85 Babies Infected in Texas

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85 Babies have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nueces County in Texas. This number is a reflection of when testing started in mid-March, according to a county news release. The news of the 85 infected babies follows a report from earlier this week regarding scientists’ uncertainty on the impact of COVID-19 in children.

Evidence behind what role children play in the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affects them is inconclusive. Several studies suggest but don’t prove that children are less likely to become infected and more likely to have only mild symptoms. Many kids have no symptoms, and it’s unclear how easily they can spread the virus to others.

There is some evidence that kids are less likely to catch the virus and less likely to spread it, but it’s not clear exactly how strong that evidence is. For months most families and their children have been isolated at home, limiting their chances of catching or spreading the virus. In reality, it may take reopening schools and returning children to a closer-to-normal life for the picture to come into clearer focus.

The Associated Press also reported this week on how evidence has been growing that the COVID-19 can spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus. Researchers in Italy studied 31 women with COVID-19 who delivered babies in March and April and found signs of the virus in several samples of umbilical cord blood, the placenta and, in one case, breast milk. Cases of newborns testing positive for the virus have been relatively uncommon but are not unheard of since the pandemic first took hold.

With some respiratory illnesses, like influenza, young children play an amplifying role. They don’t carry the antibodies that adults have amassed. As a result, they are more susceptible to many of the bugs that cause colds and flu, which circulate more actively as the cold weather sets in. This is why teachers are often sick with a cold each season. However COVID-19 isn’t the sniffles, it can cause death. The World Health Organization does not currently see clear answers in the data that have been collected to date.

Two weeks after Israel fully reopened schools, a COVID-19 outbreak swept through classrooms, including at least 130 cases at a single school, that led officials to close dozens of schools where students and staff were infected. At least 42 kindergartens and schools were shuttered indefinitely. More than 6,800 students and teachers were ordered home for quarantine by government order.

Florida’s largest teacher union is suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to overturn an emergency order that requires schools to physically open five days a week in August, despite the incredible surge in cases in the state, saying the policy bypasses local leaders and defies national public health guidelines. DeSantis is followed the lead of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy Devos, who are pressuring states to fill classrooms with students in the fall. “Governor DeSantis needs a reality check, and we are attempting to provide one,” FEA President Fedrick Ingram said in a statement.

In Tallahassee, a 19-year-old elementary school custodian died after a battle with Covid-19, and at least three people at his Leon County school, including the principal, have contracted the virus, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. About 1/3 of children tested in Florida have tested positive for the virus. To date, 16,797 children in Florida have the disease out of 54,022 tested. The data shows that 908 people under the age of 18 have tested positive for COVID-19 in Orange County, which equates to about 24% of the tests conducted on children in the county. Word of children testing positive gets around at summer camps which face pressure to act promptly.

Portland

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NPR reported, Portland Oregon state and local officials are demanding that Federal Agents leave. Protesters have demonstrated in the city’s downtown for more than 50 nights since George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, sophisticating him to death.

“There’s absolutely no question that by having the presence of federal officers here, it’s simply like adding gasoline to a fire,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown said. On Sunday July 19, 2020, a video went viral 53-year-old Navy veteran Christopher David being struck repeatedly with a baton wielded by a federal law enforcement officer. Christopher had yelled at the officers, “Why are you not honoring your oath to the Constitution?”

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Friday that federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles in downtown Portland to grab and detain protesters. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler blamed the federal government for making things worse in the city. “We have an already heightened situation. It’s already tense,” Wheeler said. “But after nearly five weeks of demonstrations, we are starting to see that small handful of people who were engaged in criminal activity — it was dissipating. It was calming down. We believed a week ago it would be over by this weekend. But what happened instead is the feds stepped in with a very heavy-handed approach, and it blew the lid off the whole thing.”

“With the federal government, they won’t even identify who they are,” Wheeler said. “We don’t know why they’re here. We don’t know the circumstances under which they’re making arrests. We don’t know what their policies are or what accountability mechanisms there are, to the point where even the U.S. attorney here in the state of Oregon is calling for an investigation, wondering, where was the probable cause to pull these people off the streets into unmarked cars?”

On Friday, the U.S. senators from Oregon, asked the Justice Department and DHS to investigate “the unrequested presence and violent actions of federal forces in Portland.” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit Friday against the DHS and other federal agencies and alleged that they have “engaged in unlawful law enforcement in violation of the civil rights of Oregonians by seizing and detaining them without probable cause.”

