bluemoon
Veteran Member
State health director tells Arizona hospitals to 'fully activate' emergency plans. State health director tells Arizona hospitals to 'fully activate' emergency plans
CORONA Main Coronavirus thread
- Thread starter Heliobas Disciple
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Melodi
Disaster Cat
I hate to say this folk, but no matter what the "politics are," no matter how much you hate Dr. Facucii or the next cringe-making statement on protests from the CDC or whomever; we really need to carefully watch what happens over the next three weeks.
We need to watch what happens in the US and in Great Britain and a few other European countries, that's because if ANYTHING was going to respread this hither and yon, it will have been the mass demonstrations and the riots.
If the disease really isn't as bad as expected then probably all will be well if it has mutated and gone less lethal a lot of folks may get sick but recover and be fine (we hope - that's still debatable) but if it there is even one of the more serious strains out there combined with even two or three "super spreaders" then all bets are off.
There are weird aspects of this that seem almost planned, though it is more likely to be just one bad (and often late) reaction after another that makes the potential for a perfect storm.
If things are mostly fine by the end of June, we can probably relax a bit at least until Fall, but if things are "not fine" all heck is likely to break loose.
The disease doesn't care about politics, economics, or anyone's plans for the future; it only cares about infecting new hosts and replicating.
Mass demonstrations and riots are the perfect venue for transmission if it is still out there in a serious form.
We need to watch what happens in the US and in Great Britain and a few other European countries, that's because if ANYTHING was going to respread this hither and yon, it will have been the mass demonstrations and the riots.
If the disease really isn't as bad as expected then probably all will be well if it has mutated and gone less lethal a lot of folks may get sick but recover and be fine (we hope - that's still debatable) but if it there is even one of the more serious strains out there combined with even two or three "super spreaders" then all bets are off.
There are weird aspects of this that seem almost planned, though it is more likely to be just one bad (and often late) reaction after another that makes the potential for a perfect storm.
If things are mostly fine by the end of June, we can probably relax a bit at least until Fall, but if things are "not fine" all heck is likely to break loose.
The disease doesn't care about politics, economics, or anyone's plans for the future; it only cares about infecting new hosts and replicating.
Mass demonstrations and riots are the perfect venue for transmission if it is still out there in a serious form.
naturallysweet
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Been more than 4 weeks. Yesterday I just kept feeling progressively worse. Not just bad, but weird bad. So I took my blood pressure, 131 /54. Very weird. So keep retaking it watching the top number go down to 70. Then after an hour, both numbers moved back up.
I'm alternating between my normal healthy blood pressure, high to dangerous blood pressure, and now too low blood pressure. no use going to a doctor this morning. Because my blood pressure and oxygen are normal right now.
Those of you who only look at the immediate survival to death rate are complete moronic imbeciles.
This thing is an alien. It's our generations polio and I have absolutely no idea what it's doing to my body.
I'm alternating between my normal healthy blood pressure, high to dangerous blood pressure, and now too low blood pressure. no use going to a doctor this morning. Because my blood pressure and oxygen are normal right now.
Those of you who only look at the immediate survival to death rate are complete moronic imbeciles.
This thing is an alien. It's our generations polio and I have absolutely no idea what it's doing to my body.
Zagdid
Veteran Member
D.C. National Guard members test positive for COVID-19 after responding to protests
BY TARA COPP
JUNE 09, 2020 01:18 PM , UPDATED 1 HOUR 9 MINUTES AGO
WASHINGTON
Members of the D.C. National Guard who were responding to protests in the nation’s capital over the death of George Floyd have tested positive for COVID-19, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The service members were part of the 1,300 D.C. National Guard members called up to help law enforcement respond initially to rioting on May 31, that was followed by days of peaceful protests. A Guard spokeswoman did not identify how many positive tests the unit has recorded.
“We can confirm that we have had COVID-19 positive tests with the DCNG,” said D.C. National Guard spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. Brooke Davis. “The safety and security of our personnel is always a concern, especially in light of the COVID-19 era.”
The news follows reports that two members of the Nebraska National Guard who were activated in response to protests in Lincoln, Neb., have also tested positive.
The D.C. National Guard was supported by approximately 3,900 additional Guardsmen from Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah to protect national monuments and ensure peaceful demonstrations as tens of thousands of protesters took to district streets last week.
In the largest protest Saturday, participants squeezed past each other, some with masks, some not, as they chanted and sang near the White House.
Members of two National Guard units from Missouri and Mississippi on Saturday were not wearing masks, and while they tried to maintain social distance, at times it was not possible as the crowds swelled or engaged with them.
Almost all of the National Guard units were expected to leave the city by Wednesday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters on Sunday.
Any Guardsman who has tested positive for the coronavirus, however, will be held back until they are no longer sick or contagious, Davis said.
“All Guardsmen who are suspected to be at high risk of infection or have tested positive for COVID-19 during demobilization will not be released from Title 32 orders until risk of infection or illness has passed,” Davis said.
“Members of the Air and Army National Guard with no, or low risk of exposure, who present symptoms of infection one to 14 days after release from orders will contact their unit,” she said.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
14:21 min
090 - The Disproportionate Impacts of COVID-19 on the Latinx Immigrant Community
•Jun 9, 2020
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Latinx immigrant community has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic for reasons that include housing, employment, transportation, and obstacles to receiving care. George Escobar, chief of programs and services at CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization in Maryland, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about the policies that led to this population being particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, changes needed to ensure future health, and what CASA is doing to help during the pandemic.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
1:59:25 min
Live video, Tuesday 9th June
•Streamed live 5 hours ago
Dr. John Campbell
Ask any questions you like
marsh
On TB every waking moment
War Room Pandemic Ep 220 - The CCP and George Floyd (w/ Bishop Aubrey Shines and Raynard Jackson)
•Streamed live 5 hours ago
Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republi
Raheem Kassam, Jack Maxey, and Greg Manz are joined by Steve Bannon to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the "Defund the Police" movement gains steam. Calling in is Bishop Aubrey Shines and Raynard Jackson to provide their insights on the insanity of this movement. Keep on top of developments:
________________________
59:06 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 221 - Superpower Showdown (w/ Bob Davis and Lingling Wei)
•Streamed live 4 hours ago
Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republic
Raheem Kassam, Jack Maxey, and Greg Manz are joined by Steve Bannon to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the CCP and the mainstream media are working to sow division within the United States. Calling in is Bob Davis and Lingling Wei to discuss their newest book.
I noticed that the Weather Channel is no longer providing COVID-19 numbers for our county or state. (Oregon) Is this nationwide or is OR not providing numbers? Either way, I found it a fast and convenient way of tracking what was going on in our county and state, especially when going out in the community. I wonder if this is related to the protests and the way the virus is progressing/regressing.
