Crealdé Fall Session

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The Crealdé School of Art Fall sessions will be session from August 17, 2020 to October 8, 2020. The Crealdé main campus and the Hannibal Square Heritage Center reopened on Saturday, May 16, 2020.

I will be teaching an Urban Sketching Course  in the Fall but likely students will remain on campus for doing location drawings. The sketch above is an example of a quick demo I did for students on campus.

The school is initiating new safety features and health practices which will be in place until further notice.

The Crealdé School Covid-19 Safety Measures.

1. Reducing the maximum number of students in classes to 6 – 8 students depending on classroom size and medium.

2. Re configuring the studio spaces and work tables to allow for 6 feet of social distance. Classroom floors will be clearly marked in a way that student traffic and pathways utilized will not impede or intrude upon the six-foot or more social distancing.

3. Galleries and exhibition spaces will be limited to 10 visitors at a time adhering to the 6 foot social distancing guidelines.

4. On a daily basis, Crealdé and Heritage Center staff are cleaning bathrooms and disinfecting doors, handles and classroom surfaces.

5. The school staff will promote frequent and thorough hand washing by faculty, staff, students and visitors.

6. Any staff, faculty, students or visitors who are coughing, sneezing or in general not feeling well, are asked to please stay at home, and to continue to follow the directions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or a health professional. Anyone demonstrating health issues will be asked to leave.

7. Students are encouraged to use their personal work and art tools and equipment when possible. For youth classes, separate individual “baggies” will be provided for each student’s class supplies.

8. The school is instituting regular/enhanced instructor housekeeping and maintenance/janitorial practices, including routine cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces, equipment, and other elements of the school environment after each class is dismissed.

9. Until further notice, the school strongly encourages the wearing of masks in classrooms and exhibition spaces for students and visitors.  All  instructors will be wearing masks in class.

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.

Pre-Pandemic: Pirate’s Dinner Theater

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Pam’s parents were in Orlando with her niece and nephew. They wanted to see pirates so we headed to International Drive. Before being let in the theater, guest have to wait in a crowded waiting area. A fringe performer had injured himself at one of these shows since he does some of the more daring acrobatics. I can see how that might happen ad pirates swung down on to the stage for upper platforms. I couldn’t see the food that was served. The story line was built around the premise that a princess was kidnapped. It was definitely set up for the kids entertainment.

The World Health Organization announced the Covid-19 Pandemic on March 12, 2020. I was shocked that Pirates stayed open until March 20, 2020. This is definately not the place I would want to eat dinner during a pandemic.

The Pirates website says, “At Pirates Dinner Adventure we care deeply about the health and well-being of our team members and our guests. Like many of you we are closely monitoring the impact of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 and are committed to keeping you and our team safe.

Our shows have temporarily been suspended in Orlando, FL, in accordance with local official advisements.

Covid-19 Refunds

As a standard industry policy due to Covid-19; the reservations that booked a showtime while we are closed from March 20, 2020 – May 31, 2020 we’re offering two (2) options:

  1. Reschedule for a future date to be used within a year
  2. Issue a gift card at the same value of the original booking to be used for tickets at Teatro Martini or Pirates Dinner Adventure Orlando, FL, within a year.

Being that our sales policy is “all sales are final” and “no refunds” we wanted offer options during this difficult time. We have not addressed any reservations beyond May 31, 2020. Should we continue to stay closed we will update this page with the options we will offer.

Please continue to check back here for dinner show information and updates that may take place.”

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.

…

CDC Bound and Gagged

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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.

Miami Cranes

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In a press briefing on April 29, 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about Miami-Dade which has to remain under lock down as he opens up the state… “Before this “Dade Broward and Palm Beach we’re all doing so well… You drive in Miami, you couldn’t move 10′ without seeing a crane somewhere.” He was referring to the building boom in downtown Miami, but with fewer people and cars on the streets, wildlife is finding its way back. An image search on google images shows an amazing array of wildlife reclaiming cities around the world.