“The federal administration has chosen Portland to use their scare tactics to stop our residents from protesting police brutality and from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement,” Rosenblum said in a statement. “Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening. If this can happen here in Portland, it can happen anywhere.”

Trump is now threatening to send more Federal Officers to more US cities to stop protests in the Black lives Matter protests. He specifically named New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland in discussing problems with violence. To him it seems to be a war on “liberal Democrats.” He is at war with free speech and the free press. I just wish he could focus instead on the real war , COVID-19.

House of Cards

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“This entire pandemic is a reminder of how fragile EVERYTHING in this country always has been. It’s a house of cards. It’s all a sham.” said Danielle Butterly.

Donald Trump is a self proclaimed war time president who has simply turned his back on the war to strictly focus on his re-election. The Washington Post reported, “Trump in recent weeks has been committing less of his time and energy to managing the pandemic, according to advisors. One of these advisers said the President is “not really working this anymore. He doesn’t want to be distracted by it.”

What he does have time for is photo opportunities in which he and his daughter Ivanka hawk beans. The photos were sent out on the POTUS Instagram page. In another insane distraction, the president posed with beans with a grin and strange thumbs up as the virus cases surge across the country. 143,289 Americans are dead and this is the presidents response. He has not been to a COVID-19 task force meeting since April. He openly undermines the scientists who are battling the virus daily. He prefers magical thinking that it will disappear. Trump is the king of the con, a perpetual scam artist. In this painting he is the joker, the weak link in a tower destined to crumble.

The Florida Department of Health reported 12,478 new positive COVID-19 cases on Sunday July 19, 2020 with 89 deaths in a single day. 9241 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. The US Government has stripped the CDC of its control of the COVID-19 data. Ever since the president said that he didn’t want a cruise ship to dock for fear that it would raise the numbers of cases, he has been focused on bringing down the numbers any way he can. In his mind, testing has caused the high numbers of those infected, so he wants less testing. What better way to reduce the numbers than to take control of them and not report them, or “fudge” them a bit? The date will be rerouted to the Trump administration.  The change sparked concerns among infectious disease and health care experts that the administration was hobbling the ability of the nation’s public health agency to gather and analyze crucial data in the midst of a pandemic. The new system was set up by TeleTracking, a private company based in Pennsylvania, which was awarded the $10 million contract in a non-competitive bid in April.

Pre-Pandemic: Starbucks Istanbul

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I had to sketch the Starbucks in the Istanbul, Turkey airport. In the age of COVID-19, the company plans to  close up to 400 company-owned locations over the next 18 months while also speeding up the expansion of “convenience-led formats” such as curbside pickup, drive-thru and mobile-only pickup locations. The Seattle-based coffee conglomerate says the moves are being driven by changing consumer behaviors that have shifted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company still plans to open approximately 300 new stores in its current fiscal year, down from its original goal of 600. Starbucks took a virus-related revenue hit potentially exceeding $3 billion in its third quarter according to a regulatory filing Wednesday June 10, 2020. The virus outbreak also slashed its operating income between $2 billion and $2.2 billion as the virus raged.

In a letter sent to employees late last month, Starbucks U.S. President Rossann Williams said employees on leave will be able to keep their benefits and may also apply for unemployment aid. About 95% of U.S. company-run stores are in operation at varying levels of service, though most are operating with reduced hours.

This little Starbucks in Turkey remains open, so get on a flight to Istanbul and grab a macchiato. Oh, but keep in mind that flying is one of the more risky things you could be doing in a pandemic.

Rush to Donner Pass and a Hill of Beans

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Donald Trump who described himself as a “wartime president” wants Americans to adapt to the COVID-19 virus in his rush to open the economy before the November election. As he put it, “Americans are warriors in the fight to re-open the economy.” He pushes Americans into the workplace despite the risks to their health. As he said, “Will some people be affected? Yes,” and followed with, “Will some people be affected badly (Die)? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon (before the election).”

Rush Limbaugh mentioned the Donner Party as an example of how we should adapt to the virus. The Donner Party was trying to get to California over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. They made the mistake of trying to make the trip in the middle of winter. They got to the peak and it got so bad that they had to turn to cannibalism to survive. According to Rush, the diaries of the leaders of the party had only one sentence about how cold it was, “It was a particularly tough winter.” It is just what it was. He said they didn’t complain about it because there was nothing they could do. They adapted by eating each other. Oh, just 45 of the 81 pioneers survived. They didn’t do such a good job of adapting.

