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Pandemics: A History

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Title: Pandemics: A History

Author: Elvidge, Alex

Publisher: Golden Meteorite Press

Language: English

Subjects: Non Fiction, Medicine

Collection: History

Description: If there has been one constant throughout the history of human life, it’s disease.

Disease-causing pathogens have always been present in our world and will undoubtedly continue to exist for the foreseeable future. This book examines the history of major plagues and pandemics from the 5th century CE to the present-day COVID-19 crisis. Each chapter tackles an individual pandemic and examines its causes, scope, and impact. Denial, prejudice, and scapegoating are societal patterns that consistently recur in response to the threat of disease. However, necessity breads innovation, and past pandemics have spurred us to develop new technology, medical advancements, improved public health policies, and more practical infrastructure. Misinformation, however, is the enemy of progress, and learning how our predecessors responded when confronted with similar events helps us both understand and better prepare for present and future crises. COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic that humanity will experience. History demonstrates that we have overcome outbreaks of disease time and time again, and we will continue to do so using the lessons we have learned from our past. There will always be infectious diseases present in our world, but the casualties and scale of future pandemics will depend entirely on how well we can learn from our previous mistakes.

Employees Say Cal State’s COVID-19 Policies Are Falling Short

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Kim Neal, right, is chair of the California State University Employees Union at CSU Los Angeles. The union represents clerical and IT workers, custodial staff and others at all 23 CSU campues. (Courtesy Kim Neal)

Following a surge of coronavirus outbreaks at California State University campuses in Chico and San Diego, employees of Cal State campuses in the L.A. area are expressing concerns that COVID-19 protocols are inconsistent and could lead to further spread

The protocols currently in place give the presidents of each of the 23 Cal State campuses the authority to develop their own pandemic guidelines. While the university system argues that campus-specific protocols allow for more flexibility to respond to different conditions at different schools, critics say a systemwide policy would send a stronger message.

“A lot of our members are very concerned about exposure to COVID-19 while they’re working on campus,” said Cal State Los Angeles employee Kim Neal, the school’s chapter chair of the California State University Employees Union. The union represents 16,000 clerical workers, custodians, IT workers and other employees in the CSU system.

“Right now there’s no measuring of temperatures. There’s no self-checks,” said Neal, an instructional support technician in CSLA’s Department of Television and Film. “There’s no arrival checks, there’s nothing of that in place that we’re aware of.”

A directive from the chancellor’s office to the campuses, she said, would reduce the risk of virus exposure to her members.

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Pete Rauch, Vice President of Organizing with the California State University Employees Union, at a public hearing in 2019. (Courtesy Pete Rauch)

The union’s vice president, Pete Rauch, said COVID-19 guidelines issued by Cal State Chancellor Tim White should have been a mandate for each campus, rather than suggestions.

“If you’re going to return students to San Francisco State and you’re going to return students and staff to San Diego State, what’s the difference?” he asked.

“Let’s just say that I show up on a campus and then it turns out a couple days later, I was infected,” Rauch said. “And while I was walking around on the campus, you know, I went to two or three different buildings. I don’t think that there’s a uniformity in how that’s reported, not to the campus and not back to the employees either.”

The outbreaks at Chico and San Diego led both campuses to cancel their few remaining in-person classes, and Chico cleared its dorms last week.

As of Thursday, Chico State’s tally of student and employee COVID-19 cases totaled 156. As of the same day, San Diego State said it had counted 440 confirmed cases related to employees.

GAPS IN COVID PROTOCOLS

The way different campuses check for COVID-19 symptoms among people on campus underlines the variations in protocols and deadlines.

At Cal Poly Pomona, approximately 500 employees and students are on the campus on a given weekday. Only a fraction of on-campus housing has been opened and most employees have been asked to work from home, said Leticia Gutierrez-Lopez, the university’s Associate Vice President for Student Health and Well-being.

“I think we started very cautiously,” she said.

Cal Poly Pomona’s protocols require students and employees who need to be on campus to fill out a web-based symptoms checker. The university will be moving to an app soon called #CampusClear, Gutierrez-Lopez said.

“I think we’ve been able to manage so far by using the screening and also by using safety training for students and staff,” she said.

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The app-based symptom checker for students and employees who will be at the CSU Dominguez Hills campus. (screenshot)

At the opposite end of Los Angeles County, CSU Dominguez Hills, which has about 200 staff and students on campus on an average weekday, reopened without a similar symptom checker in place, but this week officials rolled out a symptom screener on its iToro app. Students who will be on campus, in the dorms or to attend the few in-person classes are required to use the app to answer questions regarding virus symptoms.

Not all campuses post tallies of campus-related cases. Dominguez Hills posts it’s count here. Cal Poly Pomona added new cases on Thursday to its count here.

Still, employees are not required to answer those same questions. The university says it’s talking to the employee unions for sign off.

“We’re just trying to make sure that we understand who our audience is, and that we’re asking the right questions,” said Mike Williams, the environmental health and safety manager at Dominguez Hills.