Phase one of the Governors plan to re-open Florida includes:

  • Schools must keep distance learning
  • Visits to senior living facilities are prohibited
  • Elective surgeries can resume
  • Restaurants may offer outdoor seating with six feet of space between tables
  • Indoor seating at restaurants must be at 25% capacity
  • No change for bars, gyms and personal services, like hair dressers
  • Vulnerable individuals should avoid close contact with people outside the home
  • Everyone should maximize physical distance from others while in public
  • Avoid socializing in groups of more than 10 people in circumstances that do not “readily allow for physical distancing”
  • Face masks are recommended for those in face-to-face interactions and where you can’t social distance.

The Governor’s reopening plan applies for all Florida counties except Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Governor DeSantis said. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said it could be a while longer before
businesses begin reopening in his county because they will need more
time to prepare for the new guidelines. Central Florida  has seen the most cases of Covid-19.  A curfew remains for all of Orange County from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily.
The mayor said he has no plans to lift that anytime soon. Demings didn’t give an exact date for when businesses would reopen but
said he doesn’t want to rush it and risk seeing a spike in Covid-19
cases.

The mayor said under the
governor’s order restaurants and retail shops can reopen in the county
if they are able to comply with the guidelines, including 6-feet between
customers and maintaining a 25% occupancy. “In the
absence of recommendations from our task force that they can get to me
in a timely manner, those entities will be able to reopen on Monday as
long as they do so in compliance with the governor’s order.” Demings
said. There is a nationwide shortage on personal protective equipment as well
as hand sanitizer, two requirements of the governor’s mandate.

The Guidelines for Reopening Businesses Group is expected to
put out a finalized list of guidelines businesses would have to follow,
both recommendations and mandates. The group, which included major
theme parks and business leaders, met Wednesday morning, turning to
health care officials with both Orlando Health and AdventHealth for
guidance on what those guidelines could look like.

The group is expected to meet again Thursday and Friday to continue developing a plan to safely reopen the county.

At last check, there were more than 33,690 confirmed cases in Florida with 1,268 deaths. There were 1,339 confirmed cases in Orange C0unty with 30 deaths. Florida Medical Examiners Commission chairman Dr. Stephen Nelson said that state officials asked them to withhold Covid-19 death figures. The pause in reporting, has been occurring for nine days. The blackout comes as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis contemplates how Florida will begin to reopen amid the pandemic.

What Do You Have To Lose?

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At the beginning of the pandemic, Trump handed off the Covid-19 response to Vice President Mike Pence because “He didn’t have anything to do.” Pence actually conducted some informative briefings though he continues to ignore science like showing up at the Mayo clinic without a mask. Every visitor at the Mayo clinic must wear a mask. When Trump saw the ratings of Pences briefings, he decided he indeed had time to stand in front of the microphone. The White house Covid-19 briefings became mini rallies and a chance for Trump to play the blame game. His concern didn’t seem to be the health and well being of the nation but his re-election chances.

On April 4, 2020 Trump was pushing an anti malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine as a cure   to Covid-19. From the podium he pushed the rug like a snake oil salesman, saying, “What do you have to lose?” “I may take it. I have to ask my doctors,” he added. The Mayo Clinic
released a warning for healthcare providers last week about the dangers
the drug could pose on some patients, which includes it potentially
causing sudden cardiac death when taken. The European Commission
also announced on Tuesday there was no proof hydroxychloroquine or
chloroquine, which is also used for malaria, could treat Covid-19.

His April 23, 2020 briefing was historic. He made the following  comments after Bill Bryan, the head of the science and
technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed
some research about how COVID-19 reacted to sunlight. This is a transcription of what Trump said… “So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you’re into
that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit
the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very
powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but
you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light
inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some
other way, and I think you said you’re gonna test that too, sounds
interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out
in one minute, and is there a way you can do something like that by
injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the
lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it’d be
interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical
doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we’ll see. But the whole
concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that’s pretty
powerful.”

