Today's OC Covid numbers: the spike to end all spikes (Thanksgiving surprise!)

Today's OC Covid numbers.
Early on, I discerned the OC Reg's (et al.) game, which is to report these numbers without providing the all-important context. So I've provided the context, which is where these numbers have been over the months.
The picture is clear: we're MASSIVELY FUCKING UP. Week after week of disturbing numbers go by, and there's no reaction, no public reflection and judgment. On the contrary, the loons are declaring that they will defy the rules anew!
If you were to keep track of the trends, you'd have known for some time that our hair is on fire.

Southern California ICU capacity slips to 9% in latest state update 

State officials are using the metric to determine which regions are subjected to the most recent stay-at-home order 

—OC Reg 

California has its most coronavirus deaths in a single day 

Until this past week, the state had topped 200 daily coronavirus-related deaths only four times. That number has been exceeded twice in the last five days. 

—LA Times

Regional ICU capacity shrinks to 9% as Orange County reports highest single-day coronavirus totals yet

—LA Times

THE TRUMPIANS (aka "slack-jawed louts")

I'll say it: they're selfish and stupid and UTTERLY IRRESPONSIBLE; and they're
threatening everyone's well-being, and boy am I sick and tired of it!

12-9: Fullerton police, again; Coronavirus vaccines are near; Hospitals overwhelmed; Community Colleges’ Chronic Challenges

✅ A Fullerton Police Shooting Draws Neighborhood Outrage to Department’s Doorstep 

—Voice of OC 

     …The chain of events began in May, when officers responded to a frantic 15-year-old’s 9-1-1 call about his drunk step father threatening family members and firing off a gun in their house. 

    Through body-worn camera footage released by police, officers arriving on scene May 27 could be heard shouting orders at Hector Hernandez, 34, as he stood outside his home on the west side of town. 

     He complied, according to police statements, but started pacing. Then, police set a dog loose on him. 

     By the time the canine’s handling officer caught up, Hernandez had stabbed the animal with a pocket knife — injuring but not killing it — and Hernandez, a U-Haul employee and father of two kids, was lying on the ground. 

     Standing above him, the footage shows the officer fired multiple rounds into Hernandez, who later died at a hospital. 

     Then the department’s public relations team got to work. 

     Police posted the step son’s 9-1-1 call and body cam footage to YouTube the next month, overlapped by officials’ statements detailing Hernandez’s allegedly violent behavior that night, such as claims he assaulted his girlfriend after a night out and threatened his own son when they got home. 

     Meanwhile, friends argue Hernandez, despite his behavior, didn’t deserve what they say was a highly unnecessary and brutal death. 

     In turn, a small band of enraged neighbors — some of whom knew Hernandez and watched the events unfold that night — took their anger to the department’s front door on Saturday…. 

     “I’m not somebody that wants to come stand out on the corner of the police station,” [neighbor Bill Brown] said. 

     “This is something I felt I was just forced to do,” Brown added. “I can’t sit around and watch my family and my kids depressed and sad and just say, ‘Oh, well, we’ll just trust that the police will do what’s right.’”…. 

✅ Coronavirus vaccines are near; 25,350 for Orange County expected next week 

Orange County has an order out for perhaps the most important package its pandemic-weary hospital workers will get this December: 26 boxes containing 25,350 coronavirus vaccines. Expected delivery date: Tuesday, Dec. 15. 

—OC Reg 

✅ Orange County’s coronavirus case rate has never been worse 

—OC Reg 

✅ California shatters more coronavirus records as officials warn rapidly filling hospitals ‘may be overwhelmed’ -- One day into a sweeping new shutdown, an explosion of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations signaled California could be entering the darkest chapter yet of the state’s public health crisis with no quick end in sight. Nico Savidge, Evan Webeck in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/9/20 

✅ Mixed messages? UC Berkeley closes residence halls while urging students to heed stay-at-home orders -- UC Berkeley recently released travel guidelines for students planning to return home for the holidays, but some feel the university is sending mixed messages by urging students to follow new stay-at-home guidelines that restrict travel while it closes most on-campus housing during winter break. Vanessa Arredondo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/9/20 

