Slaughter House

Posted on by Thor

Florida is the epicenter of the worst outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. School boards in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties voted on August 18, 2021 to join Broward and Alachua in requiring students to wear facial coverings unless they get a doctor’s note. Orange County still allows an easy parental opt-out, but essentially four of Florida’s five largest districts are now defying Governor Ron DeathSantis’ ban on strict mask mandates.

The state board on August 17, 2021 voted to “investigate” the actions of Alachua and Broward school officials. The board could pursue financial and other penalties against school officials who require face mask mandates to keep children safe, even floating the idea of removing them from office.

Children under the age of 12 who can not yet get vaccinated are quite good at transmitting the virus. The highly contagious delta variant makes it absolutely necessary to wear masks indoors and avoid large group gatherings, so if unprotected students sit for hours in classrooms every day, it could rapidly spread infection in the community at large.

On August 18, 2021, President Joe Biden said his administration is prepared to take possible legal action against governors who try to prevent local school officials from imposing universal mask mandates, throwing yet another wrench into Governir Ron DeathSantis’ plans to sanction Florida school districts that require students to wear masks. “We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children,” Biden said at the news conference. “If a governor wants to cut the pay of a hard-working education leader who requires masks in the classroom, the money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to pay that person’s salary,” Biden said. “One hundred percent.”

“Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — that is, children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said. “Some are even trying to take power away from local educators. They’re setting a dangerous tone.”

 

CDC Lifts Masking for the Vaccinated

Posted on by Thor

Back in January of 2021 before the historic roll out of vaccines in the United States, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings discussed safety measures he was taking to keep constituents safe. He initiated ‘COVID Strike Teams’ which would inspect businesses to see if they were maintaining coronavirus safety measures.

As Orange County approached 52,000 coronavirus cases, 11 bars in one day were found to not have no face masks, no social distancing, no hand sanitizers and no disinfecting. The strike teams had saw 86% compliance in visits to 4,910 businesses. Businesses were instructed on ways they can operate their business more safely and if they remained repeat offenders they were fined.

People who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the director of the CDC announced May 13, 2021. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House Covid-19 briefing. “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”

On May 12, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order, which essentially dissolved Orange County’s Strike Teams of authority. “I find it somewhat hypocritical that the governor provided clemency for fines or violations of local laws but let stand fines imposed by the state of Florida. Frankly, that simply is not right,” Demings said. He has decided to lift mask requirements outdoors but said the county needs to reach a 70 percent vaccination rate before masks can be removed indoors too. The 70 percent vaccination rate is an ambitious goal for the area as inoculations have slowed.

Since late last year, Orange County’s Strike Teams have fined 28 businesses for not following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Under the governor’s new order, none of those businesses will have to pay those fines. “There is nothing unprecedented about local governments trying to provide for and protect its residents during a pandemic,” Demings said. Demings says the Strike Teams have helped boost compliance in businesses to 99% countywide. “We’re going to still send our Strike Teams out and we will still maintain a list of those who are non-compliant,” Demings said.

On May 13, 2021 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order granting pardons to Florida residents and businesses charged with violating local COVID-19 safety protocols. The executive order covers criminal penalties for things like refusing to practice social distancing or adhering to mask mandates. Jerry Demings wife, Val Demings is considering running for the Florida Governors position to unseat the incumbent, Ron DeSantis.

Disneyland Super Vaccination Site

Posted on by Thor

Disneyland in Anaheim, Orange County (O.C.), California is being used as a vaccination super site. Tents have been sett up in one of the iconic theme park parking lots and cars began lining up a 5AM on January 13, 2021. Appointments must be made before hand and many drivers were disappointed to find this out as they waited in line. 10,000 people signed up on the evening of January 12, 2021 for appointments. The website crashing shortly after going live. Across the country people have been having trouble getting signed up for a vaccination.

O.C. firefighters and paramedics  vaccinated 3,000 patients at the super site on the first day. The goal is to be able to do two and a half times that many people next week, if vaccine doses are available. Disneyland will be one of five O.C. vaccine super sites. Dr. Clayton Chau announced that anyone age 65 or older will now be eligible to get vaccinated in O.C. That’s in addition to healthcare workers, emergency responders and residents of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities.

Projected ICU capacity remains below 15% in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California regions which remain under the Regional Stay at Home Order. The following areas remain under the stay at home order…

  • Southern California: Remains under order; four-week ICU capacity projections do not meet criteria to exit order.
  • Bay Area: Remains under order; four-week ICU capacity projections do not meet criteria to exit order.

Due to high rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations impacting the health care system, California is also under a Limited Stay at Home Order.