As Trump made the comments the reaction of Dr. Deborah Birx sat quietly on the sidelines, her face contorted in agony at what he was saying. Any respect for the doctor was lost as she sat silently. To keep her job she could not directly contradict the POTUS. She has had to defend his fantasies in the following days.

Injecting oneself with bleach or some other sort of disinfectant is not only incredibly dangerous and even life-threatening, but it would not be an effective treatment or cure for COVID-19. In the wake of Trump’s press conference, both doctors and manufacturers of cleaning products like Lysol warned people not to ingest or inject disinfectants.

New York City’s Poison Control Center saw a spike in the number of
people ingesting household cleaners after United States President Donald
Trump raised the possibility of using disinfectant inside people’s bodies to fight Covid-19. The non-profit National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the center
registered 30 cases in an 18-hour period ending at 3pm on Friday (April
24), as opposed to only 13 cases for the same time frame a year ago. Nine of the cases were related to exposure to Lysol, 10 were
“specifically about bleach” and 11 were exposures to other household
cleaners, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokesman
Pedro Frisneda told NPR.

9 in 10

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A New York City study has found that 88% of 2,600 patients who had Covid-19 and were put on ventilators died. The study examined outcomes for Covid-19 patients who were admitted between March 1 and April 4 to 12 hospitals in New York City and Long Island that are part of the Northwell Health System. When you have a very bad case of Covid-19 it feels like you are drowning, only you are drowning in the fluid in your own lungs.

Overall, the researchers reported that 553 patients died, or 21%. But
among the 12% of very sick patients that needed ventilators to breathe,
the death rate rose to 88%. The rate was particularly awful for patients
over 65 who were placed on a machine, with just 3% of those patients
surviving, according to the results. Ventilators involve inserting a breathing tube into the windpipe so a
ventilator can pump air into the lungs. The danger of this method of treatment is that it can do possible harm to the lungs.

As a result, some doctors are questioning their use in Covid-19 patients,
and have been trying to find methods for keeping Covid-19 patients
off them when possible. Doctors at the University of Chicago Medicine are seeing “truly
remarkable” results using high-flow nasal cannulas (HFNC) rather than
ventilators and intubation to treat some COVID-19 patients. HFNCs, are non-invasive nasal prongs that sit below the nostrils and
blow large volumes of warm, humidified oxygen into the nose and lungs. Dozens of COVID-19 patients who were in respiratory distress were given HFNCs instead of putting them on ventilators. Only one patient then had to be put on a ventilator. The HFNCs are often combined with prone positioning, a technique where patients lay on their stomachs to aid breathing. This treatment does have risks in that the air being blown into the nostrils can also cause the Covid-19 virus to go air born in the hospital room. Staff have to have the best personal protective equipment to stay safe themselves.

However not all the news is bad. Nurse Taylor Campbell told a heart warming tale of a patient on a ventilator who had been unresponsive, but then squeezed her hand. She had been on the ventilator for 15 days. Taylor had talked to the woman every day. Since the woman was unresponsive she wasn’t sure she was being heard, but the talked calmly to the woman anyway. The worst thing about having the virus is that you have to be separated from friends and family. On this day the woman’s grip was stronger that usual and she would not let go. She was extubated that afternoon and Taylor held her hand the entire time. A few minutes later the woman mouthed the words, “I love you.” Taylor cried into her N95 mask as she held the woman’s hand. A minute later the woman was able to speak the words. Taylor asked if she had heard what she had said to her over the last 15 days, and the woman heard every word.

Yesterday I saw a chart that showed the overall number of new cases in
America starting to level off from it’s meteoric rise. Of course that
does not mean the crisis is over. It might level off for some time
before the numbers start to drop. Then the rate of decline become
important. Before we can return to a new normal, there has to be massive
testing and tracking to be sure work places are safe. They have found
that the air born virus can travel much further than at first though. It
can attach to a tiny pollution particle and re main in the air for 30
minutes. The 6 foot cushion is not enough. That cushion should be more
like 30 feet.

