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justanotherexpatinkorea · 4 years

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Update 2020~2021 // 업데이트 2020~2021

January 22, 2021 / 1월 22일 2021

WHAT A WILD RIDE IT’S BEEN (AND WILL BE)

It’s been almost a year since my last blog update. It feels like so much yet so little has changed.

For one, coronavirus has taken over our lives. Because of the virus, we’ve had to stay inside, stay home. I miss being able to travel, visit people, make new friends. All of that has come to a halt. In some ways it feels like life has stalled, become stagnant. Yet that’s the price we pay for staying safe.

COVID 19 has become more than anything we could’ve imagined. A global pandemic that affects the lives of every person on this planet. We’ve had to confront the worst possible outcomes, and find it within ourselves to work together with our communities to overcome it.

As of this writing, here are the stats:

South Korea:

confirmed cases = 73, 918

total deaths = 1,316

United States:

confirmed cases = 24,196,086

total deaths = 420,285

WTF AMERICA….

No country has been perfect in their COVID response. This is a wickedly difficulty problem to tackle. However, living in a foreign country during this unprecedented time, I’ve gained a valuable perspective on this pandemic.

I hate to say this, but I am embarrassed. So many countries around the world look up the US. We’re one of the wealthiest, most developed countries in the world. A strong democracy renowned for its freedom, liberty and justice for all. Among my friends and coworkers here in South Korea, many of them aspire to travel or live in the US one day. I used to encourage them to do so. However, I’m more hesitant now.

I was extremely disappointed in the way the US responded to the virus. We have all the resources, the manpower, the knowledge. All the things that make other countries think so highly of us. Yet despite our alleged greatness, why did the US fail so miserably? fail to contain the virus? fail to keep Americans properly informed in a timely manner? fail to provide strong leadership in such a desperate time? If ever there was a time to step up and band together, this would have been it. Yet in my opinion, America missed the mark horrendously. Hospitals are overflowing. COVID patients are dying in makeshift hospital beds set up in parking garages. People are ignoring the heed to mask up and socially distance. Simple actions that could save ones life and that of others. Yet many Americans are too selfish to look out for the health of their fellow countrymen.

Watching news from back home, there are things that seem so strange to me now. As an expat, I live outside the frame, analyzing from a different context.

Masks. I cannot for the life of me understand how masks become so politicized. Korea, like many Asian countries, have been wearing masks for years. There is nothing controversial about it. It’s a piece of fabric designed to keep you and the people around you safe. A mere health-related courtesy. The fact that so many Americans cannot concede to this simple gesture makes me greatly concerned. Are we so divided as a nation? That when a global pandemic strikes - the worst health crisis in our lifetime - we cannot recognize the humanity in one another? Is there no love within us, to help us overcome this small personal discomfort for the sake of our fellow Americans? For the sake of us all? If we can’t grow up and do this one simple thing, I worry for our ability to tackle together the more complex issues facing our nation.

THE SOUTH KOREAN RESPONSE:

South Korea was one of the first hit by COVID. The proximity to China and the rapidity with which coronavirus spreads should have drastically increased the likelihood that the country would be decimated by the virus. But that’s not what happened. South Korea has become known worldwide as a model for how to approach the virus.

Widely and readily available testing and contact tracing

Mandatory masks and social distancing

Daily televised updates from government health officials - sharing data, updates on cases and deaths, etc.

Government measures (the closing and re-opening of schools, restaurants, businesses etc. depending on the current situation, in response to confirmed case numbers, etc. )

Quarantine for people coming from overseas, people who have had contact with COVID patients

In short, the Korean response was swift, thorough, and transparent. It required (and still requires) the collective will and cooperation of the people. Which includes myself.

As a teacher, my life has been affected professionally as well. I’m so lucky to have steady employment here as a government employee in the public schools. COVID-related measures in schools include: wearing masks at all times, washing hands regularly, sanitizing classrooms, social distancing as much as possible, keeping students separated and spread out in the cafeteria. And moving to online class when needed.

The government has a system of levels from 1 to 3. Here’s how the levels are decided and what measures they trigger. (For example, most places move to online classes around Level 2~2.5)

What is Level 1?

if the average cases per week are:

30 or fewer in a given province, 100 in large cities

socially distance when going out, wear a mask

What is Level 1.5?

if the average cases per week are:

increasing by 30 or more in a given province, 100 in large cities

if the average cases for people over 60 per week are:

increasing by 10 or more in a given province, 40 in large cities

Level 1+ thorough sanitizing of dangerous, infected areas

What is Level 2?

more than a week of level 1.5, and the cases in the affected community double and persist

OR total national cases reach at least 300, and persist for a week or more

Level 1.5 + recommend that unnecessary outings are limited, reduce meetings and gathering

What is Level 2.5?

total national cases reach 400~500, increase drastically and persist

special consideration - number of hospital beds for those with pre-existing conditions, elderly

Level 2 + stay home

What is Level 3?

total national cases reach 800~1,000, increase drastically and persist

Level 2.5 + stay home whenever possible, limit interactions with others as much as possible

YEAH, IT SUCKS

Around Christmas / New Year, Korea saw a spike in cases, about 300~500 a day. For Korea, this is considered dangerously high. (As an American I laugh at how small these numbers are, comparing it to the thousand of deaths that are occurring every day back home. But alas, this is no laughing matter, regardless of the magnitude of cases.)

The government introduced a new policy:

Gatherings of 5 or more people are banned.

This sucks big time. I was planning on doing a Secret Santa gift exchange with my friends, all thirteen of us. I really wanted to spend the holidays chowing down on sentimental comfort foods, having a drink or two, watching movies, etc. But we had to cancel everything. It was originally only a two-week policy, but the government has continued to extend it two weeks at a time. If COVID cases aren’t dramatically reduced, they’re not going to lift it. It sucks. I wish I could hang out, go out to restaurants and cafes and bars. But everyone is struggling through together. It would be easier to cast my worries aside and let up a little. But the risks are out there. COVID is a serious disease with serious consequences. Even if you don’t die you have the aftereffects of damaged lungs. And who knows what else? Years down the road, who knows what health concerns survivors will have to endure? It’s not worth it.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Like everyone else, I can’t wait for this to all be over. I can’t wait to travel again, explore, and live my life carefree. But who knows exactly when that will be.

However, there is one thing I know for sure. I’m not moving back to the US any time soon. I’d rather live in a country where I have stable employment, in this unstable world. Where I can get rapid testing and readily available (and affordably dirt cheap!) health care should I happen to have a COVID scare. (Or any other health concern, for that matter.) Where I know the people around me respect their communities, and will wear a mask, etc.

Where people with guns and molotov cocktails and weapons don’t attack the buildings of their democracy. Where facts and reason aren’t under attack, in a way that is tearing apart the fabric of the nation. (But that’s a conversation for another day.)

Of course Korea isn’t perfect. There are flaws in this society that concern me deeply as well. But at the end of the day, I feel much more safe and comfortable in Korea than I do back home. As long as that’s true, this is the place where I will continue to live and make my life.

#covid #coronavirus #korea #southkorea #expat #southkoreaexpat

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

Exhausted cities face another challenge: a surge in violence (AP) Still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and street protests over the police killing of George Floyd, exhausted cities around the nation are facing yet another challenge: a surge in shootings that has left dozens dead, including young children. The spike defies easy explanation, experts say, pointing to the toxic mix of issues facing America in 2020: an unemployment rate not seen in a generation, a pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 people, stay-at-home orders, rising anger over police brutality, intense stress, even the weather. “I think it’s just a perfect storm of distress in America,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms after a weekend of bloodshed in her city. Jerry Ratcliffe, a Temple University criminal justice professor and host of the “Reducing Crime” podcast, put it more bluntly: “Anybody who thinks they can disentangle all of this probably doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” Through Sunday, shootings in New York City were up more than 53%—to 585—so far this year. In Dallas, violent crime increased more than 14% from April to June. In Philadelphia, homicides were up 20% for the week ending July 5 over last year at this time. In Atlanta, 31 people were shot over the weekend, five fatally, compared with seven shootings and one killing over the same week in 2019.

Congress created virus aid, then reaped the benefits (AP) At least a dozen lawmakers have ties to organizations that received federal coronavirus aid, according to newly released government data, highlighting how Washington insiders were both author and beneficiary of one of the biggest government programs in U.S. history. Under pressure from Congress and outside groups, the Trump administration this week disclosed the names of some loan recipients in the $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program, launched in April to help smaller businesses keep Americans employed during the pandemic. Connections to lawmakers, and the organizations that work to influence them, were quickly apparent. Members of Congress and their families are not barred from receiving loans under the PPP, and there is no evidence they received special treatment. Hundreds of millions of dollars also flowed to political consultants, opposition research shops, law firms, advocacy organizations and trade associations whose work is based around influencing government and politics. While voting, lobbying and ultimately benefiting from legislation aren’t illegal, advocates say the blurred lines risk eroding public trust in the federal pandemic response. “It certainly looks bad and smells bad,” said Aaron Scherb, a spokesperson for Common Cause, a watchdog group that was also approved for a loan through the program.

Missouri summer camp virus outbreak raises safety questions (AP) Missouri leaders knew the risk of convening thousands of kids at summer camps across the state during a pandemic, the state’s top health official said, and insisted that camp organizers have plans in place to keep an outbreak from happening. The outbreak happened anyway. An overnight summer camp in rural southwestern Missouri has seen scores of campers, counselors and staff infected with the coronavirus, the local health department revealed this week, raising questions about the ability to keep kids safe at what is a rite of childhood for many. The Kanakuk camp near Branson ended up sending its teenage campers home. On Friday, the local health department announced 49 positive cases of the COVID-19 virus at the camp. By Monday, the number had jumped to 82.

Our Cash-Free Future Is Getting Closer (NYT) PARIS—On a typical Sunday, patrons at Julien Cornu’s cheese shop used to load up on Camembert and chèvre for the week, with about half the customers digging into their pockets for euro notes and coins. But in the era of the coronavirus, cash is no longer à la mode at La Fromagerie, as social distancing requirements and concerns over hygiene prompt nearly everyone who walks through his door to pay with plastic. “People are using cards and contactless payments because they don’t want to have to touch anything,” said Mr. Cornu, as a line of mask-wearing shoppers stood three feet apart before approaching the register and swiping contactless cards over a reader. While cash is still accepted, even older shoppers—his toughest clientele when it comes to adopting digital habits—are voluntarily making the switch. Cash was already being edged out in many countries as urban consumers paid increasingly with apps and cards for even the smallest purchases. But the coronavirus is accelerating a shift toward a cashless future. Fears over transmission of the disease have compelled consumers to rethink how they shop and pay.

The White House and AMLO (Foreign Policy) Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador visits the White House today (Wednesday) for his first foreign trip since winning the presidency in 2018. His arrival in Washington on Tuesday evening was typically on-brand for the leftist leader: He flew in economy class on a commercial airliner (albeit in an exit row). Unlike Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—who spurned an invite to today’s meeting as the U.S. government threatens to place tariffs on Canadian aluminum—this summit is too good an opportunity for López Obrador to turn down. That’s largely because of the importance of the United States to Mexico’s economy—which is predicted to contract by 10.5 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. As his approval rating gradually falls along with Mexico’s economic performance, López Obrador is aiming to stay on Trump’s good side. “This is about the economy, it’s about jobs, it’s about well-being,” López Obrador said before he departed for Washington.

