By spocko, on August 5th, 2020% I talked to a teacher today. She lives in Nebraska. It’s one of the states that doesn’t have a mask mandate. Yesterday I learned that Omaha is the largest US city with neither a state nor a local mask mandate. She’s worried that the schools aren’t prepared to safely reopen for in-person learning. I agree with her.
I’m filled with rage that she is going to be subjected to an unnecessary experiment on the transmission and spread of a deadly virus. We do NOT need another human death data point to prove what the rest of the country has learned over and over again.
I’m trying to channel my anger in a productive way. I want the elected officials in the state to know how long aerosols stay in the air. So I’ll post videos showing that.
??UPDATE on airborne—newest aerosol study (CDC journal) indicates that coronavirus is persistent and stable up to 16 hours in the air! Typical air exchange every 20 min to 4 hrs, depending on ventilation. But up to 16 hours is worrisome (HT @kprather88) pic.twitter.com/YJOQvEzu84
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) July 14, 2020
REPORT: Virus is stable in air: once airborne, . . . → Read More: Nebraska’s Gov. Ricketts’ policies are going to kill teachers
By spocko, on July 15th, 2020% July 15, By Dacona Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Walmart U.S., and Lance de la Rosa, Chief Operating Officer, Sam’s Club Starting Monday, July 20th we will require all shoppers to wear a face covering.
THIS IS GREAT NEWS! This is huge! I could go on about how this should have happened MONTHS ago. I could speculate how their customers will react. But what I want to do instead is use Walmart’s action as leverage to GET MANDATED MASK REQUIREMENTS IN ALL OTHER RETAIL STORES IN THE COUNTRY.
That’s it. That’s your action step for today. Corporate America now has a model they can follow. If you want, you can read the link to their press release on the mask policy to see how they justify it and how they are dealing with customers. Then tweet, email, FB and call other retail store headquarters and ask. “When will you be issuing a nationwide mask policy like Walmart?” If they say they are not, ask why.
Here’s the piece I wrote two months ago on how to get retailers to pass mask requirements. I have a lot of good advice, but this Walmart announcement is going to help convince the . . . → Read More: Walmart mandated masks nationwide, now all retailers should too
By spocko, on July 10th, 2020% The reopening schools issue reminds me of how in many states school boards had to decide about arming teachers.
No national or state mask mandate means that decisions are pushed down to cities, counties and school boards. When there is no law and no funding strings boards can be swayed by the powerful & organized people in their community.
In the past the “guns everywhere” people were better organized, had better lobbyists and catchier messaging. So they won.
Lately the Parkland activists, MDA and other groups fought back at the state and local level. But they didn’t always win.
I watched a LOT of those meetings. Allowing those boards to make life or death medical decisions is crazy.
Part of the blame goes to medical professionals and scientists who say, “Just look at the data!” Elected officials can be craven cowards. They don’t make decisions based on reason alone.
The data alone isn’t going to make elected officials act the way we want, so we must use other pressures.
In Florida I watched school boards decide about arming teachers. The Governor said, “You have to do something from the options we decided on.”
The choices were cops in . . . → Read More: Trump’s using the NRA’s playbook to block mask laws & accept COVID deaths in schools
By spocko, on July 6th, 2020% Barbara Feder Ostrov, contributing writer Cal Matters
Hi Barbara: I just read your great CALmed article from June 16th about how Public Health Officers were being threatened and quitting. You also linked to the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ meeting on May 26th. I watched most of that video. https://ocgov.granicus.com/player/clip/3709 (especially the comments starting at 2:09)
I saw the Sheriff say he wouldn’t enforce mask laws. I saw people stand up and threaten Orange County Chief Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick. They rejected the order to wear masks with factually incorrect or misleading information.
In this March 2020 photo, Orange County, Calif., Chief Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick listens during a coronavirus press conference in Santa Ana, Calif. D.r. Quick resigned Monday, June 8, 2020, after receiving threats over her order for residents wear to face coverings when near others in public to protect against the coronavirus. Quick is the seventh senior health official to resign in California since the pandemic began and the officials suddenly faced unprecedented pressure, criticism and threats, said Kat DeBurgh, executive director of the Health Officers Association of California. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)
It’s July 5th and cases are rising . . . → Read More: Supervisors rescinded public health orders. People died. Who’s responsible?
By spocko, on June 26th, 2020% From COVID-19 Contact Tracing Course.