It's definitely a scary virus and has to be man-made. I so hope you start to feel better soon.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
LIVE
WATCH LIVE: Labor Secretary Scalia testifies on unemployment insurance amid Covid-19 — 6/9/2020
•Started streaming 35 minutes ago
CNBC Television
The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on unemployment insurance during the coronavirus pandemic. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia testifies at the hearing.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
2:02:01 min
WATCH LIVE: Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearing on response to Covid-19 fraud — 6/9/2020
•Streamed live 5 hours ago
CNBC Television
The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the law enforcement's response to those exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic and committing fraud. Witnesses testifying at the hearing include William Hughes, associate deputy attorney general at Department of Justice, Craig Carpenito, U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Calvin A. Shivers, assistant director at FBI's Criminal Investigative Division and Michael D’Ambrosio, assistant director at United States Secret Service.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
6:13 min
COVID-19 cases spike in at least 20 states l GMA
•Jun 9, 2020
Good Morning America
Doctors in Arizona say they've reached their limit for how they can safely care for patients.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
10:10 min
Inside Brazil’s COVID-19 tragedy | ABCNews PRIME
•Jun 8, 2020
ABC News
James Longman reports from Sao Paulo, Brazil, where government inaction, distrust and societal inequality are helping fuel the spread of the virus.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
5:21 min
Stocks fall sharply after market's recent Covid-19 re-opening plan rally–Here's what three experts s
•Jun 9, 2020
CNBC Television
Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday as investors took some money off the table following a relentless comeback rally that pushed the S&P 500 into positive territory for the year amid a recession.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
LIVE
WATCH LIVE: Polis provides update on Colorado's response to COVID-19
•Started streaming 35 minutes ago
9NEWS
WATCH LIVE: Gov. Polis will provide the latest information on the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic at a Tuesday news conference.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
12:20 min
Aerosols: Key to control the coronavirus spread? | COVID-19 Special
•Jun 9, 2020
DW News (Germany)
Aerosols are tiny particles that can carry the coronavirus. They float on air currents and it can take them hours to settle. The mouth of a coronavirus carrier, be it by coughing, exhaling, speaking or singing sends forth a shower of larger droplets and tiny aerosols. To be able to imagine aerosols, experts say to think of cigarette smoke, spreading around a person like a cloud, the closer the smoker, the denser the cloud. So how can you protect yourself?
marsh
On TB every waking moment
7:55 min
Sorrento Therapeutics CEO: Human trials for Covid-19 drug are 'two to three months away'
•Jun 8, 2020
CNBC Television
Sorrento Therapeutics CEO Henry Ji joined CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday to discuss the company's progress on its efforts to develop a drug for Covid-19.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
LIVE
LIVE: Stocks look to continue rally amid coronavirus response and reopening
•Started streaming 5 hours ago
Yahoo Finance
Stocks look to continue rally amid coronavirus response and reopening.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
20:26 min
Dr. Fauci talks coronavirus vaccine, reopening the country, and more
•Jun 9, 2020
Yahoo Finance
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday he continues to work with the White House coronavirus task force to focus on states reopening— including a meeting Tuesday with Vice President Mike Pence.
The nation’s top infectious disease expert is not yet breathing a sight of relief, but feels the U.S. has improved its response to the outbreak as states relax restrictions on public life — even as some concerns remain about regions seeing a new flare up of COVID-19 cases. “Things that [officials] are concentrating on right now are how do we safely reopen,” he said. How do we get the cities, these towns, these counties to try to get sort some sort of normality to get the economy back. That's most of what's being discussed,” Fauci added.
On the topic of a vaccine, and whether or not one will be ready this year, Fauci said it is likely we will at least know if any work by the end of the year. Yet distribution to the general public is unlikely until next year, despite rising expectations of a more immediate breakthrough. “My prediction would be that we would have more than one candidate that ultimately gets to the point of proven to be safe and effective,”
Fauci told Yahoo Finance. A crowded field of over 100 companies are currently testing candidates, but only a handful have the most promise. However, there are fears that some countries may prioritize their own citizens if a treatment is found — an outcome Fauci downplayed. “So I don't think we're going to have a situation where one country or one organization has a vaccine that they are not going to share with others,” he said.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
2:10 min
WHO Says Asymptomatic Spread Of Coronavirus Is Rare, Contradicting CDC | TODAY
•Jun 9, 2020
TODAY
The World Health Organization has said it is rare for asymptomatic people to spread the coronavirus, a message that contradicts current guidance from the CDC. NBC national correspondent Miguel Almaguer reports for TODAY.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
2:14 min
Texas reports record coronavirus hospitalizations after state reopened early
•Jun 9, 2020
CNBC Television
There are currently 1,935 Covid-19 patients in hospitals across the state, topping the previous hospitalization record of 1,888 patients on May 5, according to new data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas was among the first states to relax its statewide stay-at-home order, allowing it to expire April 30 and some businesses to resume operations May 1.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
48:40 min
WATCH LIVE: New York Gov. Cuomo speaks on coronavirus and George Floyd protests — 6/9/2020
•Streamed live 4 hours ago
CNBC Television
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds his daily press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak, which has infected more than 378,799 people across the state, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Cuomo on Monday urged people excited about the reopening of New York City to remain smart and vigilant in their social distancing practices to guard against a potential spike in the number of positive Covid-19 cases.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
4:11 min
The Pandemic Is Getting Worse | Coronavirus News for June 9, 2020
•Jun 9, 2020
Inside Edition
Although nations like New Zealand have effectively eliminated the coronavirus, the World Health Organization announced that globally, the numbers are trending up. “More than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days,” said the Director General of the WHO. Most of those new cases are in the Americas and in Asia, he added. Meanwhile, New York City began phase one of its return from lockdown, though the city remained relatively quiet.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
2:38 min
Several states seeing rise in coronavirus cases
•Jun 9, 2020
ABC News
Some doctors are questioning the World Health Organization claim that it's “very rare” for asymptomatic people to spread the virus. ABC News' Andre Fujii reports.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
11:21 min
Coronavirus: Hard-hit Brazil removes data amid rising death toll - BBC News
•Jun 9, 2020
BBC News
Brazil has the second highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world, and President Bolsonaro is facing accusations that his government is trying to hide the true numbers. And updates from Spain, the US, Ireland and New Zealand which, having declared itself COVID-free, has lifted almost all of its restrictions. India is also easing restrictions, despite the number of infections continuing to climb.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
55:35 min
Coronavirus in New Jersey: Update on June 9, 2020
•Jun 9, 2020
NJ.com
Gov. Murphy’s daily update on COVID-19 response. What do you want to see done next by the state?
marsh
On TB every waking moment
1:49 min
U.S. Navy test shows 60% of carrier crew have coronavirus antibodies
•Jun 8, 2020
Reuters
A U.S. Navy investigation into the spread of the coronavirus aboard the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier found that about 60 percent of sailors tested had antibodies for the virus, suggesting a far higher infection rate than previously known on one of world's largest warships.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
3:14 min
Rising Crisis Update: WHO BUNGLES critical coronavirus asymptomatic spread information
•Premiered 2 hours ago
The Hill
Krystal and Saagar give an update on coronavirus case numbers, the World Health Organization says asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is 'very rare.'
