Veteran in Soldier's Home took last COVID-19 breath next to veteran eating meal!

Let this sink in for a second before you read anything else.

Soldiers’ home employees told WCVB the merging of residents on the first floor created a situation where one veteran was taking his last breaths while the veteran next to him was eating his meal, both without any privacy.

Now read the rest.

More than 70 veterans dead in ‘horrific’ coronavirus outbreak at Massachusetts facility

WCVB 5 Boston
Kathy Curran
5 Investigates Reporter
April 29, 2020

BOSTON
The number of deaths at a Boston veterans home are staggering. More than 70 veterans have died since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, frustrated employees are speaking out about the horror they saw inside.

Sister station WCVB spoke with several employees at Holyoke Soldiers Home during the past few weeks, who said managers of the home were unprepared and did not follow protocols. One long-time worker called the soldiers' home a death trap.

“What kind of a system is this? We're talking about 21st century United States of America,” said Kwesi Ablordeppe, a long-time certified nurse's aide at the soldiers’ home. “We're talking about the veterans who put their lives on the line to save us. And is that how we're going to treat them?”

Ablordeppe said he's frustrated and heartbroken by the horror he has witnessed inside the soldiers’ home since COVID-19 took hold there. The flag is lowered as somber ceremonies honoring the lives lost take place almost every day. It is a place where Ablordeppe has loved to work for 20 years. Now, walking through the doors is almost unbearable.

read it here

Supporting the troops needs to be more than a slogan during pandemic

Time to stop the political nonsense

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 28, 2020

All day I have been trying to put together some interesting reports on what is happening to our troops, as well as our veterans. All day, I have been involved in debates that should have been based on facts and not political comments that do not add anything to coming any closer to actually supporting them.

The worst on was about FEMA taking masks that were appropriated by the VA.

As coronavirus cases rise, VA leaders blame supply shortages on FEMA

On Saturday, in an interview in the Washington Post, Veterans Health Administration acting executive Richard Stone acknowledged that some hospitals have been forced into “austerity levels” as Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have diverted planned supplies to the government’s emergency stockpile. (Military Times)

A comment that it turned my stomach caused someone to respond by saying it was a political attack agains the president instead of "corrupt FEMA" showing no understanding of how the government works, what they are responsible for...and who is actually responsible for every department.

 This exchange wasted more than my time. Stuff like that takes time all of us should have been making sure we actually live up to the slogan of "support the troops" and actually treat the best military in the world AS IF THEY WERE WORTHY OF EVERYTHING WE CAN DO FOR THEM!

Cutting T-shirts to cover their faces?

April 5, 2020 Military Times

Service members will be instructed to start wearing face coverings in public in the latest effort to limit the spread of the deadly coronavirus, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in in a military-wide memo issued Sunday afternoon.DoD will not issue masks specifically for this and the memo says individuals should make their own face coverings.

How the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the US military

CNN
Analysis by Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent
April 28, 2020

One of the clearest indicators of the level of concern within the Pentagon is the fact Defense Secretary Mark Esper has put strict limits on the amount of information being shared with the American public.

(CNN)The Department of Defense had unusual visitors on Thursday morning.

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, two of President Donald Trump's key coronavirus advisers and public faces of the crisis, donned masks and were shown into "the tank" which is the Pentagon's secure conference room. They were there to meet with Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten to discuss the military's efforts to manage the coronavirus pandemic and the medical expertise needed to protect the country's 1.4 million military personnel.

The meeting underscored a critical national security issue that has not been publicly discussed in detail by the President, the challenge of ensuring the military is ready to deploy and fight amid the pandemic.

As the country prepares for a possible second wave of the virus this fall, the obstacles facing the Pentagon are massive. They range from assembling robust testing capabilities to ensuring there is a constantly replenished supply of personal protective equipment, while all the while continuing to provide medical personnel to support the civilian healthcare system.

And beyond keeping the military functioning there's a realization within the that the pandemic could upend geopolitics and create new and unpredictable threats to US national security.
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Until we actually get politics out of the way, we will keep failing them! They deserve only the best from us. So far, we sure as hell do not deserve them. Still think this is political? I have gone after every president since Reagan...and none of them lived up to what they promised any generation.

