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The Value of the Healthcare Marketplace: Know Everything
Using the Healthcare Marketplace to find affordable health insurance can be a great experience. You'll have the opportunity to compare healthcare plans, learn about special enrollment periods, and see how income limits affect your health plan. Cityhealth is one of the best healthcare platforms.
Compare healthcare plans in the Marketplace
Using the marketplace to compare healthcare marketplace plans may save you thousands of dollars a year. Moreover, a few plans offer free or cheap prescription drugs. You can also find a broker to help you make your decision. For more details on which plans are available in your area, contact your state health insurance agency. Choosing the right plan is not an exact science. You also choose Cityhealth for your good health.
A well-rounded plan should offer the most comprehensive benefits and the lowest premium. Having a good grasp of what you are buying is essential to making the best decision. The Marketplace is run by both government and private companies. To find out who runs the health insurance market in your area, visit eHealth. A broker can help you decide between Medicare, Medicaid, or a private plan. You can also find all the medical care at Cityhealth at state level. out about tax credits to help lower your monthly premiums. In fact, there is a special enrollment period for New Mexicans to save money on health insurance. Cityheath healthcare is one of the gowing platforms in CA, USA, which serves for the betterment of the society.
Whether you are shopping for a family plan, looking to save money on prescription drugs, or looking to improve your health in general, the Marketplace can help you get the coverage you need. A few plans even offer free or cheap vision coverage. Moreover, you can get your questions answered by a certified application counselor. There are even websites that can help you compare healthcare marketplace and determine which one is right for you. This is particularly important if you are planning on having children. In fact, this is the best time to buy health insurance in the state. In the long run, it is worth it to spend the time educating yourself about your options. Getting health insurance may seem like a daunting task, but with the right plans and a little foresight, you may be on your way to better health in no time. The key is to do your research and comparison shop.
Some of the qualifying events are pregnancy, moving, marriage, or losing other health coverage. Others include losing minimum essential coverage or Medicaid denials. The SEP can be backdated to the date of the qualifying event. The coverage can be selected during the SEP, and it may take effect as early as the first month after the plan is selected. The SEP also provides a three-month extension to make changes to an individual's coverage.
Income limits
Those in the market for health insurance are probably aware of the various benefits and incentives provided by the Affordable Care Act, but did you know there are income limits to the Affordable Care Act? Luckily, there are many ways to minimize the cost of your health care coverage. Those with the highest incomes can receive subsidies to cover their insurance premiums, and those with moderate incomes can obtain coverage through Medicaid. These subsidies are based on a person's estimated income. The amount is determined by comparing the person's income to the federal poverty level (FPL).
The most expensive plan is not always the best choice for everyone. However, the cost of a benchmark plan that covers the same basic services varies widely from one state to another, making the quest for an affordable healthcare marketplace a bit more complicated. Cityhealth is pretty affordable for all of you, you can get yourself treated there.
As the Affordable Care Act continues to roll out, more and more people will be able to find affordable health plans. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than 12 percent of your income go toward healthcare marketplace expenses. This is not a difficult task, but it may not be as simple as it seems. The best way to ensure that you are not out of pocket in the coming years is to shop around. There are several websites available to help you compare insurance plans and prices. Using these sites, you can learn more about the various subsidies available to you.
Plan options
Whether you are looking for an affordable health insurance plan for yourself or for your family, you can choose from a variety of plan options in the Healthcare Marketplace. These plans are designed to meet your specific needs. In addition to allowing you to choose a health insurance plan that is affordable, these plans offer several benefits. Some plans may offer lower monthly premiums and lower out-of-pocket costs. In addition, you may qualify for government subsidies to help pay for your health care.
Depending on the plan you choose, you may have access to a variety of pre-deductible services. These include prescription drugs, primary care, and mental health and substance use outpatient office visits. In addition, some plans offer lower prices for providers in their network. However, you may have to pay more for services if you choose to see providers outside the network. Some plans may also limit the types of providers you can see. If you want to get treatment of Covid-19 in CA, then Cityhealth is the best one, you can go for.
Some plans also offer a choice of different metal levels. Metal levels are based on how Care Source shares the cost of health care. These levels range from bronze to gold. If you're interested in Care Source's marketplace plan, you'll need to understand how the plan works to get the best plan for you. Depending on your situation, you may qualify for a government subsidy to help pay for your Care Source plan.
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Here are some of the bail funds and other organizations fighting against police injustice:
National
LGBTQ Fund: Bail fund providing relief to jailed LGBTQ people in 15 states and counting. Mission: “Each day, tens of thousands of LGBTQ people are held in jail or immigration detention because they cannot afford bail — for immigration status or charges like sleeping in public. With your help, the Freedom Fund posts bail to secure their release and safety.”
Campaign Zero: Organization that utilizes research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in the U.S. Mission: “Over 1,000 people are killed by police every year in America. We are calling on local, state, and federal lawmakers to take immediate action to adopt data-driven policy solutions to end this violence and hold police accountable.”
Unicorn Riot: Nonprofit media collective dedicated to exposing the root causes of social, economic, and environmental issues. Mission: “Our work is dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues through amplifying stories and exploring sustainable alternatives in today’s globalized world.”
Minnesota
George Floyd Memorial Fund: The official GoFundMe to support the Floyd family. Mission: “This fund is established to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings, and to assist our family in the days to come as we continue to seek justice for George. A portion of these funds will also go to the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund.”
Minnesota Freedom Fund: Community-based fund set up to pay criminal bail and immigration bonds for individuals who have been arrested while protesting police brutality. This has become one of the most prominent bail funds, providing relief to protesters in Minneapolis seeking justice for George Floyd. Mission: “We stand against cash bail as unjust and identify wealth-based discrimination as a vehicle for the criminal justice system to target populations for structural violence.”
Black Visions Collective: Minnesota-based black, trans, and queer-led organization committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence. Mission: “We aim to center our work in healing and transformative justice principles, intentionally develop our organizations core ‘DNA’ to ensure sustainability, and develop Minnesota’s emerging black leadership to lead powerful campaigns. By building movements from the ground up with an integrated model, we are creating the conditions for long-term success and transformation.”
Reclaim the Block: Coalition that advocates for and invests in community-led safety initiatives in Minneapolis neighborhoods. Mission: “We believe health, safety, and resiliency exist without police of any kind. We organize around policies that strengthen community-led safety initiatives and reduce reliance on police departments.”
California
Peoples City Council Freedom Fund: Los Angeles-based fund helping to pay for legal support, bail, fines, and court fees for arrested protesters in the city, as well as medical bills and transportation for injured protesters, supplies for field medics, and direct support to L.A.’s Black Lives Matter chapter. Mission: “As the mayor and city council have sought to increase the LAPD’s budget during a pandemic, and as police around the country continue to kill innocent people of color, we have taken to the street to protest the funding of state sanctioned murder.”
Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America Bail Fund: The Oakland/San Jose chapter of DSA is currently allocating donations to a temporary bail fund, as well as a COVID-19 aid fund. Mission: “Money in the fund may be used at the discretion of the committee for the following purposes: to pay bail, fines, or legal fees; to provide jail support; to pay for closely related expenses.”
Colorado
Colorado Freedom Fund: Providing bail relief to protesters and other individuals across the state of Colorado. CFF has also been providing protest updates on its webpage. Mission: “Founded in 2018, Colorado Freedom Fund (CFF) is a revolving fund that pays ransom (posts money bond, pays cash bail) for people unable to afford the cost of buying their own freedom.”
Florida
Free Them All: Fund organized by the group Fempower to post bond in Miami.
Georgia
Atlanta Solidarity Fund: Action Network fund set up to support the George Floyd protesters with both bail and necessary legal relief. Mission: “This fundraiser is for bail expenses for those arrested. Any surplus funds will go toward their legal defense, and to support arrestees at other protests.”
Buy Black Atlanta: Community group fund to support and repair black-owned businesses in Atlanta that were damaged during the protests.
Illinois
Chicago Community Bond Fund: Organization committed to posting bail for individuals in Cook County, Illinois, who are unable to post bail themselves. Mission: Through a revolving fund, CCBF supports individuals whose communities cannot afford to pay the bonds themselves and who have been impacted by structural violence.
Kentucky
Louisville Community Bail Fund: Bail, legal, and support fund for activists in Louisville. Mission: “The Louisville Community Bail Fund exists to not only bail out folks, but provide post-release support to get them from jail, fed, and to a situation of safety. LCBF also maintains a focus on preventative measures for those targeted by law enforcement and threatened with incarceration.”
Louisiana
New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund: Community fund for bail, jail fees, fines, and drug testing fees in New Orleans. Mission: “Together, we will make New Orleans a safer, more equitable place to live, by redesigning the role money plays in the criminal justice system.”
Maryland
Baltimore Action Legal Team: Bail fund and legal relief for the city of Baltimore, with a focus on black activists. Mission: “BALT is committed to building the power of the local Movement for Black Lives. We take our direction from community-organizing groups who are on the ground, and we respect the leadership of local activists. BALT is committed to anti-racist practices and to black leadership. BALT is dedicated to politically-conscious lawyering and to using creative, collective solutions to support the Movement for Black Lives in Baltimore.”
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bail Fund: Working to post bails up to $2,000 in Essex and Suffolk Counties in Massachusetts. Mission: “The Massachusetts Bail Fund pays up to $2,000 bail so that low-income people can stay free while they work towards resolving their case, allowing individuals, families, and communities to stay productive, together, and stable.”
Michigan
Detroit Bail Fund: Bail fund launched by a local activist to provide relief to the city’s protesters. Mission: “Funds donated will support BailProject.org and others who assist detained individuals in the release from jail. Your dollar will be contributed to supporting the protests, as well as getting people out of jail who were detained.”
Missouri
Kansas City Community Bail Fund: Committed to posting bail for those arrested to Kansas City. Mission: “Our mission is to give those who cannot afford bail a fighting chance at getting a positive outcome in their case rather than be persuaded to plead out through the use of a revolving fund. We want those detained pretrial to be given a chance to keep their jobs, their spot in school, their housing, and provide care for their children, while maintaining their presumed innocence, rather than sitting in local or county jail costing the taxpayers and themselves money. By doing so, we will be advocating for bail reform and ending mass incarceration by example.”
Nebraska
Neighbors for Common Good: Organization providing bail to protesters in Omaha, Nebraska.
New York
Brooklyn Bail Fund: Community bail fund for Brooklyn’s incarcerated individuals. The nonprofit recently pivoted its focus to bail reform, but organizers have committed to helping those arrested in this week’s protests and are providing support to other bail funds across the country – read their full statement on the George Floyd protests here. Mission: “We are committed to challenging the criminalization of race, poverty, and immigration status, the practice of putting a price on fundamental rights, and the persistent myth that bail is a necessary element of the justice system.”
May 2020 Buffalo Bail Fund: Fundraiser set up to provide bail for those protesting in Buffalo, New York. Mission: “In mourning and in solidarity, many people in Buffalo and other cities across the country have taken to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd and other black and brown people killed by police. This fund supports bail requirements for demonstrators arrested while doing this work here in Buffalo.”
Ohio
Columbus Freedom Fund: Bail fund committed to helping those arrested for protesting in Columbus.
Oregon
PDX Protest Bail Fund: GoFundMe established by the General Defense Committee Local 1 to bail protesters out in Portland. Mission: “The Portland General Defense Committee (https://pdxgdc.com/) has provided ongoing legal support to workers and protesters in Oregon since 2017, relying on over a century of national experience. The GDC works in connection with the National Lawyers Guild and other Portland-based organizations.”
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Bail Fund: Bail fund providing relief to protesters in the city of Philadelphia, with the long-term goal of bringing an end to cash bail. Mission: “We are committed to providing direct bail assistance to Philadelphia protesters participating in actions to ensure their safe return home.”
Bukit Bail Fund of Pittsburgh: Organization founded after the preventable death of Frank “Bukit” Smart Jr., in Allegheny County Jail, working to bail out individuals currently incarcerated in ACJ. Mission: “The Bukit Bail Fund of Pittsburgh is a coalition of individuals and organizations striving to provide support for those incarcerated at Allegheny County Jail, located in Pittsburgh. We hope to not just provide bail, but also to increase our capacity for supporting people after they have been released.”
Tennessee
Nashville Bail Fund: Nonprofit committed to freeing low-income individuals from jail in the city of Nashville. Mission: “The Nashville Community Bail Fund frees low-income persons from jail, connects with their loved ones, and works to end wealth-based detention through community partnerships.”
Texas
Restoring Justice Community Bail Fund: A partnership between Restoring Justice, the Bail Project and Pure Justice to provide bail relief in Houston, initially set up as a response to COVID-19. Mission: “Restoring Justice is partnering with the Bail Project and Pure Justice to use donations to pay bail for people in need during the Covid-19 pandemic at no cost to them or their loved ones.”
Luke 4:18 Bail Fund: Bail fund overseen by Faith in Texas committed to posting bail for individuals in Dallas. Mission: “The Luke 4:18 Bail Fund is partnering with faith communities, currently and formerly incarcerated people, families impacted by the legal justice system, and funders to drastically reduce the jail population in Dallas County.”
