six months.

The night before the shooting Heather went to bed at 9pm. She announced on Facebook that she was putting her eye mask on and turning the phone off. With a small child, sleep becomes precious. It was 6 am when she got up and first looked at her phone. She checked on family and friends and then the Zebra kids and staff. Everyone she contacted was fine.

She went to the Center at 8:30am. There was a press conference with LGBT leaders at 10am. That evening there was supposed to be a dinner with friends. That went on hold. The day was a blur of response and reactions. Everyone was in crisis mode. The streets were blocked off in every direction down by Pulse and media was swarming. Police had to redirect traffic on Mills because of the Center across the street. At the Center board members were scrambling to figure out what could be done.

The Center was packed. People needed a community. They needed to physically be around people and have a place to gather. The Center became that. It was a beautiful thing to witness.  Security came out to figure out who could go in. People brought food. Overflow supplies went to the Zebra Coalition.

The Zebra Coalition put everything aside and responded to the community needs. They responded to survivors, youth that were in the club at the time of the shooting. Zebra became the hotline for two weeks. They already had a 24 hour hotline that then was directed towards the crisis. Mental heath counselors in the community all stepped up. All the volunteers were organized. People rotated through Zebra. Counselors came in for 3 to 4 hour shifts 24 hour a day. Many of the calls were not from youth but instead from people who wanted to help.

People started bringing water to the coalition. They had water from floor to ceiling in the back room. Startbucks came by every day with coffee. Universal Studios brought lunch every day. Church groups and school groups came by delivering trinkets. At one point all the windows at Zebra were full of art. One group delivered rainbows so there were rainbows everywhere. Therapists made “You Matter” cards. The school of holistic medicine brought by essential oils.

After several weeks the Orlando United Assistance Center (OUAC) took over the organizational aspects of donations and distribution. Zebra went back to business as usual with a different lens. They were always supporting youth in crisis, but now they had this trauma lens. Youth felt unsafe. It was about a week before many regulars started coming back. They were scared, they didn’t want to leave their houses. When they already had anxiety and depression issues, they wanted to get them back to actively engage with them. That fear lingers. The past Pride, people didn’t want to go into massive group gatherings. People felt they have a target on them.

Zebra did work with several youth who were in the club at the time of the shooting. Noises can trigger the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One youth didn’t reach out for help until six months later. For the most part however, OUAC handled survivors and families of the victims.

For six months Heather was working in non stop crisis mode. After six months she finally got some time to decompress and the enormity of what had happened sank in.

 

 

 

After Pulse: Benjamin Lehnertz

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Father Benjamin Lehnertz is a Roman Catholic priest of the diocese of Orlando. On Sunday June 12, 2016, he had finished his first mass, and parishioners were gathered in the narthex. They asked him if he had heard about the shooting at Pulse. This was the first he heard about it. That was about 25 minutes from where he lived. He visits people in the hospital right down the street from the nightclub. That hit close to home.

He then got a text from his brother who lives in Australia. Early in the day, the numbers were about 15 to 20 people dead, That number climbed through the day. It kept getting worst and worst. More details came from people throughout the morning as the 12:15 mass approached. The heaviness of it descended on the parish.

Benjamin lived in Colorado when Columbine happened. He was in middle school. He had learned how to brace for the news of a mass shooting. He thought to himself, “we are not going to let them make us scared.”

By the afternoon he was seated with this mother, and stepfather. he felt powerless and shell shocked. What could he do to help? A deacon called, and said, they needed Spanish speaking ministers. Benjamin knows enough Spanish to get by, he holds mass in Spanish, he can read Spanish.

So he and his parents went down to the Hampton Inn. They both have crisis management expertise in their backgrounds. There was a sea of people, many traumatized. Family were trying to find where their loved ones were. It is always better to know what you are dealing with. Questions weigh on people. That was a very unique scenario to walk into. It is not a scene he would ever want to revisit.