CSULA’s COVID-19 plan outlines various cleaning and sanitizing methods to take place on campus, and says students will be instructed to carry out self-checks but the plan does not describe any mandatory checks for people on campus.

“Since March, Cal State L.A. has sent repeated communications to students and employees regarding COVID-19, including preventative measures and signs and symptoms of the disease,” CSULA’s communications office said in an email.

“The university has also provided information on self-screening, which can be found on this webpage. Employees and students have also been instructed on what to do if they are diagnosed with coronavirus or have been exposed to others who have been diagnosed with the disease. Signage has been posted on buildings across campus and placed along walkways and other open areas,” the office said.

AUTONOMY AND CENTRALIZED DIRECTION

Critics question whether that’s enough.

Audrey Dow, vice president at the Campaign for College Opportunity, says autonomy serves campuses well when it comes to setting curriculum to address local educational needs — but it hasn’t served the campuses well during the pandemic.

“Students really need to have a consistent strong message coming from the Chancellor’s Office,” Dow said. “We’re not sending a strong message to students about what they need to do in terms of precautions once they get onto campus.” That could lead to outbreaks at different campuses.

The Cal State Chancellor’s Office said autonomy is meant to address campuses’ regional needs.

The office sent campuses an 18-page guide to protocols as the fall semester began. In a memo sent last week, the Chancellor’s office urged campuses to report and investigate new cases.

“Each of the campuses has developed its own repopulation plan and there are differences in each plan related to the variance in enrollment, programs, facilities, etc. across the campuses,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesman for Chancellor White.

He said the chancellor’s office is not keeping an official tally of COVID-19 cases at the 23 campuses.

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Even $3.5 Million Couldn’t Make Seema Verma the Feminist Hero of the Trump Administration

Today, Politico published a story on the findings of the Congressional probe into walking conflict-of-interest Seema Verma, who readers may recall as the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid stooge who asked taxpayers to foot the bill for a $325 jar of moisturizer, among other luxury items. fpc7onnvafwujesygzsw.jpg

Today, Politico published a story on the findings of the Congressional probe into walking conflict-of-interest Seema Verma, who readers may recall as the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid stooge who asked taxpayers to foot the bill for a $325 jar of moisturizer, among other luxury items.

Read more…

The Boldness of Barbara Lee: Why the Congresswoman Is Still Pushing ‘Against the Odds’ for Systemic Change

Last week, Lee, along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and her mentee, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), put forward a bill that would require the federal government to name systemic racism as a public health crisis, and require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study and target problems like gentrification and police brutality through the lens of health. mccul02txgooioyjgxcv.jpg

Say what you will about Barbara Lee, but one thing you can never accuse the California congresswoman of is backing down from a fight.

Read more…

Russia’s Foreign Ministry lodges complaint with German Embassy over ‘unfounded allegations and ultimatums’ in connection with Navalny’s poisoning

Has President Trump finished reading the evidence on poisoning yet?

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Germany’s Ambassador to Russia, Géza Andreas von Geyr, to its office on Wednesday, September 9, to “convey strong protests” in connection with the situation surrounding opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who is in intensive care in Berlin.

Belarusian riot police violently arrested demonstrators at a women’s rally in support of oppositionist Maria Kolesnikova

The solidarity rally mainly involved women, some of whom brought their children. Despite the fact that Belarusian riot police typically only arrest men during protests, they violently detained women at the rally, including elderly ones. On September 9, Maria Kolesnikova’s father told journalists that she had been jailed in Minsk.

On the evening of September 8, a solidarity rally in support of Belarusian opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova (Maryia Kalesnikava) took place near the Kamaroŭski Market in Minsk. Kolesnikova was abducted by unidentified men in the center of the Belarusian capital on the morning of September 7. A day later, Belarusian state media reported that she had been arrested at the border with Ukraine. The solidarity rally mainly involved women, some of whom brought their children. Despite the fact that Belarusian riot police typically only arrest men during protests, they violently detained women at the rally, including elderly ones. On September 9, Maria Kolesnikova’s father told journalists that she had been jailed in Minsk.

Eagle Rock in Los Angeles, California

The view from the neighborhood

If you’ve driven on California‘s Ventura Freeway between Pasadena and Glendale, you’ve certainly noticed Eagle Rock looming over the neighborhood that shares its namesake. However, did you notice the Eagle?

The conglomerate rock formation features a massive indentation along its face. During the right time of day, when the sun hits the rock at the perfect angle, a shadow is cast on the indentation that resembles an eagle in mid-flight. It appears as though the eagle is flying straight out of the rock itself. 

Eagle Rock was originally known as La Piedra Gorda (Fat Rock), but many locals preferred to call it Eagle Rock, which lent a much nicer name to the neighborhood emerging under the rock’s playful shadows. During the early 20th-century, Eagle Rock was the site of yearly Easter services, held at the very top of the massive rock.