Claims And Issues

DR. FAUCI AND THE REAL STORY OF THE GREATEST GENERATION.

On this the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, the Greatest Generation demands that the real story of Dr. Fauci be told.

          Newspaper columnists and cable talking heads have wondered why Republican Members of Congress and other Republican officials and talking heads attack Dr. Fauci over the handling of the Pandemic.  Dr. Fauci is not responsible, that's why.  The attacks on him are a distraction of course.

          They do not attack the head of the CDC at the time.  He was appointed by Their Furor.

          They do not attack Dr. Deborah Birx, who ostensibly was an adviser of some sort to Their Furor.

          And of course they do not attack the person most responsible:  Their Furor. 

          Here it is, caught on tape.  Take a look in case you too have forgotten.  I have not forgotten.  And I am not distracted.  And I am not resigned.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

ONE MILLION DEATHS LATER, AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IGNORE THE CRISIS.

There have reportedly been over 1,000,000 (One Million) people who died from COVID since the Pandemic officially began in 2020.

          The person who was in charge of responding to the pandemic then is running for president again.  No-one asks him or the sitting President who opposes him, about the pandemic crisis or how it was handled.  In fact, the former-president-who-is-a-candidate-again starts the clock 5 years ago by asking, "Are you better off than you were 5 years ago?"  As if One Million people fell down our memory hole.

          They are certainly not the center of the candidates' attention or ours, and not the center of attention for the news media when they write about who is going to be the next leader of the Free World as we used to call it.    You should pardon the expression, but there is something sick about that.

          "Agenda setting elite political journalists might want to cover this as an issue – maybe, if it's not too much to ask, with one-eighth or so the careful devotion to how Biden's supporters are reacting to him using an antiquated word [illegal] to refer to undocumented immigrants."  Rick Perlstein, Social Distortion, THE AMERICAN PROSPECT MAGAZINE, March 13, 2024.

          We are coming to the end of Sunshine Week.  It's the right time to ask questions and to remember which candidate responded to the pandemic crisis by pushing bleach, bright lights, and hydroxychloroquine.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WE HAVE TO GET CONTROL OF OUR SELVES.

COVID Christmas Facetime.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Information on COVID is blocked, even barred in Texas and Florida among other places.  Texas has more deaths from COVID than what you would have a right to expect ordinarily.  Florida is also in the top 10.  See Amy Maxmen, Coronavirus / How lawmakers in Texas and Florida undermine Covid vaccination efforts / State legislatures and politicians are pressuring public health officials to keep quiet about Covid vaccines, KFF HEALTH NEWS, Nov. 7, 2023, republished on https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/lawmakers-texas-florida-undermine-covid-vaccination-efforts-rcna123866.

 

Information that can save lives is kept from the people by those in charge of their health and safety.  Ridiculous.

Epidemiologists report being invited to speak in these States, but being told what they can and cannot say just before going on the stage.  See Katelyn Jetelina, States Are Withholding Vaccine Information / And Why They Should be Working in Overdrive to do the Opposite, Nov. 9, 2023, [email protected].

Invited speakers being told what to say, at the last minute.  Ridiculous.

We've got to get control of these people.  Not just our freedom, but our lives may depend on it.

GO FORWARD

LONG COVID NOT PREDICTABLE BY HOW BAD YOU GOT COVID.

Chest Compression on a COVID patient in ICU.  (Jae C. Heng / Associated Press)

 

The initial severity of COVID is not an indicator of whether the person will have Long COVID.

    This is a big takeaway, as far as I'm concerned, from a National Press Club Journalism Institute Webinar on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, Fall Health Coverage:  What Two Experts Want Journalists to Know in a Time of Vaccine Fatigue.  This excellent presentation featured Dr. Tina Tan and Dr. Leana Wen, and I believe it was Dr. Tan that made this observation.

GO FORWARD

VACCINE CAN PREVENT LONG COVID.

"Vaccine will prevent the development of Long COVID."  Dr. Tina Tan, Wed., Oct. 4, 2023, during National Press Club Journalism Institute Webinar, Fall Health Coverage:  What Two Experts Want Journalists to Know in a Time of Vaccine Fatigue.

Dr. Tan was impressive, as was her colleague on the NPCJI Webinar, Dr. Leana Wen.

But I won't hold Dr. Tan to "will prevent," I am happy to know that vaccine can prevent the development of Long COVID.

GO FORWARD

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE LONG VIRUS.

 

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Polio is a virus.  It hit different people differently.  Now that Post-Polio is the main issue for many polio survivors, we have been seeing how PPS has hit different people differently.  PPS is a blanket description of people who have had polio and have survived with new and different symptoms.  It is not a means to treat anyone in and of itself, it is a description, a catch-all if you will.  Saying that someone "has PPS" does not by itself tell us how to treat each person who presents one or many of the symptoms that we group under one big PPS label. 

In life, it is wrong to treat every individual as if they are the same person.  Everyone is different.  So it is that it is also a big mistake to treat all polio survivors the same.

COVID is a virus.   (Thus "coronavirus.")  It hits different people differently.  We are only now beginning to learn how "long COVID" is affecting people, but we know one thing already:  Long COVID hits different people differently.  We know enough to know already, that it will be a huge mistake to treat everyone who has "long COVID" as if they are all the same.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THERE'S STILL A PANDEMIC, YOU KNOW. PEOPLE ARE STILL DYING.

But maybe it's not your people, you think.

You may belong to the majority of people in America who are not at risk of dying from COVID.  The majority, even if you belong to it, does not mean everyone in America.

Other people are at risk.  You may know some of them:  the aged, the victims of cancer and other devastating illnesses, the disabled.  In short, the vulnerable people, the people who are most at risk even if the majority are not at risk.

