Good Tuesday morning, CivMixers. Welcome to December!
There’s something so definitive about the last month of the year – this year in particular. I can say that I am fairly certain that no one will be sorry to see the back end of 2020.
But first we have to get through a holiday season that, if the COVID-19 numbers are any indication, could be very difficult indeed. It certainly isn’t going to look like anything we’ve seen before, that much is certain. Today’s Google Doodle reminds us just how many holidays are traditionally celebrated around the world this month, by the way, just in case you had forgotten.
Today is Giving Tuesday – a day celebrated since 2012 to promote charity and generosity, two things that are sorely needed at this difficult time. Giving Tuesday comes after a trio of shopping days – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday – and also just after Thanksgiving. All that bounty is intended to remind us of those who are considerably less fortunate than ourselves.
Giving Tuesday has its roots in New York City, but it is now a global movement.
Interestingly, the pandemic has changed the way Americans are giving. Certainly, with a historic number of people out of work, the number of households that are able to give has dropped.
But those who are still able to donate are, in many cases, actually giving MORE. If this unprecedented public health crisis has taught us anything, it’s that the world is very small indeed, and maybe we need a little less than we thought we did to be comfortable.
Without the ability to travel widely and spend as much as before on entertainment – to say nothing of the reduced need to dress up to go to the office and professional functions – a fair number of people actually have more disposal income than they did in the pre-pandemic times.
And there are a lot of worthy organizations out there that are doing amazing work to help those who aren’t lucky enough to be in the same situation.
This is also a good day to remember nonprofit groups in the performing arts that are just hanging on by a thread as a result of the inability to put on much in the way of live shows. Please give if you can. We need beauty and creativity in the world.
It’s also World AIDS Day, which has been observed annually since 1988. This year’s theme is “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact.” This is one of eight World Health Days established by the WHO.
Since World AIDS Day started, we have managed to managed to halt and reverse the spread of HIV. According to the WHO, the occurrence of new cases has decreased 35 percent between 2000 and 2015, while AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 24 percent over that same period thanks to antiretroviral treatments and widespread AIDS education and awareness.
However, HIV/AIDS remains a significant public health crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly presented challenges in the ongoing battle against this disease, though it reportedly disrupted treatment services less than experts had initially feared.
There are also reportedly things we can learn about the current pandemic from the long-standing fight against HIV/AIDS.
We had some really crazy weather over the past 24 hours. I happened to be out for some of it, and it was raining so hard I had to pull over because I could not see the car in front of me, which was scary. The wind and rain was so bad, it forced the MTA to close New York’s longest bridge.
Today is going to be last of the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been enjoying of late, with temperatures flirting with 60 degrees and a mix of sun and clouds. Tomorrow, in true upstate style, highs will struggle to reach 40 degrees.
In the headlines…
Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist with no previous experience in fighting infectious disease who gained President Trump’s ear by pushing science-defying advice about COVID-19, has resigned from the White House coronavirus task force.
As a special government employee, Atlas, who tweeted out a photo of his resignation letter, had a 130-day window in which he could serve and that window was technically coming to a close this week.
“I always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence,” Atlas wrote.
With vaccines and a new administration in Washington, the pandemic will be tamed. But experts say the coming months “are going to be just horrible.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said that the U.S. is heading into a difficult period of the coronavirus pandemic and said current restrictions and travel advisories will be necessary for the Christmas holiday season.
After finding its vaccine 100 percent successful at keeping COVID-19 at bay, Moderna applied to the FDA for emergency authorization for it.
In the 30,000-person trial, 196 subjects developed Covid-19 with symptoms after receiving either the vaccine or a placebo, Moderna said. Of those, 185 had taken a placebo, while only 11 had gotten the vaccine, indicating it protects against the disease.
With Moderna following Pfizer in seeking emergency authorization, both these vaccines could be available to Americans before Christmas 2020, Health Secretary Alex Azar said.