Berlin looks east (Foreign Policy) Germany is hoping to strengthen its economic ties with China, setting itself apart from the rest of the West and the United States in particular. Germany’s relationship with China has always been divided. On one hand, human rights issues preoccupy the German public, and figures such as Ai Weiwei and Liao Yiwu are well known there. But on the other, trade between China and Germany is significant and largely responsible for Germany’s post-2008 prosperity. The antagonism shown by President Donald Trump and his team toward German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also poisoned any attempts by the United States to sell Berlin on a split with Beijing.

OECD unemployment rate to hit record highs (Foreign Policy) The world’s wealthiest countries will see record unemployment rates as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD forecast a 9.4 percent unemployment rate across the 37 countries that make up the group’s membership, a number that could go as high as 12.6 percent if these countries see a second wave of coronavirus cases. In releasing the data, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría called on wealthy countries to better protect the economically vulnerable across their societies. “In times of crisis, ‘normality’ sounds very appealing. However, our normal was not good enough for the many people with no or precarious jobs, bad working conditions, income insecurity, and limits on their ambitions,” Gurría said.

Rioting in Serbia (Reuters) Dozens of demonstrators and police were injured in overnight rioting in Belgrade, triggered when a crowd stormed Serbia’s parliament in protest at plans to reimpose a lockdown following a surge in coronavirus cases. Footage showed police kicking and beating people with truncheons while protesters pelted officers with stones and bottles, after thousands chanting for the resignation of President Aleksandar Vucic gathered outside the building. Vucic announced the new lockdown on Tuesday, saying it was needed because of the rising number of coronavirus cases.

Top U.S. general speaks on Russian bounty case (Foreign Policy) Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, has poured cold water on recent allegations, first reported by the New York Times, of a program run by Russian intelligence offering cash to Afghan militants for killing U.S. soldiers. McKenzie called the reports “very worrisome,” but said he couldn’t point to any U.S. casualties that could have had a direct link to the alleged program. McKenzie said that Russia’s actions in Afghanistan should, however, still be watched closely.

Japan battered by more heavy rain, floods; 58 dead (AP) Pounding rain that already caused deadly floods in southern Japan was moving northeast Wednesday, battering large areas of Japan’s main island, swelling more rivers, triggering mudslides and destroying houses and roads. At least 58 people died in several days of flooding. Parts of Nagano and Gifu, including areas known for scenic mountain trails and hot springs, were flooded by massive downpours.

‘We’re next’: Hong Kong security law sends chills through Taiwan (AFP) The imposition of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong has sent chills through Taiwan, deepening fears that Beijing will focus next on seizing the democratic self-ruled island. China and Taiwan split in 1949 after nationalist forces lost a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, fleeing to the island which Beijing has since vowed to seize one day, by force if necessary. Over the years China has used a mixture of threats and inducements, including a promise Taiwan could have the “One Country, Two Systems” model that governs Hong Kong, supposedly guaranteeing key civil liberties and a degree of autonomy for 50 years after the city’s 1997 handover. Both Taiwan’s two largest political parties long ago rejected the offer, and the new security law has incinerated what little remaining faith many Taiwanese may have had in Beijing’s outreach. Some now fear even transiting through Hong Kong, worried that their social media profiles could see them open to prosecution under the legislation.

Millions of Australians brace for lockdowns amid Melbourne virus outbreak (Reuters) Five million Australians face a heavy police clampdown from midnight on Wednesday to contain a flare-up of coronavirus cases, with checkpoints to be set up around Melbourne to ensure people stay at home.

Suleimani killing “unlawful” (Foreign Policy) In a new report, Agnès Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded that the January killing of Iranian Commander Qassem Suleimani by a U.S. drone strike was arbitrary and unlawful under international human rights law, citing a lack of any imminent threat posed by Suleimani in the lead up to the assassination. Callamard will present her findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday. The United States left the council in 2018.

Rising food prices in Lebanon (Worldcrunch) In Lebanon, the constant change of the dollar exchange rate and a plummeting Lebanese pound have led to a 190% increase in food prices within a year. Hit with exponential inflation, French daily Les Echos notes that the country is facing its most serious economic and currency crisis since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war.

Dozen of bodies found in Burkina Faso, and rights group suspects extrajudicial killings (Reuters) At least 180 bodies have been found in common graves in Djibo, a town in the north of Burkina Faso, Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a report released on Wednesday, saying that the killings were likely carried out by government forces.

#headlines #news

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starfleetdoesntfirefirst · 5 years

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Sunday, March 15 COVID-19 updates: TL;DR this is worse than we thought, people without symptoms can be carriers and infect others, and millions of people’s lives are at risk, but that also means that every act of hygiene + social isolation is both more important and more powerful in flattening the curve and saving lives.

Each source dated; because this situation is changing so quickly, I tried to use sources only from the last few days. (Somewhat, but not entirely, U.S.-centric as I live + am tapped into organizing networks here.)

[id: CNN article headline, March 14: Infected people without symptoms might be driving the spread of coronavirus more than we realized.]

“Several experts interviewed by CNN said while it's unclear exactly what percentage of the transmission in the outbreak is fueled by people who are obviously sick versus those who have no symptoms or very mild symptoms, it's become clear that transmission by people who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic is responsible for more transmission than previously thought.

"We now know that asymptomatic transmission likely [plays] an important role in spreading this virus," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm added that it's "absolutely clear" that asymptomatic infection "surely can fuel a pandemic like this in a way that's going to make it very difficult to control."

+ “Coronavirus is most contagious before and during the first week of symptoms”

In other words, instead of thinking in terms of avoiding getting sick, we need to think in terms of avoiding getting others sick. There’s a real and ever-increasing chance that, without necessarily knowing it, you could be a carrier.

[id: NPR article headline, March 13: Flattening A Pandemic’s Curve: Why Staying Home Now Can Save Lives. Image is of a chart with Number of Cases on the vertical axis and Time Since First Case on the horizontal axis. There’s a straight dotted line labelled Health Care System Capacity running horizontally through the chart. An orange curve labelled Without Protective Measures rises steeply at the beginning of the time axis, showing the number of cases bursting over the Health Care System Capacity line, while a blue curve marked With Protective Measures is spread out over time and and is less steep, staying under the Health Care System Capacity line.]

“As the coronavirus continues to spread in the U.S., more and more businesses are sending employees off to work from home. Public schools are closing, universities are holding classes online, major events are getting canceled, and cultural institutions are shutting their doors. Even Disney World and Disneyland are set to close. The disruption of daily life for many Americans is real and significant — but so are the potential life-saving benefits.

“It's all part of an effort to do what epidemiologists call flattening the curve of the pandemic. The idea is to increase social distancing in order to slow the spread of the virus, so that you don't get a huge spike in the number of people getting sick all at once. If that were to happen, there wouldn't be enough hospital beds or mechanical ventilators for everyone who needs them, and the U.S. hospital system would be overwhelmed. That's already happening in Italy.”

Flattening the curve with hygiene and social distancing isn’t just about the coronavirus. An intensive-care bed is an intensive-care bed, and as people catching a new virus that no one is immune to overwhelm the capacity of the healthcare system, more people are going to die more from all causes--heart attacks, tuberculosis, HIV, the flu, pregnancy complications, injuries from car crashes—because the system won’t have intensive-care capacity for them. Flattening the curve is about keeping coronavirus cases under the dotted line of what the healthcare system--and the rest of our infrastructure--can handle.

[id: Tweet by Don Moynihan @donmoyn (verified), Mar 15: Real-time evidence of flattening the curve. Lodi had the first Covid-19 case in Italy, and implemented a shutdown on Feb 23. Bergamo waited until March 8. Look at the difference. Incredible research by @drjenndowd, @melindacmills & co-authors. Image is a graph of daily total number of positive cases over time in the two cities, with Bergamo’s rising extremely steeply (approaching 1,000 on March 7 and 2,500 on March 13) and Lodi’s leveling off (approaching 1,000 on March 7 but at barely over 1,000 on March 13). Link in tweet. end id.]

[id: Tweet by cuddly but deadly! @HikeoftheMenrys, Mar 12: I keep thinking about South Korea’s Patient 31. South Korea was effectively managing the epidemic, and then one person – Patient 31 – infected over 1,000 people over the course of a few days, and caused a national pandemic in that country. Link to article in tweet. end id.]

People are currently using #ShutItDown to encourage U.S. event/bar/restaurant closures, and #StayTheFHome to encourage social distancing.

Stay The Fuck Home website (has many languages, and a SFW “Stay The F--- Home” option): staythefuckhome.com

[id: Tweet by Andy Slavitt @ASlavitt (verified), Mar 15: COVID-19 March 15Prep update: Every day brings vital new developments and I talked to leading epidemiologists, public health experts about what is happening & coming & what we should be doing. I learned a bunch. 1/ end id.]

Full Twitter thread here—lots of good info, including on the phenomenon of people taking preparation less seriously in a few weeks if the virus takes longer to hit our communities, and an endorsement of #StayHome/#StayTheFHome

[id: Tweet by Amanda Mull @amandamull (verified), Mar 12: i think the impulse for many people is to look at things closing down or events cancelling right now as a sign of doom, but for the most part i think it's cause for optimism—someone in charge of something is taking this seriously, and doing what they can to limit interactions. end id.]

BONUS ROUND: RESOURCES AND STUFF YOU CAN DO TO HELP OTHERS/RESOURCES TO USE IF YOU NEED ‘EM

- Donate to COVID-19 funds, and to the individual fundraisers of people trying to make it through the pandemic.

- Check in with your friends; offer emotional support if you have the capacity to; offer financial help if you have the capacity to. Can you offer to PayPal/Venmo your friends $5, or $20, or the equivalent of their daily or weekly pay so they can take time off? (If it feels awkward, I’ve found a simple acknowledgement “I hope this doesn’t feel awkward, but” can do wonders to allow awkward-feeling conversations to actually happen! I had the capacity to make one of these offers (hint: not the pricey one) to a friend, and he was not remotely offended.)

(And conversely, don’t be hesitant to ask for or accept others’ support! Text/call your friends if you need to talk to someone! In a time of physical isolation, we’ll get through this by staying emotionally connected.)

- Help others find accurate info. Struggling to talk to the older and/or Fox News-watching folks in your life? Buzzfeed has got ya covered.

- There’s organizing by medical schools and other groups to look out for of elderly, isolated and vulnerable people in many communities; check for (or begin) efforts in your own.

- In the U.S. (and UK and other countries, though again I’m only tapped into things here so this part is U.S.-centric, I’m sorry), there is a large population of people who can’t use hygiene or social distancing: people in immigration detention or incarcerated in jails and prisons.

Many people in ICE detention are already sick from medical neglect and hunger strikes, and many people in prisons and jails (which often overlap with ICE detention--there are county jails and other facilities being used as immigration detention centers in every state in the U.S.--are over the age of 60 and are disabled or have serious mental and physical health issues.

Coronavirus inevitable in prison-like US immigration centers, doctors say

Coronavirus: call to release UK immigration centre detainees

Explainer: Prisons And Jails Are Particularly Vulnerable to COVID-19 Outbreaks

Now is a very good time to donate to bail funds, and to look for and support (or begin) national efforts and grassroots efforts in your community to release people from prisons, jails, and immigration detention. “Iran temporarily released 54,000 people from prison in the wake of this global pandemic. The United States must also consider releasing as many people as possible, among other measures, including decreasing the numbers of people being sent into jails and prisons in the first place.” (Slate)

More asks, actions and links to efforts/mutual aid re: incarceration and the pandemic

The Justice Collaborative has a page and the beginnings of a tracker sheet of efforts to help incarcerated people and other vulnerable populations.

