2020

James Harris	2:20 PM (1 hour ago)
to Ron

From NORTH EAST TEXAS HEALTH

Covid counts for 6 Nov.

Gregg County include 16 confirmed and 52 probable for a daily new total of 68 cases.

Smith County reports 15 confirmed, 70 probably for 85 new cases.

3 confirmed cases. No matter where tests are run, positive results are reported to the patients county of record. “Recoveries” are non hospitalized Covid positive cases after 14 days. They are not routinely retested. At this time, I don’t know how death locations are tabulated–county of death or county of residence?

MNM reports 3 “confirmed” cases in Harrison County for 5 Nov.

Click here to enlarge the table

(J. Harris: We are holding our own in TSA “G.” If we continue to be smart, we may have less trouble than some areas and not get in a bind like we did in the summer.)

WHAT TO DO WITH PEOPLE WHO CAN’T SMELL

(J. Harris: Remember that diminished ability to “smell things” goes with aging. Should you keep me off an airplane if I flunk a smell test?)

What can we expect from first-generation COVID-19 vaccines?

“Crucially, it will be important to communicate to policy makers and the general public that first-generation vaccines are only one tool in the overall public health response to COVID-19 and unlikely to be the ultimate solution that many expect.”

(J. Harris: A Sept. article that I missed. This summary is worth your time and is readable.)

COVID-19 lung damage caused by persistence of ‘abnormal cells’

(J. Harris: An autopsy series of some interest)

‘COVID’ fee showing up on medical bills across the country

FROM JOHNS HOPKINS REVIEWS

1. Review Finds Almost 20% of COVID-19 Patients Only Show Gastrointestinal Symptoms (Eureka Alert) The findings of the review suggest abdominal radiologists need to remain vigilant during the pandemic while imaging patients. Gastrointestinal symptoms associated with COVID-19 vary widely but can include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and generalized abdominal pain. The researchers who conducted the review report that 18 per cent of patients presented with such symptoms, while 16 per cent of COVID-19 cases may only present with gastrointestinal symptoms.

(J. Harris: In other words, almost 20% of Covid cases had ONLY

gastrointestinal symptoms, not respiratory! It’s getting hard to distinguish between a hangover and Covid, or both.)

2. Longitudinal Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on High-touch Surfaces in a Community Setting (MedRxiv) We conducted longitudinal swab sampling of high-touch non-porous surfaces in a Massachusetts town during a COVID-19 outbreak from April to June 2020. Twenty-nine of 348 (8.3 %) surface samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2, including crosswalk buttons, trash can handles, and door handles of essential business entrances (grocery store, liquor store, bank, and gas station). The estimated risk of infection from touching a contaminated surface was low (less than 5 in 10,000), suggesting fomites play a MINIMAL role in SARS-CoV-2 community transmission.

3. Quick COVID-19 Healers Sustain Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Production

Highlights:

SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses range from negligible to robust in mild COVID-19

Some individuals maintain stable or increased SARS-CoV-2 IgG, while most decline

Those who sustain virus-specific IgG production tend to have shorter disease courses

Virus-specific B cells from “sustainers” have more SHM early after disease resolution

Summary:

Antibodies are key immune effectors that confer protection against pathogenic threats. The nature and longevity of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection is not well defined. We charted longitudinal antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in 92 subjects after symptomatic COVID-19. Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are unimodally distributed over a broad range, with symptom severity correlating directly with virus-specific antibody magnitude. Seventy-six subjects followed longitudinally to ∼100 days demonstrated marked heterogeneity in antibody duration dynamics. Virus-specific IgG decayed substantially in most individuals, whereas a distinct subset had stable or increasing antibody levels in the same timeframe despite similar initial antibody magnitudes. These individuals with increasing responses recovered rapidly from symptomatic COVID-19 disease, harbored increased somatic mutations in virus-specific memory B cell antibody genes, and had persistent higher frequencies of previously activated CD4+ T cells. These findings illuminate an efficient immune phenotype that connects rapid symptom clearance to differential antibody durability dynamics.

(J. Harris: This study will be ongoing and should be of help in vaccine design and development.)

4. A Rapid Virus Test Falters in People Without Symptoms, Study Finds (New York Times) One strategy has involved the widespread use of rapid tests, which forgo sophisticated equipment and can return results in minutes. Purchased in bulk by the federal government and shipped nationwide, millions of these products have already found their way into clinics, nursing homes, schools, athletic teams’ facilities and more, buoying hopes that the tests might hasten a return to normalcy. But a new study casts doubt on whether rapid tests perform as promised under real-world conditions, especially when used in people without symptoms.

