Nursing Home Numbers

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At the beginning of the pandemic I was impressed by Andrew Cuomo‘s power point daily briefings about the COVID-19 crisis. He seemed a voice of reason and the former 45th U.S. President was pushing bleach and hydoxycloriquine as miracle cures. They are not cures they are deadly distractions.

In the early days Cuomo required nursing homes to accept Covid-19 positive patients when New York’s hospitals were overflowing. There was a statistically significant increase in resident deaths in nursing homes that accepted hospital transfers.

Now he has admitted to hiding data about deaths of New York State nursing home residents. He obscured public health data for political gain. The state’s official COVID-19 death count in nursing home is roughly 8,700 right now. A 56 percent increase on that count would bring the total deaths to well over 13,000.

The Cuomo administration managed to keep much of that nursing home data under wraps until late January, 2021 when the dam broke. The Democratic state attorney general published a bombshell accusation that the administration under counted nursing home deaths by more than 50%. The Associated Press showed more than 9,000 recovering Covid-19 patients were transferred from nursing homes to hospitals, which was 40% higher than the previously disclosed number. The New York Post then reported that one of Cuomo’s top aides claimed the administration hid data on nursing home deaths to avoid political retribution from Trump.

It remains unclear what level of accountability Cuomo will face. Even if Cuomo dodges criminal or civil liability, he will still face political accountability at the hands of voters. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is touting his success battling the virus but the state has surpasses 10,000 nursing home deaths as well.

Holiday Travel

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Holiday travel this year is like holding a hot air balloon Festival during a tornado. This is 2020 so a firenado seemed more appropriate.

There are 37 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The constant refrain of holiday carols and commercialization leads to a desire for human companionship. Millions of Americans ignored warnings from health experts and decided to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. The CDC has said that small home gatherings are the primary source of spread of the COVID-19 virus.in a recent study it was found that the virus was spread 65% of the time at small gatherings. The coming weeks will be difficult, especially since so many traveled over the holiday and held in-person dinners indoors.

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost authority on infectious diseases, and Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned about the potential for a spike in infections stemming from holiday parties, even if they’re small and only among relatives.

Nearly 3 million air travelers passed through security checkpoints on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving. Sunday was the single-busiest day at airport checkpoints since March. The Thanksgiving travel damage is done. It will take 7 to 10 days for people to discover if they have been infected. Dr. Anthony Fauci described what the United States will experience in the first weeks of December as “A surge upon a surge.”

Fauci said the arrival of vaccines offers a “light at the end of the tunnel.”However we all have to stay vigilant to help slow the spread of the virus until that vaccines can be distributed. Health care workers will likely be among the first to get the vaccine, with the first vaccinations happening before the end of December, followed by many more in January, February and March, he said.

In the mean time do not let your guard down leading up to Christmas. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said to think of COVID like the Grinch. If you practice social distancing, wear a mask in public and wash your hands often we can all celebrate the holidays safely. In many places, hospitals are being overwhelmed by rising case loads. More than 20 percent of U.S. hospitals expect critical staff shortages in the coming week, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Beds can be built but you still need enough doctors to handle the rise in cases. we are fast approaching 100,000 people who are hospitalized for COVID-19. Now the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain West are the new hot spots, but some former hot spots are warming back up as well, with cases and hospitalizations surging again. Florida which is third in terms of the number of deaths from COVID-19 is again becoming a hot spot. “Thanksgiving may be the beginning of a dark holiday season as the surge in coronavirus cases is likely to persist, or even get worse, through December, January and February.” said Dr. Fauci.

Massive Mask-less Wedding

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An ordinance in New York allows gatherings of up to 50 people. In defiance of that ordinance, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed into Yetev Lev D’Satmar synagogue in Brooklyn for a secret wedding. The building has a maximum capacity of 7,000 people and this event was packed shouder to shoulder with standing room only in the aisles.

Authorities learned about the secret wedding over the weekend and fined its organizers $15,000. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo condemned the event on Sunday as a “blatant disregard of the law” and called it “disrespectful to the people of New York.” Officials have issued strict limits on public gatherings in New York City’s boroughs and across the rest of the state. However, large parties have been cropping up on a near-daily basis, according to the New York City Sheriff’s Office.

A much smaller wedding in Maine had 55 guests. Guests reportedly did not wear masks, nor observe physical distancing rules. That wedding resulted in half the guests contracting COVID-19 with that then spreading to 177 people and killing 7. One guest who became sick visited a parent who worked at a retirement home. That resulted in an outbreak of 38 cases among staff and residents at the long-term care facility, over 100 miles away from the wedding. Six residents died at that facility.