[id: Tweet by Kimberly Corban @Kimberly_Corban (verified), Mar 12: All joking aside, for those who are worried about quarantining during #COVID19 in a home where they do not feel safe, live help is available from the National Domestic Violence Hotline 24/7/365 at @ndvh by chat or by calling their hotline at 1-800-799-7233. end id.]

[id: Tweet by Joanne Starer @JoanneStarer, Mar 9: If you're not plugged into disability twitter, you may not realize that the hoarding of hand sanitizer, wipes, masks is keeping many immunosuppressed people from getting supplies they need. If you have extras, check in with your community to see if anyone could use them. end id.]

[id: Tweet by Clint Smith @ClintSmithIII (verified), Mar 9: A reminder that if public schools shut down, millions of children will lose their access to some of the only meals they receive each day. Food banks will become more important, and I've learned the best way to help is not to donate your spare canned goods, it's to donate money. end id.]

#covid-19 #covid19 #covid 19 #coronavirus #coronavirus pandemic

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appleasing · 4 years

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There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads, and He is Telling Us How to Post

Watching the internet shift from COVID-19 discussions being absorbed by Black Lives Matter has been an interesting event to observe. The air is this country is so unfamiliar that I at times have to be reminded we are still in a health crisis. When COVID-19 closures began in early March, there was discourse amongst the “correct” crowd of voices that led to mass shaming. When the government called for self-isolation and quarantine, voices came out of the mix that scolded those who did not strictly follow these new guidelines. They raved against those who would dare see their loved ones, or who would leave their homes for any reason other than “essential”.

This was, of course, when these voices were seemingly unaware of how long the pandemic would last, or how inept our country would be about dealing with it. Now in month three while reopening to the public, these voices have otherwise been replaced by mask enforcers. Those who mocked others for seeing close friends have moved on to just begging people to wear a piece of fabric over their mouths.

I am not saying these measures should not be in place, but rather we should be pressuring those in power to enforce them. There is no use to blame the public for not listening to a government that is not telling them how to act. With no leadership, of course there was going to be a second spike in cases. Afterall, it’s not in the nature of the American people to listen.

Now, were these voices at the beginning of quarantine bad? Were they wrong? No, of course not. They believed they were doing the right thing, deterring others for potentially spreading a disease killing thousands. However, what those individuals failed to realize was that their shaming lacked empathy, and directed anger into the wrong places.

When those voices were saying that if you left your home at all during quarantine that you were a bad person, they were not considering others’ situations. They were not considering those who lived alone, who would not have contact with others for months. Those who had abusive living situations, who may have not felt safe to stay home. Those who have mental health issues, to whom isolation may be a death sentence. To those people, the shaming voices did not encourage them to stay home, but isolated them, and blamed them for a situation outside of their control. It shifts blame onto the individual, rather than directing it to a leadership that refuses to help its citizens.

This shaming rhetoric has moved away from discussion of coronavirus, and has shifted towards Black Lives Matter. Specifically on how people are sharing information surrounding the movement.

The flooding of information on timelines is an inherent good thing. It is a way to crowd out noise, and siphon information to things that actually matter. Hell, even Etsy is making statements on what BLM means to their company, and it is the public that created that pressure.

A word that has been thrown around a lot is “performative”. Performative in the sense that others are questioning the motives of certain individuals posting. Are you posting because you care about black lives, or are you trying to save face?

There is a loud minority of individuals advocating for BLM who are reminiscent of the voices who scolded those leaving their homes during quarantine. There is good reason for this, as these are matters of life and death, but they still feel similar. Some are policing the posting habits of certain groups. In their eyes, if you are posting anything that is unrelated to black lives, you are creating noise and silencing their movement. They scold those feeling “feed fatigue”, and question their loyalty to the cause.

It has been said before that people believe this movement of protests is stronger than before due to its immediate following of COVID-19. The public knows now that change, and immediate change, is possible due to the insane speed at which our society shifted in response to the pandemic. We know now that the world can be altered when things are dire, and things are absolutely dire.

It is important to realize that social media is not the only form of activism. People have been organizing for years before Instagram, and will continue with or without it. Plus, with cops using social media as a way to find protestors, it has proven that it may be a good idea to keep your activism offline.

With the rhetoric of “don’t post protestors faces”, and a lack of people posting themselves protesting, it is somewhat impossible to know what people are doing behind the scenes. Very similar to how it would be challenging to know what someone’s situation was in regards to quarantine. Some valiant activists may not be posting at all, and others who constantly share information may not be attending protests. There is no way to know, and in a way, I think is why shaming anyone for their assumed contribution makes so little sense.

Activism takes many shapes and forms. There is no “right” way to do good for the community, there is only what you are able to give. I am, in maybe a morbid way, glad this movement is taking place in an already uncertain time in our country. Since the status quo has already been shifted, it makes the potential for change all the more real. The people shaming those for “crowding the feed” aren’t bad people, they just want to make sure their movement doe not die in the way it has before. However, it is important for us to not split up. Infighting over posting is no way to fight for the cause. Again, it is not aiming your anger to the individual, but directing it to the powers that be.

In general it’s good to be mindful of what you share, don’t give out personal info or share faces or names. Share helpful things, and avoid black squares. Posting photos of your pets is fine, I promise it won’t make those paying attention forget that we are in the midst of revolution. But keep in mind, the individual person won’t be what makes the change we want. It’ll be everyone pressuring those in power to work for us, not against. Shaming the individual who is inherently for your cause isn’t productive, giving the public something to pay attention to is.

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alwaysradiatehope · 4 years

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The Covid Coaster

What’s it like being a front-line medical worker and lifelong sufferer of anxiety during a pandemic?

Uncomfortable.

I’ve struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. I have vivid memories of panic attacks as early as the second grade and couldn’t understand what it was I was feeling for the majority of my childhood. I’d tell my mom I didn’t feel good or had a tummy ache, when in fact, I was having a full-blown anxiety attack. As the years passed and I began to understand my anxiety better, I was able to figure out how to manage and live a “normal” life. Some days are easier than others, but I’ve learned how to operate with a certain baseline level of general anxiety on a daily basis.

It’s no surprise that something such as a global pandemic is something that sparks anxiety even in the “coolest of cucumbers”. So, what’s it like?

Well - for starters I’m feeling all the same emotions that everyone else is. There’s a lot of fear. A lot of sadness. A lot of disappointment. But it’s different.

Fear. I’m afraid of the same things you are afraid of. I’m afraid that someone I love, my friends - my family, could get sick. I’m afraid that I could get sick. I’m afraid of what this virus means for the world economically. I’m afraid of a non-Covid related emergency that could send either myself or someone I love to the hospital - a hospital that doesn’t allow visitors.

But there are unique fears, fears that only someone wearing scrubs can begin to understand. These fears aren’t that of a typical 30-year-old woman. These are the fears of a front-line medical worker in the midst of a pandemic. These are the fears of a Radiation Therapist working in a cancer center, more specifically.

Fear. Fear that my already immunocompromised patients will get the virus. Fear that they will not come in for treatment at all and succumb to the disease that could have possibly been cured otherwise. Fear that this could interrupt their cancer treatment, or worse, take their lives before they even get a fair shot at fighting their disease. Fear that routine screenings that would otherwise catch early signs of disease are cancelled. Fear that one of my patients could get ME sick. Fear that I could take that sickness home to my family. Fear that I could pass that sickness on to my other patients. Fear that by passing that sickness on I could be responsible for someone else’s death. Fear that one morning I will walk into the hospital doors and not have a mask- the one basic surgical mask I get for a 10-hour shift - waiting for me.

Fear. Every morning for the last month I open my eyes and immediately begin my self exam. How’s my throat? Is it sore? How about my chest? Is it heavy? As I stand in front of my bathroom mirror at 4AM I wait for the thermometer in my mouth to beep. Is today the day I spike a fever? Is the virus brewing a deadly concoction in my body? Has it been there for days, laying low, infecting my patients, coworkers, and family members without me even knowing?

Then comes sadness. Of course, I have the same sadness as everyone else. Sad I can’t see my family and friends. Sad I’m missing out on watching my nephews’ milestones, missing birthdays, missing holidays. Sad people are sick, are dying, are alone. Sad people aren’t able to give their loved ones a proper burial. Sad for every elderly person sitting in a nursing home terrified for their life and unable to see visitors. Sad for every woman delivering a baby - what’s supposed to be one of the happiest moments of their lives - alone. Sad for high school seniors who had been waiting their entire lives to go to prom or walk across a stage at graduation.

But again, a unique sad. Sad that my patients have to make the difficult decision between getting their cancer treatment and risking exposure or staying home and letting the disease spread. Sad that my patients have to come into treatment without any emotional support or a familiar hand to hold. Sad that they don’t get a waiting room full of their family and friends clapping as they ring the bell following their final treatment. Sad that they can’t celebrate the cumulation of a year’s worth of cancer treatment - from diagnosis, to surgery, to chemotherapy, and finally radiation with a well-deserved dinner with their loved ones. Sad that all the amazing resources we normally offer like massage, reiki, acupuncture and support groups are all no longer available. Sad that patients, especially patients who come in for their first treatment, aren’t able to see my smile when I greet them.

Then, with every news article and broadcast, the growing feeling of disappointment. Disappointment that so many people didn’t, and still aren’t, taking this virus seriously. Disappointed that some people are selfishly ignoring pleas to social distance. Disappointed in the people filling their carts with 100 bottles of hand sanitizer, leaving none left for the next person. DISGUSTED in people who are taking that same hand sanitizer and selling it for hundreds of dollars on the internet. Disappointed in the mass of people complaining about being bored at home while essential employees risk their lives everyday wishing they could just stay home. Disappointed that this country, a country that boasts its superiority, is so unprepared and uninterested in the safety and well-being of these essential employees that nurses are forced to wear trash bags to treat sick patients. Utter, heart-wrenching disappointment.

And finally, a small glimmer of light amongst the darkness. Pride.

Proud to be part of the “essential employees”. Proud to be standing side by side with the smartest, bravest people I’ve ever met. Proud to show up to work and see the relief on my patients face as they sigh “I was so worried my treatments would be cancelled, I’m so thankful you’re still here”. Proud to be part of a hospital that has kept us informed and done everything in their power to ensure patients and employees alike feel safe during such an unsafe time. Proud to be doing exactly what I sought to do when I switched careers just a few years ago - to be making an actual difference in people’s lives.

So, the roller coaster ride continues. Everyday a different twist, a new turn. And sometimes a stomach dropping dip. The fear is real. The sadness can feel overwhelming. The anxiety at an all-time high. But the pride is there, and today, that’s enough.

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bangkokjacknews · 3 years

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It's now called 'CAUTIOUS CUDDLING' in this mad new world

PEOPLE in England are looking forward to hugging loved ones, dining inside restaurants and fleeing the UK for their overseas holiday.

