Tag Archives: COVID

medical news

Politics overpowering pandemic battle

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of the more astonishing aspects of this fight against the coronavirus pandemic — and there have been so many of them — has been the political tug-of-war over whether to get vaccinated against a disease that has killed 500,000-plus Americans.

On one side we have the MAGA-hat crowd, the folks who continue to stand with an ex-president who spent much of the previous year denying the pandemic was anything to cause worry. They oppose getting vaccinated.

It fell, then, on Dr. Anthony Fauci — the world’s leading infectious disease expert — to implore Donald Trump to encourage his minions to get vaccinated. The ex-president did so and for that I applaud him.

For the life of me I cannot fathom how vaccination protocols have become something to kick around like a proverbial political football.

The evidence of all three U.S. government-approved vaccines’ efficacy is overwhelming. They are helping curb the infection, hospitalization and death rates. Still, we hear reports of individuals declining to get vaccinated because of some lie that refuses to be exterminated that the vaccines aren’t working.

In a related matter, we also hear about individuals refusing to wear masks while doing business with companies that their customers to wear them. Did you see the video of the woman in Galveston getting arrested in a bank because she refused to mask up even though bank policy requires her to do so? She shouts idiotic cliches about her “personal liberty” being infringed by rules aimed at protecting her life and those with whom she comes into contact. Ridiculous!

If there is a sign that the politicization of society has veered out of control, I believe we are seeing it play out in real time … at this very moment. It has to stop!

media news

Had to break this vow

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I had made a vow after Donald Trump left the presidency that I wouldn’t purchase any more books that discussed his time in office.

Today, I broke that vow. I purchased the paperback version of “Front Row at the Trump Show” written by ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl.

Karl is making the talk show rounds to talk about what happened in the White House after the pandemic hit the nation. His initial version of “Front Row” was published prior to the pandemic’s arrival here. So he had to rewrite some of the book and added a new afterword to freshen up the news contained within its covers.

So I bought the book. It will arrive tomorrow.

There is just so much to learn about what a total clusterf*** operation Trump ran at the White House.

Donald Trump

What? Trump does the right thing?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Hey, did hell just freeze over or what?

Donald J. Trump, the one-time pandemic denier in chief, has issued a statement that urges Americans to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. I know what some of you are thinking. This can’t be true. Can it? I thought the same thing when I first heard it.

However, the ex-president has gone on the record in a Fox News interview that the vaccines out there are safe and are effective against the pandemic. Trump and his wife got vaccinated in the final days of the Trump presidency, only they didn’t tell anyone about it.

Trump’s suggestion for Americans to get vaccinated comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci — who needs no introduction — urged him to do what he did. “I think it would make all the difference in the world,” Fauci said on Fox News Sunday. “He’s a very widely popular person among Republicans. If he came out and said, ‘Go and get vaccinated; it’s really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country,’ it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him.”

Well, the former president did it.

Trump encourages Americans to get the Covid vaccine (msn.com)

It remains to be seen if his followers, many of whom remain skeptical about the vaccine and its efficacy, will follow suit. If they don’t and get sick, well … you know.

I am going to do something I didn’t think I would do, which is to thank Donald Trump for doing what, admittedly, he should have done a long time ago.

medical news, national news, State news

It isn’t ‘mislabeled!’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas two U.S. senators, Republicans Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, voted against the COVID-19 relief bill, they say, because it is “mislabeled.”

They contend that it is too full of money that seeks to satisfy liberal/progressive interest groups and political activists.

Pardon my Greek, but these two alleged legislative representatives are full of sh**. 

Is the bill the perfect remedy to help Americans back from the pandemic precipice? No. However, it does contain sufficient help for those who have suffered grievous economic hardship. Moreover, it sets aside money to continue the development of vaccines that are rolling out as we sit here that will help inoculate more of us against the virus.

How many ways do we have to explain how this process works to the ideologues/demagogues who populate the supposedly loyal opposition to President Biden?