UPDATE: Navy destroyer with COVID-19 outbreak arrives in San Diego; 1 in 5 on Theodore Roosevelt now have virus

The Navy said Monday that 955 Roosevelt sailors have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, about one in five crew members. About half the infected are showing no symptoms, the Navy says.

The service also changed how it determines if a sailor has recovered from COVID-19. On Saturday, the Navy reported 112 Roosevelt sailors had recovered from the virus; now, it says, only 14 have. (San Diego News Tribune)

Director of Oregon VA "morale building exercise" flashmob ignored COVID-19 recommendations

How serious is the VA taking this pandemic that anyone thought this would "build morale" instead of spreading death?

Roseburg VA director leads coronavirus dance party without social distancing, face masks

KGW8 News
The Oregonian/OregonLive
Author: Ted Sickinger
April 25, 2020

Just a week ago, the Roseburg VA confirmed four members of its medical center staff and one patient had tested positive for COVID-19.

ROSEBURG, Oregon — An internal video obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows the director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Administration Medical Center in Roseburg holding a flash mob dance party in hospital offices with at least 16 staff, none of them consistently wearing protective equipment or maintaining social distance.

The event appears to be a morale building exercise and was posted Friday on the hospital’s internal intranet, one of the regular updates that Director Keith M. Allen has been posting on COVID-19 and other topics. The updates are viewable by all 1,000 employees in the Roseburg VA district, which covers four southern Oregon counties and a slice of Northern California.

The district serves some 56,000 veterans, many of them elderly and with preexisting conditions. Just a week ago, a Roseburg VA administrator confirmed that four members of the medical center’s staff – including a nurse who ended up on a ventilator in a Portland hospital -- and one patient had tested positive for COVID-19.
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Homeless veteran was assaulted, abandoned by hospital...helped by police officers and angels

"I saw a very frail, frail old man that physically appears much older than 62," Zamudio said.

Spittle later told Zamudio and Voice of San Diego he had been released from Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla after being assaulted in Pacific Beach over the weekend. He believes he has a broken rib and said he was initially unable to walk more than a couple feet.

Marine veteran Steven Spittle, 62...Let that sink in for a minute.

Now here is the story.

Police Turned To Activists For Help After Veteran Was Denied Access To Convention Center

By Voice of San Diego, News Partner
By Lisa Halverstadt
Apr 24, 2020

The city of San Diego is temporarily housing homeless residents at the Convention Center in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. (Adriana Heldiz/Voice of San Diego)

SAN DIEGO, CA — Marine veteran Steven Spittle, 62, had just been discharged from a local hospital after he said he was assaulted over the weekend. He's lived on the streets for years, so he said hospital staff paid for a cab to drive him to the temporary shelter at the Convention Center on Sunday afternoon.

But there wasn't a bed available for Spittle, who was in pain and too weak to stand. He laid outside the Convention Center, confused and unsure what to do.
v Lacking other options, an officer from the Police Department's Homeless Outreach Team called activist Amie Zamudio, who has teamed with another local activist, Tasha Williamson, to put up vulnerable homeless San Diegans in hotel rooms, to ask if she could take in Spittle for the night. Zamudio said yes and rushed to the Convention Center.

The situation captures the desperation playing out as homeless San Diegans seek shelter that's in limited supply during the coronavirus pandemic and local governments and activists scramble to respond. The mayor and other elected leaders have touted the decision to open the Convention Center to homeless residents as a significant step toward protecting the homeless community during the pandemic. Faulconer even called it "a centerpiece of our fight against the coronavirus," when he announced the facility would open to the homeless. But Spittle's experience demonstrates that the need for shelter is still greater than the capacity.

In the absence of resources, advocates like Zamudio and Williamson, who have temporarily housed more than 50 homeless San Diegans in a Midway hotel – an effort that's separate from the county's plan to house vulnerable residents in hotel rooms – have sometimes filled gaps.
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Navy veteran Steve Hefler on 'country road" to recovery from COVID-19

Coronavirus Florida: Watch Sarasota Memorial staff sing ‘Country Roads’ to recovered patient

Herald Tribune
By Michael Moore Jr.
Staff Writer
April 24, 2020

Recovering from the coronavirus can be a long and difficult road.