But when Boris Johnson urged Brits to indulge in "cautious cuddles", the baffled Huffington Post admonished, "for hug's sake, it sounds like a mid-noughties indie band!" When will hugging be allowed? "Cautious" hugs are officially back on from May 17, with the Prime Minister leaving it up to Brits to decide if they want to embrace family and friends. Mr Johnson said current data indicated it might also be possible to scrap the "one-metre plus" social distancing rule. If so, this would greatly increase flexibility for businesses to increase capacity. Downing Street said in a statement: "People will be urged to remain cautious about the risks that come with close personal contact such as hugging, as we know this remains a direct way of transmitting the disease.” As part of the May 17 changes in England, people will be free to choose whether to stay two metres from family or friends, meaning they can once again hug and shake hands. Mr Johnson warned during his speech on May 10, 2021: "This doesn't mean that we can suddenly throw caution to the winds. "We all know that close contacts such as hugging is a direct way of transmitting this disease," .

The PM, Boris Johnson, is marching towards unlocking EnglandCredit: PA What are the risks? Those who have received at least one Covid jab will be less at risk, with people receiving two vaccinations the most protected. Officials have suggested that people consider getting tested for coronavirus before hugging. Brits are also advised to wear face masks or ensure a room is well ventilated before completely ditching social distancing measures. The Covid-19 alert level in the UK has been downgraded after a "consistent" fall in cases, hospital admissions and deaths. The four chief medical officers of the UK have said the threat level should be lowered from "level 4" to "level 3", thanks to the success of the jab programme and social distancing restrictions. This means that the epidemic is in general circulation, but transmission of the virus is no longer deemed to be high or rising exponentially.

The PM said: "I urge you to think about the vulnerability of your loved ones - whether they have had a vaccine, one or two doses, and whether there has been time for that vaccine to take effect. "Remember outdoors is always safer than indoors. And if you are meeting indoors, remember to open a window and let in the fresh air. "Keep getting tested regularly, even if you don’t have symptoms, so you don’t spread the virus without knowing it. "And whatever you decide, I must ask that you continue to follow social distancing when not with friends and family, including in workplaces, shops, pubs, restaurants and other settings. "We only have to look at the very sad situation in other countries to see the lethal potential of this virus, and we must continue to fight the spread of variants here in the UK. "While we have no evidence yet to believe these variants are completely vaccine resistant, we must remain vigilant. "So please remember hands, face, space and fresh air." What is a cautious cuddle and how should I hug others? Asked what "cautious cuddling" means, mental health minister Nadine Dorries told BBC Breakfast with a laugh: "I don't think you can cautiously cuddle." Concerned Sage scientists have warned that embraces should be kept to a minimum, and Brits should avoid face-to-face contact as much as they can to stay safe. Professor Cath Noakes, who sits on Sage, has urged caution ahead of the relaxation, saying that too much hugging could "perpetuate" the further spread of Covid. Gurch Randhawa, a public health expert at the University of Bedfordshire, spoke to ABC News in the US about the government's potentially confusing messages. He said: “It is no doubt tempting to relax social distancing, offer the glimmer of a much needed hug, and lift restrictions on international travel, but this could be a big mistake at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. “As a minimum, the government should be advising only those have received both vaccination doses to be hugging each other, and even, a short hug, with faces directed away from each other to minimise risk of Covid-19 transmission." What is a cautious cuddle? Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at UEA and an expert in infectious diseases, gave HuffPost UK these tips: - Hug people you live with: “If you live with someone or are in the same bubble then you have been able to hug them anyway, so don’t stop now and hug them however you and they want.” - No rampant hugging: “If you don’t need to hug each other, then don’t.” - Don't embrace everyone - Jabs aren't a 100% guarantee:“If both of you have been vaccinated then the risk of transmission is actually very low but not zero.” - 'Side hugging' is safer: Keep your faces away from each other so that you are "not re-breathing each other’s air". Can I hug my fully-vaccinated granny? If you want to embrace each other, you can from May 17 - but remember that some people are more vulnerable to Covid than others. Officials have suggested people should consider getting tested for coronavirus before hugging. They've also recommended we wear face masks or ensure a room is well ventilated before ditching social distancing measures. The PM set out a new approach to tackling the virus, giving people greater responsibility for their own choices on whether to observe social distancing with friends and family. Using our own personal judgement, from May 17 we are able to decide whether to hug our grannies - remembering that even if both sides are fully vaccinated, the risk from the coronavirus is not fully eliminated. Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) urged people to "act responsibly" when restrictions are lifted further. He told BBC Breakfast: "I think it's actually very important for our mental health and wellbeing that we can hug our loved ones, but to me the key message is, if and when this comes in, we need to remember that the pandemic hasn't gone away. "We are still a few steps away from normality, so it's really great that we can hug our loved ones, but what we need to remember is we need to be a little bit careful." He added: "The key thing for me is what we want to avoid is hospital admissions going up and people dying going up. "And if we can keep those out of the low levels they are, then hopefully this resumption of hugging can be done safely and we can proceed again to the June 21 relaxation."

It's been a long time between hugs for grandparents and grandkids during the pandemic Credit: Getty Dr David Nabarro, special envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organisation, urged Brits to maintain social distancing and keep using face masks. He said: "Please be really careful, maintain that physical distance of between one metre and two metres, especially indoors, and don't forget to wear your face masks because that really can give extra protection. "It's these simple things, but all done together that will really make the difference as to whether or not future spikes are huge or future spikes are small and easily contained." Professor in Medical Microbiology Sally Jane Cutler told Times Radio: "I think we have to be very conserved about who we choose to hug. "Personally I'm going to restrict my hugging to family members and not beyond." The Duchess of Cornwall, 73, has revealed she enjoyed “half a hug” with her grandchildren, despite this being forbidden until the official easing of restrictions from May 17. When asked if she had been able to do that more recently as Britain continues to reopen, Camilla replied: "I am doubly jabbed so we’ve had a sort of half a hug. “It has been so lovely just to be able to see them again and talk to them. “Telephones and machines and these Zooms are fine, but nothing is ever the same as being able to give somebody a good hug.” Are handshakes allowed? As part of the May 17, 2021, changes, people will be given the choice whether to remain two metres from family or friends, meaning they can once again hug and shake hands. In March 2020, after the coronavirus had established its terrifying presence in the UK, Mr Johnson declared that it would not stop him greeting people with a handshake. Days ahead of ending up in intensive care, battling Covid, the PM also said that he had shaken the hands of everyone at a hospital where infected patients were being treated. Read the full article

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your-dietician · 3 years

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Focus on vaccination, not fear, says Monica Gandhi.

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/focus-on-vaccination-not-fear-says-monica-gandhi/

Focus on vaccination, not fear, says Monica Gandhi.

You may have heard that the delta variant of the coronavirus is more transmissible than other strains, that it’s responsible for the catastrophic outbreak in India, that it’s spreading so fast in the U.S. it will soon become the dominant strain here. But Dr. Monica Gandhi wants you to rethink all that. COVID numbers are much better now, in her hospital and across the country. Deaths dipped below 300 a day nationwide, hospitalizations are plummeting, and the national infection rate is creeping ever closer to 10,000 per day—the benchmark Anthony Fauci set for when he’d begin to consider the virus under control. So why all the doom and gloom in the media? On Thursday’s episode of What Next, I spoke to Gandhi, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco specializing in infectious disease, about why the current messaging around COVID reminds her of the early days of HIV and how scientists and journalists should be talking about the risks now. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Monica Gandhi: At the very beginning of the HIV epidemic, everything seemed scary. Any possible risk of getting HIV seemed scary. So it was why the words “stay away from each other” and “don’t have sex” was used instead of “actually, oral sex is really safe, and let’s do that” or “let me show you how to stay safe with other types of sex.” And those lessons were learned later. So actually, the way that scientists are talking now was how scientists were talking at the beginning of the HIV epidemic. It took some time, and everyone was scared and screaming, just like we are now, at the beginning of the HIV epidemic.

And it led to distrust. Because the public knew, just from experience, that this type of sex was more risky to get HIV than this type of sex. They just knew it, they saw what was happening. And that led to distrust of public health officials and politicians who said everything was scary, and who used doom and gloom to message. And actually it led to a paradoxical rise in infections. And what harm reduction means is you’re trying to decrease infections, by taking into account the totality of everyone’s experience, what they need out of their life, intimacy needs, being around people. In the case of COVID, wanting to see other people and not being socially isolated. You take the totality of experience, and you try to decrease infections that way.

Mary Harris: It led to a rise in infections because people just threw all the advice out the window?

Yes. Because people distrust if you blanket, when it’s quite obvious that not every exposure was as risky as other exposures. And then people distrust the public health official, and then that can lead to covert activity that leads to an increase in infections. A good example is Christmas holidays in the winter in the United States, where there was so much with COVID. Saying that the only way is just stay at home, lock your door, do not go outside, that led to distrust, and then people went inside, and there were rises of infection.

That kind of alarmist tone was present back in March, during a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention press conference with Director Rochelle Walensky. She was clearly worried. Of course, we did not see the surge that she feared. I wonder if you as a doctor have seen patients talk about moments like that and use them as ammunition for “I just can’t trust anything.”

Yes. I think that kind of messaging is to go back to “let’s scare people so they’ll stay with their restrictions.” Someone said to me, “If my doctor said that to me, and I had cancer, and they said, ‘There’s nothing you can do, it’s just all doom, I’m so scared,’ I would throw that doctor out the window.” That’s what my patient said, because what my patient was trying to say is inspire confidence, inspire faith in the science.

Everything changed once we got vaccines. We’re gonna have bumps and ups and downs, and we’ve had a few ups and downs. But actually, steadily, since we started rolling out vaccines, it’s been pretty smooth. And I’m so grateful for that. And so, as a public health messenger, as a scientist, I would have messaged the effectiveness of the vaccines. It’s actually why on May 13, when Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci and everyone talked about taking off your mask when you’re vaccinated, it seemed completely out of the blue—because there hadn’t been a consistent messaging up to that point that the vaccines are really effective and that the vaccines will work against the variants. That wouldn’t have seemed out of the blue and so startling to people if there had been a steady, calm messaging of optimism the entire time.

You seem really confident in the fact that you’re just not worried about these variants. But I talked to plenty of researchers and reporters back in the winter who were really concerned, and their concern was not necessarily about the individual variants but the buildup of variants and the fact that the more the virus mutates, the less effective a vaccine might be. So why don’t you have that fear?

Because of immunology. So, very early on, in January, there was a paper from the U.K. that showed that as B.1.1.7, or alpha variant, was rising in the U.K., anyone who had had the infection before couldn’t get B.1.1.7, and they did a deep dive on T cells. It was a preprint that showed that T cells go across the entire spike protein so that you can’t evade T cell immunity from the variants. And then I knew something else from HIV, which is that a virus can’t keep on mutating forever. HIV, the virus, mutates a lot to evade our antiretroviral medications, and it becomes less fit by mutating, there’s actually a fitness cost. It compromises itself to mutate to become more transmissible. So I knew it couldn’t become more transmissible, more virulent, and evade the vaccines at the same time.

There’s one other thing I want to add. Not just T cells, but there’s something called memory B cells—when you get infected or you get a vaccine, you produce memory B cells, and they go into these hidden places like your lymph nodes and bone marrow. We’ve seen them, and there was a paper just last week that showed us that these memory B cells, if they see a variant in the future, they’ll make the perfect antibody for that variant. They’re not going to make an old antibody for an old type of strain they saw. They adapt their antibodies to that variant.

And this is because it’s familiar with the entire spike protein, so little changes on the spike protein they can adapt to? It’s formed a response to the whole thing?

Yes, exactly. The memory B cells are sitting in your bone marrow ready to fight if they see that virus again. And this paper just from last week showed us that if you see a variant, those memory B cells are going to make antibodies that are perfectly adapted for that variant, because that’s what memory B cells do: They come out with antibodies to fight the virus that they see, not the virus that they remember.