In NYC the club scene went underground after the start of the pandemic. Those in the know can find crowded gatherings at warehouses, lofts, basements, boats, parks and rooftops. It is like the return of the prohibition ere only today people want to get drunk and deathly sick. Over Halloween weekend two parties were shit down by police, one with 400 people in Brooklyn and the other with 550 in the Bronx. Event organizers fail to understand or simply ignore the dangers of large indoor gatherings. Two bit event organizers see this as an opportunity to profit off the pandemic.

Resurgence in Dating and COVID-19

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A dating app for wealthy people sees their members getting ready to date on the Fourth of July weekend despite social distancing rules still being in effect. Men and women who have been in isolation for months are desperate to score a date. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, online dating has taken off. Messaging on Hinge increased 30%, and Tinder saw its biggest day ever on March 29, with over 3 billion swipes. People have more time to talk online.

The virus is primarily spread, through respiratory droplets. And this is why it’s important to maintain that physical distance. Because you don’t know who has it and who doesn’t. And so, if people act irresponsibly and go out wanting to meet people, well then we’re gonna create new chains of transmission. Writing love letters is quite romantic.

With  a resurgence of COVID-19 cases hitting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered Bars closed though he refuses to consider a step back in his phase 2 re-opening plan. On June 26, 2020 there were 8,942 new COVID-19 cases on , shattering the previous record of 5,508 set just two days ago. New Case counts keep rising by about 1000 cases each day. DeSantis said the order was issued because many people were disobeying the state’s reopening guidelines. “People weren’t following it,” the governor said. “There was widespread noncompliance, and that led to issues. If folks just follow the guidelines, we’re going to be in good shape. When you depart from that, then it becomes problematic.” He however  refuses to make mask wearing mandatory state wide.

Back in April while NYC was suffering from the onslaught of the deadly virus, the governor claimed victory over the virus when he visited the president at the White House. “Everyone in the media was saying Florida would be like New York or Italy and that has not happened,” he said. “We had a tailored and measured approach that not only helped our numbers be way below what anybody predicted, but also did less damage to our state going forward.” Now he has to eat his words.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in response, ” look at the numbers, You played politics with this virus, and you lost.” “It was never politics. It was always science,” Cuomo said. He  criticized other state leaders’ response to the coronavirus pandemic Thursday June 25, 2020, saying some states who rushed to reopen their economies were playing politics.

Dr. Anthony Fauci in testimony before a congressional committee said on Tuesday that the rate of new coronavirus infections could more than double to 100,000 a day if current outbreaks were not contained, warning that the virus’s march across the South and the West “puts the entire country at risk.” “We have a very heterogenous country, but heterogeneity doesn’t mean that we are not intimately interconnected with each other,” Fauci said. “So what goes on in one area of the country, ultimately could have an effect on the other areas of the country.”

Vice President Mike Pence wore a face mask to a public briefing on Tuesday June 30, 2020 where the message from the surgeon general and others was clear: Americans should to do the same while in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The vice president and others removed their masks only when delivering remarks. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said “When you do not wear your face covering, we end up in a situation where you see higher rates of disease spread and you end up having to close places. This mask, this face covering, actually is an instrument of freedom for Americans if we all use it.”

Today July 2, 2020 Florida reached a new milestone surpassing a 1000% increase in COVID-19 cases since it re-opened.

What Point?

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The 1,107 graduating Cadets at West Point have been studying remotely since March 19, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The spring break was extended indefinitely due to the spread of the virus across America. By studying at home, cadets helped stop the spread of the disease. Despite these successful safety measures, President Donald Trump insisted that he wanted to give a commencement speech in front of all the cadets at West Point.

Every cadet had to return to West Point two weeks weeks early to self isolate so that the POTUS who never wears a mask in public and often does not social distance might be kept safe. “Trump’s reckless decision to gather 1,000 Cadets at West Point for a speech puts our future military leaders at increased risk – all to stroke his own ego,” Army veteran Senator Tammy Duckworth wrote in April.

“Because travel increases your chances of getting infected and spreading Covid-19, staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from getting sick,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote on it’s website. On top of this, New York State has had the highest number of cases of Covid-19 in America. West Point is just a 90 minute drive north of New York City which has been the epicenter of the outbreak of the virus.

Prior to the ceremony every cadet had to take Covid-19 tests to keep the POTUS safe. The ceremony flouted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s social distancing directives for graduations in the state to be limited to 150 people. Sixteen of the graduating class tested positive for the Covid-19 upon their return to campus. The 16 cadets are receiving treatment but are not showing symptoms of the disease, Lieutenant. General Darryl Williams, West Point’s superintendent, told USA Today. Other than the 16 cadets, 71 of the more than 5,000 faculty, staff and civilians at West Point have also tested positive for COVID-19 since March, USA Today reported. I am sure that Trumps SS would kept anyone who was infected far from the president.

