“COVID explained in gay terms: You and 10 friends are in your apartment getting ready for the Pride Parade. One has glitter. How many end up with glitter on them?” Face it – we’ve been there…
Meme Of The Day: COVID Explained In Gay Terms
NY Times Prints 1000 COVID Obituaries On Front Page
(image via New York Times)
Instead of the articles, photographs or graphics that normally appear on the front page of The New York Times, on Sunday, there is just a list: a long, solemn list of people whose lives were lost to the coronavirus pandemic.
As the death toll from Covid-19 in the United States approaches 100,000, a number expected to be reached in the coming days, editors at The Times have been planning how to mark the grim milestone.
Marc Lacey, National editor, had warned Tom Bodkin, chief creative officer of The Times, that the milestone was coming. “I wanted something that people would look back on in 100 years to understand the toll of what we’re living through,” Mr. Lacey said in an email.
There’s an interactive article on the Times‘ website expounding on the list of those lost and included on the front page. As the Times was prepping its cover story yesterday, Donald Trump played golf at his National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. According to reports, he is playing another round of golf again today. CNN notes this is his 358th visit to one of his properties and his 266th trip to one of his golf clubs since he took office in January 2017. The Biden campaign noted the widely divergent perspectives on the gravity of the COVID-19 threat.
Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work.
Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing. pic.twitter.com/H1BVNtgVjA — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2020
According to the pool report, Trump's motorcade arrived at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, VA at 10:30 AM.
The president is at his private golf club for the second day in a row during a global pandemic.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 24, 2020
Trump doesn't just golf while Americans die.
He golfs at Trump properties.
So far his golfing has cost you and me $134,000,000.
So he is stealing our money, while we die.
— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) May 24, 2020
Trump arrives at his Virginia golf club for the second time this weekend. Per CNN’s count, this is his 358th visit to one of his properties and his 266th trip to one of his golf clubs since he took office in January 2017. He’s golfed this weekend for the first time since March 8
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 24, 2020
Trump is looking hard for a cure in the 12th bunker at Trump National Golf Club this afternoon https://t.co/DHTb3dhaq9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 24, 2020
My thoughts last night in the @CNNSitRoom on this very special @nytimes front page as we approach 100,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States. pic.twitter.com/Zi21268DrO
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) May 24, 2020
News Round-Up: May 22, 2020
(images via Instagram)
(image via South Florida Hot Spots)
• New York Times: The W Hotel in Barcelona, Spain, currently has just one occupant among its hundreds of luxury guest rooms. Maintenance engineer Daniel Ordoñez has lived alone in the hotel since March handling tasks that must be done on a regular basis like opening the 1,400 water taps every five days. • Washington Post: A study of 96,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients on six continents found that those who received an antimalarial drug promoted by President Trump as a “game-changer” in the fight against the virus had a significantly higher risk of death compared with those who did not. People treated with hydroxychloroquine were also more likely to develop a type of irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, that can lead to sudden cardiac death. • Entertainment Weekly: I found this look back at the “mad, sad, totally fab life of Paul Lynde” by EW a great read. Click the play button below to relive some of the comedian’s funniest one-liners on the iconic game show, Hollywood Squares.
Thousands Forced To Leave Ford Assembly Plant On Day Two Of Reopening
(screen capture via CBS 2 Chicago)
“I’m worried right now,” said employee Timothy Shy. “This is the second day, and we are already hearing about this.”
Production was temporarily halted at part of the facility and the main plant.
“Social distancing doesn’t really work,” said employee Billy Cowart.
There are changes, from the social distancing reminders outside to temperature checks and re-configured work stations inside. Ford provided a video highlighting some of the updated health changes COVID has brought along to their plants
“All these people are crowded and on top of each other,” said Michael Hopper while wearing his Ford issued face mask.
“I lost a brother to coronavirus May 6,” Hopper said.
Hopper along with others describes an experience inside the plant that doesn’t sound or look like the polished video.
“I cleaned my own workstation myself,” said Hopper. “How our jobs are set-up, if one person gets in the hole that would affect the person behind him.”
