Friday, August 20, 2021

And another day of threatening counties, blaming POC, refusing to treat unvaxxed patients, disenrolling unvaxxed students, an Orlando water shortage, children at ‘extreme risk’ from climate change, 20K students quarantined, and a ‘friendly’ robot comes to a close:

"Literally people won't take the vaccine because they're super suspicious of that, but they're taking horse deworming medication that they're buying at a feed store?” -- Rachel Maddow

Deaths

US: 644,281 (+1169)

World: 4,427,767 (+10,382)

Cases

US: 38,398,596 (+166,809)

World: 211,553,537 (+708,112)

Florida Board of Education orders Broward, Alachua counties to allow mask opt-out in 48 hours or start losing funding. If the school districts do not comply and continue to keep their mask mandates in place, the districts will start facing financial penalties. The state is requesting a list of the annual salaries of all board members, and the State Board of Education will then begin withholding 1/12th of that amount each month from the district's funds, according to the document.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) is coming under fire for a Thursday night appearance on Fox News in which he claimed that African Americans who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus are the reason for the surge in COVID-19 infections across the nation. — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is a racist. 

Alabama doctor says he won't treat unvaccinated patients. A doctor says he will soon refuse to treat unvaccinated patients in Alabama, where low vaccination rates and the highly-transmissable delta variant are leaving hospitals overwhelmed.

University of Virginia cuts 238 students from its rolls after they failed to comply with the university's vaccination policy.

Washington frontline workers feeling effects of battling fifth wave of COVID-19 surge. With Washington state having set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations Thursday, with 1,240 people currently requiring some type of care, those on the frontlines are feeling the effects of burnout and emotional exhaustion.

Mississippi sees 20,000 students quarantined following first week of school. The state health department said 5 percent of all Mississippi students were in quarantine as of Friday, the end of the first school week, which reportedly saw more than 4,500 students testing positive for the virus. The large number of students in quarantine comes amid a battle around the country between Republican governors and school districts over mask mandates.

Orlando urges reduced water usage; liquid oxygen used to treat water is needed for COVID patients.

US extends non-essential travel restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico through at least September 21.

Federal judge in Nevada finds that a criminal law that dates to 1929 and makes it a felony for a person who has been deported to return to the U.S. is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno, in an order issued Wednesday, found the law widely known as Section 1326 is based on “racist, nativist roots” and discriminates against Mexican and Latinx people in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment.

House Republicans vow to probe President Biden's Afghanistan exit if they win in 2022. -- Benghazi 2.0. And of course no interest in investigating January 6, 2021.

Taliban violence drives Afghans to wipe social media profiles. Human rights groups are rushing to help people remove any content that might connect them to Westerners.

A celebrated all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan made it out of the country safely and are now in Qatar.

A billion children at ‘extreme risk’ from climate impacts. Almost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at “extremely high risk” from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from Unicef. The UN agency’s head called the situation “unimaginably dire”. Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said. But 1 billion children live in 33 countries facing three or four impacts simultaneously. The countries include India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and much of sub-Saharan Africa.

The West’s megadrought is so bad authorities are airlifting water for animals. What those figures miss are the countless plants and animals that also depend on water to survive in the harsh terrain of the western US. The megadrought is threatening wildlife, and state agencies are pouring in resources to keep important species alive — in some cases, by flying water in helicopters to remote, artificial watering holes where bears, sheep, and other thirsty animals seek relief.

New England braces for first hurricane in 30 years as Henri barrels toward coast.

GOP views of major U.S. institutions take sharp negative turn, survey suggests. Republicans' view of major U.S. institutions including banks, large corporations and tech companies turned increasingly negative within the past two years, a new survey released Friday suggests. Those findings come as Republicans increasingly take aim at major U.S. corporations and educational institutions over "wokeness" as those entities face increased internal and external pressure to take stances on social issues, voting rights and vaccine mandates.

Tesla developing human-like 'friendly' robot to perform menial tasks. “It's basically going to start dealing with work that is boring, repetitive and dangerous," said Musk. "What is the work that people would least like to do?"

I’ll Take “Quit in Disgrace” for $800. Unpopular new “Jeopardy!” host Mike Richards abruptly resigns.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.