I keep hearing the canard about how only 9 percent of the money goes directly to COVID-19 relief. That’s another crock of fecal matter. CNN.com provides a link that explains what is in the bill.

What’s in the Covid relief bill – CNNPolitics

If you look at the items lined out, you will understand that the word “directly” is critical. I concede that not all the funds go directly to aid with COVID-related relief. However, much of the money serves the purpose, such as nutrition aid, or housing aid, or tax credits for individuals and families.

The impact of the pandemic has been sweeping and it has hit Americans thoroughly. That is why President Biden insisted that Congress should “go big” in seeking relief for Americans. He settled on $1.9 trillion in relief. I get that it isn’t cheap. However, I am willing to endorse this notion because of my belief that the federal government should answer the call when emergency strikes.

Last time I gave it any thought, I consider the killer pandemic a first-rank national emergency that needs a proportional response.

Sens. Cruz and Cornyn — and the rest of their GOP colleagues in both congressional chambers — are on the wrong side of this debate.

local news

‘Social distancing’ becomes part of our vernacular

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I wondered a year ago about the term social distancing.

“Social distancing.” The newest term of art born out of the latest crisis. I can’t decide how to define it: a verb? a noun? an adjective?

That was my thought a year ago on a Facebook post as the nation began to grapple seriously with a killer virus. Little did we know — although some of us expected it — that the COVID-19 virus would kill more than 500,000 Americans.

So here we are. The vaccines have arrived. They are being injected into Americans’ bodies. The hospitalization and death rates are declining. President Biden wants us to celebrate Independence Day as a twofer this coming Fourth of July: to mark our independence as a nation and our independence from the virus.

However, we’re going to continue to practice social distancing.

I no longer am concerning myself with how to categorize the term. I have accepted it now as part of our vernacular. It kind of rolls off the tongue easily these days. Heck, I am willing to type the term without enclosing it in quotation marks. I guess that’s a sign of general acceptance.

You know what? That’s OK with me. Social distancing has become a tactic we have employed in our house as part of a strategy to keep ourselves safe from infection.

So far, so good.

I am going to keep my social distance from strangers … maybe even after we are able to declare victory in this fight for our lives.

national news

Cuomo’s time has come?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is beginning to look to me as though Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as New York governor might be about to pass into history.

The Democratic politician is getting plenty of pressure to resign and it is coming from senior members of the state’s congressional delegation. He stands accused of sexual harassment by at least seven women, not to mention the scandal that erupted before this stuff arrived about the undercounting of COVID deaths among nursing home residents.

President Nixon faced similar pressure in August 1974 when the Watergate scandal was about to produce a certain impeachment. Senior congressional Republicans went to the White House to inform Nixon that his tenure as president was toast, that he had no support in Congress. Nixon quit.

Impeachment looms just ahead for Cuomo.

It looks as though there might be something similar is building in  the New York statehouse.

national news

Thank you, Mr. POTUS, for the empathy

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mr. President, I am not going to flood your Twitter account with messages like this one, but I do feel the need to send you a direct message of thanks.

I occasionally would type out these missives to your predecessor. He got them, or his staff got them, and likely ignored them. Just tossed ’em in the cyber-trash can.

I heard your speech the other night from the White House and I just want to express my thanks and appreciation for the return of empathy and compassion in our head of state. We’ve all been missing that in the presidency for the past four years, as you no doubt are aware. Indeed, I heard your allusion to the absence of it in your remarks.

We need to hear these kinds of remarks from our president. You know how it goes. You served with a president, Barack Obama, who became a master of comforting a nation in pain. His predecessor, George W. Bush, managed to rally us after that terrible day on 9/11. President Bill Clinton, too, was good at trying to heal a nation grieving over tragic loss. But you know all of that, yes?

The pain we feel today is real and it is lingering. The pandemic is still with us, as you know. Yet you offered some realistic words of optimism, not the shallow happy talk based on nothing but a presidential “hunch” that we got from your immediate predecessor.