The vulnerable people may include your Grandma.  But maybe you lost the feeling to care deeply, or at all,  once you stopped paying attention to her.  Maybe you kind of forgot to care.  Or maybe it became inconvenient to care as much. For whatever reason, to the aged, the victims, and the disabled it looks like you stopped caring.

How else to explain the majority not just resuming their daily activities, but making no allowance for the risks faced by the minority as if the minority faced no risks at all?  Risks that can actually be cut down to manageable size, just by wearing masks or getting vaccinated?  Okay, maybe getting vaccinated is too much for the squeamish, but wearing masks?  This is not hard.  On the other hand, for the most part, it is not done.

Not enough to save  your Grandma.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE STRUGGLE IS NOT OVER. IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN.

The fight in the next Term of the U.S. Supreme Court will be about whether we, you and I, will be able to vote.  The fight will come in a case called Moore v. Harper.  It will be led by Samuel Alito, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

He has already said that what State Constitutions, Governors, and Courts have to say about it does not matter to him.  He is of the view that State legislatures have the next-to-last word on the time, place and manner of voting for federal representatives and senators.  (I say next-to-last word because Justice Alito reserves the last word  to himself and his colleagues on the federal Supreme Court.)

Lawyers cannot change this by doing what they usually do, what they are used to doing.  Lawyers are trained in legal reasoning when they begin their profession.  This time it will do no good for anyone.

 Lawyers are so  used to legal reasoning that  they can hardly conceive of not doing it.  With people like Justice Alito and his followers that hold the view that your view and your vote does not matter to them, it is difficult to reason.

 When those same people reject precedent so long as they have the votes to make their own view the law, there is no point to legal reasoning.  Parenthetically, the precedent and the reasoning are dead against Justice Alito's views and those of his followers on this one.  See Prescribing Times, Places, Manner Holding Elections Always Subject, Never Absolute, published on Claims and Bad Faith Law Blog on July 27, 2022.  But based on their past decisions such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization  clearly the only thing that matters to them is what they want the law to be, not what it is or what is has been until they came along.

We are in a pandemic still.  The disabled and the elderly are especially at risk, not just to the coronavirus but to a whole lot of barriers to everyday living  in general and to voting in particular.  Making our lives and our voting easier, not harder, with drop boxes and mail-in ballots is a good thing for the people, even if it is not so good for the powerful.

When reasoning does not work, the thing to do is not to accept the unreasonable but to resist it.  The Supreme Court famously reads the election returns.  Let them read things like these.

Contact your State representatives and senators.  Tell them your views on voting if they are going to be the next-to-last word on the subject.  Maximize the chances of your being heard so that the next-to-last word comes from you.

Contact also your U.S. representatives and senators.  Let them hear you as well.

 If you say nothing they will never hear you.

Write Letters to the Editor.  Write Op-Ed pieces for your local newspaper, whatever your local newspaper calls them.  The Orlando Sentinel for example calls its Op-Ed pieces written by citizens, "My Word."  Tell them your word.

Write, Lawyers to your own specialized newspapers and journals, places like this one for Florida lawyers:  The Florida Bar News at [email protected].

Support people in their actions to bring about change that will benefit you and me.  For example, Citizens for Constitutional Integrity is trying to compel the U.S. Census Bureau to follow the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The Fourteenth Amendment provides in essence that States that construct barriers to voting in federal elections shall have the number of their federal representatives reduced by the same percentage as the percentage of its citizens that have been kept from voting.  The case  is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:21-cv-03045-CJN-JRW-FYP.  The EMail address for the Citizens in that case is [email protected].  Send them an EMail that you support them in what they are doing.

Find other people to support who are taking action too.  Support them in some way, even by sending an EMail to let them know that they are not alone in this, and that you support them.

Support, Friends of the Court ("amici") for example in the fight launched by Citizens for Constitutional Integrity with the U.S. Census Bureau.  Citizens is alone in that case so far.  There is a Hearing coming up on Citizens' Motion for Summary Judgment in December.  File your request to appear as amicus curiae in the case and let your voice be heard there.

Above all, organize.  The people in power tend to listen more closely to organizations than to individuals.  The more that voting is accessible, the more people that vote.  The more people that vote, the more they lose and the less they get elected.

We can learn a lesson today from the leaders of the movement that began to take root in the 1950's for Civil Rights in this country.  It took them a long time, but they prevailed for so long that it seemed it would always be that way, yet  right now the struggle seems to have erupted again..  Along the way from then to now, it was routine for them to be told by friends and foes alike that they should wait, that now is not the time, that thoughts and prayers alone were all that was needed.

 "Thankfully, most organizers refused to listen, noting there may never be an 'appropriate' time to make good trouble, nor a time when no risk would be involved.  To never stand for change means change will simply never materialize.  I choose to no longer seethe with anger[.]" Alissa Redmond, NC Bookstore Owner:  Online Trolls Are Trying to Ruin My Business.  I Won't Back Down, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, July 26, 2022,  https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article263810128.html.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

COVID RISK, COVID HEALTH INSURANCE?

Certain breeds of dogs apparently present a higher risk of damage and injury than other breeds of dogs.  The risky breeds are either excluded from coverage for liability insurance claims against their owners, or the risky breeds draw much higher premiums even when insurance coverage is extended to their owners.  See Jane Gottlieb, Love Your Dog, But Beware of Your Homeowner’s Insurance, NEW YORK TIMES online June 17, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/realestate/insurance-dog-breed-exclusions.html?searchResultPosition=3.

I have learned anecdotally that landlords may not or should not ask their prospective tenants who have guide dogs or companion dogs what breed such a dog for a given tenant might be.

