I get it. Things have been overwhelming.
We’ve got ongoing election-related news: “President Donald Trump appeared on Sunday to acknowledge losing the U.S. election but then backtracked and said he concedes “nothing,” while President-elect Joe Biden focused on tackling the coronavirus pandemic and set meetings with pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines.” (https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election/trump-still-refusing-to-concede-to-biden-inflaming-supporters-and-delaying-transition-idUSKBN27T0IQ) and “Zuckerberg was asked about one specific content moderation call on Thursday: the company’s decision not to kick off former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Earlier this month on Facebook Live, the company’s livestreaming platform, Bannon called for the beheading of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray…’We have strict rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate you,’ Zuckerberg said, without detailing how many times a user could make death threats before being banned.” (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/mark-zuckerberg-declares-biden-preisdent-elect-trump)
There’s the updates on the stabbings and threats from the far right at yesterday’s DC event: “But the Proud Boys, known for violent clashes with antifascists, were received favorably on the ground. Trump supporters of all ages cheered them as they walked down the street. Some shouted ‘Proud Boys: Stand Back and Stand By,’ repeating a line that Trump said at a presidential debate, when challenged to condemn his far-right supporters like the Proud Boys.” (https://www.vice.com/en/article/epdxze/the-million-maga-march-in-dc-got-ugly) And “Footage that aired on Fox News showed one person carrying a sign that read, ‘Coming for Blacks and Indians first welcome to the new world order.’ White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted that ‘more than one MILLION marchers’ were present on Saturday, an exaggeration of the crowd size gleaned from photos and videos of the march. Among those in attendance were Alex Jones, MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene who was recently elected to the US House of Representatives in Georgia. All three delivered speeches claiming Trump won the presidential race, and falsely accused Democrats of trying to steal the election.” (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krystieyandoli/trump-supporters-million-maga-march-dc)
Near the end of the week, Cuomo announced a new 10 pm curfew for bars and restaurants [which in Downtown Brooklyn and the Upper East Side I’ve seen busy with indoor and outdoor diners] as case numbers continue to rise. He also put a 10 person limit on indoor and outdoor gatherings at private residences, with the expectation that masking and distancing protocols continue to be followed. By Friday De Blasio was saying families should be ready for a shut-down of schools on Monday if the positivity rate for the city broke 3% over the weekend. No talk of actually closing the kinds of businesses that are potential hotspots and paying families // offering rent relief so that folks can actually go back to sheltering and flatten this new curve.
Sunday night, rates continue to rise, while the death and hospitalization rates — which we now know lag about 2 weeks behind new case rates — begin to be a conversation topic but not yet a catalyst for mass behavior change [again]. We haven’t hit the 3% positivity mark that would shut down schools, while we also haven’t set up supports for the coming wave which will this time overlap with flu season, the holidays, political unrest, and the end of measures like the eviction moratorium that’s been on and off since 8 months ago.
Folks are trying to sound alarms. We’re on track to overflow our hospitals, again, but we’ve burnt out or lost a number of healthcare workers already and will lose more in the coming months (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/third-surge-breaking-healthcare-workers/617091/) We really really really really really need people to stop traveling for even small indoor gatherings with family, like they’re about to do en masse for the holidays without clear leadership and public messaging and folks being ready to actually stop pretending our lives aren’t all bound up in each others’ choices (https://www.thecut.com/2020/11/cancel-your-holiday-travel-plans.html).
It’s not looking good…
After coming across this article about a new tool being successfully peer reviewed, I went to test it out. at https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/ I ran 2 scenarios for NYC:
And all of that isn’t even getting into international happenings…But there is at least some movement with potential happening in the education sphere! There’s some conversations persisting about what school’s purpose is and what we value as we keep experimenting with its covid adaptations: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/school-wasnt-so-great-before-covid-either/616923/
Also this cool event for caretakers and folks who work with youth on “educating/parenting for liberation” was livestreamed by Firestorm Books in collaboration with PM Press: https://fb.watch/1NlunaSVSR/
Will we be the change we need? How many more people will unnecessarily die here while in places like Taiwan where they had an actual covid response folks have been covid clear for 200+ days already and are back to parties and concerts? [see: Ultra Festival 2020] Will NYC schools make it to Thanksgiving break before going back to being all remote? We shall see…
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