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Thread: COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic

  1. #976
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    https://fox5sandiego.com/news/corona...-icu-capacity/

    LODI, Calif. (AP) — In San Joaquin County, part of California’s vast Central Valley that produces most of the country’s fruits and vegetables, the coronavirus is spreading like a weed and the hospitals are running out of beds for the sickest patients.

    San Joaquin is part of a 12-county region that on Saturday had 0% of its intensive care unit capacity remaining, according to state statistics, the lowest rate anywhere in California. And with cases continuing at an unprecedented rate, the death toll inevitably will grow, too.

    A new stay-at-home order was imposed this week but it’s anybody’s guess whether it will have the intended consequence of finally changing enough people’s behavior to slow infections as a vaccine is rolled out.

    “It’s been frustrating,” said Chuck Davis, CEO of data science company Bayesiant that tracks virus numbers for the county. “It’s like we see the train coming down the track and we’re telling people, and some people listen and get off the track and other people get on the track and start dancing.”

    The virus has found a foothold in Lodi, a city of 68,000 on the county’s northern rim. The birthplace of A&W Root Beer, Lodi is surrounded by vineyards that rely on Latino farmworkers.

    On School Street, the city’s picturesque retail and restaurant hub, sycamore leaves as big as your hand littered the sidewalk. In normal times, volunteers clear the leaves. But that stopped during the pandemic, and the leaves piled up, a subtle reminder of how things have changed.

    More stark reminders are at the local hospital, where a second intensive care unit was created to handle patients. A team of 17 nurses arrives Monday so the hospital can begin accepting patients from some of the county’s six other hospitals, all of which are at 100% capacity or more in ICU units.

    Dr. Patricia Iris, medical officer for Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, said during the first surge of cases this year 75% of patients were Latino. The hospital interviewed 30 Latino families to find out why, discovering they didn’t trust the hospital.

    Things improved after Adventist partnered with Spanish-language TV and radio stations to educate people about wearing masks and social distancing.

    But across the city, many residents still don’t follow the rules, Iris said.

    “People can’t help themselves. They want to be near family,” she said. “We don’t have the same culture and the rigidity around following the guidance here than, for example, San Francisco. We need to educate, educate, as much as we can so we can get some relief.”

    Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a three-week stay-at-home order for the San Joaquin Valley. The order forced restaurants to only offer takeout and delivery, shuttered hair and nail salons, movie theaters and other businesses, and limited retailers to 20% capacity.

    Pat Patrick, president and CEO of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, signed a letter to Newsom, urging him to let businesses stay open.
    There’s just no rhyme or reason to some of these things and certainly no data,” he said.

    Lodi Junction, a sprawling thrift store, is following the rules, only allowing a maximum of 30 customers and requiring masks and distancing. More than a dozen people were sampling the wares on Wednesday — a box set of Anthony Robbins self-help books, a $150 flat screen TV with no remote — as Bruce Hornsby sang “that’s just the way it is” over the speakers.

    Roman Winter was browsing some shirts while wearing a mask. He’s a doctor of internal medicine at a Southern California hospital, but once worked in San Joaquin County and still has a house in Lodi. He was visiting for the first time in six months and thinks not much has changed.

    “It’s busier out there now than it was before the whole thing started,” he said. “It doesn’t seem that anybody cares.”

    But some things have changed on School Street, where most of the restaurants have closed their seating. Unable to eat inside, Ryan Breakfield and his girlfriend Erica Everett ate takeout in the bed of a pickup truck, calling it a “COVID date.”

    “It’s just really weird. That’s the best way to put it,” he said.

    Tucked between four restaurants is the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where owner Jeanne Bria’s business model relies on diners walking past her temptations. But people aren’t thinking about dessert now when they walk to their cars with Styrofoam takeout containers. Bria said her business is down 60%.

    She wears a mask and only allows one person or party in her store at a time. She said most people follow the rules, but added: “I would say 95% of the people that come in want to complain about it.”

