Thursday, July 23, 2020

7-23: Huntington Beach a "symbol"

Coronavirus Hospitalizations Plateau in Orange County After Sharp Rise

Voice of OC

     The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus in Orange County has plateaued at around 700 current patients – after rising sharply for several weeks starting in mid-June.

     Doctors and hospital officials say they’re cautiously encouraged that hospitalizations are not rising, while also urging the public to wear masks and physically distance.

     According to experts, the local hospital system can manage the current volume of patients, with several local hospitals converting regular patient rooms into intensive care rooms as part of their separation of COVID and non-COVID patients into separate wings of a hospital.

     Yet at the same time, the pandemic is taking a toll on nurses and other staff, whom hospitals say are stretched thin, and some hospitals have paused non-emergency surgeries to help conserve protective gear.

     “We’re at a sort of tipping point right now, where if things get worse, we are going to be in a situation where the hospitals are going to need help to deal with increased COVID hospitalizations,” including bringing in outside staff, said Dr. Saahir Khan, an infectious disease specialist who works at the intensive care unit at UC Irvine Medical Center, speaking about the overall hospital system in Orange County.

     “So this is really a critical time for people to be responsible and maintain adherence to all the guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he added.

     “We’ve been able to handle what we’ve got. If we disregard social distancing, wearing a mask, if we start opening up in an irresponsible fashion, we’ll flood the system…you can see that in the states that did that” like Florida and Arizona, said Dr. Todd Newton, the Orange County medical director for Kaiser Permanente, which has two hospitals in Orange County….

California shatters another record for new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations -- Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that 12,807 new coronavirus infections had been reported statewide in the past 24 hours — a record high — bringing California’s total to 413,576. Luke Money in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/23/20

 

California State U. Board Approves Ethnic-Studies Requirement That Dismays Ethnic-Studies Professors
CHE

California’s online community college still has much to prove
EdSource

     California’s online community college still has much to prove -- Calbright College, California’s online community college, may have survived elimination in the state’s budget, but the pressure is on to prove its value to the state. Ashley A. Smith EdSource -- 7/23/20

     …Phil Hill, an online education consultant, who has helped the state’s community college system with its Online Education Initiative, enrolled in Calbright last year as a student on his own to see how it measures up to similar online college programs.

Hill said he wasn’t paid by the system or the college to test Calbright, and he doesn’t describe himself as a critic or advocate of the online college. As an online education expert and California taxpayer, he was curious. But what he found was a poorly-designed and confusing class that could hinder students’ and Calbright’s success…..

‘I don’t believe it’: Huntington Beach a symbol of mask resistance as doubters abound -- As Brad Colburn whisked his metal detector over the tan sands of Huntington Beach, a rejection of Orange County’s spiking coronavirus infection rates surfaced. “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe the rates are rising,” Colburn said. “They’re inflated. It’s another way of shutting everything down … of the Democrats trying to get what they want.” Jake Sheridan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/20

 

COVID-19 Roundup: Colleges Tilt Toward Online Openings

Inside Higher Ed

 

Trump details ‘difficult’ cognitive test he says he aced

Politico

     “Joe should take that test because something is going on, and I say this with respect,” Trump said. “I mean, [it’s] going to probably happen to all of us, right? You know, it’s going to happen. But we cant take a chance of it happening.”

Dems rebuke culture of sexism in defense of Ocasio-Cortez

Politico

     Ocasio-Cortez recounted the confrontation with Yoho — which was witnessed by a reporter — in a speech Thursday morning, lamenting the incident as an outgrowth of a toxic and sexist culture that some lawmakers still perpetuate on Capitol Hill.

     “These are the words representative Yoho levied against a congresswoman,” Ocasio-Cortez said, saying aloud the words that Yoho was overheard saying to describe her: "F---ing b----.”…. 
 

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...