27 Test Positive on Carnival Cruise Ship

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The Carnival Vista departed from Galveston, Texas headed to Belize. 26 crew members and one passenger tested positive for COVID-19.

All 27 were vaccinated, had mild or no symptoms, and were in isolation, according a statement from the Belize Tourism Board. The tourism board said 99.98% of the ship’s crew was vaccinated, as well as 96.5% of its passengers. So who were the 3.5 passengers who were not vaccinated?

Carnival announced last week that there were positive cases on board, but the cruise line did not not give specific numbers. Cruise ships are often settings for disease outbreaks because of their closed environment and close contact between travelers from many countries, according to the CDC.

At the beginning of the pandemic the Diamond Princess was quarantined off Japan. Of the 3711 people onboard, around 700 were eventually infected with the virus (567 out of 2,666 passengers and 145 out of 1,045 crew) and 9 people, all of them passengers, died. Quarantine on a cruise ship is dangerous, because the cruise ship does not use HEPA filters which can effectively screen 99 percent of the particles. Airborne transmission likely accounted for over 50% of disease transmission on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which includes inhalation of aerosols during close contact as well as longer range. The CDC issued an advisory to avoid traveling on Cruise ships. The cruising industry came to a screeching halt in mid March of 2020.

The CDC’s no-sail order to expired on October 31, 2020. Cruise lines, including Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Carnival began November 2020 by announcing they would cancel North American sailings through December 31, 2020. With the advent of the vaccines, there was hope that 2021 would see the return of care free cruising. No one was prepared for the Delta variant. The cruising industry has to choose between passenger safety or profit and of course profit always wins.

Back to School

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School children all across Florida have returned to school. Florida Governor Ron DeathSantis issued an royal decree saying parents can elect to not mask their children if they do not want them masked. 815 physicians signed an open letter asking him to repeal his anti-mask laws. Florida currently leads the nation in the number of children hospitalized for COVID-19. A child younger than 5 has died of COVID-19 at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

Three Broward County teachers and a teachers aid died on August 12, 2021 all in the span of 24 hours from COVID-19. The Broward County school board voted 8 to 1 to mandate that students must wear masks in school. DeathSantis later said the Florida Board of Education could withhold the paychecks of school board members and superintendents who enforce mask mandates. He later had to back down from his threat to withhold school officials’ salaries if they resist his anti-mask rule since school board officials are not on the state payroll. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended all K-12 students wear masks for in-person learning. All across the state, only 4% of students tried to find excuses not to mask up.

Hospitals in Central Florida are full and as of August 9, 2021 nearly 14,000 people were hospitalized with COVID in the state, according to federal data. 440 students in Palm Beach County have been asked to quarantine just two days into the school year, after 51 students and faculty had confirmed cases on COVID-19. Mike Burke, Palm Beach County superintendent of schools blamed the opt-out rule as the reason for the spike in cases, calling on DeathSantis to make changes to protect students from infection.

In recent weeks there has been a surge in COVID hospitalizations among children in the United States. Nearly 94,000 new child COVID-19 cases were reported last week which is a substantial increase in cases. In Florida, the state with the highest number of confirmed pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the country, 179 children are receiving care, according to federal data. 29 kids are hospitalized in the Orlando area including 6 in the ICU. While severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, experts say the increased trend is concerning.

On August 12, 2021 Florida shattered another record with 24,869 cases of COVID-19 with 357 more deaths.

Sturgis Yet Again

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I can not believe that I have to report about another 10 day Sturgis, South Dakota super spreader event. This is a clear indicator that I have had to document this pandemic for over a year.

This year over 700,000 bikers are expected to arrive in this small South Dakota town to infect one another and then return too their friends and family all over the country to spread the virus.

In Meade County South Dakota, where Sturgis is, only 37% of the population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, leaving plenty of unvaccinated fuel for the Delta variant to burn through. A report by infectious disease experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and South Dakota health officials traced 649 Covid-19 cases around the country and at least one death to the 2020 rally. The report said the “true national impact” of the rally on the pandemic is likely underestimated.

Another CDC report linked the rally to a Covid-19 outbreak in Minnesota, where at least 51 residents who attended the event became sick, and another 35 people were infected after coming into contact with a person who went to the rally. Those 35 people were household, social and workplace contacts, it said.

Of those 86 cases, four people were hospitalized, and one died, according to the report. The virus back then could infect 2 to 3 other people. The Delta variant has the advantage that it can spread from one infected person to 5 to 8 other people causing a far greater exponential spread.

Sheriffs are reporting that this year’s rally is more crowded than ever. Sheriff Ron Merwin said August 7, 2021, “There are more people [at the rally] than in the 31 years I’ve been doing this,” the Rapid City Journal , and Sturgis Police Chief Geody VanDewater said calls for law enforcement are “up dramatically” versus prior years. Masks are not mandated at the rally. The Sturgis rally generates 800 million in sales revenue for the local economy and that is more important than any life. So begins another COVID surge in the midwest.

