Badge of Honor

Posted on May 22, 2020May 23, 2020 by admin

94,936 Americans have died from Covid-19 as of this writing. Imagine 155 passengers crowded onto a Boeing 737. Now imagine one Boeing 737 crashing EVERY DAY for the last year and seven months. That would be close to an approximation of the devastation that has ravaged this country.

When asked about the large number of dead, Trump said “I view it as a badge of honor,” he continued, “When we have a lot of cases,” Trump continued, “I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better.” Trump seems to also think that testing and tracing is a bad idea since when tests are done you find that some people are infected. He would much prefer to live in his magical world where the numbers remain low with few tests as he sends people to their deaths. He has pushed the notion that Americans are “warriors” as they rush to re-open in the midst of the pandemic. Had there been more testing from the start there wouldn’t need to be prolonged social isolation.

The CDC quietly issued a report about how to safely open the country. Of course Trump is not one to listen to science or reason. He wants the state governors to re-open even if they have no plan in place. Today all 50 states are in some stage of re-opening. Control of the epidemic requires action at the individual, community, and population levels. The report offers extensive detailed guidance on contact tracing, infection control, and a wide range of other prevention and control topics. It is fair to assume that the president will never read the 60 page report.

The Trump administration is ignoring many of a CDC report’s recommendations on reopening the US in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. The report gives community leaders detailed instructions for how to reopen than were ultimately released. The measures are meant to be a starting point that could be adapted to any given area. Hopefully Sate Governors and local mayors will read the report since Trump has given them total control over how they plan to re-open safely. I plan to read the report so I know how to keep myself safe moving forward. The CDC launched a new website that tracks cases, deaths and tests done. The CDC findings often contradict what states are reporting. In the case of Florida the state dashboard is now reporting fewer deaths than the CDC. The Georgia Department of Public Health’s website posted a bar graph with the dates out of order, suggesting cases were declining over time. It was clearly misleading.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo had his daughter organize a video promotional campaign for wearing masks. The finalist results are inspired. Many consider wearing a mask to be patriotic. While others following Trump’s example feel it is patriotic to refuse to wear masks, feeling they are sheep if they care about the people around them.

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CDC Bound and Gagged

Posted on May 21, 2020May 20, 2020 by admin

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are concerned that the Covid-19 pandemic is being driven by politics rather than the data and science needed to combat it. The decisions made by government officials rather than scientists have made the devastating reach of the pandemic worse. President Donald Trump was quoted as saying that having over 90,000 dead is a badge of honor rather than a horrific national tragedy. Staff inside the CDC have said the White house has stifled the agencies response to the virus. The white house is also limiting the agencies ability to provide health information to the public. A CDC official put it bluntly, “We’ve been muzzled.”

The work the agency is doing is filtered through a political lens. On March 2, 2020 a CDC internal report found that the virus was being spread locally in 29 countries. Two days later the number jumped to 85 countries. On March 5, 2020 three of the countries affected were in Europe. The CDC was preparing to issue a global travel alert to try and keep the virus from spreading to America. The alert would have urged precautions on all international travel. It was to be posted on the evening of March 5, 2020. The alert was delayed for unexplained reasons. When the White house was told about the spread of the virus in Europe they only wanted to focus on China and not anger Europe.

The CDC alert would not post until March 11, 2020 when Trump announced his restrictions on travel from Europe. Those 6 days were critical in bringing Covid-19 exposure to the east coast of the United States as Europeans flew in to New York. While passengers coming from China were checked, those coming from Europe went unchecked spreading the virus freely.

If the CDC had testing in place they could have found that there were likely cases to be found in America as early as January 2020. Had testing been wide spread at the time, they could have caught the infected people flooding in from Europe.

It would be nice if scientists from the CDC could have daily briefings to keep the Americans informed, but instead we have a president who used the briefings to spew his ideas of injecting light into bodies and taking disinfectants to handle the virus. He has to be corrected at every turn and it would be nice if he just let the experts speak. In the past, the CDC provided important information at briefings to help keep the public safe. During an e coli outbreak in 2018 their investigators got to the root of the problem and offered solid, meaningful and blunt guidance on how to keep it from happening again. However the CDC is not offering the same blunt guidance today in the face of a pandemic.

The virus is spreading like wild fire in retirement homes, veterans hospitals, prisons, and meat packing plants. On May 14, 2020 it was reported that counties with or near meatpacking plants have almost twice the rate of known Covid-19 infections as the national average. Tyson Fresh Meats processing plant in Dakota City, Nebraska had a surge in Covid-19 infections among its 4300 workers. Local mayors were unable to get any answers as to how many cases of the virus are in the meat plant. Workers were not being tested. It was assumed that everyone was infected. Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska never issued stay at home orders.