I’ll see headlines that say things like the delta variant could create two Americas, or Anthony Fauci is declaring the delta variant the greatest threat to the nation’s efforts to eliminate COVID. But then when you read the reporting in full, the story’s a little bit more nuanced, and it really focuses on vaccination. It basically shows that the delta variant is spreading and potentially causing surges in undervaccinated areas of the country. That’s an editorial choice, to say the variant is the problem versus the lack of adequate vaccination. I wonder what you think about that.

Yes. I think what you just said is a brilliant way to explain it. I think they’re using more scary terminology because they’re trying to motivate vaccination. But actually vaccination’s still going well. So the concern is places where we have distrust of vaccinations. And I keep on thinking, What’s a better way to increase trust?

I would be more trustful if I saw a headline that said something less scary. Like, “Let me tell you about this effectiveness that is going to work against the delta variant. Actually, it’s going to work really well. And let me explain to you why I think you should get vaccinated and let me make it easy for you.” And actually that is reporting. Maybe that isn’t scientists. Maybe that’s just how it’s reported. And then that would have to go back to you all in the media, and what’s going on on that end.

I know you’re pushing back against the fear-based messaging, but the way I see it is you need both at different times. Like, to get people to take the virus seriously in the beginning, we needed that phone call where Nancy Messonnier from the CDC said our lives are going to change, because that gets your attention. But then, as we go, we need to modify. And the question is really just how quickly we move from one kind of messaging to another.

Yeah, I think that’s really fair, and maybe injecting more fear in it than I have is appropriate at times. And maybe we need someone like me, who’s often very optimistic, and then we need someone on the other end, who’s very fearful, and then you put it together and that’s the right thing. I’m not gonna say I know the best answer to that. But all I can say is that I will never get over that we created a vaccine to this this fast, and all I want is for everyone in the world who need it to get this vaccine. And it makes me so happy that we don’t have to go through what we went through with the 1918 influenza pandemic, where 50 million people died, as opposed to 4 million right now and counting. And if we could get everyone the vaccine, we wouldn’t be in any situation where anyone had to die.

We might have listeners who are trying to figure out what to do with themselves in the world with this variant out there. Like, should I send my kid to camp this summer? Should I go on a trip, especially to a place where maybe there’s not as much vaccination? What would you say to folks about how they need to be thinking through their summer given the emergence of the delta variant?

I would say that if they’re vaccinated and their children are unvaccinated because they can’t yet get the vaccine, children are not more susceptible to the delta variant, they’re threefold less likely to get any infection with any variant with any ancestral strain, and they’re half as likely to spread it. And they can mask on the plane, as they should. You yourself are completely protected against the delta variant, and you should go and enjoy your summer. It’s been a hard time, and people should have their summer. Delta variant, delta shmariant.

Subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts

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watchonlinewds · 3 years

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An apparent fourth wave of COVID-19 is centered in the East. Will it hit California?

What appears to be a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has struck Michigan, the New York region and New England, and experts are uncertain if it will remain contained.

“The United States has entered a fourth wave of transmission, and there’s no disputing this. Whether it remains as small regional outbreaks, or whether it generalizes nationwide remains to be seen,” Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist, said Friday at a campus town hall meeting.

Nationally, there has been an 8% week-over-week increase in the average daily number of newly diagnosed coronavirus cases, rising to about 62,000 for the seven-day period that ended Wednesday, federal officials said Friday. The average daily number of new hospital admissions for COVID-19 patients rose 5% over the same period.

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California is in a much better situation. Case numbers have dipped to levels not seen since the end of last spring; the state is reporting daily averages of 2,500 to 2,700. (During the worst of the surge in the fall and winter, California was reporting 45,000 cases a day.) Additionally, California has had a coronavirus positivity test rate of about 1% over the past week — compared with 16% in Michigan and 9% in New Jersey.

“Here in California, we’re in much better shape — we do not have a spike. But I would point out that we’ve leveled off, and we’re not seeing continued declines,” Rutherford said.

He and others have expressed concern about Florida, the state with the largest concentration of confirmed cases of the U.K. coronavirus variant, B.1.1.7, which is more transmissible and possibly more deadly than the conventional strain. Florida has no statewide mask mandate, and crowds of spring-break revelers are prompting fears that travelers will further spread the U.K. variant around the nation. Florida over the past week had a positivity rate of 9%, and it is climbing.

“We’ll have to see how that plays out,” Rutherford said.

The surge in Michigan has accelerated since it began in mid-March, Rutherford said, and appears to be heading toward a peak similar to the state’s winter high. The Michigan surge appears to be tied to the U.K. variant and may have emerged via high school sports, Rutherford said.

“Elsewhere — in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware — there’s a series of a kind of interlinked outbreaks, with more modest increases that seem to stem from metropolitan New York and spilling into the neighboring states,” Rutherford said.

Other national experts echoed Rutherford’s concerns.

“We’re heading into the fourth surge. Cases are increasing. Variants are increasing. Variants are more deadly,” Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Saturday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We just have to hang on until a larger proportion — particularly of the vulnerable — are well-vaccinated and more of us are vaccinated, or we will have a large fourth surge. We will have a fourth surge, I’m afraid. How large and deadly? That depends on us.”

Some experts disagree, given how many people in the U.S. have either been vaccinated or have immunity because they’ve survived COVID-19.

“I think that there’s enough immunity in the population that you’re not going to see a true fourth wave of infection,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” However, he added that there are indeed “pockets of infection around the country, particularly in younger people who haven’t been vaccinated and also in school-age children.”

Gottlieb said he believes schools can stay open if they adhere to pandemic safety practices: “As one epidemiologist referred to it this week, go the full ‘Harry Potter’ and try to keep students within defined social cohorts so that they’re not intermingling in large groups.”

California has the nation’s fourth highest number of cases tied to the U.K. variant, according to federal data. A hopeful scenario envisions the spread of that variant in the state impeded by the California variant, B.1.427/B.1.429, which has been more common here.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to dodge this bullet, because this [U.K. strain] is a more transmissible strain and possibly a strain that causes more severe disease,” Rutherford said.

More than 32% of Californians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 15% are fully vaccinated.

Recent data show that the currently available vaccines still offer good protection against the new variants.

The vaccines produce an immune response “way more” than you need for the conventional strain of the coronavirus, Rutherford said. Even when they show diminished effectiveness against variants — the South African B.1.351 and Brazilian P.1 strains — the vaccines produce an immune response “two to three times more than you need,” Rutherford said. “So far, so good.”

Despite the positive news on vaccination, the leading health official in Northern California’s most populous county, Santa Clara, warned that the decline in daily case numbers there is slowing.

“We are now seeing our case rates flatten, and in some cases ... some indication that they’re beginning to tick up. So we may have gotten as low as we’re going to go,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the health officer and public health director for Santa Clara County. “Unfortunately, we still all need to be very aware and very cautious to prevent any surge or even a swell. We don’t want that to happen.”

The likelihood of another surge — or a milder “swell” — hitting California will depend on vaccine supply and the behavior of residents.

“Vaccines are going to help, but we need more supply so we can get it out faster,” Cody said. “And we need people to just hold on for a little bit longer: Keep wearing your mask, delay your travel, don’t indoor dine, don’t go to indoor bars, don’t host an indoor gathering at your home. Even if it’s allowed under the state rules, don’t do it. It’s not safe. Not yet.”

Health officials have acknowledged the apparent contradiction in easing restrictions while at the same time voicing caution about a rise in cases. However, some mixed messaging is to be expected when dealing with a new virus, according to Dr. Muntu Davis, L.A. County’s health officer.

“This is naturally what happens inside of a pandemic,” Davis said Friday. “As you start to see how the virus acts, as you start to see when you have new countermeasures, whether that be vaccine or treatment, then we start to learn more. But until we have that information, we have to operate with a lot of caution, because everyone is at risk.”

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msrheyrhey · 3 years

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Copying this here because its behind a ducking paywall!

This article found here talks about how Asian-Americans adopted into white families can’t take off their advocacy hat, even when they are at home because their families are often still “colorblind“ to their own POC struggles. Now I want this to stay as a topic for Asain struggles, but as BIPOC adopted into a white family myself, I super relate to this to this day.

“For the last year, and especially since the devastating Atlanta-area murders on March 16, many of my Asian American friends have been sharing deeply personal, painful stories of talking with their parents and elders, pleading with them to take care, being exhorted to be careful in turn. As an adoptee, I don’t really have Asian elders in my family—or many elders at all, since the deaths of my father, grandmother and mother. Yet I’ve found myself wondering: If my adoptive parents were alive, witnessing the spike in anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S. and around the world—with Asian women the most common targets—would they be concerned about me? Would they understand why I cried when I told my own Korean American daughters about the spa shootings? Would I have reached out to them during this past hard, heavy week, or held back, uncertain of how to share my fear and rage as the only Asian in my white family?

My parents loved and would have done anything within their power for me. But one thing they struggled to do, at least fully and consistently, was to see and understand me as a Korean American woman. Acknowledging it flew in the face of everything “experts” had told them when they adopted me in the early 1980s—the adoption agency, the social worker, the judge had all maintained that it wouldn’t, shouldn’t matter. So we never talked explicitly about race when I was younger, even though I was usually the only Asian kid in every room; the closest they came were statements such as “we would have adopted you if you were Black, white or polka-dotted” and “we’re all the same on the inside.” Even after I grew up, I cannot recall having a single conversation with them about anti-Asian racism specifically. Not the “model minority” myth. Not perpetual-foreigner syndrome. Not the exotification and fetishization of Asian women. Not the history of American imperialism that is partially responsible for my birth family’s and my presence in this country.

One of the manifestations of white privilege is not having to think about it.

Often, people who’ve read my memoir will note my white family’s “colorblind” approach and ask whether this led to me thinking of myself as white. My answer is always swift, unequivocal: No, I never thought I was white. I don’t think my adoptive parents thought of me as white either, nor do I believe they imagined their whiteness would extend to me through proxy or proximity, because they didn’t think much about their whiteness at all—one of the manifestations of white privilege is not having to think about it. But they did assume that I’d be protected from racism because the world would see me as they did—their child, no more, no less—and as my race was irrelevant to them, they could not imagine anyone else caring about it either.

I’ve lost track of how many times my relatives told me, “I just don’t think of you as Korean.” But from early childhood, I understood that other people certainly did: white adults called me an “Asian princess” or asked where I was from; white boys at school chanted racist songs at me; a white girl singled me out at recess and demanded to know whether my “Asian vagina” was different from hers. While my adoptive family saw me as almost raceless and therefore safe from racists, I lived every day from the age of 7, when I heard my first slur from a classmate, understanding that my Korean face made me hypervisible where we lived—and that it could also make me a target.

The truth is that it is entirely possible to love and care for one Asian American—"your" Asian American—and not see other Asians as equally, fully human.

Since the start of the pandemic and the racist scapegoating that has persisted throughout, I’ve often thought of the many thousands of Asian American kids currently growing up in white families and white spaces. Our experiences are of course not interchangeable, but I know it can feel like a unique burden when you witness or experience racism in a kind of isolation, unable to retreat and process your rage or sorrow with people who also know what it’s like to live in an Asian body. When the constant labor of pointing out or educating others about the racism you face doesn’t necessarily stop at home. When, even within your own family, you might hear people stereotype or mock Asians, use Asian slurs. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jay Baker, who stated that the Atlanta shooter was having “a really bad day” and was found to have promoted racist T-shirts that read “COVID 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA” on his Facebook profile, has an adopted Vietnamese brother. The truth is that it is entirely possible to love and care for one Asian American—“your” Asian American—and not see other Asians as equally, fully human.