✅ Library Leaders Brace for Budget Cuts 

Academic library survey reveals widespread budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic and concern about long-term financial recovery. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

✅ Rating Agencies Issue Dour Higher Ed Outlook for Next Year 

Two bond rating agencies on Tuesday issued pessimistic outlooks for the U.S. higher education sector for 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to strain enrollment and revenue, heighten long-term pressures, and hit certain types of institutions harder than others. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

✅ Report: $1 Billion Needed to Improve Hispanic Institutions 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     Hispanic-serving institutions received only $87 in federal funding per Latinx student in 2019, compared to $1,642 historically Black colleges and universities received for each of their students, according to a Center for American Progress study. And it would take an additional $1 billion in funding just to bring HSIs' funding level up to half that of HBCUs. 

     Increasing funding for HSIs is particularly important at a time when enrollment by Latinx students is rising rapidly and faster than their growth in the U.S. population, wrote Viviann Anguiano, the progressive group’s associate director for postsecondary education, and Marissa Navarro, special assistant for postsecondary education…. 

✅ Report Chronicles Changes in Law Education 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     The Law School Survey of Student Engagement, released Tuesday, chronicles changes in law education in the United States from 2004 to 2019. While law education has become more diverse in terms of race and ethnicity, those gains have been unequal. For example, Black men doubled their percentage of the total number of law students -- from 3 to 6 percent -- in the 15 years of the survey, while Black women saw no similar gains. White men are still the majority of law students, though that group fell from 86 percent of total students in 2004 to 74 percent in 2019....

✅ A Pitch to Turn Prison Into College 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     A former Wisconsin governor who oversaw the expansion of the state's prison system now wants to turn a prison into a college. 

     Tommy Thompson, now the interim president of the University of Wisconsin system, wants to start with a class of 315 inmates, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. He estimates the project, called the UW System Prison Education Initiative, will cost about $5 million to get started. Thompson is working to secure funding, he told WPR, but he also expects to have inmates pay some money back in the form of student loans.... 

✅ What Attacks on Science Get Wrong 

—CHE 

✅ How the Pandemic Worsened — and Highlighted — Community Colleges’ Chronic Challenges

Two-year public institutions nationwide suffered the largest fall undergraduate-enrollment decrease of any higher-education sector. 

—CHE

12-8: Coronavirus: avoiding realtime debate; Fauci backs Newsom; Chuck Yeager dies

"Visit the Zoo"

✅ Orange County Continues to See Record-Setting Coronavirus Cases and Hospitalizations 

—Voice of OC 

     Orange County is facing record-setting coronavirus case increases and hospitalizations as intensive care units keep seeing more virus patients, which could potentially jeopardize non virus treatments. 

     As of Monday, 877 OC residents were hospitalized, including 218 people in intensive care units. During the July peak, 722 people were hospitalized, including 237 in ICUs. 

     Unlike the July spike, OC’s new peak comes as daily cases are increasing, not decreasing. 

     For the past week, OC is averaging over 1,400 new cases a day. Throughout the first half of October, the average was less than 200 new cases a day. 

     Over 2,000 new cases were reported Sunday and roughly 1,960 cases were reported Monday. 

     State public health officials estimate 12 to 13% of new cases will end up in hospitals two to three weeks down the road. 

     OC has 18% of its ICU beds left to handle virus patients, according to the county Health Care Agency. 

     Skyrocketing hospitalizations and case increases are worrying critical care doctors. 

     Dr. Michael Katz, a critical care doctor who treats virus patients in the ICU at St. Jude’s Medical Center, said ICU patients are usually discharged in a few days. 

     “Typically, we’re used to getting patients in and out. The flow of the hospital depends on that. We always have to have ICU beds available for patients coming in from the ER, heart attacks, strokes, etc. We also have to have some open for patients coming out of the operating room,” Katz said in a Monday phone interview. But the pandemic has turned that on its head. 