Casa Feliz

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On May 13, 2021 the CDC had announced that fully vaccinated people can participate in many of the activities that they did before the pandemic.

I still refused to hold Crealde School of Art classes indoors choosing instead to take my students to outdoor sites to sketch. On this weekend we went to Casa Feliz in Winter Park.

My first lesson was to make sure you are always in the shade because the Florida sun can be hellish. Most of my students scattered to shady shops under trees but this student decided to sit on the stone wall around the back patio. Within 15 minuted she was baking in the sun.

No one wore masks outside but I wore my mask any time I approached a student. I approached this student and suggested she back up into the shade since the basic outlines of her sketch were established. Adding color to a sketch needn’t always be done in the exact spot where the sketch was started.

I had to do this sketch super fast since I spent most of my time visiting each student and offering feedback and suggestions. The backs of most of my sketches in this sketchbook have the rough sketches I did for each student to advise them on how to set up compositions.

On July 18, 2021 it was reported, that the latest Covid-19 hospital patients are unvaccinated and increasingly younger. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 1,008 daily coronavirus cases with just one week to go before the start of the Olympics.

Delta Infects Faster then Smallpox

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An internal CDC Powerpoint presentation was leaked that claimed that the Delta variant of COVID -19 is more transmissible than smallpox. From 1958 to 1977, the World Health Organization conducted a global vaccination campaign that eradicated Smallpox, making it the only human disease to be eradicated. You have to winder if Smallpox would still be with us if today’s polarized political situation existed back when that vaccine roll out happened.

The war against COVID-19 has changed. Delta is highly contagious. Whereas the original strain of COVID-19 might result in a person spreading the infection to about two other people, the Delta variant can spread to 8 or 9 other people. It likely results in more hospitalizations.

The bombshell in the report is that breakthrough cases can be as transmissible as in unvaccinated cases. Vaccinated individuals are much less likely to be infected. Vaccinated individuals might not even know they are infected so they can circulate in public and spread the virus without knowing. Vaccines prevent about 90% of severe infections but they are less effective against protecting against breakthrough infections.

The CDC therefor reversed its position on masks insisting the vaccinated and unvaccinated people must wear masks indoors. The ancestral strains of covid-19 spread about as fast as the common cold. It is believed that the COVID Delta variant spreads faster that the Spanish Flu and Smallpox. The variant might also be slightly more deadly that the original stains of COVID-19.

The unvaccinated in America are driving the recent surge in COVID cases. Floriduh reported over 21,000 cases in one day (July 30, 2021) which is the highest case count since the pandemic began. In the same breath, the Governor Ron DeathSantis signed an order making it illegal for schools to require students to wear masks. The state reported 409 deaths this week, bringing the total to more than 39,000. Go get the vaccine. It works. If you  have kids heading too school this fall, insist that they wear masks or keep them home. Don’t listen to DeathSantis who continues to treat masks as a political football rather than a temporary health measure.

Mask Inside

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The CDC has done an about face and recommends that everyone, both unvaccinated and vaccinated should mask up when inside if you live in areas with “substantial or high transmission” of COVID-19. They are recommending this because of  new data on the highly contagious Delta variant.

Florida is now the epicenter of the pandemic in America, so the entire state is high risk. They also said that masks should be required of everyone inside K-12 schools.

The primary reason for this about face is that less than half of the country is vaccinated and many of those people are refusing to get the jab. Another finding is that vaccinated people are becoming infected although their cases are mild, resembling a common cold. However infected vaccinated individuals can carry as high a viral load as an unvaccinated individual and therefor they can spread the virus to others.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings declared a State of Local Emergency for Orange County. He recommends that people should mask up inside. All Orange County employees will have to be vaccinated by August 31, 2021. Orange County broke the record for the all time high of new cases 1,371 on July 27, 2021. The mayor asked that all businesses mandate vaccinations. To date there have been 1,390 deaths in Orange County. Certain health care providers in Orange County have reported that up to 30% of their positive COVID-19 test results have come from vaccinated people. Approximately 95% of patients in the intensive care units of certain health care providers in Orange County are unvaccinated people. CDC has determined that levels of community transmission in Orange County, Florida are “high” which is the highest classification.

Identified Airborne Object

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Identified airborne objects have been recognized by a government agency called the CDC. In early May 2021 the CDC finally recognized that COVID-19 is airborne instead of strictly droplet based.

The droplet based theory meant that 6 feet of physical distancing would prevent the virus from spreading between people. However studies have shown that the virus can linger in the air for up to three hours in tiny particles and spread much further than 6 feet. The risk of transmission is greatest within three to six feet of an infectious source where the concentration of these very fine droplets and particles is greatest.