Of course there is something we all can do and that is to wear a mask, social distance and wash hands regularly. That is adaptation. We don’t have to resort to cannibalism as suggested by Rush. The Trumps response is, let them eat beans. On July 9, 2020, Goya CEO Robert Unanue appeared at the White House and praised the president. This resulted in Trump’s critics calling to boycott the Goya brand. Trump and then his daughter Ivanka posed for a photos to promote the beans.

These idiotic and petty photos earned criticism from government ethics experts, who said that the product plugging violated anti-corruption rules. “As a pictorial representation of the Trump administration’s war on government ethics, both photos are perfectly clear,” wrote Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Governmental Ethics. “They scream ‘the rules don’t apply to us,’ a central message of the Trump administration from the start.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “If it’s Trump, it has to be corrupt.”

What is so sickening about “Beangate” is that this is the presidents priority as the COVID-19 virus has taken more than 137,000 American lives and is surging to higher case numbers every day. Trump has been undermining the work of his own infectious disease experts instead of doing everything in his power to combat the virus. Though largely sidelined by the president, Dr. Fauci said, “The problem is, since we started our baseline so high, as we tried to open up, what we saw was it went from 20,000 cases a day to 30, 40 50 and now we are hanging around 60,000. That’s untenable we have to turn that around.”

New data from the John’s Hopkins School of Public Health showed more than 75,000 new cases on July 18, 2020. That is the highest number of cases in a single day anywhere on earth. By current mortality estimates about 2,700 of those people will die. Nationwide cases are rising in 38 of 50 states. Miami-Dade Couunty in Florida is now out of ICU beds. Dr. Aline Marty said, “On a scale of 1 to 10, we are at maximum urgency, we need to turn this thing around right now.” Florida Governor Ron DuhSantis has still not issued a state wide mandate to wear masks. On July 16, 2020 Trump refused to wear a mask on his trip to Atlanta Georgia. He has more interest in pimping beans. Body bags and 14 refrigerator trucks are being sent to Texas to handle all the bodies.

Liberty

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The Covid-19 virus is burning through the southern states unchecked and spreading north daily. Anti-maskers claim their liberties are being infringed upon. Walmart and Sam’s Club will start requiring masks at stores and clubs nationwide starting July 20, 2020 the company announced. “We know some people have differing opinions on this topic. We also recognize the role we can play to help protect the health and well-being of the communities we serve by following the evolving guidance of health officials like the CDC,” the retailers’ chief operating officers said. Best Buy and Starbucks started requiring consumers nationwide wear masks Wednesday July 15, 2020 .

No shoes, no shirt, no mask no service. Videos appear daily of anti maskers freaking out when asked to wear a mask in stores. They claim that their constitutional rights are infringed upon. However the constitution is not a suicide pact. Wearing a mask has been proven in NYC and around the world as an efficient way to stop the spread of the virus. If just 80% of people walking around wore masks the virus would stop dead in it’s tracks.

People who refuse to wear masks are actually burning everyone’s liberties at the stake. They seem to think that wearing a mask is equivalent to being sent to the ovens in the holocaust. Their angry non-compliance is fueling the fires. When they don’t follow simple safety measures like wearing a mask, social distancing and washing their hands they are helping the virus spread and are forcing all who are taking safety measures seriously to have to isolate for longer than needed and they may unknowingly be killing others. Anyone could be infected, and by wearing a mask they are helping ensure they do not infect others. Asymptomatic super spreaders do not get seriously sick themselves but they can infect everyone they come in contact with. The rights of those who don’t wear masks ends when their actions threaten the health of those around them.

Masks have become a political culture war largely because of Trumps long time refusal to wear one while he lives in his biological bunker with constant testing for himself and all around him. Not wearing a mask has become synonymous with proudly wearing a MAGA hat. The virus doesn’t care what your politics are however. It is efficient at what it does. It will infect republicans, democrats, liberals and conservatives. It doesn’t discriminate. Trump finally wore a mask and said he looks good, like the Lone Ranger. So come on, stop acting like children and wear a freakin’ mask.

Pre-Pandemic: Turkey

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This is the Anatolian Houses Hotel (Cevizler Sk, 50180 Göreme Belediyesi/Nevşehir Merkez/Nevşehir Merkez/Nevşehir, Turkey). The rooms were carved into the limestone cliffs with stone rooms as additions. This stone living room was connected via arched doorways into a bedroom that was carved into the cliff. The bathroom, also deep inside the cliff was a few steps up from the bedroom and had a large tub and plenty of pockets in the limestone walls to store towels and toiletries. Tiny windows carved in the walls overlooked the village below.