_____________________
7:19 min
Doctor weighs in on risk of asymptomatic spread of coronavirus
•Jun 9, 2020
CBS News
Health experts are disputing an assertion from the World Health Organization that the spread of COVID-19 by asymptomatic carriers is "very rare." New York pediatrician Dr. Dyan Hes joined CBSN to discuss the concerns and how you can keep your kids safe this summer.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
2:29 min
War and Coronavirus in Yemen: Fears Grow as Virus Spreads While Information is Allegedly Suppressed
•Jun 9, 2020
Bloomberg QuickTake News
Doctors, human rights workers and citizens say Yemen's authorities, particularly in areas controlled by the Houthi rebels, are suppressing information about the coronavirus outbreak, out of fear that their image be tarnished.
Plain Jane
Just Plain Jane
Pennsylvania COVID-19 Numbers
Current number of positive results, age breakdowns, hospitalizations, and more.
www.health.pa.gov
PA has changed its format again and it is much more cumbersome. I can't copy it from my tablet. Sorry.
Zagdid
Veteran Member
Brazil obeys court order to resume providing full virus data
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to resume publication of full COVID-19 data, including the cumulative death toll, following allegations that the government was trying to hide the severity of the pandemic in Latin America’s biggest country.
www.ksat.com
Brazil ministry ordered to resume publishing full virus data
Marcelo Silva De Sousa
Associated Press
Published: June 9, 2020, 1:58 pm
RIO DE JANEIRO – A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to resume publication of full COVID-19 data, including the cumulative death toll, following allegations that the government was trying to hide the severity of the pandemic in Latin America's biggest country.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes said late Monday that the government is obliged to provide necessary information to Brazilian citizens, days after the Health Ministry scrubbed the cumulative death toll from the new coronavirus from its website. De Moraes said in his decision that the gravity of the pandemic, which has killed more than 37,000 Brazilians, requires transparency from the government as the country shapes policies to curb the virus.
Brazil’s health ministry stopped publishing the number of total COVID-19 deaths and confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday. The restriction on the release of data, combined with its announcement after evening news programs had ended, generated widespread criticism. Gilmar Mendes, another Supreme Court justice, said on Saturday that manipulation of data is a tactic of authoritarian regimes and that hiding the numbers wouldn’t exempt the government from responsibility for the pandemic's heavy toll in Brazil.
Facing intense criticism, a top Health Ministry official told reporters Monday night that the ministry would restore the cumulative death toll to its website, but with changes to the methodology for how daily deaths are tallied.
On Tuesday afternoon, Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello told a congressional committee that the ministry will restore complete data on the pandemic to its website within 48 hours, and said the government is committed to transparency.
NWPhotog
Veteran Member
COVID-19 kills 'a Brazilian per minute'
BRASILIA - President Jair Bolsonaro threatened on Friday to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization after the U.N. agency warned Latin American governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the region.
A new Brazilian record for daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed the county's death toll past that of Italy late on Thursday, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks.
Latin America's most populous nations, Brazil and Mexico, are seeing the highest rates of new infections, though the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.
Overall, more than 1.1 million Latin Americans have been infected. While most leaders have taken the pandemic more seriously than Bolsonaro, some politicians that backed strict lockdowns in March and April are pushing to open economies back up as hunger and poverty grow.
In an editorial running the length of newspaper Folha de S.Paulo's front page, the Brazilian daily highlighted that just 100 days had passed since Bolsonaro described the virus now "killing a Brazilian per minute" as "a little flu."
"While you were reading this, another Brazilian died from the coronavirus," the newspaper said.
Brazil's Health Ministry reported late on Thursday that confirmed cases in the country had climbed past 600,000 and 1,437 deaths had been registered within 24 hours, the third consecutive daily record.
Brazil reported another 1,005 deaths Friday night, while Mexico reported 625 additional deaths.
With more than 35,000 lives lost, the pandemic has killed more people in Brazil than anywhere outside of the United States and the United Kingdom.
Asked about efforts to loosen social distancing orders in Brazil despite rising daily death rates and diagnoses, World Health Organization (WHO) spokeswoman Margaret Harris said a key criteria for lifting lockdowns was slowing transmission.
"The epidemic, the outbreak, in Latin America is deeply, deeply concerning," she told a news conference in Geneva. Among six key criteria for easing quarantines, she said, "one of them is ideally having your transmission declining."
In comments to journalists later Friday, Bolsonaro said Brazil will consider leaving the WHO unless it ceases to be a "partisan political organization."
President Donald Trump, an ideological ally of Bolsonaro, said last month that the United States would end its own relationship with the WHO, accusing it of becoming a puppet of China, where the coronavirus first emerged.
Bolsonaro's dismissal of the coronavirus risks to public health and efforts to lift state quarantines have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum in Brazil, where some accuse him of using the crisis to undermine democratic institutions.
But many of those critics are divided about the safety and effectiveness of anti-government demonstrations in the middle of a pandemic, especially after one small protest was met with an overwhelming show of police force last weekend.
Alfonso Vallejos Par? an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said infections are high in Latin America as the virus was slow to gain a foothold in the region.
"It is hard to estimate when the pace of infection will come down," he said.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito; Additional reporting by Gabriela Mello in Sao Paulo, Gram Slattery and Pedro Fonseca in Rio de Janeiro and Adriana Barrera in Mexico City; Editing by Brad Haynes, Rosalba O'Brien and Leslie Adler)
===============================================
BRASILIA - President Jair Bolsonaro threatened on Friday to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization after the U.N. agency warned Latin American governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the region.
A new Brazilian record for daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed the county's death toll past that of Italy late on Thursday, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks.
Latin America's most populous nations, Brazil and Mexico, are seeing the highest rates of new infections, though the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.
Overall, more than 1.1 million Latin Americans have been infected. While most leaders have taken the pandemic more seriously than Bolsonaro, some politicians that backed strict lockdowns in March and April are pushing to open economies back up as hunger and poverty grow.
In an editorial running the length of newspaper Folha de S.Paulo's front page, the Brazilian daily highlighted that just 100 days had passed since Bolsonaro described the virus now "killing a Brazilian per minute" as "a little flu."
"While you were reading this, another Brazilian died from the coronavirus," the newspaper said.
Brazil's Health Ministry reported late on Thursday that confirmed cases in the country had climbed past 600,000 and 1,437 deaths had been registered within 24 hours, the third consecutive daily record.
Brazil reported another 1,005 deaths Friday night, while Mexico reported 625 additional deaths.
With more than 35,000 lives lost, the pandemic has killed more people in Brazil than anywhere outside of the United States and the United Kingdom.
Asked about efforts to loosen social distancing orders in Brazil despite rising daily death rates and diagnoses, World Health Organization (WHO) spokeswoman Margaret Harris said a key criteria for lifting lockdowns was slowing transmission.
"The epidemic, the outbreak, in Latin America is deeply, deeply concerning," she told a news conference in Geneva. Among six key criteria for easing quarantines, she said, "one of them is ideally having your transmission declining."
In comments to journalists later Friday, Bolsonaro said Brazil will consider leaving the WHO unless it ceases to be a "partisan political organization."
President Donald Trump, an ideological ally of Bolsonaro, said last month that the United States would end its own relationship with the WHO, accusing it of becoming a puppet of China, where the coronavirus first emerged.