Organizationally it was a nightmare. There were plenty of counselors and plenty of ministers, deacons and priests. There were some confirmed deaths, and they were trying to notify family members. Someone was coordinating clergy. He had been to hospitals so he was familiar with breaking such news to family. It was a very slow process. The family would need to be identified and the brought to a room in the hotel where the news was forwarded. They would react as they needed.

Clergy huddled in the hallway. If the family had a catholic background then someone would come out and ask, “Can you come and be with us?” Over the course of three hours they saw like 3 families. He decided that waiting in the hallway was a waist of time so he went downstairs to see if people needed to talk. He sat with people who were crying or alone. His was there to listen and offer pastoral support. His parents did the same, they found one person and talked to them.

Late in the day he had to get back to the church for the evening mass. He left his car with his parents and had the deacon drive him back. The evenings homily was very different than the morning homily. The church was packed that night. He spoke from the heart. He asked all to pray for the families. For the first time he put his head in his hands and sobbed.

After mass his mom had driven back from the Hampton Inn. She hugged him an cried. She said, “Ben, it was so awful.” The room was full of people who had not been notified at the end of the day. Someone in a uniform stood up on a desk and said, “everyone be quiet and listen closely.” He then he proceeded to read a list of names. No one knew what that list was. Someone would hear their child’s name and they didn’t know weather to panic or be consoled. Chatter drowned out the announcement. People could not hear the names. Finally he announced that the names were people who were injured but survived the shooting. Staff from the hospital were outside. People who heard the name of a loved one were asked to exit the hotel. Hospital staff would give more information.

90% of the people remained in the room. They were told that there was no information about their loved ones. People were told to go to the Beardall Center the next day. Everyone walked out to a wall of news cameras and the worst question of their lives looming in their minds.

After Pulse: Magic

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Alex Martins is the CEO of the Orlando Magic and served as chair of the board of directors for the One Orlando Fund.

On June 12, 2016, his phone started buzzing early in the morning. It was off season for the Magic so there was no reason for all the calls. On those early hours there was a lack of information combined with speculation. Was it a terrorist attack or a mass shooting? There were so many questions. As the news spread beyond Orlando there were notes and calls from family and others from around the country to check and be sure everyone was safe.

There was a vast amount of helicopter activity. As the morning wore on and information came out, the mayor held a press briefing and the significance of what had occurred became a reality. Besides shock, there was anger and concern. He stayed glued to the news coverage.

He reached out to Mayor Dyer to see how the Magic could help. Out of those conversations the request was born for him to chair the One Orlando Fund. On June 17, 2016 the fund to help the victims was announced. There were more questions than details but there was forward momentum to help.

The Magic made a significant donation to the one Orlando Fund. That is the one area where they could assist the most. He had to learn how these victims relief funds had been dealt with in other tragedies. Getting the counsel of Ken Feinberg who had experience in handling this before was one of the best decisions the Mayor made to get the One Orlando Fund on track.

There was representation from the largest downers as well as from the LGBT community and Hispanic community. Who would best be served by the funds? Would the funds be for the victims who were in the Pulse Nightclub or the business down the street that got shut down for weeks? Every board member had a voice. There was much debate. The board decided to disperse the funds only to the victims in several different categories based on injuries or death and the victim’s families of those who were killed.

The approval process had to be vetted. Proof had to be provided through the FBI and the local authorities that the victims were at the Pulse nightclub that night. These types of tragedies also bring out the worst in people. There have been fraudulent activities in victim compensation funds in other cities. the burden of proof had to be there.

Funds were distributed according to a tiered system based on the amount of impact that each applicant had from the tragedy. Families received the largest individual shares. Those in the hospital the longest were the next tier. Time in the hospital would be a proxy for how much would be dispersed.

People needed help. The first disbursement was within 30 days. After that disbursement, funds kept coming in. A second wave of checks went to victims. This tragedy brought our community together in a way that it had never com together before.