Tag Archives: COVID

medical news

Pandemic is personal

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump’s absence of empathy and compassion is playing out in real time. He has tested positive for the coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. So has his wife, his youngest son, his oldest son and an assortment of those who are reportedly “close” to him.

Yet he continues to act publicly as if the only thing that matters is that election he lost and his effort to overturn a democratically conducted electoral process.

For the rest of us? It’s personal. The virus is striking close to my home. It has sickened members of my family. It has felled friends of ours. It is hurting our hearts and is causing us enough grief and anxiety to last, oh, probably forever.

Yet the president of the United States keeps playing golf, enjoys the glitz and glamor of his posh resort/house in Florida. He is content to fire off Twitter messages and bitch and moan about an election he lost.

Oh, the pandemic? He doesn’t give a rat’s a** about its effects on other American families. I cannot speak to how he has dealt with its impact on his own family. Frankly, at this point in this pandemic crisis I … just … don’t … care.

But I certainly do care that the president who took an oath to defend us has abdicated his duty while acting as if he doesn’t give a  rip about the suffering that’s occurring in this vast and great  land.

national news

Preparing to embrace a new year like never before

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s just me, I suppose. Then again, there might billions of other human beings who share my view about what is going to transpire in just a few days.

They’re going to drop that ball in Times Square and we’re going to welcome 2021. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am prepared fully to embrace the new year in a manner I have never done in my life. Not ever!

The year we are about to kick into the crapper has been the pits beyond belief. You know to what I refer: the pandemic.

To be somewhat charitable toward 2020, I should note that we end this smelly armpit of a year on a hopeful note. Researchers have developed vaccines developed to eradicate the virus and doses of it are being injected into millions of Americans’ arms as we sit here tonight.

It will take time for the killer virus to vanish. Maybe another year? Or longer? I don’t know. Neither can even the most learned infectious disease experts say with any certainty when the virus will vanish.

We have lost more than 332,000 Americans. Many more are going to die from this disease. It has caused untold heartache, heartbreak, misery and agony. Those of us who have not been stricken by the virus have been forced to change our living habits. It’s been a bit of a struggle for many Americans.

What’s more — and this is unbelievable to me — the issue of preventative measures has become a political flash point. How in the name of medical safety can this happen? Oh, I know. It happens because the president of the United States has made it one. Donald Trump has denigrated those who wear masks or take other extraordinary measures to avoid getting sickened by the virus and his followers have taken his cue.

Ridiculous!

The old year is about to pass into history. Those who write about such things no doubt will attach plenty of superlatives to describe 2020: unprecedented, historic, without parallel.

I’ll add the term “miserable.” Accordingly, when the old year passes and the new arrives I might break with a recent tradition and stay awake long enough to cheer the end of the most heartbreaking year I can remember.

medical news, national news

Merry COVID Christmas, America

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This will be a Christmas for the ages.

Not necessarily because Santa Claus was especially generous or because we all are filled with holiday joy and gratitude … although many of us will express our thanks and will honor the religious significance of this time of year.

Oh, no. This will be a Christmas we’ll remember because of a disease that keeps lashing out at Americans.

It has felled neighbors of ours here in Collin County, Texas. Friends of ours all across the nation have taken ill. Then came the chilling news that members of our family have been stricken with the infection. They aren’t hospitalized but their Christmas cheer has been dampened by the fear that comes with knowing they are infected with a virus that has taken far too many lives and sickened far too many others.

I have reported to you already that we in the clear in our house. That doesn’t give us license to, um, party like there’s no tomorrow. My wife and I intend to see many tomorrows as we continue our journey together. To ensure that future we intend to play by the rules set for by the infectious disease gurus who tell us constantly what we need to to do to stay safe and healthy.

We are resigned to the notion that our beloved nation is in the throes of a pandemic that has changed millions of lives — and not for the better.

It’s a bit of a chore today to wish everyone a joyful and Merry Christmas. I’ll add the word “COVID” in front of Christmas with the hope that next year at this time we can cheer the fact that we are celebrating a COVID-free holiday.

national news

Hey, Mr. POTUS … just stay in Florida

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mr. President, this is likely the final blog entry I will direct to you, but I have something I want to get off my chest.

I get that you and the first lady are in Florida enjoying the Christmas season. Good deal, but here is what I want to ask you: Why don’t you just stay there and not bother returning to the White House? 

You have left a mess in Washington. The COVID relief bill contains some help for Americans who need it; it also funds the military; it also keeps the government running. Yet you say you won’t sign it. You screwed this up royally with your surprise reversal after your team negotiated the deal that ended up on your desk.

