Coronavirus, Monkeypox, and Other Contagious Diseases

[LFC]

Texass again. They really do seem hell bent on murdering children.

As cases of COVID-19 soar in Texas, not all parents will be informed if there’s an outbreak of coronavirus in their children’s public schools.

Notifications will only be required if a district learns a child was a “close contact” of someone with the virus. Those parents can then “opt” to keep their child at home, according to new guidelines issued earlier this week by the Texas Education Agency.

Vaccinated people are not considered a close contact who should be informed, according to the guidelines, even though vaccinated individuals can catch and spread the disease.

The TEA also warns: “School systems cannot require students or staff to wear a mask.”

In addition, schools will no longer be required to carry out contact tracing of a COVID-19 outbreak to determine the source of the virus and how it’s spreading in the school community. Tracing was dropped because data from last school year revealed “very low COVID-19 transmission rates in a classroom setting and data demonstrating lower transmission rates among children than adults,” the TEA noted.

But health experts warn that the dangerously more contagious delta variant of COVID-19, which is currently the dominant strain in Texas, is having a far greater impact on children.

Oh, the Delta variant is infecting, sickening, and killing more children? BFD! There's an election to steal in 2022!

[andydp]

In a case of "we didn't see this coming" (because we're stupid) a new development:


Texas Gov. Abbott seeks out-of-state help against COVID-19

Gov. Greg Abbott appealed for out-of-state help to fight the third wave of COVID-19 in Texas while two more of the state’s largest school districts announced mask mandates in defiance of the governor.

Abbott’s request Monday came as a county-owned hospital in Houston raised tents to accommodate their COVID-19 overflow. Private hospitals in the county already were requiring their staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Meantime, the Dallas and Austin school districts announced Monday that they would require students and staff to wear face masks. The Houston school district already announced a mask mandate for its students and staff later this week if its board approves.


apnews.com/article/business-health-education-coronavirus-pandemic-368eb9eb57b1d3b1a473d4414c42a522

[LFC]

Josh Marshall notes that getting data on vaccination status vs. severe infection by age group can be frustratingly difficult but there is some decent data out of Israel. The upshot? Get your f***ing vaccination, moron.

As we’ve been discussing there is a paucity of information on the precise effectiveness of vaccines vs the Delta variant and the contours of the pandemic in the new circumstances of the last eight weeks or so. We know in general that vaccines continue to be highly effective at preventing severe illness. But the details are not as easy as they should be to come by. This seems to be both the product of very new facts which studies are only catching up with and a continued paucity of good national data from the CDC. That vacuum is filled by anecdotal information.

With that in mind I wanted to show you some new data out of Israel which is illuminating. These two graphs come from an article in Haaretz based on new data released by the health ministry. The numbers come from roughly the last month.

The whole thing is short and worth the read but these charts tell a pretty obvious story if you're not an idiot.

[Deleted]

Aug 9, 2021 21:51:33 GMT jackd said:

Apparently there are some court challenges. Be nice if some judge (or judges) decided the welfare of the people was more important than the governor's ego.

The responsibility of ensuring people's welfare does not rest with the judges. Turn towards the executive. And, then the people. 

[LFC]

Ron DeSantis is a sociopath. I'm convinced that he does not feel a twinge of remorse over the children he's harming and will be murdering. The politics of blocking school mask mandates is so important to him that he's trying to attack administrators' salaries if they disobey his imperial order.

In a move that escalated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' fight over mask mandates, the governor's office said Monday that the state board of education could move to withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members who disregard the governor's executive order that effectively prohibits mask mandates in school districts.

Last month DeSantis, a Republican, issued an executive order requiring the state's health and education departments to create rules based on parents' rights to make the health care decisions for their children who are students. Several lawsuits have since been filed challenging the constitutionality of the executive order.
Several school districts are considering mask mandates and a few have said masks will be required, with some opt-out exceptions.

A statement from the governor's office on Monday says the state board of education "could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members."

Meanwhile the pediatric COVID hospitalization rate in Florida is jumping up even before school opens.