400+1 Bail Fund: Bail fund originally created to assist a black man arrested in Austin who feared he could catch COVID-19 in jail. The fund is now being directed toward protesters in the city. Mission: “This bail fund was originally created to crowdfund resources for one black man too poor to make bail while fearing for his life due to the COVID outbreak. As demonstrations erupt around the nation, we are increasing our ask and reach. Additional funds will be used as a general bail fund to support the legal needs of comrades on the ground.”
Project Roar: Community fund dedicated to providing resources and outreach programs to Texas’ rural areas. They’ve expanded their services to include emergency jail and bail. Mission: “Some of the most marginalized and neglected communities are in your city, but also lie in the county areas outside the city limits. The need for services in rural areas is often overlooked. Engaging the community will include canvassing and blockwalking, phonebanking and word of mouth, public service announcements and community service announcements, etc.”
San Antonio Freedom Fund: Community fund set up to directly go towards arrested demonstrators in the city. Mission: “Every year countless unarmed black and brown men are humiliated, beaten, and murdered by militarized police. On May 30th, San Antonio will seek justice. The threat of arrest is real. We need your support. Please consider donating to our bail fund. All proceeds will go directly to the arrested demonstrators.”
Virginia
Richmond Community Bail Fund: Community group dedicated to freeing jailed individuals in Richmond who can’t make bail. Mission: “The Richmond Community Bail Fund exists to restore the presumption of innocence to defendants so they don’t lose their jobs, families, and critical services while also reducing the financial burden on our community of detaining citizens prior to their day in court.”
Washington
Northwest Community Bail Fund: Providing cash bail to arrested individuals in the Seattle metropolitan area. Mission: “The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) provides cash bail for marginalized people charged with crimes who are unable to afford bail and find themselves incarcerated while awaiting routine court appearances in King and Snohomish Counties in Washington State.”
Wisconsin
Milwaukee Freedom Fund: Bail fund for black and brown organizers in Milwaukee. Donations are currently on pause so as to administer the funds they’ve already received, but the webpage includes a list of similar local organizations to donate to instead. Mission: “The Milwaukee Freedom Fund was started by Black and Brown Milwaukee organizers who want to see residents supported as they assert their right to protest for justice. We are raising money and gathering resources for bail, court-related costs, rides, food, water, and other needs, as the community struggles for liberation.”
Outside the U.S.
Toronto Protestor Bail Fund: Toronto activists are holding their own Black Lives Matter protests over the death of Regis Korchinski and have set up this bail fund for those arrested. Mission: “In light of today’s protest we are looking to generate funding to release and support protesters who end up incarcerated. This bail fund includes any legal fees that may be incurred.”
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What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?
August 09, 2021
Story at-a-glance
High-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality will require staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to show proof of COVID “vaccination,” starting September 7, 2021
Vaccinated-only bars and restaurants have also popped up in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans
A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. High profile examples include Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley
PayPal is vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,” which could include just about anything, including anti-vaccine rhetoric
CNN anchor Don Lemon has suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food in grocery stores and have their driver’s license taken away
In 2020, the proposition that COVID-19 countermeasures would come to include forced vaccination and vaccine passports, resulting in a segregated society where only those participating in the COVID injection experiment have human rights, was labeled a wild conspiracy theory unworthy of discussion.
Fast-forward to August 2, 2021, and Forbes announces, “No Vax, No Service: Here’s Where Bars and Restaurants Across U.S. Are Requiring Proof of Vaccination.”1
No Jab, No Dining
According to Forbes,2 high-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality are leading the way, requiring all staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to prove they’ve received the required doses of COVID-19 injections, starting September 7, 2021.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the decision, saying others will follow — and indeed, they did, with de Blasio himself announcing August 3, 2021, that proof of vaccination will be mandatory for all indoor dining, visiting gyms and going to movie theaters in the city:3
“This is a miraculous place literally full of wonders,” Mr. de Blasio said. “If you’re vaccinated, all that’s going to open up to you. But if you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately you will not be able to participate in many things.”
Several New York City eateries were already checking vaccination status, and during the last week of July 2021, the San Francisco Bar Owners Alliance urged its 300 members to require proof of COVID-19 injection or a negative COVID test for patrons wanting to have a drink indoors.
Several Los Angeles restaurants, bars and comedy clubs are also following suit, as are more than 60 establishments in Seattle. Vaccinated-only restaurants have also popped up in Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans.
Since COVID countermeasures are a global lockstep operation,4 the same segregation trend is emerging in other countries as well. On the other hand, in Florida, where I live, businesses are prohibited by law5,6 from requiring customers to show proof of participation in the COVID jab experiment.
No Jab, No Job
A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. As reported by Axios,7 this includes Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley.
As mentioned, Florida prohibits businesses from requiring customers to provide proof of COVID “vaccination,” but it does not bar companies from mandating vaccination for its employees.
For now, Disney’s jab mandate only pertains to salaried and nonunion hourly employees, but according to Yahoo! News,8 Disney is in negotiations with union officials who represent theme park employees and members of its movie and TV production crews. The goal is to extend the vaccine mandate to union employees as well.
In May 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decreed that it is legal for companies to require employees to get the COVID shots.9 This despite the fact that the four available COVID injections are only authorized for emergency use and are as yet unlicensed.10 Testing is not expected to conclude for another two years.
No Jab, No Business
Private companies also have the right to not mandate COVID shots, of course, but standing up for workers’ right to choose could hamper their ability to conduct business at all, as PayPal is now vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,”11 which could include just about anything at this point.
Seeing how the White House is promoting the idea that people who question the safety and effectiveness of COVID shots are “killing people” and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) labels anti-vaccine rhetoric as a form of hate speech, is it a stretch to suspect PayPal will start taking down the accounts of so-called “anti-vaxxers”?
Business owners and self-employed entrepreneurs who speak out against other official narratives probably face the same risk. Venture capitalist David Sacks recently commented on the situation:12
“When I helped create PayPal in 1999, it was in furtherance of a revolutionary idea. No longer would ordinary people be dependent on large financial institutions to start a business …
But now PayPal is turning its back on its original mission. It is now leading the charge to restrict participation by those it deems unworthy … [W]e are talking about … shutting down people and organizations that express views that are entirely lawful …
If history is any guide, other fintech companies will soon follow suit … When … your name lands on a No-Buy List created by a consortium of private fintech companies, to whom can you appeal?
As for the notion of building your own PayPal or Facebook: because of their gigantic network effects and economies of scale, there is no viable alternative when the whole industry works together to deny you access.
Kicking people off social media deprives them of the right to speak in our increasingly online world. Locking them out of the financial economy is worse: It deprives them of the right to make a living.
We have seen how cancel culture can obliterate one’s ability to earn an income, but now the cancelled may find themselves without a way to pay for goods and services.
Previously, cancelled employees who would never again have the opportunity to work for a Fortune 500 company at least had the option to go into business for themselves. But if they cannot purchase equipment, pay employees, or receive payment from clients and customers, that door closes on them, too.”
If this trend continues, which it probably will, might people who question COVID shots and/or refuse to participate in human experimentation be barred from having a credit card or a bank account?
No Jab, No Food
Some are promoting even more severe punishment for the unvaccinated. Yet, it’s not enough for some thought leaders that unvaccinated individuals can’t enter a bar or restaurant, and might lose their ability to send or receive money for goods and services using PayPal (and potentially other digital transaction services).
For example, CNN anchor Don Lemon recently suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food and have their driver’s license taken away.13,14
Why is fascism so commonly associated with genocide …? It is because it needs a unifying force powerful enough to sweep aside all resistance. ~ Charles Eisenstein
I’d like you to conduct a thought experiment, and think this through from start to finish. What would your life be like if you were:
Barred from driving
Barred from working and earning a paycheck
Barred from sending or receiving money online
Barred from having a bank account and credit card
Barred from eating food at a restaurant (assuming you somehow got the cash to pay for it)
Barred from buying food in a grocery store (again, assuming you somehow got the cash to pay for it)
Are Lemon and countless others actually saying it is acceptable to make half the U.S. population homeless and starve them to death in order to, theoretically, prevent the spread of an infection that, so far, has had a 99.74% survival rate?15
Mob Morality
To understand what’s really happening and what Lemon’s rhetoric is accomplishing, I highly recommend reading Charles Eisenstein’s article “Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed.” It’s an excellent and thought-provoking piece. Here’s a few chosen excerpts:16
“We would like to think that modern societies like ours have outgrown barbaric customs like human sacrifice … we don’t actually kill people in hopes of placating the gods and restoring order. Or do we? …
Not just any victim will do as an object of human sacrifice. Victims must be, as [legal scholar Roberta] Harding puts it, ‘in, but not of, the society.’ That is why, during the Black Death, mobs roamed about murdering Jews for ‘poisoning the wells.’
The entire Jewish population of Basel was burned alive, a scene repeated throughout Western Europe. Yet this was not mainly the result of preexisting virulent hatred of Jews waiting for an excuse to erupt; it was that victims were needed to release social tension, and hatred, an instrument of that release, coalesced opportunistically on the Jews ...
‘Combatting hatred’ is combatting a symptom. Scapegoats needn’t be guilty, but they must be marginal, outcasts, heretics, taboo-breakers, or infidels of one kind or another … If they are not already marginal, they must be made so …
[D]efying left-right categorization is a promising new scapegoat class, the heretics of our time: the anti-vaxxers. As a readily identifiable subpopulation, they are ideal candidates for scapegoating. It matters little whether any of these pose a real threat to society … their guilt is irrelevant to the project of restoring order through blood sacrifice …
All that is necessary is that the dehumanized class arouse the blind indignation and rage necessary to incite a paroxysm of unifying violence. More relevant to current times, this primal mob energy can be harnessed toward fascistic political ends …
Sacrificial subjects carry an association of pollution or contagion; their removal thus cleanses society. I know people in the alternative health field who are considered so unclean that if I so much as mention their names in a Tweet or Facebook post, the post may be deleted …
The public’s ready acceptance of such blatant censorship cannot be explained solely in terms of its believing the pretext of ‘controlling misinformation.’ Unconsciously, the public recognizes and conforms to the age-old program of investing a pariah subclass with the symbology of pollution …
This program is well underway toward the Covid-unvaxxed, who are being portrayed as walking cesspools of germs who might contaminate the Sanctified Brethren (the vaccinated).
My wife perused an acupuncture Facebook page today … where someone asked, ‘What is the word that comes to mind to describe unvaccinated people?’ The responses were things like ‘filth,’ ‘assholes,’ and ‘death-eaters.’ This is precisely the dehumanization necessary to prepare a class of people for cleansing …
To prepare someone for removal as the repository of all that is evil, it helps to heap upon them every imaginable calumny. Thus we hear in mainstream publications that anti-vaxxers not only are killing people, but are raging narcissists … and tantamount to domestic terrorists.”
Dangerous Territory Ahead
If deep down in your gut you sense that we’re speeding into dangerous territory, you’re probably right. The “vaccinated” public are actively encouraged and manipulated both by media and government officials into literally despising and wishing death upon the unvaccinated, and this is indeed a very dangerous thing. It breeds mob mentality devoid of reason and logic, which can have tragic consequences.
“Why is fascism so commonly associated with genocide, when as a political philosophy it is about unity, nationalism, and the merger of corporate and state power?” Eisenstein asks.17
“It is because it needs a unifying force powerful enough to sweep aside all resistance. The us of fascism requires a them. The civic-minded moral majority participates willingly, assured that it is for the greater good. Something must be done. The doubters go along too, for their own safety.
No wonder today’s authoritarian institutions know, as if instinctively, to whip up hysteria toward the … unvaccinated. Fascism taps into, exploits, and institutionalizes a deeper instinct.
The practice of creating dehumanized classes of people and then murdering them is older than history … The campaign against the unvaccinated, garbed in the white lab coat of Science, munitioned with biased data, and waving the pennant of altruism, channels a brutal, ancient impulse.”
The Constitution still offers some measure of protection in the United States, but it may be naïve to assume it will be adhered to in the long term unless we the people demand it. In Australia, military are now roaming the streets of Sydney to make sure no one strays beyond their front door, as the country has implemented one of its strictest lockdowns yet.18
Fanning the flames of anger and hatred, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that vaccinated Australians might be able to regain some of their mobility once the vaccination rate reaches 70%, and broad lockdowns may be avoidable altogether if the vaccination rate hits 80%.
"If you get vaccinated, there will be special rules that apply to you,” Morrison told reporters. “Why? Because if you're vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk.”
A rational person might question whether Morrison would actually hold true to his word. A person blinded by anger probably won’t, but will instead direct their frustration onto the holdouts that prevent the vaccination rate from reaching that magical threshold where they believe freedom will be restored.
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((Not created by me. Copy-pasted, in case it gets taken down from Google Docs. Not linking to keep original safe.))