5. Remdesivir for the Treatment of Covid-19 — Final Report (NEJM) We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of intravenous remdesivir in adults who were hospitalized with Covid-19 and had evidence of lower respiratory tract infection. Our data show that remdesivir was superior to placebo in shortening the time to recovery in adults who were hospitalized with Covid-19 and had evidence of lower respiratory tract infection.

(J. Harris: This was a double blind study, which means the doctors didn’t know which patients got the experimental medicine. Ultimately, the data showed that hospitalization was 5 days shorter for patients treated with remdesivir. Side effects were actually higher in placebo patients. Fewer treated patients who received remdesivir progressed to a need for respirators. Apparently no one died in either group. Had I Covid with lung involvement, I would welcome the treatment, as did President Trump.)

2. United States Tops 100,000 New Virus Cases in a Day for First Time (Washington Post) The United States reported more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Seventeen states — including Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, Montana, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana and West Virginia — on Wednesday reported record numbers of patients hospitalized with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. In many of these states, hospital capacity is under serious threat.

A FEW MORE OLDIES, ANYONE?

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. Paul, why do Hell’s Angels wear leather?

A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?

A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

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Alternate plans for annual Community Veterans Day Commemoration

Alternate plans for annual Community Veterans Day Commemoration

In order to reduce risk and help to ensure the health and safety of all veterans and community members during the pandemic, the Annual Community Veterans Day planning committee consulted, as they do each year, with local veterans and veteran organizations and they made the following alternate plans for this year’s Veterans Day commemoration.

Instead of the annual Community Veterans Day program, there will be a brief Patriotic Vehicle Procession around the Harrison County Courthouse Square to honor the brave service and sacrifice of all Veterans.

The slow procession around the Square will take place from 11:00am–11:15am on Wednesday, November 11, 2020 in downtown Marshall, Texas.

Christina Anderson, who heads up the coordination of the Community Veterans Day commemoration every years, shared: “ As our community knows, the annual Veterans Day program in Marshall and Harrison County has always been held at the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11th month. For many years, the program was held at the Marshall Mall and, more recently, at ETBU and then, last year, at Memorial City Hall.”

Ms. Anderson continued: “But, this year due to our wanting to make sure everyone stays safe during the pandemic and so that we comply with all the important health guidelines, the planning committee invites veterans, veteran organization, civic organizations, and community members to participate in or watch a brief slow procession of vehicles around the Courthouse Square at 11 o’clock on Veterans Day. This procession will be a way that we, as community members, can gather together safely during the pandemic and show our deep appreciation to all veterans for their courageous service and sacrifice for our nation.”

Ms. Anderson explained that community members and veteran or civic organizations are encouraged to display on their vehicles signs of appreciation to veterans and/or American flags and flags of the various military branches.

To reduce the risk of spreading the virus, all participants are asked to remain in their vehicles before and throughout the brief procession around the Square.

Here’s how the logistics will work:

· Those wishing to participate by having a vehicle in the brief Veterans Day procession on November 11 are urged to call (903) 938-8373 or email cca@andersonpartners.org to let the planning committee know that they wish to have a vehicle in the procession. Please contact by 3:00pm on November 10.

· Then, between 10:30am and 11:00am on Wednesday, November 11, those participating in the procession will gather in the parking lot on the EAST side of the Courthouse.

· At 11:00am, the East Texas Patriot Guard Riders, in coordination with the Marshall Police Department, will lead the procession of vehicles, departing from the east parking lot, and slowly process around the Courthouse Square twice. Following the second time around the Square, the procession will stop for the playing of “Taps.” The commemoration will then be concluded.

· Veterans wishing to observe the brief procession on the Square itself will be able to park in the parking lot on the WEST side of the historic Courthouse and will be able watch the procession from inside their vehicles. Since Veterans Day is a City, County, and federal holiday, there should be less traffic on the Courthouse Square that day.

· Those participating and watching the procession can listen to patriotic music during the procession in the safety of their own vehicles by tuning in to local radio station KMHT 103.9 . KMHT has graciously shared that they will play patriotic music for the procession.