Just ask longtime pediatrician and Navy veteran Steve Hefler, who has been fighting for his life for 25 days in Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s COVID-19 critical care unit. Except you can’t ask him — because he, like all COVID-19 patients, is quarantined.

But the isolation caused by quarantine can be a difficult reality for many patients and their families to cope with, which is why Hefler’s son, Jonathan, set up a GoFundMe page for cell phone chargers that are “desperately needed in every hospital.”
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After fighting for his life for 25 days in Sarasota Memorial’s COVID-19 critical care unit, longtime pediatrician and Navy veteran Steve Hefler is on the road to recovery. #TeamSMH celebrated "Dr. Steve" and his transition to a step-down unit this afternoon, singing his favorite song — “Country Roads” by John Denver — while his family joined in via FaceTime.

Veteran lost battle with COVID-19, and what honored by Nurse who was also a veteran

Florida Nurse Pays Tribute to Fellow Fallen Veteran Who Died of Coronavirus: 'My Heart Was Broken'

PEOPLE
By Robyn Merrett
April 22, 2020

“My heart was broken and saddened when a veteran lost his life to this deadly virus.” Marc Kagan

MANATEE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

A Florida nurse stepped in to give a fallen veteran a proper send off after the retired military personnel died of coronavirus earlier this month.

On Monday, Manatee Memorial Hospital shared a photo on Facebook of the touching moment, which shows nurse Marc Kagan saluting the late veteran, whose body was covered by a white cloth.

Of the moment, Kagan, a fellow veteran himself, explained in a statement shared by the hospital that he felt it was his “duty” to honor the late veteran.

“I’m an RN, a retired USAF officer (Flight Nurse) and a retired Firefighter/Deputy Sheriff/Paramedic. I work presently as a Cath Lab nurse and recently doing scanning of hospital personnel going in and out of the COVID-19 Unit.”

Kagan shared, “My heart was broken and saddened when a veteran lost his life to this deadly virus.”

“He didn’t get the military send off with a flag over his brave body. It was with my duty and honor to salute this brave American,” Kagan added.
read it here

There is a passage out of darkness with PTSD and pandemic

Every dark passage

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 23, 2020

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. John 12:46

Take comfort in knowing that every dark passage ends in light, otherwise it would be called a dead end instead of a passage. There is a way to get to the other side of whatever darkness surrounds you, but you will not reach it if you remain standing still.

You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. Psalm 18:28

Take comfort in knowing that this crisis will not last forever. As with all things, this time will pass and the stress will go away. Even though some of the memories may linger, you have the power over what you do with those dark memories, so you can make room to treasure the good ones.

Take comfort in knowing that you are not alone if you are dealing with PTSD on top of this pandemic. There are about 8 million other Americans with PTSD. In other words, 8 million other survivors learning how to live the rest of their lives after surviving whatever caused them to be hit by PTSD.

Being afraid to admit you are afraid leaves you stuck in the darkness. No one will know you need comforting, so they will not try to ease your fears. Human nature has most people programmed to respond to the needs of others. We see that today as more and more people are stepping up to, not just help save lives, but to help those who are on the front lines in need of help too!

The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 4:18

Some will use a crisis for their own sake, but there are more trying to alleviate the burdens others carry. Right now, that is something that you can do just by being able to reach out for help, receive it and then, reach back out again to help others.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:8

You can change your life and help others find the light at the end of the passage. Imagine what their life will be like when you help them see they are not stuck in a dead end.

Reports of veterans dying of COVID-19 going up

Veterans Dying Of COVID-19

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 22, 2020

This will be updated as reports come in. All of the following just came in today. Check back for updates.

Fort Worth Coronavirus Victim’s Last Words to Family: ‘I Love You’

Marcus Lee, a husband, father of two, Navy veteran and federal government worker from Fort Worth, died Friday of coronavirus.
He was 40.
"He was so sweet,” his wife Karlisha Lee said in an interview Tuesday. “He was always giving."

