Tag Archives: #COVID19

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Governor Andy Beshear hurts the poor in Kentucky

Steve Beshear, the former Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, has a guesstimated net worth of $1.5 million. Mr Beshear spent almost his entire adult life in politics, and:

is an American attorney and politician who served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1980, was the state’s 44th attorney general from 1980 to 1983, and was the 49th lieutenant governor from 1983 to 1987.

He ‘suffered’ through an interregnum when he finished third in the Democratic primary for Governor, and he spent twenty years practicing law with Lexington’s prestigious firm of Stites and Harbison. Briefly put, Mr Beshear led a reasonably privileged lifestyle in the Bluegrass State’s second largest city.

The former Governor’s son, Andy Beshear, wound up leading a similarly privileged lifestyle, able to attend Vanderbilt University, the only private school in the Southeastern Conference, current estimated cost of attendance $80,546 per academic year, and then the University of Virginia School of Law, current estimated cost of attendance for out-of-state students $91,704 per academic year.

In 2005, he was also hired by Stites and Harbison. No ambulance-chasing for the younger Me Beshear.

The younger Mr Beshear was elected state Attorney General in 2015, and subsequently Governor in 2019.

When the COVID-19 pandemic, or panicdemic as I sometimes call it, arose in early 2020, Governor Beshear issued draconian executive orders which shut down much of the ‘non-essential’ businesses in the Bluegrass State. Fifteen days to flatten the infection curve, we were told!

View from Natural Bridge, October 23, 2021. Photo by Dana R Pico. Click to enlarge.

Fast forward to this autumn. The Pico family visited Natural Bridge State Park on Saturday, October 23rd. It wasn’t a long visit, in that we didn’t have much time, so we took the skylift to the top of the bridge, from which I took the photograph.[1]Photos copyright by Dana R Pico. May be freely used with proper attribution.

When one of my Twitter friends replied, “I am surprised more leaves haven’t turned yet!” I resolved to return in two weeks to repeat the photo. So, we returned on Sunday, November 7th, and I got the photo, which will appear further down.

We had more time on Sunday, so while we took the skylift up, we decided to hike down Balanced Rock Trail, which ends not at the bottom of the skylift, but at Hemlock Lodge, the park’s hotel, gift shop and dining room facility.

Signs on the doors to Hemlock Lodge. Photo by Dana R Pico. Click to enlarge.

And Hemlock Lodge is where we found these signs on the doors, requiring masks for entry. Well, we didn’t have masks with us, and entered anyway, quickly discovering that the signs were mostly honored in the breach by park visitors, though employees did wear the infernal things.

What we also found was that the once-thriving restaurant was closed to dining! There were two ladies working therein, who would get carry-out orders. I asked them why the place was closed, and was told that the facility had been shut down due to COVID-19, and that was in March of 2020. Most of the staff had been laid off, and now, twenty months later, they still were not back.

Natural Bridge State Park is located in the Red River Gorge geological area, and straddles Powell and Wolfe counties in Kentucky. These are two very poor counties:

  • Powell County: The median income for a household in the county was $25,515, and the median income for a family was $30,483. Males had a median income of $26,962 versus $18,810 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,060. About 18.90% of families and 23.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.00% of those under age 18 and 20.00% of those age 65 or over.
  • Wolfe County: The median income for a household in the county was $19,310, and the median income for a family was $23,333. Males had a median income of $23,859 versus $18,952 for females. The per capita income for the county was $10,321. About 29.90% of families and 35.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 50.20% of those under age 18 and 26.70% of those age 65 or over.

As much as people hear about jobs going begging for people, much of that is in suburban and urban areas; rural eastern Kentucky is not like that. When Governor Beshear — a Democrat, of course — shut down so much of the state parks, he put people out of work that had fewer prospects for finding something else.

View from Natural Bridge, November 7, 2021. Photo by Dana R Pico. Click to enlarge.

For restaurant workers? There’s Miguel’s Pizza, right across State Route 11 from the entrance to the state park, but it offers lower wages and doesn’t have state employee benefits. Governor Beshear, reared in wealthier Lexington, the scion of a prominent family, doesn’t really understand what he has done to rural Kentuckians, or, if he does understand, he doesn’t really care.

This has been the problem with the Patricians all along: they are so wrapped up in their own little worlds that they have lost any concept of what it is like for the plebeians. For the well-to-do, well, heck, two weeks to flatten the curve was nothing, they could handle it!