The chaos we all predicted would be the lowlight of your tenure as president is coming home to roost. Thanks to you!

So, just stay away from Washington. You don’t do any work there anyway, other than concoct traitorous methods to overturn an election that you lost handily. Just don’t bother darkening the door of our house, OK?

Hey, just stay near a phone. Someone can call you in case an emergency arises. You’re still the president until Jan. 20. Just remain available to make a decision that only you can make. Movers can pack up your stuff and send it to you and the first lady. They’ll know where to find you.

Beyond that, we don’t need you any longer. President Biden will be ready to step in when he takes his oath of office. What’s more, he is certain to honor the oath, which you have failed miserably to do.

I’ve had enough of you in my house. Stay away.

Merry Christmas … numbskull.

national news

Trump does what? Threatens COVID relief package?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump’s threat to derail a long-awaited, long-debated COVID-19 relief package might be worthy of praise … except for this little factoid.

Trump took no part, none at all, he was AWOL during Congress’s agonizing debate over how to help Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now he has a bill on his desk. It was approved by rousing bipartisan majorities in both congressional chambers. Trump’s reaction has been to withhold his signature from a $1.4 trillion spending package that offers $900 billion in COVID relief; the bill includes $600 stimulus checks to be sent to Americans who qualify.

Trump wants more money sent to Americans. He calls the package a “disgrace.”

What? Wait a minute! Where was Trump during the negotiations? He didn’t call legislative leaders. He didn’t pressure anyone to craft a bill to his liking. He was nowhere to be seen or heard — except when he was yammering about an election he lost!

Heads up, congressional Republicans: Aren’t you glad you stood with this clown, the guy who has just threatened to put your political future in dire jeopardy?

medical news, science news

And now … a good word about Operation Warp Speed

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Admittedly, this blog has spent a great deal of time, emotional energy and cyberspace over the past four years bashing, slashing and smashing at the Donald J. Trump administration.

Trump is about to exit the political stage in less than 30 days. I now want to say a good word about what — in a normal world — should stand as an enduring legacy to his term in office.

This isn’t a normal world. Operation Warp Speed is a creation of someone within the White House to define the mission of finding a vaccine for the coronavirus that has killed more than 300,000 Americans and nearly 2 million people around the world.

The COVID-19 virus arrived early this year. Trump dragged his feet in recognizing publicly the peril it posed. Then he owned up to its consequence. He also announced the strategy he said would expedite the research and development of a vaccine that could cure the world of the pandemic.

Trump predicted during his failed re-election campaign that we could have a vaccine by the end of the year. Skeptics scoffed. I don’t recall speaking directly to Trump’s boast, but it did ring a bit hollow. Others in the White House task force formed to come up with a response strategy said it would take longer.

Well, guess what. Donald Trump was right. Pfizer and Moderna have produced highly efficient vaccines that are now being administered around the world. A third pharmaceutical firm, AstraZeneca, is about to bring a vaccine on line.

There is plenty of debate about the impact that Operation Warp Speed had in delivering these vaccines. Some experts say the drug firms were well on the way to producing it already; others give Warp Speed a ton of credit for goosing the companies to delivering the goods in a timely fashion.

I am willing to dole out praise to Donald Trump for providing some of the impetus to get this vaccine developed and approved. But not all of it. Indeed, I am weary beyond belief of hearing Trump take undue credit for work that others did.

Drug company researchers and scientists worked their butts off to produce a vaccine with an efficacy level that experts have called “extraordinary.” Yet there was Trump the other day stepping into the limelight to say that no other politician in human history could have produced those kinds of results.

Mr. President, the program that came to be under your watch has done well. Accept the congratulations that belong mostly to the researchers … and then get the hell out of the way.

national news

Anxious to bid farewell to miserable year

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If we’re honest with ourselves and our deepest feelings, we are going to admit that the year that is about to pass into history cannot exit soon enough.

By almost any measure, 2020 has been the uber-pits. It has sucked out loud. We have endured more misery, heartache, grief than in any 12-month period since, oh, possibly forever.

OK, I get that history tells us a different story. The years of the Civil War were hideous in the extreme. World Wars I and II brought a lot of tears to families of service personnel who died in the struggle against tyranny. The Great Depression that occurred between those conflicts created plenty of grief as well. Let us not forget 1968 with its political assassinations and the anger over an unpopular war that spilled into our streets.

This one, though, has so damn few redeeming qualities … except for one, which I will touch on in a moment.

The pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions around the world. Our national government has failed to protect us against the killer virus and we all hold the person at the top of that chain of command ultimately responsible for the failings.

Our daily routines have been upended. Our children have watched their parents struggle with disease. Yes, the measuring stick we use to gauge the quality of the year we are about to usher out the door is full of too much negativity.

There is hope on the horizon. The vaccines that drug companies have perfected are being fast-tracked onto the market. Two of them have received federal emergency authorization and are being injected into Americans’ arms as I type these words. We mustn’t let our guard down. It will take time for the medicine to kick the crap out of the virus.

And we did elect a new president of the United States in 2020. I am grateful for that outcome. If only that act of democratic wisdom, though, could erase the suffering that preceded it. Sadly, it doesn’t — at least in my view.

I am going to say so long and good riddance to the old year. May we never see its like again.

medical news

Impossible to dismiss good news in time of peril

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is virtually impossible for me to hold back the joy I feel as I watch news reports from around this great nation of individuals receiving shots in their arm.

We are subjected daily — even hourly — to reports of death and misery from the COVID-19 virus. It has killed more than 300,000 Americans. Many more will die. It has infected more than 17 million of us. Millions more infections are on their way, too.

And yet … we watch news reports, read about them in the newspaper (yes, we still read newspapers in our home) about millions of doses of vaccine being distributed. There is hope. There is a glimmer of optimism. However, the doctors in charge of this good news tell us to hold off on popping the champagne corks. We’re going to endure a lot more suffering before we can “turn the corner,” or recognize the “light at the end of the tunnel” as the end of this pandemic.

The good news is tempered by the heartache we are enduring. It also is tamped down a bit by the hideous non-response of the current president of the United States, who remains fixated on his re-election loss and the bogus claims of fraud, illegal voting, a “rigged election” … or whatever the hell pops into his vacuous skull.

Donald Trump is almost out of there.

In the meantime, I intend to watch the news with a mixed set of emotion. I want to relish the good news and I will do so in the moments I see those reports flash in front of me. Still, we all must be realistic about what we know also is occurring. For all the good news we watch as nurses, doctors, police, firefighters and essential government leaders get immunized against the killer, we must hold dear our feeling of empathy and compassion for the loss that continues to occur around the world.

These are trying times for the human spirit. The optimist that lives within me will grasp the good news as it arrives and pray for the moment that our joy will bury our sadness.

national news

Get the vaccine, Mr. POTUS!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump says he will receive a vaccination shot to protect him against COVID-19 at the “appropriate time.”

Well, if I might make this suggestion: Right now is the time, Mr. President.

Trump is on his way out of office. However, he remains the one president in charge of our nation’s executive branch of government. That means, as near as I can tell, he is an essential government official. He occupies a position of maximum need.

Vice President Mike Pence is going to get his vaccine on Friday. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are getting their vaccines very soon. Dr. Anthony Fauci, our nation’s top infectious disease expert, is urging the president and the president-elect to get vaccinated ASAP.

Listen to the doc — for once! — Mr. President. Now is the time!

medical news

‘Hoax’ crowd tests my compassion

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Try as I do to maintain my sense of compassion and empathy for those who become stricken by a killer virus, there are those on the fringes of our political spectrum to test it to the extreme.

For example …

I have seen a congressman-elect declare that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax. He called it a “phony pandemic.” He was without a mask while bellowing the BS in front of a rally crowd. Rep.-elect Bob Good spoke to a pro-Donald Trump rally and declared the pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans and sickened millions of others isn’t real. It’s a phony sickness.

Just as egregious is that the crowd cheered this dipsh**’s rant.

Oh, my.

I have resisted the temptation to cheer when some folks become stricken by the virus. I won’t say here and now that I want Bob Good to become sick. I told readers of this blog that I wished Donald and Melania Trump a quick and full recovery when they tested positive for the virus; I wish the same for others within Trump’s inner circle.

However, when nimrods like Rep.-elect Good yammer the trash he did this weekend, they test my fairly deep reservoir of good will that enables me to wish political foes good health.

We have been listening for months on end the gut- and heart-wrenching stories of nurses and doctors who watch their patients die alone. Their grief is as visceral as it gets. Many of them are leaving the profession they love. Why? Because they no longer can cope with the heartbreak they suffer multiple times each day.

Then we hear from the likes of a congressman-elect who calls all this suffering a “phony” issue. I am left to deal initially with my rage at what they say. Then I must ask: How can anyone possibly take those who are elected to represent the public interest seriously when they utter such absolute nonsense?

Despicable.