Another bathroom had deep holes in the floor covered in glass that fell away into the depths of the rock. The arched doorways between rooms had a definite disadvantage in that they were carved by someone who is less than 5 feet tall. I banged my head really hard one time as I was rushing to get out for a day of frantic sight seeing.

COVID-19 was confirmed to have reached Turkey on 11 March 2020, after a man who had returned to Turkey from Europe, tested positive. Turkey also surpassed China in confirmed total cases on 20 April 2020. As of June 29, 2020 Turkey had 5,115 deaths from COVID-19. ON April 11, 2020 the country had it’s highest single day of new cases with 5,138 cases in one day. The Government of Turkey announced that weekend curfews are in effect for all 81 provinces. The wearing of masks is required. A fine of 900 Turkish Lira will be imposed on those who do not comply. On 2 June, the Turkish Parliament resumed full activities for the first time in 48 days since a hiatus was declared due to the pandemic.

The Parliament started working under “new norms” including enhanced hygiene measures, use of masks and social distancing. Turkish parliament accepted a bill which could enable the release of up to 100,000 prisoners, including people responsible for deaths. However, the law excludes Turkey’s around 50,000 political prisoners, including journalists and human rights defenders, who are said to remain jailed despite overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions already posing severe health threat.

No Facemasks Allowed

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Due to COVID-19 on March 13, 2020 and the Texas Department of State Health Services declared a public health disaster six days later for the first time since 1901. Counties, cities, and other local jurisdictions began implementing stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders as the virus spread throughout March. The state remained locked down for two months. Abbott and his administration began directing a “reopening” of the state’s economy in April, 2020.

In May of 2020 Liberty Tree Tavern in Texas had a sign up that read, “No Face Masks Allowed“. Neighbors in Elgin, Texas were still wearing masks outside, even after it was no longer mandated by the county. The tavern owner did not think such a response was necessary, he said, and he wanted to push back. Many stores and restaurants across the country took the opposite approach asking patrons to wear masks, even kicking out those who fail to comply.

In the emergent political war over masks, a handful of businesses are fashioning themselves as fortresses for the resistance. If the bar is only allowed to be at 25 percent capacity, then he didn’t want those 25% to be sheep,”  “Being scared all the time isn’t good for your health. It suppresses your immune system.” he said. Bartenders need to see their customers’ faces to check IDs and make sure no one gets served too many drinks, he argued. Anyone with the virus, including those who are asymptomatic, should not be coming out to begin with. Besides, he asked: How are you supposed to down a beer with a bandanna stretched across your lips? One customer’s son, who has intellectual disabilities, was allowed to keep his mask on.

Bars create a risky combination of tight quarters, young adults unbowed by the fear of illness and, in some instances, proprietors who don’t enforce crowd limits and social distancing rules. Texas alcohol licensing board suspended the liquor licenses of 17 bars after undercover agents observed crowds disregarding emergency rules that required patrons to keep a safe distance from one another and limit tavern occupancy. Bars are tailor-made for the spread of the virus, with loud music and a cacophony of conversations that require raised voices. The alcohol can impede judgment about following rules meant to prevent contagion.

June 26, 2020 Texas Governor Greg Abbott had to order all bars closed for a second time because of a huge spike in COVID-19 cases. “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” Abbott said in a news release. “The actions in this executive order are essential to our mission to swiftly contain this virus and protect public health.” “If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars, now seeing in the aftermath of how quickly the coronavirus spread in the bar setting,” he said during an  interview with KVIA in El Paso.

Texas hospitals are running out of drugs, beds, ventilators and even staff. Short-staffed hospitals in Midland and Odessa have had to turn away ailing COVID-19 patients from rural West Texas facilities that can’t offer the care they need. And epidemiologists say the state’s hospitals may be in for a longer, harder ride than places like New York, where hospitals were stretched to capacity in the spring and some parked refrigerated trailers outside to store bodies of people who died from COVID-19. On  July 10, 2020 a patient in his 30’s who attended a coronavirus party later became seriously ill. The patient said to his nurse before dying, ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’ said Methodist Healthcare’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jane Appleby.