    “My problem is I don’t know who to believe,” she said. “You hear from different sources different information. And I almost think that the mental health and the frustration damage that’s being done is almost worse.”

    Across town, Denis Xenos knows exactly who he believes — and it isn’t Newsom. The owner of Denis’ Country Kitchen has kept his restaurant open for dine-in customers despite the mandate, posting on Facebook that he has converted into a “private club.” The membership fee is $1 per family.

    The stunt attracted the attention of the county public health department, which called Xenos and told him the district attorney has been notified. Xenos said nothing has happened yet, and he is “just trusting the Lord.”

    “I’m standing up for what our forefathers have died to give me,” Xenos said, adding he is not requiring masks. “We’re open, letting everybody choose what they want.”

    Others have accepted the rules as necessary. Tom Hoffman, owner of Heritage Oak Winery, canceled his wine tastings and other events for the next three weeks, even though the holiday season is when he makes the most money.

    Hoffman said he expects to survive the shutdown. But his business won’t be the same.

    “I don’t really look forward to standing in the tasting room with 14 people in there all breathing the same air. That doesn’t appeal to me anymore,” he said.

  3. #978
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    https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-...-north-county/

    SAN MARCOS (CNS) – Health care company Kaiser Permanente, along with local leaders, held a virtual groundbreaking for the San Marcos Medical Center Thursday.

    The planned seven-story hospital is scheduled to open in the fall of 2023, and will include 206 single patient rooms, 51 emergency department bays, eight operating rooms, ten labor, delivery, and recovery suites, and a Level II neonatal intensive care unit.

    “This is the culmination of six years of work by many, many people,” said Max Villalobos, chief operating officer of Kaiser Permanente San Diego’s North County section.

    Located in the heart of San Marcos, adjacent to Kaiser’s San Marcos Medial Offices at 400 Craven Road, the new hospital is intended to enhance community health and wellness with acute care, labor and delivery, surgical, emergency and intensive care services.
    Speakers at Thursday’s event said the location would save travel time and miles for more than 180,000 Kaiser Permanente members in San Marcos and the North County region.

    “We in North County have been talking about Kaiser Permanente building a hospital since the early 90s,” said San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones. “The hospital will serve to solidify the 180,000 members in North County, which is huge for us. No longer do our residents have to drive all the way to San Diego, they can stay right here in North County.”The LEED Gold designed project brings more than 1,000 permanent new jobs to the community and 500-plus construction jobs throughout the building process.
    Good one

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    https://fox40.com/news/california-co...id-19-records/

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County again broke a record for coronavirus hospitalizations this weekend as San Francisco County reported its highest number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

    Statewide, more than 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases were reported Sunday, making California’s total at 1,551,766. Millions of Californians in the majority of the state are under stay-at-home orders.

    In Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, more than 4,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to figures released Sunday afternoon. More than one-fifth of hospitalized patients are in intensive care units.

    The county’s new figures break the previous record set only the day before, with 3,850 patients in a hospital, and follows the trend of hospitalizations increasing nearly every day since Nov. 1.

    LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer warned on Monday — when hospitalizations were 2,988 — that the county could see the statistic to climb to 4,000 within two weeks. It happened in six days.

    In San Francisco County, health officials reported 323 new cases on Saturday, the highest number of new coronavirus infections there yet. San Francisco emerged as a leader in the state’s response to the pandemic early on but has since moved to battling its own cases.

    The record-breaking figures in Los Angeles and San Francisco counties come as more than 325,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are on the way to California.

    The first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine left Michigan early Sunday for 145 distribution centers nationwide. States will get vaccines based on their adult population and additional shipments are coming this week.

    The vaccine is heading to hospitals and other sites across the country that can store it at extremely low temperatures — about 94 degrees below zero. Pfizer is using containers with dry ice and GPS-enabled sensors to ensure each shipment stays colder than the weather in Antarctica.