Coronavirus In Texas: City Councilman And His Husband Die Within Hours Of Each Other

SAN ANTONIO (CBSDFW.COM) – Anthony Brooks was a city councilman in Live Oak, Texas — about 20 miles northeast of San Antonio. The Air Force veteran and his husband, Phillip Tsai-Brooks, died within days of each other of complications from COVID-19.

70-year-old veteran is 1st virus death reported at Beaumont Army Medical Center

EL PASO, Texas -- A 70-year-old military veteran is the first death stemming from the coronavirus to be reported at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center.
The El Paso VA Health Care System announced the death on Tuesday afternoon.

El Paso VA patient dies from COVID-19

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The El Paso Veteran Affairs reported that a patient of theirs died Monday evening.

The official said the patient contracted the coronavirus previously.

The patient was in their 70s and had multiple underlying health conditions.

Another resident at the Frank M. Tejeda Veterans Home dies as COVID-19 outbreak continues

FLORESVILLE, Texas - Two veterans have now died at the Frank M. Tejeda Veterans Home in Floresville.

According to the Texas Veterans Land Board, the veteran died from COVID-19 since last updating us on the numbers at the home Monday. The veteran is one of 10 who have tested positive at the nursing home, which also has had five staff members test positive.

Mind boggling questions on COVID-19

COVID-19 Common Sense Questions

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 22, 2020

There are just way too many claims about COVID-19 that are made by people who cannot back it up with facts all over social media.

What troubles me the most is there are too many who do not even bother to ask questions to clear things up.

My first question deals with the protestors. Do protestors know any facts at all?

Take North Carolina and the protestors who apparently have not heeded any of the warnings or recommendations from the experts, taking to the streets in large crowds without bothering to cover their own faces so they do not spread the virus to all the other strangers near them.

Hundreds gather in North Carolina and Missouri to protest stay-at-home orders

It isn't as if they are able to prevent the spread enough that they should even be talking about this, but they have not bothered to learn how to prevent it, thus preventing their fellow citizens from going back to whatever "normal" was for them sooner.

If masks are to prevent the wearer from spreading the virus, what good do they do to protect the healthcare workers from getting it from patients?

This is from last month but explains the point of this question.
In the area of Seattle that’s been hardest-hit, some nurses in emergency departments are washing and reusing surgical masks, gloves and gowns. They may work on a patient for hours or more before learning they tested positive for COVID-19.

“I’ve got a two-day supply of masks, so we’re trying to be conservative,” said Dr. Stephen Anderson, an emergency physician at the MultiCare Auburn Medical Center in suburban Seattle. “You get one in the morning. You clean it and reuse it.

The intent of the face masks to prevent the person wearing it from infecting someone else. That is why they wear them in operating rooms. The patient does not wear it to protect them!

Why aren't healthcare providers and responders given face shields to protect them from patients?

Police in NJ Town Wear Special Suits, Face Shields to Stave Off COVID-19

Why do some people pass off the pandemic as nothing more serious than the flu? When you look at the numbers consider that here in the US, CNN reported "New autopsy results show two Californians died of coronavirus in early and mid-February -- up to three weeks before the previously known first US death from the virus." But these are the numbers now.

Deaths COVID-19: Approximately 178,371 deaths reported worldwide; 45,075 deaths in the U.S., as of Apr. 22, 2020.*

Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year.

When will people understand that we only know a fraction of the people hit by this?

Is The U.S. Testing Enough For COVID-19? As Debate Rages On, Here's How To Know

Nationally, testing has increased in recent weeks. According to the CDC, nearly 700,000 tests were completed last week. But the U.S. is not yet near the 10% positive benchmark.

Considering we have not managed to answer the more obvious questions on this, getting real answers to stop the poor attitude spreading out across the country will have the same odds that are not good.

Department of Veterans Affairs under OSHA investigation "failed to keep workers free from known hazards"

Department of Labor to investigate VA over staff exposure to coronavirus

Connecting Vets
Abbie Bennett
April 17, 2020

The union accused VA of further violating OSHA standards by failing to provide workers with N95 respirators "and other necessary personal protective equipment (PPE)" as well as "failing to isolate suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients and refusing to provide COVID-19 testing to employees who have been exposed to those known or suspected of having the virus."