Bolsonaro's dismissal of the coronavirus risks to public health and efforts to lift state quarantines have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum in Brazil, where some accuse him of using the crisis to undermine democratic institutions.
But many of those critics are divided about the safety and effectiveness of anti-government demonstrations in the middle of a pandemic, especially after one small protest was met with an overwhelming show of police force last weekend.
Alfonso Vallejos Par? an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said infections are high in Latin America as the virus was slow to gain a foothold in the region.
"It is hard to estimate when the pace of infection will come down," he said.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito; Additional reporting by Gabriela Mello in Sao Paulo, Gram Slattery and Pedro Fonseca in Rio de Janeiro and Adriana Barrera in Mexico City; Editing by Brad Haynes, Rosalba O'Brien and Leslie Adler)
COVID-19 kills 'a Brazilian per minute'
www.emergencyemail.org
Zagdid
Veteran Member
Coronavirus: California adds 3,000 more positive tests, cases increasing rapidly
Cases are rising faster than ever in California and many counties are recording spikes.
www.mercurynews.com
Coronavirus: California adds 3,000 more positive tests, cases increasing rapidly
By KERRY CROWLEY | kcrowley@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: June 9, 2020 at 5:44 a.m. | UPDATED: June 9, 2020 at 1:45 p.m.
As counties across California continue to loosen restrictions on stay-at-home orders, the number of coronavirus cases around the state continues to spike.
The seven-day new case average managed to dip slightly Monday even as 3,075 positive tests were recorded. The average over the last seven-day period now stands at 2,694.43 cases, which is up nearly 1,000 from the 1,872.71 seven-day average exactly one month ago.
It’s been 12 days since California topped 100,000 coronavirus cases and the state has added at least 2,000 cases to its count each day since hitting that milestone, bringing the total to 133,896 as of Monday evening. With 24 new deaths reported Monday, the COVID-19 death toll in the state reached 4,656.
Twelve of California’s 58 counties announced at least 50 new cases Monday including Los Angeles County, which added 800 cases to its count and is set to top 65,000 cases Tuesday. Other counties with large increases included Imperial County, where 445 people tested positive, Riverside County, where 429 people tested positive, and San Bernardino County, where 207 people tested positive.
The vast majority of new cases continue to come from Southern California, but cases were also on the rise in Northern California on Monday. The five most populated Bay Area counties each reported at least 30 new cases led by Alameda County, which added 71 cases Monday.
San Mateo County, which is nearing 2,500 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, reported 64 new cases Monday.
The 10-county Bay Area reported two deaths Monday, with one in Santa Clara County, where 145 people have now died due to COVID-19, and one in Contra Costa County, where 40 people have died after contracting COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
More Food Shortages Loom With Outbreaks at 60 U.S Plants
Mike Dorning 6 hrs ago
(Bloomberg) -- A caravan of vehicles decorated with black ribbons and memorial pictures crawled through Yakima, Washington, last week to mark the death of David Cruz, a 60-year-old fruit warehouse employee who died after contracting coronavirus. The county, a hub of agricultural activity where workers jam into often crowded factories to package apples and other foods, has the highest per capita infection rate on the West Coast.
© (David Ryder/Zuma Press/TNS) Demonstrators hold signs during a strike outside of Allan Brothers Fruit in Naches, Wash. on May 18, 2020. Located in Yakima County, the company's fruit packing employees were protesting working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s a grim reality that’s playing out across the country as Covid-19 spreads beyond the meat plants that have captured the national spotlight. At least 60 food-processing facilities outside the meatpacking industry have seen outbreaks, with more than 1,000 workers diagnosed with the virus, according to a new study from Environmental Working Group.
These are the first national numbers of their kind. The advocacy group compiled its figures using local media reports because there are no federal agencies reporting the data. The true total is almost certainly higher. Fruit and vegetable packers, bakers and dairy workers are risking infection as the virus spreads through processing plants where employees deemed essential have mostly remained on the job during the pandemic, sometimes laboring in close quarters.
“At our workplace, we were not ready for this virus. We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t know about it,” said Paula Zambrano, a 61-year-old with diabeteswho works part time as a fruit sorter for Borton & Sons in Yakima. She was so concerned by an outbreak at the plant in April that the she didn’t come in for three weeks, but then she had to return to support herself.
“People are infected and they come to work. They keep quiet about it,” she said. “We live from our work. We are surviving from our wages. If we have children, how will we feed them?”
Borton & Sons didn’t respond to voicemail messages left for John Borton, an owner and director of business operation, and Eric Borton, director of business development.
America’s food suppliers have seen some of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks of any industry outside health care. Dozens of meatpacking workers have died, with thousands falling sick. The virus has also spread among employees at farms, where in all likelihood cases will keep climbing as more than half a million seasonal migrants spread out across the nation as the summer harvesting season ramps up.
In addition to the human tragedy, the outbreaks also expose the vulnerability of America’s food supply. The meat industry was already plunged into crisis with plant shutdowns that sparked grocery-store shortages. Even as that situation eases, more shortfalls of individual food items and ingredients are likely in the months ahead unless the virus’s spread is slowed at food-processing plants, said Kevin Kenny, chief operating officer of Decernis, an expert in global food safety and supply chains.
There are about 1.7 million workers at food and beverage manufacturing facilities, of which roughly 500,000 are at meat processors, according to a 2018 U.S. Census Bureau survey.
Unions, advocacy groups and experts have said that employers haven’t done enough to keep workers safe, with protective gear including face masks and gloves not being widely distributed until infections had already started to spread. Conditions inside plants can be crowded, and fast-moving processing lines may not allow enough space for social distancing. The largely immigrant labor-force also faces tough living conditions, with cramped housing -- sometimes in employer provided bunkhouse-style dormitories that can sleep four to 10 to a room.
“As a general rule, the farther back you go in the supply chain, the more difficult it is to have proper social distancing and protective gear,” Kenny said. “Fruit, vegetable, nut and meat processing is a low-margin business.”
About 35% of food processing and dairy facilities have had at least one confirmed Covid-19 case, according to an International Brotherhood of Teamsters survey in May of union locals representing 79 plants. Roughly 80% of employers weren’t testing for the virus and more than a quarter of the workplaces didn’t allow employees to physically distance themselves 6 feet apart, the survey showed.
The Teamsters union is planning a national “call to action” on Wednesday with demonstrations in almost 30 cities for better protection of food supply-chain workers.
Still, the Teamsters have seen a “marked decline” in reports of outbreaks at union-represented food processing facilities in the past several weeks as employers have established more robust safety procedures, said Rome Aloise, director of the union’s dairy and food processing divisions. Union-represented employers are doing more no-touch temperature testing, strict adherence to safety protocols, including use of protective gear, and placing portable sanitation stations in workspaces, Aloise said.
“Non-union counterparts aren’t doing the same things,” he said.
Zambrano, the fruit worker in Washington, said her employer was initially slow to implement measures but now takes temperatures as employees enter work, provides masks and maintains social distancing.
