Society's Child

With 22 deaths in population of 5M, New Zealand races to track origin as new COVID-19 cases jump to 13

ewn.co.za
Thu, 13 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC

Police have been helping to implement a three-day lockdown in Auckland since midday Wednesday as teams of health workers raced to find the cluster's origin. A coronavirus cluster in Auckland has risen to 17 cases, New Zealand health officials said Wednesday, raising the prospect of an extended lockdown in the country's biggest city to battle the resurgent virus.

National health chief Ashley Bloomfield said there were 13 new confirmed infections, all linked to four family members found on Tuesday, ending New Zealand's record of 102 days without community transmission of the disease.

Police have been helping to implement a three-day lockdown in Auckland since midday Wednesday as teams of health workers raced to find the cluster's origin and ramped up testing in the city.

Bloomfield said among the new cases was a student at one of New Zealand's largest high schools, attended by more than 3,000 children.

Comment: For the bigger picture of how this small number of cases is playing out in New Zealand, see also:

New Zealand acclaimed 'world leader' in handling Covid-19 as it announces enforced relocation of 'infected' to 'quarantine centers'

Georgia shop blasted for 'racist' promo that waived fee for people of color

Joshua Rhett Miller
New York Post
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 10:19 UTC

A vintage clothing store in Georgia is getting backlash online for a promotion blasted as "racist" that waived a $20 fee for non-white shoppers.

In a since-deleted Facebook post, Civvies on Broughton in Savannah said it would require a $20 refundable deposit to book an appointment at the boutique, while people of color would be exempt from the new policy.

"As a mostly white staff with white ownership, we do not feel comfortable upholding a digital and financial barrier which could prevent BIPOC from shopping at our store at this time on top of the limitations already made by online booking," the store announced last week.

The shop, which sells new and "recycled" clothing, told potential white customers that they could decline to pay the deposit, but would be contacted by a booking manager to "discuss other options," the post read. "If you are white and refuse to put down a deposit because you believe our policy is unethical you will not be accepted for an appointment," the store's now-deleted post read.

Facebook post sparks violence in Bengaluru, India - 3 dead

Venkatesha Babu
Hindustan Times
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 18:10 UTC

© PTI
Police stand next to the charred remains of a vehicle vandalised by a mob over a social media post by a relative of a MLA, in Bengaluru.

The youth who had allegedly posted the content has been arrested by the city police. 60 cops have sustained injuries due to stone and bottle pelting.

Three people were killed in Bengaluru after police opened fire as clashes broke out in parts of the city on Tuesday night after a youth allegedly posted derogatory content inciting hatred on Facebook.

Members of the minority community pelted stones at the residence of Congress MLA Akhanda Shrinivasa Murthy, DJ Halli and KG Halli police stations. The youth, who is said to be associated with the Congress lawmaker, has been arrested.

Among the three dead persons, two have been identified as Wajid Khan (20) and Yaseen Pasha (20). The third person remains unidentified. The bodies are currently kept at the Bowring Hospital morgue as the authorities will conduct Covid-19 tests and post-mortem before handing them over to the family members.

New York's true nursing home death toll cloaked in secrecy

Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky, Meghan Hoyer
AP
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 17:52 UTC

Riverdale Nursing Home in the Bronx appears, on paper, to have escaped the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, with an official state count of just four deaths in its 146-bed facility.

The truth, according to the home, is far worse: 21 dead, most transported to hospitals before they succumbed.

"It was a cascading effect," administrator Emil Fuzayov recalled. "One after the other."

New York's coronavirus death toll in nursing homes, already among the highest in the nation, could actually be a significant undercount. Unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.

That statistic could add thousands to the state's official care home death toll of just over 6,600. But so far the administration of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has refused to divulge the number, leading to speculation the state is manipulating the figures to make it appear it is doing better than other states and to make a tragic situation less dire.

"That's a problem, bro," state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Democrat, told New York Health Commissioner Howard Zucker during a legislative hearing on nursing homes earlier this month. "It seems, sir, that in this case you are choosing to define it differently so that you can look better."

State police to leave Portland after two weeks of protecting federal courthouse targeted by vandalism

New York Post
Fri, 14 Aug 2020 17:26 UTC

Capt. Timothy R. Fox oregon state police antifa riots portland

Oregon State Police are leaving Portland after a two-week assignment to help protect a federal courthouse that's been a target of protesters during months of conflict in Oregon's largest city.

The state police are "continually reassessing our resources and the needs of our partner agencies and at this time we are inclined to move those resources back to counties where prosecution of criminal conduct is still a priority," Capt. Timothy R. Fox told television stations. "Last night was our last night in Portland."

Nights of unrest that increasingly targeted the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse previously prompted President Donald Trump to dispatch U.S. agents to guard the building in July, which reinvigorated Black Lives Matter demonstrations and often ended in violent clashes.

