Tag Archives: coronavirus

medical news

Masks do not hinder our rights! Got it? Good!

I am sick and tired of hearing the gripes of those who think mandates to wear surgical masks hinders their civil liberties.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic. It has killed 127,000 Americans. More of us are going to die. Medical experts say wearing masks — along with social distancing — helps alleviate the death and hospitalization tolls.

So what the hell is the problem here?

We keep seeing demonstrators griping about the masks. We see the occasional viral YouTube video of idiots raising hell with cops about whether they are observing proper distance or wearing masks as required by local government officials.

I am tired of repeating myself, but I feel the need to restate the obvious.

It is that mask wearing is no more a civil liberties violation than wearing seat belts while riding in a motor vehicle, or helmets while riding on a motorcycle, or behaving like a civilized human being when we are in public places.

If the city council in the community where I live requires mask wearing, we are going to adhere to the rules. If a ruling comes down from Collin County’s courthouse, fine … I’m all in. If Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issues a statewide requirement for masks, great.

We keep hearing that mantra that “We’re in this together.” That notion should apply to all of us obeying the rules that come forth from officials who are charged to “provide for the general welfare” of the public they serve.

medical news

Happy talk isn’t stemming the COVID tide

Donald Trump’s monstrously deceptive happy talk about the coronavirus pandemic has filled too many Americans with some idiotic notion that our national “strategy” is working.

It isn’t.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who signed on to the president’s coronavirus task force, laid bare what he thinks might be in store, which is that the national daily infection rate might hit 100,000 soon. The number is exploding.

And yet, there was Trump’s top-tier suck-up, Mike Pence, coming to Texas to declare that we have reason to cheer the national response to the killer virus.

Good grief, man!

At the very moment Pence was telling the world that “all 50 states” had turned the corner on the virus, more than half of our United States reported record numbers of infections. Texas — where Pence delivered his ignorant blather — is leading that pack of states.

Look, I don’t have any answers here. I’m just a chump blogger who is taking this threat very seriously. I fear for my family and want them to remain holed up to the extent they can.

What’s more I am sick and tired of listening to Trump and Pence lie to us about the “fantastic” job they say they are doing. They are failing us in this effort.

The United States contains less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but we are registering 20 percent of the world’s infection from COVID-19 and 20 percent of the deaths from the virus.

That’s success? No! It is failure! I want the president to give this crisis the seriousness it deserves.

medical news

Face masks … everyone’s wearing ’em!

Given that my wife and I don’t get out much these days — that worldwide coronavirus pandemic is keeping us close to the house — I am left to comment on fascinating sights I see running routine errands, such as to the grocery store.

Here’s what I saw today at the supermarket where my wife and I do the bulk of our food shopping: face masks! All the store employees are wearing them. Although I didn’t count them all, my best guess is that of the customers who were there, fully 75 percent of them were covering their faces behind masks.

Why is that a big deal worthy of a comment? We live in Princeton, Texas, which is in Collin County, which borders Dallas County, which is undergoing a surge in COVID-19 infections. Gov. Greg Abbott has shut down bars and ordered restaurants to seat no more than 50 percent of capacity.

This mask-wearing matter has become a political talking point, if you can believe it. So help me I don’t understand why it has become such, but it has. Those who identify themselves as Republicans are dismissing the masks; those who ID as Democrats are buying into the notion of wearing masks.

Collin County is at the epicenter of Donald Trump Country. Trump is the nation’s leading Republican and his Trumpkin Corps has bought into the hare-brained notion that face masks aren’t as critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19 as others — such as medical doctors — say they are.

I know this is purely anecdotal, but based on what I witnessed at the supermarket today, even those who live in Trump Country are adhering more to the advice of medical experts than to the yammering of GOP politicians.

That is my idea of good news.

medical news, national news

Pence continues the Trump lie about COVID-19 fight

Vice President Mike Pence stood before the nation … and lied through his pearly whites.

It was edifying and instructive that he had some medical experts on the podium with him to set the record straight about the condition of the nation that is fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Pence – filling in for the Liar in Chief – had the brass to tell us the pandemic is under control, that states have corralled the killer virus, “thanks to the leadership” of Donald J. Trump. It was the first “briefing” from the coronavirus task force in two months and to be candid we didn’t need to hear the nonsense that Pence spewed forth.

He uttered the lie on the same day that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order shutting down bars, ordering restaurants to operate at 50 percent of capacity and pushing local authorities to insist on stricter enforcement of social distancing. That’s how Pence defines “under control”?

