Wednesday, January 06, 2021

CoViD-19 Spirals Out of Control | Democracy Will Prevail In Spite Of Rioting Fuckwits | Senators (So Far) Standdown On Objections | Twitter Locks 45 |

San Diego River Cleanup (Taken 1.11.2019)

I finally fell asleep at 5am this morning, feeling so hopeful after it was clear that Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were winning the Georgia senate seats, splitting the Senate with a VP Kamala Harris 'deciding vote' for ties. Now we're glued to the TV watching mobs of insurrectionists raiding the Capitol and all I can think is that maybe now is when we can take all these fuckwits' guns for real. We've been bouncing between CNN, PBS Newshour, YouTube livestreams, watching Biden speak, the Mayor of DC's remarks, and watching my twitter feeds on Tweetdeck, and it is all so gross. We knew he wouldn't go out quietly, but the 70million fucking idiots who voted for him are still among us, and while it's true that these seditionist don't represent all of those voters, they sent the message that they're cool with whatever this fucking treasonist psychopath does. 
 
Today is what is known as Epiphany. I was raised in the Catholic church and quit when I was in elementary school after I was kicked out of CCD for asking too many questions, but some traditions are hard to quit, so I always keep the tree up until the 6th, so it will be coming down today, when the Pope encourages the world ‘to lift up our eyes,’ ‘to set out on a journey,’ and ‘to see.’ The irony is not lost on me. 

Like so many today, I'm heartbroken watching things unfold in D.C., though definitely not surprised. There is so much breaking news: the Capitol was stormed by Stop The Steal rioters; there was an armed standoff; police were nowhere to be found because of mixed jurisdiction (presumably Trump's justice department instructed them to stand down}; a woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol after it was raided by insurrectionists; Melania Trump's Chief of Staff just resigned; Twitter has locked the president's account for tweets inciting violence; Zuck issued an email that they're removing Trump's posts; Congress is still planning on proceeding with the electoral college count and certification process. There's a lot of media noise, but I'd recommend watching Heather Cox Richardson's Facebook watch post from today.  I'm sure I'll knock out another post before the night is through as I've barely been able to open a third of my email today with it coming in so fast, but right now all I can say is that I hope that in the next 24 hours, the president resigns or has been forcibly removed from office. This cannot go on. 
  • COVID-19:
  • Politics/News:
  • Other Reading:
  • Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 1.6.2021 5:22pm):
    • 87,121,991 Known Cases
    • 1,880,438 Known Deaths
  • US COVID-19 Stats 
    • (JHU)
      • 21,279,163 Cases
      • 360,741 Deaths
    • (COVID Tracking Project):
      • 243,346 New Cases/21,070,136 Known Cases (+7.8% Change over 7 Days)
      • 3,793 New Deaths/352,123 Known Deaths
      • 132,476 Current COVID-19 Hospitalizations
      • 23,707 Currently COVID-19 patients in ICU
      • 7,953 COVID-19 patients currently on ventilator
  • California COVID-19 Stats:
    • Aggregate California ICU Bed Availability: 0.0%
    • 29,892 New Cases/2,482,226 Total Cases (+1.2% increase)
    • 459 New Deaths/27,462 Total Deaths (+1.7% increase)
    • 12.7% 14-day test positivity rate
    • 22,820 COVID-19 Hospitalizations (+335 patients, +1.5% from prior day)
    • 4,731 COVID-19 ICU hospitalized in CA (-3 patients, -0.1% from prior day)
    • 1,311 ICU beds available (-8 from prior day)
  • San Diego County 
    • Free Testing Sites and Schedule in San Diego
    • State Data:
      • Southern California ICU Bed Availability: 0%
      • San Diego R-effective: 1.03
      • 1,814 New Cases/172,845 Total Cases (+1.1% from prior day)
      • 56 Deaths/1,654 Total Deaths (+3.5% from prior day)
      • 65.9 cases/100k population (Assessed on 1/5. Unadjusted Case Rate)
      • 13.3% Test Positivity (Assessed on 1/5)
      • 19.0% Health Equity Positivity (Assessed on 1/5)
      • COVID-19 hospitalized patients ( patients, % from prior day)
      • COVID-19 ICU hospitalized patients ( patients, % from prior day)
      • ICU beds available (from prior day)
    • San Diego County Media Briefing:
      • Holidays hit San Diego especially hard. Christmas and New Years surges are still to come. Widespread transmission and UK variant are making control of virus very challenging. We must be more diligent than ever. 
      • County appreciates Gloria and ABC for stepping up enforcement, as well as other regional cities. 
      • Enforcement has been difficult. Compliance has been challenging. 
      • Cease and Desist process: (1) complaint made (2) evaluate/investigation done (3) visited by public health enforcement to assess education to come into compliance (4) cease and desist served by law enforcement (5) law enforcement can then issue citations then to City Attorney or District Attorney for prosecution. 
      • All slides and briefings will now be in English and Spanish. (Go, Nora!!)
      • Variant is new, so we believe vaccines will work, but we don't know for sure yet. More studies being done. 
      • Vaccines are still in Phase 1A. Pharmacists have 14 days to enter vaccination records, so there is a delay. There's also the problem that vaccines are sent directly to multiple entities, multi-county systems, the VA, military, health care systems. County is working with state to find out how many vaccines were sent to San Diego, but the information is just not there. 
      • Hoping that new administration means new CARES money for harder hit regions/districts
      • County is doing everything they can to promote the vaccine safety and efficacy. Right now there are more people who want vaccination than there are vaccines available. 
      • No hospital or system who have declared crisis care mode.
      • Ambulances and Paramedics are handled first by City, then County, then Region, so LA ambulances won't come here.
      • Whole genome sequencing can only be done Scripps Research Institute, Illumina, Helix different than diagnostic tests. Only able to sequence less than 1% of tests performed. 28 confirmed. 12 epidemiologically linked. Total 40 confirmed and probable cases.  
    • County Data:
      • San Diego County Influenza Watch
        • 438 Cases this flu season
        • 386 of those cases identified in last two weeks
      • 3,815 New Cases/176,662 Total Cases 
      • 37 New Daily Deaths/1,691 Total Deaths
      • 14% Daily Test Positivity/15.5% (7-day avg after 7-day lag)/13.4% Test Positivity (14-day average)
      • 53.4 cases/100k population (Assessed on 1/5. Adjusted case rate per 100,000 excluding prisons.) 
      • 39% Case Investigation (under 70% goal)
      • 3.6% Increasing Day Over Day COVID-19 Hospitalizations (1611 patients. 86% increase over 30 days)
      • 17% ICU Capacity (376 patients. 67% increase over 30 days)
      • 9 New/42 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise.  For two months now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth — that this was not a particularly close election and that President-Elect Biden will be inaugurated on January 20. Their fantasy narrative has spiraled further and further from reality, and it builds upon years of sown resentments. Now we’re seeing the consequences, whipped up into a violent crescendo. Right now, Republican leaders have a choice made clear in the desecrated chambers of democracy. They can continue down this road and keep stoking the raging fires. Or they can choose reality and take the first steps toward extinguishing the flames. They can choose America.  I’ve been heartened to see many members of the President’s party speak up forcefully today. Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who’ve refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably. We need more leaders like these — right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It’s up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal.



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