There can be no doubt that health insurance carriers are aware of how risks like these  are treated by liability insurance carriers.  There can also be no doubt that health insurance carriers are looking closely at the risks of COVID-19, coronavirus infections.  The risks famously include serious illness, long COVID, and death.

Further, some “pandemic  insurance” carriers in Taiwan have actually written  insurance policies that cover people who contract the coronavirus.  At one time in the not too distant past, Taiwan was relatively free of COVID claims, but now so now.  Those same  insurance carriers have reportedly paid out so many claims now that at least some of them are facing a year or more without profits because they are paying so many COVID claims.  See Joyu Wang, Insurers in Taiwan Pay the Price for Misjudging Covid Risks WALL STREET JOURNAL June 18, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/insurers-in-taiwan-pay-the-price-for-misjudging-covid-risks-11655546402 (Beware:  May be behind a Wall Street Journal paywall).

Similarly, carriers who used to offer COVID insurance coverage in China, Japan, and Thailand have either stopped selling the insurance completely or raised premiums for it.  Moreover, some carriers in Thailand have reportedly “ceased operations after being overwhelmed by claims over Covid products,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

There can be no doubt that health insurance carriers in the United States are aware of the claims experience of  insurance carriers in Taiwan, China, Japan, and Thailand  that offered coronavirus coverage.  With a sufficient level of underwriting documentation and research as a basis for excluding coverage, can health insurance coverage for COVID-19 in the U.S. continue to survive (forgive the wording)  coronavirus health insurance coverage claims in the U.S.?

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE "NEW NORMAL" AFTER COVID WILL NOT BE LIKE BEFORE.

The world after COVID came will not be the same as the "old" one was before COVID came.  The "new normal" will not be the same as the "old normal" either.

We will have to be prepared to rapidly adjust to events that remind us that we may be done with the pandemic, but the pandemic is not done with us:  boosters for those who have not gotten their booster shots, and nonsurgical preventive measures that work like masking and distancing.

If we are prepared to adjust rapidly, we can reopen slowly.  But to say again, we will not be "returning" to the old "normal."  We will be living a new normal, or we will be living -- and getting sick and dying -- with COVID for a long time to come.  Just as we lived, got sick and died in the "old normal" in the first place.

Like most people, I prefer to let data drive the results, rather than have wishful thinking dictate how I and the people around me live, get sick -- and die -- from COVID. 

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE JUDGE. IT'S ABOUT JUSTICE.

Let's take a look at the federal judge's ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency does not have the authority to tell people to wear masks on airplanes, so as to control and prevent COVID-19.

No, I will not be writing about the judge who issued this freak ruling.  She is not the point her. Enough people are already talking about her, anyway.

The focus here is on how the Department of Justice has defended the CDC and the Mask Mandate on airplanes.

Briefly stated, they haven't.

Before we get into the weeds a little bit, only one thing about lawyers and lawsuits that you need to know first.  I promise, this won't be complicated.  The one thing to know here is that people who are sued, defendants like the CDC and other federal officials including President Biden in this case, defend themselves with an Answer to the Complaint against them.

That's it.  Just like real life, when someone complains, you answer and defend yourself.

Except in this case, the Department of Justice didn't defend anyone or anything.  They filed an Answer in the Court file, yes, but they did not raise any defenses.

They agreed that the people suing, the plaintiffs -- there were three, one individual who said she lives in Pinellas County (St. Pete), a second individual who said she lives in Hillsborough County (Tampa), and the third, a Wyoming corporation with headquarters in Idaho -- could amend their complaint.

And after they agreed, and after the plaintiffs filed their Amended Complaint, the Department of Justice did not answer it.  The DOJ did nothing.

With this kind of legal representation, you have got to wonder about many things but there is clearly no doubt about one thing, and that's how this case ended up with a ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency does not have the power to tell people to wear masks on airplanes in a pandemic.

And these are the people who are supposed to win the appeal? 

The federal case in Tampa is Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden (M.D. Fla. No. 8:21-cv-01693).

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE C.D.C.: JOE BIDEN'S POLITICAL CANARY IN THE COAL MINE?

Even as the United States approaches 1,000,000 deaths from COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued its latest directive.  This time, the CDC says that it is fine for most people in America not to wear masks.

          Many medical experts are aghast.  They say it is way too soon to take the masks off and expose vulnerable people to the spreading virus.  Medical advice to one side, it is pretty clear from the CDC's latest about-face in a string of recent about-faces, that the CDC is following political advice instead of medical advice.

          President Biden's poll numbers are notoriously low in this early stage of his presidency.  Pundits fill the air with their predictions that Joe Biden will not be re-elected.  The Biden people do not believe that, of course.  But they must be concerned.  It's natural.  Any politician would be concerned over poll numbers as low as the President's are right now.

          Although the Biden people almost certainly do not believe that President Biden will not be re-elected in 2024, as things stand it will not be good to be in office when One Million People die in the U.S. from the pandemic. 

          So, perhaps this explains why the CDC suddenly is changing its mind and minimizing the COVID threat of death and terrible sickness.   COVID has so clearly brought death and sickness to this country and  COVID so clearly will continue to bring death and sickness to this country.  The Biden people's solution seems to be to have the CDC minimize the pandemic, much as the former guy's people ignored the pandemic because COVID was not positive for their poll numbers either -- and the former guy's people were correct.  Death and sickness from the coronavirus pandemic were not only negatives for their poll numbers, they were negatives for their numbers at the polls.

          Ironically, the Biden Administration came into office not to manipulate the CDC, but to save it.  The CDC was notoriously politicized by the previous regime.  Now the Biden people appear to be doing the same thing, and for the same reason:  Sick and dying people are not good for their poll numbers.