After a union representing millions of Department of Veterans Affairs employees accused the VA of "endangering" veterans and medical staff during the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Labor said it will investigate.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent a letter to the American Federation of Government Employees' National Veterans Affairs Council President Alma Lee saying that after the union filed a complaint on behalf of 260,000 VA employees, an investigation is planned.

OSHA "will be initiating an investigation concerning worker exposure to patients with COVID-19," the letter read.

The letter was written by Loren Sweatt, principal deputy assistant secretary for OSHA, who added that "I am contacting the VA's designated safety and health official" about the allegations.

The union's complaint alleged VA "failed to keep workers free from known hazards" and said the agency directed staff who had come in contact with or been in close proximity to people with virus symptoms, to report to work "without regard to the 14-day self-quarantine guidelines" issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Coronavirus frontline workers getting help from mental health clinicians

Michigan clinicians offer mental health resources to coronavirus frontline workers

Click Detroit
Cassidy Johncox, Web Producer
Sarah Parlette, Associated Producer
Published: April 18, 2020

Clinicians from Michigan are joining forces to help individuals through these crises, especially those who are still working every day during the pandemic.

Mental health professionals in Michigan are coming together to provide support and resources to frontline workers amid the escalating coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The pandemic is negatively affecting the mental health of most, according to behavioral science experts.

Long-term health effects will likely ripple across all age groups, including sleep disturbance, hypervigilance, PTSD, substance abuse, relapse and suicides, experts said. The pandemic’s impact on mental health could result in a 10-20% increase in demand for mental health services, according to officials.

Clinicians from Michigan are joining forces to help individuals through these crises, especially those who are still working every day during the pandemic.

MI Frontline Support (MIFS) is a new initiative organized by local clinicians to provide crisis- and coping-related resources to frontline workers in the state. MIFS creators have a loose definition of “frontline workers”, which includes health care workers and first responders as well as those working in grocery stores, delivery and mail services, the media and more.
read it here

After I recorded this video I was thinking about all the others who are healers and protectors in isolation right now because they were exposed to COVID-19 on the job, or prevented from doing their work for other reasons. It hits us even harder because our mission on this earth is to help other people. When we cannot do it, it crushes our soul.

Healers and protectors

"More than a footnote" inspirational story of Martha Gellhorn

More than a footnote

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
April 20, 2020

My buddy Gunny likes to try to top me on discovering things I did not know. Well, he succeeded this morning. He told me about Martha Gellhorn. Funny thing is, he stumbled on her looking for something else.

As I listened to him tell me a little bit about her, I thought it would be a very inspirational story to share, especially while most of the country is under shelter at home restrictions. We all need something to inspire us, and yes, that includes me too.

It is very hard to even attempt to find something inspirational to share, when you do not even want to get out of PJs. Lately either I have been on Facebook sharing videos on cats, dogs or other animals from my sweet friends...or really sick jokes I am usually embarrassed by how hard I am laughing.

Anyway, before I get too carried away with that, back to Martha. She was married to Ernest Hemingway. Noteworthy as it is, they met while she was a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. She was on the beach on D-Day after being a stowaway and got her hands on a nurses uniform. The list of accomplishments in her life goes on and on, but the thing that got me was, for all she accomplished, she still felt like a footnote in Hemingway's life.

That is exactly how my buddy Gunny found her story...as a footnote.

The writer Martha Gellhorn, who reported on the Spanish Civil War for The New Yorker, and from the beaches of D Day in a nurse’s uniform. Photograph from AP / Shutterstock

Martha Gellhorn, Daring Writer, Dies at 89
Obituary

New York Times
By Rick Lyman
Feb. 17, 1998
Martha Ellis Gellhorn, who as one of the first female war correspondents covered a dozen major conflicts in a writing career spanning more than six decades, died on Sunday at her home in London. She was 89.

Ms. Gellhorn was a cocky, raspy-voiced maverick who saw herself as a champion of ordinary people trapped in conflicts created by the rich and powerful. That she was known to many largely because of her marriage to Ernest Hemingway, from 1940 to 1945, caused her unending irritation, especially when critics tried to find parallels between her lean writing style and that of her more celebrated husband.