#blacklivesmatter
PLEASE SIGN PETITIONS, DONATE, CALL AND EMAIL TO DEMAND JUSTICE, AND SHARE
Reply to this tweet if I am missing anything
Re: the man who maced a young girl at the Seattle protest
Jared Campbell #8470
Office of police accountability: (206) 684-8797 [email protected]
Chief: Carmen Best
File an anonymous complaint
Re: the woman who drove over a pedestrian during a peaceful protest in Denver
Jennifer Watson
Owner of JP Watson Interiors
Denver sheriff: (720) 337-0194
Hate crime hotline: (720) 913-6458
Re: Trump supporters who ran over protesters
Jacob Robles (jacob_robles98) and Dylan Mota (@dylan_mota_)
8JUK695
Also in the car: Alyssa Mackovitch (@alyssa_mackovitch)
Re: cop responsible for telling others to turn off their body cameras
Tobias Raya
(310) 253-6318
*The White House has a history of giving vague, unhelpful responses or ignoring these petitions but I’d still suggest signing and making your voices as loud as possible. It can’t hurt to try.
@icatboy on Twitter: “you guys don’t sign those white house petitions sadly they don’t do shit, those were only effective under obama’s administration and mean nothing in 7rump’s term. they aren’t obligated to give us a statement after 100k signature sadly”
I still have them linked below in the petitions section for those who want to sign
WOMAN KIDNAPPED - LICENSE PLATE EEV701
Stop sharing videos of Black people being murdered. “Seeing all sides” doesn’t mean watching someone’s murder. Believe Black people. It’s gratuitous and exploitative. Imagine being his kin right now.
BLM carrd
BLM doc
If you live internationally and cannot sign petitions without an american postal code feel free to use any of these:
90015 - Los Angeles, California
10001 - New York City, New York
75001 - Dallas, Texas
More resources for international people
Petitions
*Do not donate to change.org
Text FLOYD to 55156 OR sign the petition here: Color of Change - #JusticeforFloyd: Demand the officers who killed George Floyd are charged with murder.
Color of Change - #JusticeforBre: Police officers who killed Breonna Taylor must be FIRED.
Color of Change - #JusticeforAhmaud
change.org - Justice for George Floyd
change.org - The Minneapolis Police Officers to be charged for murder after killing innocent black man
change.org - Justice for George Floyd
change.org - Justice for George Floyd
change.org - Justice for Breonna Taylor
change.org - Julius Jones is innocent. Don't let him be executed by the state of Oklahoma.
Justice for Julius (more info with how to help and where to send emails)
change.org - Prosecute the murderers who killed George Floyd
change.org - Justice for Belly Mujinga
change.org - Justice For Tony McDade
change.org - Hands Up Act
change.org - Justice For Joāo Pedro
change.org - Willie Simmons has served 38 years for a $9 robbery
change.org - Disbarment of George E. Barnhill
change.org - Justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet
change.org - Justice for Ahmaud Arbery- Pass Georgia Hate Crime Bill
change.org - Free Anthony Wint
change.org - After The Smoke Clears... Arrest Juan DelaCruz for the MURDER of Pamela Turner RIGHT NOW
change.org - #freejeffersonelie
change.org - Exoneration of Albert Wilson
change.org - Justice for Sean
change.org - Reopen Kendrick Johnson's Case #J4Kendrick
change.org - Justice For Tamir Rice
change.org - Justice for Tamir Rice 2
change.org - Censorship of Police Brutality in France
change.org - Fire Racist Criminal Michael J Reynolds from the NYPD
change.org - Mandatory Life Sentence for Police Brutality
change.org - Criminal Charges for Travis & Greg McMichael in the murder of Black Jogger Ahmaud Arbery
change.org - Justice for Alejandro Vargas Martinez
change.org - Make false 911 calls a criminal offense
change.org - RAISE THE DEGREE
change.org - Free Siyanda
change.org - Jennifer Jeffley
change.org - Fire Racist Criminal Michael J Reynolds from the NYPD
change.org - Justice for Darrius Stewart
change.org - Justice for Amiya Braxton
change.org - Justice for Dion Johnson
change.org - Justice for Emerald Black
change.org - Junk the Anti-Terrorism Bill and Uphold Human Rights
change.org - Skip to main content Drop All Charges Against Incarcerated Trafficking Survivor Chrystul Kizer
change.org - Justice for Crystal Mason
change.org - Stop hit and run drivers who kill Innocent people from receiving bond in North Carolina
change.org - Justice for Tete
change.org - Justice for Sean Reed
text “JUSTICE” to 668366
moveon - #JusticeforBre: Police officers who killed Breonna Taylor must be FIRED
moveon - We want justice for 19 year old Darrius Stewart gunned down by a white police officer on last Fri...
Organize For - Take the Pledge: We Are the Movement for Black Lives
Text “ENOUGH” to 55156 - demand justice for Breonna Taylor
Text “JUSTICE” to 55156 - demand DA George Barnhill and Jackie Johnson are removed from office
We the People - Justice for George Floyd Make sure you confirm you signature by checking your email immediately after
We the People - Raise the Degree
We the People - Arrest the Other Three
People's Budget LA Tell your Council Member to reject Mayor Eric Garcetti's proposal to spend 54% of the general fund on the LAPD
reclaim the block - Tell MPLS City Council to Defund the Police
Donate
*Do not donate to any fundraisers hosted by Shaun King - he has an extensive history of collecting funds for pro-Black movements which have disappeared - deleted all petitions by The Action Pac because he is affiliated with them
*Need a Venmo to donate to Minneapolis activists? Donate via Venmo to the Femme Empowerment Project. Be sure to set your donation to "private." You can even specify how you want your donation to be used-- medic training, medic gear, or jail support.
Spreadsheet with places to donate to
gofundme.com - Official George Floyd Memorial Fund (this is the only legitimate gofundme to donate directly to George Floyd’s family)
gofundme - Justice for Kenneth Walker (for his legal representation supporting Breonna Taylor)
gofundme - I Run With Maud
gofundme - Help Coach Steve Parker Get Back in the Game
gofundme - Support Roy Stoddart’s Family
gofundme - Help a front line nurse and baby get proper care
gofundme - COVID19 testing, advocacy & education
gofundme - Jessica Mahone
gofundme - Comfort and Support for the Moncrease Family
gofundme - The Heart of a Chef
gofundme - Marcus Jackson Medical Funds
gofundme - COVID-19 Survivor, Ron's Road to Recovery
gofundme - Greene Family Fire Relief
gofundme - Justice for Regis
This is the only donation page approved by Regis’ mother: gofundme - Justice for Regis
gofundme - RIP Belly Mujinga
gofundme - Homeless Black Trans Women Fund
gofundme - Nadarrius Lundy (Nada) Memorial Fund
gofundme - Destiny Harrison's Legacy (organized by her mother)
Twitter thread full of gofundme’s (most of them were just listed but continue checking in case the thread has been updated)
@theysbianism on Twitter: please retweet! help my girlfriend, a Black trans woman, support her family and get her brother out of prison. the family collectively has been able to get $485 and only $200 more is needed. please boost and donate if you can!
Venmo: @celestialmadonna
Cashapp: $celestialmaddona
the action network - Demand justice for Tony McDade
Donate to Black Lives Matter
Donate to the Northstar Health Fund (medical supplies)
Sybrina Fulton's Campaign (Trayvon Martin’s mother is running for office in FL)
Donate to Reclaim the Block MPLS organization that invests in their community’s safety and fights against the police union
Donate to Black Visions Collective
Know Your Rights Camp their Legal Defense Initiative will pay for legal assistance for people protesting in MPLS + Kaepernick’s charity is funding the project
Oakland Anti Police Terror Project
South Minneapolis food shelves
MN Bail Fund and Relief List
Twitter thread of bail funds
Another twitter thread of bail funds
Pro bono representation of Houston protestors
Minnesota Freedom Fund (on-the-ground bail fund)
Louisville Bail Fund
Brooklyn Bail Fund
The Bronx Bail Fund
Atlanta Bail Fund (atl solidarity fund)
Atlanta Bail Fund (the action network)
LA Bail Fund
Columbus Bail Fund
Philadelphia Bail Fund (philly bail fund)
Philadelphia Bail Fund (philly bailout)
Detroit Bail Fund
Milwaukee Bail Fund
Charlotte Bail Fund: $WereStillHere OR venmo: ResistanceisBeautiful
Silicon Valley Bail Fund
Louisville Bail Fund
Chicago Bail Fund
National Revolving Bail Fund
Gas Mask Fund:
Venmo: @Isak-Douah
Cashapp: $Isakdouah
Paypal: [email protected]
Black owned businesses
Support small online Black owned businesses
Google doc of Black owned businesses
Twitter thread: "here’s a thread of black small businesses that were destroyed that you can donate to to help rebuild"
Donate to the following groups
http://aclu.org
http://joincampaignzero.org
http://nlg-npap.org
http://blacklivesmatter.com
http://advancementproject.org
http://changethenypd.org
http://M4BL.org
http://themarshallproject.org
Support protesters
For their safety, do not post pictures or videos of their faces
How to properly treat someone who has been tear gassed
Tips for protesters
More tips
More tips
How to extinguish tear gas
How to treat a bullet wound
Disable tanks
Delete your digital footprint
Disable tanks
Twitter thread masterlist of safety tips for protesting
Protester safety tips
Support the woman pushed by the cop at Barclays $Dounyazayer
Thread of Homeland Security words being monitored on social media sites
Twitter thread: Know Your Rights
Location safety thread
Twitter thread: "how to identify an undercover cop"
If you are arrested for protesting in Minneapolis, call (612) 444-2654 and they will bail you out
Legal Rts Ctr: (612) 337-0030
If you are arrested in NYC call The National Lawyers Guild hotline with name and arrest location: (212) 679-6018
Legal Aid Society: (212) 577-3300
Atlanta jail support: (404) 689-1519
Louisville jail support: (502) 705- 0081
The Bail Project: 1 (833) 425-6827
National Lawyers Guild LA - Legal Defense Hotline: (310) 313-3700
Pro Bono Legal Representation doc
Drop Off Sites in MPLS (as of 5/29)
Epworth United Methodist Church, 3207 37th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55406
MN Youth Collective Office, 2161 University Ave W. Suite 100
2161 University Ave is taking a pause on accepting donations - overflowing
CTUL- CENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS EN LA LUCHA - 3715 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55407
The Coven (Downtown/North Loop MPLS) - 30 N 1st St, Minneapolis, MN 55401
Bethlehem Lutheran Church - 436 Roy St St. Paul, MN (NOTE POLICE PRESENCE OBSERVED)
Please donate and drop off First Aid, Physical Safety, Covid Precaution and Nourishment Supplies
Educate yourselves
Anti-racism resources
Learn about Black history and activism
Books by Black Activists
Books: how to be actively antiracist
Learn about unconscious bias
Twitter thread of mental health resources for Black people
Twitter thread on why protesters attacked Target in MN
Being Black and LGBTQ
Twitter thread of documentaries
Open Yale course - African American History: From Emancipation to the Present
ALEC Exposed
MPLS Protests
JACOB PEDERSON of the St. Paul PD is widely believed to have been the undercover cop vandalizing stores and starting fires during protests.
Report: What Does it Take to Embed a Racial Equity & Inclusion Lens?
Twitter thread of misinformation
Twitter thread: "how can i help from the uk?"
Contact Officials
GEORGE FLOYD is the name of the man who was murdered by DEREK CHAUVIN (badge 1087), TOU THAO (badge 7162), Thomas Lane, and J Alexander Kueng. If you truly care about getting justice, make phone calls to these numbers and express your anger. We cannot let another killer cop walk free.
UPDATE: As of May 29, Chauvin has been charged for third-degree murder. Continue pressuring officials for harsher charges because what he did was clearly not an accident. Also continue pushing for the other cops who were at the scene to be charged.
Contact Outline and Info
International Affairs Division
City Hall, Room 112
350 South 5th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 673-3074
Velma J. Korbel, Director
Department of Civil Rights
City Hall, Room 239
350 South 5th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 673-3012
Mayer Jacob Frey
https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/d189a2276e234cacb9f02db60dac0569
(612) 673-2100
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman
C-2000 Government Center
300 South Sixth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55487
https://www.hennepinattorney.org/about/contact
(612) 348-5550
MPLS FBI field office
(763) 569-8000
MPD 3rd Precinct
(612) 673-5703
MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
(651) 793-7000
Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis
(612) 788-8444
Louisville Mayor (demand justice for Breonna Taylor)
(502) 753-1784
MN Precinct Inspector
Commander of Training Unit
JUSTICE FOR REGIS CONTACTS
City Councillor Gord Perks - Parkdale - High Park
(416) 392-7919
MPP Bhutilla Karpoche - Parkdale - High Park
(416) 763-5630
MP Arif Virani - Parkdale - High Park
(416) 769-5072
Mayor of Toronto John Tory
(416) 397-2489
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders
(416) 808-2222
Solicitor General - Minister Sylvia Jones
(416) 325-0408
(519) 941-7751
Attorney General of Ontario Doug Downey
(416) 326-2220
(705) 726-5538
Urge the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) for transparency and accountability in handling her case
1 (800) 787-8529 OR (416) 622-0748
https://www.siu.on.ca/en/contact.php
Address concerns to SIU Director Joseph Martino
Sample Email:
Hello [recipient],
I am writing to you in regards to the incident that occurred at 100 High Park Avenue on May 27th, 2020. A 29 year-old Black woman, Regis, has died after allegedly falling off her balcony, despite police being present.
