In Memoriam

I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords

I saw a film today, oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I'd love to turn you on

"Five, six, seven, eight, nine
Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen
Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen
Twenty"

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Made my way upstairs and had a smoke
And everybody spoke and I went into a dream

"Oh shit"

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I'd love to turn you

"See the worst thing about doing this
Doing something like this
Is I think that at first people sort of are a bit suspicious
'You know, come on, what are you up to?'

Greetings from a desolate scene in Colorado, peaceful in a surreal sense.

This blog will be a little different and has a connection to today’s song.

First a last minute comment on my “In Memoriam”.

Two days ago my Faithful and Obedient Companion and I learned from our Son James on the passing Of Joyce Issacson, who we knew from our days in Yardley PA where our families both attended the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection.  Joyce and I both taught Sunday School.  She was also instrumental in introducing Barbara to the world of Quilting.

Joyce and her Husband Maurice were on a cruise where she came down with Covide 19.  Her husband we understand remains very ill.  While we have not seen them in years her passing touched us both.  I have therefore decided to include this note especially since my post, is written in full recognition of this tragedy. 

One that will likely touch us all very personally.

Jim

   

OK readers I could not think of a different way to do this Blog Post. 

In line with today’s song I have taken various News “tidbits” from articles and tried to  string them together using some approximate date order (event date not necessarily news article date).  Each will be connected by a “and then there was this”.  Followed by my own “cryptic” comment in Bold instead of as an “Observation”.  I have no doubt that many of you may agree or disagree with what I am implying but I will leave all of you to opine as you see fit!  Think of it as my free flow of thoughts looking at the history of this tragedy.

And then there was this….

This article simply provides a timeline of events to which I add comments

 From “Hell is Coming and we sold ourselves out for a few dollars" 

From ” Yahoo Finance News” :

I am furious and frustrated. Once the greatest country on the face of this planet, the United States is going hat in hand to China, begging for a few respirators and masks. Anthony Fauci and the CDC know that nearly half of the infected people show no symptoms and stealthily spread the new coronavirus, yet their hands are tied trying to tell the American people to wear masks because the few that we do have rightfully belong to our healthcare workers. We are absolutely helpless.

 Well now we know why CDC first told us “we don’t” need to wear masks they lied.  Mayor De Blasio also admitted this I understand.  I get it the experts lied for our own good.  I may have done the same BUT keep that in mind as you read on about my feelings on listening when “experts” speak.

Same article….and then there was this:

Let’s start from the beginning. On December 31, China notified the World Health Organization about an unknown virus causing a SARS like disease. By January 2^nd, there were 44 confirmed cases in Wuhan, obviously all of which were symptomatic cases. At least 6 of these patients died.

n January 3^rd, Singapore started temperature screening all passengers arriving from Wuhan. That same day, Hong Kong reported two cases, both of whom travelled to Wuhan and displayed fever and pneumonia like symptoms.

On January 7^th, the World Health Organization reported that Chinese experts isolated a novel coronavirus causing a new outbreak.

The first known COVID-19 death, a 61 year old male, occurred on January 9^th, but China revealed this on January 11^th.

Two new cases outside of China were reported on January 13^th and 16^th in Thailand and Japan. America is a great country, but it seems like Singapore is greater when it comes to acting fast and detecting COVID-19 infections. We started screening passengers from Wuhan on the west coast 15 days after Singapore did.

China reported its second and third COVID-19 deaths on January 17^th and January 20^th. “Zhong Nanshan, who heads up China's National Health Commission, told Xinhua News Agency, China's official state-run news organization, that two cases of human-to-human transmission had been confirmed in China, one in Wuhan and one in Guangdong,” reported ABC news.

Three days later, on January 23^rd, the World Health Organization’s director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calmed our nerves, saying “At this time, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission outside China”, and decided not to declare the coronavirus outbreak a “global emergency”.

Well now we also know that “The Experts” at the WHO had absolutely NO clue.  So much for UN “Experts”.  No worries they were just calming our nerves like a cup of Hot tea or something.

Then there was this stuff from our own “experts”

The CDC announced that passengers from Wuhan would be screened at JFK starting on January 17^th, and in San Francisco and Los Angeles on January 18^th. At the time, the CDC didn’t know whether the virus could spread from person to person.

Well, well,  USA “experts” were at least getting suspicious.  Note on January 23^rd (same day as WHO said “No worries mon”.  Trump based on CDC recommendations started US Travel Ban. 

(here is a special “Observation”) On that same day Impeachment trial starts.  Most of us probably missed any other headlines.  Virtually all our media was focused on…impeachment.  Love em or hate him indirectly Trump’s phone call and the attendant political fallout pushed the biggest brewing catastrophe in maybe a century into a virtual press blackout for all of January and early February. 