How long is the incubation period for the disease? Two to 14 days, but typically five days. When does someone become contagious? Two days before showing symptoms. Course offered by Johns Hopkins University (link) 6,000 at Trump’s Tulsa Rally, June 20 Dozens of Secret Service officers and agents told to self-quarantine after Trump’s Tulsa rally, June 24 (link) Reporter at Trump’s Tulsa rally tests positive for COVID-19, June 26 (link) 3,000 at Trump’s Phoenix Rally, June 23
I’ve been writing about the need for contact tracing for a long time. I started by suggesting we should trace the people protesting in Lansing. Michigan, Link. Then I attended a conference that pointed out the need to ensure contact tracing was kept in the world of science and public health. It shouldn’t be politicized. I kept that in mind for future stories on enforcement of violations of people wearing masks.
May 26th following George Floyd’s murder 100’s and 1,000’s of people gathered outside to march and protest. Most wore masks. This continued for weeks.
Protest stemming from the recent killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, in Brookside neighborhood near 34th Street . . . → Read More: How will Trump block contact tracing after rallies?
By spocko, on June 23rd, 2020% https://www.spockosbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/Buddy-man.mp4
By spocko, on June 15th, 2020% What happens if someone with COVID-19 attends the Tulsa Trump rally? Will the campaign turn over the attendee data to the Oklahoma Health Department for contact tracing?
The Trump Campaign should have mandated masks and held it outside with social distancing. But they didn’t, so now the correct procedure after news of an infection should be to alert everyone who attended.
Attendee data should be turned over to Col. Lance T. Frye, M.D. the commissioner for Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) to start contact tracing. But will it be?
1) The Trump campaign admits they have all attendee data. (Especially inside, no entry without registered ticket. ) 2) It’s legal to turn over the data — June 3, OK Attorney General Mike Hunter today advised the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) thats does not violate state or federal law, as long as individuals are not identifiable. (Link)
3)The Trump Campaign doesn’t care about the health of their followers. We know that. They care about being sued and are doing the minimum to avoid charges of gross negligence. As shown by this tweet.
BTW, I’ve identified another source that has the legal right to attendee data. If . . . → Read More: COVID-19 Infected Man Attends Tulsa Trump Rally. What happens next?
By spocko, on June 9th, 2020% I just found out there is a spreadsheet of the hundreds of videos of police brutality across the country. Activists Create Public Online Spreadsheet of Police Violence Video It’s horrific. It made me sad and angry. After my outrage I thought “What can we do with this resource to drive change?”
People are already using the videos to change laws and public opinion. That’s a great, but in our country you also need money to fund change and to fight the powerful, well-funded groups who don’t want change.
When I saw the videos I knew they could also be used to get money from civil lawsuits and that money could be used to drive police reform actions.
When I mentioned this idea to people they quickly pointed out that the money doesn’t come out of the police department budget. It’s all covered by the cities’ insurance polices. That’s when I fell into Helpless Defeatist mode. What yanked me out of HD mode was something I learned from listening to Sam Seder talk to trial lawyers like Mike Papantonio on Ring of Fire:
Here is Ring of Fire episode 543: We Know the Police Can do Better;
When trial lawyers . . . → Read More: Let’s use police brutality civil lawsuits to fund police reform
By spocko, on June 4th, 2020% I coined a new term. Teargaslighting.
A version of gaslighting designed to sow seeds of doubt in the media on their definition of the chemical agents used to disrupt protesters.
“Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany used teargaslighting on CNN’s Jim Acosta when he asked about how Trump cleared out the peaceful protesters outside St. John’s Church for his photo op.”
Here’s the clip of McEnany teargaslighting.
Keep watching past the 30 second mark. I know what she was doing with her “teargaslighitng’ but I wondered, if it’s not her specific definition of tear gas, what was it? What I found was educational and disturbing.
The cops, military and the bureau of prison’s riot squads probably used something from a company called PepperBall. I watched their training videos and then combined them in this editorial video of what happened outside St. John’s Church.
On their website the company showed scenarios of the product use in housing projects, hospitals and prisons. Note the use of drones to disperse chemical agents. Is that next?
This product can cause real problems, especially with people who have compromised respiratory systems, here’s the product safety sheet.
INHALATION: If breathing is difficult, . . . → Read More: If it wasn’t tear gas, what was it? I look into Kayleigh’s teargaslighting.
By spocko, on June 4th, 2020% https://www.spockosbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/Tear-gas-pepper-ball.mp4
Teargaslighting by Spocko is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://www.spockosbrain.com/2020/06/04/teargaslighting/.
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