I’ll end this note now. Thanks once again for talking to us in a tone of voice that tells me that you actually do care about the people you were elected to lead … and to comfort.

national news

Time to go, Gov. Cuomo

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Andrew Cuomo has been a national political figure since before he took office as New York governor.

He comes from a renowned New York political family, being the son of a former governor and he once served as U.S. housing secretary in the Clinton administration.

It is with that context being laid out there that a blogger from faraway Texas — that would be me — has an interest in the political calamity that has befallen this guy.

He’s got to resign from office and find a way to rehabilitate himself.

I hate using the word “distraction,” but this fellow’s gubernatorial performance is being distracted to the point of irrelevance. He cannot propose anything for his state that isn’t measured against the allegations that have been leveled by seven women who have accused him of sexual harassment and actual sexual assault.

It’s over, Gov. Cuomo. He had his moment in the sun with his stunning media performance chronicling his state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was being held up as the gold standard for governmental candor compared to what we were getting throughout 2020 from the president of the United States.

Then the crap hit the fan on that matter, too! Reports surfaced about Cuomo undercounting the number of infections and deaths at nursing homes in New York. Bad call, dude.

Now come the seemingly credible accusations of sexual misconduct by women who formerly worked in the Cuomo administration. Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for Cuomo to resign. The New York House of Representatives has launched an impeachment inquiry that, it now appears likely, will result in articles of impeachment being filed against Cuomo.

It’s time for Andrew Cuomo to exit the political stage he has commanded for decades.

national news

Where was No. 45?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Just a few moments this evening before President Biden began speaking to the nation about the fight against the COVID pandemic, I watched a brief public service announcement.

It featured four of the five living former presidents of the United States urging Americans to get vaccinated against the virus. There they were: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. (and Laura) Bush and Jimmy (and Rosalyn) Carter. They told us of their dedication to protect themselves and urged us to protect ourselves and those with whom we come in contact.

But …

Where in the world was Donald J. Trump? He doesn’t belong — or so it appears — to the exclusive Former Presidents Club.

The pandemic took the nation by the throat on Trump’s watch. And yet he was the president who downplayed its impact, he lied to us repeatedly about its seriousness, he mused aloud about injecting ourselves with cleaning agents to rid us of the virus. In short, he fluffed the nation’s response to a virus that has killed more than 500,000 Americans. Now we learn that he and the former first lady got vaccinated in private before leaving the White House; they never bothered to set the kind of example they should have set.

Now that I think more deeply about it, hearing Donald Trump talk to us about getting vaccinated would have been as insincere and inauthentic as every single thing that has flowed from his mouth.

local news, Sports news

Let’s play ball … carefully!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to lift the mask mandate he instituted when the coronavirus pandemic broke out is going to have a significant impact on one vocal segment of the Texas population.

That would be sports fans who flock to stadiums to cheer the home team on to victory.

Listen up, Amarillo Sod Poodles fans. This blog post is important.

I called the Sod Poodles’ office today and learned that the organization is selling tickets that fill Hodgetown — the team’s downtown ballpark — to 75 percent of capacity. “We’re hoping to get to 100 percent,” a young man told me, “given what the Texas Rangers are planning” for the American League baseball season. The Texas Rangers are going to fill Globe-Life Park in Arlington to the max; although I am quite certain the fans there will be masked up as they cheer for the Rangers.

So it ought to be even with limited seating sold at Hodgetown.

The Sod Poodles’ park seats about 7,000 fans. At 75 percent sales, the Sod Poodles will be playing before about 5,200 fans — give or take — when the Central League home season opens in late May. I am pretty sure that the fans attending the game will be cheering loudly. Which brings me to another point: COVID virus spores travel through the air when human beings shout or scream … or cheer!

That compels me to admonish the Soddies’ fans who are inclined to holler when the home team performs well to mask up.

Hey, I’m pulling for you and for your team. I just don’t want to read about “super spreader events” occurring in Amarillo, Texas.