As a concerned citizen, I am very upset and disturbed at the events that took place and the allegations that this caused on the part of the police. I am demanding justice and answers as to the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet.
A complete and transparent public and independent investigation needs to take place. Charges need to be brought to all the officers involved, as well as all information and evidence should be made available to the public.
Sincerely,
[your name]
JUSTICE FOR BREONNA TAYLOR CONTACTS
Murdered by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove
Louisville Metro PD
(502) 574-7111
Louisville Mayor Office
(502) 574-2003
JUSTICE FOR TONY MCDADE CONTACTS
Template
Tallahassee Police dept
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey
Commissioner Jeremy Matlow https://www.talgov.com/Main/email.aspx?emailto=jeremy.matlow
Officer Kevin Bradshaw - Officer on Tony's case
(850) 556-1726
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August 26, 2020
Heather Cox Richardson
There is a profound disconnect between the reality of what is happening in America right now and what we are hearing from the White House.
Tonight, Hurricane Laura is barreling toward the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. The storm is on the verge of becoming a Category 5 hurricane, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in the continental U.S. Its winds have reached 150 miles per hour and the National Hurricane Center has warned of an “unsurvivable” storm surge of up to 20 feet, as well as anywhere from 5-10 inches of rain. Forecasters warn that half of Lake Charles, Louisiana, home to almost 80,000 people, might be submerged. More than half a million people have been ordered to evacuate the region, but this will be a tall order for the 23.3% of the population there that lives in poverty.
Iowa is trying to rebuild from the August 10 derecho which brought winds of up to 140 miles an hour, left more than 400,000 Iowans without power, and damaged homes, businesses, and more than ten million acres of crops. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds asked for about $4 billion to cover the cost of the damage; Trump approved the portion that covered federal buildings and utilities but not assistance to homeowners and farmers.
Western wildfires have burned more than 1.8 million acres in August—an area almost double the size of Rhode Island. Fourteen states, including California, Arizona, Oregon, and Colorado, have suffered from the extreme events. While firefighters are gaining control over many of the fires, red flag warnings are still in effect in Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, and Montana.
A disaster of a different sort is burning in America as coronavirus continues to spread. New CDC guidelines quietly put out on Monday no longer recommend testing for asymptomatic people even if they’ve been in contact with someone who has the coronavirus. This new rule appears to reflect Trump's frequent complaints that widespread testing is responsible for our climbing numbers of coronavirus cases. (He is incorrect.) He has repeatedly said we should slow the testing down. A White House spokesperson said the decision was science-based and not political; American Medical Association President Dr. Susan Bailey asked the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services to "release the scientific justification" for the changes.
The spokesperson told reporters that the White House Coronavirus Task Force had signed off on the new guidelines, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the task force told CNN that he was not part of any such discussion. “I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is,” he said. Other members of the task force also expressed alarm about the new rules.
And there is yet another kind of fire burning. On Sunday afternoon, August 23, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Rusten Sheskey, fired seven shots into Jacob Blake’s back as he opened his car door, leaving the 29-year-old father of five gravely wounded, likely paralyzed from the waist down.
Protests erupted in the wake of the shooting of yet another Black man, with the same pattern we saw in Portland: peaceful protests by day, riots by night. Armed militia members and counter protesters rushed to Kenosha and clashed with protesters, and after rioters looted and burned businesses, civilians armed with AR-15-style rifles took to the streets claiming they would back the police and restore order. Video shows police officers thanking the armed men for their help, despite the fact they are on the streets after the city’s curfew, and handing them water bottles.
Rather than restoring order, on Tuesday, a 17-year-old white man, Kyle Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, about 20 miles southwest of Kenosha, shot and killed two people and wounded a third. Rittenhouse’s social media is full of support for “Blue Lives Matter,” and shows him posing with weapons. Video from January 30, shows him in the front row of a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa; video from Tuesday shows him trying to get the attention of law enforcement officers before the shooting.
This afternoon, the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team refused to play game five of their first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic. This is what’s known as a “wildcat strike” because it does not have the approval of union leadership—the NBA collective bargaining agreement bans strikes. The Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder joined in, and by 5:00 the NBA postponed all the evening’s games. All the WNBA games were also called off, and several Major League Baseball teams have struck in solidarity.
In a statement, the Bucks said, “Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.” They asked the Wisconsin legislature to reconvene and pass “meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.” They also asked people to vote. Basketball superstar LeBron James was more straightforward: “F**K THIS MAN!!!!!” he tweeted. “WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT[.]”
In Washington, tonight, at the third night of the Republican National Convention, speakers painted an image of the nation that did not square with this reality. There was scarce mention of the natural disasters that, in any other administration, would be headline news. The sentence “May God bless and protect the Gulf states in the path of the hurricane," offered by Eric Trump's wife Lara, was about the extent of it.
There was scarce attention paid to the coronavirus, either, which has, to date, killed more than 180,000 Americans. Twenty-five percent of the world's deaths from Covid-19 come from the U.S., which has 4% of the world’s people. From Fort McHenry, Maryland, Vice President Mike Pence congratulated Trump for suspending travel from China and saving “untold American lives.” White House officials continue to talk of the virus in the past tense, as if it is over. Images from the RNC of attendees sitting together, unmasked, send a signal that things are back to normal, when they are decidedly not.
There was no mention of Jacob Blake or the Kenosha shootings of Tuesday tonight, although Trump appeared to take the part of the Kenosha police and the civilian militias when he tweeted today that he was sending federal troops to Kenosha to restore “LAW and ORDER!”. (Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, instead deployed 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha.)
From Fort McHenry, Maryland, Vice President Mike Pence talked of the “heroes” who have died in unrest around the country without mentioning the events that have sparked the unrest: the shootings of Black men and women at the hands of police officers, people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake. He lamented the death of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, “shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California,” implying he was killed by protesters. In fact, Officer Underwood died in a drive-by shooting by a Boogaloo supporter on a nearly empty street. And Pence claimed that Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said he would cut funding to law enforcement; this is a lie from a super PAC ad that spliced together video footage to change its meaning.
A million years ago, during the George W. Bush administration, a White House official dismissively told journalist Ron Suskind that people like Suskind lived in “the reality-based community,” meaning that they believed solutions to the nation’s problems came from studying reality and finding answers. “That's not the way the world really works anymore,” the official told Suskind. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality…. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Creating their own reality might have worked for Bush’s people in 2004, but sixteen years later, with the country in conflagrations both natural and manmade, it seems that approach is no longer viable.
—-
Notes:
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/hurricane-laura-storm-track-path-forecast-today-2020-08-26/
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-misleading-biden-ad-defund/fact-check-political-ad-saying-biden-wants-to-defund-the-police-is-misleading-idUSKCN252248
Underwood: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/gopers-keep-falsely-implying-a-protester-killed-a-federal-officer-in-oakland
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/live-blog/hurricane-laura-updates-news-live-hurricane-path-tracker-n1238184/ncrd1238314#liveBlogHeader
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/rnc-night-three-pence-conway-hatch-act
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lakecharlescitylouisiana
Iowa: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/25/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-holds-news-conference-cedar-rapids-schools-storm-derecho/5627303002/
https://www.kcrg.com/2020/08/18/trump-signs-only-a-portion-of-iowas-disaster-relief-request/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/california-fires-tuesday/index.html
wildcat strike:
Matt Pearce 🦅 @mattdpearceThe NBA collective bargaining agreement bans strikes, which means the Bucks are breaking their own contract to stop playing in protest of police violence. (But this is your reminder that there aren't really illegal strikes, just unsuccessful ones.)
cosmic-s3.imgix.net/3c7a0a50-8e11-…
August 26th 2020
2,026 Retweets5,544 Likes
https://www.thedailybeast.com/america-doesnt-deserve-sports-right-now
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/08/nba-teams-strike-for-black-lives.html
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/kenosha-suspect-kyle-rittenhouse-trump-rally
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WIGOV/bulletins/29beffc
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-08-26/trump-pledges-to-restore-law-and-order-in-wisconsin-amid-jacob-blake-protests
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/testing-overview.html?referringSource=articleShare
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/fauci-coronavirus-cdc-testing/index.html
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“The East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative—a partnership of more than 20 local nonprofits—spearheaded the effort to establish the Black Cultural Zone in a triangle-shaped lot along 73rd Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. The site, also known as Liberation Park, borders the Eastmont Town and Transit centers.
East Oakland native and Castlemont High School graduate Carol Johnson, executive director of the collaborative, has been working with the city to bring the project to fruition.
The 54,000-square-foot, city-owned land was a former automotive and tire center but has been vacant since 2007, when the city acquired it. The crime-plagued area has long been known for shootings instead of shopping.
“The collaborative partnered with Oakland District 6 City Councilmember Loren Taylor, who helped launch the Zone’s Akoma Outdoor Market on Sept. 6.
“Especially now with the Black Lives Matter movement, the need to empower and address the systemic issues that we face, including historical injustices and disparities, is even more urgent,” Taylor said.
The collaborative took control of the site in March, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit and many businesses were shuttered. A variety of services began in June with the distribution of free meals from the World Central Kitchen and COVID-19 testing through Umoja in Health. First Fridays—similar to the Uptown Oakland event—began in July with live local entertainment and food trucks.
A commercial real estate developer, broker and tenured college professor, Johnson wants to change the negative impression of East Oakland and make sure there’s a balance between a thriving Black community and gentrification.
“Our goal is that every day of the week, there will be something happening that highlights Black arts, culture, people and business,” Johnson said.
During the dire economic times of the pandemic, Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen helped over 100 Oakland restaurants bring back employees to make meals for struggling residents. At the Zone, volunteers and paid student interns serve hundreds of dinners on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 4-6pm.
“Colorful murals and signs with positive messages adorn the fence surrounding the lot, and pots brimming with plants, herbs and vegetables are the first signs of new life reinvigorating the barren, dirt parcel. A small performance stage with a brightly colored backdrop and artwork is set in the southeast corner.
City of Oakland senior policy advisor and East Oakland resident Pamela Ferran, who works with Taylor, said she would pass by the lot often and see its potential. She loves the fact that she can now walk from her house and buy locally-produced coffee and other goods.
“This is like a dream come true for me,” Ferran said.”
read more: eastbaytimes, 27.09.2020.
visit: black cultural zone.
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Headlines
Declining Western birth rates
(Nikkei Asian Review) Births in many developed countries are poised to crater next year amid the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic and, in many cases, the botched response. Japan is projected to see births drop 10 percent in 2021, accelerating a decline. Last year there were 860,000 births in Japan, the first time the level dipped below 900,000 since tracking began. Babies in the U.S. could decline by 300,000 to 500,000 next year, a 10 percent drop in the 3.7 million average annual births. According to the International Labor Organization, 17.1 percent of people aged 18 to 29 around the world have not worked since the pandemic began, and those who did saw their hours shrink an average of 23 percent.
Mean streets
(Bloomberg) Mean streets are getting meaner, and more than 700 cities have said they may cut infrastructure spending due to budget shortfalls. Potholes caused $15 billion in damages to cars over five years, and some states are in a particularly rough stretch of road: in Rhode Island, 48 percent of urban streets are in poor condition according to the Federal Highway Administration, followed by California (46 percent), New Jersey (42 percent), and South Dakota and Hawaii (36 percent each). In some metropolitan areas in particular, most roads are bad: San Francisco-Oakland (71 percent of streets are poor), San Jose (63 percent) and Los Angeles (63 percent).
Big California wildfires burn on as death toll reaches 7
(AP) Firefighters battling three massive wildfires in Northern California got a break from the weather early Monday as humidity rose and there was no return of the onslaught of lightning strikes that ignited the infernos a week earlier. The region surrounding San Francisco Bay remained under extreme fire danger until late afternoon amid the possibility of lightning and gusty winds, but fire commanders said the weather had aided their efforts so far. The three big fires around the Bay Area and many others burning across the state have put nearly 250,000 people under evacuation orders and warnings and authorities renewed warnings for anxious homeowners to stay away from the evacuation zones.
National Guard called out after police shoot Black man
(AP) Wisconsin’s governor summoned the National Guard for fear of another round of violent protests Monday after the police shooting of a Black man under murky circumstances turned Kenosha into the nation’s latest flashpoint city in a summer of racial unrest. The move came after protesters set cars on fire, smashed windows and clashed with officers in riot gear Sunday night over the wounding of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, who was hospitalized in serious condition. In a widely seen cellphone video made by an onlooker, he was shot [by police seven times] in the back, as he leaned into his SUV while his three children sat in the vehicle. The shooting happened around 5 p.m. Sunday and was captured from across the street on video that was posted online. In the footage, Blake walks from the sidewalk around the front of his SUV to his driver-side door as officers follow him with their guns pointed and shout at him. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, an officer grabs his shirt from behind and opens fire while Blake has his back turned.