Biotech Companies Share Upbeat News On Experimental COVID-19 Vaccines
Some prominent biotech companies report upbeat indications regarding possible coronavirus vaccines that have begun human trials around the world. Biotech firm Moderna, based in Massachusetts, saw its stock jump 20% on news that their experimental vaccine showed considerable efficacy. From the Washington Post:
The eagerly-awaited data provide a first look at one of the eight vaccines worldwide that have begun human testing. The data have not been published in a scientific journal and are only a preliminary step toward showing the experimental vaccine is safe and effective.
The company’s stock, along with the Dow Jones industrial average, soared on the report that eight participants who received low and medium doses of Moderna’s vaccine had blood levels of virus-fighting antibodies that were similar or greater than those in recovered covid-19 patients. That suggests, but doesn’t prove, that it triggers some level of immunity.
An effort led by the University of Oxford, in partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, plans to have millions of doses of vaccine available by fall. Last week, those researchers disclosed that more than 1,000 patients had already enrolled in the initial trial of its vaccine, which began in late April.
A Chinese company, Sinovac Biotech, recently published a study in the journal Science showing that its vaccine protected rhesus monkeys against infection and is currently being tested in 144 people. Two other safety trials are ongoing in the U.S., led by Pfizer and Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
Vaccine experts have said that these accelerated development timelines are theoretically possible, but extremely optimistic — and depend on everything going right. They stress that it will be crucial to gather convincing data the vaccines are safe and effective before using them broadly — and the new data are promising but preliminary, from the earliest phase one trials that test safety in healthy people.
Florida Man Was Skeptical Of COVID-19 Threat Until He & His Wife Got It
Brian Lee Hitchens (screen capture/WPTV)
Many people still think that the Coronavirus is a fake crisis which at one time I did too and not that I thought it wasn’t a real virus going around but at one time I felt that it was blown out of proportion and it wasn’t that serious.
We kept on watching the news and kept on hearing about the spreading of the Coronavirus and to be honest I didn’t really think nothing of it. I still thought it was being blown out of proportion until about 4 and 1/2 weeks ago when I started to feel sick and once I started to feel sick I stopped working and stayed home.
Yes, I came down with the Coronavirus and a couple days later after I started to not feel good my wife started to not feel good and we stayed at home quarantined and my wife did go to the hospital to get tested and they told her yeah you probably have the coronavirus so go home and quarantine yourself.
Well a few days went by and we both started feeling worse and worse and worse to the point where we barely had any energy left to do anything and all we want to do is sleep. So three weeks ago Sunday we decided not to play around with this anymore and I had just enough energy to drive us to the hospital Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and we both got confirmed that we had the Coronavirus.
They admitted us right away and we both went to ICU. I started feeling better within a few days but my wife got worse to the point where they sedated her and put her on the ventilator. I was never put ventilator and started feeling better feeling stronger never had terrible aches and pains just weak and exhausted.
Even now I am feeling better. A lot better then a few weeks ago. I still have COVID-19 and some pneumonia in my lungs and we’ve been here 3 weeks as of yesterday.
As of today my wife is still sedated and on the ventilator with no signs of improving. There were a couple times were they tried to start weaning her off the ventilator but as soon as they’ve done that her oxygen level dropped and they had to put her back on the ventilator full time.
My wife has been sick before in the past quite a few times and she always fought through to get better but now after 3 weeks I have come to accept that my wife may pass away and the peace I have about it is that I know without a shadow of a doubt that she will be going home to be with the Lord.
But I also do believe in miracles and I’m holding on to the chance that she may get healed. But if not I am thankful for her I know we’ve been married for 8 years.
So think about what I wrote and think about if this thing is a fake crisis. This Coronavirus affects people differently. My wife has suffered from different physical ailments which she has overcome before but she sure is struggling and the doctors have said they have had a tough time getting her better.
This thing is nothing to be messed with please listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts. We don’t have to fear this, and by heeding the advice doesn’t mean that you fear it – that means you’re showing wisdom during this epidemic time.