Les Wexner agrees to give written deposition in Epstein-related case

Ben Feuerherd
New York Post
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 17:46 UTC

Billionaire fashion mogul Les Wexner has agreed to answer written deposition questions to prove he had no knowledge of an extortion scheme by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre in a legal battle between her and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

In a newly unsealed letter to a Manhattan federal judge, Wexner's attorneys said they offered as a compromise to have him answer written questions related to Dershowitz's claim that Giuffre tried to extort money from him because of his ties to Epstein.

They added that Dershowitz viewed the proposal as "unacceptable" and they knew he would oppose their motion for the written deposition.

In a legal battle with Giuffre, Dershowitz is hoping to show that she tried to extort Wexner, the former head of Victoria's Secret's parent company who has ties to Epstein.

Giuffre, who says she was abused by Epstein in the early 2000s, alleged the multimillionaire pedophile lent her out to be abused by other powerful men in his orbit, including Dershowitz.

Giuffre sued Dershowitz for defamation, alleging he accused her of falsely claiming she was abused by him to extort money from Wexner.

Oops! England quietly drops 1.3m Covid tests from tally after death toll revised down by 5k

Sarah Marsh, Caelainn Barr
The Guardian
Fri, 14 Aug 2020 17:29 UTC

The government has quietly removed 1.3m coronavirus tests from its data because of double counting, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of the testing figures.

In the government's daily coronavirus update on Wednesday, it announced it had lowered the figure for "tests made available" by about 10% and discontinued the metric.

An update on the page read: "An adjustment of -1,308,071 has been made to the historic data for the 'tests made available' metric. The adjustments have been made as a result of more accurate data collection and reporting processes recently being adopted within pillar 2."

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the changes affected data reported between 14 May and 12 August. It said there had been "a double-counting of test kits that had been dispatched", "which had not been removed from the lab's processed data".

Comment: This comes two days after the death toll was revised down by five thousand because of similar 'errors':

Oops? UK to reduce Covid deaths by 10% because of 'counting errors'

And yet France will now be added to the UK's list of quarantine countries. Because it is apparently now necessary to "keep infections down", which is nonsense. The stated goal of lockdowns and quarantines has been to "flatten the curve" in order to free up hospital resources. There's no problem with hospital resources now, so the goalposts are simply being moved in order to terrorize the population.

Apple, Disney, others reportedly push back on call with White House over WeChat ban

David Priest
CNET
Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:15 UTC

US companies are nervous about government-imposed limits on use of the popular Chinese app, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Disney, Apple, Walmart and nearly a dozen other companies called the White House on Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Their goals, according to the report, were to get more clarity on President Donald Trump's executive order banning "any transaction that is related to WeChat" and to encourage the administration to "narrow the order as it is implemented over the coming weeks," per anonymous sources.

Comment:

Lockdown and underfunding creates longest NHS waiting list for hospital treatment ever recorded

The Guardian
Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:53 UTC

The number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment in England is at the highest level since records began. New figures show numbers rose to more than 1.85 million people in June, topping the 1.79 million recorded in August 2007.

Data from NHS England also showed urgent cancer referrals dropped by a fifth on the same month last year, rising to 43% for breast cancer.

A total of 153,134 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in June, down from 194,047 in June last year - a drop of 21%. Urgent breast cancer referrals decreased from 14,885 to 8,495.

The figures are "worryingly low" and suggest "an alarming backlog of undiagnosed cancer" as well as a growing number of people yet to start treatment, said Sara Bainbridge, head of policy and influence at Macmillan Cancer Support.

Comment: See also:

Professor who may be fired for refusing to undergo diversity training is not backing down

Charles Hilu
The College Fix
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 00:01 UTC

A professor at Converse College, a private, liberal arts school in South Carolina, has refused to complete required diversity trainings, and he may be suspended or lose his job over it.

But Associate Professor of Politics Jeffrey Poelvoorde, who has taught at the college for 34 years, said it's worth the fight. He recently missed the deadline to complete the trainings.

"I have tenure, but our faculty handbook allows the suspension or abolition of tenure for six reasons ... including insubordination," Poelvoorde told The College Fix. "I believe that's what they'll act on. They'll consider this a formal [abrogation] of my contract by insubordination."

Comment: See also:

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Society's Child

With 22 deaths in population of 5M, New Zealand races to track origin as new COVID-19 cases jump to 13

Georgia shop blasted for 'racist' promo that waived fee for people of color

Facebook post sparks violence in Bengaluru, India - 3 dead

New York's true nursing home death toll cloaked in secrecy

State police to leave Portland after two weeks of protecting federal courthouse targeted by vandalism

Les Wexner agrees to give written deposition in Epstein-related case

Oops! England quietly drops 1.3m Covid tests from tally after death toll revised down by 5k

Apple, Disney, others reportedly push back on call with White House over WeChat ban

Lockdown and underfunding creates longest NHS waiting list for hospital treatment ever recorded

Professor who may be fired for refusing to undergo diversity training is not backing down

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