Read More
Industry trade groups say that employers have invested heavily in measures to protect workers against infection risk while continuing to operate to maintain the nation’s food supply.
But employers have also run into issues because of shifting direction from authorities on proper protective measures. For example, fruit packers were initially told masks were unnecessary and were encouraged to donate inventories for use by health care workers, said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. Employers were then confronted with short supplies of protective equipment when the advice changed, he said.
“We have to stay open to supply essential goods for the American people,” said Geoff Freeman, president of the Consumer Brands Association. Companies have taken many steps to protect workers, including providing protective equipment and by implementing “aggressive” measures to make sure sick employees who stay home are compensated, he said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration included food-processing facilities in jointly issued industry-specific guidance for manufacturing. Freeman said more protocols are needed, including, as one example, direction on what portion of positive cases in a workforce should trigger a plant shutdown.
“Make no mistake: We cannot eliminate the risk. The challenge for us is to mitigate the risk,” Freeman said. “You have different companies approaching this in different ways. The more we have federal clarity, the more we can have consistency.”
Labor advocates are pressing for stronger action to protect workers. Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president for government affairs, called on the Trump administration to impose mandatory safety standards to protect food industry workers, help procure protective equipment and provide federal aid to help retrofit plants to protect workers.
“Food processing workers, who are disproportionately people of color, are taking enormous and largely avoidable risks to keep the rest of us fed, but the Trump Administration has failed to ensure they are safe,” Faber said.
In Washington, workers at the company where Cruz had worked, Allan Bros. Inc., held a strike starting on May 7 to demand better protections. Cruz participated in a demonstration May 8, but was sick by the next day, according to Edgar Franks, political director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, the local union.
After three weeks, a deal was reached between workers and Allan Bros. The company -- located in Naches, just outside of Yakima -- agreed to provide masks to employees and to follow CDC guidance on coronavirus. It also said it would, where possible, require social distancing of at least 6 feet, and where not, it would provide face shields and plexiglass barriers, according to Franks. The company also pledged a temporary $1 an hour raise through June 26, he said.
The strike ended May 28. Cruz died on May 31.
Allan Bros. confirmed it received a request for comment through its outside public relations firm but didn’t immediately respond further.
Cases in Yakima help to illustrate why the figures from Environmental Working Group are almost certainly an undercount.
Columbia Legal Services, a non-profit legal aid program in Washington state, filed a public records law request for confirmed Covid cases by employer from Yakima County health authorities. It showed 470 cases at 23 fruit facilities as of June 2. The Environmental Working Group’s list shows only 31 cases at one facility from the county. At one Yakima facility, 19% of the workforce had a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis, according to the county list.
“Workers at these packing houses started to get sick in large numbers,” said Franks, whose group helped to organize the memorial caravan for Cruz. “It’s always on the minds of people, that it could be one of them or their friends of family. That’s a real concern.”
(Adds analyst quote in 11th paragraph)
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Mike Dorning 6 hrs ago
(Bloomberg) -- A caravan of vehicles decorated with black ribbons and memorial pictures crawled through Yakima, Washington, last week to mark the death of David Cruz, a 60-year-old fruit warehouse employee who died after contracting coronavirus. The county, a hub of agricultural activity where workers jam into often crowded factories to package apples and other foods, has the highest per capita infection rate on the West Coast.
© (David Ryder/Zuma Press/TNS) Demonstrators hold signs during a strike outside of Allan Brothers Fruit in Naches, Wash. on May 18, 2020. Located in Yakima County, the company's fruit packing employees were protesting working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s a grim reality that’s playing out across the country as Covid-19 spreads beyond the meat plants that have captured the national spotlight. At least 60 food-processing facilities outside the meatpacking industry have seen outbreaks, with more than 1,000 workers diagnosed with the virus, according to a new study from Environmental Working Group.
These are the first national numbers of their kind. The advocacy group compiled its figures using local media reports because there are no federal agencies reporting the data. The true total is almost certainly higher. Fruit and vegetable packers, bakers and dairy workers are risking infection as the virus spreads through processing plants where employees deemed essential have mostly remained on the job during the pandemic, sometimes laboring in close quarters.
“At our workplace, we were not ready for this virus. We didn’t talk about it. We didn’t know about it,” said Paula Zambrano, a 61-year-old with diabeteswho works part time as a fruit sorter for Borton & Sons in Yakima. She was so concerned by an outbreak at the plant in April that the she didn’t come in for three weeks, but then she had to return to support herself.
“People are infected and they come to work. They keep quiet about it,” she said. “We live from our work. We are surviving from our wages. If we have children, how will we feed them?”
Borton & Sons didn’t respond to voicemail messages left for John Borton, an owner and director of business operation, and Eric Borton, director of business development.
America’s food suppliers have seen some of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks of any industry outside health care. Dozens of meatpacking workers have died, with thousands falling sick. The virus has also spread among employees at farms, where in all likelihood cases will keep climbing as more than half a million seasonal migrants spread out across the nation as the summer harvesting season ramps up.
In addition to the human tragedy, the outbreaks also expose the vulnerability of America’s food supply. The meat industry was already plunged into crisis with plant shutdowns that sparked grocery-store shortages. Even as that situation eases, more shortfalls of individual food items and ingredients are likely in the months ahead unless the virus’s spread is slowed at food-processing plants, said Kevin Kenny, chief operating officer of Decernis, an expert in global food safety and supply chains.
There are about 1.7 million workers at food and beverage manufacturing facilities, of which roughly 500,000 are at meat processors, according to a 2018 U.S. Census Bureau survey.
Unions, advocacy groups and experts have said that employers haven’t done enough to keep workers safe, with protective gear including face masks and gloves not being widely distributed until infections had already started to spread. Conditions inside plants can be crowded, and fast-moving processing lines may not allow enough space for social distancing. The largely immigrant labor-force also faces tough living conditions, with cramped housing -- sometimes in employer provided bunkhouse-style dormitories that can sleep four to 10 to a room.
“As a general rule, the farther back you go in the supply chain, the more difficult it is to have proper social distancing and protective gear,” Kenny said. “Fruit, vegetable, nut and meat processing is a low-margin business.”
About 35% of food processing and dairy facilities have had at least one confirmed Covid-19 case, according to an International Brotherhood of Teamsters survey in May of union locals representing 79 plants. Roughly 80% of employers weren’t testing for the virus and more than a quarter of the workplaces didn’t allow employees to physically distance themselves 6 feet apart, the survey showed.
The Teamsters union is planning a national “call to action” on Wednesday with demonstrations in almost 30 cities for better protection of food supply-chain workers.
Still, the Teamsters have seen a “marked decline” in reports of outbreaks at union-represented food processing facilities in the past several weeks as employers have established more robust safety procedures, said Rome Aloise, director of the union’s dairy and food processing divisions. Union-represented employers are doing more no-touch temperature testing, strict adherence to safety protocols, including use of protective gear, and placing portable sanitation stations in workspaces, Aloise said.
“Non-union counterparts aren’t doing the same things,” he said.
Zambrano, the fruit worker in Washington, said her employer was initially slow to implement measures but now takes temperatures as employees enter work, provides masks and maintains social distancing.