    In California, counties will have specific allotments that will be distributed to hospitals determined by state health officials to have adequate storage capacity, serve a high-risk health care population and have the ability to vaccinate people quickly. Priority will be to inoculate health care workers on the front lines of a pandemic that has infected more than 16 million people and claimed nearly 298,000 lives in the U.S. alone.

    Represented in those U.S. deaths include a disproportionate number of people of color.

    In Santa Clara County in Northern California, volunteers have begun a door-to-door coronavirus testing pilot program in a majority Latino community that has become a virus hot spot. Officials started handing out self-testing kits in the East San Jose neighborhood of Silicon Valley’s San Jose last week, where 55% of the population is Latino and officials say many residents cannot easily access testing sites.

    But for many, the vaccines are still out of reach. The priority will be for health care workers to be inoculated first.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that a group of medical experts convened by Western states met Saturday to discuss the vaccine and confirm that it is safe for public use. Newsom said distribution could begin as early as Sunday.

    Medical facilities at military bases in Alameda and San Diego will be among the first sites to receive vaccines, the U.S. Department of Defense announced earlier this month.

    The vaccines are coming as the situation grows more dire by the day nationwide and in California, with the holiday season well underway. Public health officials are afraid the already surging infection rates and hospitalizations will continue to climb as people ignore precautions to gather for the holidays.

    On Saturday, the number of available ICU beds in San Joaquin Valley plummeted to zero for the first time.

  5. #980
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

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    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...=pocket-newtab

    QUINTER, Kansas — Sitting in the front seat of a red pickup as wind-whipped sorghum husks fly down Main Street like snowflakes, Ivy Charles fingers the white surgical mask slipped down beneath her chin.

    "He was a puzzle piece who can never be replaced," she says, tears welling into her tired eyes. "He was supposed to get better. We weren't expecting him to die."

    Just over a month ago, the now-rampaging coronavirus pandemic tore through this rural town of 1,000 and surrounding Gove County, killing 20 residents. Among them was Charles' father, Edward "Mac" McElhaney, 78.

    Here, where most everyone knows most everyone else, the pandemic has killed farmers and their wives. The town's unofficial historian. The beloved grandmother whose sour cream chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting was always the talk of the party. The mom whose piano-playing still echoes in the heads of her friends.

    And it has drained the hearts of the survivors. Those who feel guilty that they recovered. The ambulance workers battling to treat their own relatives. The exhausted doctor who watched nearly half his patients die.

    "It was overwhelming and sad and you don't think you have that many tears to shed," says Charles, 46. "And you do."

    As of Thursday, coronavirus has killed a higher percentage of Gove County residents than any other county in the United States: One out of every 132 people has died.

    Their intertwined stories illuminate the toll the pandemic has taken on communities across the country as emotional debates over how to control the infection have unfolded amid mounting losses.

    Even today, mask-wearing remains controversial in Gove County, and friendships are being strained as authorities struggle to persuade their neighbors to follow basic public health guidelines, such as avoiding large gatherings.

    President Donald Trump won the county with 88% of the vote in November, and many of the residents, including the farmers who raise up corn and sorghum, are deeply skeptical of government and public health orders, often echoing the language Trump has used about mask-wearing and the pandemic's severity.

    Conservative churches like the Dunkard Brethren — a Protestant faith brought over from Germany — help shape social life, and the Dollar General store is the biggest retailer for 50 miles in any direction. Quinter, the largest town, is 300 windswept miles west of Kansas City, and the paved streets surrounding it quickly give way to dirt roads.

    Many young people move away when they can. Gove County's median age is nearly 50 years old, a decade older than the national average. Among the 2,600 residents, coronavirus found easy targets, especially once it worked its way into the nursing home.

    In August, just before the wave of positive cases began growing, Gove County leaders mandated everyone wear masks in public. They were forced to remove it two weeks later after a series of angry confrontations with their constituents. Around the same time, someone anonymously reported the county's COVID-19 information Facebook page as spam or fake news, and it was temporarily taken offline just as public officials were trying to warn residents of the danger.

    The first two deaths were reported on Oct. 7, setting off a wave of concern among public health officials and county managers. By Oct. 13, seven people had died, six of them inside the nursing home.