The CDC did do an investigation at one of the first meat plant outbreaks in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. However the report isn’t as authoritative as past reports. Instead they offered recommendations that are not required or mandated by the organization. There were loose suggestions that the meat plant could implement if they “if they wanted.” Face masks were recommended but not required. The meat packing plant can easy decide that any CDC suggestions are “not feasible.” The president is of course insisting that all meat packing plants should remain open. So it would seem the CDC has softened its stance. As the “suggestions” are ignored, workers will die.

The White House needs to place blame for over 90,000 deaths. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly blamed the CDC for the testing failures in the United States. Navarro argued that the top health agency, under Dr. Robert Redfield, “let the country down” on testing. President Trump privately threw the CDC under the bus to Republican senators during a lunch on Capitol Hill. He praised his son in law, while blaming the CDC for botched testing. A senior CDC official said, “I would urge the President to understand that to prevent spread we must focus on containment and mitigation. He wants to focus on criticism. We will focus on the science, as we have done from the beginning.”

As of May 20, 2020 the CDC is reporting that 12,601,143 tests have been done with 1,699,375 positive tests reported. 93,533 Americans have died and the nations top Disease Control agency is being sidelined. As I write this, the World Health Organization reported106,000 new cases worldwide. This is the most cases in a single day since the pandemic began.

Hydroxidistraction

Posted on May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 by admin

President Donald Trump likes to grab headlines with distracting insane baubles for the media to run with. His latest rant is that he has been taking Hydroxychloroquine for the past week. I personally don’t think he has been taking the unapproved drug as a prophylactic against Covid-19. He doesn’t have the balls. He knows the dangerous side effects, and that there is no evidence to support the idea that it helps in any way against the virus. The FDA warned that the drug can cause serious side effects and even death. I will need to see a video of him actually taking the drug and then having a health professional check under his tongue like they do in psychiatric hospitals before I believe he is taking the drug. This is a lie intended to make him appear macho for his base. They already believe his Hydroxi claims. Science be damned. It is also a distraction to keep reporters from asking about why there is not adequate testing and tracking as the country prepares to open.t of the pandemic Trump has decided to cut funding the the World Health Organization. This is like closing the fire department as your house burns.

Rick Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint after being removed from his position as head of the agency in charge of pandemic response, testified for just under four hours Thursday May 14, 2020 before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s health subcommittee. Bright said. “The Trump administration rushed out recommendations about the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.” Bright’s whistleblower complaint alleged he was removed from his post in retaliation for opposing the broad use of hydroxychloroquine.

More important for us in Central Florida is the fact that Rebekah Jones the architect of Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard was fired on May 5, 2020 for failing to manipulate covid-19 data which might possibly contradict the states narrative that it is safe to open up the economy. What we need moving forward is not some magic pill but cold hard facts. Independent researchers are worried that this is government censorship. Since Rebekah was fired, the site has “crashed” and gone offline and data has gone missing without explanation while access to the underlying data sheets has become increasingly difficult. The site was created by a team of Florida Department of Health data scientists and public health officers headed by Rebekah Jones.

She single-handedly created two applications in two languages, four dashboards, six unique maps with layers of data functionality for 32 variables covering a half a million lines of data. Her objective was to create a way for Floridians and researchers to see what the Covid-19 situation was in real time.

“I worked on it alone, sixteen hours a day for two months, most of which I was never paid for, and now that this has happened I’ll probably never get paid for,” she wrote in an email, confirming that she had not just been reassigned on May 5, but fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health.

In her farewell letter she wrote, “I understand, appreciate, and even share your concern about all the dramatic changes that have occurred and those that are yet to come. As a word of caution, I would not expect the new team to continue the same level of accessibility and transparency that I made central to the process during the first two months. After all, my commitment to both is largely (arguably entirely) the reason I am no longer managing it.” She signed off, “It was great working with you guys. Good luck, and stay safe.” Governor Ron DeSantis implied that Rebekah just needed a vacation and then he abruptly walked out of the press conference to avoid further questioning by reporters.

Restricting the data, is the equivalent of cutting off hurricane forecasts as a storm approaches. When requesting the previously available underlying data, Department of Health officials said that because the data is “provisional” no such requests would be considered until May 2021. Racial and ethnic data and cause of death have been consistently excluded from Florida’s line listing of cases. Such data was reported by medical examiners, but that data table has also been censored by the Department of Health making it virtually useless.