If you hate Trump you can blame him, if you despise the media and those you associate with TDS…you can blame them.  I just shrug and say, nobody (not even “Experts”) are in control of events like this.  Nor is “virtue” relegated to one side or the other. Yes even brilliant experts are not right all the time.  

On my earlier post I mentioned Haidt and his sense that at times like this Americans come together. (I am not sure any readers watched his interview)

 Sadly not this time.  The press remains relentless in going after a man they hated for years.  Trump is relentless in his counter attack, his need to self- congratulate is tiring.   I have found few people neutral.  Either this is all Trump’s fault because he does not listen to science.  Trump in return simply says the media is all fake news. 

 However, political leanings aside the MEDIA-who now throws stones at virtually every issue, is to me the biggest culprit here.  They are to busy pushing this political divide …all for ratings.  So they virtually ignored a story unfolding before our eyes.  A great human tragedy.

Well let's move “the News” right along.

We discovered the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. on January 21^st. “A man from Washington state returned home after a trip to Wuhan, China, on Jan. 15, sought medical attention on Jan. 19 and now is in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash.,” according to NPR.

  

Jan 22 from CNBC interview with the President:

“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.

What an idiot , huh?  Heck he should just let the experts speak!

Oh but they did speak…….

Well here’s what the Experts said from CDC

By Lauren Clason, Jennifer Shutt, and Andrew Siddons

Posted January 24, 2020 at 4:10pm

Federal health officials told lawmakers Friday that they have the resources they need to address the spread of the virus originating from Wuhan, China, although senators acknowledged the potential need for supplemental funding down the road.

That Supplemental Spending turned out to be just a little more than we thought, Huh!

Then there was this eye opening  Radio Interview on January 26th  with America’s favorite Doctor on this disease:

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Sunday the American public shouldn’t worry about the coronavirus outbreak in China. 

“It’s a very, very low risk to the United States,” Fauci said during an interview with radio show host John Catsimatidis.

“But it’s something that we as public health officials need to take very seriously... It isn’t something the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about. Because we have ways of preparing and screening of people coming in [from China]. And we have ways of responding - like we did with this one case in Seattle, Washington, who had traveled to China and brought back the infection.”

Here’s a thought:

Instead of interviews that revolve around his “relationship with the President” and how he puts up with such an ignoramus when will the press ask Dr. Fauci A simple but relevant question. I picture it like this if I were on CNN.

CNN:   Dr Fauci, At the end of January, you told America and the President this was under control and not to worry.  Can you describe how you felt when you realized you were out in left field back in January?

 What day was it that you told the President we have a bit of a problem?

Maybe I would even phrase it this way.

“When did you say OH Shit I am sorry Mr.President, we have a “problem” that requires you to let the American people know that next month some 6 million people will need to lose their jobs or else many will die?  Oh and even then many will die anyway."

Sarcasm aside I know this much- whenever I hear someone say we should put our entire country in the hands of an expert on a problem we have never experienced before would first I ask: “define Expert”.  Let me know their track record.

One more from our “our expert” From an ABC interview  also in late January.

Even if that asymptomatic transmission is confirmed, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stressed that asymptomatic transmission is not health officials' primary concern.There's no evidence of human-to-human transmission documented in the U.S.

"In all the history of respiratory viruses, asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks," Fauci said. "An epidemic is not driven by asymptomatic carriers."

Not so sure he got that correct either. Now we learn that many who have no symptoms infect others.

 But in fairness to Dr Fauci, I do not dispute his credentials.  However no matter  who the expert is, in a democracy we do not turn all our decisions over based on somebody’s say so based on” science”.  That would be called “dictatorship”. This point I am sure might raise some hackles with a few readers.  I would maintain science can tell us “risks” but when you interface science in this case obviously “uncertain” science with human behavior the medicine may be worse than the cure)

Ok so about a week or so later (beginning in February) and likely after my sister and nephew from NY already were ill from this a few things started happening in NY City.  Of course we likely never heard about it until a WSJ reporter wrote this piece on April 1^st.:

What the Nurses See: Bronx Hospital Reels as

Coronavirus Swamps New York

Christina Norstein was hoarse, her nose swollen by mask marks. She wasn’t sleeping much, and

woke up crying one morning after a day at work. “I feel like we’re being sent to slaughter,” she

said. Ms. Norstein is an intensive-care nurse at Montefiore Medical Center’s Moses campus in the Bronx, one of the hospitals inundated with Covid-19 patients

Despite multiple alarms raised by workers in the past two months, she and other nurses say the hospital system stumbled in creating protocols to prevent the disease’s spread and is sending its workers out to the battlefield underprepared.