The United States is fast approaching One Million cases at 987,160 with 55,413
deaths. 

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.

WWEssential

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While Legitimate sports franchises are closing stadiums for at least a year, a Florida Man who struggled to put on a single blue medical glove declares the WWE an essential business.

On April 1, 2020 Blue Glove (DeSantis) issued a Stay At Home Order due to the thread of Covid-19 and wrestling was not listed as an essential business.  On April 9, 2020 he issued an amended executive order that says “employees at a professional sports and media production
with a national audience are exempt from a stay-at-home order as long
as the location is closed to the general public.”  On that same day, April 9, The America First Action Committee chaired by the WWE owner Vince McMahon‘s
wife Linda, a former member of Donald Trump’s cabinet,  donated 18.5
million dollars in television ad spending in Orlando and Tampa for
Trumps political campaign. This glut of political ads will appear
between Labor Day and Election day. The McMahon’s are among the Trump’s
top political donors, so it was little wonder that wrestling was
suddenly considered an essential business by Florida Governor Blue
Glove.

At a press conference, Blue Glove tried to justify his decision, saying, “Obviously, WWE, there’s no crowd of anything, so it’s a very small amount of people,”  He went on, “I think people are chomping at the bit. I mean, if you think
about it, we’ve never had a period like this in modern American history
where you’ve had such little new content, particularly in the sporting
realm. I mean, people are watching, we’re watching, like, reruns from
the early 2000s, watching Tom Brady do the Super Bowl then, which is
neat because he’s gonna be in Tampa and I think they have a chance to
win a Super Bowl this year. But I think people, to be able to have some
light at the tunnel, see that things may get back on a better course. I
think from just a psychological perspective I think is a good thing.”

On Monday April 13, 2020 WWE began broadcasting live in the midst of the pandemic.

Two of WWE’s Orlando staff tested positive for Covid-19. In a statement, WWE said, “We believe this matter is
low risk to WWE talent and staff, as the individual and a roommate
became symptomatic in the days following exposure to two people working
in acute health care on the evening of March 26, after WWE’s TV
production on a closed set was already complete.”

Like the staff at the meat packing plants in the Midwest, it seems more important to keep the wrestling live rather than to consider staff health in the face of a pandemic. Taping sessions are at Full Sail University, which is where I used to teach animation. It would be a real travesty if the virus were allowed to spread among the student population.

The 74-year-old billionaire and WWE circus ring leader Vince McMahon seems only concerned with the bottom line when it comes to his organization which is reported to have 500 million in its reserve and stands to make a sizable profit this year. He needed to maintain live programing to get paid in lucrative contracts with USA and Fox networks.

What happens in the ring is scripted and false, but the threat of the virus is very real. McMahon’s concern over staff health has been dicey through the years with deaths of performers due to drugs, murder, suicide, and one in-ring disaster involving a wrestler falling 78 feet during his staged entrance to the ring.

On April 15, 2020 to further pad the bottom line, the organization is firing on air staff even though the taping continues. The reductions include:

  • Reducing executive and board member compensation,
  • Decreasing operating expenses,
  • Cutting talent expenses, third party staffing and consulting,
  • Deferring spending on the build-out of the Company’s new headquarters for at least six months.

“Given the uncertainty of the situation, the Company also identified headcount reductions and made the decision to furlough a portion of its workforce effective immediately,” according to a WWE statement.

Little known fact, I used to art direct a Wrestling Magazine when I was going to school in New York City.  That job helped put me through college. I used to love designing those loud boisterous spreads but seeing how this business is run today, I look back with dread at the idea that I helped promote this circus that does not value human life.

This is a clear and simple case of Quid Quo Pro. “You can have 18.5 million in ads, but I’d like you to do me a favor though.” It is business as usual in Central Florida. Add to this the caveat that Vince McMahon has been appointed to the council that will decide when it is safe to reopen the economy. He hardly seems an expert on what is safe.