Asal M. Johnson, an assistant Professor of Public Health at Stetson University, has also been frustrated with decreasing data access. “They are pretending that public health is what has damaged (the) economy. They are getting it wrong; the economy is damaged because we ignored evidence to protect public health,” she wrote, adding “They think they can save their own political interest by restricting information.”

Even children learn that by closing your eyes, the problem does not go away. The virus does not care if the numbers are hidden.

Give Me Drink or Give Me Death

Posted on May 19, 2020May 19, 2020 by admin

For weeks in multiple states, armed protestors, encouraged by Donald Trump have been demanding the freedom to get back to work. Governor Tony Evers of Wisconsin wanted to move slower than the president in re-opening his state during the pandemic. Conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overruled the governors stay at home order leaving the state with no public health restrictions or any plan on a re-opening safely. Wisconsin is now the only state in the nation without a single protective measure in place to combat Codid-19. The judges made this ruling from the safety of a video conference.

Across the lake in Michigan, armed protestors entered the state capitol and stood in the upper gallery above law makers prompting at least one lawmaker to put on a bullet proof vest. Protestors chanted: “Our House” and “Let Us In”. Despite this, Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended the stay at home order to May 28, 2020. She has issued over 75 executive orders in an attempt to keep her constituents safe. Law makers have been arguing about weather to ban guns in the capitol. One argument is that State Police should arrest anyone entering the building with a weapon. A 32 years old man was arrested on counts of terrorism for making death threats against Governor Whitmer. Joe Biden is considering Whitmer as a possible running mate.

After the Wisconsin “Safer at Home” order was overruled, nurse Katie Koutsky, decided to help her sister re-open her bar. She was filmed by a local news station in the crowded bar not wearing a mask. She said, “I don’t think the risk presents any higher than me going to a grocery store.” She later walked back that statement saying, “I’d like to express my regret for not wearing a mask or practicing social distancing while there,” she said in a statement released by Advocate Aurora Health. She is quarantining herself for the next seven days.

Health care workers are usually seen as the heroes fighting against the virus putting themselves in harms way. They sacrifice for the greater good. Her flippant disregard for public safety put her in the camp of the protestors, who demand and threaten without concern for others. Protestors wanted the liberty to rush and crowd back into bars. Drunks are not great at social distancing.

The Orlando Weekly reported that several downtown bars have not been following Phase 1 rules about re-opening. If a business earns more than half its income from the sale of alcohol it is supposed to remain closed. On May 4, the OPD found four Orlando bars operating despite the Ron DeSantis Phase 1 executive order which states that a bar should not be open for on-premise consumption of alcohol. Officers advised the owners on the guidelines. Despite this, two bars continues serving drinks for consumption. The Dapper Duck and Downtown Pourhouse continued serving drinks. Since they saw no penalty to not do so. No one has been reprimanded or fined. Three days later the bars still were not complying. Bars being closed are a flashpoint for many. Some would kill for a drink.

Are you helping or complaining?

Love Speaks

Posted on May 18, 2020June 19, 2020 by Thor

An exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center marked 3 years since the Pulse Massacre which took 49 lives. Three years after the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub on June 12, 2016, this remembrance exhibition shared artwork from across the nation created in the wake of this senseless act of violence. These diverse works – from paintings to basketry to graphic novels – both pay tribute to those who were taken and also inspire a better tomorrow for those who remain.

Since we are all isolated at home, there is a 3D virtual walk through of the exhibit online should you like to experience it for yourself. Orlando responded to this horrific event with love and compassion while the nation elected Donald Trump who lead the country towards hate and divisiveness.

As of May 9, 2020 Orange County has tested 1% of its population for Covid-19. There are 1339 confirmed cases and 30 dead. Since at least April 20, the Florida Department of Health has blocked the Medical Examiners Commission from releasing their own detailed spreadsheet of the COVID-19 deaths. On Wednesday, the state released the medical examiners’ spreadsheet but redacted the narratives and cause of death entries making the spreadsheets useless.

Before the DOH clamped down, Florida Todayobtained an unredacted version of the spreadsheet from April 15, which recorded the first 601 Florida deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Of the 601 deaths reported on April 15, 62 happened in Central Florida:

5 deaths in Brevard County
1 death in Flagler County
8 deaths in Lake County
4 deaths in Marion County
23 deaths in Orange County
6 deaths in Osceola County
6 deaths in Polk County
1 death in Seminole County
1 death in Sumter County
7 deaths in Volusia County

Though not fully standardized, the data provides grim insight into the early failures of state officials and the medical system to contain and respond to the virus. It tells a story of patients denied testing until their second or third hospital visit, and reveals deadly clusters of infection at nursing homes and cruise ships.

