{"id":42575,"date":"2020-05-04T00:37:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T00:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=42575"},"modified":"2020-05-04T00:37:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T00:37:57","slug":"feds-send-force-to-attack-virus-outbreak-in-our-former-city-of-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=42575","title":{"rendered":"Feds send force to &#8216;attack&#8217; virus outbreak in our former city of residence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=coronavirus%20%23pandemic%20%23PotterCounty%20%23meatpackers%20%23Amarillo&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/amarillo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-25877\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/amarillo-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/amarillo-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/amarillo.jpg 306w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I want to feel comforted by this news, but given the dismal performance so far by our federal government in response to the coronavirus pandemic, well \u2026 let&#8217;s just say it doesn&#8217;t settle my nerves.<\/p>\n<p>Federal health officials are being dispatched to Amarillo to &#8220;attack&#8221; a huge spike in COVID-19 infection at a Moore County meatpacking plant. Potter County, which comprises roughly half of Amarillo&#8217;s land area, is registering an infection rate that is significantly greater than the rates in Dallas or Harris County.<\/p>\n<p>My wife and I lived in Amarillo for the 23 years. We have plenty of friends there. More importantly, though, our older <em>son<\/em> still lives there. He remains healthy. He has a public service job, but his employer is restricting heavily his contact with the clientele he serves and for <em>that<\/em> we are grateful beyond all measure.<\/p>\n<p>At issue is the huge spike in infection at the JBS Beef meatpacking plant in Moore County, which has an viral infection that dwarfs the rate in Potter County.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2020\/05\/02\/amarillo-coronavirus-meatpacking\/\">According to the Texas Tribune<\/a>: <em>Meat and poultry plants nationwide have emerged as incubators for coronavirus spread. More than a dozen have been forced to shutdown temporarily as the number of cases and deaths tied to those facilities rose; others have scrambled to ramp up health and safety precautions in facilities where meatpackers often must work shoulder to shoulder.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The report I have seen doesn&#8217;t specify how officials will &#8220;attack&#8221; the outbreak. I just remain skeptical that anything associated &#8212; at this moment &#8212; with the federal government is guaranteed to produce success.<\/p>\n<p>I want desperately to be proven wrong.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=coronavirus%20%23pandemic%20%23PotterCounty%20%23meatpackers%20%23Amarillo&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I want to feel comforted by this news, but given the dismal performance so far by our federal government in response to the coronavirus pandemic, well \u2026 let&#8217;s just say it doesn&#8217;t settle my nerves. Federal health officials are being dispatched to Amarillo to &#8220;attack&#8221; a huge spike in COVID-19 infection at a Moore County &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=42575\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Feds send force to &#8216;attack&#8217; virus outbreak in our former city of residence<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9236,9346,9261,3677],"class_list":["post-42575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-meatpacking-plants","tag-pandemic","tag-potter-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42576,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42575\/revisions\/42576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}