    Some community leaders remain concerned their neighbors still aren't taking the pandemic seriously.

    "We are living through history right now, and I worry what the history books will say about us," says Ericka Nicholson, 47, who helps run the town's volunteer ambulance service and survived the infection.
    EMTs Ericka Nicholson and Roy Litfin wheel a COVID-19 positive patient into their waiting ambulance for transport for a larger hospital from Quinter, Kansas.

    Nicholson, 47, doesn't want to be seen as criticizing her neighbors, but she's often been the last familiar face the nursing home residents saw as she wheeled them, dying, into a strange hospital 50 miles from home.

    "We have to honor these people who passed so there is a story to tell about us in 50 years," she says. "The people who died in our long-term care facility, they are our identity. They are why we are here. And they are dying."
    A mother's death, a community's loss

    Sharon DuBois greets a longtime friend with a hug as the women step inside the cluttered second-hand shop she runs on behalf of the library. Children's toys and Christmas decorations are piled high. Picking through them are a steady stream of women, some in the skirts and bonnets or head scarfs that mark them as members of the conservative Dunkard Brethren church. Most, but not all, of the women wear face coverings.

    DuBois knows she shouldn't hug: COVID-19 killed her mother inside the nursing home a month ago.

    "I knew her time was coming close, but I still grieve her loss deeply," she says. "I am thankful they are in the hands of Jesus. But I miss them. And I'm sorry we had to lose them in this way."

    Born in 1922, Margaret Lee Lewis met Winfred Inloes while she was teaching second grade in Quinter. She was the daughter of farmers, and she married Inloes, the son of farmers, during his boot camp leave just before Christmas 1944. After the war, the couple had five kids, including DuBois, raising them on a farm outside town.
    Margaret Lee Inloes pictured on her 95th birthday. Inloes died of coronavirus on Nov. 6, 2020, after getting infected at the Gove County nursing home.

    "From the time we could hardly walk, she'd have us in the kitchen stirring something," says DuBois, 73. "We had things to do, whether it was harvest time or wintertime when you fed cattle or milked cows. It was just a simpler time."

    After her husband died of complications from a brain tumor in 2001, Margaret Lee Inloes lived alone for a few years before eventually moving into the 42-bed Gove County Medical Center Long Term Care Unit. The nursing home very much felt like home to her: All around were neighbors who had also raised families and farmed the Earth, attended the same weddings and funerals and library bake sales.

    "She wouldn't dream of going to the dining room without her lipstick because these were important people to her— not just the staff, but the other people there," DuBois says. "Even though her body and parts of her mind were wearing out, she was so grateful for all of the people around her. It was important for her to be proper in your presence. I always considered it a sign of respect. She wanted people to know she was respectful of that togetherness."

    Before she passed, Inloes was the one who remembered names, who always made time to visit sick friends in the hospital, who volunteered at the second-hand store to earn donations for the library and the school, who showed up to receptions with her renowned sour cream chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting. One wedding, DuBois says, her mother made nine different cakes.
    Sharon DuBois, in the green mask, chats with an unmasked customer in thrift shop she runs, after her mother passed away from COVID-19 at the nursing home at the Gove County Medical Center.

    "That was a big part of her life, to be a supporter of the community, an encourager. Much of her work, I'm finding, was done anonymously, at least to our family," DuBois says. "I knew her time was coming close. But I still grieve her loss deeply."

    DuBois misses her mother, but she also mourns the community's inability to collectively mark the COVID-19 deaths. DuBois counts herself lucky she was able to say goodbye in person; the doctors gave her permission to see her mom before she passed away.

    That's why she still hugs her friends, despite the risks. Because of the hurt.