The detective work in the medical examiner reports expose the missteps of the haphazard response to the Covid-19 pandemic well over a month into the crisis. This is what the State of Florida doesn’t want you to see. Moving forward we only see the rosy facts that state government officials want us to see as they open up the state. With government clamping down on the facts it is hard to believe the numbers reported moving forward.

Pre-Pandemic: Steve’s Murder Mystery

Posted on May 17, 2020June 19, 2020 by Thor

Steve’s Murder Mystery was performed at The Mezz (100 S Eola Dr #200, Orlando, FL) back in 2019. This musical read through was free to the public as part of the Orlando Monthly New Works Series. Steve’s Murder Mystery was by Alex Mrazek and Justin Scarlat.

The show offers the audience options to choose their own adventure musical. The show follows Steve and his best friend Blue as they navigate the underworld of Anyville to catch the “Bloody Hand-print Killer.”

There was a talk back after the reading. With plenty of constructive notes from the audience. The music was fun and there were plenty of solid voices among the cast. At the end the audience had to vote on who the killer might be. Because I was sketching my attention was fractured and I had no idea. Hercule Poirot I am not. Pam also guessed wrong. I miss these kind of pop up cultural events.

Phase 1

Posted on May 16, 2020May 15, 2020 by admin

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will go into a Full Phase One Opening on Monday May 18, 2020. Gyms throughout the state will reopen along with restaurants and retail stores, which so far have been allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity. They can now serve patrons at 50 percent capacity. Theme parks will remain closed for now. Movie theaters throughout the state will also remain closed. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said during a virtual town hall Friday that fitness centers and gyms in Miami-Dade County will remain closed for the time being.

Over 40 states are at some stage of re-opening at the height of the pandemic. Public health experts warn that this increased activity is likely to cause a surge of new infections. Most states are seeing a plateau, with neither a significant rise nor fall in reported daily cases. Far fewer states are seeing a sustained decline – or a “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period” as recommended by the White House reopening guidelines.

“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control” by reopening too quickly, said infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci in Senate testimony May 12, 2020 “leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided.”

Dr. Rick Bright the ousted director of a key federal office charged with developing medical countermeasures, testified before the senate om May 14, 2020. He said, “Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities. Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”

Experts at Harvard University have said 900,000 tests a day are needed in the US to reopen the economy. That’s about 275 tests per 100,000 people per day – only nine states are around this level of testing currently. Many other states which have already begun to reopen fall below that benchmark, such as Georgia, Florida and Colorado. Trump seems to think testing is overrated.

The Goat Herd

Posted on May 15, 2020May 15, 2020 by admin

In California, a large herd of goats escaped into the suburbs. They of course have no concept of what social distancing might mean as they bumped shoulders and ate flowers from people’s front years. Watching the hilarious video it is easy to see that herding goats is much like herding cats. They go wherever they want. This is America after all.

Disney Springs will be opening May 20, 2020 in phases. I should imaging that people who have been couped up inside for months will of course want to go there to shop and try the restaurants. Someone on twitter made the analogy that the herd of goats reminded him of a herd of tourists being unleashed into Disney Springs. Re-opening has its complications because it’s not simply a matter of reopening the doors and greeting guests once again. Many venues laid off employees, who are possibly now collecting unemployment if they made their way through the difficult to navigate online and phone system. Restaurants will need to scramble for supplies, and work on implementing whatever safety changes are necessary. Many will probably take a wait and see approach, keeping a close watch on other restaurants to see how things go. Only select third parties are reopening during the initial phase.

Venues opening include, 4 Rivers Cantina Food Truck, Polite Pig, STK, Wine Bar George, Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill, Chicken Guy, Blaze Pizza, Erin McKenna’s Bakery, Frontera Cocina, Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Kiosk, Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company, Sunshine Churros, YeSake Kiosk.

I saw pictures of Shanghai Disney‘s opening day and large bowed were painted on pavement in the lines. The boxes showed a pair of feet surrounded with a red circle with a line through the feet. This was clearly and attempt to maintain some social distancing. However many stood IN the boxes, right behind the people in front of them. Everyone was required to wear face masks. In the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, not wearing a mask was illegal. That pandemic killed over 250,000 people in America. More died from the virus than in WWI. Yet today, the POTUS refuses to wear a mask himself. I choose to wear one when I go out, because I care about the people around me.