A rift has become evident between the executive branch and the military. The government’s highest ranking military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley apologized for his role in Trump’s now infamous photo op in front of Saint John’s Church last Monday June 8, 2020, saying “I should not have been there.” Hundreds of West Point alumni, two days before Trump’s address, also called out the top Pentagon leaders, for failing to uphold the Constitution in their responses to nationwide protests.

Top Army leaders and Defense Secretary Mark Esper were “open” to the discussion about re-naming military bases that are named after Confederate generals who lost the civil war. The  GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee approved a new amendment that would require military bases named after Confederate soldiers to change their names – setting senators on a collision course with the president. Trump tweeted that he “will not even consider” renaming military bases. The bases are located in  southern states that helped Trump secure his 2016 victory, and as Election Day approaches, he needs their support.

The class of 2020 West Point graduates entered their commencement ceremony on the Plain Parade Field wearing white face masks. Once they got to their socially distanced folding chairs they could remove their masks. There was no family of friends allowed. I imagined that if I was a graduate I would probably make a scarecrow to wear my hat. The POTUS probably wouldn’t notice the difference. The scarecrow could easily stand in for the military salute photo op.

The presidents speech was sleepy and insipid. I read his speech, but don’t pay attention to what he says anymore, I just watch what he does. He hobbled  off the stage after the cadets all threw their caps in the air. 16 0f those caps might have been carrying the Covid-19 virus.

Virus of Injustice

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A medical examiner’s autopsy found that George Floyd was infected with Covid-19 at the time he was murdered by Minneapolis police. Floyd’s death was ruled a homicide. All four officers, in the video taped murder now face charges. CNN reported that Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. That charge was updated to second-degree murder indicating he killed Floyd “without intent” in the course of committing assault in the third degree, according to an amended complaint. The other officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are now charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. It should be noted that none of the officers that man handled George had face masks, visors or gloves.

Huge protests have swept the nation with peaceful protestors lying in the streets. New York City Mayor Andrew Cuomo said that protestors should assume they have been exposed to the virus and should get tested. Young protestors might consider themselves invincible, but they should get tested to protect friends and family. They can spread the virus without showing any symptoms themselves. Protestors have been advised that they should tell anyone they lie with that they should also get tested. Charts were shown of states that had re-opened and many including Florida showed a spike in new cases after the stay at home orders had been eased. Florida just had its highest number of new cases on June 3, 2020 with 1419 new confirmed cases. It will take several weeks before we see how many protestors might have been infected.

The virus has spotlighted the countries other pandemic of racism. Two employees from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles have been fired for their remarks toward protesters, according to the department. These comments were made on social media and by text. They were hateful, racist and threatening remarks directed at protestors.

In Orlando over 2000 protestors walked from City Hall to the Police Department. After the city’s 10 p.m. curfew went into effect, Orlando Police  officers deployed tear gas and smoke after “a few remaining participants” started throwing rocks and bottles at them. Tear gas will cause people to cough and tear up which is the best way to spread the Covid-19 virus. Some protestors wore masks but even fewer think to protect their eyes. A study from from Hubei Province, China has found the the virus spread when people wipe their eyes.

The Florida Department of Health said 1,702 Covid-19 tests were damaged in transit. Anyone who used a damaged test will have to be retested. Advent Health announced that 25,000 Covid-19 tests are unreliable. There has been no mention to date of tests specifically for those who have protested.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday he opposes using the U.S. military to quiet domestic unrest in a break with President Donald Trump who threatened to deploy federal troops to “dominate the streets.” He then revered his position by keeping military in the capitol. Task Force 504, an infantry battalion from the 82nd Airborne remains in DC.

After military helicopters were used a a show of force against protestors, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Wednesday June 3, 2020 said, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

Lying down as a sign of protest may become a reality as military may be called on by Trump to bring shock and awe to American citizens.

I Can’t Breathe

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George Floyd‘s last words were, I can’t Breathe. The 46-year old black man died Monday May 25, 2020, pleading for air, as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest. George was  suspected of using a counterfeit bill at a store. A video circulated of his final moments shot by bystanders who pleaded for the officer to to let George breathe. Former Minnesota Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George’s  neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The officer has been arrested and charged with murder.

This clear evidence of murder caused protests in Minnesota and across the country. A police station in Minnesota was burned by protestors. Police has to retreat out the back and surrender the building to the fire. Across the street the Minnehaha Liquor Store was also burned. The civil unrest in Minneapolis and St. Paul left a trail of burned out buildings, smashed windows, and looted stores across the Twin Cities. Over 100 businesses listed damages.

A black CNN reporter Omar Jiminez, and his crew were arrested live on TV as he was covering the protests. He was professional throughout the exchange with police and he was lead away in handcuffs and releases later that day. The CNN offices in Atlanta Georgia became a scene of violence when protestors broke down a front door to the office building. Protestors threw objects at police who created a phalanx in the lobby keeping protestors from entering the building. The escalating violence eventually was broken up with tear gas.