More Florida children were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday than in any other state, reflecting a rapid rise in serious illness among an age group considered to be at the lowest risk of severe outcomes from the disease and many still not eligible for the vaccine.

A total of 46 pediatric patients were admitted to a Florida hospital with a confirmed infection while an additional 22 were hospitalized with a suspected case, according to the federal government’s hospital capacity data.

Only Texas reported a higher total number of pediatric patients in hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 on Tuesday — 142 children — compared to 135 in Florida.

Although cases have spiked across all age groups in Florida, a Miami Herald analysis of weekly case data revealed that the sharpest increase over the past month has occurred among kids under 12.

Read more here: www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253250073.html#storylink=cpy

But like any good Republican he has no problem putting his hand out and taking from the federal gov't he claims he wants to leave him alone. Now he's begging for 300 ventilators as his states' cases skyrocket.

While Gov. Ron DeSantis carries on with his tough-guy act of telling President Joe Biden to keep out of Florida’s worsening coronavirus crisis, the state has reportedly asked the federal government for urgent help. According to Local10, Florida’s Department of Health and Human Services asked the federal government for 300 ventilators on Friday as it dealt with a record-breaking surge of new coronavirus cases. A document seen by the network said more machines—which are expected to be delivered this week—were needed “to replace expended state stores.” Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 56,633 new coronavirus cases were recorded over the past two days, but Florida’s health department disputed those figures and gave its own, much-lower total.

Gee, what a shock. Florida's health department, I'm sure controlled by DeSantis flunkies, is producing lower numbers. These would be the same flunkies who tried to imprison somebody for exposing the real numbers before.

This is beyond selfish or political. He's mentally damaged. He's the face of evil. That's not a word I use lightly but anybody who could do this is evil. I don't care how nice he is to his wife, kids, or dog.

[jackd]

This is why help from judges may be all that can be hoped for. I agree that it shouldn't be that way.

[LFC]

The reported COVID death toll in Florida (which I'd wager is lower than actual) is greater than sociopath Ron DeSantis's margin of victory. Is it any wonder Republicans are in a full-out push to rig America's elections? The bodies mean nothing to him.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a big bet that keeping Florida open and fighting mask mandates would be political gold, and for a time it looked like he was winning that bet. No more, as the Delta variant has made Florida the epicenter of a new and more transmissible surge of COVID-19. And DeSantis is too dug in fighting mask mandates and peddling “Don’t Fauci My Florida” merchandise to make many adjustments even as the number of hospitalizations climb with a rising death rate sure to follow.

Local school boards are defying his executive order banning mask mandates, despite the governor’s threats to withhold funding, and a federal judge upheld Norwegian Cruise Line’s requirement that passengers show proof of vaccination after DeSantis threatened Norwegian with a $5,000 fine per passenger, a bill for a public health measure that would have cost millions and was correctly seen as a bully’s overreach into an industry that is the lifeblood of South Florida.

DeSantis was elected governor in 2018 with a margin of victory of just 0.4 percent, or 32,000 votes. Florida’s official COVID death count is now 39,695, a chilling reminder about the public health impact of DeSantis’ policies, and the fact that politics is about addition, not subtraction.

[LFC]

FFS.

On July 20, three days before the Olympics began, a woman in her 30s from Peru tested positive for COVID-19 at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and was immediately flagged as a probable carrier of the highly infectious Lambda variant of COVID-19.

However, The Daily Beast has learned that Japan’s Ministry of Health, after making a conclusive determination on the identity of the variant, omitted any mention of the new case from its regular press releases on July 30 and Aug. 6.

[LFC]

Sturgis is on, with an expected crowd of 700,000, and Kristi Noem is preening over the super spreader event.

While Gov. Kristi Noem frolicked with bikers at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally amid a nationwide surge of the coronavirus on Monday, Dr. Kevin Weiland watched and worried from afar.