Read More
But employers have also run into issues because of shifting direction from authorities on proper protective measures. For example, fruit packers were initially told masks were unnecessary and were encouraged to donate inventories for use by health care workers, said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. Employers were then confronted with short supplies of protective equipment when the advice changed, he said.
“We have to stay open to supply essential goods for the American people,” said Geoff Freeman, president of the Consumer Brands Association. Companies have taken many steps to protect workers, including providing protective equipment and by implementing “aggressive” measures to make sure sick employees who stay home are compensated, he said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration included food-processing facilities in jointly issued industry-specific guidance for manufacturing. Freeman said more protocols are needed, including, as one example, direction on what portion of positive cases in a workforce should trigger a plant shutdown.
“Make no mistake: We cannot eliminate the risk. The challenge for us is to mitigate the risk,” Freeman said. “You have different companies approaching this in different ways. The more we have federal clarity, the more we can have consistency.”
Labor advocates are pressing for stronger action to protect workers. Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president for government affairs, called on the Trump administration to impose mandatory safety standards to protect food industry workers, help procure protective equipment and provide federal aid to help retrofit plants to protect workers.
“Food processing workers, who are disproportionately people of color, are taking enormous and largely avoidable risks to keep the rest of us fed, but the Trump Administration has failed to ensure they are safe,” Faber said.
In Washington, workers at the company where Cruz had worked, Allan Bros. Inc., held a strike starting on May 7 to demand better protections. Cruz participated in a demonstration May 8, but was sick by the next day, according to Edgar Franks, political director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, the local union.
After three weeks, a deal was reached between workers and Allan Bros. The company -- located in Naches, just outside of Yakima -- agreed to provide masks to employees and to follow CDC guidance on coronavirus. It also said it would, where possible, require social distancing of at least 6 feet, and where not, it would provide face shields and plexiglass barriers, according to Franks. The company also pledged a temporary $1 an hour raise through June 26, he said.
The strike ended May 28. Cruz died on May 31.
Allan Bros. confirmed it received a request for comment through its outside public relations firm but didn’t immediately respond further.
Cases in Yakima help to illustrate why the figures from Environmental Working Group are almost certainly an undercount.
Columbia Legal Services, a non-profit legal aid program in Washington state, filed a public records law request for confirmed Covid cases by employer from Yakima County health authorities. It showed 470 cases at 23 fruit facilities as of June 2. The Environmental Working Group’s list shows only 31 cases at one facility from the county. At one Yakima facility, 19% of the workforce had a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis, according to the county list.
“Workers at these packing houses started to get sick in large numbers,” said Franks, whose group helped to organize the memorial caravan for Cruz. “It’s always on the minds of people, that it could be one of them or their friends of family. That’s a real concern.”
(Adds analyst quote in 11th paragraph)
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
danielboon
TB Fanatic
Massachusetts Coronavirus: 7,408 deaths, 103,889 total cases Massachusetts Coronavirus: 7,408 deaths, 103,889 total cases 55 new deaths up from yesterday
TammyinWI
Talk is cheap
Ugh...this is actually from Soros' website. These people are sick. Just had this called to my attention today, and I continue to pray against unholy alliances in both the physical and spiritual realms:
The coronavirus crisis shows it's time to abolish the family
What does the pandemic tell us about the nuclear family and private household?
Sophie Lewis
24 March 2020
At the time of writing, humankind has well and truly entered the time of corona.
In the hopes of ‘flattening the curve’ of the pandemic, vast swathes of society have adopted contagion-slowing practices (be they mandatory, voluntary or semi-voluntary, depending on the local legislature) known as ‘social distancing’ and ‘sheltering in place.’
Media platforms are flooded with chronicles of these practices, many of them understandably anxious, shell-shocked and despairing, due to loss of income or fear for the ill-health of loved ones. Yet many of them, on the contrary, humorous, horny, happy to be off work, and full of the comic creativity of the unexpectedly house-bound (genres here include: playing tic-tac-toe with your goldfish; DJ-ing with the hobs on your stove-top; and strap-hanging off your shower-rail on a simulated subway commute).
Certainly, there have been eco-fascist sentiments, and calls for authoritarian state control over the situation, but mutual aid has also proliferated: grocery runs and disinfection supplies for the immunocompromised; childcare and safe injection kits for sex workers and substance users; co-pay waivers; eviction moratoriums; rent strikes; and efforts to secure shelter for the houseless. The latter, in particular, exposes the unspoken and mostly unquestioned crux of the prescribed response to the pandemic: private homes.
Nuclear households, it seems, are where we are all intuitively expected to retreat in order to prevent widespread ill-health. ‘Staying home’ is what is somehow self-evidently supposed to keep us well. But there are several problems with this, as anyone inclined to think about it critically (even for a moment) might figure out – problems one might summarize as the mystification of the couple-form; the romanticisation of kinship; and the sanitization of the fundamentally unsafe space that is private property.
How can a zone defined by the power asymmetries of housework (reproductive labor being so gendered), of renting and mortgage debt, land and deed ownership, of patriarchal parenting and (often) the institution of marriage, benefit health? Such standard homes are where, after all, everyone secretly knows the majority of earthly violence goes down: the W.H.O. calls domestic violence “the most widespread, but among the least reported human rights abuses.”
Queer and feminized people, especially very old and very young ones, are definitionally not safe there: their flourishing in the capitalist home is the exception, not the rule. It follows that, upon closer inspection, both terms – ‘social distancing’ and ‘sheltering in place’ – appear remarkable as much for what they don’t say (that is, what they presume and naturalize) as what they do. Sheltering in what place… and in whose? Distance from whom… or everyone but whom?
But the first and starkest problem with the directive to stay home is simply this: not everybody possesses access to a private dwelling. As the Oakland-based Moms 4 Housing put it: “how do you #ShelterInPlace when you don’t have a place?” It turns out there are at least a couple of different ways: sharing and occupying. In ethical defiance of state directives, relatively immune neighbors in many cities have been voluntarily opening their homes to the exposed and sick, judging the duty of neighborly solidarity with the unhoused more pressing than the imperative to avoid contagion.
Meanwhile, by taking vacant properties without permission, and living in them (“self-quarantine in progress,” reads one mom’s window-sign), Moms 4 Housing is leading the way in beating back gentrification in California and enacting an understanding of comfortable housing as a basic human birthright.
Unfortunately, there are still many other populations whose response to the pandemic could not be ‘stay home,’ even if they wanted it to be, besides the houseless: for instance, people warehoused in prisons, detention centers, refugee camps or factory dormitories, people stuck in overcrowded retirement homes, or those held against their will in medical and/or psychiatric facilities. If COVID-19 is incompatible with these institutions, in the sense that a humane response to the pandemic is impossible in such undemocratic spaces, then it will have demonstrated by the same token that they are incompatible with human dignity.
In L.A., state officials are providing individual trailers and pop-up isolation cabins for the houseless. But a far more logical response might be: open all the hotels and private palaces on the basis of airy and light-filled, sanitary (uncommodified) housing for all. Free all prisoners and detainees now, remake the care facilities as spacious self-led villages, and dismiss all the workers with full pay so they can leave their bunks forever, move in with their friends, and pursue laziness for at least the next decade.