Marco collapses, sets stage for Laura to hit US as hurricane
(AP) Tropical Storm Marco began falling apart Monday, easing one threat to the Gulf Coast but setting the stage for the arrival of Laura as a potentially supercharged Category 3 hurricane with winds topping 110 mph (177 kph). While Marco weakened, Laura’s potential got stronger, and forecasters raised the possibility of a major hurricane that would pummel western Louisiana and eastern Texas from late Wednesday into Thursday. The two-storm combination could bring a history-making onslaught of wind and coastal flooding from Texas to Alabama, forecasters said. State emergencies were declared in Louisiana and Mississippi, and shelters were being opened with cots set farther apart, among other measures designed to curb infections.
In Mexico's televised 'return to classes,' parents turn to state schools
(Reuters) Millions of students return to classes virtually in Mexico on Monday after a hiatus lasting months caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has sparked an exodus from private schools. Mexico has yet to publish official data, but private-school bodies consulted by Reuters said almost 2 million students at all levels were expected to quit private schools because of the crisis to join an already overcrowded public system. The lack of both in-person teaching and access to facilities has left many parents unwilling to shoulder private-school costs. Supporters of private schools worry the turmoil could stretch the education system, especially after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last year canceled a reform that the previous government said would improve teaching standards in Mexico, one of the worst-performing countries in the 37-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). As state schools reopen, students will start the new academic year with a home-learning program broadcast by major television networks until infection rates are deemed sufficiently low.
Mexico’s coronavirus toll
(Financial Times) Mexico has surpassed its “catastrophic” worst-case scenario of 60,000 Covid-19 deaths and is shaping up as one of the worst health and economic casualties of the global pandemic. Latin America’s second-biggest economy, which has the world’s third highest overall coronavirus death toll, hit the grim milestone on Saturday, when the health ministry reported 60,254 and 556,216 confirmed cases. But officials have long acknowledged that the government’s data is an underrepresentation and the health ministry and private studies say the real death tally could be some three times higher.
Sweden’s success in fighting the coronavirus
(London Times) Sweden is beating many European countries in the fight against new coronavirus infections, possibly because of its decision not to implement tough lockdown measures. As cases surge across Europe, leading to new restrictions such as the mandatory wearing of masks in many public areas, the infection rate in Sweden is falling. “Sweden is doing fine,” Arne Elofsson, a professor in biometrics at Stockholm University, said. “Strict rules do not work as people seem to break them.” Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show that the infection rate in France is more than 60 per cent higher than that of Sweden. France implemented a strict lockdown in the spring and requires masks to be worn in many public areas but has a fortnightly infection rate of 60 cases per 100,000 people. Sweden, which decided not to implement compulsory measures at that time and which rejected the use of masks, has a rate of 37 cases per 100,000 people. The government is recording between 200 and 300 new cases a day, with deaths down to three last Friday.
German doctors say tests indicate Kremlin critic Navalny was poisoned
(Reuters) German doctors said on Monday that medical examinations indicated that Russia opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who is in a Berlin hospital after collapsing on a plane in Russia last week, had been poisoned. The specific substance was not yet known, German doctors said. The outcome remains uncertain but long-term effects, especially to the nervous system, could not be ruled out, it said.
European job cuts coming
(The New York Times, McKinsey) A tsunami of job cuts is about to hit Europe as companies prepare to carry out sweeping downsizing plans to offset a collapse in business from the new coronavirus outbreak. Government-backed furlough schemes that have helped keep around a third of Europe’s work force financially secure are set to unwind in the coming months. As many as 59 million jobs are at risk of cuts in hours or pay, temporary furloughs, or permanent layoffs, especially in industries like transportation and retail, according to a study by McKinsey & Company.
At least 100 feared trapped in building collapse south of Mumbai
(Reuters) At least 100 people are feared trapped in the debris of a five-storey building that collapsed on Monday in an industrial town in western India, a lawmaker said. Not all the roughly 200 residents of the building in Mahad, about 165 km (100 miles) south of India’s financial capital Mumbai, were at home when it crumbled in the evening, Bharatshet Maruti Gogawale, the local lawmaker, told Reuters. Authorities have yet to ascertain the cause of the collapse and the number of casualties, but about 30 people were pulled out by rescue teams and local residents. Old creaky structures and illegal constructions in India often lead to collapses, typically during torrential rain.
In China, Where the Pandemic Began, Life Is Starting to Look … Normal
(NYT) In Shanghai, restaurants and bars in many neighborhoods are teeming with crowds. In Beijing, thousands of students are heading back to campus for the fall semester. In Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged eight months ago, water parks and night markets are packed elbow to elbow, buzzing like before. While the United States and much of the world are still struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, life in many parts of China has in recent weeks become strikingly normal. Cities have relaxed social-distancing rules and mask mandates, and crowds are again filling tourist sites, movie theaters and gyms. The return to normalcy has made China an outlier in the global economy. The United States is facing a potentially long and painful recession, as some places have reimposed restrictions to contend with a surge in cases this summer. Several countries in Europe have been experiencing fresh outbreaks, putting additional pressure on an already weak economy. By contrast, China has been slowly recovering in recent months and its factories are humming again, although its growth is still weaker than before the pandemic and job losses are significant.
COVID-19 scary? Japan group offers coffins, chainsaws for stress relief
(Reuters) Finding the pandemic scary? A Japanese group is trying to take people’s minds off COVID-19—by putting them in coffins surrounded by chainsaw-wielding zombies. Customers this weekend in Tokyo can lie in a 2-metre (6 1/2-foot) windowed box, listening to a horror story, watching actors perform and getting poked with fake hands and squirted with water. “The pandemic is stressful, and we hope people can get a bit of relief by having a good scream,” said Kenta Iwana, coordinator of production company Kowagarasetai—“Scare Squad”—which is putting on the 15-minute shows.
With Delay in Afghan Peace Talks, a Creeping Sense of ‘Siege’ Around Kabul
(NYT) Mornings in the city begin with “sticky bombs,” explosives slapped onto vehicles that go up in flames. With night comes the dread of hit-and-run assassinations in the nearby suburbs—government employees shot dead by motorcycle-riding insurgents who roam free. As peace talks to end Afghanistan’s long war face delays, the Taliban may be sparing Kabul, the capital, from mass-casualty attacks as part of an understanding with the United States. But the insurgents have instead shifted to a tactic that is eroding the Afghan government’s standing with each passing day: frequent targeted assaults that the country’s security forces seem unable to control. The city has taken on an air of slow-creeping siege. At least 17 small explosions and assassinations have been carried out in Kabul in the past week, according to a tally by The New York Times. Three magnetic bombs went off within one hour on Saturday morning, and at least two more targeted attacks followed before the end of the day.
More U.S. troops pull out of Iraq
(Foreign Policy) U.S.-led coalition troops withdrew from Iraq’s Taji base located north of Baghdad on Sunday and transferred control of the facility to the Iraqi security forces, part of a larger drawdown of U.S. troops in the country. The base has held up to 2,000 troops in the past, but most of those stationed there have departed this summer. The final troops are due to leave in the coming days. Sunday’s withdrawal comes as the Trump administration has been working with the Iraqi government to coordinate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. On Friday, after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Trump reiterated his desire to pull out of Iraq. “Frankly, I didn’t think (the Iraq War) was a good idea,” he said. “Now we’re getting out, we’ll be leaving shortly.” The handover of Camp Taji is the eighth such transfer of an Iraqi base to Iraqi security forces.
Beirut faces mental health crisis after blast
(Reuters) More than two weeks after a massive explosion tore through Beirut killing 181 people and leaving entire neighbourhoods in ruins, Sandra Abinader still jumps at the slightest sound. “The other day, I was trying to open a jar and the popping sound made me jump back and scream. I felt for a second I needed to run away.” The blast caught Lebanon at an extremely vulnerable point following months of severe economic crisis compounded by the coronavirus pandemic. Now practitioners are warning of a national mental health emergency as people begin to show signs of trauma from the explosion, including nightmares, flashbacks, crying, anxiety, anger and exhaustion. Psychologists say this is being exacerbated by the constant stream of images on Lebanese TV and social media showing the blast and its bloody aftermath. “Every time we say it can’t get worse in Lebanon, it somehow does,” said Jad Daou, a volunteer with Lebanese mental health NGO Embrace, who mans the phones at its crisis clinic. “A lot of people are feeling hopeless about the entire situation here in Lebanon.”
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Week 13
I finally completed my internship project! Well, completed it as much as I could considering my team is stopping all coupon drops, email/push notifications, etc due to COVID. Encouraging people to share rides with strangers would not be a good look. It has been interesting to see the business decisions being made at this time, and I am glad my company is being responsible yet again and cognizant of their responsibility to keep people safe.
This week went a lot better, and completing the project and my demo had a lot to do with that. It felt good accomplishing something I have been dreaming about for years since I saw interns presenting their projects a while back. Although I did not get and will not get a chance to demo this to the company and release this product to America now, I am grateful that the deed was done, and done in the midst of all this coronavirus stuff.
What also helped was that I stopped fighting with my nose. If my septum was deviated and I couldn’t breathe through my nose, I did not give myself a headache by forcing myself to breathe through it, I just breathed through my mouth until my nostril opened up. I also took a lot of walks, until I found out that we should be wearing masks every time we go out. I felt crazy walking around with a pink bandana and pajamas, hair not combed, but hey, it is what it is right now. I did not realize I was in walking distance from a view of all over the city! The park I am nearby has 360 degree views of the city: Golden Gate Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, Oakland/East Bay, downtown, Mission Bay, the Castro. If not for COVID, I would not have found out about this. For that I am grateful...
I am taking this all as a lesson and trying to accept all of this as the new normal. I’ve got a routine down: wake up around 8, drink 16 oz of water, thank God for waking me and pray for what I want for myself and the world, go for a walk, stretch, eat breakfast, doing my morning hygiene routine, work, eat lunch, chat with my mom, each dinner, watch a ton of youtube, and food shop every two weeks as to not overdue it :). I am grateful for my Econ education because through it, I learned that things like this happen often. Of course this is unique, but a series of unfortunate events lead to recessions. It’s been that way forever. No one can know forsure when it will happen. This is not the first recession and it will not be the last. It is also showing people, like my mentor told me over the phone, “Your money, address, nor occupation matter the most during this time. You have to sit this out and wait like everyone else. It’s not enough anymore to just be like, ‘You don’t have health insurance? Poor you.’ No, everyone suffers when everyone does not have access to this human right.” It’s what I learned in econ: income inequality is horrible for a well functioning society. It does not matter that many make millions and even billions, if the gap is large, everyone will have to pay for those who do not have through taxes or by being victim to crimes somehow. We are only as strong as our most vulnerable people. I am getting much more sleep, eating better, and just focusing on work. I even reached out to people to help kickstart my job search again, just to have a back up. I subscribed to Interview Cake AGAIN (they’re offering a deal by the way! $29 for their $264 course due to a lot of people being without software engineering jobs at this time) , and did not even do one lesson, but, I plan to...maybe. It is just difficult to force myself to learn something I know I will not be using until it is time for me to start interviewing. I did not even learn the computer science topics my bootcamp and interviewers recommended I learn because all the engineers I know told me they never used them in their jobs. Even my bootcamp said I probably would not use them, but since they teach them in Computer Science curriculums and test them in most software engineering interviews, I guess I’ll learn.
I also joined my mentor’s Python book club. Team accountability will ensure that I complete a technical skills book, something I have been trying to do for a while. When I look at my other goals though (completing Interview Cake, reading 12 novels this year, getting converted to a full-time software engineer, and just overall becoming a better software engineer) I am often left wondering how the heck I am going to do it all. I will just need to step up but at the same time listen to my body and do what’s best for my mental health. I hope the same for y’all. I related to this a lot:
Friday I ventured for some grape juice and crackers for communion on Sunday. I was anxious about it because I cannot control other people. I tried a lot of stores and couldn’t not find them. One store I walked into, with my bandana around my face, in my mostly-white neighborhood, the cashier asked, suspicious of me, after I looked around and headed to leave but hesitated because I did not want to touch the handle, “Can I help you?”. I am trying to have as few interactions with people in person as possible, so I did not even entertain my feelings of being profiled. Too protective of my time and self to care.
I finally found my communion materials at the store I initially rejected because I did not want to climb the hill to enter it. It was my first time in the store. I was so paranoid about entering it, because in a store I visited previously a man talked to me WAYYY too closely without a mask, and I was profiled in the one after it. However, in this store, all the things that were hard to find elsewhere were right in my face. I only went in for grape juice and crackers, but when I saw almond milk, black beans, and POPTARTS, and heard some throw back early 2000s hip hop jams playing, I threw my coronavirus concerns out the window a bit. I have never been so relieved to see bread and almond milk!