Pre-Pandemic: Hotto Potto

Posted on May 15, 2020February 7, 2022 by Thor

Hotto Potto (3090 Aloma Ave. Winter Park, FL 407-951-8028) is a Chinese eatery and dim sum spot specializing in hot pots served table side with house made sauces. You get a soup stock base and add any ingredients you want to your soup and then you cook it at your table. On top of that a cart is rolled up to the table offering jars and jars of delicious sauces to add to the dim sum, Pam and I tried everything. Yummm.

Stock Base

per person: choose from:

Meat Stock

$3.50

mild, med or numb Spice

Vegetarian

$3.50

mild, med or numb Spicy

Tom Yum, Miso Soup, or Tofo Tomato Soup

$4.50

$3.50

Marble Pork

Market Price

Lamb Slices

Market Price

Wagyu

Market Price

$12.90

Blue Crab

Market Price

Fresh Oyster

Market Price

Fresh Clams

Market Price

Razor Clams

Market Price

Abalone

Market Price

Sea Cucumber

Market Price

Live Shrimp

Market Price

Live Lobster

Market Price

Noodles & Such

Fried Gluten

$2.95

Now during the pandemic Hotto Potto only offers take out.

Deflagration

Posted on May 14, 2020June 19, 2020 by Thor

Many are letting their guard down now that Donald Trump wants to open up the economy leaving governors the challenge of figuring out how to do that safely. Yet the virus is not slowing down. The number of people dying every day is in the thousands. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, warned senators Tuesday May 12, 2020 that states and cities face serious consequences if they open up too quickly, urging states not to reopen until they know they have the capabilities to handle an inevitable uptick in cases once they relax stay-at-home orders.

I am going to share some musings of Dr. Erin Bromage and link to his article should you want to read more. He is a PhD in Microbiology and makes no claims at being an expert in Covid-19, medicine, or preparedness. Though we may soon be reaching the peak of the curve of death that I check every night before I go to sleep, the downward slope of that curve is predicted to be gradual with deaths persisting for months. Assuming that states stayed in lock down, we would lose another 70,000 people over the next 6 weeks as we come off that peak. As states reopen fuel is added to the virus for it to spread.

In many cases people become infected in the home. One person leaves the home and then returns and the sustained contact with family spreads the infection. Some experts estimate that as few as 1000 SARS-CoV2 infectious viral particles needed to cause an infection.

Sine many will be returning to work the goal is to try to guide you away from situations of high risk. Grocery stores, bike rides, and inconsiderate runners who are not wearing masks are not necessarily areas of primary concern. The reason is that if there are viral particles, you are exposed for a brief period of time. A grocery store worker however could have sustained exposure over time.

Bathrooms are high risk exposure areas with a lot of high touch surfaces, door handles, faucets, stall doors. Of course a cough is high risk. A single cough releases about 3,000 droplets and droplets travels at 50 miles per hour. A single sneeze releases about 30,000 droplets, with droplets traveling at up to 200 miles per hour. Most droplets are small and travel great distances (easily across a room).
A single breath releases 50 – 5000 droplets. Though research has not been done a breath might release about 33 viral particles.

To become infected you need to be exposed to the virus over time. Some of the biggest outbreaks of the virus have been at meat packing plants, weddings, funerals, and business networking. A study of an asymptomatic person seated with 9 friends in a restaurant showed that 50% of the people at the table became infected along with 75% of the people at a downwind table. A single air conditioning unit recirculated the air in the room. Even 2 people upwind of the asymptomatic person became infected.

A case study of a workplace, had one infected employee come into a crowded call center with 216 employees. Over the period of a week, 94 of those people became infected. Primarily the people on one side off the office became infected while only a few were infected on the other side off the office. Working in an enclosed space, sharing the same air for a prolonged period increases your chances of exposure and infection.

A choir rehearsal in Washington state had 60 people in attendance. Members avoided handshakes and hugs and had their own sheet music. A single asymptomatic carrier infected most of the people in attendance. They sang for 2 1/2 hours, inside an enclosed rehearsal hall which was roughly the size of a volleyball court. Singing aerosolizes respiratory droplets extraordinarily well. I have been watching National Theater productions broadcast for free during the pandemic and the close ups on actors singing shows this spray of particles particularly well in the stage spotlighting. Over a period of 4 days, 45 of the 60 choir members developed symptoms, 2 died.

All these infection events were indoors, with people closely-spaced, with lots of talking, singing, or yelling. The main sources for infection are home, workplace, public transport, social gatherings, and restaurants. This accounts for 90% of all transmission events. Of the countries performing contact tracing properly, only a single outbreak has been reported from an outdoor environment. That means the painting I just posted is more fantasy than fact, but hey, its art. I’m just trying to wake up the complacent.

Know the risks, wash your hands, wear a mask to protect yourself and others and stay safe out there.