OT Coronavirus: America in chaos, News and Updates. One million Americans dead and counting

COVID cases continue to drop in Oregon.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/po...egon/283-71fc81cd-513d-45ec-8e36-75239d2fe115

 

I hate to have to be a Negative Nancy here, but Super Bowl Sunday and the contagious variants are coming. Things are about to get worse, quickly.

 

there appears to be a rinse-repeat cycle between Covid numbers and the actions of politicians. A good article on it here:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...e-time-to-ease-social-distancing-restrictions

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also, and informative comparison of the vaccines:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-covid-vaccines-compare_l_60186e8fc5b6aa4bad36a3b0

 

There's a major article in the Oregonian today about just how badly the Governor's plan to reopen schools is screwed up. It's behind their paywall, unfortunately, but I'm pissed off enough about this issue that I paid for a one month subscription.

Originally, State health advisors were saying it would be about 100K teachers and support staff who would get pushed to the head of the line. Turns out that it's more than 150K. They originally said it could be done in 2 weeks, but it's going to be much longer and will push back the vaccinations of other groups who start to become eligible. At current vaccination rates, they are saying that it will likely be May before seniors over 65 are actually able to get shots even thought they are "eligible" starting Feb. 28th. And, here's the real kicker to the whole mess, it's beginning to look increasingly unlikely that schools will be able to open on the Governor's crazy-optimistic timeline of mid-February. It will be March or later for most and even then, probably only for grades K-3. High schools won't be able to meet the many state policies on reopening, such as active infection rates in their county and things such as being able to limit contacts between students to mandated rates. But, are they limiting vaccinations to only teachers of K-3rd grades? Nope. Are they limiting vaccinations to teachers who agree to come back and actually teach in the classroom despite the very real possibility that, if they do so, they may well be able to bring the virus home to their unvaccinated families? Nope. Are they even checking carefully to make sure that they are actually vaccinating people employed by a school district? Not according to the article.

For all of her quixotic wish to reopen schools through vaccination, done on the backs of the most vulnerable of the state's population, it appears that there will be very little in the way of positive results. It also seems, from everything I'm reading, that the new variants will become dominant very soon and that will result in greater community spread...with an increasing cost of suffering and lives among the elderly.

 

yeah, I saw that. I don't have a subscription, but the headline about May being the timeline for seniors was really fucking irritating.

I don't really understand it either. If kids have a slower year or two in their education, they can make it up with a little extra work once we all have vaccine immunity. But a senior can't make up suffering permanent damage to their lungs or losing their life because a 30 year old teacher jumped the line

 

I know that there's a ton of pressure to get schools open because of the childcare service they provide to parents who have to work out of the home, but that's a limited subset of the population and it's largely younger kids who need to be watched. I wouldn't have objected to a program to reopen K-3 grades in a limited fashion to serve parents in that situation, but I would have required teachers who volunteered to teach in that situation to get a vaccination upon the condition of signing an agreement that they would actually teach live classes once they were fully immune.

 

Don't forget about Chinese New Year on February 12th.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/world/australia/perth-lockdown.amp.html

One Case, Total Lockdown: Australia’s Lessons for a Pandemic World

The country’s short, sharp responses have repeatedly subdued the virus and allowed a return to near normalcy. Now its model is being applied to Perth, its fourth-largest city.

 

Wow! This is quite a different tone.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/02/03...fely-reopen-without-vaccinating-teachers.html

CDC director says schools can safely reopen without vaccinating teachers

KEY POINTS

• Teachers do not need to get vaccinated against Covid-19 before schools can safely reopen, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
• School systems across the U.S. have been under pressure to reopen after shifting to remote learning last year due to the pandemic.
• Teachers and other faculty have expressed concerns about returning to school, potentially putting their health at risk

 

Oregon won’t fight ruling, will start vaccinating 11,000 prisoners against COVID-19

 

a twitter thread talking about the reality of the more infectious Covid variants:



https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...arrie-outbreak-upends-conventional-wisdom-of/

 

https://www.the-sun.com/news/227694...edium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly

NO ILLEGAL TOUCHING
Tampa strippers in masks clean poles to attract Super Bowl fans for football fantasy night despite pandemic

 

Senate Passes Budget Plan To Advance Biden’s $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Aid Package

President Joe Biden’s drive to enact a $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill gained momentum on Friday as the U.S. Senate narrowly approved a budget blueprint allowing Democrats to push the legislation through Congress in coming weeks with or without Republican support.

At the end of about 15 hours of debate and back-to-back votes on dozens of amendments, the Senate found itself in a 50-50 partisan deadlock over passage of the budget plan. That deadlock was broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, whose “yes” vote provided the win for Democrats.

This was a “giant first step” toward passing the kind of comprehensive coronavirus aid bill that Biden has put at the top of his legislative agenda, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Shortly before the final vote, Democrats flexed their muscle by offering an amendment reversing three earlier votes that Republicans won.

Those had used the coronavirus aid battle to voice support for the Canada-to-United States Keystone XL pipeline that Biden has blocked and support for hydraulic fracking to extract underground oil and natural gas.

Also overturned was a Republican amendment barring coronavirus aid to immigrants living in the United States illegally.

With Democrat Harris presiding, she broke a 50-50 tie to overturn those Republican victories.

It marked the first time Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, cast a tie-breaking vote after being sworn in as Biden’s vice president on Jan. 20.

Before finishing its work, the Senate approved a series of amendments to the budget outline, which had already passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. As a result, the House must now vote again to accept the Senate’s changes, which could occur as early as Friday.

For example, the Senate added a measure calling for increased funding for rural hospitals whose resources are strained by the pandemic.

But as the hours wore on and dozens of amendments were offered, exhausted senators mainly spent the night disposing of Republican ideas, such as ending all U.S. foreign aid and prohibiting Congress from expanding the U.S. Supreme Court beyond its current nine justices.
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Good thing Democrats won the Georgia Senate seats, otherwise very little of this, or potentially none of it, would be happening.