Before and after the 2016 election, I tried to explain to my parents how it felt to live and raise Korean American children, their grandchildren, in a country where so many racists seemed emboldened by Donald Trump’s lies and attacks. I remember pleading with them more than once: “I need you to hear me and believe that this racism is real, and that we experience it.” I cannot say we found precisely the common ground I wanted, but at times I felt we were moving closer to it. Over the years, I’ve talked with so many other transracial adoptees who, like me, have undertaken the task of asking, sometimes begging our adoptive relatives to acknowledge our experiences; to stand with us; to challenge the racism endemic in our society as well as our own families and communities. Now, in this moment, I hope that every white parent of an Asian child is paying attention to the rise in anti-Asian hate. I hope that white people with Asian family members recognize and internalize the fact that no amount of love, good intentions, assimilation or proximity to whiteness will protect their loved ones from racism. I hope that every parent is thinking about how they will talk about anti-Asian prejudice with their children.

It’s impossible to know what my own parents might have said about this wave of hatred and violence, part of a long history of anti-Asian racism. By the time the former president began calling COVID-19 “the Chinese virus,” by the time racists began shouting and tweeting (and spray-painting) the term “Kung Flu,” my father was gone and my mother’s cancer had spread, and the difficult conversations left to us were about our grief and how much we loved and missed one another. Like most everyone who has lost one parent, let alone two, I’ve had to accept that there are questions I’ll never get answers to, things we’ll never be able to settle. That my parents didn’t entirely understand or accept my racial reality will always be with me, part of my adoption story—but it’s not the most important through line of our story as a family, nor does it typically ascend to the forefront of my memories of them. They were, perhaps, vindicated in this: our love for each other was what mattered most, in the end.

Because of that love, which I’ve never doubted, my best guess is that they would have tried to follow when I drew a connection between the cresting anti-Asian hatred and the steady churn of dread and anger I’ve known over the last year. I think that the people who long tried to keep me safe would have asked me to be careful now; that the parents who never stopped worrying about me would have at least tried to understand my worry as the mother of Asian American children. At the same time, when I hear my mother’s voice in my head—as I still do, and have, nearly every day since she died in May—she is forever reminding me to trust myself, to know my value, to focus on what feels most important and life-giving and fulfilling. I know that the last thing either of my parents would have wanted was for me to despair, or live my life in fear. And so, for their sake and my own, I won’t.”

#stopasianhate

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

World refugee numbers rise (Foreign Policy) A new report by the United Nations refugee agency found that the number of refugees worldwide increased by 9 million in 2019, adding to a total of roughly 80 million people. Only 107,000 refugees were resettled in third countries, with Canada receiving the most with 31,100. The United States received the second highest number with 27,500 resettled in 2019.

Migrant farmworkers die in Canada, and Mexico wants answers (Washington Post) Each summer for the past five years, Aaron has traveled from his home in Mexico to Canada as one of the tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers who seed, tend and harvest the crops that keep the country fed. This year’s journey was unique. Flights were limited. There were temperature screenings and questionnaires before he took off and after he landed. On arriving in British Columbia this month, he was checked into a hotel for a 14-day quarantine. But in this year of the coronavirus, the precautions have not kept all of Canada’s migrant farmworkers safe. At least 600 have contracted covid-19, and at least two, both Mexicans, have died. Mexico, which provides nearly half of Canada’s migrant farmworkers, has become so concerned that officials said this week they’re hitting the “pause button” on plans to send up to 5,000 more to Canada until they’re satisfied the conditions that led to the deaths will be rectified—threatening a labor crunch for Canada’s already squeezed agricultural sector. The pandemic has highlighted Canada’s dependence on the 60,000 temporary foreign workers who arrive each year from countries such as Mexico and Jamaica as part of a federal government program, and without whom hundreds of thousands of tons of blueberries, asparagus stalks and grapes would wither on the vine.

DACA lives on (NYT) When this country started hearing a decade ago about Dreamers—people who came to the United States as small children without legal permission—many of them were in their teens or early 20s. These Dreamers are now full adults, with careers and families, and many have spent years anxiously wondering whether they would be thrown out of the only country they’ve really known. Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, which barred President Trump from deporting the Dreamers anytime soon, came as a tremendous relief to them. “It feels amazing,” Vanessa Pumar, 31, an immigration lawyer who came from Venezuela at age 11, said. “I have been holding my breath. It feels like I can finally breathe.” Roberto G. Gonzales, a Harvard professor who has been studying DACA since it went into effect in 2012, calls it “the most successful immigration policy in recent decades.” Gonzales explains: “Within a year, DACA beneficiaries were already taking giant steps. They found new jobs. They increased their earnings. They acquired driver’s licenses. And they began to build credit through opening bank accounts and obtaining credit cards.”

AP-NORC poll: Majority of Americans support police protests (AP) Ahead of the Juneteenth holiday weekend’s demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality, a majority of Americans say they approve of recent protests around the country. Many think they’ll bring positive change. And despite the headline-making standoffs between law enforcement and protesters in cities nationwide, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds a majority of Americans think law enforcement officers have generally responded to the protests appropriately. Somewhat fewer say the officers used excessive force. The findings follow weeks of peaceful protests and unrest in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died pleading for air on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes. A dramatic change in public opinion on race and policing has followed, with more Americans today than five years ago calling police violence a very serious problem that unequally targets black Americans.

Atlanta police call out sick over charges in fatal shooting (AP) Atlanta police officers called out sick to protest the filing of murder charges against an officer who shot a man in the back, while the interim chief acknowledged members of the force feel abandoned amid protests demanding massive changes to policing. Interim Chief Rodney Bryant told The Associated Press in an interview that the sick calls began Wednesday night and continued Thursday, but said the department had sufficient staff to protect the city. It’s not clear how many officers called out. “Some are angry. Some are fearful. Some are confused on what we do in this space. Some may feel abandoned,” Bryant said of the officers. “But we are there to assure them that we will continue to move forward and get through this.”

Beware the trampoline (NYT) Sales of outdoor equipment has surged as families try to keep their children entertained while on lockdown. But that has led to a spike in injuries from bikes, scooters, and especially trampolines. Some E.R. doctors have begun referring to trampolines as “orthopedic fracture machines.” Many injuries occur when multiple children, especially a mix of older and younger ones, are jumping on a trampoline at the same time. That’s what happened to the daughter of our colleague Adam Pasick, who broke her tibia on a trampoline on Wednesday. Stay safe out there, kids!

Missing in Mexico (Foreign Policy) Families of people thought to have gone missing amid Mexico’s drug war surrounded a motorcade carrying President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the state of Veracruz on Monday demanding he do more to bring their loved ones home. Some 61,000 people are estimated to be missing in the country, and relatives fear that austerity measures, which could see a 75 percent budget cut to a government agency that provides funding and support to families of the disappeared, will only make matters worse. While coronavirus-related lockdowns have stalled search efforts, gang violence and disappearances have continued.

France and Turkey spar over ship incident (Foreign Policy) Tensions between France and Turkey rose after French Defense Minister Florence Parly said a Turkish ship refused to identify itself and its mission after an approach by a French vessel on a NATO mission to check on suspected weapons smuggling to Libya. Turkish sailors donned bulletproof vests and took up positions behind light weaponry during the incident, according to Parly. “This act was extremely aggressive and cannot be one of an ally facing another ally who is doing its work under NATO command,” Parly said. Turkey called France’s claims “baseless.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that NATO is investigating the incident “to bring full clarity into what happened.”

Anger Surges in India Over Deadly Border Brawl With China (NYT) An Indian government minister has called for Chinese restaurants to be closed. Other Indian officials have suddenly put contracts to Chinese companies under review. And crowds of men are now smashing Chinese-made televisions in the street. A wave of anti-Chinese anger is cresting across India as the nation struggles to absorb the loss of 20 Indian soldiers beaten to death this week by Chinese troops in a high-altitude brawl along India’s disputed border with China. And the tensions are hardly easing. Sonam Joldan, a teacher in the Ladakh region near the India-China border, reported on Thursday seeing a line of 100 Indian Army trucks heading toward the front line, wending its way up the Himalayan mountains “like a caravan of ants.”

China charges Canadians with espionage (Foreign Policy) Chinese prosecutors announced today that they have charged two Canadians in Chinese detention with espionage. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been held by Chinese authorities since 2018 in what is seen as a reciprocal move by Beijing after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, by Canadian police. Meng is currently under house arrest in Vancouver while fighting a Canadian court battle to halt her extradition to the United States.

Singapore opens gyms, dining out as China outbreak steadies (AP) Singaporeans can wine and dine at restaurants, work out at the gym and socialize with no more than five people at a time as of Friday, when the city-state removed most of its pandemic lockdown restrictions. Getting back to business in Singapore came as China declared a fresh outbreak in Beijing under control after confirming 25 new cases among some 360,000 people tested. That was up by just four from a day earlier. Singapore’s malls, gyms, massage parlors, parks and other public facilities reopened their doors with strict social distancing and other precautions.

Palestinians fear displacement from an annexed Jordan Valley (AP) For generations, the people of Fasayil herded animals on the desert bluffs and palm-shaded lowlands of the Jordan Valley. Today, nearly every man in the Palestinian village works for Jewish settlers in the sprawling modern farms to the north and south. The grazing lands to the west and east, leading down to the banks of the biblical Jordan River, have been swallowed up by the settlements or fenced off by the Israeli military. So instead of leading sheep out to pasture, the men rise before dawn to work in the settlements for around $3 an hour—or they move away. “Everyone here works in the settlements, there’s nothing else,” said Iyad Taamra, a member of the village council who runs a small grocery store. “If you have some money you go somewhere else where there is a future.” Palestinians fear communities across the Jordan Valley will meet a similar fate if Israel proceeds with its plans to annex the territory, which accounts for around a quarter of the occupied West Bank and was once seen as the breadbasket of a future Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex the valley and all of Israel’s far-flung West Bank settlements, in line with President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan, which overwhelmingly favors Israel and has been rejected by the Palestinians. The process could begin as soon as July 1.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince uses travel restrictions to consolidate power (Washington Post) The formal term in Arabic is mana’a al-safar, or “travel bans.” But the practical effect of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s policy of restricting journeys abroad by what appear to be thousands of Saudis is to intimidate those he regards as political threats. “This is hostage-taking as a tool of governing,” argued Khalid Aljabri, a Saudi cardiologist who lives in Toronto. Two of his younger siblings, Omar and Sarah, now both in their early 20s, were banned from travel in June 2017 shortly after MBS, as he’s known, became crown prince. MBS wanted leverage against their father, a former Saudi intelligence official named Saad Aljabri, hoping to force him home to face corruption allegations that Khalid says are false. An investigation shows that this practice of restricting foreign travel is much broader than generally recognized and is part of a larger system of organized repression in the kingdom. MBS has used these tools to consolidate power as he moves toward what some U.S. officials believe may be an attempt, perhaps this year, to seize the full powers of government from his ailing father, King Salman. The total number of Saudis who are subject to travel restrictions, according to Saudi and U.S. analysts, probably runs into the thousands. Those who are banned don’t usually know about their status until they go to the airport or try to cross a border post, where they’re stopped and told that exit is forbidden on order of the state security organization, which operates through the royal court. No formal, written explanation is typically given.