    “As a community, we are used to making peace with someone’s departure from Earth. And we haven’t been able to do that," DuBois says.
    The gravestone of Margaret Lee and Winfred Inloes, which was recently updated with Margaret Lee's name following her death from COVID-19 in Gove County, Kansas.
    Coronavirus claims town historian

    After a lifetime of farming outside Quinter, Daniel Albert "D.A." Crist knew just about everybody in the area, including Margaret Lee Inloes. In the twilight of their lives, both were living at the nursing home, maintaining social bonds built through worshipping at the Quinter Church of the Brethren and having kids the same age.



  7. #982
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    It just seems so surreal, live streaming funerals for all the victims. Very sad.

  8. #983
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    https://www.kron4.com/news/actor-hol...t-home-orders/

    THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (KRON) – Actor Kirk Cameron held a caroling event in Thousand Oaks that drew hundreds of people on Sunday.

    The event was held outdoors at the Oaks Mall parking lot, where video shows few people wearing masks.

    Cameron posted on his instagram saying the event was to “celebrate our god-given liberties, our constitutional protected rights – at this time – at Christmas.”

    50-year-old Cameron is an evangelical Christian, best known for playing Mike Weaver on the 1980s sitcom “Growing Pains.”

    Southern California went into stay-at-home orders on Dec. 7 due to a decreasing capacity in ICU beds, which will last until at least Dec. 28.

    As of Tuesday, the region’s ICU capacity sits at 1.7%.

    Kirk Cameron has to be more deranged than other ex-celebrities. Yes I understand ex celebrities fall down and get depressed on a personal level and its not in your face righteousness.

    Kirk Cameron on the other hand became a righteous dickbag as soon as he left the spotlight and is basically like the Evangelical version of Tom Cruise. Yes I mean when Tom Cruise acts all deranged and righteous because of upper heads in Scientology want him to be that way.

  9. #984
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    https://wcti12.com/news/coronavirus/...ion-to-vaccine

    Hope this report does not get the Anti-Vaxxers out of the woodwork and escalate political rants though.

    https://wcti12.com/news/coronavirus/...ion-to-vaccine

    JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Health officials in Alaska reported a health care worker had a severe allergic reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine within 10 minutes of receiving a shot.

    U.S. health authorities warned doctors to be on the lookout for rare allergic reactions when they rolled out the first vaccine, made by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Britain had reported a few similar allergic reactions a week earlier.

    The Juneau health worker began feeling flushed and short of breath on Tuesday, says Dr. Lindy Jones, the emergency room medical director at Bartlett Regional Hospital. She was treated with epinephrine and other medicines for what officials ultimately determined was anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction. She was kept overnight but has recovered.

    Unlike the British cases, the Alaska woman has no history of allergic reactions.

  10. #985
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    Note if the Coroner can verify which person they are referring to was dead from COVID-19 here are some of the potential victims but that is yet to be verified.

    https://mec.lacounty.gov/case-detail...ber=2020-11485


    TALIYAH TAYLOR
    August 17, 2020 - December 9, 2020
    (4 mo 22 da )
    Case Number
    2020-11485
    Case Status
    DEFERRED Pending Additional Investigation
    Body Status
    RELEASED
    Gender
    FEMALE
    Ethnicity
    BLACK
    Place of Death
    HOSPITAL
    Manner
    N/A
    Investigator
    MONTOYA
    Deputy Medical Examiner
    DR. ORTIZ
    Cause A
    DEFERRED
    Cause B
    N/A
    Cause C
    N/A
    Cause D
    N/A
    Other Significant Conditions
    N/A

    https://mec.lacounty.gov/case-detail...ber=2020-11327

    FELIPE GONZALEZ
    January 9, 2008 - December 5, 2020
    (12 years )
    Case Number
    2020-11327
    Case Status
    DEFERRED Pending Additional Investigation
    Body Status
    RELEASED
    Gender
    MALE
    Ethnicity
    HISPANIC/LATIN AMERICAN
    Place of Death
    HOSPITAL
    Manner
    N/A
    Investigator
    MUNOZ
    Deputy Medical Examiner
    DR. GUAN
    Cause A
    DEFERRED
    Cause B
    N/A
    Cause C
    N/A
    Cause D
    N/A
    Other Significant Conditions
    N/A
    https://mec.lacounty.gov/case-detail...ber=2020-11285