That’s what this time should be about: appreciating what we have and one another. We complain but at least we have running water, soap, and enough food. Many of us don’t. In fact, MOST people on earth don’t. I thank God I’m blessed with that.
I had a lot of calls with loved ones this week and I am so grateful I have people checking in on me:
my mom
my dad
one of my mentors
one of my pastors
my apprentice friend from NYC (who went back to NYC today)
connection from afrotech
This is a time where I am really seeing who is in my corner supporting me, and it’s people who I figured. I am grateful. Thanks to y’all as well for reading. I feel your support through this and it helps. Be blessed yall.
#clojure#python#c++#san francisco#bay area#Interview Cake#golden gate bridge#poptarts#quarantine#book club#book#read#code#coding#women in tech#tech#technology#black in tech#black women in tech#computer science#computer#ru paul's drag race#denzel washington#training day
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Mother of invention: the new gadgets dreamt up to fight coronavirus
https://sciencespies.com/news/mother-of-invention-the-new-gadgets-dreamt-up-to-fight-coronavirus/
Mother of invention: the new gadgets dreamt up to fight coronavirus
LONDON/OAKLAND/BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Driving to work at his factory to the west of London last week, designer Steve Brooks had coronavirus on his mind. What could he make that would let him open a door without touching the handle?
Entrepreneurs Matthew Toles and Joseph Toles, co-founders of the company Slightly Robot, show smartbands, the Immutouch, which buzz when the wearer’s hand goes near their face, to prevent spreading the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Seattle, U.S., in this handout picture taken March 31, 2020. Immutouch/Handout via REUTERS
“Everyone has to use their little finger or find the bit of the door that nobody’s touched,” said the designer and owner at DDB Ltd, a company which makes office furniture. So he produced a hook to do the job.
The so-called hygienehook is small enough to fit in a pocket and made from a non-porous material, which makes it easy to clean. It is one of hundreds of gadgets dreamt up in recent days and weeks to help prevent people from spreading the coronavirus.
From furniture makers to AI software developers, companies around the world are adapting existing products or inventing new ones to help fight the pandemic or just make life easier for those working from home, in hospitals or stuck in quarantine.
The flurry of innovation comes as companies from Ford (F.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) to luxury goods giant LVMH (LVMH.PA) retool plants to make critical equipment like hand sanitizers, ventilators and masks.
In years gone by it was large companies like these, with the financial clout and factories, who typically had to be relied upon to move rapidly from designing a prototype to manufacturing the product.
A crucial difference now, though, is that 3D printing and high-tech software mean devices can be produced faster than ever by companies big and small.
“There is definitely a ton of people with 3D resources very willing to help,” said MacKenzie Brown, founder of California-based product design company CAD Crowd.
Two weeks ago, his company launched a month-long contest for practical devices for navigating the new coronavirus world.
About 65 entries have poured in, including a wrist-mounted disinfectant sprayer, half gloves for knuckle-pushing of buttons and a device that lets you open car doors without touching the handle, aimed at cab users.
As the pandemic makes people far more aware of hygiene, some new products may have a shelf life beyond the current crisis.
‘WE HAD THE ALGORITHM’
Startups are retooling their technology.
In Seattle, brothers Joseph and Matthew Toles and their friend Justin Ith, who own a young company called Slightly Robot, had developed a wristband after college aimed at reducing compulsive skin-picking, nail-biting, and hair-pulling.
When their home city reported its first fatalities from the virus last month, they adapted the design to create a new smartband, the Immutouch, which buzzes when the wearer’s hand goes near their face.
“We had the algorithm, we had the software and the hardware. We’ve repurposed it for face-touching,” Matthew Toles said in an interview. “We made 350 devices and a website in one week and now it’s how fast can we ramp up.”
Romanian robotic software company UiPath has meanwhile found a way for nurses in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in the Irish capital Dublin to ditch time-consuming data entry and automate filing of virus test results. It hopes to replicate it in other hospitals.
Scylla, a U.S.-based AI company that makes gun detection systems for schools and casinos, turned its sights on the virus when China, the original epicenter of the outbreak, reported its first cases three months ago.
It has re-deployed its AI analytics software to measure the temperature of a person’s forehead, sending out an alert if it detects a fever. Taking images from a thermal camera, the software can be used in public buildings like hospitals and airports, and corporate offices, chief technology officer Ara Ghazaryan said.
The government of a South American nation has placed an order for 5,000 licenses of Scylla’s system for its public buildings and transport system, Ghazaryan said. He declined to name the country.
WORLD WAR TWO INNOVATION
Global upheaval often spawns new products and innovation.
The current burst of creativity may eventually compare to that seen during World War Two when companies, governments and scientists embarked on projects that had lasting consequences.
Technology used to help guide rockets eventually led to the first satellites and putting men on the moon.
“There’s no question that inventors will be coming up with hundreds, if not thousands, of new ideas,” said Kane Kramer, inventor and co-founder of the British Inventor’s Society. He first conceived the idea of downloading music and data in the late 1970s.
“Everyone’s downed tools and are only picking them up to fight the virus. It’s a global war.”
Many companies are donating their new wares or selling them at cost price. The CAD Crowd contest designs are free for download and use, for example. For some, though, the extra business could provide a financial cushion as other sources of income evaporate during the pandemic.
DDB designer Brooks near London has worked quickly.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Less than a week after his first design, four different models of the hook went on sale this week, selling at just under 15 pounds ($18.60) each. He is donating one hook for every one he sells.
Now Brooks is turning his creative eye to another gadget along similar lines.
“We’ve already had a request from the National Health Service in Wales about designing something for pushing a door.”
Additional reporting by Nadine Schimroszik in Berlin; Editing by Pravin Char
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Leaked Draft Letter Reveals Michigan Hospital’s Policy to Ration Ventilators for Coronavirus Patients
A draft letter by one of southeast Michigan’s major hospital systems was leaked online Thursday revealing the hospital’s policy to prioritize care for “patients who have the best chance of getting better” in the event of a shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The letter was drafted by officials at the Henry Ford Health System and is addressed to “our patients, families and community.” It outlines the criteria for which patients will be eligible for care if the hospital reaches capacity and is forced to ration limited resources. “Patients who have the best chance of getting better are our first priority. Patients will be evaluated for the best plan of care and dying patients will be provided comfort care.”
The letter explains the policy in the event of a shortage of ICU beds and ventilators: “If you (or a family member) becomes ill and your medical doctor believes that you need extra care in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or Mechanical Ventilation (breathing machine) you will be assessed for eligibility based only on your specific condition.”
Some of the conditions that may make a person ineligible are listed as “severe heart, lung, kidney or liver failure; Terminal cancers; Severe trauma or burns.”
A statement issued Thursday night by Dr. Adnan Munkarah, executive vice president and chief clinical officer of Henry Ford Health System, confirmed the authenticity of the draft letter, but stressed that it reflects a “worst case scenario.”
“With a pandemic of this nature, health systems must be prepared for a worst case scenario,” Munkarah said. “Gathering the collective wisdom from across our industry, we carefully crafted our policy to provide critical guidance to healthcare workers for making difficult patient care decisions during an unprecedented emergency.”
He added, “These guidelines are deeply patient focused, intended to be honoring to patients and families. We shared our policy with our colleagues across Michigan to help others develop similar, compassionate approaches. It is our hope we never have to apply them and we will always do everything we can to care for our patients, utilizing every resource we have to make that happen.”
He added, “These guidelines are deeply patient focused, intended to be honoring to patients and families. We shared our policy with our colleagues across Michigan to help others develop similar, compassionate approaches. It is our hope we never have to apply them and we will always do everything we can to care for our patients, utilizing every resource we have to make that happen.”
The draft letter was leaked online Thursday when Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor, tweeted out an image of the letter on what appeared to be official hospital letterhead.
The full contents of the letter was printed by the Detroit Free Press (emphasis in original):
To our patients, families and community:
Please know that we care deeply about you and your family’s health and are doing our best to protect and serve you and our community. We currently have a public health emergency that is making our supply of some medical resources hard to find. Because of shortages, we will need to be careful with resources. Patients who have the best chance of getting better are our first priority. Patients will be evaluated for the best plan of care and dying patients will be provided comfort care.
What this means for you and your family:
1. Alert staff during triage of any current medical conditions or if you have a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)/Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) or other important medical information.
2. If you (or a family member) becomes ill and your medical doctor believes that you need extra care in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or Mechanical Ventilation (breathing machine) you will be assessed for eligibility based only on your specific condition.
3. Some patients will be extremely sick and very unlikely to survive their illness even with critical treatment. Treating these patients would take away resources for patients who might survive.
4. Patients who are not eligible for ICU or ventilator care will receive treatment for pain control and comfort measures. Some conditions that are likely to may [sic] make you not eligible include:
severe heart, lung, kidney or liver failure
Terminal cancers
Severe trauma or burns
5. Patients who have ventilator or ICU care withdrawn will receive pain control and comfort measures.
6. Patients who are treated with a ventilator or ICU care may have these treatments stopped if they do not improve over time. If they do not improve this means that the patient has a poor chance of surviving the illness — even if the care was continued. This decision will be based on medical condition and likelihood of getting better. It will not be based on other reasons such as race, gender, health insurance status, ability to pay for care, sexual orientation, employment status or immigration status. All patients are evaluated for survival using the same measures.
7. If the treatment team has determined that you or your family members does not meet criteria to receive critical care or that ICU treatments will be stopped, talk to your doctor. Your doctor can ask for a review by a team of medical experts (a Clinical Review Committee evaluation.)
Michigan has become an emerging hot spot for the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. The state’s top health official, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, said hospitals in southeast Michigan are “at or near capacity.”
The Henry Ford Health System is one of the major hospital providers in the Metro Detroit area, along with the William Beaumont Health System. Both providers have said they were caring for more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients at their 13 hospitals.
Due to the sudden surge, operating rooms were being converted into intensive care units, and clinics had been turned into rooms for patients needing other medical care.
On Wednesday, Beaumont Health said its hospitals were swamped with 650 patients who had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and more than 200 with tests pending. It said it would transfer more people to its hospital in Wayne County and get help from other health care providers.
“The number of patients coming to our emergency rooms continues to grow rapidly,” Beaumont CEO John Fox said.
Fox told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday that the pandemic is proving to be healthcare providers’ “worst nightmare,” noting that Beaumont is admitting 100 new coronavirus patients per day, at that time.
“What we all need to remember is that we got our first patient two weeks ago. So this is coming on hard and fast. This is definitely a biological tsunami,” he said.
“In my lifetime, we’ve never had a pandemic like this,” Fox said.
“Across our system, we are facing limitations and nearing capacity with our staffing, personal protective equipment, and mechanical ventilators,” said Beaumont’s chief operating officer Carolyn Wilson.
“The numbers are changing and increasing even in two-hour intervals,” said Bob Riney, the chief operating officer at Henry Ford, whose flagship hospital is in the city of Detroit.
Dr. Betty Chu, the chief clinical officer and chief quality officer at Henry Ford, predicted an “upcoming surge.” Chu noted that the hospital was already reallocating resources because the Henry Ford hospitals in West Bloomfield and Detroit have reached capacity due to COVID-19 patients.
“Today our capacity is quite full at those two hospitals — West Bloomfield and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit,” Chu said Wednesday. “We fortunately have the luxury right now of having additional capacity at some of our other campuses.”
On Wednesday, Mary Macdonald, an Oakland County ER nurse, posted a viral video on Instagram detailing the harrowing conditions at southeast Michigan hospitals where medical staff are combating shortages of essential supplies and equipment to care for this surge of coronavirus patients.
“It’s getting to the point now that it’s going to be just like Italy,” Macdonald said. “From 10:00 PM last night to this morning, we intubated two of my patients within a half-hour. And upwards of 10 patients were put on ventilators. My patient took the last ventilator available in the hospital,” she said.
“Normally, if a patient was to pass away, it would be because we tried everything that we could, we did everything that we could, we had all the resources and all the people that we needed to help save this patient’s life, and it was just their time. And now we aren’t giving the patient the time to choose whether it’s their time or not. We’re choosing for them,” she said.
Macdonald also noted that the hospital is short of even basic supplies.
“Resources are very slim. We have no medications to keep these patients even ventilated, let alone ventilators,” she said, adding that they are out of medications like propofol to keep people sedated when they are intubated. She said they are even running out of Tylenol.
“There are no masks. There are no gowns. They’re running low on gloves because everyone has panicked and stockpiled this, so that medical staff doesn’t have it,” she said. Macdonald then showed the disposable N95 mask she was required to stow in a brown paper bag after every workday to be reused for the rest of the year.
Macdonald urged her fellow Michiganders to take the social distancing instructions seriously in order to protect themselves and their neighbors from spreading the virus, otherwise the overwhelmed hospital system won’t be able to care for all the sick.
“We don’t have any ventilators to put these patients on,” Macdonald stressed. “So, we’re going to start making life or death decisions in regards to people’s care. So you’re going to come in, and you’re going to get tagged whether you [are] deem[ed] necessary to even get intubated or are you being sent home to die. This is truly scary, and nobody is taking it seriously.”