Weiland, a Rapid City internist, told The Daily Beast he went to Florida to “escape the Rally”—despite a raging outbreak in the Sunshine State. The doc’s concern: that the massive South Dakota gathering—organizers say more than 700,000 people were expected to visit the Black Hills, setting an all-time record—could be dangerous, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 spreads across the nation.

“Safe as I am in a gated community, I have strong feelings as to what our governor is doing,” Weiland told The Daily Beast of his new digs down South.

Weiland went on to claim that “the very first South Dakota resident to die was my patient,” arguing that like ex-President Trump, Noem was a coronavirus rogue and denier who “should be exposed.”

I hate to say this to you doc but she is exposed. In fact she's campaigning on that exposure. How said is that?

[andydp]

Aug 10, 2021 15:24:47 GMT LFC said:

The reported COVID death toll in Florida (which I'd wager is lower than actual) is greater than sociopath Ron DeSantis's margin of victory. Is it any wonder Republicans are in a full-out push to rig America's elections? The bodies mean nothing to him.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a big bet that keeping Florida open and fighting mask mandates would be political gold, and for a time it looked like he was winning that bet. 

DeSantis was elected governor in 2018 with a margin of victory of just 0.4 percent, or 32,000 votes. Florida’s official COVID death count is now 39,695, a chilling reminder about the public health impact of DeSantis’ policies, and the fact that politics is about addition, not subtraction.

From Andy B:

DeSantis Losing Support Among Voters Opposed to Dying

www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/desantis-losing-support-among-voters-opposed-to-dying

[RichTBikkies]

Aug 10, 2021 16:46:58 GMT andydp said:

From Andy B:

DeSantis Losing Support Among Voters Opposed to Dying

www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/desantis-losing-support-among-voters-opposed-to-dying

Poor Andy. Whatever he says now will always sound like straight journalism.

Which has been true for months — or even years. If he decides, like Tom Lehrer, to retire he should get a megaprestigious gong. Which American award would be appropriate?

[Bact PhD]

Aug 10, 2021 16:46:58 GMT andydp said:

Aug 10, 2021 15:24:47 GMT LFC said:

The reported COVID death toll in Florida (which I'd wager is lower than actual) is greater than sociopath Ron DeSantis's margin of victory. Is it any wonder Republicans are in a full-out push to rig America's elections? The bodies mean nothing to him.

From Andy B:

DeSantis Losing Support Among Voters Opposed to Dying

www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/desantis-losing-support-among-voters-opposed-to-dying

One can only hope. Seriously.

Any wonder I am giving serious thought to leaving here? I’m not making this statement lightly—just a couple of years ago I fully anticipated living out my days in this area. The sociopaths seem to have taken over, not only in the governor’s chair, but also to a significant degree in other branches that affect this area (state House & Senate, US Congress, US Senate, and there are knocks on the door of local government as well).

[LFC]

Sen. Josh Hawley has been keeping his head down, maybe because his full-throated embrace of insurrection against the government of the United States isn't playing so well, but now he's back. Now he's following DeSantis's lead in advocating for the sickening and killing of children to aid his political fortunes. Interestingly this flies in the face of how Teddy Roosevelt fought against smallpox.

Missouri senator and presidential aspirant Josh Hawley, best known for giving a thumbs up to the January 6 rioters and trying to overturn the November election, has now joined Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott in furthering the spread of the pandemic. Hawley is sponsoring an amendment to the infrastructure bill that would restrict federal funding for K-12 schools that mandate Covid-19 vaccines for students or require students to wear masks.

In an earlier incarnation, when he was a protege of Stanford historian David Kennedy, Hawley published an admiring study of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness. It’s worth pondering (in the manner of WWJD) what TR, if he were transported forward a century, would do in response to the renewed outbreak of Covid-19. I think it’s pretty obvious: he would do everything he could to convince people to vaccinate, including whatever means of coercion he had at hand.

Constitutional support for compulsory vaccination dates back to a Supreme Court ruling during TR’s presidency. In 1905, the court ruled in Massachusetts v. Jacobson that states could mandate vaccinations for small pox. The court ruled that “[r]eal liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own [liberty], whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.”

