Pandemic Posts Ii

Jeanne Cohen

Description

This volume picks up where the first book ended, six weeks later when it was clear that the pandemic was far from over. And not only medically...
On July 4,2021, Americans celebrated with a renewal sense that we were crushing the Coronavirus and the president and encouraged us to enjoy the fireworks with friends and family as a way to mark our "independence" from Covid-19. "This year the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging the darkness of a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss," he said. But his optimism, and my own, were misplaced.
Pandemic Post II picks up six weeks after the First Volume wrapped up when it became clear we were not 'crushing' anything except, perhaps, our collective psycho.

Sujets

• Political Science
• Medical
• Rebellion
• Medicine
• Commentary
• Pandemic
• Opinion
• Insurrection

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 27 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663248213
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Pandemic Posts II
from Pandemic to Endemic





Jeanne Cohen








PANDEMICPOSTS II
FROM PANDEMIC TO ENDEMIC

Copyright © 2022 Jeanne Cohen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.






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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4822-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4821-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922184



iUniverse rev. date: 12/19/2022



Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface

Chapter 1 September 2021
Chapter 2 October 2021
Chapter 3 November 2021
Chapter 4 December 2021
Chapter 5 January 2022
Chapter 6 February 2022
Chapter 7 March 2022
Chapter 8 April 2022
Chapter 9 May 2022
Chapter 10 June 2022
Chapter 11 July 2022
Chapter 12 August 2022
Chapter 13 Early September 2022

Appendix
About the Author



Acknowledgements
I want to thank my best pal, Annie, for her support and encouragement during the process of writing this volume of Pandemic Posts II From Pandemic to Endemic.
When I required soothing, she was always there. When I needed levity to offset the sadness I was describing, she was there. She was always a source of light, even in the darkest days of this pandemic.
Annie is a 13-year-old, 13-pound mixed breed dog who is loving, constant, comical, bright, and beautiful. Good girl, A.
I am equally indebted to another terrific female, this time a human, named Mari Tompkins. Mari made the difficult seem easy, always with patience and a smile. Thank you, Mari.
I must also thank my lifelong friend, Fred Kail, for lending his design talents to creating the cover design concept. Fred is a wonderful artist, sculptor, and designer located in Baltimore, Maryland. Many warm thanks, Fred.