Zimbabwe on the brink (Foreign Policy) Three female opposition activists in Zimbabwe have been forced to remain in prison following a bail hearing on Monday as they face charges of fabricating allegations of being abducted, tortured, and humiliated by police. The charges against the women are widely thought to be politically motivated, while the U.N. called on the authorities to “urgently prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this outrageous crime.” The case against the women, one of whom, Joana Mamombe, is a member of Parliament, comes at a tense time in the country as inflation has risen to 785 percent. The price of bread and sugar has surged by 30 percent over the past week, evoking memories of the hyperinflation seen in 2008 that rendered the country’s currency worthless. Economic crisis and rising public anger have led to mounting speculation that a coup could be in the works. The national security council of Zimbabwe dismissed the rumors in a press conference last week, saying they were being fueled by allies of the late Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.

#headlines #news

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years

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As America’s Small Breweries Brace for Winter, ‘Scraping By’ Is Business as Usual

As Covid-19 cases surge nationwide, U.S. state officials continue to face a complex problem: Keep residents safe, while mitigating the drastic economic impact of pandemic life. Among the countless industries navigating the seismic shift from pre-pandemic life, craft beer businesses are among the most affected — and the most complicated.

In May, as many as 3,600 of roughly 8,000 U.S. breweries were at risk of closure, according to the Brewers Association. This estimation has since improved, but the outlook is still bleak. Small breweries in particular are struggling against the fast currents of lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and changing restrictions in their cities and states — even as parts of their businesses reopen. As a result, beer businesses long at a standstill are in a constant state of flux.

How small breweries and bars respond to each crisis and its accompanying, often contradictory orders could well determine which will make it through winter. Consequently, the health of the beer industry hangs in the balance.

Credit: No Anchor Bar / Instagram.com

It is, of course, difficult to look at the beer industry as one homogenous mass when the responses to health crises, infection and death rates, and economic impacts have differed so wildly from state to state. There is no “one size fits all,” due to the lack of coordinated federal response. Instead, it’s up to each business to navigate its next moves according to the changing whims of state officials and the safety of its staff and community.

In Texas, Austin Beerworks has been hit hard. According to the CDC, the state has one of the highest Covid-19 case and death rates in the country, at least partially due to population size; and a statewide stay-at-home order issued on March 31 meant approximately half the brewery’s roughly 1,000 retail accounts remained closed, with only 25 percent tentatively reopening in August, Austin Beerworks co-founder Michael Graham estimates. The brewery’s taproom has remained closed since March 17, with only some outdoor service taking place.

Credit: Austin Beerworks / Facebook.com

At Austin Beerworks, requirements such as outdoor service greatly impacted the brewery’s sole on-premise sales opportunity. “Our inside taproom has been closed since March 17,” Graham says. “We have an outdoor patio that has opened and closed several times now, based on back-and-forth executive orders and rule interpretations by the governor’s office and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). Per the latest rule interpretations, we’re currently able to operate our patio, as long as more than 50 percent of our sales come from non-alcohol-related items.”

“The loss of nearly all of our on-premise accounts [such as bars and restaurants] has been partially compensated by increased sales through our off-premise accounts [such as grocery and convenience stores],” Graham says. “We’re doing better than almost any other brewery I’ve spoken with.” Despite this, he adds, “volume sales are currently down about 20 percent for the year.”

Although some states have relaxed notoriously strict distribution laws, allowing breweries to explore previously closed direct-to-consumer sales avenues, including beer delivery and bottles to go, this has not been the case in the Lone Star State. “The Texas Craft Brewers’ Guild has been lobbying to allow breweries to ship and deliver beer directly to consumers, but the Texas governor has so far been unwilling to allow new avenues of sales for Texas breweries during the pandemic,” Graham says.

Not Just a Phase

If anything is consistent across the country, it is rapidly changing and inconsistent guidance and policy.

North Carolina is currently in Phase 3 of its three-phase lockdown plan. “Phase 2 gently lifted the stay-at-home order and opened some in-person businesses,” says Erik Myers, director of brewing operations at Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery. “Restaurants are allowed to operate at half capacity, and bars are not allowed to be open — though, curiously, brewery taprooms are.”

Fullsteam’s brewing operations, considered an essential service, have continued since the lockdown order was issued in March. As an essential service, the brewery was able to offer food and beer to go during Phase 1 — thanks to a kitchen renovation completed only the week before lockdown — and now is open at half capacity as a restaurant, with appropriate distancing measures.

Credit: Fullsteam Brewery / Facebook.com

“When the lockdown hit in March, we sort of got our bearings and then laid off a significant portion of staff while we got a handle on what the market was going to look like,” Myers says. A rise in home drinking saw a sharp spike in grocery store sales, which, along with a government-issued Paycheck Protection Program loan, “allowed us to bring our staff back into work about six weeks after the initial layoff, and we’ve been brewing at full capacity ever since.”

The biggest challenge for Fullsteam, as at Austin Beerworks, has been other bars and restaurants remaining closed. “We’ve been having a really hard time projecting demand for draft product because the market has been incredibly inconsistent,” says Myers. “My biggest fear is that we’ll begin to see supply chain issues because of this, and aside from a little slowdown in incoming orders, we haven’t had to deal with ‘out-of-stocks’ on our supplies yet.”

Meanwhile, in Washington State, where the first coronavirus case in the country was recorded on Jan. 21, Seattle remains in Phase 2 of the state’s four-phase reopening plan.

“Recently, any indoor bar service has been shuttered, and inside dining at restaurants [is] limited to members of the same household,” Dave Riddile, general manager at No Anchor Bar, says. The Seattle bar and restaurant closed for two months from the time of lockdown. After reopening for just one day a week for to-go service, and then three days a week, Riddile and his team cautiously opened the patio at the beginning of July, and have been open all week since.

“The closure of inside bar service, unless you’re a restaurant license holder, has felt a little Prohibition-y and arbitrary,” Riddile says. “It puts this undue responsibility on restaurant workers to have to determine if guests live together, which shouldn’t really be their job. Also, I don’t completely agree that this is somehow safer than friends meeting and having a meal together indoors — both scenarios present inherent dangers at the moment, which is part of the reason we have yet to open our dining room to guests.”

Riddile, who describes No Anchor as “somewhere between barely scraping by and business as usual,” is confident the industry will continue to lose fantastic restaurants and bars as winter approaches. “The good thought: I also think that our industry is resilient and will continue to work our asses off to ensure safe employment for our people,” he counters.

Kicked to the Curb(side)

Almost all on-premise beer venues are in a similarly see-sawing situation. Chicago’s Beermiscuous, a beer-focused cafe, was ordered to close, before being considered essential and allowed to reopen only for off-premise sales. Shortly thereafter, the cafe was allowed to return to on-premise consumption, before then being later reduced to off-premise once more. At press time, Beermiscuous remains open for to-go sales and on-site consumption in its sidewalk “cafe,” with distancing measures in force, and online ordering and contactless pickup also in place.

“We’re scraping by,” says Beermiscuous co-owner Virginia Thomas. “It forced us into being packaged beer only for most of the pandemic, and that has smaller margins. Usually, (by order of our license type: Tavern), we can only have 49 percent or less of our business be to-go sales. Our hours have also been forcibly reduced: Chicago makes all to-go alcohol sales end at 9 p.m. now.”

Like Riddile, Thomas has felt little support from the local government. “The only laws that have been changed that favored bars are allowing cocktails mixed to go — we don’t do cocktails — and allowing bars without a food license to apply for a sidewalk cafe permit, which we’re in process of.” But, she says, “it costs $300 just for permits, ours isn’t approved yet, and summer is quickly disappearing.”

Thomas’s feelings are indicative of the attitudes of many: “We’re in for a long, hard winter,” she says. “A lot of places won’t make it. It’s grim, but true.” Reopening indoors will come with its own added stressors: With a growing backlash against masks, symptomatic of general tension and the conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic, Thomas is feeling the public’s anxiety, adding, “Everyone is more on edge, selfish, and threatening, it seems.”

Bracing for What’s Next

Throughout the beer industry, many tell a similar tale of the last several months: a mix of inconsistent official communication, loss of sales, a reliance on to-go service, reduced on-premise capacity, fear for employee and personal health, and innumerable other stressors. This, coupled with a burgeoning recession and ever-looming threat of depression, means many businesses won’t survive.

Credit: Beermiscuous Highwood / Facebook.com

In the face of all of this, some remain hopeful. At Fullsteam Brewery, Myers is focusing on keeping company culture upbeat, aware of the havoc this pandemic is wreaking on mental health.

“It’s mostly a matter of trying to anticipate ways that we can provide some social relief for our employees and make them feel supported. We’ve done a handful of online beer tastings and social hours, and we try to do in-person safe and socially distant tastings and other educational opportunities,” says Myers. “To be honest, it’s difficult. Not everybody is an extrovert and social gatherings don’t feel safe to people — or they don’t want to hang out with work people (especially their boss) outside of work. For us, it’s been important to listen and really hear when people say they need something and do whatever we can within the auspices of the business to help out.”

Graham’s approach for Austin Beerworks is more pragmatic: “Think long-term,” he says. “Don’t take unnecessary risks to chase money. Don’t cut corners to save money. These are very difficult times, but they will pass.”

At No Anchor, Riddile and his team are gearing up for the rainy season and prepping the space for inside dining. Like so many bars, breweries, taprooms, and restaurants relying on the outdoors, safety and viability are equal, inseparable concerns. “No business is worth the lives of the people that make it run,” Riddile says. “We may have a few more long months ahead of us, but if we keep doing our best in these incredible circumstances, we’ll make it through to the other side.”

Things are looking up for Beermiscuous, if only a little: “Our sidewalk cafe was approved on Sept. 21. We got it up and running, and did a soft open on the 23rd, and fully opened on the 24th,” Thomas says. “And the mayor just announced we can reopen indoors.”

The article As America’s Small Breweries Brace for Winter, ‘Scraping By’ Is Business as Usual appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/america-small-breweries-winter-covid-19/

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bangkokjacknews · 3 years

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It's now called 'CAUTIOUS CUDDLING' in this mad new world

PEOPLE in England are looking forward to hugging loved ones, dining inside restaurants and fleeing the UK for their overseas holiday.