     “The COVID patients, on average, are staying for many days to weeks. Some of them for months. Their care is too complicated and their condition is too unstable to move them to lower intensity care environments,” Katz said. 

     He said typically hospital staff plans for ICU staffing include an estimated number of people coming in from the emergency room, like heart attack patients, and some from the operating room.  

     But the pandemic has pushed planning to the limits because all the medical workers are already working, he said…. 

✅ Santana: Communication Breakdown Fuels Virus Spike 

—Voice of OC 

     As Covid hospitalizations skyrocket across Orange County and the state, it should come as no surprise that people have tons of questions — especially about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most recent shutdown order. 

     Yet amidst the ongoing pandemic, state and local leaders are increasingly avoiding realtime debate, much less inviting any kind of public accountability over their actions or spending decisions…. 

     Here in Orange County, Don Wagner – the most vocal Newsom critic on the county board of supervisors – has taken the governor to task over his lack of cooperation with the legislature, lack of debate on the merits of actions like mask mandates and is ultimately questioning Newsom’s authority to take so many unilateral actions.  

     Today, Wagner will ask the Orange County Board of Supervisors to file supportive arguments in an ongoing legal case challenging Newsom’s authority....

     Yet Wagner isn’t as excited about ensuring his own county government operates in a transparent manner over Coronavirus response or procurement, much less press relations. 

     County of Orange press conferences are just as restrictive as Newsom’s. 

     Reporters are only allowed one question with no follow ups. The entire question-and-answer period towards the end of what are billed as press conferences are generally shut down after about 15 minutes. 

     Once a week since March, former Supervisor (now Congresswoman) Michelle Steel was able to use the weekly press briefing as a campaign speech platform, rarely taking any questions from the press but taking up about the first 15 minutes of virtually all press conferences. After that, health care officials generally offered updates and then would take very limited questions from about a dozen outlets covering Southern California and Orange County…. 

     Voice of OC has been asking the County of Orange for months for death data about Covid along with outbreaks. 

     The county refuses. 

     How are residents to make critical decisions for themselves about where to go without good data on what schools, workplaces and businesses are using good practices and getting good results, and which ones aren’t? 

     Instead, we are left with generalized guidelines that in some cases, seem confusing. 

     Consider that under the current shutdown orders, you can’t go to an outdoor playground but you can go to the mall. 

     In the meantime, the County of Orange Health Care Agency – unlike Los Angeles County – won’t list places that experience outbreaks. 

      In fact, county officials have essentially said it’s improper for them to enforce any state-mandated Covid rules…. 

     Consider just a few weeks ago that both Wagner and Supervisor Lisa Bartlett were questioning Orange County’s rating in Newsom’s tier system, both publicly arguing that Orange County’s hospital capacity was solid and should be considered in further opening of the economy. 

     Both Wagner and Bartlett made it sound like local hospital capacity was something that could be counted on. 

     Heck, Wagner even publicly quoted the region’s hospital association as saying there were no alarm bells going off. Yet weeks later, alarm bells are going off…. 

✅ Fauci: California had no choice but to impose stay-home orders -- Anthony Fauci said Monday he advised California officials that they "really don't have any choice" but to impose stay-at-home orders that more than 33 million residents are now living under. Kevin Yamamura Politico -- 12/7/20 

✅ More California community college students are taking transfer-level courses, but critics say colleges must do more -- Community colleges across California have made significant progress in increasing access to classes that award transferable credits to students, but dozens of colleges are still offering many non-credit remedial courses — irking critics who say those colleges are neglecting their responsibilities under a new law. Michael Burke EdSource -- 12/8/20 

✅ Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break the sound barrier, dies at 97 -- After test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier, he confessed to the highly un-Yeager-like emotion of fear. Steve Chawkins, Eric Malnic in the Los Angeles Times$ Becky Krystal in the Washington Post$ Richard Goldstein in the New York Times$ -- 12/8/20 

✅ Completion Rates Flat Over All 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     …Completion rates for four-year college are doing better than those of community colleges. Community colleges were the only type of institution to see an overall drop, of 0.5 percentage points, in the six-year completion rate. Completion rates for Hispanic community college students who were older declined by 2.2 percentage points, and those who delayed entry saw the largest decline at 4.8 percentage points. Completion rates for Asian community college students increased by 1.3 percentage points…. 