Meanwhile, Drs. Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx and Robert Redfield – the nation’s top medical pros fighting this pandemic – had to the good sense to issue much more dire warnings about what lurks ahead of us. They didn’t contradict Pence directly, but they certainly cast the peril in more, um, accurate terms … at least the way I see the trend developing.

I was struck, too, by the vapid response Pence gave to reporters who asked him to explain how Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla. – which went forward with thousands of Trumpkins sitting shoulder to shoulder without face masks – isn’t contributing to the spike in infection we are seeing. His answer? The people’s right to assemble peaceably “is enshrined in the Constitution” and “we have an election coming up.” He said that medical emergencies do not negate people’s civil liberties. Well, actually they should if people’s very lives are endangered by irresponsible behavior at campaign rallies.

So, the charade continues, even without the Carnival Barker in Chief. His No. 1 sycophant showed once again that he is fully capable of parroting Donald Trump’s lies.

Shameful.

medical news, State news

Abbott calls a ‘pause’ on reopening … gosh, who’da thunk it?

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Who could have thought this might happen?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott became arguably too anxious to reopen the state that had been shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. He did it anyway.

Then the state undergoes a serious spike in sickness and hospitalization from the worldwide pandemic. What, then, does the governor do? He dials back the reopening bit, only but in several of the state’s most populous counties. Abbott announced a rolling back of reopening in Dallas, Harris, Bexar and Travis counties. He called it a “pause.”

Folks in those counties have to wear masks when they venture into public places; they can’t crowd around each other; they must maintain social distancing; businesses that had expanded their capacity to 75 percent now might have to scale it back … significantly!

This is what happens, I venture to speculate, when we get too far ahead ourselves, trying to outrun a pandemic that takes no prisoners.

Indeed, Abbott is beginning to sound like someone who understands the nature of the “enemy” we are fighting. He has hung alarming labels on the increase in COVID infection throughout Texas, calling it “unacceptable,” “rampant” and “massive.”

I get all of this. Health concerns should – pardon the intentional pun – trump economic concerns. Let’s be real. An economy cannot recover if the people who make it run are confined to hospital beds … or they are no longer among us.

medical news

U.S. reaches dubious milestone

The United States of America has just logged the most sickening milestone in the current COVID-19 pandemic: the most cases of infection during a single day.

Here we are. Months into the pandemic and with Donald Trump continuing to bellow what a “fantastic” job he has done we are setting dubious records in medical futility. Vice President Mike Pence said that every day brings us closer to whipping the coronavirus pandemic. Really, Mr. VP? The numbers say something quite different.

Oh, and then the Veep said, “That’s leadership!” Sure it is, dude. Donald Trump is leading us into some form of medical oblivion.

Texas is now leading the way into the nation’s hideous and tragic response to the COVID-19 crisis. I heard something today that suggests that Houston — the state’s largest city — might become the most COVID-infected city in the world!

That is success? That is how Donald Trump defines the “fantastic” job he and his COVID response team — chaired by Mike Pence — are doing while fighting this disease?

Oh, my. God help us.

medical news

Texas, U.S. facing ‘massive’ COVID-19 outbreak

When you toss the word “massive” around, then you had better be sure that the condition or the event you are describing fits the bill.

So, then we have Texas Gov. Greg Abbott telling us that that Texas is facing a “massive” outbreak of COVID-19 infection. Yep, that comes from the governor who has yet to issue an order requiring us to wear masks in public, hasn’t declared cities and counties have the authority to do what they must to curb the infection rate.

The outbreak projection does give me the heebie-jeebies.

Indeed, Gov. Abbott is sounding more like Dr. Anthony Fauci — tha nation’s top infectious disease expert — than Donald Trump, the nation’s leading buffoon/carnival barker/con man/presidential imposter.

Are we going to shut down the economy again? If it means we can protect human lives, then I am all in. Do I want that to occur? Of course not! I am among those Americans who wants the economy to recover and who mourns the economic hardship that is befalling too many Americans. However, I also mourn the sickness and death that continues to strike Americans down.

Thus, when I hear our governor say that a massive outbreak of the killer virus is upon us, I get terribly concerned about my family.

Furthermore, I dismiss out of hand any phony pronouncement from Donald Trump or from his sycophants that we are whipping this “invisible enemy.” Trump is lying and he is instructing his minions to lie on his behalf.