All this was happening in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic which has been killing African Americans at shocking rates, highlighting long standing inequalities. In Louisiana, African Americans accounted for 70% of COVID-19 deaths, while comprising 33% of the population. In Michigan, they accounted for 14% of the population and 40% of deaths, and in Chicago, 56% of deaths and 30% of the population. In New York, black people are twice as likely as white people to die from Covid-19. For me the angry protestors chants of “I Can’t Breath” reminded me of the thousands who might be struggling to breath on ventilators.

The CDC issued a report that states that offered race and ethnicity data from 580 patients hospitalized with lab-confirmed COVID-19.  45% of individuals for whom race or ethnicity data was available were white, compared to 59% of individuals in the surrounding community. However, 33% of hospitalized patients were black compared to 18% in the community and 8% were Hispanic, compared to 14% in the community. These data suggest an over representation of blacks among hospitalized patients.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has vowed to investigate racial disparities in Covid-19 deaths. He asked, “Why do the poorest people always pay the highest price?” He noted that black New Yorkers comprise 28 percent of deaths in New York City and 18 percent of deaths in New York state, despite being 22 percent and 9 percent of the population, respectively.

President Donald Trump on the other hand issued a Tweed threatening to shoot protestors. Twitter had to issue a warning label for violating its policies on “glorifying violence.” The social media platform “determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,” and allowed users to view Trump’s tweet if they chose.

Haircut Hotspot

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A hairstylist in Missouri may have exposed 91 clients to Covid-19. After the Missouri governor opened the state including salons to open on May 4, 2020. The worker at a Great Clips in Springfield worked on on eight different days while experiencing symptoms from Covid-19. The worker then tested positive for Covid-19. Since he and his costumers both wore face coverings it is hoped that there will be no new cases. Anyone who had their hair cut by this technician should get tested. The infections began one week after the state opened. The infectious hair stylist also went to Walmart and a Dairy Queen and made three visits to a local gym.

A second hair stylist in the same Great Clips shop also became infected and may have infected 56 other  clients. The two cases came just days after city officials announced plans to relax even more distancing requirements and about a week after the health department started seeing an influx of new travel-related infections. The salon has been closed for sanitizing.

The push by Donald Trump and some state governors to reopen most businesses with some public health modifications, such as social distancing and masks, comes as public health officials warn that relaxing restrictions will certainly lead to new outbreaks. Even if you wear a mask it is not a great idea to let a stranger run his fingers through our hair.

In debates over how quickly to reopen different businesses across the country, barbershops and hair salons have become a political flashpoint among conservative Americans, with some owners reopening in defiance of public health measures. In Michigan, a barber who refused to close his shop despite shelter-at-home orders staged a hair-cutting protest at the state capitol which was dubbed “Operation Haircut”, the Lansing State Journal reported.

A New York State barber also defied stay-at-home orders and continued to “illicitly” cut hair. He has also tested positive for Covid-19, county officials said in a public health notice. Ulster County officials are now recommending anyone who received a haircut from the barber in the past three weeks should seek a Covid-19 test.

“We are taking extraordinary measures to try and minimize the spread of this dangerous disease,” Dr. Carol Smith said. “Learning that a barbershop has been operating illicitly for weeks with a COVID-19 positive employee is extraordinarily disheartening.”  “As much as we would all like to go out and get a professional haircut, this kind of direct contact has the potential to dramatically spread this virus throughout our community and beyond,” she continued. This barber is believed to have infected over a dozen people. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “You know, that is a occupation of close proximity, right? You can’t really socially distance and do a haircut … that is by definition an up-close-and-personal occupation.”

In Texas, a hair salon owner, Shelley Luther, violated a stay-at-home order by keeping her Dallas-area salon open, was sentenced to jail time. A few days later, Texas Governor Greg Abbott modified his COVID-19 executive orders, effectively setting Luther free. She then refused to apologize in court for what she had done, has been championed by Republican leaders.

The Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force asked Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings to fight to get salons and barbershops back open. He wrote State governor Ron DeSantis and two days later DeSantis came to Central Florida where he met with hair stylists in OhSoooJazzy Hair Salon in Orange County. Hair Salons had been closes as part of his first phase of opening the Florida Economy. In a surprise move on Monday May 11, 2020, the governor allowed hair salons to open across the state. That excludes the two big southeast counties — Broward and Miami-Dade. DeSantis said, “I mean I haven’t had a haircut in two months, not that that’s the important thing, I am coming on a mullet almost because of how much my hair has grown.”

For my part, I plan to continue to buzz cut my own hair during the pandemic. Learn from the mistakes of others.

Badge of Honor

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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.

…

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.