But for the working class, two weeks without their jobs isn’t nothing; it’s two weeks without bills getting paid. Governor Beshear doesn’t understand that, and doesn’t want to understand that.

References

References
↑1 Photos copyright by Dana R Pico. May be freely used with proper attribution.
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Mask mandate fights in Pennsylvania

If you sent your kids to a private school, the private school decided that face masks would be optional, and you disagreed with that decision, wouldn’t you stop paying tuition and send your kids to public schools, where they had a mask mandate?

A Northeast Philly private school defied the city’s mask order. Philadelphia took it to court.

Calvary Christian Academy did not require masking, enable social distancing, or require those exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine, the city said in court filings.

by Kristen A Graham | Tuesday, November 2, 2021

For nearly two months, a Northeast Philadelphia religious school flouted the city’s mandatory masking order.

And though staff and children are now wearing masks after the city asked a judge for an emergency injunction, leaders of the church that runs Calvary Christian Academy have vowed to fight for the right to keep masks optional.

It’s another salvo in an increasingly bitter political battle over mask-wearing in Pennsylvania and schools across the country.

Since the beginning of the school year, CCA, a prekindergarten-through-12th-grade school on Philmont Avenue in the city’s Somerton section, “did not require masking, did not enable social distancing among the students, and did not require members of the school exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine,” according to court documents.

Though both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania issued mandatory masking orders this summer amid the continuing pandemic and rising case counts, CCA told parents in a Sept. 6 letter that despite government orders, “we will keep the current COVID protocol in place, which states that masks are optional.”

Some parents complained about CCA’s mask-optional policy at the beginning of the school year. Separately, the school came to the attention of health department workers monitoring COVID-19 containment through a number of cases reported at the school — 23 between Sept. 7 and Oct. 5.

Calvary Christian Academy is not the most expensive private school out there, but it isn’t exactly cheap, either. Tuition is $4,450 for Calvary Church members, and $5,850 for non-members,[1]It’s quite common for parochial schools to have lower tuition rates for parishioners, and parishioners are expected to make contributions to the church. in the elementary school, $4,950/$6,350 for the junior high, $5,450/$6,900 for grades 9-11, and $5,850/$7,300 for seniors. If you were a Calvary parent, and disapproved of the optional mask policy, you could save a bunch of money by using the public schools.

Of course, for Calvary parents, that would mean sending their kids to the city’s disastrous public school system.

CCA staff told a city worker in late September they believed the school did not need to observe health department regulations because “CCA was a private religious school,” court filings show. The school also failed to submit to the city information about close contacts of CCA staff and students who tested positive for COVID-19.

Naturally, the city fought, and on Friday, October 29th, Common Pleas Court Judge Joshua Roberts signed an order requiring all personnel, students as well as staff, to wear masks. The school will reluctantly comply, while continuing the legal battle to overturn the judge’s order.

But, as the Inquirer reported on Thursday, October 28th, the mask mandate isn’t being strictly enforced in some public schools.

Sometimes when Lily Beard is running late for her second-period class, the only open seat is in front of a group of boys who don’t wear masks.

“They’re always coughing and being disgusting behind me,” said Lily, a ninth grader at Council Rock South High School, where, she said, it seems as if half the kids aren’t wearing masks.

“It’s completely unfair that we can’t go to school and learn and be safe.”

Then, don’t run late!

Of course, young Miss Beard is, one supposes, fully vaccinated, and the photo accompanying the article showed her mother and her wearing black, commercially-made masks. If the vaccines are supposed to protect the vaccinated, and masks protect the mask wearers, shouldn’t that be enough for the fearful?

Miss Beard complained that only about half of the students were wearing masks regularly, which tell you one thing: they don’t want to wear masks, and there’s no reason why their rights not to wear a mask should somehow be trumped by Miss Beard’s claim that they should.

Then, on Tuesday morning, the Inquirer raised the obvious question: at what point would Our Betters decide that the ‘pandemic’ was over?

Everyone’s asking when the pandemic will be over. Here’s how we’ll know.

If COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations did eventually reach levels usually associated with the flu, would that be a reasonable benchmark for saying the pandemic was over?

by Tom Avril, Jason Laughlin, and Laura McCrystal | Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Throughout each day, Cheryl Bettigole receives granular, neighborhood-level updates on the numbers we’ve all been hearing for months. The percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19. Transmission rates. Hospitalizations, deaths, and progress with vaccines — in Philadelphia and beyond.