          I hope that's not what's happening.  It sure looks like it, though.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

NEIL GORSUCH, THE ONCE AND FUTURE CHIEF JUSTICE?

Neil Gorsuch notoriously does not wear a mask at oral arguments, even though the Chief Justice reportedly asked him to.  And even though he knows that the person he sits next to at oral arguments, Justice Sonja Sotomayor, is seriously at COVID risk because she is a diabetic.

          This story tells on Neil Gorsuch, of course.  The biggest takeaway from it is that he's a lousy person.

          It's in his genes.  His mom was indicted for her contempt of Congress.

          But there's more to take away.  John Roberts, the person with the Chief Justice title, does not even have the authority to get Neil Gorsuch to wear a mask among his colleagues during a pandemic.

          Neil Gorsuch.  What a mensch.

          John Roberts, once the Chief Justice, but no more.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WE ALREADY HAVE TRIAGE IN HOSPITALS. WE NEED A BETTER POLICY.

Triage is a word well-known to hospital Emergency Departments:  "In the emergency department 'triage' refers to the methods used to assess patients’ severity of injury or illness within a short time after their arrival, assign priorities, and transfer each patient to the appropriate place for treatment."  Modern Triage in the Emergency Department, a review published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine of how Emergency Departments across the world define "triage."

          According to another study published by the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, many Emergency Departments (ED's) take the position that "Triage of critically ill patients that may limit individual patient and physician choices is justified when (1) the policy is aimed at achieving benefits for individual patients, the health care institution, or society and (2) the policy is announced in advance to notify the public."  Access it here.

          Triage is really often a choice between who lives, and who dies.   Triage is only practiced when emergency services are overwhelmed.  When Emergency Departments cannot treat everybody who shows up for treatment, ED's must choose who gets treatment and who doesn't get treatment.

          That choice is a fact known to ED's all over the world.  It is understandable that hospital Emergency Departments do not mention that fact in their descriptions of the triage they practice.

          Hospital Emergency Departments already practice triage, there is no doubt.  The prevailing policy at the present time in the United States seems to be First Come, First Served.  See the article posted here on December 30, 2021.    ED's in the U.S. practice triage by choosing to treat the first people that present themselves as patients.  Others who come later have to stand in the back of the treatment line, assuming they ever get in.

          As things stand at the dawn of this New Year, people who need immediate treatment may never get it in time.  If they did not need immediate treatment,  they probably would not have gone to the Emergency Department.  We have a catalogue of records from 2020 and 2021 to show the nation what this means in the pandemic.  It means that some of us who got all the vaccines, were boostered, and practiced all the measures recommended to fight Covid, still die from conditions unrelated to the pandemic because people who chose not to get vaccinated are taking up all the beds with Covid infections.

          Corporate media report that entire health systems are overwhelmed and that others are getting there in this country.  The media also report that hospitals, nurses, and doctors are overwhelmed because so many unvaccinated people are infected and assigned to beds in the hospitals, crowding out everyone else.

          However corporate media are not reporting the unpleasant fact that people who chose not to get vaccinated in a pandemic are becoming infected at such high rates that the triage procedure of First Come, First Served means that some people who desperately need treatment will be turned away, and others will die because the ED's choose First Come, First Served triage.

          So far, we have anecdotal reports to prove that this is happening.  A man in Alabama "died of a cardiac emergency in September after he was turned away from 43 hospitals in three states."  A man in Iowa was vaccinated, boostered, practiced social distancing and masking; in short, he followed all the best practices in the pandemic, but he had a very hard time finding any hospital that could treat his sepsis condition.

          The man from Iowa finally found a small hospital that would admit him, but it lacked all the resources needed to treat him.  He was finally admitted to a hospital with the necessary resources, but it took 15 days before they had the room to admit him.

          It was too late for him by then.   The man from Iowa died.

          Triage involves hard choices but that is what triage is all about:  Triage only applies when a health care system is overwhelmed and so hospitals, nurses, and doctors simply cannot treat everyone who needs treatment.

1. Overwhelmed.
2. The health care system cannot treat everyone who needs it.

These two things have to happen before hospitals reluctantly practice triage.

          I am loathe to suggest, even now, that anyone should be turned away from the medical treatment they need but some things are crystal clear:

• Hospitals are practicing triage already. By default, they are treating the patients who First Come, and who therefore become the patients who are First Served.
• Patients First Come for treatment because they are infected with Covid and the overwhelming majority of the infected became infected because they chose not to be vaccinated.
• People who need medical treatment are dying already because they did not receive the medical treatment they needed in time.

          These things are happening even though people are afraid of a word like triage.  Good public policy needs to get beyond fear.  If we are going to survive, we need to start thinking and talking about how we are going to survive and about how we want to look as a country after we do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED IS NOT A GOOD HEALTH POLICY.

Hospital Emergency Departments are overwhelmed with patients in 2021.  Patients have been coming since 2020, or maybe it was late 2019, when the coronavirus pandemic began.

          Nurses and doctors stop practicing because there are too many patients for the care. 

          There are not enough hours in the day to treat everyone who needs treatment for Covid infection, let alone to treat everyone who needs treatment for anything else.

          If these things remain unaltered, "untreated" if you will, the patchwork of health care systems in this country will collapse from the sheer weight of so many patients who need care all at once in a pandemic.

          We can change this.  We can treat this.  We need to stop fearing this first, then change it and treat it.  We can, if we choose to.

          Here's to a Happier New Year in 2022!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS: JABS IN PANDEMIC PROFIT-TAKING.

Nondisclosure agreements provide for secrecy.  One party has a secret, and the other party or parties agree to keep that secret.  We have become used to seeing nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, as a part of financial transactions, deviant sexual demands made almost always by men, and settlements.