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editordhnol · 4 years

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by Geoff Pender Mississippi Today With COVID-19 cases rising again in Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday reinstated a mask mandate and stricter limits on gatherings for nine counties. The counties under the new order are: Chickasaw, Claiborne, DeSoto, Forrest, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lee and Neshoba. Other counties will be added if they reach a threshold of more than 200 recent cases, or 500 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period, depending on the population size of the county. Social gatherings in these counties will be limited to 10 people indoors and 50 outdoors, although Reeves said this will not prevent high school football games, covered in separate orders. Reeves' new executive order also again requires hospitals statewide to reserve 10% capacity for COVID-19 patients. If 10% capacity is not available, a hospital will have to delay elective procedures. Reeves said this worked during the summer peak to relieve pressure on hospitals. Reeves on Sept. 30th lifted a statewide mask mandate — making Mississippi the first state to rescind such a mandate — that he had issued on Aug. 4, and he relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Since then cases have risen. var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1603143775535'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object'); if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='800px';vizElement.style.height='627px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='800px';vizElement.style.height='627px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='694px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); Reeves said Mississippi's rolling average of cases — which peaked at about 1,250 this summer — had dropped to about 500 but has now "ticked back up" to more than 600 cases. On Monday, Mississippi's seven-day average was 766 cases, and last week saw huge one-day spikes, including more than 1,300 cases reported Thursday. "Here in Mississippi we have seen this movie before," Reeves said. "We know what happens if it's allowed to get out of control. Today I will be signing an executive order, consistent with the strategy that allowed us to turn things around the last time we saw an increase in transmission." During the span of the statewide mask mandate, Mississippi cases plummeted, dropping by 54%. Reeves had been hesitant to issue a statewide mask order in the summer, instead of taking a county-by-county approach until state hospitals were becoming overloaded. But Reeves said he still prefers limited COVID-19 orders to "the heavy hand of government," and said a mask mandate "is not a silver bullet." He has said he believes people pay more attention to limited, regional mask orders based on case spikes. "Many of you may ask, why don't you throw a statewide mask mandate on, and we'll be fine," Reeves said. "Look at the data in Arkansas and look at the data in Alabama, where they never took down their statewide mandates, and their curves look a lot worse than ours. "... Just writing something down on a sheet of paper doesn't slow the spread of the virus. Let's work together, put politics aside, wear masks, stay in small groups and stay socially distant." Monday was the first COVID-19 live-streamed public briefing Reeves has held since he rescinded the mask mandate Sept. 30. He said, "I tried to give everyone a break from the Tate Reeves show." He also reaffirmed that he has tested negative for the coronavirus himself since potentially being exposed to a White House outbreak during a visit there in late September. Reeves said he believes Mississippi elections will be safe, despite Mississippi being the only state not to allow some form of early voting for all voters. "Mississippi over the last seven or eight months has had multiple elections run in a safe, responsible way," Reeves said. "I have every confidence going into the general election that is going to be the case. The vast majority of voters are going to be wearing masks, and I would recommend them doing so ... We just had four (legislative special elections) throughout Mississippi, and I have not been made aware of one case of transmission from them." This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Pick Your Poison

Fall activities like apple picking and leaf peeping are generally considered safe, but with record crowds and a COVID surge expected to collide this fall, locals are worried

In the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the outpouring of New York City residents to surrounding rural areas offered a boon to Twin Star Orchards. The U-pick apple farm and maker of Brooklyn Cider House cider sits just outside the small village of New Paltz, New York, about 80 miles north of New York City and halfway to Albany.

Susan Yi, who founded the business along with her brother Peter, says a wave of transplants buying new homes in the Hudson Valley gave business a bump during the usual off-season of April and May. Newly remote workers with flexible schedules have driven more business on Fridays, too, and the farm has added live music, usually reserved for holidays, to bring people out on Saturdays. There was even a socially distanced Fourth of July pig roast on its sprawling outdoor pavilion.

But as fall approaches at Twin Star Orchards, Yi worries that the farm’s high season could bring as much trouble as much-needed income. “Fall is always very busy with late September [to] early October as the peak, with apple-picking and leaf-peeping drawing a lot of people to the area,” she says. “We are typically packed each weekend, so we are a little concerned about keeping the crowds spaced out during that time.”

As spring turned to summer, the Northeast began to get a grip on the COVID-19 pandemic. New York state made a miraculous about-face from the nation’s hotbed to a model for how to contain the pandemic with aggressive lockdowns and testing. It made nearby places like New Paltz safer too. However, the popularity of fall activities could undermine those trends by coaxing people out of their homes just as experts predict a second wave of cases.

With what we know about the spread of COVID-19, outdoor escapes like apple picking seem relatively safe, making these fall getaways especially attractive for cooped-up city dwellers and parents desperate to distract their kids. The brilliant reds and oranges of fall foliage — shining in the face of everything this year — can still be admired from the isolated safety of a family car. The smell of “world-famous” apple pies will still be wafting across New England, and the treats are just as easily devoured at six-foot-spaced outdoor tables. Country farms are the stuff of quarantine cottagecore dreams, where animals offer themselves for therapeutic cuddles and no one needs to shuffle off the sidewalk to maintain social distancing.

James Kirkikis / Shutterstock

The annual pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire, with its signature tower, attracts thousands of visitors each year

But as tempting as this autumnal fantasy and its perceived safety may seem, the crowds it’s expected to draw to rural areas are inspiring mixed feelings among local business owners. After six months of financial hardship, including a delayed start to summer travel, some hope a fall boom will compensate for lost business. Others, fearing the potential for super-spreaders to hide among the pie stands and farm rows, worry that travelers could bring a second wave of infections to their doorsteps.

In May 2019, Greenleaf opened in Milford, New Hampshire, a small town famous for its pumpkin festival and leaf-peeping. The restaurant was only a few months old for its first festival in October last year. “Seeing all the people from the surrounding communities and traveling from afar to take part in this festival in such a small town was great to see,” says chef-owner Chris Viaud. “We were like, ‘Next year, we’re going to do this big. We’ll make sure we’re ingrained in the community and take a bigger part in this.’” Now the restaurant is in limbo as the town decides whether or not to cancel this year’s pumpkin festival.

Like nearly all other restaurants across America, Greenleaf is struggling with reduced traffic due to COVID-19. While it has received financial assistance from government programs, that can only take the restaurant so far, Viaud says, and he’s relying on business to pick up in the fall. Even if the pumpkin festival does get canceled, he still expects people will want to travel, and that puts him in a tricky position. “It’s a tough conversation. We have to think of ourselves and the wellness of our staff, but then the flip side of that is the wellness of the business,” he says.

Even in areas of the Northeast traditionally known more for summer and winter activities, fall has become an unexpected fulcrum of seasonal tourism. In Stowe, Vermont, for instance, summer hiking and winter skiing drive most tourist traffic, but summer travel was dampened by the coronavirus’s first wave, and Vermont’s popular ski mountains may shut down this winter. Local businesses need customers to show up in the next few months.

That might be tricky for Plate, a popular Main Street restaurant in Stowe that’s balancing its responsibility to locals against its dependence on tourists. “Early when we very first opened [for outdoor dining in May], we saw a lot of locals coming back to support us,” says chef-owner Aaron Martin. “Once people started traveling more, we noticed that it was mostly tourists, and our locals were feeling safer to stay away.” Martin says locals have returned tentatively, but they prefer the restaurant’s small, 10-seat patio to the indoor dining room — even at the 40 percent capacity it’s implemented to maintain social distancing. Some customers refuse to dine altogether if they can’t be seated outside. The chef chalks up their hesitance in part to the fact that out-of-state visitors tend not to follow Vermont’s 14-day mandatory quarantine for travelers. As temperatures drop, the restaurant will eventually have to pack up the outdoor seating, sacrificing the valuable added revenue along with it.

Viaud and Martin agree the potential for a second wave makes it difficult to make plans for the next few months. “Everyone’s listening to the media. In the fall, there is a scare of another spike. What does that mean for the businesses around?” Viaud wonders. Martin has no doubt about what would happen in Vermont. “We have a great governor who’s done a wonderful job. If we have a second wave, he’ll shut us all down again,” he says.

Boston Globe via Getty Images

Fresh cider donuts at Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, Massachusetts

While some people might be stressing about the approaching autumn, apple trees and pumpkin vines are forging ahead at full speed. “The farm doesn’t know a pandemic from a regular year. The fruit’s going to grow either way,” says farm operations manager Jay Mofenson of Lookout Farm in South Natick, Massachusetts. “We have certain fixed expenses of equipment needs and labor needs that, regardless of the pandemic, have to continue.”

Lookout was founded in 1651, making it one of the nation’s oldest continually operating farms. Today the 180-acre orchard is home to 55,000 trees, drawing around 50,000 eager amateur apple pickers each year. While the farm does sell some apples to wholesale distributors, Mofenson says, “Agritourism is really our primary focus.”

Luckily for the farm, summer peach season is typically much slower than the fall, only attracting an average of 5,000 visitors in a normal year. Not only does this mean Lookout didn’t sacrifice much U-pick business during the initial wave of the pandemic, but it also gave Mofenson and his team a chance to reconfigure the entire operation ahead of the anticipated fall crowds. They re-envisioned the customer experience from the moment a guest gets out of their car to the moment they return to the parking lot. They nixed the trains that usually ferry people to the fruit trees, established a one-way path through the rows, and set up a reservation system with caps on the number of pickers per hour.

Across the country, in Camarillo, California, home of the Abundant Table, the leaves aren’t much of a draw, but the farm still offers a classic fall experience. Programming extends well beyond U-pick to include a produce shop, educational programs for kids and adults, open community farming initiatives, and other BIPOC-focused nonprofit efforts.

All of these programs were paused in the initial days of the pandemic, but Linda Quiquivix, institutional sales partnerships and CSA manager, says the team is planning their return in the coming months, with strict social-distancing measures in place. “The really cool thing about us is we’re a collective. We’re a democratic workplace,” she says. “We get to decide what conditions we work under. We always keep abreast of the [COVID-19] situation, so we don’t have any problems codifying plans according to new realities.”

Quiquivix explains that after the highly publicized breakdown of the food system early in the pandemic, community farming, U-pick, and the produce stand give people a chance to support local farming, which many customers are recognizing as increasingly important. The Abundant Table is also collaborating with the Rodale Institute, a nonprofit focused on organic farming, to set up a U-pick, no-till pumpkin patch. As kids shift to remote learning in the fall, Quiquivix is hoping the school district will allow a class of sixth graders to come help analyze the pumpkin patch once a week, not only to discuss maintaining soil carbon by avoiding tilling, but also the pre-colonial farming practices of the Chumash people on that land.

Lookout Farm

Lookout Farm in Massachusetts has transformed its outdoor dining area for social distancing.

Farther north, at R. Kelley Farms in Sacramento, owner Ron Kelley committed to his summer crops back in April, planting his seeds when rumors still indicated the pandemic would clear up soon. U-pick typically accounts for 60 percent of business for the 28-year-old farm, and the summer high season has been going well. Kelley has implemented social distancing and a reservation system, allowing him to host visitors from as far as 100 miles away to pick crowder, purple hull, and black-eye beans.

But that’s all changing in the fall, which doesn’t drive nearly as much business for him. The potential costs outweigh any potential gains for offering his usual winter greens for U-pick. “My business is the least of my concerns. I’m worried about my health,” he says. “I’m 72 years old and do not want to take any chances of getting ill from working outdoors in the fall and winter.”

While most restaurants and farms plan to do everything they can to stay in business, Kelley is more open about the potential of closing up shop. “I’m at the age that this may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” he says. “Once I finish this year, then I’ll take a hard look at it, decide whether I want to gamble again next year or what exactly I want to do.”

“It’s going to be a challenging year. I can’t say where we’re going to end up, financially speaking,” Mofenson says bluntly. But there’s always an upside to working through the crisis. “The farm is a very special place to us, to a lot of people. The benefit is tons of comments all the time from people about how grateful they are to have an opportunity to be outdoors, to see the kids smiling. It’s really been a silver lining to this whole situation.” He adds, “Hopefully everyone has a better 2021.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/351zsYv https://ift.tt/3jKUyhY

Fall activities like apple picking and leaf peeping are generally considered safe, but with record crowds and a COVID surge expected to collide this fall, locals are worried

James Kirkikis / Shutterstock

The annual pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire, with its signature tower, attracts thousands of visitors each year

Boston Globe via Getty Images

Fresh cider donuts at Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, Massachusetts

Lookout Farm

Lookout Farm in Massachusetts has transformed its outdoor dining area for social distancing.

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