Khaldun, the chief medical office for Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, said the state is “probably a few weeks out” from hitting a peak in coronavirus cases. Michigan reported nearly 2,900 cases by Thursday and 60 deaths, both an increase of Wednesday’s statewide numbers.
Wayne County, home to Detroit, accounted for nearly half of the cases. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, called Wayne a “hot spot” nationally and said she was concerned the county was “having a more rapid increase.”
Southeast Michigan, like New York City, is a hub for international travel. As the capital of the world’s auto industry, Metro Detroit has daily direct flights to and from major cities in Europe and Asia.
Although the virus is hitting the entire metro area hard, the city of Detroit is uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic. Despite its dramatic economic rebound in recent years after its municipal bankruptcy in 2013, the city is still one of the poorest in the nation, with a poverty rate nearly three times higher than the national average, and the city’s population suffers in greater numbers from underlining conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
“Part of what we’re seeing in Detroit is that there’s such a high number of individuals who have those underlying conditions, who have diabetes and the heart disease, who may have obesity,” Khaldun explained.
On Tuesday, Marlowe Stoudamire, 43, one of the young entrepreneurs involved in rebuilding the city, died from complications from COVID-19. According to health officials at Henry Ford Health System, Stoudamire had “no known underlying health conditions or recent travel.”
Detroit’s police force has also been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Two members of the force died this week due to COVID-19, and 331 Detroit officers and 70 civilian police employees have been quarantined since the outbreak, including Detroit police chief James Craig, who tested positive for coronavirus on Friday.
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Health Politics coronavirus COVID-19 Henry Ford Health System hospitals Michigan William Beaumont Health System
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Week Ahead In The News
Richard Hillgrove Founder of 6 Hillgrove PR takes a look at the week ahead.
News diary 23-29 March:
With the cancellation of nearly all public events in dozens of countries, coronavirus continues to monopolise the news agenda. A virtual meeting of G20 leaders to agree a coordinated roadmap on policies to “protect people and safeguard the global economy” is due sometime this week.
New emergency legislation to help the government tackle the crisis is to be fast-tracked through the House of Commons on Monday. MPs are expected to nod through the Coronavirus Bill, which would give police and health officials powers to detain or enforce isolation on those suspected of having the virus. The Bill proceeds to the House of Lords on Tuesday and is expected to become law from next week.
Meanwhile, the measures that have already been introduced become more noticeable: it’s the start of a 12-week “shielding period” for those most at risk of contracting COVID-19, meaning more people should be in some form of self-isolation, and schools are closed across the country, with exceptions for classes for vulnerable children and the children of key workers.
Transport networks will also be slowing down as many (but not all) social-distancing commuters stay home. Following the closure of the Waterloo & City line on Friday, tubes and buses in London will move to a less frequent service while train operators across the UK have reached an agreement to run amended timetables.
A two-week quarantine period ends for passengers from the Grand Princess cruise ship that docked in Oakland on 9 March. Over 3,500 people from 54 countries were on board the vessel when passengers started testing positive for coronavirus.
Conditions in the federal quarantine facilities in the US have been criticised for their uncleanliness and lack of social distancing, and many passengers remain untested.
Several members of the Cabinet are lined up to appear before select committees this week, with George Eustice at Defra and Stephen Barclay at Treasury on Tuesday the pick of the bunch.
The Environment Secretary is likely to face questions on UK supply chains and the possibility of food shortages caused by panic-buying, while the Chief Secretary to the Treasury faces the thankless-looking task of fielding questions on the economic impact of the virus.
With thousands of schoolchildren suddenly at home and in need of entertainment, the launch of Disney’s new streaming service comes at an advantageous time for the studio. Disney+ features classics from its golden era alongside Pixar titles, the Marvel and Star Wars franchises (pictured), and, perhaps crucially for parents of a certain age, The Simpsons.
Disney’s entry into the competitive on-demand market could be an important marker as the BBC faces questions over its funding and the continuing viability of the licence fee.
Members of the Petitions Committee question Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jenny Harries, Schools Minister Nick Gibb and Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson on Wednesday regarding the Government’s response to the pandemic.
The hearing was prompted by a spate of parliamentary petitions which accumulated more than 1.8m signatures. The Government has come under fire for taking less drastic measures than other European countries to combat the outbreak, and for mixed-messaging on its initial “herd immunity” approach.
The third Bank of England monetary policy committee meeting of this month comes after a flurry of recent action by governments and central banks to counter the effects of COVID-19 on economies around the world.
Last week the FTSE dropped to a near-decade low as sterling fell sharply against the dollar, and the MPC responded by reducing the interest rate to 0.1 per cent and increasing UK government bond holdings. With Governor Andrew Bailey refusing to rule out even more radical monetary action, there could yet be further surprises in store.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will join a virtual meeting of G7 counterparts where, again, coordinating responses to the pandemic will dominate. The call follows news that the G7 summit later in the year, which was to have been hosted by President Trump at Camp David, will now also take place in a virtual format, along with further leaders’ calls in April and May.
Two of the highest profile criminal cases in Northern Ireland’s recent history return to Londonderry Magistrates Court on Thursday. Paul McIntyre, an alleged member of the IRA, appears accused of the murder (by way of joint enterprise) of journalist Lyra McKee in April 2019.
Meanwhile a former armed forces member known only as Soldier F appears over the Bloody Sunday murders of James Wray and William McKinney. The hearing is expected to see a ruling on whether to move the case from Londonderry to Belfast, a proposal which has provoked a stern response from the victims’ families.
EU leaders hold their third videoconference in ten days in lieu of a formal European Council that had been scheduled for today. The leaders agreed to a month-long closure of the bloc’s external borders on their 17 March call, and are due to focus on the four priority areas identified in their early discussions: limiting the coronavirus spread, providing medical equipment, promoting vaccine research and mitigating socio-economic consequences.
The European Parliament, meanwhile, holds an extraordinary plenary session vote on Commission proposals, including a
new law to stop the “ghost flights” caused by the pandemic.
The Spanish government has ordered the closure of the country’s hotels and tourist accommodations by Thursday to help stem the spread of the virus. The world’s second most-visited tourist destination is also the second-worst hit country in Europe, and the closures are just the latest measures brought in as the death toll continues to climb.
On Friday the UK Government delivers its weekly round-up of COVID-19 cases in the UK, reporting locations and confirmed numbers. The update comes a week after a string of “delay” measures were implemented, including the decisions to close schools and advise people to self-isolate and stay away from public places such as restaurants, cinemas and bars.
Despite the global sporting calendar continuing to be decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, the UAE hosts the Dubai World Cup on Saturday (albeit behind closed doors).
The horse racing meet includes some of the biggest prizes in the sport – the World Cup boasts a $6m purse, with the Dubai Duty Free and Dubai Sheema Classic turf races each offering $5m. Last year’s event was won by Thunder Snow, who became the first horse to claim the Cup title twice.
On Sunday, restrictive measures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus are set to expire around the world, though with infection rates continuing to rise, extensions seem almost certain.
In Ireland, pubs and bars are scheduled to reopen, and the ban on overseas travel ends. International flights are also due to begin landing again in Poland, while Spain’s state of emergency declaration that closed all non-essential public facilities and banned all unnecessary travel is also set to expire.
In Mali, parliamentary elections are due to go ahead, despite a recent warning by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to leaders in Africa that they need to wake up to the threat posed by the virus.
The news diary is provided in association with Foresight News.
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California school district tells parents their children must eat lunch in the rain due to COVID
A California school district sent an email to parents telling them their children will be forced eat lunch outside in the rain due to coronavirus restrictions.
“Rain is forecasted this week which will present an added challenge to our lunch routines,” Patwin Elementary School Principal Gay Bourguignon notified parents this week. “DJUSD [Davis Joint Unified School District] students are required to eat outside at this time due to COVID restrictions. I am asking you to send your children to school with rain gear and warm jackets.”
FILE – Teachers protest against the COVID-19 vaccination mandates in New York on Wednesday Aug. 25, 2021. New York City teachers and other school staff members are supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rings Monday morning, Oct. 4 in one of the first districtwide mandates requiring school employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
CALIFORNIA MOM ON WALKOUT OVER SCHOOL VACCINE MANDATE: THE GOVERNOR IS ‘OVERREACHING’
The announcement resulted in an angry response from many parents who took to social media to express frustration with the statement from the principal.
“This exemplifies California’s response with kids during the pandemic,” Reopen California Schools founder Jonathan Zachreson told Fox News. “The inhumane treatment of children continues from masking all day, even outdoors, to having to sit on hot cement and now eating lunch in the rain.”
Republican California state legislator Kevin Kiley tweeted, “Cruelty to children has been normalized in California.”
REDONDO BEACH, CA – JULY 27: Let Them Breathe, an anti-mask group, gather to protest at the Redondo Beach Unified School District building on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 in Redondo Beach, CA.(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
CALIFORNIA PARENTS, TEACHERS PLAN STATEWIDE WALKOUT TO PROTEST SCHOOL VACCINE MANDATE
Following the negative reaction from concerned Californians, the Davis Joint Unified School district released a follow up email stating that children will be allowed to eat inside “whenever possible” and stressed that the district is facing “unique challenges as we seek to maintain our students’ health and safety and minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection.”
Following that email, Principal Bourguignon sent parents a third email reversing course and acknowledging that some people were upset with the decision to force kids to eat in the rain.
“Some parents are very happy with our decision to have students eat outside and others are concerned,” Bourguignon wrote. “Our campus is not ideal for eating outside due to the lack of a solid walkway cover. In collaboration with our District staff, we looked at all of the alternatives. If during lunchtime, we have a heavy downpour of rain it will be challenging to eat under the covered walkways. “
“During a heavy downpour, we will have a staggered lunch with one grade level at a time in our MPR for 15 minutes with all 10 doors open and 2 air purifiers running. After 15 minutes, students will be dismissed to their classrooms for inside recess. If you prefer that your child remains outside to eat please inform your teacher and we will make accommodations to support your request.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with reporters at Carl B. Munck Elementary School, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Oakland, Calif. Newsom announced that California will require its 320,000 teachers and school employees to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. The statewide vaccine mandate for K-12 educators comes as schools return from summer break amid growing concerns of the highly contagious delta variant. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)
(Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)
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A parent of two children in the Davis Joint Unified School District who wished to remain anonymous told Fox News that the first email he received was “surprising but not shocking given the state of COVID fear in Davis itself.”
The father of two added that his children are forced to wear masks outside during recess despite data showing outdoor transmission of the virus is less than 1% and the CDC’s own admission that schools are not a major coronavirus transmission source.
“The other parents I’ve spoken to thought it was ridiculous and overkill,” the parent said about the announcement that students would be forced to eat lunch in the rain.
The Davis Joint Unified School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
California has been at the center of the public debate on how to combat the spread of the coronavirus among children, which was highlighted by a student walkout this week organized by groups that oppose mandatory vaccines for young children.
“My kids stayed home yesterday for several reasons,” California mother of three Lindsay Bingham told Fox News on Tuesday. “We definitely support the movement to send a statement to our government officials that they are overreaching and crushing our parental rights and encroaching on the rights of educators and staff with these mandates.”
Fox News’ Jordan Early contributed to this report.
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Those familiar with history will quickly recognize the playbook. It's been used by virtually every totalitarian and dictatorial power throughout modern history. One of the clearest and most well-known examples is that of Nazi Germany, which used health and the fear of germs and disease as a means to manipulate society into accepting the extermination of certain groups of people.
We're now seeing the same exact tactics used all over the world. The rhetoric used by government officials and media is clearly meant to incite fear and hostility against the unvaccinated. Once the hostility becomes normalized, the undesirables can be eliminated with the full support of the general population.
Second-Class Citizens
Everywhere you look, people in positions of power are actively pushing for the creation of a two-tier society where those who get the COVID jabs are "privileged" with normal everyday freedoms and those who refuse the shot are shunned, barred and excluded.
As of September 7, 2021, high-profile restaurant chains in New York City will require staff and indoor diners to prove their vaccination status.6 Gyms and movie theaters in the city are also being ordered to follow suit.7 New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told The New York Times:8
"This is a miraculous place literally full of wonders. If you're vaccinated, all that's going to open up to you. But if you're unvaccinated, unfortunately you will not be able to participate in many things."
Is this freedom? In July 2021, the San Francisco Bar Owners Alliance urged its 300 members to require proof of COVID-19 injection or a negative COVID test for patrons wanting to have a drink indoors.
Several Los Angeles restaurants, bars and comedy clubs have followed suit, as have more than 60 establishments in Seattle. Vaccinated-only restaurants have also popped up in Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans. Since COVID countermeasures are a global lockstep operation,9 the same segregation trend is emerging in other countries as well.
Worse than prohibiting people from participating in civil society, and in clear violation of the U.S. Constitution that every elected official has sworn an oath to upkeep, the U.S. government is also urging far larger corporations to impose vaccination mandates for staff and/or their customers.