The lines on the graphs often bounce around like the stock market. Yet at some point the city’s acting health commissioner and policymakers throughout the country have to reduce it all to a pivotal yes-or-no question:

Is it OK to resume life as normal?

“Things are trending in the right direction,” Bettigole said last week. “But we’re not past COVID.”

It is now generally accepted that COVID will always be with us in some form, much like seasonal coronaviruses that cause the common cold. But thanks to vaccines and the lingering immunity that many have acquired through infection, the share of the population protected from severe disease continues to grow.

That trend has infectious disease experts predicting that sometime in the not-so-distant future, perhaps a matter of months, the disease will become “endemic” — still circulating, yet not out of control.

What level is low enough to know we’ve crossed that line? And who decides what is normal?

That last is the real question: just who gets to decide what’s “normal,” when the government will stop trying to run people’s lives?

The public are already deciding some of that for themselves. Roughly 2,300 New York City firemen and EMTs called out sick on Monday, in apparent protest over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate. With 10,591 uniformed firemen, 4,274 uniformed EMS workers and 2,096 civilians, if 2,300 called out, that’s 13.56% of the workforce. As we have reported here, at least a couple of Kentucky school districts are lifting their mask mandates. My own observations at Lowe’s and Kroger indicate that mask wearing, even when the stores request it, is not being honored by roughly half of the customers.

But, what we will see is that while masking policies will fall away, because people are going to simply refuse, political leaders are going to continue to press for mandatory vaccinations, claiming that, if the virus is ‘endemic’ it still needs to be fought by requiring vaccinations. The Patricians will not want to give up control over the plebeians.

References

References
↑1 It’s quite common for parochial schools to have lower tuition rates for parishioners, and parishioners are expected to make contributions to the church.
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Tomás Ó’Cualáin is very angry that he contracted the virus!

Tomás Ó’Cualáin tells us that he is a physician and a neuroradiologist, and very much a supporter of vaccination against #COVID-19.

Yet, despite his precautions, Dr Ó’Cualáin has contracted the virus, and he’s angry, very angry, about it:

Dr Ó’Cualáin[1]His last name might actually be Folan. has told us that he has done everything, everything! by the book, gotten vaccinated, wearing not just the cloth or cheap masks most people get, but the supposedly more protective N95 masks, avoided unnecessary social contact, and his wife even got vaccinated while she was pregnant, despite the fact that while some health care professionals recommended it, we don’t know yet if the vaccines cause problems with the development of unborn children.[2]Note: the Tweet to the left is actually a screenshot of his original, but it is linked to his original; if you click on it, it will take you to the original.

He continued:

The rules just seem completely made up and arbitrary as to who is allowed to get boosters and when.

Meanwhile peoples lives & their chronic health hangs in the balance.

Don’t even get me started on the people who refuse to get vaccinated. My thoughts on them aren’t fit to post.

Dr Ó’Cualáin tells us that his thoughts on those who refuse the vaccines aren’t fit to post, but, actually, he did post them, in an earlier tweet:

Nurse fired for not being a proponent of science in a science-based field which necessitates that you science.

Makes video about how she is a victim.

Her patients would have been the victims.

Get out of Medicine & Nursing if you don’t science.

You don’t belong here.

Quote Tweet
Gillian McKeith @GillianMcKeith · Oct 30
Nurse fired for not accepting the you know what. Religious exemption denied.. Freedom is everything and you must never give it up #coercion https://twitter.com/HiDearZaki2/status/1454386707378417666/video/1

It would seem that the good physician is gleeful that a nurse got canned for sticking to her principles and beliefs.

It seems that the good doctor really, really doesn’t like unvaccinated people, which turns out to be a bit on the ironic side, given that he retweeted this image. Hypocrisy, anyone?

Now I don’t know what regulations kept the doctor from getting a COVID booster, but that can be what happens when governments are allowed to write the regulations. But we also don’t know from whom he contracted the virus. We already know that vaccinated people can contract the virus — Dr Ó’Cualáin did! — and that vaccinated people can transmit the virus.

But, while I am wryly amused by the doctor’s hypocrisy, his self-attested story tells us something else: despite being vaccinated, despite isolating himself from others as much as possible, despite wearing all of the personal protective equipment that he can, despite doing everything that the ‘experts’ have told us we just have to do, he still contracted the virus.

Yet, throughout the United States, actual cases of COVID-19 have declined dramatically, even though vaccinations have plateaued, even though most people have long since given up wearing masks, and even though many people are simply ignoring mask requests in places in which they are made. Why, it’s almost as though all of the restrictions that have been placed on people haven’t actually worked, haven’t actually done anything to prevent or lessen the spread of the virus.