          Current reporting brings another set of demands for NDAs to our awareness:  Public Citizen just issued a report written by the research director with Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Group based on a review of "Pfizer's COVID-19 business practices," which reveals that among other things Pfizer contracts with sovereign nations responding to the coronavirus pandemic include NDAs that nothing will be said about these contracts with Pfizer "without Pfizer's prior written consent."  The Public Citizen findings were reported on by Adam Taylor in THE WASHINGTON POST online on October 19, 2021.

          Nondisclosure in profit-taking during a pandemic with taxpayer monies paying for the profits.  Keeping secrets seems essential to that business model, and NDAs in the pandemic are apparently as important as the anti-coronavirus drugs themselves.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FIFTH CIRCUIT, VACCINES, AND HOPE REGARDLESS.

On Friday, the State of Texas and others representing the Republican Party sued to stop the Federal Government from vaccinating the workers of the United States.

          On Saturday, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (there was no U.S. District Court involvement that I know of) issued a stay to prevent the United States from vaccinating its workers.

          The response in corporate and legal media to this decision within 24 hours of when the complaint was filed, has largely been the usual response to judicial decisions, which is that we don't know what these judges have in mind, and courts are inscrutable.

          That is ridiculous, in this case and in many other cases.

          Here is the real story in this case:  Two of these three judges on the Fifth Circuit panel were appointed by The Former Guy.  The third was a lawyer for the Republican Party of Texas.  (She is famed not so much for knowing the law as inventing it when she wants; for example, she overruled a Mississippi District Judge about Mississippi insurance law in a case which the Mississippi Supreme Court has rejected by name because it does not represent Mississippi law.)

          That is the panel and what it is likely to do in this vaccine mandate case is not inscrutable.  We can make a reasonable guess what these judges have in mind, based on experiencing what they have left behind during their careers.  Do you really think that the odds are that Republicans will fail with them?

          We cannot truly hope for justice until we know the odds against it.  We cannot know where we are going until we know where we are.  It is my hope that justice will prevail nonetheless, even at the hands of these judges in this particular case.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved. 

WHEN RIGHT TO WORK REALLY MEANS RIGHT TO WORK!

The subhead on this NYT article this morning describes the situation of U.S. workers empowered:  Economic Gains Hobbled as Labor Market Shrinks / Wielding Rare Leverage to Push Demands, Workers Are in no Hurry to Return, by Ben Casselman, NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, October 20, 2021, at A1, published online with the headline and subhead, The Economic Rebound Is Still Waiting for Workers / Despite school reopenings and the end of some federal aid, many people are in no rush to land a job. Savings and health concerns are playing a role.

.          The pandemic has made many things clear.  One of them is that the anti-union movement a/k/a "right to work" movement has spawned so much unhappiness on the job that employers cannot deal with it.

          More to the point, their employees no longer feel the need to endure it.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HIPAA AND COVID VACCINATIONS: HAIRDRESSERS BETTER THAN DOCTORS UNDERSTANDING HIPAA.

Some doctors in Seminole County, Florida are refusing to tell their patients whether they are vaccinated.  Their offices tell patients it's because of HIPAA.

If this happens to you, as it did to me, refer them to the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human Services, September 30 Guidance on HIPAA and COVID.  It says that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not apply to individuals asking their doctors whether they are vaccinated, https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-covid-19-vaccination-workplace/index.html.

Hairdressers and dentists will tell you if they have been vaccinated.  They are better than doctors at understanding the law, certainly as far as HIPAA and COVID vaccinations go.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MERRICK GARLAND, ICE LITIGATION, COVID VACCINES: TALES FROM THE CRYPT ... Continued.

This post continues an article that began here on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.

When Messrs. Barr and TFG ran things, lawyers working at the doj had a clear choice whether to stay or go.  Some lawyers resigned rather than stay while the Messrs. were in charge of things.  To say again, every one of the Six stayed.  They clearly made their choice.  See AT DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, EVERYTHING IS CHANGING, NOTHING IS NEW.

          Appealing a federal judge's order to provide vaccine to people in U.S. custody was one of their choices.  This is nothing new for the current department which is really making the same decisions, behaving in many of the same legal ways as before.  See MORE CYA FROM INCREDIBLE, "DISINGENUOUS" DOJ:  APPEALING JUDGE JACKSON'S ORDER.

          Here are the Six who participated in the choice to file a losing appeal arising out of ICE, prisoners in U.S. custody, and injustices.  They should be known for these decisions they did not need to make, and that good lawyers would have resisted:

          WILLIAM C. PEACHEY is listed on the Notice of Appeal in this case as Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, District Court Section.  He got his J.D. from University of Arkansas Law School at Fayetteville.

          JEFFREY S. ROBINS is the next lawyer listed on the notice.  His title is Deputy Director.  By the end of this year, he will be at the doj for 15 years.  A person well-familiar with Washington, he got his J.D. at the American University Washington College of Law in 2004.

          JAMES WALKER is next up.  Senior Litigation Counsel in the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL), MR. WALKER (to his credit) spent a lot of useful time in the Orlando, Florida area.  He got his B.A. from Rollins College.  Like MR. ROBINS, the Deputy Director of the OIL, he graduated from the American University Washington College of Law.  MR. WALKER graduated in 2013.

          LINDSAY M. VICK is a Trial Attorney with the OIL.  She got a B.A. from George Mason and a law degree from Roger Williams University Law.

          MICHELLE RAMUS is also a Trial Attorney with the OIL.  She too is a person who is very familiar with Washington, having gotten her law degree from George Washington Law.  She received her J.D. recently, in 2018.