    LINCOLN MARTINEZ CARRERA
    January 29, 2019 - December 4, 2020
    (1 years )
    Case Number
    2020-11285
    Case Status
    DEFERRED Pending Additional Investigation
    Body Status
    RELEASED
    Gender
    MALE
    Ethnicity
    HISPANIC/LATIN AMERICAN
    Place of Death
    HOSPITAL
    Manner
    N/A
    Investigator
    DIXSON
    Deputy Medical Examiner
    DR. HUSS-BAWAB
    Cause A
    DEFERRED
    Cause B
    N/A
    Cause C
    N/A
    Cause D
    N/A
    Other Significant Conditions
    N/A

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    https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...downs-n1251485

    Friday night’s newscast on WFXG-TV in Augusta, Georgia, a Fox affiliate, featured some exciting news: The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in the city would be among the first Veterans Affairs locations to receive initial doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Shots would be in arms this week.

    But then, the story quickly pivoted to a small group of “concerned mothers” holding large black and red signs outside the hospital with messages familiar to people who have followed the anti-vaccination movement and its dangerously misleading position.

    One young girl held up a sign with a message long since discredited by medical experts: "Vaccines can cause injury and death." A woman interviewed for the segment falsely claimed the vaccine’s ingredients were unknown and that its makers “skipped over” steps in its trial. The station's website also featured the segment, adding a directive to readers to find out more about the “known and unknown risks of the vaccine,” and a single link that took users to an error page.

    The station had provided the kind of platform that public health professionals and misinformation experts dread.


    “This is the problem of information laundering,” said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University, who studies media manipulation. “If you make a harmful position sound reasonable, then more people who would otherwise not be inclined to believe it, might be willing to look at it as an issue with two sides.”

    WFXG’s news director, David Williams, declined to comment.

    With online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube cracking down on misinformation around Covid-19 vaccines, some anti-vaccination activists are pivoting to sparsely-attended real-world events and looking to local news outlets to amplify their message and give them a chance to raise money through donations. That tactic, known to experts as information laundering, appears to be gaining some traction.


    From California to Maine, local news stations that had largely stopped covering childhood immunization opponents have been highlighting the anti-vaccination movement’s response to Covid-19 restrictions and solutions by covering their protests and giving activists a microphone to spread misinformation.

    Experts have warned that credulous coverage of fringe and misleading anti-vaccine misinformation — coverage that doesn’t explicitly state that the information is false — can cause real-world harm, including a hesitancy among some people to get vaccinated that threatens to undermine the pandemic response. Local television news is a particularly important source of information about the pandemic, as it’s consistently the most popular source Americans turn to for news, according to the Pew Research Center.

    Local media coverage is all part of the plan, said Joshua Coleman, a California anti-vaccine activist who has spent the last couple of years organizing and documenting anti-vaccine events. Coleman confirmed what social media data suggests — that the pandemic has led to a growth in anti-vaccine communities, and said that anti-lockdown protests offered a way to introduce the cause to a new audience. But he’s also felt the sting from efforts by online platforms to reduce the spread of misinformation about vaccines.

    Being able to post media coverage of his events offers a workaround.

    “I get excited when that happens,” Coleman said. “Especially when they show the signs, because if we get some of those messages out, that's what we want.”

    NBC News found examples of at least nine local news outlets that have taken the bait.

    A coordinated November event in which activists across multiple states blanketed busy overpasses with banners that undermined Covid-19 vaccines, falsely claiming they weren’t “placebo tested,” caught the eye of multiple local news outlets.

    In Kennewick, Washington, a woman told the CBS affiliate station KEPR, "We want people to do their own research… you can’t unvaccinate.” The spot ran four times in one day. The online version of the story was removed from KEPR’s website following an inquiry by NBC News. (An affiliate station is a local TV broadcaster that is not owned by one of the national broadcast networks but has a contractual agreement with one of the networks.)