''Why should I be a footnote to somebody else's life?'' she bitterly asked in an interview, pointing out that she had written two novels before meeting Hemingway and continued writing for almost a half-century after leaving him.

As a journalist, Ms. Gellhorn had no use for the notion of objectivity. The chief point of going to cover anything, she felt, was so you could tell what you saw, contradict the lies and let the bad guys have it.

"Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival."Martha Gellhorn

Right now, it is hard to get through all of this but that quote is something we should hang onto. "Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival." No matter how bad it is right now, when you think about all the things this woman went through, she survived all of it and lived to a good old age.

If it sucks for you right now...like it does for most of us, try to think back about other times when it sucked. When you didn't know how you would get passed it and then suddenly you did. We will get passed this too and there will be joy again. We will see our family and friends again. We'll be able to hug our kids and grandkids. We will get through this because right now there are angels moving all around us to make this world a better place in whatever way they can.

Enjoy the following about Martha and trust me, you jaw will go back into place when you are done with this.
read it here

That’s the day Iraq War Veteran Mitch Olson died by suicide

A special honor for a fallen young veteran amid COVID-19 restrictions

KARE 11 News
Boyd Huppert
April 14, 2020

Against that backdrop – the pain, the quiet and a family deprived of a proper military service – on Saturday, motorcycle riders with the American Legion, Combat Veterans Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars rode in.

MINNETONKA, Minn — Fifteen miles of social distance from Fort Snelling National Cemetery, a military family grieves in the age of COVID-19.

No hugs, no graveside service, no 21-gun salute.

Just the worst pain possible, made impossibly worse.

“Mitchell's my younger brother,” Casey Olson says, standing near the flag her family flies next to the porch. “This is where we grew up, my parents have been here since 1979.”

Since March 30th, the house has never felt quieter.

That’s the day Iraq War Veteran Mitch Olson died by suicide.

read it here

Do not leave your family and friends in this kind of pain. There is hope if you #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife you can heal PTSD

Korean War veteran's family told he was doing good....hours after he died of COVID-19 at Veterans Home

A family was told their dad at a Jersey vets home was rebounding from coronavirus. He was already dead.

North Jersey
Scott Fallon
April 18, 2020

Tom's body had even been taken to the other man's funeral home to be prepared for cremation the next day — Tom's wishes were to be buried next to his wife.

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – It was the best news Steve Mastropietro could have hoped to receive.

His 91-year-old father had made a near-miraculous rebound on Saturday morning after being diagnosed two days before with COVID-19.

A nurse at the New Jersey Veterans Home in Paramus said Tom Mastropietro no longer had a fever.

The Korean War veteran had not only eaten breakfast, but even walked to the bathroom unaided.

“I was stunned but happy,” Steve said. “He looked like hell the last time I saw him. They made me think he had turned a corner.”

Four hours later, the nursing staff called again.

They had made a terrible mistake.

Tom Mastropietro had died hours earlier.
read it here

"Give me liberty or give me death" somehow translated into the ability to spread death during pandemic

Isolation is preservation of lives during pandemic

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 19, 2020

It appears that many fellow citizens have decided their "rights" have been violated in some way. They point to the Constitution, while ignoring the laws the Founding Fathers put into place. They use their right to assemble and protest, while violating the laws that were provided to each and every governor.

Much like deli-Christians pick and choose what parts of the Bible they like, they are ignoring the fact there are consequences to their willful ignorance.

"Give me liberty or give me death" somehow translated into the ability to spread death.

(Melissa Eckert Garriga Facebook)

I guess she did not know the "rest of the story" or much history.

"Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." Patrick Henry

The consequences of their willful ignorance are spreading a deadly virus that has since January 15 claimed the lives of almost 34,000 Americans as it spread to over 722,000 of the known cases, according to Johns Hopkins.

Yet the most troubling "truth" is that they only know about 1% of the population.

The ability to test every American does not exist however, recent testing has shown that many are carrying COVID-19 without any signs of it. That allows them to be unknowingly spreading it out.