✅ More Colleges Adopting Chicago Principles for Free Speech 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     The increased prevalence of online instruction at colleges across the country and heightened student activism for racial justice during summer 2020 resulted in a record number of student and faculty members who complained their free expression rights were being violated, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, which published a new report today. 

     FIRE, a campus civil liberties advocacy organization, reviewed 287 complaints in June of alleged violations at colleges and universities nationwide, which was significantly more than previous summers. FIRE reviewed just 49 cases in 2018 and 2019, the report said. The report is FIRE’s annual “Spotlight on Speech Codes,” which reviewed 478 colleges’ written free speech policies and graded them based on whether they restrict protected campus expression. FIRE reviewed the policies of 372 four-year public institutions and 106 private institutions, according to the report. 

     FIRE reports that 78 institutions or faculty representative bodies have now endorsed or adopted the Chicago principles, which are standards for campus free expression developed by a Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago in 2015. The principles state that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”….

Today's OC Covid numbers

12-7: Winds return to Southern California Monday, along with heightened fire risk; Bracing for an eviction tsunami; Remote learning widens the equity gap; Feminism lives; DACA restored

✅ As OC Bond Fire Evacuations End, Residents Call Out Failures in Wildfire Emergency Communications 

—Voice of OC 

     ….In addition to the communication challenges, residents also pointed out how crippling it was for many to be without any power. 

     Southern California Edison cut out the region’s electricity earlier Wednesday night following red flag warnings in the area due to high winds, but residents say that move could have cost lives. 

     In Silverado, Williams and Modjeska Canyons, the primary areas evacuated due to the fire, cell phone reception is spotty at best according to residents, and the loss of power stopped any notices from going out to home phones or other devices dependent on wifi. 

     “My family, which has landlines as well as cell phones, were able to receive official evacuation notices only after we left the canyon,” said one anonymous comment submitted to OCFA online. “The notices had been sent much earlier, but we had no idea.” 

     During Sunday’s public conference, one man began to cry as he shared that his home was one of the 11 that burned to the ground and that he didn’t have a way to call in the fire. 

     “You guys all did a great job…but if we would have been able to call 911 and had a response from anywhere, I don’t care if it was Chicago, we might have saved the house,” he said. “Something really needs to be done. We could have had dead people all over the place. I built my house 40 years ago, I loved it. There’s nothing there but ash.” 

     “It’s not your guys fault, but it’s somebody’s fault that there’s no communication out there when this happens. The county is putting 2-3,000 people in Silverado, putting their life in jeopardy, if they are out there and there’s no way to know anything.”…. 

     “I also just want to reiterate how vulnerable we are when that power goes off,” [resident Sarah] Nightingale said. “At some point the risk of turning the power off to our homes becomes less of a risk than having a whole community of people who run generators…our inability to communicate with each other when something goes wrong. The inability to call 911 or to check in on elderly neighbors, or to call in a fire hotspot that may have arisen 

     No representative from Edison came to either conference, and fire officials repeatedly said they could not address the decisions behind cutting power to the affected areas…. 

✅ Santa Ana winds return to Southern California Monday, along with heightened fire risk 

—OC Reg 

✅ Human bones found in Mission Viejo yard belonged to ancient Native American 

A homeowner discovered the human remains while doing yardwork in February. 

—OC Reg 

✅ How California renters are bracing for an eviction tsunami -- Two million Californians could be forced from their rental homes early next year, and the bad omens are happening now, all around them. Nigel Duara CalMatters -- 12/7/20 

✅ Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves -- When the Chula Vista police receive a 911 call, they can dispatch a flying drone with the press of a button. Cade Metz in the New York Times$ -- 12/7/20 

✅ Judge Orders Restoration of DACA 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to begin accepting new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and otherwise restore the program to the form it took prior to Sept. 5, 2017, the day the administration announced plans to end the program. 