References

References
↑1 His last name might actually be Folan.
↑2 Note: the Tweet to the left is actually a screenshot of his original, but it is linked to his original; if you click on it, it will take you to the original.
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Black lives don’t matter in St Louis! "The truth is not always a pleasant thing." -- General 'Buck' Turgidson

Tishaura Jones, the Mayor of St Louis, Missouri, is very, very worried about “gun violence.” “Gun violence” is the euphemism that the left use to describe people shooting and killing each other, without blaming bad people, but blaming inanimate objects, as though firearms simply levitate and fire at people all by themselves. From CNN:

Gunshots rang out as St. Louis mayor was discussing gun violence prevention. She didn’t flinch

By Raja Razek and Jennifer Feldman, CNN | Saturday, October 30, 2021 | Updated: 5:43 EDT

Tishaura Jones, from her campaign website.

Gunshots rang out Friday as St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones was discussing gun violence prevention during a news conference — and she did not flinch.“My son and I fall asleep to the lullaby of gunshots in the distance every night,” Jones said, responding to a question on whether she felt safe. “It’s a part of my life now and that shouldn’t be.”

Before the news conference, Jones and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas were participating in a roundtable on how gun violence is affecting their cities.

Lucas later shared Jones’ sentiments regarding the prevalence of gun violence.

“The sound of gunshots is a regular occurrence in too many areas of my city as well; something I grew to know from youth. Today’s shots reminded us of the reality so many of our sisters, brothers, and babies face each day and the need for change,” Lucas wrote in a tweet.

National gun violence rates were 30% higher during a 13-month pandemic period when compared with the same period the year before, a study published last week in the journal Scientific Reports showed.

“We found a strong association between the Covid-19 pandemic time frame and an increase in gun violence in the U.S. compared to the pre-pandemic period,” wrote the authors from Penn State College of Medicine.

There’s more at the original, but I would also note that the lawlessness following the death of George Floyd, on May 25, 2020, also occurred during the same time frame. How the study ‘corrected’ for that factor is not explained.

However, if there is a “strong association” between the COVID-19 pandemic time frame and an increase in “gun violence”, might we not conclude that the lockdowns and other measures ordered by people like Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) led to that increase in “gun violence”? When you have some people thrown out of work, and others forced to work while wearing masks and under a continual drumbeat of fear, when you have people barred from visiting extended family, churches closed, weddings cancelled, are you not ripping at the entire fabric of society?

But there’s more, and it takes an [insert slang term for the rectum here] like me to mention it. While we have noted the skyrocketing homicide rates in our major cities, Mayor Jones’ St Louis provides data most cities do not; the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department breaks down homicides by race. The chart at the left, reproduced by this author from the SLMPD figures, shows that, as of October 29th, 149 out of 161 total murder victims in the Gateway City were black; that’s 92.55%! As far as #BlackLivesMatter is concerned, it seems that black lives don’t matter as far as other black people are concerned, not in St Louis. If Mayor Jones’ “son and (her) fall asleep to the lullaby of gunshots in the distance every night,” maybe it ought to be a problem she recognizes and understands.

The first seven columns of this chart are from the Police Department’s report. The Population column is from the 2020 census figures and the murder rate column is calculated by the current number of homicides, multiplied by 1.20065789, to get homicides in 304 days up to 365, divided by the population, and calculated in the standard fashion, homicides per 100,000 population. The calculations were done via Microsoft Excel functions.

The population figures in the census data I found were not broken down by race and sex, but if we assume that black males make up 49% of the total black population, 63,609, and the annualized number of homicides of black males will wind up at 146 (it works out to 146.480263), black males in St Louis are subject to a homicide rate of 229.53 per 100,000 population! White males, on the other hand, are subject to a homicide rate of ‘just’ 7.78 per 100,000 population.

Mayor Jones got it wrong: the problem in the Gateway City isn’t “gun violence,” but black people, primarily black males, killing each other.

Me? I’m retired, so I can’t be ‘canceled,’ can’t lose my job because someone doesn’t like my political positions. I suppose that some will call this racist, but it’s just simple math; the numbers are the numbers. I could, perhaps, see my website listed as a ‘hate site,’ and lose links that way, but it’s a potential loss I am willing to bear, because I am doing something radical like telling the truth. But, as General ‘Buck’ Turgidson said in Dr Strangelove, “the truth is not always a pleasant thing.” and the left just can’t handle the truth.