For weeks, Montefiore declined to disclose to nurses the number of infected employees, nurses

said. On Monday, Montefiore CEO Philip Ozuah went on the conference call with employees and said 311 workers had been confirmed positive for Covid-19 and more than 1,000 were

quarantined. A Montefiore spokesman in a statement said: “These claims are gross misrepresentations of the facts. Montefiore is working at the direction of the Governor and following CDC and Department of Health protocols to protect our workforce and treat our patients.” He declined to make Dr. Ozuah available for an interview.

Any eventual narrative on what is happening now in NYC and New York State and in our Nation should have a “truth Commission address” these claims in detail. Continue below.

Alarm bells

Many workers in the Montefiore system said they are angry that supervisors didn’t take

seriously alarm bells rung by health-care employees, and the hospital hasn’t done enough to

protect workers and patients against transmission of the virus, according to interviews with

more than a dozen Montefiore health-care workers and email records The Wall Street Journal

reviewed. The Moses ER on East 210th Street often functions as a de facto primary-care clinic for low income patients. The first suspected Covid-19 case many medical workers had seen arrived Feb. 3, according to emails that ER nurses sent their supervisors. That day, the ER was warned that a patient, who had recently traveled to China and had virus symptoms, was on the way, according to an email and several nurses, including Samantha Castillo, an ER nurse who was there.

This was EARLY February and it certainly fits with any “logical” timeline.  This virus was running rampant in NY by “Lunar New Year.  I believe at least some NY Authorities had to  “Know” full well what was happening.

Then there was this:

Thousands in Manhattan celebrate Lunar New Year amid

virus concerns

NEWS / NEW YORK

Crowds in Manhattan's Chinatown welcomed the Year of the Rat with a parade and festivities on Sunday. The Lunar New Year

celebration is central to the cultural life of New York's Chinese community. Credit: Jeff Bachner

Thousands of people took to the streets of Manhattan on Sunday to ring in the Lunar New Year, defying concerns about a viral outbreak that's claimed hundreds of lives in China.

Attendees said the annual celebration of Chinese culture carried greater signi􀃗cance this year, given China's ongoing struggle to contain the coronavirus, which causes respiratory illness.

"We know in China so many of our loved ones are facing the challenge of coronavirus," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said before the parade, 􀃘anked by state and local of􀃗cials. "But we stand together," he said. "No matter what's thrown at us in this city, we are united."

When looking back at whatever happens in NY, keep in mind where thousands may have spread the virus.  At the very least while DeBlasio was standing in solidarity with China maybe he might have stood up there in solidarity with a few of the poor residents of the Bronx.  They were dying of this at the time.

Then there was this:

Feb. 10

“Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

Donald Trump at NH Rally

Look I never said the guy never “carnival barks” from left field.

Ok so my Post needs to finish so a couple

Then there were these

O

Mayor Says That Healthy People Should Still Be Dining Out

“If you’re not sick, you should be going about your life,” Bill de Blasio said Wednesday

by Serena Dai  Mar 11, 2020, 5:19pm EDT

Now the final wrap up: Also from the WSJ this week.

New York City has become the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and the Covid-19

disease that the pathogen causes. As of Wednesday morning, there were 44,915 positive cases

in the city and 1,139 deaths. Queens had the most positive cases, with 14,966, and the most

deaths in a borough, with 386.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, the chief executive and president of NYC Health + Hospitals, said it is difficult for some people to isolate and maintain social distancing to slow the spread of the virus, especially in the hardest-hit neighborhoods in Queens. “You may have multiple families living together in a very small apartment, so it’s easy to understand why there’s a lot of transmission of Covid occurring,” he said Wednesday.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Wednesday released the raw numbers of people who were tested and those who were diagnosed with the infection, broken down by ZIP Code, after Mayor Bill de Blasio had resisted the move for more than a week.

By contrast, wealthier neighborhoods had fewer tests and positive cases. In the ZIP Code covering lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center, 24 people were tested and six were positive, data show. Battery Park City’s ZIP Code had 38 people tested and 16 positive cases. And in Long Island City, Queens, which has more newly built, high-end apartments, 45 people were tested and 13 tested positive, according to the data

So readers I have decided to end this with a final Observation after all.

Jesus once said “the poor” will always be with you. 

He should have added and they always get screwed, needless to say even under our most “Progressive” politicians.

No wonder he did not want Zip Codes released, nor would we want that info about the Bronx Hospital to get around.

If one of you readers who get their news from hard hitting CNN can tell me when they plan to conduct an interview of Fauci that I outlined, or a similar one on the Mayor of NY I will be sure to tune in.

Meanwhile please stay safe, self-isolate and listen and carefully consider the word of experts.  But always be skeptical and evaluate what they say.  To those around you who say shut up they know more than you I suggest you ignore em and let your voices be heard.

Your life and the life of others may depend on it.


With that I bid you
Adieu