     The Supreme Court ruled in June to vacate President Trump’s decision to end DACA, which provides protection against deportation and work authorization to certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, including many current and former college students. 

     Rather than reinstate the program following the Supreme Court ruling, Chad Wolf, acting in his capacity as acting secretary of homeland security, issued a memo in July curbing DACA, reducing the term for renewals from two years to one and saying the administration would not accept any new applications. 

     But U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ruled Nov. 14 that Wolf “was not lawfully serving as acting secretary of homeland security under the Homeland Security Act” at the time he issued the memo, rendering the memo void. Judge Garaufis noted that the Government Accountability Office reported in August to Congress that Wolf was serving as acting secretary "by reference to an invalid order of succession."…. 

✅ Groups Sue to Preserve Trump Presidential Records 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     Historical groups are suing the Trump administration to prevent the destruction of records before the end of Donald Trump’s term. 

     The National Security Archive, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the American Historical Association, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have joined in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia…. 

✅ 50 Years On, the Feminist Press Is Radical and Relevant 

A mission to unearth forgotten female writers became a publishing house. It has risen and fallen with the tides of feminism, and it’s not going away. 

—NYT

✅ ‘A lost generation’: Surge of research reveals remote learning widens the equity gap 

—WashPo 

✅ ‘They’re not ready’: Students are about to flood college campuses. The virus could, too. 

Frequent testing is the way to keep coronavirus from spreading on campus, but many colleges don't have the resources to handle the coming flood of coeds. 

—Politico

Today's OC Covid numbers

OC Covid: Over 2000 new cases; 15 deaths

Coronavirus: 2,025 new cases, 15 new deaths reported in Orange County on Dec. 6 

 —OC Reg

In an alarming new record, daily coronavirus cases surpass 10,500 in L.A. County

The regional stay-at-home order going into effect tonight is the latest attempt to tamp down an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases and related hospitalizations that officials fear could overwhelm the local healthcare system. 

—LA Times

Over 2000 deaths per day in US

From Johns Hopkins, 12-5-20

NUMB & DUMBER: A shocking new high in OC Covid cases & hospitalizations; thus a shutdown; Wagner contra shutdown: My God, businesses are threatened!

Don Wagner and friend.

Today's OC Covid numbers (I had to reformat my graph)

✅ OC Coronavirus Hospitalizations Skyrocket 

The shutdown comes as 842 people are hospitalized in Orange County and regional ICU unit capacity dips to 13 percent. 

—Voice of OC

     …As of Friday, Southern California’s ICU capacity took a dramatic hit, dipping from roughly 20% of beds available on Friday to just over 13%, triggering the regional shutdown order because the capacity dipped below 15%.... 

     In Orange County, where county supervisors have largely protested the governor’s approach to shutdowns, County Supervisor Don Wagner, in a Saturday morning tweet, called for OC to file a letter of support in a lawsuit against the state to overturn the order. 

     Wagner, a chief critic of state coronavirus mandates and guidelines among the Supervisors, said the shutdown will tank businesses. 

     “On Tuesday, I’m proposing a resolution for local control & looking to file a legal amicus brief opposing the governor’s order. Keep taking safety precautions as we get through this.”  

     Orange County is seeing an unprecedented spike in hospitalizations. The county saw its hospitalizations rise by nearly 100 in one day, which has never before happened in OC during the pandemic….

✅ Trump’s New Citizenship Test Is Full of Conservative Bias—And Dotted With Mistakes 

People seeking U.S. citizenship deserve better. 

—Politico 

[Of course it is. We should be embarrassed.]

✅ What's the point of lab-grown meat when we can simply eat more vegetables? 

The corporate race for cultured protein rests on a view of human beings as greedy and incapable of change 

—Jenny Kleeman/The Guardian 

[Good question!]