The homicide rate is a huge problem, but the left pretending that it’s just “gun violence,” that the availability of guns is the problem, ignore the disparity in “gun violence” between the races. If it was simply the availability of firearms, then the homicide rates between the races should be almost identical; St Louis shows that those rates are widely, widely different.

You cannot address a problem if you are unwilling to properly identify the problem, and the problem is that there is something in the urban black culture in the Gateway City which leads to violent behavior. We’re not allowed to say that, of course, because it is massively politically incorrect, but it is true nevertheless.

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Wir müssen Ihre Dokumente sehen!

You don’t have to be as old as I am to remember when the horrible, evil, authoritarian dictator named Donald Trump was called a fascist by the left. Now that he’s no longer President, it seems that the left have no real problems with fascist and authoritarian control. Nicole Wyglendowski, a special education teacher with the Philadelphia School District is “passionate about the long-lasting effects education has on social justice,” so passionate that she thinks the order, “Ve need to see your papers!” is a great idea!

There’s more at the original.

How concerned is Miss Wyglendowski about COVID-19? In an OpEd published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on March 8, 2021, she provided a photo of herself teaching online, to an empty classroom, and she is, all by herself except for someone to take the picture, in an empty classroom, wearing a face mask!

The first several paragraphs of her newest OpEd piece express concern that the School District of Philadelphia is not doing enough to get booster shots to teachers, which is, I suppose, something a union member would demand, as opposed to going to a clinic or doctor’s office or Walgreen’s Pharmacy and getting on her own initiative.

But then there’s more. Miss Wyglendowski not only strongly supports the School District’s vaccine mandate, but wants to add to it, requiring that teachers get the booster shots now that they have been approved. Considering that, with her first paragraph, in which she stated “we will most likely need additional COVID-19 shots throughout our lifetimes,” it can only mean that the author wants a requirement that all teachers and other school personnel present their papers to keep their jobs.

Her statement was deemed important enough by the editors of the Inquirer that they enlarged it and put it in a text box, which I have screen captured to the left.

    The district acknowledges that the vaccine is a vital layer of protection for educators. It approved a vaccine mandate for its staff on Aug. 25, and staff who do not comply have to complete two COVID-19 tests per week. If the vaccine is so important that it is mandated (which has my full support), then why are boosters not also being mandated as they come out? Anything else is a show of thoughtlessness, a lack of follow-through, and a grim decision for the community.

What does she want, for school personnel to be forced to either get the shot every six months or have a nasal swab jammed up into their sinuses twice a week for the rest of their lives?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, when asked by a reporter if she was creating two classes of people, with the vaccinated receiving special privileges, confirmed, “That is what it is, yep”. It appears that that is what Miss Wyglendowski believes the same thing.

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You know that the #COVID19 #VaccineMandates are nothing but politics when they won’t allow medical exemptions

DeAnn Stephens Cox has been a television reporter for WKYT-TV for 27 years, a long time to be at one station in local news, but, as of now, she’s toast.

THE highlight of my professional career has been my genuine love for the people of Kentucky! YOU make my work every day feel like an expression of friendship. Every day I have been “Out & About” has brought me the honor of meeting some of the kindest Kentuckians!

DeAnn Stephens Cox, from her Facebook page.

But I am writing this post in response to inquiries I have received over the last several hours and an announcement by WKYT-TV, Gray Television that some of you have heard.

Gray required all employees to be vaccinated against COVID. Unfortunately, due to my medical history, my physician has told me I am NOT a candidate for the Covid Vaccination. I have explained my medical history and provided my doctor’s records and her opinion to Gray.

But sadly Gray has terminated my employment instead.

This is NOT about being FOR or AGAINST vaccinations! This is about following my Doctor’s recommendation to NOT get it because my past medical history and current medical issues.

Here’s where I stand: If you want to get the vaccine and you feel that’s best for you and your family, then I say get it!

I also feel that those, like me, should also be accommodated.

Out of respect for everyone’s differing views, I will not be responding to comments on any social media platform.

So after 27 years with WKYT, that’s a WRAP!

But don’t forget, the radio comes in loud and clear on 98.1 The Bull AND you will definitely be seeing me ‘Out & About!’

I’ve been so incredibly blessed by all of your love and support over the years!! Thank you for that!

‘Trust in Jesus with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.’ Proverbs 3:5

I’m listening Lord!! I’m listening!!

I love you guys so very much.