Preface
Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in American history, whose work I find both inspired and ethereal, wrote this about her recent poetry collection: “I write to preserve the public memory of a pandemic” because “nothing is as harrowing as the thought that the lessons of this moment might be lost to collective amnesia.”
I agree with Ms. Gorman as those were also the thoughts that prompted this second volume of Pandemic Posts From Pandemic to Endemic.
On July 4 th of 2021, I ended the first volume of Pandemic Posts Notes from Inside when the country had made sufficient progress against the virus to believe a return to normal life was in process. Deaths and hospitalizations were at an all-time low and we had nearly reached the president’s goal of 70% of eligible Americans receiving at least one shot of vaccine.
We celebrated July 4 th 2021 with a renewed sense that we were crushing the virus and the president encouraged us to enjoy the fireworks with friends and family as a way to mark our independence from Covid.
He and the first lady hosted an Independence Day 2021 party with 1,000 essential workers and military families on the South Lawn and when he spoke to them his words showed his optimism.
“This year the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging from the darkness of a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss,” he said. But his optimism, and my own, were misplaced.
On August 2 nd 2021 we DID reach the 70% vaccination milestone for those eligible, yet health officials continued to caution us to adhere to mitigation protocols as they closely monitored the spread of the worrisome Covid Delta variant.
Since July 4 th 2021, the Delta variant ripped through the country and Omicron was about to pounce, making us vulnerable anew.
Most Americans succumbing to Covid-19 were unvaccinated.
Yet vaccination rates slowed despite governmental and private sector initiatives and younger people were becoming more at risk of infection.
Earlier in 2021 we were seeing 10,000-15,000 new cases of the virus each day; that number increased tenfold. Hospitalization numbers also rose.
Colleges and universities across the country, as well as elementary, middle, and high schools, all scrambled to protect students as the new school year began. The American College Health Association recommended vaccination requirements for all on-campus students for the fall semester.
Experts again encouraged the vaccinated to get boosted and the unvaccinated to get vaccinated.
And natural occurrences only exacerbated the virus challenges in hardest hit states. In Louisiana and Mississippi, hurricane Ida wreaked havoc, resulting in forced evacuations, loss of life, and profound property damage before setting its sights on parts of the northeast. Both areas are still grappling with the carnage.
California continued to deal with massive wildfires, which lasted until the end of the year.
Our politics, too, were sobering.
We withdrew our troops from Afghanistan, marking the end of the longest war in our history, but that withdrawal was chaotic and resulted in American deaths. And despite our promises to protect the locals who aided our military during the war, most were unable to be evacuated.
Andrew Cuomo stepped down as New York’s governor while Texas passed the most restrictive abortion and voting rights legislation to date. Other states were following the Texas governor’s lead . And California’s governor, Gavin Newsome, faced a recall election. And all of this occurring against the background of the continuing pandemic.
But all was not bleak. Scientists and medical researchers stepped up to offer their scientific and medical expertise, Nobel prizes were announced that enriched life on the planet, and the president signed Covid relief legislation that provided financial and medical support to struggling Americans and vaccines to poor countries. And national politics…well, they just kept rolling along.
I wanted to enable a more accurate understanding of life during a worldwide pandemic by looking at a more complete picture of it. After all, life is not one-dimensional.
With renewed interest I again picked up my pen and started writing.
Jeanne Cohen
Delray Beach, Florida
August 2022
Please note: The data in this book were harvested from Johns Hopkins University Covid Tracking Project, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, local and state government sites, The Washington Post , Bloomberg News and myriad other sources.
Not all tracking sites use the same sources or reporting dates, so case and death numbers can differ somewhat from day to day.



Chapter One
September 2021
“For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.”
~President Joe Biden
Today is September 7 th , the Tuesday after a long Labor Day weekend and Rosh Hashana for Jews.
The New York Times reports today that 648,779 Americans have now been lost to the Coronavirus and we have surpassed 40 million reported cases.
Here in Florida, my now-home state, our case numbers are on the rise and children are among them in numbers greater than before. This does not bode well for the new in-person school year. We have neither a mask nor a vaccination mandate for children or adults in Florida.
Our governor has bullied public school districts, along with teachers and staff, with threats to withhold funding if they disrespected his vaccine and mask dictates. School districts have challenged him, however, citing their responsibility to protect children under their care. I applaud them for their courage.
Georgia and Texas have comparable stories—vaccinations are optional and mask wearing cannot be mandated on campuses. Professors may strongly encourage students to mask-up, but they may not force them to comply. Even students with Covid-like symptoms may not be asked to leave classrooms.
Texas schools have reported more than 50,000 confirmed Coronavirus cases in the days since schools have reopened, and it led the country in the number of child deaths from Covid-19 as of September 3 rd .
Hospitals throughout the state of Texas as of this writing have only 81 pediatric intensive care beds available, and less than 200 regular ICU beds in a state with a population of 29 million.
Clearly, it’s impossible to separate the politics from the resurgence.
The Wall Street Journal today cites a recent NBC poll that found 91% of Biden voters are vaccinated compared with only 50% of Trump voters; death statistics reveal comparable results.
Regardless, Texas state leaders have spent their time pushing through controversial legislation to restrict abortion access, 1 voting rights, 2 and bail reform rather than tackling the Covid surge head-on. In fact, the Houston Public Media Organization reports that Gov. Abbott has ‘been fighting local governments over their efforts to stem the spread of the disease.’ He’s taken a page fro