Secondly, among those of us who do have private homes, a huge proportion are not safe there; and being unable to leave only multiplies the threat. A quarantine is, in effect, an abuser’s dream – a situation that hands near-infinite power to those with the upper hand over a home.
Accordingly, early on in China’s epidemic, women’s rights NGOs published guides to surviving coronavirus-specific domestic abuse. Police stations throughout the country reportedly saw a threefold increase in cases of domestic violence; on March 21, 2020, The Guardian quoted the founder of a Chinese women’s not-for-profit as saying: “According to our statistics, 90% of the causes of violence are related to the Covid-19 epidemic.”
And as the virus spreads through America, we would do well to heed this. Already, the CEO of the national domestic violence hotline in the United States has noted: “Perpetrators are threatening to throw their victims out on the street so they get sick… We’ve heard of some withholding financial resources or medical assistance.”
In short, the pandemic is no time to forget about family abolition. In the words of feminist theorist and mother Madeline Lane-McKinley; “Households are capitalism’s pressure cookers. This crisis will see a surge in housework – cleaning, cooking, caretaking, but also child abuse, molestation, intimate partner rape, psychological torture, and more.” Far from a time to acquiesce to ‘family values’ ideology, then, the pandemic is an acutely important time to provision, evacuate and generally empower survivors of – and refugees from – the nuclear household.
And thirdly, even when the private nuclear household poses no direct physical or mental threat to one’s person – no spouse-battering, no child rape, and no queer-bashing – the private family qua mode of social reproduction still, frankly, sucks. It genders, nationalizes and races us. It norms us for productive work. It makes us believe we are ‘individuals.’ It minimizes costs for capital while maximizing human beings’ life-making labor (across billions of tiny boxes, each kitted out – absurdly – with its own kitchen, micro-crèche and laundry). It blackmails us into mistaking the only sources of love and care we have for the extent of what is possible.
We deserve better than the family. And the time of corona is an excellent time to practice abolishing it. In the always lucent words of Anne Boyer: “We must learn to do good for the good of the stranger now. We now have to live as daily evidence that we believe there is value in the lives of the cancer patient, the elderly person, the disabled one, the ones in unthinkable living conditions, crowded and at risk.”
We do not know yet if we will be able to wrench something better than capitalism from the wreckage of this Plague and the coming Depression. I would only posit with some certainty that, in 2020, the dialectic of families against the family, of real homes against the home, shall intensify.
www.opendemocracy.net
The coronavirus crisis shows it's time to abolish the family
What does the pandemic tell us about the nuclear family and private household?
Sophie Lewis
24 March 2020
At the time of writing, humankind has well and truly entered the time of corona.
In the hopes of ‘flattening the curve’ of the pandemic, vast swathes of society have adopted contagion-slowing practices (be they mandatory, voluntary or semi-voluntary, depending on the local legislature) known as ‘social distancing’ and ‘sheltering in place.’
Media platforms are flooded with chronicles of these practices, many of them understandably anxious, shell-shocked and despairing, due to loss of income or fear for the ill-health of loved ones. Yet many of them, on the contrary, humorous, horny, happy to be off work, and full of the comic creativity of the unexpectedly house-bound (genres here include: playing tic-tac-toe with your goldfish; DJ-ing with the hobs on your stove-top; and strap-hanging off your shower-rail on a simulated subway commute).
Certainly, there have been eco-fascist sentiments, and calls for authoritarian state control over the situation, but mutual aid has also proliferated: grocery runs and disinfection supplies for the immunocompromised; childcare and safe injection kits for sex workers and substance users; co-pay waivers; eviction moratoriums; rent strikes; and efforts to secure shelter for the houseless. The latter, in particular, exposes the unspoken and mostly unquestioned crux of the prescribed response to the pandemic: private homes.
Nuclear households, it seems, are where we are all intuitively expected to retreat in order to prevent widespread ill-health. ‘Staying home’ is what is somehow self-evidently supposed to keep us well. But there are several problems with this, as anyone inclined to think about it critically (even for a moment) might figure out – problems one might summarize as the mystification of the couple-form; the romanticisation of kinship; and the sanitization of the fundamentally unsafe space that is private property.
How can a zone defined by the power asymmetries of housework (reproductive labor being so gendered), of renting and mortgage debt, land and deed ownership, of patriarchal parenting and (often) the institution of marriage, benefit health? Such standard homes are where, after all, everyone secretly knows the majority of earthly violence goes down: the W.H.O. calls domestic violence “the most widespread, but among the least reported human rights abuses.”
Queer and feminized people, especially very old and very young ones, are definitionally not safe there: their flourishing in the capitalist home is the exception, not the rule. It follows that, upon closer inspection, both terms – ‘social distancing’ and ‘sheltering in place’ – appear remarkable as much for what they don’t say (that is, what they presume and naturalize) as what they do. Sheltering in what place… and in whose? Distance from whom… or everyone but whom?
But the first and starkest problem with the directive to stay home is simply this: not everybody possesses access to a private dwelling. As the Oakland-based Moms 4 Housing put it: “how do you #ShelterInPlace when you don’t have a place?” It turns out there are at least a couple of different ways: sharing and occupying. In ethical defiance of state directives, relatively immune neighbors in many cities have been voluntarily opening their homes to the exposed and sick, judging the duty of neighborly solidarity with the unhoused more pressing than the imperative to avoid contagion.
Meanwhile, by taking vacant properties without permission, and living in them (“self-quarantine in progress,” reads one mom’s window-sign), Moms 4 Housing is leading the way in beating back gentrification in California and enacting an understanding of comfortable housing as a basic human birthright.
Unfortunately, there are still many other populations whose response to the pandemic could not be ‘stay home,’ even if they wanted it to be, besides the houseless: for instance, people warehoused in prisons, detention centers, refugee camps or factory dormitories, people stuck in overcrowded retirement homes, or those held against their will in medical and/or psychiatric facilities. If COVID-19 is incompatible with these institutions, in the sense that a humane response to the pandemic is impossible in such undemocratic spaces, then it will have demonstrated by the same token that they are incompatible with human dignity.
In L.A., state officials are providing individual trailers and pop-up isolation cabins for the houseless. But a far more logical response might be: open all the hotels and private palaces on the basis of airy and light-filled, sanitary (uncommodified) housing for all. Free all prisoners and detainees now, remake the care facilities as spacious self-led villages, and dismiss all the workers with full pay so they can leave their bunks forever, move in with their friends, and pursue laziness for at least the next decade.
Secondly, among those of us who do have private homes, a huge proportion are not safe there; and being unable to leave only multiplies the threat. A quarantine is, in effect, an abuser’s dream – a situation that hands near-infinite power to those with the upper hand over a home.
Accordingly, early on in China’s epidemic, women’s rights NGOs published guides to surviving coronavirus-specific domestic abuse. Police stations throughout the country reportedly saw a threefold increase in cases of domestic violence; on March 21, 2020, The Guardian quoted the founder of a Chinese women’s not-for-profit as saying: “According to our statistics, 90% of the causes of violence are related to the Covid-19 epidemic.”