    Tom Yazwinski, KEPR's news director, declined to comment.

    Similar coverage of a banner event, organized by Montanans for Vaccine Choice in Billings, Montana, was broadcast by at least five local stations in the state.

    Few segments featured doctors or public health advocates to counter the anti-vaccination misinformation. Even those that did, like KNSD-TV, a San Diego station owned and operated by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, framed the activists at a San Diego event as part of a valid opposition to a vaccine the FDA has determined to be safe and effective. The chyrons at the bottom of the screen read “COVID-19 VACCINE DEBATE” and “San Diegans divided over vaccine.” The segment was also written up on KNSD-TV's website.

    Greg Dawson, the news director of KNSD-TV, declined to comment.

    All of the outlets described the anti-vaccination activists as advocates for “medical freedom,” or “informed choice,” using similar obfuscating language the movement has adopted in recent years to elude online content moderators and appeal to the mainstream media.


    News organizations should also counterbalance typically newsy stories like a protest with ones that show people supportIng science and vaccines, Phillips suggested.

    “Pro-vaccine parents also should have a say in this,” she said. “Instead of local reporters immediately going to the parent who's screaming in opposition.”

    Before Covid-19, Coleman said, his events — in which activists in “Star Wars” costumes protested outside Disneyland or picketers stalked scientists around vaccine conferences — garnered little media attention.

    “We were getting ignored,” he said. “I thought our event was definitely newsworthy but they didn't. They didn't think so.”

    Finally getting traction, Coleman says he plans to organize events in the coming weeks at hospitals and other sites where Covid-19 vaccines are being administered, though he’s not quite sure where those will be yet.

    “I guess we'll just see, but it's easy to find out," he said. "The news will make a big deal about it. We'll see where they’re at and we'll head over there.”

    CORRECTION (Dec. 17, 2020, 1:09 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the number of times a news segment about anti-vaccination activists aired in one day on KEPR in Kennewick, Washington. It was four times, not three.

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    https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/ce...r-coronavirus/

    Note this is the first reported case of a Biden official having a positive COVID-19 test.

    One of President-elect Joe Biden’s closest advisers tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, according to his transition team.

    Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who is set to resign from Congress to join the incoming Biden administration as a senior adviser, tested positive two days after traveling to Atlanta to attend a campaign rally that Biden headlined for Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, Biden transition spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.

    Bedingfield said Richmond was not in close contact with Biden, Ossoff or Warnock, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She added that Biden underwent COVID-19 testing on Thursday, and the virus was not detected.

    Biden has stayed close to home since last month’s election, and the rally marked just the second time since Election Day that he’s left his home state of Delaware.

    Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and U.S. Rep.-elect Nikema Williams also attended the rally but did not come in CDC-defined close contact with Richmond, either, Bedingfield said.

    Richmond, 47, first began experiencing symptoms on Wednesday, the transition said.

    He was a key figure in helping Biden leverage his own long-standing relationships with Congressional Black Caucus members.

    The congressman, who was first elected in 2010 when Biden was President Barack Obama’s vice president, was especially important in outreach to younger lawmakers who, like him, came to Washington later in the 78-year-old president-elect’s career.

    Richmond will take on a public engagement role in the Biden administration that will allow him to deal with Congress while focusing on the Black community and other minority groups. Richmond’s role will be like that of Valerie Jarrett in Obama’s administrations.

    A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Richmond was among Biden’s earliest high-profile supporters and served as his campaign co-chair.

  14. #989
    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    I read they have tests you can administer yourself at home. I wonder where you can buy them?

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

  15. #990
    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    I read they have tests you can administer yourself at home. I wonder where you can buy them?
    https://questdirect.questdiagnostics...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

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    I'm not sure if anyone's going to read this except John.
    My dumb mil told my husband that a few people that he knows has rona (my nickname for it) including her landlord. She told him she's thinking about mailing the landlord a check instead of delivering it in person. You think?! I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't have a brain.
    Quote Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73 View Post
    I don't have a thousand dollars hanging around to buy a fart in a jar lol.