          ANNA L. DICHTER is last but not the least of the Six.  MS. DICHTER signed the Notice of Appeal attempting to reverse the judge's order to provide vaccine to people in ICE custody.  She got her law degree from Rutgers two years ago, in September 2019.  She joined the doj that same month.  She appears to be the lowest person on the totem pole of the Six, which may explain why she was the one picked to sign the notice of appeal in this case.

          In the end, what we are left with is a tale glaringly told of attorneys who stake much of their career advancement on their additions to their social media listings.  They also stake much of their career advancement on going along to get along, so to speak; for example, none of them was moved to leave the so-called justice department while Messrs. Barr and The Former Guy were in power.  To the contrary, it seems that something on the order of four of the Six joined the department while the Messrs. were operating it.

          To say again, BARR'S department 'ISN'T OVER, IT ISN'T EVEN PAST.'

          Impressions to the contrary are ill-informed.  In fact, it is plainly wrong to think that there is a new sheriff in town.  Beyond any reasonable doubt, the available evidence shows that MR. BARR's practices and competence are still on display.  There is nothing new here, just SOSOBS.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MORE TALES FROM THE CRYPT: ORDER PROVIDES ICE DETAINEES VACCINE, ....

.... BUT DEPARTMENT CLAIMING TO BE "JUSTICE" APPEALS TO REVERSE THE ORDER.

On June 23, 2021 a respected federal judge ruled that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had to make COVID vaccinations available within 30 days detained immigrants in ICE custody who have chronic medical conditions, or disabilities, or are age 55 or older.  Download Fraihat v. U.S. ICE Doc. 318 Order Accepting Special Master's First Report and Recco June 23 2021 (C.D. Cal. No. 5.19.cv.01546.JGB.(SHKx))

          In this order, the federal judge only accepted the Special Master's First Report and Recommendations.  The Special Master is a retired judge.  Download Fraihat v. U.S. ICE Doc. 304 Special Master's First Report and Recco May 21 2021 (C.D. Cal. No. 5.19.cv.01546.JGB.(SHKx)).

          Here is what the Special Master recommended and what the federal judge accepted in his order to require ICE to:

1. Continue its efforts to work with the Special Master and Plaintiffs’ counsel to confirm that all subclass members have had a individualized and meaningful review to determine if release is warranted and to conduct redeterminations where necessary;
   2. Track the reasons for transfers of subclass members and provide that information to the Special Master and Plaintiffs’ counsel biweekly; and
   3. Make vaccinations available to all subclass members within 30 days of the order accepting and adopting this Report and Recommendation.

          This is not exactly the stuff of an appeal that is likely to be successful.  Particularly orders entered after a Special Master's Report by a retired judge.  There is nothing onerous about this order at all.

         Think of this.  Would you appeal it?  Would you recommend that anyone appeal it?  Why would anyone appeal this order to make vaccines available during a pandemic to people who are in U.S. ICE custody?  This is a notice of appeal that simply did not have any reason behind it and every reason against it.  The decision to file a notice of appeal never needed to be made here.

          Except that the Special Master's Report and Recommendations may have been embarrassing to ICE.  It detailed ICE's behavior, which people still at ICE may not want to be made public.  One way to quash these findings is to appeal them and have the order accepting them reversed on appeal.

          Avoiding embarrassment however has never been a reason for taking an appeal.  Not a good reason anyway.  And certainly not a good reason for the federal government to take an appeal.

          Sixty-one (61) calendar days after the judge's order was entered accepting the Special Master's detailed report and recommendations, on August 23, 2021 the department of justice decided to file a notice of appeal.  Download Fraihat v. U.S. ICE Doc. 329 Notice of Appeal by U.S. ICE August 23 2021 (C.D. Cal. No. 5.19.cv.01546.JGB.(SHKx))

          That looks suspiciously like the last day of what would otherwise be a 60-day deadline to appeal.  August 23rd was a Monday, the first available working or business day that an appeal likely could have been filed.  Smells like the last minute to any lawyer who ever filed a notice of appeal in a situation like this or, for that matter, ever faced any unpleasant deadline.

          In any case, the United States appealed an order to make COVID vaccine available to immigrants in the custody of ICE during a pandemic.  And not to all immigrants during a pandemic, either, but to immigrants in the custody of ICE who are most at risk of catching and spreading COVID, immigrants in the custody of ICE who have chronic medical conditions, disabilities, or are age 55 and older.

          The Acting Assistant Attorney General, BRIAN M. BOYNTON of the doj Civil Division, has already been profiled in this space.  For example, MR. BOYNTON participated in earlier decisions to try to quash a subpoena for testimony on the former Education Secretary BETSY DeVOS.  See DOJ UNFATHOMABLE SECRECY:  WHY TRY TO SHIELD HER FROM TESTIFYING?

          This time the notice of appeal from an order to provide vaccine to immigrants at risk to COVID in ICE custody was also signed by no less than six (6) other doj attorneys.  All of the six are apparently employed in the doj Office of Immigration Litigation.

          Unlike other doj employees previously profiled here, none of the Six went to Harvard Law.  However, all of the Six shared a resume line with every other doj lawyer profiled here for past actions, such as attempting to derail the E. Jean Carroll litigation against The Former Guy:  Every one of them worked in Bill Barr's department of justice and every one of them worked during the regime of The Former Guy.

          This is clearly a pattern under MERRICK GARLAND, who holds the current title of attorney general.  See IN MERRICK GARLAND'S DEPARTMENT, PROTECTING "CAREER YOUNG ATTORNEYS" MEANS "CYA."

         

To be continued ....

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

PRESS, PUBLIC COURT ACCESS: CAN'T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER.

Until recently, I thought of Freedom of the Press as a First Amendment right reserved to, well, the press.