And as the virus spreads through America, we would do well to heed this. Already, the CEO of the national domestic violence hotline in the United States has noted: “Perpetrators are threatening to throw their victims out on the street so they get sick… We’ve heard of some withholding financial resources or medical assistance.”
In short, the pandemic is no time to forget about family abolition. In the words of feminist theorist and mother Madeline Lane-McKinley; “Households are capitalism’s pressure cookers. This crisis will see a surge in housework – cleaning, cooking, caretaking, but also child abuse, molestation, intimate partner rape, psychological torture, and more.” Far from a time to acquiesce to ‘family values’ ideology, then, the pandemic is an acutely important time to provision, evacuate and generally empower survivors of – and refugees from – the nuclear household.
And thirdly, even when the private nuclear household poses no direct physical or mental threat to one’s person – no spouse-battering, no child rape, and no queer-bashing – the private family qua mode of social reproduction still, frankly, sucks. It genders, nationalizes and races us. It norms us for productive work. It makes us believe we are ‘individuals.’ It minimizes costs for capital while maximizing human beings’ life-making labor (across billions of tiny boxes, each kitted out – absurdly – with its own kitchen, micro-crèche and laundry). It blackmails us into mistaking the only sources of love and care we have for the extent of what is possible.
We deserve better than the family. And the time of corona is an excellent time to practice abolishing it. In the always lucent words of Anne Boyer: “We must learn to do good for the good of the stranger now. We now have to live as daily evidence that we believe there is value in the lives of the cancer patient, the elderly person, the disabled one, the ones in unthinkable living conditions, crowded and at risk.”
We do not know yet if we will be able to wrench something better than capitalism from the wreckage of this Plague and the coming Depression. I would only posit with some certainty that, in 2020, the dialectic of families against the family, of real homes against the home, shall intensify.
The coronavirus crisis shows it's time to abolish the family
What does the pandemic tell us about the nuclear family and private household?
www.opendemocracy.net
Last edited:
jward
passin' thru
Mike Walker
@New_Narrative
5m
Protesters sue Seattle over "unnecessary violence" in police response to Black Lives Matter demonstrations
View: https://twitter.com/New_Narrative/status/1270520475714818049?s=20
Story found below in it's entirety:
U.S.
Protesters Sue Seattle Over 'Unnecessary Violence' In Police Response to Black Lives Matter Demonstrations
By Daniel Villarreal On 6/9/20 at 8:06 PM EDT
Celebrities Standing With Black Lives Matter Protesters
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U.S. Seattle Police violence Lawsuits Protests
A lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday alleges that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) used "unnecessary violence" to suppress the constitutional rights of racial justice and Black Lives Matters protesters against anti-black police violence.
The lawsuit—filed against the city of Seattle on behalf of Black Lives Matter activists, four protesters, a would-be protester and a journalist with the local weekly newspaper, The Stranger—says the city's police forces violated citizens' First Amendment rights to free speech and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, according to The Seattle Times.
The plaintiffs also claim that use of police force has escalated even as the protests have become more peaceful.
"On an almost nightly basis, the SPD has indiscriminately used excessive force against protesters, legal observers, journalists, and medical personnel... has repeatedly sprayed crowds of protesters with tear gas and other chemical irritants," the lawsuit states.
One of the plaintiffs is Sharon Sakamoto, a retired woman who was deterred from protesting over concerns that tear gas and other police crowd-control weapons might harm her health.
Tear gas is a chemical weapon banned in war zones—except to protect supply convoys, control prisoners of war and on personnel rescue missions—by the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the United Nations' Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC) which went into effect in 1997. However, the CWC says tear gas "may be used for certain law enforcement purposes including riot control."
Purvi Parikh, an allergy and immunology doctor at NYU Langone Health, told ProPublica that tear gas can trigger asthma attacks and damage breathing tissue that leaves one more susceptible to infections.
On June 3, Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant wrote on Twitter about her plan to introduce legislation banning police use and purchase of chemical weapons including tear gas, mace, pepper spray, rubber bullets and bean bags, water cannons, sonic and ultrasonic weapons.
On June 5, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best both promised a 30-day ban on use of tear gas by police. However, multiple news outlets claimed that city police used tear gas on protesters barely three days after Durkan and Best's pledge.
Police claimed that it retaliated after people amongst the crowd launched bottles, rocks, fireworks, and other items at officers.
Read more
- Tucson's New Law About Recording Police Faces Backlash Over Vague Wording
- Republican Senators Break With Trump to Push for Police Reform
- New York State Legislature Passes Bill to Reform Police Privacy Law
Neither the mayor nor police have commented publicly about the lawsuit. Newsweek reached out to Durkan's office for comment. This story will be updated with any response.
"Use of force must be rare, it must be necessary, and it must be proportional.... De-escalation is critical in every interaction officers have – from individual actions to crowd management." Durkan said on Tuesday.
"I know that safety was shattered for many by images, sounds and gas more fitting of a war zone: I am sorry," she continued. To all those who came peacefully and had their constitutional right to protest impacted: I am sorry."
Seattle Sued for 'Unnecessary' Police Violence in Racial Justice Protests
In particular, the lawsuit takes issue over the use of tear gas, a chemical agent that has been banned in most war zones.www.newsweek.com
jward
passin' thru
Maskless protester tests positive for coronavirus after large rally, KS officials say | The Kansas City Star By Dawson White
June 08, 2020 09:58 AM
Current Time 0:03
Duration 3:34
Thousands took to the streets to protest the death of unarmed black man George Floyd and other police killings of black people. Here are some scenes across the U.S. By Stephanie Bunao
A man who attended a large protest in Kansas without wearing a mask tested positive for coronavirus a few days later, health officials said.
The man attended the protest in downtown Lawrence on May 31, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health said in a news release. He was tested for coronavirus on June 4 and health officials received the positive result on June 5, according to the release.
As part of the contact tracing process, the man told officials he had not worn a mask at the protest, the release said.
Officials are asking those who attended the demonstration to keep close watch on their health.
“Similar to what we would ask anyone who goes out in public right now, we are asking anyone who attended the recent protest to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and isolate if they become sick as well as call their healthcare provider for next steps,” Informatics Director Sonia Jordan said in the release.
The coronavirus is believed to spread person-to-person when someone breathes in the respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms can appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus, according to the agency, and include fever, cough, chills, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and loss of taste or smell, among others.
In an interview with radio station WTOP, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was concerned about the large gatherings of people, adding that there is “certainly a risk” for coronavirus transmission.
“It’s a perfect setup for further spread of the virus in the sense of creating these blips which might turn into some surges,” Fauci told the station. “It’s a delicate balance, because the reasons for demonstrating are valid, and yet, the demonstration itself puts one at an additional risk.”
Health officials have also said tear gas may cause coronavirus to spread more easily since the chemical agents cause burning of the eyes, runny nose, drooling, coughing and vomiting resulting in increased emission of respiratory droplets, McClatchy News reported.
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