Azar said that the vaccine will be “shipped” within 24 hours of FDA approval and then it would be up to “nursing homes, hospitals, and pharmacies to get that dispensed.”
Federal officials have suggested that corrections staff receive high priority for a coronavirus vaccine, but not the millions of vulnerable inmates held in U.S. facilities.
California hospitals are in a new surge of COVID-19 cases, and if trends continue, state intensive care units could be overwhelmed by Christmas Eve.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he anticipates California will receive an initial 327,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses by mid-December, as virus cases rapidly increase throughout the state.
Many holiday travelers had no problem flying in the face of federal health guidelines, as Sunday saw the most people pass through checkpoints at U.S. airports since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Congress returned yesterday from its Thanksgiving break for one final attempt at deal-making for the year — with Trump being a potential wild card.
Arizona and Wisconsin certified their results yesterday, giving President-elect Joe Biden a win in two more states where President Trump has contested the election. Trump allies have pledged to continue court challenges in the two states.
Biden’s transition team announced several nominees and appointments for the incoming administration’s top economic posts, including Janet Yellen to serve as Treasury Secretary. If confirmed by the Senate she would be the first woman to hold the post.
Neera Tanden, Biden’s new appointee as director of the Office of Management and Budget, spread baseless conspiracy theories after the 2016 election insisting that Hillary Clinton lost to Trump because Russian hackers flipped votes.
Tanden, currently the head of the Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank, has become an early lightning rod in Biden’s rollout of his team in part due to comments she has made on Twitter.
Biden gained a clearer path to redirecting U.S. telecommunications policy yesterday, after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to step down on Jan. 20, 2021.
Trump campaign lawyer Joe diGenova declared that the Trump administration’s former cybersecurity chief deserves to be put to death for claiming that the presidential election was the “most secure” in the country’s history.
Trump has raised about $170 million since Election Day as his campaign has continued to aggressively solicit donations with hyped-up appeals that have funded his fruitless attempts to overturn the election and seeded his post-presidential political ambitions.
Trump’s flirtation with a third White House run would definitely put a damper on what was thought to be a wide open battle for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination.
The Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, citing his recent pardon and making clear that it broadly covered potential legal troubles beyond the charge that he lied to federal investigators.
The White House is decorated for Christmas.
New York is dangerously close to overwhelming its hospital system with new COVID-19 cases — and preparing to recruit retired doctors and nurses to the front lines again, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
Cuomo announced five strategies to manage increased COVID cases as hospitalizations rise, focused on hospital capacity, testing, schools, a safety campaign and a thorough vaccination plan.
Similar to what occurred in the spring, all hospitals must plan to add 50 percent capacity as well as prepare for staffing shortages by reaching out to retired doctors and nurses. According to Cuomo, some hospitals are already reporting staff shortages.
“We are not going to live through the nightmare of overwhelmed hospitals again,” Cuomo said.
Already state officials are taking some actions to free up hospital space: In Erie County, where COVID cases have been on a sharper upswing than they were in the spring, elective surgeries will end beginning on Friday.
The decision to impose localized restrictions will now include data on local hospitalizations in addition to the percentage of positive coronavirus tests.
If there is a significant hospital crisis, New York could do another PAUSE, Cuomo warned.
The governor again repeated that small gatherings and the holidays pose the biggest risk in the coming weeks.
Public-health experts and health-care executives say they believe the city’s second surge of Covid-19 cases won’t be as bad as the first, with fewer people becoming sick and fewer deaths.
Cuomo told reporters that his push for mask-wearing helped curb New York’s COVID-19 cases – a claim he made while neither he nor his panel of aides were actually wearing masks, even though they were sitting in a closed room, albeit six feet apart.
New York City’s COVID-19 infection rate on a seven-day average has ticked above 4 percent for the first time in several months, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.
The bulk of city schools that serve kids up to fifth grade should eventually be able to open on a full-time basis, the mayor said.