· For those wishing to view from home, the procession will also be live streamed via Facebook Live by the Marshall News Messenger and KMHT.

· KMHT 103.9 will also broadcast a Veterans Day program at 11:15am, immediately following their coverage of and music for the brief procession on the Square.

On behalf of the Community Veterans Day planning committee, Ms. Anderson expressed deep gratitude for the kind assistance of the local veterans organizations such as the East Texas Patriot Guard Riders, American Legion Post #267, American Legion Post #878, and other local veterans groups. She also expressed appreciation to Harrison County, the City of Marshall, KMHT-Radio, Marshall News Messenger, and Meadowbrook Funeral Home for their kind assistance with the procession.

Ms. Anderson concluded: “Most importantly, we want to ensure that the logistics for the procession will provide for the health and safety of all veterans and participants involved. But, we also want to make sure that we, as a community, don’t miss an opportunity to express how profoundly we appreciate our Veterans and all they have given and sacrificed for our nation. We appreciate them, not just on Veterans Day, but every day.”

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Early-30, the third morning after Election Day

Early-30, the third morning after Election Day

By George Smith — 11/06/2020

My mind roils, as does my gut. America is hurting, its people on edge. Regardless of party, regardless of what side of which issue individuals stand, we should all want the same thing: Stability and peace for our nation and an end to the partisan rancor which has rendered our nation divided at home and impotent on the global stage.

In business terms, each party has a brand problem.

For decades, the recognizable brand for the Democratic Party could have included a photo of a working man/woman/couple, standing in front of a house with required white picket fence (“SOLD” sign prominently displayed), a vista of American the beautiful in the background with music promising a better tomorrow for all playing over the tag line: “All the people, all the time.”

The Republican’s consistent message over the same timeframe could have been: A soldier with matinee-idol looks with his perfect-from-casting family — June Cleaver-looking mom, children (one of each gender), standing in front of a house with the pretequisite white picket fence (Republican branding consultant assume the house belongs to them), the steel-blue sky slowly turning into an American flag, strains of Kate Smith’s “God Bless America” rifting in the background.

The truth is only half of Americans are buying any of it. Citizens are not buying the promises, not buying the hype, not embracing the message of the two major parties. Half, almost exactly half of the voting public, is saying “NUTS!” to both parties, leaving a divided, hurting and angry citizenry.

The hard truth is: Americans don’t fully trust either party to do the right thing for ALL of America. As this is written, there’s a strong possibility Democrats will have control of the two houses, House of Representatives and the White House; Republicans will control the Senate.

There you have it, James Madison’s belief in a government ruled by checks and balances rather than by sheer will or applied force.

With a recalcitrant Senate, a Joe Biden presidency will fail; without compromise on key issues — pandemic, economy, global relationships, national intrastructure, healthcare — there is little he can actually accomplish.

Close your eyes and hark back to the last six years of Obama. The operative word was “stagnation”. America. Stagnation.

It is against the visceral nature of today’s petty, partisan, party politicians to do a single thing, to back a single issue or program backed by the Party With Another Name.

The GOP thought is: Helping Joe Biden weakens our position in 2024.

Understood. But…but what about the residents of the nation, ALL residents of the nation? The party opposition to any idea from the opposition is tighter than Dick’s hand band.*

Simply, what are the plans to push Americans forward for the next four years?

The last six years of the Obama Administration and the last two of Trump’s reign were fraught with unseemly infighting and a “congress” of executive orders and no meaningful cooperation between elected party-oriented public servants.

That has to stop. Which should be a priority, the needs of Americans — ALL Americans. The working orders for each party has been to ensure the opposition fails on every front so “our” party is strengthened in time for the next election cycle.

The projected election outcome shows decisively that Americans don’t trust either party to do the right thing.

The infighting has already started with Senate Speaker Mitch McConnell promising that a potential President Biden better choose “good” cabinet candidates or they wouldn’t be approved by the Senate.

Sigh. BIG sigh.

It is starting to look like, regardless of who ends up as president,this country’s leaders would rather call each other names and engage in epic tongue-lashings to ensure the words make the nightly news, rather that do the job for which they were elected: Serve the people…all the people.

Stoo. Just stop already.

* Tighter than Dick’s hat band — An old southern idiom. Could be used to identify a place that is empty, a person who is wound up, or any number of situations where the word “tight” is used. Nobody seems to know who Dick was. Apparently he had a tough time keeping his hat on his head.

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