Remember, this guy is major self-professed "Christian." So much for pro-life.

[AnBr]

Aug 10, 2021 18:04:51 GMT RichTBikkies said:

Aug 10, 2021 16:46:58 GMT andydp said:

From Andy B:

DeSantis Losing Support Among Voters Opposed to Dying

www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/desantis-losing-support-among-voters-opposed-to-dying

Poor Andy. Whatever he says now will always sound like straight journalism.

Which has been true for months — or even years. If he decides, like Tom Lehrer, to retire he should get a megaprestigious gong. Which American award would be appropriate?

"And the humorists wept."

[LFC]

TPM put up Ron DeSantis Is The Nation’s Worst COVID Governor but there are certainly others in the running.

It’s a tough race.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of Florida has proven himself exceptional in a crowded field, taking arguably the most blasé and reckless approach to COVID-19 of any state executive during the latest phase of the pandemic.

The proof is in the pudding: Florida’s case rate has jumped 60 percent over the past two weeks.

A dive beneath the surface of that data further shows the real catastrophe that’s unfolding. After all, with vaccinations protecting most people from severe illness, case counts themselves only say so much. But Florida hospitalizations have also been steadily rising, hitting 14,787 on Tuesday.

And the state’s death toll currently stands at 39,965, according to state statistics. That’s less per capita than early-hit states like New Jersey and New York, but on a trend line that has continued to climb even after the virus was better understood and, critically, still is climbing, eight months after vaccines began to be distributed.

If Florida were a foreign country, the feds would consider banning travel from it, said Dr. Johnathan Reiner of the George Washington University School of Medicine, referring to the COVID-19 situation in the state this weekend.

“The viral load in Florida is so high right now, there are really only two places on the planet where it’s higher,” he told CNN. Those places, he added, are Botswana, and another U.S. state, Louisiana.

[LFC]

TPM has been live blogging the national political insanity over masks. I just skimmed it and it's depressing.

[LFC]

Here's a piece on Sturgis. They're going to sicken and kill a lot of people around the nation. I wish it was just limited to them. I'd have no problem with them killing themselves.

[Bact PhD]

Aug 11, 2021 20:27:14 GMT LFC said:

TPM put up Ron DeSantis Is The Nation’s Worst COVID Governor but there are certainly others in the running.

It’s a tough race.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of Florida has proven himself exceptional in a crowded field, taking arguably the most blasé and reckless approach to COVID-19 of any state executive during the latest phase of the pandemic.

The proof is in the pudding: Florida’s case rate has jumped 60 percent over the past two weeks.

A dive beneath the surface of that data further shows the real catastrophe that’s unfolding. After all, with vaccinations protecting most people from severe illness, case counts themselves only say so much. But Florida hospitalizations have also been steadily rising, hitting 14,787 on Tuesday.

And the state’s death toll currently stands at 39,965, according to state statistics. That’s less per capita than early-hit states like New Jersey and New York, but on a trend line that has continued to climb even after the virus was better understood and, critically, still is climbing, eight months after vaccines began to be distributed.

If Florida were a foreign country, the feds would consider banning travel from it, said Dr. Johnathan Reiner of the George Washington University School of Medicine, referring to the COVID-19 situation in the state this weekend.

“The viral load in Florida is so high right now, there are really only two places on the planet where it’s higher,” he told CNN. Those places, he added, are Botswana, and another U.S. state, Louisiana.

I find myself screaming "FUCK YOU, just FUCK YOU!!!" at various news accounts daily.

Flori-DUH -- the sociopaths rule, and it's not even funny anymore.

ETA 6:30 PM: Chem PhD put on ABC News just now -- nothing like your local hospital as a significant part of the lead story.

[jackd]

It really hasn't been funny for a long time. It's good to see some courts and school districts resisting but it's a shame they need to.

DiSantis really is a child; he says he didn't request more ventilators from the federal government, Florida's Department of Health did.  He didn't authorize that or know about it.  He doesn't say their request was unauthorized in law.  Pretty clearly the worst governor in the country and that's a high bar to clear.