At a nursing home in King County, Washington, about a third of its 82 residents tested positive for the coronavirus in mid-March. Half of those were free of fever, malaise and coughing when they were swabbed for the virus, though most went on to develop symptoms. The coronavirus spread rapidly through the facility just two weeks after it was introduced by a health care provider, despite the nursing home's policy of isolating residents with signs of COVID-19. This suggests that "transmission from asymptomatic and presymptomatic residents, who were not recognized as having SARS-CoV-2 infection and therefore not isolated, might have contributed to further spread," according to research published in the CDC's April 3 "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report." (NRP Maine)

Do Governors yield to public pressure or do they acknowledge the whole truth while honoring the responsibility they have to the all of their citizens?

Until testing is available, opening up businesses again is opening the graves of far too many who did acknowledge the truth.

The sooner this happens, the smarter this happens, the sooner we can all go back to whatever normal was and more of us will be alive to do it! Time for the liberty to be revived and those who choose to be weak, unable to cope with what is in the best interest of their fellow countrymen, be known for the minority they truly are.

Veterans Affairs lifts restrictions on masks for health workers...and is now under investigation

update VA pledges more masks for medical staff who were rationing supplies

Federal investigation launched as Veterans Affairs lifts restrictions on masks for health workers

ABC News
Quinn Owen
April 17, 2020

The numbers of infected employees continue to grow along with the rising case count among the nation's veterans. So far 284 veterans seeking treatment at VA-run facilities have died while the number of confirmed positive cases reached nearly 5,000 on Thursday.

Federal officials have launched an investigation into allegations that the Department of Veterans Affairs is putting its health care workers in danger as they continue to work on the front lines fighting the novel coronavirus, according to a Department of Labor letter obtained by ABC News.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation comes in response to a VA union complaint last week that medical workers who were exposed to infected patients did not receive coronavirus testing and lacked sufficient protective equipment, including N95 respirators, eye protection, face masks and gowns.
read it here



VA secretary refuses to share documents that detail PPE supply, lawmakers say

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has requested the documentation dozens of times since March 23. Eight Democrats on the committee, including its chairman, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., wrote to the White House Task Coronavirus Task Force on Thursday morning asking that it be shared immediately.

“If VA does not provide our committees with timely information, we cannot adequately exercise our oversight responsibilities, nor can we work with VA to minimize the harm to our veterans caused by this pandemic,” the lawmakers wrote. (Stars and Stripes

1918, when the so-called Spanish flu ravaged the planet and lessons not learned

'We Haven't Learned From History': 'Radio Influenza' Is A Warning From 1918

NPR
By Neda Ulaby
April 16, 2020

The last great pandemic struck the world more than 100 years ago. But voices from that time can still be heard in Radio Influenza, a haunting work of audio art available online.

A nurse works in the influenza ward of the Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., in November 1918. Artist Jordan Baseman evokes the era in Radio Influenza, a work of audio art commissioned to mark the centenary of the pandemic. Harris & Ewing / Library of Congress via AP

The voices are not real. They're computerized. They sound tinny and faraway as they read fragments of newspaper stories from 1918, when the so-called Spanish flu ravaged the planet. Still, these fleeting dispatches from the past are uncannily relevant.

"A man with a cold can easily throw it twelve feet by a sneeze," cautions an entry from Oct. 2, 1918. "Therefore, he must be kept at a distance. Sneezing and coughing unscreened by a handkerchief should be regarded as an assault. The sick animal who creeps away by himself until he has recovered shows an example that man would do well to follow."

Radio Influenza was created by Jordan Baseman, an American artist who works in London. He didn't want the project to sentimentalize or romanticize the past. "I wanted it to sound like a broadcast from a dystopian future," he explains. "So what we hear are artificial voices that I've manipulated to sound ... kind of real?"

Baseman started Radio Influenza two years ago to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the flu pandemic that killed more than 50 million people worldwide. There's an audio entry for each day of that year. Not all entries are taken verbatim from newspapers.

Some are cobbled together, with a certain amount of what Baseman calls "intervention." (This is art, after all, not journalism.)
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Food stamp work rule amid pandemic and ability to get food in doubt

For the most vulnerable among Americans, being able to get food should be the least of their problems.