Now, why would Gray Television discharge Mrs Cox for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine when her doctor told he that she was not a safe candidate for it, and she provided her physician’s records to her employer? She wasn’t a public, or even private, anti-vaxxer, but someone with a valid medical reason, and the documentation to prove it. That can’t be anything but political mindlessness, because Gray’s lawyers must surely have warned them that they were making themselves vulnerable to a lawsuit.

Given that all other employees were vaccinated, it would have been simple to provide Mrs Cox with what the law would refer to as a reasonable accommodation. Mrs Cox needs to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against her former employers.

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The increase in ‘breakthrough’ infections

The Philadelphia Inquirer is all about pushing COVID-19 vaccinations and editorially supports vaccine mandates, mask mandates, all sorts of mandates, so it was with some surprise that I read the following:

The latest on breakthrough cases

Plus, vaccine mandates at Penn State and for the Philly Marathon

by Anthony R Wood | Wednesday, October 13, 2021

The gist: The delta variant has been driving case numbers for months, but evidently another obstacle to ending the pandemic is emerging — waning immunity. Available figures indicated that vaccinated people accounted for more than 25% of the COVID-19 positive tests and hospitalizations in Pennsylvania during the last month. And state Department of Health officials said that was in line with national rates. That said, despite the breakthrough cases, data show that the fully vaccinated people are still less likely to get sick with the virus, and less likely to be hospitalized or die if they do get infected.

Vaccines continue to protect against COVID-19, but latest Pa. data show signs of waning effectiveness

The latest Pennsylvania figures are a change from numbers released last month covering the entirety of the vaccination effort. From Jan. 1 to Oct. 4, the state reported just 9% of COVID-19 infections were breakthrough cases, and just 7% of those hospitalized had been vaccinated. By contrast, in the past month, out of 4,989 hospitalizations, almost 1,300 were fully vaccinated people. One factor in driving up those numbers likely would be the fact that more people have been vaccinated.

The author, Mr Wood, then references an article from five days previously:

Vaccines continue to protect against COVID-19, but latest Pa. data show signs of waning effectiveness

The majority of people infected or hospitalized by COVID-19 are unvaccinated, but waning immunity appears to be playing a role in a growing number of vaccinated people ending up sick.

by Jason Laughlin | Friday, October 8, 2021

Pennsylvania’s latest data on COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations show vaccines continue to provide a significant defense against the virus, but also includes signs that waning immunity may be one factor in the virus’ spread.

More than a quarter of all COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reported in the state over the past month were among fully vaccinated people, a number Pennsylvania Department of Health authorities said was in line with national rates. Out of 4,989 hospitalizations, almost 1,300 fully vaccinated people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past month.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in September that the Pfizer vaccine’s protection against hospitalization waned significantly after four months.

The state’s figures are a big change from the numbers first released last month covering the entirety of the vaccination effort. From Jan. 1 to Oct. 4, the state reported just 9% of COVID-19 infections were breakthrough cases, and just 7% of those hospitalized had been vaccinated. Looking at all data from January to present conceals the recent effect of the highly transmissible delta variant and the vaccines’ reduced effectiveness, both relatively new developments.

The Inquirer report tells us that 26.06% of the hospitalization cases were among those fully vaccinated. You have to be careful reading, because when it states that “Out of 4,989 hospitalizations, almost 1,300 fully vaccinated people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past month,” a too quick reading might have readers believing that there were “almost 1,300” cases among the vaccinated and 4,989 cases among the unvaccinated. When dealing with numbers, professional journalists have to be careful in how they phrase things, to avoid misleading people.

LFCHD data, October 13, 2021. Click to enlarge.

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department likes to update its statistics, and has (sort of) good graphs. According to the city government, using CDC data, 74.2% of the county’s population 12 years of age and older are fully vaccinated, with 75.6% of those 18 or older. In a hard to read bar chart, the Health Department stated that about 85 fully vaccinated and 210 unvaccinated/partially vaccinated people were hospitalized with COVID-19 during September, if I’ve managed to read the chart accurately enough. That yields a 28.81% breakthrough rate in hospitalizations. Interestingly, the number of fully vaccinated hospitalizations slightly increased over August, but but significantly decreased among the unvaccinated, from roughly 255 to 210.

LFCHD Covid cases, October 13, 2021. Click to enlarge.