          I included the press right of access to criminal trials in that category.  That's how I used to see a constitutional ruling by the Supreme Court protecting the Freedom of the Press to access criminal trials, for example.  I saw it as press freedom that is uniquely protected by the U.S. Constitution because, well, the press has to be free in order to have a chance to report regardless of whether things are good, or whether things are bad.

          Now I have had my eyes opened a little.  The Supreme Court may have been getting at this when they ruled a couple of decades ago that Freedom of the Press involves access to criminal trials:  Simply put, it may be that the First Amendment protects Freedom of the Press so that the press can help to protect the First Amendment presumption of public access to court proceedings (and to court files, too, for that matter).

          Emily Palmer is a reporter who reports on court proceedings.  Due to COVID-19, she can only rarely attend live court proceedings; at this time and for awhile before now, she has had to attend them via Zoom or its equivalent.  She reports that some information in the trials is lost in translation.

          She writes that she spends hours covering the trial alongside colleagues who help each other decipher what's happening on-screen "in a trial in which some evidence is never released to the public."  Even when things are not intentionally hidden, she writes, witnesses mumble and "read brusquely" from documents, "and most of the evidence from trial is rarely shared later with the public, making it both more difficult and more important for us to create a record of the proceedings in real time."  Emily Parker, Courtroom Reporting When You're Not Quite in Court, NEW YORK TIMES online Thursday, September 9, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/insider/court-reporting-pandemic-covid.html?searchResultPosition=1.

          Here's the rest of the story, as the saying goes:  Without press freedom, there may not actually be public access to court proceedings.  That is almost certainly why both things are protected by the First Amendment:  Freedom of the Press including the right to attend criminal trials, and the presumption that the public has the right to access court proceedings too.

Please see the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE CHILDREN ARE NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.

(Mary Ataffer/Associated Press)

 

The children don't want to get sick.

          The children don't want to die.

          Few of the children, probably none of the children, are motivated by the hope of the governor's friends to make money with private schools.   The cronies, not the children, are making public school dangerous.  That does not motivate the children.

The children are not running for president.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MAKING YOU PAY FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S CHARTER SCHOOL: FLORIDA COVID REPORT.

 

(Photo by Dr. Scott Kobner in an ER /Los Angeles Times)

You may not choose to send your children to an unvaccinated charter school in a pandemic.  But you will end up paying for it in Florida under a new "emergency" rule reportedly issued by the Florida State Board of Education on Friday, August 6.

The Board of Education's emergency rule in the Covid pandemic would not require any vaccinations or masks so as to protect the children, staff, and teachers in any Florida schools.  To the contrary, it will make Florida State money available to parents who want to move their children to private schools that do not require masks, out of public schools that require masks in the pandemic.

The average cost of private school tuition in Florida is reported to be $9,157 a year.  This may prove to be the most expensive rule ever adopted by Florida's Education Board. 

Some background.  Florida's current governor threatened to withhold Florida State money from school districts that require masks.  It seems a long time ago, but it seems he said that a week ago Friday.  Since then, he was apparently told that he might not actually have that authority, because this Friday, he switched to the "emergency" rule from the State Board of Education to use Florida State money.

Either way, he wants to use Floridians' money to pay for what truly looks like the coming loss of public education in Florida.

(Jae C. Heng / Associated Press)

Whatever happens, you can bet that the governor's children and the Board Members' children and their friends' children will not be hurt.  But you can also bet on the certainty that your wallet will be hurt, because this is a big opportunity for some politicians and their cronies to make a buck by privatizing your children's education even if you have to pay for it, and even if your children are hurt by it.

These people are not letting anything or anyone stand in the way of their making money.  Journalists would do well to explore the bank accounts of these people and their stock holdings, wherever the public has access to this information.  For that matter, Freedom of Information Act requests might cover this information even when it is not publicly accessible.

(Photo taken by Dr. Scott Kobner in an ER / Los Angeles Times)

If they are going to issue rules in our name with our money that are likely to hurt our kids, we have a right to know whether they are profiting from it.  It really is as simple as that.

Please read the disclaimer.   ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WALK THE TALK. WALK THE WALK.

 

Covid Coffins.  (Associated Press)

This story began when Brett Kavanaugh and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not have the authority to impose a moratorium on all evictions.  This ruling it must be noted came within one vote of an opposite decision, during a pandemic which makes it impossible to earn money to pay rent.

          It must also be noted that the legal issue before the Supreme Court was the CDC's authority to impose an eviction moratorium that would broadly prohibit all evictions across the board.

          The current administration has accepted this ruling as a limitation instead on its authority to declare a moratorium more narrowly, on any evictions at all.

          We did not know that, or at least I did not know that, until the moratorium expired.  However I and everyone else who knew anything about what I have said so far knew that the eviction moratorium was expiring July 31, 2021.

          The CDC reportedly looked for authority to declare a moratorium on evictions of the people who are most heavily impacted during the pandemic, and reportedly the CDC found no authority.  They just announced that.

          What if anything has this administration done between the time that Mr. Kavanaugh wrote his opinion for the Supreme Court, and the time that the eviction moratorium expired on July 31?  In terms of the eminently foreseeable mass evictions that would ensue without a moratorium, I mean.   We know that this administration has been very busy holding many, many meetings to talk with Republicans in what this administration calls a compromise on building roads.

          If they have been doing anything in terms of the risk of mass evictions, we do not know it.  We do know, however, that now this administration is rightly blaming the States for inaction in distributing federal funds to landlords so that the landlords do not evict their tenants who are behind on their rent.