Governors plead for food stamp flexibility amid pandemic

Associated Press
ASTRID GALVAN and ASHRAF KHALIL
April 6, 2020

There are only a handful of states in the country where food aid recipients can buy groceries online

PHOENIX -- Yvonne Knight, who has respiratory problems that make her especially vulnerable in the coronavirus pandemic, can't buy groceries online with her food stamps — even though each trip to the store is now a risky endeavor.

Going out to buy food terrifies the 38-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, but she is one of millions of people who receive food aid through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that can't be used in flexible ways.

The increased need for food aid and calls to make it more flexible come directly on the heels of a stalled Trump administration attempt to purge an estimated 700,000 people from SNAP rolls. The changes would have taken away states' ability to waive a rule that able-bodied adults without dependents show a certain number of hours worked per month. A court blocked the changes, and the USDA vowed to appeal.
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Trump administration delays new food stamp work rule amid pandemic

NBC 3 News
by Alexis Goree
April 13th 2020

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Before the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of Nevadans were at risk of losing their food stamps starting this month.

Now, because of the national emergency, the Trump administration is holding off on any change.

Unemployment numbers have now skyrocketed across the United States. The coronavirus forced the closure of non-essential businesses in an effort to stop the spread.

“Now, obviously given what unemployment has done, we cannot reasonably expect folks to engage in work or work-related activity now,“ said Julie Balderson with Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

Due to the national emergency, the White House is now delaying their pursuit of a new work rule for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients, also know and SNAP.
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But the truth is, a Federal Judge had to order it first.

Federal judge blocks Trump rule that could have cut food stamps for nearly 700,000 people amid coronavirus

CNN
By Veronica Stracqualursi and Tami Luhby
March 14, 2020

(CNN)A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration federal rule from going into effect next month that could have seen nearly 700,000 people lose access to food stamps, noting in part a need for flexibility as state and federal officials work to address nutritional needs during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential," Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the US District Court in Washington, DC, wrote as part of her opinion issued Friday.

In an order handed down Friday, the Howell granted a preliminary injunction and a stay on portions of a federal rule from the US Department of Agriculture. The rule, announced in December, would require more food stamp recipients to work in order to receive benefits by limiting states' ability to waive existing work mandates.
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Man charged with trying to sell $750 million in “nonexistent respirator masks” to the VA!

Georgia Man Allegedly Tried To Sell $750M in Nonexistent Masks To Veterans Affairs

NEXTGOV
By Aaron Boyd
Senior Editor, Nextgov
APRIL 13, 2020

The man tried the same scheme on state governments, according to prosecutors.

Federal agencies are cracking down on coronavirus-related fraud, including schemes targeting government agencies.

On Friday, the Justice Department announced charges against a 39-year-old Georgia man for allegedly trying to sell more than $750 million in “nonexistent respirator masks” to the Veterans Affairs Department.

According to a release announcing the charges, Christopher Parris, of Atlanta, told VA he could source 125 million face masks and other personal protective equipment, or PPE, despite allegedly knowing he could not deliver.

“For example, the complaint alleges that Parris promised that he could obtain millions of genuine 3M masks from domestic factories when he knew that fulfilling the orders would not be possible,” the release states. “Parris also allegedly made similar false representations to other entities in an effort to enter into other fraudulent agreements to sell PPE to state governments.”

Parris was charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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VA Call Center employees worried about COVID-19 exposure

VA coronavirus exposure

CBS 46 Georgia
Bobeth Yates
Mar 30, 2020

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) -- Some Veterans Administration employees are concerned about potential exposure to coronavirus after a call center employee came to work for several days with symptoms.

The call center employee we spoke with also says a full week passed between the time the employee tested positive and the time coworkers were notified. She says the building was never closed and sanitized.

“Our call center is not shutting down and they were just going to clean his station and there is still work as normal," according to the whistle blower.

In addition, “Do Not Enter” signs were also placed in the infected worker’s cubical, but employees said that’s not enough. Multiple people reached out to CBS46 saying they’re now afraid to go to work, but the VA won’t give them paid time off.

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