Day: August 2, 2021

Pioneer Days Festival

 Pioneer Days Festival Update

Plans are underway to have the biggest and best 3-day holiday event that Jefferson has ever seen.

A committee was formed some weeks ago as an off-shoot of the Opera House Theatre Players board to formulate plans for the fist-ever Pioneer Days Festival to be held on the long Labor Day 

weekend occurring Sept. 4,5 and 6.  Committee members are Sara Davis, Doug Weir, Jim Blackburn,  Hollis Shadden, and Gary Endsley of Jefferson;  Bob and Lana Shaw, Ann Tyrina of Marshall, and JoeTodaro and Lisa Daye of Shreveport.  Players president Marcia Thomas serves as the committee chair.

According to Ms. Thomas, “everything is shaping up nicely for a very original and quite different event in town where no motorized vehicles will be used in the parade that kicks off at 10 am the morning of Saturday, September 4.  We are still looking for horse-back riders in groups or  as  individuals to participate in the parade and will offer a prize for the one looking most like an early citizen of Jefferson in the 1850s to 1890s when horses and buggies were the transportation. We are taking this back to the early days before the riverboats really became mainstream.  We are, in fact, trying to replicate much of those periods in all the events we have planned which includes a cowboy dance that early Saturday evening where a prize will again be given to the person who  is decked out most closely to the period,  and then a river-front Dutch Oven Cooking demo with cooks that dress the period and offers visitors a chance to sample the good food they have just cooked up!  In addition, there will be entertainment on site as well.  It will be situated in the area of the boat launch on the riverfront. I’d also like to add that the community has been so generous  as to help fund this event by donations to our 501(c)3 community theatre. Response has been excellent and we expect more to come in as well. We are thankful and excited!”.

Ms. Thomas went on to say that there will be plenty of time for visitors to walk around Jefferson and visit the stores and restaurants as well as take the train ride, the boat ride, or pay a visit to the Safari Park. Several times during Sat and Sun the re-creation of a violent confrontation between one of the Marion County’s early Sheriffs and a man who killed another is going to be held in the  exact spot where it occurred, the old wagon yard which is smack in the middle of the town.  The staged confrontation is being put together by Players board member Jim Blackburn, a retired investigator from Collin County.

Highlight of the 3- day event will be a  concert performed by the famous Sons of the Pioneers singing sextet that will serenade the audience with the grand old songs of yesteryear including “Cool, Cool, Waters” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” among others.  According to Thomas, the first two-row VIP tickets are sold out but general seating tickets are still available.

The concert will be held in the City-owned Visitor Building near the riverfront.  Tickets may be purchased at The Willow Tree, 903-601-4515 or online at: http://www.JeffersonOperaHouseTheatrePlayers.com.  

More information on any of the activities is available by calling 903-665-8243.

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CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 08/02/2021

The Tuesday count should be more accurate.

FROM NYT (GREGG AND SMITH DON’T REPORT CASES EVERY DAY)

TWO MORE UPCOMING FREE VACCINE DAYS, ONE AT WILEY AND ONE AT TSTC

COMMUNITY WELCOME

FROM BECKERS A NEW VARIANT:

The Miami hospital sees uptick in COVID-19 variant first identified in Colombia

B.1.621, a coronavirus variant first detected in Colombia, has been detected in about 10 percent of COVID-19 patients at Miami-based Jackson Health System…Frequent travel between Colombia and Miami may be responsible for the recent uptick…The strain was first identified in Colombia in January. In the U.S., B.1.621 made up about 2.1 percent of sequenced cases as of July 17, according to CDC data cited by The Washington Post. The agency has not labeled it as a variant of concern or a variant of interest…In the U.K., 16 cases of the variant have been reported, FOX reports. There, health officials consider it a “variant under investigation” and have said there’s been no indication of community transmission so far, or that the strain causes more severe illness. 

FROM HOPKINS:

1. PFIZER-BIONTECH EFFICACY/THIRD DOSE On July 28, medRxiv published preprint data from Pfizer-BioNTech showing the efficacy of its vaccine to prevent COVID-19 declined about 6% every 2 months over a period of 6 months. The data were collected from more than 40,000 clinical trial participants in Europe and the Americas. From 7 days to <2 months post-dose 2, vaccine efficacy was 96.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 93.3-98.1); from 2 months to <4 months, efficacy was 90.1% (95% CI 86.6-92.9); and from 4 months to 6 months, efficacy was 83.7% (95% CI 74.7-89.9). Overall, vaccine efficacy was 91.1% (95% CI 88.8-93.0) for preventing symptomatic COVID-19, and 96.7% (95% CI 80.3-99.9) against severe disease. The companies said the data show the vaccine to be safe and highly efficacious in preventing COVID-19 through 6 months post-second dose in diverse populations but further data are needed to know whether efficacy continues to wane or whether “booster” doses will be necessary, and, if so, the timing of such doses. 

Many experts said the not-yet-peer-reviewed data are reassuring, showing that people who are fully vaccinated likely are adequately protected. However, if the observed decline in efficacy steadily continues over time, it would fall below the internationally accepted threshold of 50% within 18 months of vaccination. This would bolster Pfizer-BioNTech’s claim that an additional shot of its vaccine will be needed to maintain long-term protection. The data also do not address the vaccine’s efficacy against the now widespread Delta variant. On July 28, Pfizer officials presented unpublished data in a quarterly earnings report to investors showing a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could boost neutralizing antibody titers against the Delta variant in a small sample of individuals. The data show a more than 5-fold increase in post-second dose titers among vaccinees aged 18 to 55 and a more than 11-fold increase among those ages 65 to 85. The officials said they plan to seek authorization with the US FDA for a third dose by mid-August and indicated clinical studies of an experimental Delta variant vaccine are awaiting regulatory approval but also are expected to begin in August.

2. Pfizer Data Shows Vaccine Protection Remains Robust Six Months After Vaccination Even as the Company Argues That Boosters Will be Needed (Washington Post) On Wednesday, Pfizer published data showing that its coronavirus shots remained robustly protective six months after vaccination, providing nearly complete protection against severe disease. Pfizer’s paper, which has not yet undergone peer review, said a slight drop in efficacy against any symptomatic cases of COVID-19 from 96% protection in the first two months after vaccination to 84% after four months. Company officials also presented data showing that a third shot could boost disease-fighting antibodies many times higher than the level achieved by the standard two-dose regimen. Outside vaccine experts described the data as encouraging, even if they believe boosters will be necessary at some point for the general population and probably sooner for some groups, such as people with compromised immune systems

AND LAST BUT NOT LEASED:

FOR CHEMISTS ALCOHOL IS NOT A PROBLEM.  IT’S A SOLUTION.

HAVE WE SEEN THIS ONE? 

MY WIFE IS STILL HOT!  IT JUST COMES IN FLASHES NOW

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