  • California has 2,900,246 confirmed cases to date. Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed.
  • There were 40,622 newly recorded confirmed cases January 15, 2021.
  • The 7-day positivity rate is 11.4% and the 14-day positivity rate is 12.6%.
  • There have been 37,802,255 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 352,719 during the prior 24-hour reporting period.
  • As case numbers continue to rise in California, the total number of individuals who will have serious outcomes will also increase. There have been 32,960 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
  • As of January 15, 2021 providers have reported administering a total of 1,188,703 vaccine doses statewide. Numbers do not represent true day-to-day change as reporting may be delayed. As of January 15, 2021 a total of 3,144,575 vaccine doses, which includes the first and second dose, have been shipped to local health departments and health care systems that have facilities in multiple counties.

Pre-Pandemic Significant Trees of Orlando

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Before the Pandemic, I was doing a series of sketches of the significant trees of Orlando. The City of Orlando Parks department published a map of 7 locations in Orlando with Significant Trees. These live oak trees line the south side of Lake Eola on Central Avenue. The huge lower branches reach out an some touch the ground before reaching back up to the sky. These huge trees provide plenty of shade for people walking around the park.

It was rush hour while I sketched. Someone wanted to park in the spot next to where I was sitting. He asked it the meters were running after pm and I told him I think the meters are off after 6pm. I can;t be quoted on that however. I tend to park out in the suburbs and walk into downtown when needed for a sketch.

This series of sketches of Orlando trees were the final outdoor sketching project I was working on as the looming pandemic squeezed in on Orlando. As of today April 11, 2020 there were 923 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Orange County and 12 deaths. Central Florida has 2,300 cases. The number of cases in Florida has topped 18,400. I had to stop sketching trees on location when people started coming up to me to see what I was sketching. Adulation is fine, unless it might cause death. The latest projections show Florida may see 1,218 to 10,293 fatalities
by June 21, with the median projection at 3,999 deaths, according to the
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation out of the University of
Washington.The lower numbers of the projection assume everyone honors the stay at home at home order. Publix Supermarket, across the street from these live oak trees I sketched has made all of it’s aisles one way to be sure people shopping can maintain a six foot distance from each other.

Orlando area patients at Orlando Health are starting to get treated for COVID-19 with the blood of patients who have recovered. Convalescent plasma has shown promise as an early treatment for SARS, MERS and EBOLA before a vaccine could be developed.

#Stay Home, #Stay Safe, #Save a Life.

Sunshine State of Mind with Adam Ware.

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Dr. Adam Ware, the Orange County Regional History Center historian and research librarian gave a talk titled “Sunshine State of Mind” as the final installment of the Joseph L. Brechner series of lectures at the Orlando Public Library (100 E. Central Blvd., Orlando, Florida 32801). “The media” often refers to the news or entertainment media. But even an idea can be a medium – an idea, for instance, of a sunny paradise where any plant will grow, any idea will succeed, or any dream can be realized. Through real estate ads, citrus-crate labels, souvenirs, and shuttle launches, the idea of Florida has moved people to travel, to invest, to relax, and to persevere. In this program, Ware discussed the varied ways the Sunshine State operates in American feeling and memory, from “the Italy of America” to “Florida Man.” He discussed the materials that evoke and invent our image of Florida and the pioneers and entrepreneurs who mobilized the concept of Florida to change the course of the state’s history.

This was an insightful and entertaining talk that spanned several hundred years of our perceptions of what Florida is and could be. His talk began with a long dissertation about how media affect our perceptions of a place. As Marshall McLuhan stated, “The medium is the message.” When Adam began digging into Florida’s early history things really got interesting. Early explorers hoped for gold or slaves. For hundreds of years Spanish settlers attempted to set up colonies in Florida. Most of these colonies failed. The few who survived and returned to Europe described Florida as a desolate wasteland, a hell on earth that they never wanted to see again.

The first name for Orange County was Mosquito County. There probably isn’t a worse name ever imagined for a place. Who would ever move to Mosquito County? It took railroad tycoons and developers to finally tame the land. But convincing people to move here was always a word game. Find the right word and you can change peoples’ perceptions.  It wasn’t until the 1970s that Florida became “The Sunshine State.” Dr. Phillips changed the perception of orange juice, making it a staple of any breakfast, and making Florida Orange Juice more desirable than any other juice in the American mind.

There is a Twitter account called Florida Man that just posts news stories that begin with, “Florida man…” My favorite being, “Florida man tosses an alligator through a Wendy’s drive through window.” The man was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, illegal possession of an alligator and petty theft. He is also banned from all Wendy’s and not allowed to come in contact with animals except for the family dog. Another that I just ran across is, “Florida man pissed that AT and T trucks are parked outside his house, shoots out their tires.” I dropped AT and T because of their piss poor costumer service, so this news item didn’t surprise me. Or, “Florida man claims dog shot girlfriend as she slept.” Such strange stories are a daily occurrence, leading to Adam’s favorite tag line and former state slogan, “Florida, you don’t know the half of it.”