The number of breakthrough cases is increasing significantly, from 1,746 to 1,994, a 14.2% increase, while the non-breakthrough cases decreased from 4,051 to 3538, a 12.66% decrease. The total for Fayette County shows a 36.0% breakthrough rate for September, and the beginning data for October — which may be incomplete — is showing a 37.6% breakthrough case rate.

Overall, numbers are dropping, but now the experts are telling us that, at least with the Pfizer vaccine, virus resistance is showing a significant decline after about four months.

Back to the Inquirer:

The CDC reported people 65 and older are particularly susceptible to waning immunity. The agency authorized boosters of the Pfizer vaccine for vulnerable people and people in some high-risk professions last month.

Johnson acknowledged that people who are not eligible for boosters have been getting them anyway. There isn’t any health risk to doing that, she said, but she didn’t recommend it, saying she didn’t want people to get doses they didn’t need.

It’s too soon to tell, she said, how booster shots are affecting infection and hospitalization rates among the vaccinated.

The risks associated with taking the vaccines are small, smaller than the risks of contracting the virus, but they are not zero. Yet President Biden and the Democrats want to compel people to get vaccinated, even though the vaccinated can contract, and spread, the virus. We don’t know, yet, whether the government will try to force those fully vaccinated to get a booster shot. But we do know one thing: the politics of vaccination have run far ahead of the effectiveness of the vaccines.

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Philly vaccine mandate delayed, but not ended Get vaccinated or starve, city health commissioner says

We have previously reported on Acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole and Philadelphia’s vaccine mandate:

    Cheryl Bettigole, MD, from her Twitter biography.

    Many Philadelphia health workers remain unvaccinated two months before shots will be required

    by Laura McCrystal | Wednesday, August 18, 2021

    Acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said many institutions have applauded Philadelphia’s new vaccine mandate for health care workers, but noted that many employees remain unvaccinated.

    More than a dozen long-term care facilities in Philadelphia have less than 50% of their staff vaccinated, she said.

    ”If you’re more committed to not getting the vaccine than to the safety of your patients, it’s time to do something else,” she said at a Wednesday news briefing. “Health care is not for you.”

Let’s tell the truth here: health care employees at all levels have been exposed to constant, continuous education and pleas to get vaccinated. If they actually wanted to get vaccinated, they would have by now. One might ask why, in a city which gave 81.44% of its votes has so many unvaccinated people.

Like so many on the left,[1]Given this tweet of hers, I think there’s sufficient evidence to associate Dr Bettigole with the political left. Dr Bettigole not only knows what’s best for other people, but insists that it’s her way of the highway. The problem with that is that many, who have already resisted the months’ long pressure to take the vaccines, are going to continue to refuse. What will happen to health care facilities in our nation’s sixth largest city if, say, 25% or 35% of the workforce has to be discharged because they have refused to be vaccinated?

We noted the difficulty in hiring people, and that trained and licensed or certified people, such as nurses, nursing assistants and other hospital technicians, can’t just be replaced by people off the street.

And now, reality has bitten:

    Philadelphia extends vaccine mandate deadline for health-care and higher-education workers

    The change came after many employers requested more time to get their workers fully vaccinated.

    by Laura McCrystal and Erin McCarthy | Wednesday, October 6, 2021

    Philadelphia is extending its deadline for health-care workers and higher-education students and employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole announced Wednesday, citing concern from employers that they would be unable to meet next week’s deadline.

    “My goal is to get everyone vaccinated and not leave our health-care and higher-education systems shorthanded,” Bettigole said.

    Instead of being fully vaccinated by the end of next week, staff of hospitals and long-term care facilities, along with higher-education students, faculty, and staff now must receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 15 and a second dose a month later.

    Bettigole announced an even longer extension for all other health-care workers, including those who work as home health aides and in behavioral health settings — which she said have the lowest vaccination rates. Those workers now must receive at least one dose of the vaccine by Oct. 22 and a second dose by Nov. 22.

So much for her statement, “If you’re more committed to not getting the vaccine than to the safety of your patients, it’s time to do something else. Health care is not for you.” Now her concern is having enough people in health care!

But, notice the timeline here. Instead of “being fully vaccinated” by Friday, October 15th, which would mean that a person would have had to have received his last dose by Friday, October 1st, Dr Bettigole and the city are saying that nurses, nursing assistants, radiology technicians, etc, must take their first dose by next Friday.

This can mean only one thing: not only did a lot of such students and workers not begin to comply with the city’s demands back in August, but a lot didn’t try to comply later, either.