The greater tragedy — apart from the deaths that are mounting up — is that they lie without any shame and expect us to believe them.

Let us prepare for that massive outbreak.

International news, medical news, national news

EU bans travel from U.S.? Wow!

Donald Trump can yap and yammer all he wants about all the “success” he is scoring against the COVID-19 virus.

His “allies” in the European Union have a different and damning view.

The EU is going to open its borders next week, but will ban travel from three key countries that it says haven’t done enough to stem the killer tide sweeping around the world. Those countries? Russia, Brazil … and the United States of America.

Axios.com reports: It’s an international rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic. Millions of American tourists travel to the EU every summer, but that’s unlikely to happen until the U.S. gets the virus under control.

So, if you want to pack up and head for Paris, or to Rome, or the Greek Isles … forget about it! You ain’t going if you’re planning to depart from the U.S. of A.

It’s a preliminary recommendation to date. My hunch, though, is that the United States isn’t going to wrestle the pandemic to the ground between now and July 1, when the EU lifts its travel ban.

Infection and hospitalization rates are spiking in nearly half of our states, Texas included. Donald Trump’s response? He said we need to “slow down testing” because too many COVID tests produce too many positive infection results. We can’t have that in the middle of a presidential campaign, in Trump’s view of the world.

The EU’s decision isn’t going to sit well within the West Wing of the White House. Too damn bad! The EU wants to protect itself against further infection, just as Donald Trump wanted to protect this country when he banned travel from China when it dawned on him that the pandemic was a serious threat, except that he acted too late.

EU nations by and large have turned the tide against the medical nightmare. They want to ensure that COVID-19 remains suppressed, which the United States so far is failing to do.

national news

Why the sparse crowd in Tulsa? Here’s a thought or two

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Donald J. “Blame Placer in Chief” Trump was quick to lay out some excuses for the poor showing at his big-time campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla.

He blamed the media; he blamed Democrats for putting out “fake news” about the pandemic. I have a couple of other thoughts to ponder.

One is that Oklahomans and others who thought to attend got cold feet because of the coronavirus pandemic that is still sickening and killing Americans each day. They decided to heed the warnings of medical experts who said an indoor rally with thousands of folks packed in next to each presented too great a risk.

The other is that just maybe Donald Trump’s shtick is wearing out. I listened to parts of his rant. I didn’t hear a single new initiative. I didn’t hear him offer a single fresh idea of where he wanted to lead the country in a second term. Trump didn’t offer anything that sounded like a vision for the future.

No, instead he regurgitated almost the entire story line from the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton. He just changed the name from “Clinton” to “Biden,” as in Joe Biden, the presumed 2020 Democratic Party presidential nominee.

It well might be that the Trump “base” has grown weary of the tired rant that keeps pouring forth from the guy who promised to “tell it like it is,” that he would “drain the swamp” and that “I, alone” can repair what he said ails the nation.

He skulked off of Marine One after it landed on the White House lawn after the rally looking like he’d been rode hard and put up wet. Indeed, reports have surfaced today about how Trump is “furious” with the turnout and he just can’t find enough people to blame for the fact that the  presidency under his watch has been exposed as a fraud.

We can all rest assured that Donald Trump will keep looking for others to blame for the miserable shortcomings he has revealed since pilfering the presidency.

education news

School will be back … but should students and teachers return?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has rung the 2020-21 school bell telling students, teachers and staff that classrooms will be open for the upcoming academic year.

Abbott shut down in-person class study this spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students kept current with their studies at home; our granddaughter and her older brother were two of them and, I should add, they did quite well studying at home.

Now what? Abbott’s back-to-school directive does give parents the flexibility to decide whether to send their children back to class.

As the Texas Tribune reports:

“It will be safe for Texas public school students, teachers, and staff to return to school campuses for in-person instruction this fall. But there will also be flexibility for families with health concerns so that their children can be educated remotely, if the parent so chooses,” said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

When students return, school districts will not be required to mandate students wear masks or test them for COVID-19 symptoms, said Frank Ward, a spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency.

If I were King of the World, I most certainly would require masks and COVID-19 tests. I am not. I am just a concerned grandparent who wants to ensure that students, teachers and staff will be safe from becoming infected by a disease that could do them great harm.

Man, I hope Abbott knows what he’s doing. Texas is experiencing a serious spike in infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Yes, we want to return to what we like think is “normal” activity.

Given recent trends, I am just leery of sending young children back to school and instructing them to practice “social distancing.”