Once infectious droplets and particles are exhaled, they move outward from the source. The risk for infection decreases with increasing distance from the source and increasing time after exhalation. Two principal processes determine the amount of virus to which a person is exposed in the air or by touching a surface contaminated by virus.

An MIT research paper concluded that the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 indoors can be as great at 60 feet as it is at 6 feet in a room where the air is mixed. Existing safety guidelines have omitted too many factors to accurately quantify the risk of airborne transmission, such as time of indoor exposure, mask use and ventilation rates. The danger of exposure now is mostly for those who have not been vaccinated.

On April 27, 2020 Pentagon officially unclassified three videos taken by US Navy pilots showing “unidentified aerial phenomena,” known as UFOs. It seems very mysterious that they would release these videos shortly after the start of the pandemic. When the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill was signed into law in December, 2020, a  180-day countdown began for US intelligence agencies to tell Congress what they know about UFOs. In June 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other agencies are scheduled to deliver unclassified reports on UFOs to Congress.

Freedom

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The vaccination rate has stalled in America. 41% of Republicans say they do not plan to get a vaccine, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, while 4% of Democrats do not want the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that vaccinated Americans can take their masks off outdoors and indoors. They are over 95% protected from getting infected by the COVID-19 virus and its mutations. The un-vaccinated will not wear masks and they will spread the virus amongst themselves Extending the pandemic and resulting in more deaths.

President Joe Biden warned May 17, 2021 that coronavirus case numbers could rise once again in U.S. states with low Covid-19 vaccination rates. He said it would be a needless “tragedy” to see Covid cases rise among those who do not get vaccinated. Nearly 35 million Americans may refuse the shot. That’s how many Trump voters wouldn’t get the vaccine if the polling turns out to be correct, representing almost 17% of the adult American population. Among Magats, personal freedom is more important that life. The virus doesn’t give a crap about party affiliation. Biden further stated, “Those who are not vaccinated will end up paying the price.”

As of May 17, 2021, more than 154 million American adults, or 59.7% of U.S. adults, have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and roughly 121 million American adults, or 47.1% of U.S. adults, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

A study by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, of COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths from March to December 2020 found that a greater number of people died in states led by Republican governors. The study suggests that the less stringent remediation measures taken by Republican governors have likely led to the deaths. The study offers evidence about the danger of political polarization.

9 Fully Vaccinated Yankees Infected

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Nine NY Yankees fully vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson, have tested positive for Covid-19. One player, shortstop Gleyber Torres tested positive for Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated and having previously contracted the coronavirus during the off season.

Also testing positive were pitching coach Matt Blake, third base coach Phil Nevin, first base coach Reggie Willits and four traveling staff.

All but one of those infected were asymptomatic meaning they could spread the virus not even knowing they had the COVID virus.

“When you read the fine print, they tell you that you still could get the Covid and the vaccination is to protect you from the symptoms, either to eliminate them all together and protect you if not fully protection then the percentages,” New York general manager Brian Cashman said.

“With regard to the Yankees, we obviously need to learn more about that situation,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. “My understanding is that six of the seven reports, six of the seven infections, were indeed asymptomatic infections. And we will look to more data from that report to understand what happened there. All of the real-world data we’ve seen that’s been in the published literature, large studies, in many different settings, have demonstrated that those vaccines are effective, have a high effectiveness against disease.”

The Yankees said the team is undergoing additional testing and contact tracing, with the assistance of the baseball commissioner’s office and its medical experts. The New York State Department of Health is advising the team. “We’ve been rocked here the last several days,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think it’s stopped all of us a little bit in our tracks. We’re dealing with a lot. Our heads are spinning trying to get our hands wrapped around everything.”

So as we rush to return to normal by removing all our masks, you might wonder, are breakthrough cases possible? Well when half of a team can be re-infected, I would venture to say, yes.

Maskless!

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On May 13, 2021, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky informed the fully vaccinated that they can go without masks both outdoors and indoors in many circumstances. State and local officials are having to decide whether to follow suit. This marked a major turning point in America’s COVID Crisis. To date 585,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. That is more casualties than in WWI, WWII and Vietnam combined.

“We are asking people to be honest with themselves,” Walensky said on NBC’s Meet the Press which aired Sunday. “If they are vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are safe. If they are not vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are not safe.”

This decision was based on the current state of the pandemic in the U.S., along with evidence that vaccines are extremely effective in the real world. “That science, in conjunction with all of the epidemiological data that we have, really says now is the moment,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told NPR on May 13, 2021.

The CDC’s recommendation has created some confusion because it does not lift local mask mandates. States, municipalities and businesses can make the choice whether or not to follow it. There is no way to track if people have had the vaccine. Vaccine passports have been adopted in other countries but some Americans thin it would infringe on their freedoms.

“This was not permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. This was really science driven, individual assessment of your risk,” Walensky said May 16, 2021  on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” For now, when you leave home, it makes sense to bring a mask with you in case the place you’re going still has a “mask required” sign on the door.