The extension requires that the employees receive the first dose by October 15th, and the second a month later. Does this mean that, after next Friday, an employee who does not present proof of having gotten the first shout will be suspended or discharged? Work schedules for hospitals and nursing homes, which are open 24/7, are, in most cases, already completed for well after mid-October; next Friday could be scramble time!

Getting vaccinated takes only a few minutes per dose, most of that dedicated to filling out the paperwork. Hospitals could have set up vaccination rooms in which staff could have walked down during a mid-morning or mid-afternoon break to get the jab, and return straight to work, without missing any time. With the vaccines now in plentiful supply, and a lot of medically trained personnel in the workplace who could administer the shots, anyone who was willing to take the shots could have gotten the shots.

Under the city’s mandate, exemptions were possible. Exempt personnel would be required to wear masks — something to which hospital personnel are already accustomed — and be tested twice a week. Given that even those fully vaccinated can contract, and spread, the virus, one would think that they would have to be tested as well, right?

As we have previously reported, the Philadelphia School District tests everybody once a week, and will now test the unvaccinated twice a week. The ‘incentive’ to get vaccinated is simply to halve the number of tests to which employees must submit. The original, August mandate, issued appropriately enough on Friday the 13th, required the unvaccinated to be tested at least once a week. The city is doubling up on that, using the punishment of physical discomfort, in an attempt to force compliance.

Have you ever had a COVID test? It involves a nurse sticking a cotton swab on a long stick far up your nose, to collect material from within your sinuses. It’s hardly fatal, and leaves no (known) lasting damage, but, then again, neither does waterboarding prisoners at Guantanamo. If that comparison seems strained, remember, the purpose is the same: to force compliance from someone who does not wish to go along with your demands.

Dr Bettigole stated that she does not intend to extend the deadline again:

    We’ve seen from other places that have implemented vaccine mandates that they work, that workers do step up and get their vaccines despite lots of anxiety before the deadlines.

Well, it didn’t work last time, to the extent that the deadlines had to be extended, or too many personnel would be lost. Considering that the first deadline didn’t work, if we assume that those who didn’t comply were the most strongly opposed to vaccination, might this extension have even less success?

Dr Bettigole’s phraseology is repugnant. She stated that, with the mandates, “workers do step up and get their vaccines despite lots of anxiety.” Translation: they had to choose between taking something in their bodies that they did not want, or losing their jobs. How is that different from a supervisor saying that you have to have sex with him or get fired? But Dr Bettigole sees knuckling under to coercion as “step(ping) up.” Utterly vile and repugnant, but authoritarians rarely see their dictates as being for anything other than the betterment of society.

References

References
↑1 Given this tweet of hers, I think there’s sufficient evidence to associate Dr Bettigole with the political left.
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Kroger and masks Local Kroger didn't require masks during worst of the Δ outbreak, so why now?

This sign was posted beside the outer doors at the Kroger on the Eastern Bypass in Richmond, Kentucky, on October 5, 2021.

We reported, on August 10th, that the Kroger Company KR: (%) had updated its mask policy:

    Our current mask guidance requires unvaccinated associates to wear masks and requests that unvaccinated customers wear masks when in our stores and facilities. In light of the Delta variant and updated CDC recommendations, we strongly encourage all individuals, including those who are vaccinated, to wear a mask when in our stores and facilities. We will continue to abide by all state and local mandates and encourage all Americans to get vaccinated, including our associates.

According to the sign, Kroger had gone from “request(ing)” that unvaccinated customers wear masks to “requiring” unvaccinated visitors to wear masks, while still saying, “Masks strongly encouraged for fully vaccinated individuals.

But there was another sign, on the inner doorway, maybe twenty feet from the outer doors:

    Achtung! Attention! Mask required! To stop the spread of the virus, Kroger requires all customers and associates to wear a mask while in our stores.

    Thank you for shopping with us today.

I chose to obey the outer sign, and, being fully vaccinated, I declined their ‘strong encouragement’ to wear a mask. As a guesstimate, about 20% of the shoppers I saw inside were not wearing masks.

So, why did this particular branch of Kroger put up these signs? New COVID-19 cases have been declining in the Bluegrass State, and, thanks to the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) cannot impose one. This particular branch hadn’t had any signs like this up for months, including during the worst of the ‘Delta’ variant cases. Perhaps the manager got her hand smacked by the corporate office?

At least the store was not attempting to enforce this stupid requirement. It is their private property, so they can impose any restrictions they wish. But I am a free individual, and if they start enforcing this policy, I am free to take my business elsewhere, and I will.