          But we have known for months about the slowness of the States in distributing federal funds which were appropriated to rescue America, not only to prevent evictions but to address many other issues as well.  Looking at just the distribution of eviction prevention monies, we knew long before today that the States were dragging their feet, or to put it differently, taking their time.  So why is this news to this administration now?

          This administration came to power with the votes of many of the people who are facing the threat of eviction as a result of inaction.  And it's not a risk caused only by the inaction of States.  In a continuing pandemic, it's a deadly risk that's caused as well by the inaction of this administration.  They came to power talking the talk.

          Now they need to walk the talk.  Even better, they need to walk the walk.  If it's not too late already.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Telling the Story of "Global Repression of COVID-19 reporting."

It may be understandable, even expected, that reporters writing about Wuhan, China and COVID-19 have mysteriously disappeared.

    What is not always as simple to grasp is that reports and reporters writing about COVID-19 have been suppressed in many other places, including Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Hungary, India, Tajikistan, Turkey, Venezuela -- and the United States.

    To see what is happening, check out this link to the greatly respected Columbia Journalism Review including its embedded link to an interactive map showing the countries where reporting about COVID-19 is under attack in various ways.  You are in charge of this reporting.  Paste this into your browser and check it all out:

https://www.cjr.org/widescreen/journalism-and-covid-map-me.php?mc_cid=1db3abbeca&mc_eid=ac7bd6d976

 

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

COVID-19 VACCINES ARE FREE. SPREAD THE WORD, NOT THE VIRUS.

 

Free COVID vaccine.  With Washington Monument in the background, encouragement for vaccination.

  (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

COVID-19 vaccines are free.  Spread the word, not the virus.  Sarah Kliff, The Covid Vaccine Is Free, but Not Everyone Believes That, New York Times, online Tues., June 1, 2020.

          No-one has to die, no-one has to get ill because they cannot afford the medicine to inoculate against COVID.  Tell people.  Someone may not know.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

CATCH COVID? PAY FOR TREATMENT TOO? STILL THINK INSURANCE BORING?

 

Covid treatment in ICU.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

At least some health insurance companies began charging their policyholders the full amount of their deductibles, copays, and coinsurance.   Other carriers are joining them, even as a pandemic continues to ravage their policyholders with illness and, in some cases, death.

          When the pandemic began a year ago, these same health insurance carriers voluntarily waived all deductibles, copays, and other costs because people who fell ill with Covid-19 had enough to deal with, what with hospitalizations, doctor visits, medications, and other treatments.  Then, it was good public relations for these carriers to waive what they call "cost sharing."

          "Cost sharing."  What a polite way of saying "You got Covid, now pay for it."  What was put into place with great fanfare is now done in silence.  Most if not all of these health insurance carriers are secretly ending their voluntary waivers of cost sharing, and many have already done so.  What was good public relations in the sunshine, is taken back in the dark.

          Except for Covid tests and vaccinations.  They should still be free to people, because the federal government requires that these costs be free.

          Some people think it's wrong to make a profit off of other people's misery.  The insurance companies' profits are going through the roof since the pandemic began.  They can afford to pay for Covid treatments; Covid patients, not so much.

          Still think insurance is boring?  Catching Covid?  Pay for the full treatment on top of being hospitalized and treated for Covid?   People can EMail, write and telephone their own state's Insurance Commissioners.  Let them know that you know what's going on in the dark, and let them know if you don't like it. 

          Let them and your federal Representatives and Senators know, too, if you want the federal government to require the costs of treatment to be paid by you or by your insurer, or if you want the costs of treatment for Covid to be treated (pun intended) like the costs of testing for Covid.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved. 

LETTERS IN A PANDEMIC.

Things come to us in different ways.  This article comes early, on a Saturday morning.

          Vaccines can come in a vial.

(Bryan Anselm / Redux)

          Many things come to our front doors, delivered in boxes which we break down and put at the curb for recycling.

(Dennis Wall)

          Context comes from the newsletters of Heather Cox Richardson.  Many are available for free; she also offers subscriptions through Substack.  The latest figures I know are $5 for one month at a time, or $50 for one year.  Here is a link to her latest newsletter as of this writing which she shares for free:  March 26, 2021 - Letters from an American (substack.com).

          Ms. Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College.  Her writing is deeply researched.  She includes a list of sources at the end of every one of her newsletters that readers can check out for themselves.

          Confirm for yourself.  Check out Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter, Letters from an American.  It fills the gaping hole left when real journalists departed from our newspapers and periodicals.  Put things in context.  Check out Letters from an American.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

VACCINE GAMES THAT MONOPOLIES AND THEIR GOVERNMENTS ARE PLAYING.

 

COVID ICU Patient in the Czech Republic.  (Laetitia Vancon / New York Times)

Large drug companies contend that smaller, poorer countries don't have the equipment or the capacity to manufacture their vaccines.

          For their part, manufacturers "from Canada to Bangladesh say they can make vaccines," the only things they need are the patent licensing deals that the vaccine Pharma corporations are not giving them.

          The evidence heavily favors the manufacturers "from Canada to Bangladesh;"  if they have enough cash for Pharma, they can make Pharma's vaccines.  "When the price is right, companies have shared secrets with new manufacturers in just months, ramping up production and retrofitting factories."  Selam Gebrekidan and Matt Apuzzo, Missed Chances to Share Doses in Poor Nations / A Patent Control Issue / Wealthy Countries Avoid Prodding Drug Firms to Publish Recipes, NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, March 22, 2021 at A1.

          "When the price is right."  This may or may not be a TV game show for Pharma's profits in practice, but it is definitely not a TV game show for the rest of the world in reality.  This is now, this is real life -- and for much of the world, real death.

See, in addition, the articles posted here on Thursday, March 18 and on Sunday, March 21, 2021.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.