Category: Health

By Pissed Off

I used to get a warm feeling seeing the drum circle and people juggling on the village green after the OB Farmers Market on Wednesday nights. It was quite a unique and friendly sight.

But now with the outrageous, irresponsible behavior of the crowds that gather during the Pandemic those nights – no masks, no social distancing – I find them stupid. And they’ll probably gather tonight, Wednesday, after the market and do it all again. Some guy has a DJ playing loud music and it’s a party-party-party.

So, here are three remedies for OBceans to take in dealing with the stupid crowds.

By Gary Warth, Morgan Cook / San Diego Union-Tribune / Aug. 4, 2020

The county is beefing up its enforcement of its health orders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and is putting more money toward child care and food services to help people struggling during the pandemic.

Under a plan approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, the county will spend $1.8 million over the next six months for 22 staff members to respond to businesses violating the public health orders. The move is part of an effort for the county, rather than law enforcement, to take the lead in enforcing its health order.

The violators targeted in the new effort are separate from those considered egregious violators, defined as a willful and sustained disregard of the county health order, posing a significant risk of spreading the virus.

by Ernie McCray

Looking through a picture album to distract me from Trump lying and whining as people are dying and as federal troops violate the rights of protestors, one picture, in particular, caught my eye.

It’s a one of me standing on the top step leading to the front door of the first house I ever owned, a house that my daughter, Debbie, owned at the time. It was the summer of 1976 and I was taking a break from helping Debbie with her Lamaze training shortly before Cedric, her first child and my first grandchild, came into the world. Her future husband was out to sea with the U.S. Navy.

I don’t know what was on my mind at that moment in time but it very well could have been what had been on my mind for some time, thoughts of my daughter parenting a child as a teen like I had.

By Jim Miller

“It’s alright. We’re all dying.”

This is the feeling I get while consuming American media and walking the streets of downtown San Diego in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. I said these words to myself the other day as I made my way around a pack of maskless tourists by the harbor, heedlessly ignoring any need to be concerned about their health or that of anyone else’s.

On this particular date, we were experiencing what was a record number of new COVID-19 cases but that was no reason to interfere with vacation nation. We’re all dying, but it’s alright.

That was the refrain in Michael Ventura’s classic 1980s essay, “Report from El Dorado,” where he brilliantly outlined American media’s schizophrenic character. As Ventura puts it:

Media keeps saying, “It’s all right” while being fixated upon the violent, the chaotic, and the terrifying. So the production of media becomes more and more schizoid, with two messages simultaneously being broadcast: “It’s all right. We’re dying. It’s all right. We’re all dying.” The other crucial message — “We’re dying” — runs right alongside “It’s all right.”

By Richard Riehl

Twenty years ago, Karen awakened me in the middle of the night to tell me she had a sharp pain in her stomach. When the pain became unbearable I drove her to the hospital. We discovered she was suffering from a twisted and blocked intestine that would need immediate, life saving, surgery.

I had never felt so helpless in the hours I spent in the waiting room, paging aimlessly through magazines, awaiting the results. Thanks to a very skilled surgeon, Karen was out of the hospital in five days. Today, after 130 days confined to our condo, I’m beginning to feel a little like I did that night, except for the mindless paging through magazines. But the feeling of helplessness is there, the spread of the virus giving no evidence of slowing down. The refusal, by the young and healthy, to wear face coverings and practice social distancing on beaches and in bars, is largely responsible.

The latest example of this occurred on Sunday, July 26, with an estimated 1,250 of the young and healthy gathered on Cardiff Beach

Apparently, a big party broke out last night, Wednesday, after the OB Farmers Market, and flowed over into the lifeguard parking lot.

People were partying, dancing, having a good ol time – perhaps after the traditional drum circle stopped – but hey, guess what? No masks, no distancing. No cares.

by Ernie McCray

I’ve always
thought of myself as hip,
up on things,
tuned in, with it, aware.
And then along comes a serious health scare
seemingly out of nowhere
and I’m feeling a bit square,
not so tuned in
and with it
and aware
because when I got word
that we could maybe
bring this deadly disease
to its knees
by wearing masks
and not getting too
close to each other
and washing our hands frequently,

The United States on Thursday, July 23, 2020 passed the grim milestone of 4 million confirmed coronavirus infections.

The rapid spread of the virus this summer is striking, taking just 15 days to go from 3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases to 4 million. By comparison, the increase from 1 million cases to 2 million spanned 45 days from April 28 to June 11, and the leap to 3 million then took 27 days.

Nearly every public health metric suggests America is losing the fight against the virus.

• Positivity rates have reached alarming levels in numerous states,
• hospitalizations are soaring, and
• more than 1,100 new coronavirus deaths were reported across the United States on Wednesday, July 22, marking the first time since May 29 that the daily count exceeded that number.
• The rolling seven day average of Infections has doubled in less than a month, reaching more than 66,000 new cases per day Wednesday. The U.S. death toll now exceeds 141,000.

By Richard Riehl

San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency issues daily reports on the number of Coronavirus cases in each city. Here are the counts for North County, as of July 21, indicating the rate of cases per 100,000 residents.

• Carlsbad: 349
• Encinitas: 374
• Oceanside: 448
• San Marcos: 513
• Vista: 595
• Escondido: 645

I searched North County city websites, looking for clues to explain the differences in cities in the rate of infection. Would it be caused by the quality of city leadership, the demographics of the city residents, or both?

By Thomas Ultican / Tultican / July 21, 2020

The President of the United States and his Secretary of Education have demanded schools open with in-person classes five days a week. Many parents are not confident their children will be safe and significant numbers of teachers are profoundly frightened. How does the rhetoric square with credible scientific evidence concerning the Covid-19 pandemic?

President Trump has tweeted,

“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”

By Sara Sidner and Jason Kravarik / CNN / July 21, 2020

Nearly 12,000 New Cases in One Day

California looks set to surpass New York as the state with the most cases within days, according to numbers from Johns Hopkins University. It has recently been reporting about 9,000 new cases each day for a total of 397,870 on Monday.

New York, meanwhile, has been adding a little more than 700 cases a day in the last week. Its total number of cases Monday was about 404,000.

It was the first state to impose a stay-at-home order on March 19. Less than two months later, on May 8, the numbers had fallen enough that the state started the first phase of reopening.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom told his citizens,” You have bent the curve.” But then Memorial Day came around.

Young adults between the ages of 18 through 34 now make up 44% of positive COVID-19 cases in California. The figure is up from 29% compared to one month ago. The age group represents the largest share of COVID-19 cases in the state.

In San Diego County, the age group 20 through 39 makes up nearly 45% of positive cases.

The new data is based on numbers provided by the California Department of Public Health. The marked increase in positive cases in these age groups coincide with the reopening of many businesses, including bars and restaurants in the state and San Diego.