[AnBr]

Blackburn latest to accuse Dems of wanting 'permanent pandemic'

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/blackburn-latest-accuse-dems-wanting-permanent-pandemic-n1276334?cid=sm_fb_maddow

[Rue Bella]

www.yahoo.com/entertainment/anti-mask-parents-threaten-doctors-230542575.html

A group of anti-mask parents aggressively confronted doctors and nurses leaving a school board meeting in Tennessee night after a school mask mandate just passed, surrounding their cars and threatening them.

“You can leave freely, but we will find you, and we know who you are,” one man says, in video captured by journalist Matt Masters.

“You’ll never be allowed in public again,” another man says, as a crowd nearby chants, “Will not comply!” and “No more masks!”

Police had to restrain the crowd.

“I was told by deputies to stay inside for my own safety because I was wearing a mask,” NewsChannel5 reporter Kelsey Gibbs wrote of the experience. “I covered stories where I feared for my safety but a school board meeting on mask mandates was a first.”

The outrage was in response to a Tuesday night meeting of the Williamson County School Board, which voted 7 to 3 to require masks for all students and teachers at the elementary school level in the district, which resumed classes last week and where most students aren’t old enough to get vaccinated. The county, one of the wealthiest in the country, previously had a mask mandate, which it dropped at the end of the previous school year as Covid cases declined.

Though many parents testified about how they desperately wanted a mask mandate, and school board chair Nancy Garrett said she got twice as many emails in support of a mandate than against it, similar hysterics drowned out their comments.

What is wrong with these people? ~ PG

As the pandemic rages, the anger will only get worse. Hard to imagine living in a red state.

[Rue Bella]

[indy]

So 99% of these people going to the hospital for COVID now are not vaccinated which basically means they don't trust the medical establishment. On the other hand, when they get it they run to that same medical establishment which is now compelled to offer them sub standard care because of their own mistrust.

Honestly, I'm ok with just wheeling them to the parking lot and leaving them there.

[goldenvalley]

Aug 12, 2021 4:24:16 GMT Rue Bella said:

www.yahoo.com/entertainment/anti-mask-parents-threaten-doctors-230542575.html

A group of anti-mask parents aggressively confronted doctors and nurses leaving a school board meeting in Tennessee night after a school mask mandate just passed, surrounding their cars and threatening them.

“You can leave freely, but we will find you, and we know who you are,” one man says, in video captured by journalist Matt Masters.

“You’ll never be allowed in public again,” another man says, as a crowd nearby chants, “Will not comply!” and “No more masks!”

Police had to restrain the crowd.

“I was told by deputies to stay inside for my own safety because I was wearing a mask,” NewsChannel5 reporter Kelsey Gibbs wrote of the experience. “I covered stories where I feared for my safety but a school board meeting on mask mandates was a first.”

The outrage was in response to a Tuesday night meeting of the Williamson County School Board, which voted 7 to 3 to require masks for all students and teachers at the elementary school level in the district, which resumed classes last week and where most students aren’t old enough to get vaccinated. The county, one of the wealthiest in the country, previously had a mask mandate, which it dropped at the end of the previous school year as Covid cases declined.

Though many parents testified about how they desperately wanted a mask mandate, and school board chair Nancy Garrett said she got twice as many emails in support of a mandate than against it, similar hysterics drowned out their comments.

What is wrong with these people? ~ PG

As the pandemic rages, the anger will only get worse. Hard to imagine living in a red state.

Franklin is a fairly upper middle to upper income suburb of Nashville.  I don't understand the anger there or anywhere else over a mask. Were these parents this upset over the school requirements that students have DPT, measles, etc vaccinations?

[LFC]

Aug 12, 2021 3:45:34 GMT AnBr said:

Blackburn latest to accuse Dems of wanting 'permanent pandemic'

Awesome. The party that refuses to wear masks, social distance, and is brimming with anti-vaxxer cranks is screeching that the Democrats want a "permanent pandemic." It's so beyond just stupid.