De Blasio said NYC’s Health + Hospitals network would post COVID-19 test site wait-time updates three times a day on Twitter pointing people to testing sites with the shortest waits.
De Blasio and Tishman Speyer, the real-estate company that owns and manages Rockefeller Center, announced a series of pandemic-related safety protocols for visitors planning to take in the tree. Chief among them: a five-minute viewing limit.
The federal court that covers Manhattan, the Bronx and several other New York counties will suspend in-person proceedings starting today as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
Manhattan’s chief judge for criminal cases, Ellen Biden, and a court officer lieutenant have both tested positive for COVID-19.
NYC public schools will no longer have to temporarily shut down in-person classes if their neighborhoods are designated coronavirus clusters, state officials said.
Police body cameras can help reduce the kind of bogus stops that have fueled accusations of racial bias and harassment against police officers in New York City, according to a long-awaited report released yesterday.
The 117th annual News Year’s Day Polar Bear plunge at Coney Island was cancelled as New York continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases.
New York restaurants and bars would receive a sales tax holiday if a measure backed by two state lawmakers is approved as the industry continues to struggle with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democrats in the state Senate appear to have bolstered their super majority, claiming that their candidate in Syracuse, John Mannion, captured the party’s 43rd seat in the 63-seat chamber.
Meanwhile in the Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie was unanimously nominated to serve another two-year term as leader of the Democratic majority in that chamber.
“I am thankful for their unwavering commitment to putting New York families first and their continued faith in my leadership,” Heastie said, thanking his members in a prepared statement. “It has undoubtedly been a challenging year for our state and the nation, but New Yorkers are no stranger to adversity and we always rise to the challenge.”
The Green, Independence and Libertarian parties all failed to capture the number of votes necessary to maintain ballot access, and the recently created Serve America Movement (SAM) Party did not run a presidential candidate, pulling four minor parties off the ballot in New York.
Republican candidate Claudia Tenney’s campaign says she leads incumbent Democrat Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 13 votes “unofficially” for the New York’s 22nd Congressional seat.
Resorts World Casino in Queens has generated more than $3 billion for New York’s Lottery education fund since opening near the Aqueduct Raceway in 2011.
As Albany Medical Center nurses prepare to strike today, the union representing them has filed a federal complaint alleging the hospital’s coronavirus protocols are putting patients and staff at heightened risk for exposure.
Deaths due to COVID-19 in the Capital Region have more than doubled during the month of November when compared to October, county-provided data show.
An East Greenbush Central School District bus driver has tested positive for COVID-19 sending 45 students and two other employees into mandatory quarantine, the district announced on its website.
Since Nov. 24, North Colonie Central School District has confirmed 15 new coronavirus cases in the school community.
A Times Union employee who was part of a team distributing the Thanksgiving edition in the newspaper’s parking lot on Wednesday, Nov. 25, tested positive on Sunday for COVID-19.
City of Saratoga Springs police sent out a statement late yesterday afternoon acknowledging that “some members of the agency” tested positive for COVID-19.
An attorney who was terminated from her position at the state Division of Criminal Justice Services three years ago for her testimony in a sexual harassment investigation recently filed a lawsuit accusing the agency of human rights violations.
The City of Albany’s police academy and departmental gym will remain closed for the rest of the week as the number of officers and cadets within the department who have tested positive for coronavirus has more than doubled.
As the weather gets colder, Albany County and Whitney Young Health are moving a COVID testing site indoors to the Times Union Center.
St. John’s University tapped the Rev. Brian Shanley — the former long-time head of Providence College — to lead the New York Catholic institution amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Nxivm sex-cult leader Keith Raniere reportedly says he’s as good as dead when he’s transferred to prison.
The chief executive officer of the New York Road Runners, the group that organizes the New York City Marathon, is stepping down and new leadership will be sought out amid concerns over racism and other biases in the organization.