Looking back I should have wore a mask in the beginning but I didn’t and perhaps I’m paying the price for it now. But I know that if it was me that gave it to my wife I know that she forgives me and I know that God forgives me.
Whether man forgives me or not that’s out of my control, but as long as I have the assurance that God forgives me and my wife forgives me I am good.
So just think about what I said and if you have to go out, please use wisdom and don’t be foolish like I was so the same thing won’t happen to you like it happened to me and my wife.
In a subsequent post, Hitchins shares that he is continuing to recover. His wife is reportedly stable, but still sedated and on a ventilator. Here’s his interview from his hosptial bed in Jupiter, Florida, with local station WPTV.
Six Regions Of New York State To Start Reopening Businesses
Five upstate regions of New York state became eligible to start phase one of reopening businesses on Friday. Additionally, the western region which includes Buffalo can start to reopen beginning Tuesday. More from the New York Times:
The region around Albany needs only to hire more contact tracers before it can enter “phase one.”
In the regions that can restart, construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade can resume. Retail businesses that sell clothing, electronics, furniture, books, sporting goods, shoes, flowers, jewelry and some other types of goods can open for curbside service.
Other activities that are allowed to operate include drive-in movies, landscaping and gardening services and “low-risk recreational activities” like tennis.
Mr. Cuomo also encouraged sports teams in the state to start planning to hold games, but without fans in attendance.
As those areas of the state get back to work, the only regions left to become eligible to entering phase one are the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio told the New York Times he expects New York City to satisfy phase one criteria sometime in the first half of June.
AstraZeneca Aims For 30 Million UK Vaccine Doses By September
AstraZeneca plans to make as many as 30 million doses of coronavirus vaccine available to the U.K. by September and has committed to delivering 100 million doses this year. The U.K. would be the first country in the world to get access to the AstraZeneca vaccine. From Bloomberg News:
The vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford will get 65.5 million pounds ($79 million) of funding, U.K. Business Secretary Alok Sharma said today in a statement.
The inoculation is already being studied in humans and could reach late-stage trials by the middle of the year. Another 18.5 million pounds will go to Imperial College London as trials accelerate.
Drugmakers are scaling up to make a Covid vaccine before the shots are fully tested, so inoculations will be ready as soon as possible. No vaccine exists yet for Covid-19, which has killed more than 312,000 people globally and infected 4.7 million.
The U.K. has the second-deadliest outbreak after the U.S.
Obama: Pandemic Has Torn Back Curtain On Idea Folks In Charge Know What They’re Doing
Former President Barack Obama (screen capture)
“You’re being asked to find your way in the world in the middle of a devastating pandemic and terrible recession. The timing is not ideal. And let’s be honest. A disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country.
“We see it in the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog, and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.
“Injustice like this isn’t new. What is new is that so much of your generation has woken up to the fact that the status quo needs fixing; that the old ways of doing things don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and democracy only works when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.
“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
Cue the Trump Twitter rant in 3, 2, 1…
NY Barber Tests Positive For Covid After Continuing To Cut Hair
(stock image via Unsplash/Andi Whiskey)
In a statement Wednesday, the county health commissioner advised anyone who received a haircut in the past three weeks at a barbershop on Broadway in the city of Kingston, about 20 miles north of Poughkeepsie, to seek testing for the coronavirus. The statement did not identify either the barber or the shop.
Nonessential businesses have been closed since March 22 under an order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that is set to expire Friday, when certain parts of the state that have met public health metrics will be allowed to begin a phased reopening.
Under the order, barbershops, beauty salons, nail salons and other businesses that provide personal care services are not allowed to be open and operated to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
It goes without saying that the state of New York has been the epicenter of the pandemic, the guy knowingly put himself and his customers at risk. The report didn’t mention if the barber followed any safety guidelines like sanitizing or wearing a mask or limiting the number of clients in his shop at any given time. Restrictions in Nevada were lifted this past week allowing for haircuts if such guidelines were followed. I saw my guy, Phil, who has his own one-man barbershop and was doing double-duty on sanitizing and only allowed one customer in the shop at a time. 