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    Quote Originally Posted by curiouscat View Post
    I'm not sure if anyone's going to read this except John.
    My dumb mil told my husband that a few people that he knows has rona (my nickname for it) including her landlord. She told him she's thinking about mailing the landlord a check instead of delivering it in person. You think?! I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't have a brain.

    Sure it's better to mail the check but stay in quarantine overall and also depending on the persons priority level get access to vaccines.

  20. #995
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    Quote Originally Posted by curiouscat View Post
    I'm not sure if anyone's going to read this except John.
    My dumb mil told my husband that a few people that he knows has rona (my nickname for it) including her landlord. She told him she's thinking about mailing the landlord a check instead of delivering it in person. You think?! I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't have a brain.
    I read every thread (although sometimes I just skim, lol). Maybe you should encourage her to deliver it in person...I kid, I kid. Seriously though, I don't even know what to say.

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    Anti-Mask rants continue in Tustin CA as California has a stay at home order. Another one in Canada and Arizona.




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    https://www.newsweek.com/anti-masker...rizona-1556030

    A group of anti-mask protesters made their way into Arizona retail chains where they protested COVID-19 regulations and restrictions, including wearing a mask.

    A video of the group of about 20 people protesting lockdowns and mask mandates was shared on Twitter by freelance reporter and activist @DaveNewWorld_2, who frequently posts videos of anti-mask protesters, police brutality and scuffles with far-right organizations.

    The video shows two clips. The first appears to show protesters walking through a Wal-Mart, but the latter part appears to have been filmed in front of a fast-food counter at a Target.

    One of the signs visible in the short video, appears to say "End A1 Mask Mandate," but that's the clearest message that these protesters seem to have. Other signs say things like "Masks=666," implying masks are Satanic, or "Love your smile" with "Saving face" on the opposite side. These people clearly don't know how to smile with their eyes.

    Some of the protesters in the clip can be heard singing "We're Not Gonna Take It," by '80s hard rock band Twisted Sister. As previously reported, members of the band have disavowed anti-maskers singing their song.

    Chants of "Free your face" can also be heard in the first clip from the video. In the second part, people also shout things like "This is America," and "You don't have to wear a mask, it's not a law." A few protesters also appear to be wearing festive holiday attire, although Santa would likely put them on the naughty list.

    Many people criticized the protesters for their blatant disregard for others' health. One person responded to the video, showing a screengrab of someone who appears to be a security guard wearing a mask following them out, noting that none of the people seemed to want to mess with the large gentleman.
    Other people mocked the group, calling them Karens. One person came up with a strong analogy to critique them. "This is like marching through a McDonalds with dirty bare feet and then spitting in the fries, filming yourself as you go and declaring it an act of patriotism," he wrote.
    When asked for comment Target directed Newsweek to its "coronavirus response" page, which lists steps that the retail chain is taking to help prevent the spread of the virus. On the page, people can click the various precautions for more information. Besides reminding to social distance, increase cleaning and more, masks are also made available and required by the store. "We require guests to wear masks or face coverings in all of our stores, except for guests with underlying medical conditions and young children. We also require all store team members to wear masks at work and have provided them with reusable and disposable masks," an FAQ on the Target website says.

    Newsweek reached out to Wal-Mart for comment via a media contact form, but did not receive a response in time for publication.



  23. #998
    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    I was around my BIL all day today and just found out his wife, my SIL cant taste or smell anything

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    I was around my BIL all day today and just found out his wife, my SIL cant taste or smell anything
    Yeah, this is why I'm not being around anyone. Hopefully you don't catch it!

  25. #1000
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    Yeah, this is why I'm not being around anyone. Hopefully you don't catch it!
    He was helping with our remodel. He helped lay baseboards. They didn't finish and now my husband is somehow (not) going to do it himself before ppl come over Thursday. I still have to clean and decorate. My husbands fam insists on coming over but if we have the coof they can't. I don't feel good so idk what's going to happen.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

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