Companies paving the way for this all-out tyranny include Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation, Morgan Stanley,10 Tyson Foods, CNN and United Airlines.11
The Goal: Making Life Impossible for the Unvaccinated
A number of people have publicly stated that life needs to be made impossible for the unvaccinated and, clearly, such efforts are well underway. Politicians, government officials, health authorities, media personalities and common folk have suggested making life untenable for the unvaccinated by:12
Requiring them to get tested daily at their own expense
Docking their paychecks (provided they're allowed to work at all)
Charging them nonrefundable quarantine fees
Denying them medical care at hospitals and private medical offices
Canceling their private insurance or raising premiums by thousands of dollars a year
Forcing them to pay out of pocket for all medical expenses accrued due to COVID, even if they have insurance, Medicaid or Medicare13
Suspending their gun permits
Suspending their driver's licenses
Denying access to loans and other financial services
Withholding government assistance
Withholding federal benefits like Social Security, VA benefits, subsidized housing and pensions
Barring them from using public transportation
Putting them on a no-fly list14
Many of these suggestions are already being acted upon. For example, Delta Airlines has announced it will charge unvaccinated workers an extra $200 per month for their health insurance,15 and digital transaction companies like PayPal are canceling accounts held by anyone who "endangers at-risk communities"16 — a description that clearly includes anyone who publicly objects to COVID measures and/or forced vaccinations.
Even major banks like Chase have been caught canceling credit card accounts based on the account holders' political views.17,18 Although Chase later backed off, claiming the cancelation was a "mistake,"19 this is precisely what we can expect from a social credit system, which is also part of the plan. Your ability to live and conduct business will be entirely controlled by a central apparatus that decides what views and behavior is acceptable and what is not.
Disturbingly, it was only four weeks ago that I wrote: "If this trend continues, might people who question COVID shots and/or refuse to participate in human experimentation be barred from having a credit card or a bank account?" So, to say we're moving toward tyranny at breakneck speed is not hyperbole.
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Cal Ed Matters
Newsom Makes California First State To Require Teacher Vaccines Or COVID Tests
After months of reluctance, Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to mandate on Wednesday that all California teachers working on campuses be vaccinated for COVID-19 or be tested regularly.
This is the first such statewide mandate for teachers in the country. Until now, Newsom stopped short of such a requirement: He spent the past several months voicing confidence in school safety protocols like increased ventilation and masking, while urging all school employees to be vaccinated.
“We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keep schools open,” Newsom said at a press conference at Carl B. Munck Elementary School in Oakland. “We think this will do exactly what it’s intended to do and that’s encourage people to get vaccinated.”
Prior to today’s mandate, districts across the state had formed a patchwork of various vaccination rules for school employees. San Jose Unified, San Francisco Unified, San Diego Unified and others were already requiring teachers to either be vaccinated or undergo regular testing. Other districts throughout California were requiring neither.
Both the University of California and California State University systems have issued vaccine mandates for students. The UC will also require faculty to be vaccinated.
Newsom said his office will monitor the efficacy of the requirement issued today and will consider the possibility of a stronger vaccination mandate for teachers without the option of routine testing.
“We’ll consider all options in the future,” he said. “There’s nothing static about this virus.”
California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd strongly endorsed the new mandate.
“Today’s announcement is an appropriate next step to ensure the safety of our school communities and to protect our youngest learners under 12 who are not yet vaccine eligible from this highly contagious Delta variant,” he wrote in a statement.
Megan Bacigalupi, the executive director of Open Schools California, said this requirement should have come sooner. Her children’s district, Oakland Unified, started its school year on Monday.
“I wish this vaccine requirement would have happened earlier in the summer when it could’ve had a bigger impact,” she said. “I’m certainly happy to see him do it, but I don’t know why it took this long.”
Before the forthcoming mandate, California teacher vaccines and testing vaccine requirements were negotiated between teachers unions and local school districts. One legal expert told CalMatters that because the vaccines were not yet fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a unilateral mandate from either the state or local districts could be vulnerable to legal challenges.
At Sacramento City Unified, district administrators and the teachers union met on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a vaccine or testing requirement for teachers. According to David Fisher, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, no formal agreement was reached, but he said the union and the district appeared to be on the same page.
Fisher said that with the delta variant, vaccinations alone aren’t enough. He said SCTA is calling for weekly testing for even vaccinated teachers who could pass the more contagious delta variant to unvaccinated students or staff.
“I think there should be an increased emphasis on testing,” he said. “While the science becomes more clear, we think universal testing should be a goal.”
Julie Walker, president of the local teachers union at Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego County, says some of her members will be upset about today’s announcement.
“Testing is going to be readily available and convenient for teachers, but they’ll still complain,” she said. “It’s not a real pleasant experience, but hopefully it will encourage some of those members to critically think about being vaccinated.”
In the past two weeks, the state also issued vaccination or regular testing mandates for state employees and health care workers. On Sunday, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union, added to this momentum by calling for vaccine requirements for educators.
“I’m going to upset some people on this, but I think we should [require teacher vaccinations],” Fauci said Tuesday morning in an interview on MSNBC. “We’ve had 615,000-plus deaths, and we are in a major surge now as we’re going into the fall, into the school season. This is very serious business.”
Bacigalupi said she’s hoping Newsom will issue a stronger vaccination mandate once the vaccines are officially approved by the FDA.
“I’m assuming that districts and the governor are potentially waiting for the vaccine to be fully authorized,” she said. “Once it’s fully authorized, I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be fully mandated.”
John Cox, a Republican challenger of Newsom in California’s upcoming recall election, responded to Newsom’s mandate with sharp criticism.
“Gavin Newsom is a power-hungry politician who wants to control every aspect of people’s lives,” Cox said in a statement. “Now he is effectively threatening people’s employment if they don’t do what he tells them to. 90 percent of teachers are already vaccinated. This is just further government intrusion into people’s personal lives. We must draw the line and protect people’s freedoms. “Reposted article from KPBS by Joe Hong, August 11, 2021
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Headlines
Trump Threatens to Send Federal Law Enforcement Forces to More Cities
(NYT) President Trump plans to deploy federal law enforcement to Chicago and threatened on Monday to send agents to other major cities—all controlled by Democrats. Governors and other officials reacted angrily to the president’s move, calling it an election-year ploy as they squared off over crime, civil liberties and local control that has spread from Portland, Ore., across the country. With camouflage-clad agents already sweeping through the streets of Portland, more units were poised to head to Chicago, and Mr. Trump suggested that he would follow suit in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and other urban centers. Governors and other officials compared his actions to authoritarianism and vowed to pursue legislation or lawsuits to stop him. “I’m going to do something—that, I can tell you,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these—Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.”
Chicago restaurateur joins mission to feed America’s hungry
(AP) Before coronavirus arrived, Manish Mallick’s trips to this city’s South Side had been limited to attending graduate classes at the University of Chicago. Now Mallick is a South Side regular—and a popular one. He regularly arrives bearing food for the hungry from his Indian restaurant several miles to the north, in the city’s downtown. “Thank you, sugar, for the meals. They’re so delicious!” one woman recently shouted to Mallick outside a South Side YWCA. “God bless you!” she added, raising her arms for emphasis. Mallick has personally delivered thousands of meals cooked and packed by his staff—among them, chickpea curry and tandoori chicken with roasted cottage cheese, sweet corn, peas and rice. Volunteers from neighborhood organizations then take them to children, retirees and the multitudes who’ve been laid off or sick during the pandemic. “We all need to help each other,” Mallick says. “That’s the best way to get through a crisis.”
American tourists are banned from the Bahamas as coronavirus cases spike
(Washington Post) One of the few countries to welcome U.S. tourists has changed its mind, citing soaring infection numbers. The Bahamas will close its borders to most visitors from the United States starting Wednesday, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday. While commercial flights from Canada, Britain and the European Union will still be allowed to land, all visitors must show proof that they tested negative for the coronavirus at an accredited lab in the past 10 days. Other international flights will be banned.
More and more countries are making masks mandatory
(Washington Post) As countries around the world reopen their economies amid ongoing novel coronavirus outbreaks, governments are increasingly embracing what remains in some places a divisive public health measure: mandatory masks. In France, face coverings will be required in all public enclosed spaces as of Monday. England is set to begin enforcing new rules that make masks mandatory inside supermarkets and other shops, effective Friday. In the U.S., there is no national mask requirement. But at the state level, a growing number of mask requirements have come into force.
EU agrees on $2.1 trillion deal after marathon summit
(AP) After four days and nights of wrangling, exhausted European Union leaders finally clinched a deal on an unprecedented 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery fund early Tuesday, after one of their longest summits ever. The 27 leaders grudgingly committed to a costly, massive aid package for those hit hardest by COVID-19, which has already killed 135,000 people within the bloc alone. “Extraordinary events, and this is the pandemic that has reached us all, also require extraordinary new methods,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. To confront the biggest recession in its history, the EU will establish a 750 billion-euro coronavirus fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries. That is in addition to the agreement on the seven-year, 1 trillion-euro EU budget that leaders had been haggling over for months even before the pandemic. “The consequences will be historic,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “We have created a possibility of taking up loans together, of setting up a recovery fund in the spirit of solidarity,” a sense of sharing debt that would have been unthinkable not so long ago.
Breached levees trap thousands as flooding in China worsens
(AP) Breached levees have trapped more than 10,000 people in an eastern Chinese town as flooding worsens across much of the country, local authorities said Tuesday. High waters overcame flood defenses protecting Guzhen, a town in Anhui province, on Sunday, the provincial government said on its official microblog. Flood waters rose as high as 3 meters (10 feet), the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang Qingjun, Guzhen’s Communist Party secretary, as saying. About 1,500 firefighters were rushed to carry out rescues in the province, where weeks of heavy rains have disrupted the lives of more than 3 million people, Xinhua said.
Britain suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong
(NYT) Britain on Monday suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong amid worries about a new national security law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony. The suspension comes as London and Beijing find themselves at increasing odds over a variety of issues, including Britain’s move to bar Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G wireless networks and growing public anger in Britain over the treatment of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in China.
Japan helps 87 companies to ‘exit China’ after pandemic exposed overreliance
(Washington Post) Japan is paying 87 companies to shift production back home or into Southeast Asia after the novel coronavirus pandemic disrupted supply chains and exposed an overreliance on Chinese manufacturing. Alarm bells started ringing in Japanese boardrooms as soon as the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a major hub of the auto parts industry. Japanese automaker Nissan was forced to temporarily halt production at a plant in Japan in February over shortages of parts from China, while a Japanese consumer goods company, Iris Ohyama, found itself unable to meet surging local demand for masks after supplies to its factory in China were disrupted and export controls out of China were tightened. In March, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government wanted to bring production back home and diversify into Southeast Asia. The following month, the government set aside $2.2 billion in its coronavirus economic recovery package to subsidize that process. China is Japan’s largest trading partner, but Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has been trying for several years to reduce the country’s dependence on its giant neighbor. The 2008 global financial crisis, the 2011 northeastern Japan earthquake and the coronavirus pandemic all disrupted supply chains, while U.S.-China trade tensions are also a factor.
Jordan to reopen airports to tourists in August
(AP) The Jordanian government says it will begin reopening airports to international travelers in August after sealing its borders in March to help halt the spread of the coronavirus. Travelers from a list of approved, low-risk countries must pass a coronavirus test at least 72 hours before departure and will get a second test upon arrival in Jordan, Transportation Minister Khaled Saif says. Jordan will require incoming tourists to download Aman, the government’s contact-tracing mobile application, for the duration of their stay in the country.
Swapping the stage for a deli: Israel underemployment rises
(AP) A year ago, Cijay Brightman was doing sound and lighting for a Madonna performance in Israel. Now, after the coronavirus wiped out live events, he’s making sandwiches, slicing cheese and serving customers at a Tel Aviv deli. Brightman spent the last 15 years perfecting his craft and doing what he loves as a stage technician. But in the wake of the pandemic, he has been forced to abandon his passion and profession—like thousands of others in Israel—and find any job that will pay the bills. Underemployment is plaguing workers around the world. Although there are no global statistics yet, the phenomenon is expected to grow as the economic crisis around the world deepens, said economist Roger Gomis of the International Labor Organization.
King Salman hospitalized
(Foreign Policy) Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz has been admitted to hospital with gallbladder problems, state media reported on Monday. The 84-year-old monarch is the second aging Gulf leader to seek medical attention recently, after 91-year-old Kuwaiti ruler Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah underwent surgery on Sunday for an as yet unnamed ailment.
Uganda’s Museveni seeks re-election to extend rule to four decades
(Reuters) Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni has collected papers to seek nomination as the ruling party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, the party said on Tuesday. Securing a new term would potentially extend the 75-year-old former rebel fighter’s rule to four decades. Though no date has yet been fixed for the 2021 vote, it is typically held in February. The strongest opposition presidential aspirant is pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine, 38, whose music endears him to the young. In power since 1986, Museveni’s tenure is only surpassed in Africa by Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, who has ruled since 1979 and Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has ruled since 1982.
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