Pre-Pandemic: Garage Sale

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It is hard to think back and remember the innocent days of placing belongings in the driveway for strangers to touch and thump through. Now in the height of the pandemic this scene looks menacing. The Centers for Disease Control recommends keeping a six-foot social distance between guests, limit the number of attendees and encourage wearing masks where distancing isn’t possible. With more people staying at home in recent months, many used their downtime to go through old belongings.

• Place posters encouraging social distancing for customers to see upon arrival and while shopping.

Here are some of the suggestions should you decide to host or go to a garage sale…

• Set up tables and chairs six feet apart.

• Use heavy-duty tape to form a flow for customers to follow throughout the sale.

• Ask customers to stand in a line, while spread apart, during a high traffic times.

• Clean all tables and chairs several times throughout the day.

• Make sure all merchandise is washed and dried and/or wiped down with a disinfectant product before placing on a table or chair for sale.

• Wipe down all tables and chairs using disinfectant at the end of the day or in the morning before the next day of the sale starts.

• Wear masks and disposable gloves at all times during the sale.

• Have hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol on tables and other places for customers to use.

Summer Camp COVID-19 Outbreaks

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An overnight summer camp in rural southwestern Missouri saw 82 campers, counselors and staff infected with Covid-19. Missouri is one of several states to report outbreaks at summer camps. The Kanakuk camp near Branson ended up sending its teenage campers home. On Friday, the local health department announced 49 positive cases of the COVID-19 virus at the camp. By Monday, the number had jumped to 82.

A parent interviewed about the outbreak said he felt that the camp had done everything they could to keep his children safe. Kanakuk plans to reopen later this summer once test results from all staffers are returned and show it’s safe to do so, said Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health.

Kanakuk employs numerous layers of systems and protocols to ensure that the facilities, staff, and campers stay safe, clean, and healthy. However, the most important thing they do as an organization is spend countless hours praying in advance for every camper and staff who walks through the gates. They pray for a healthy and safe environment.

Some states, like Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, closed summer camps this year, and many camps elsewhere have voluntarily canceled programs. But other camps are plowing ahead, hoping that precautions like social distancing, masks and requiring children to quarantine before coming to camp will quell the risk.

In Texas, 76 cases of campers and staff who attended Pine Cove’s Christian camps have tested positive, and several weeks of camp were canceled after clusters of cases were discovered. The spread came despite state requirements that include enforcing social distancing and banning outside visitors. As of last week, campers and staff must wear masks when social distancing isn’t possible.

In Lake Burton, Georgia YMCA Camps, at least 85 kids and counselors tested positive for COVID-19, Georgia Department of Public Health officials told McClatchy News. Campers were all between 7-14 years old and staff between 16-22, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The YMCA says this situation happened despite careful planning and adherence to safety guidelines laid out by leading health experts and mandated by the state, 11Alive reported.

In Arkansas, Mount Ida’s Camp Ozark closed after “several” people were infected, though it didn’t say how many, Fox said. It’s a calculated risk for camps, to open or not open, but most are choosing to stay closed for safety, or are being forced to stay closed by state or local government mandate, according to CNBC. Nearly two-thirds of summer camps haven’t opened this year.

A Fort Myers, Florida children’s theater camp shut down this week after two students tested positive for COVID-19. “The students that tested positive didn’t have any symptoms,” Jeremy Kuntze, the executive producer for the nonprofit Creative Theater Workshop said. The students had rehearsed and performed in the summer camp production of the musical “Hairspray Jr.,” which ran June 15 through July 3, 2020. “We had taken safety precautions,” Kuntze said. “We required temperatures to be checked every day before students arrived. Sanitizing. All staff and volunteers wore masks. Visitors wore masks.” Students, however, weren’t required to wear masks, Kuntze said. “They were encouraged.” When performing on stage no one wore masks.

Screening for fevers with temperature checks is not a panacea. “The absence of an elevated body temperature is not a seal of approval,” said Dr. Fred Jacobs, a pulmonologist and former commissioner of the New Jersey Health Department, told ABC News. “The answer is not temperature. The answer is testing.” Children in particular can be asymptomatic and spread the virus with no sign of a temperature.

All of this foreshadows the insanity of opening schools in Florida 5 days a week despite the surge in COVID-19 cases. Children are not immune to the virus and they can certainly spread the virus to friends and family.

Florida  just shattered the number of cases reported in a single day with, 15,299 new cases on Sunday July 12, 2020. This is the highest daily total of any state in the United States. 45 people died in the state on Sunday July 12, 2020.