✅ Neera Tanden, Biden’s pick for budget chief, runs a think tank backed by corporate and foreign interests

She leads the liberal Center for American Progress

—WashPo 

[She's a Clintonite and Sanders foe, an establishment Dem.]

✅ Just 27 GOP lawmakers acknowledge Biden’s win in Post survey 

Out of 249 Republicans in the House and Senate, 220 would not say who won the election. 

—WashPo 

[They're still afraid of Trump because his cult persists, and it will continue.]

✅ 274,000 Dead, and Trump Obsesses Over Election Conspiracy Theories. Where’s the Outrage? 

A 9/11 a day and…meh? 

—David Corn/Mother Jones

....Even though vaccines appear to be on the horizon, the coming days, weeks, and maybe months are likely to be grim, with ICUs and morgues flooded. Yet no national outcry has occurred. After months of deaths and distancing, has much of the country become inured?....

12-5: A 9/11 a day and…meh?; DACA reinstated; student loan pause

✅ Judge Orders Government to Fully Reinstate DACA Program 

Up to 300,000 additional undocumented immigrants could be allowed to apply for protection from deportation under the court ruling. Up to 300,000 additional undocumented immigrants could be allowed to apply for protection from deportation under the court ruling. 

—NYT 

     A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to fully restore an Obama-era program designed to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation, dealing what could be a final blow to President Trump’s long-fought effort to end the protections. 

     The program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was created by President Barack Obama in 2012. Over the years, it has protected more than 800,000 individuals, known as “dreamers,” who met a series of strict requirements for eligibility. 

     But those protections have been under legal and political siege from Republicans for years, leaving the immigrants who were enrolled in DACA uncertain whether the threat of deportation from the United States could quickly return with a single court order or presidential memorandum…. 

✅ DeVos extends student loan pause through January 

—Politico 

     The Trump administration on Friday granted an extra month of student loan relief to the 41 million Americans who have been benefiting from a freeze on monthly payments and interest that was set to expire at the end of the year. 

     That relief was set to expire on Dec. 31 but will now end on Jan. 31. The last-minute extension averts what could have been a potentially chaotic resumption of payments just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office…. 

✅ ‘It’s a good idea’: Fauci praises Biden’s 100-day mask plan 

Fauci also confirmed that he accepted Biden’s offer to become the president-elect’s chief medical adviser. 

—Politico 

     Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, on Friday praised President-elect Joe Biden’s proposal for all Americans to wear face masks for the first 100 days of his incoming administration — calling the plan to blunt the surging U.S. coronavirus outbreak a “good idea.” 

     The remarks from Fauci came after Biden announced the proposal in an interview with CNN on Thursday, during which he said he would ask Americans to cover their faces in public for “just 100 days … not forever.” He predicted that widespread adoption of the personal mitigation measure would result in a “significant reduction” in Covid-19 caseloads. 

✅ 274,000 Dead, and Trump Obsesses Over Election Conspiracy Theories. Where’s the Outrage? 

A 9/11 a day and…meh? 

—DAVID CORN/Mother Jones 

     In the late 1990s, conservatives and Republicans were fond of shouting “Where’s the outrage?” in response to Bill Clinton’s sex scandal. They couldn’t believe Clinton was getting away with it, as he preserved his high standing in public opinion polls and escaped removal from office. William Bennett, the right-wing moralist who had been education secretary in the Reagan administration, even wrote a book titled The Death of Outrage, in which he proclaimed this sordid episode cast a dark shadow on the entire nation: “This is moral bankruptcy, and it is damaging our country, its standards, and our self-respect.” 

     All the harrumphing was about an improper Oval Office tryst that did indeed tarnish the highest position in the land. But that fin-de-siècle chest-banging seems rather quaint and silly now, for today there is a lack of outrage over a far more significant matter: the death of more than a quarter-million Americans. On Wednesday, the United States set a new record for COVID-19 deaths: 2,804. This is just 173 shy of the death toll of 9/11—that cataclysmic event that reordered elements of American society. The United States is looking at that level of loss on a daily basis. Yet there is little uproar….