Getting It Right.

You all have probably heard of the virus outbreak in Provincetown over the Fourth of July, well it is under control while other outbreaks are running rampant around the country. P’town got it right and not only did they get it right but they did it in such a way that the CDC used the information on the virus to change their procedures.

The key is in the word “virus” and the gay community knows how to handle a virus.

I Was Part of the July Fourth Provincetown “Breakthrough” COVID Cluster. It’s Been a Sobering Experience.
My “hot vax summer” has cooled into a season of confusion and dread.
Slate
By Joel Rozen
August 2, 2021


Last Thursday, an internal slide presentation leaked from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the delta variant of the coronavirus is even more contagious than previously thought—more communicable than Ebola and the common cold, as spreadable as the chickenpox. While vaccines appear to remain strong against the virus, new evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people with so-called breakthrough infections may be every bit as infectious as those yet to receive their shots, even if their own cases remain relatively mild. According to a report the agency released on Friday, the CDC’s latest findings were based on a July 4 COVID-19 outbreak in queer mecca Provincetown, Massachusetts, where among a cluster of 469 (with no deaths) at the time of study, an astonishing three-quarters of the infected had been fully vaccinated. As of July 31, the P-Town outbreak had ballooned to 965 cases.

I was one of them.

He goes on to write about the symptoms that he had and how a “Contact Tracer” contacted him.

...it had also offered us gay men a glimpse of an important facet of our history, exemplified most powerfully in the legendary self-advocacy of ACT UP: playing armchair scientist when institutional and social knowledge isn’t there for us, when it breaks down.

Forty years almost to the day after the New York Times first reported on the “rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals,” here we were again, confused and angry participants in a public health emergency. Many of us began sounding the alarm just after the July Fourth holiday, and by midmonth the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had started collaborating with the CDC to track the new cluster. Around that same time, the CDC began asking for Provincetown positives to come forward with their stories. “I can’t believe we were joking about the ‘Fagbash variant’ a few weeks ago and now we are literally the case study for the variant,” a friend texted me in response to the CDC’s sudden interest, referencing a popular P-Town party. Those of us who reached out, I like to think, pushed our collective understanding of delta a step forward with our reporting.

Indeed, Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center, said as much to the New York Times. “This is one of the most impressive examples of citizen science I have seen,” she said. “The people involved in the Provincetown outbreak were meticulous in making lists of their contacts and exposures.”

It was thanks to that knowledge of what to do when a virus spreads that enabled Provincetown to get the virus under control in less than four weeks… Mask Up! Get Vaccinated!

Massachusetts has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country and when they first suspected a breakthrough outbreak Provincetown Select Board and town manager ordered masks be worn inside all buildings. In states like Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas the virus is spreading unchecked. Louisiana and Arkansas just imposed wearing of masks indoors after weeks of inaction but Florida’s governor DeSantis has actually banned cities from requiring masks.

In a commentary in Advocate…

Provincetown, Are You OK?
P-town became a COVID breakthrough hotspot, but Mayor Alex Morse says the gay mecca is getting its groove back.
By John Casey
August 2, 2021


As most of us know by now, the July 4th holiday in P-town really did turn out to be a truly dubious experience. Nearly 1,000 positive COVID-19 cases resulted from large bar and dance crowds of shirtless partying masses of men crammed next to each other.

I recall seeing Facebook and Instagram pictures of some friends who were among the revelers, and I specifically remember uttering out loud, “That looks dangerous.” Sure enough it was. Most of those who tested positive were vaccinated, and the anomaly of this outcome was enough for the CDC to update their mask guidance that now suggests that vaccinated people should wear masks indoors. The CDC found, based primarily on what happened in P-town, that vaccinated people can transmit the virus. But it also found a silver-lining.

P-town, a gay mecca for generations, was thrust into the spotlight. The emergence and virulent presence of the virus was about as welcome as a polo-clad lad at leather weekend, except it was much more ominous. To me, since it involved lots of gay men testing positive in a verifiable petri dish, it had echoes of the early days of the AIDS crisis, when gay men in San Francisco were becoming sick in alarming numbers.

Once again, gay men were at the heart of a virus, that we still do not know much about. I’ve talked to a number of experts during the past year about COVID-19. This is still a relatively new disease, like AIDS was, and were still discovering new nuances and variants each day. Because so many remain unvaccinated, experts are now predicting that the virus might mutate into a variant that will be resistant to the vaccine.

With imposing the mask mandate,

Morse explained that the positivity rates are coming way down from their highest levels. “We peaked on July 15 at 15.1 percent, and as of July 30, the rate has dropped to anywhere between 3-5 percent over the last few days. This past weekend we had rates under 5 percent for three consecutive days, which indicates we are making tremendous progress toward containment. If these rates continue, we will consider easing some of the mandates we instituted after July 4th that worked to ensure the safety of our community.”

Provincetown used scientific proven methods to curb the spread of diseases, they followed the healthcare experts recommendations to limit the spread of a virus, and the people cooperated with wearing masks and with the disease trackers. Massachusetts has a long history of fighting diseases by quarantine and vaccinations, back in 1721 had a debate over vaccination against smallpox and the vaxxers won through the use of scientific research proved that vaccinations worked.

According to the SF Gate the town manager and the Select Board wants people to know...

"The vaccines are working," he tweeted. "Of the 900 cases related to the Provincetown cluster, there have been no deaths, 7 hospitalizations, and the symptoms are largely mild. Our positivity peaked at 15% on 7/15 and was only 4.8% yesterday. The outbreak is contained and Provincetown is safe."

The Provincetown outbreak reinforces what is already known: Vaccinated individuals are at very low risk of severe disease from the delta variant. The CDC estimates that nationally, just 0.002% of vaccinated individuals have suffered severe breakthrough cases.

There is a common thread between the two virus and that is politics.

Back in the 1980s the Republican party politicized the virus, jump forward 40 years and once again the Republicans politicized a virus and it costs hundred of thousands of lives.

In The Middle Of The Worst Pandemic Since 1918…

...Trump wants to take away our health insurance!

How cruel can a person be?

Trump Administration Doubles Down on Trans Discrimination

US Congress Should Pass the Equality Act

Human Rights Watch

By Ryan Thoreson

June 25, 2020

The Trump administration is moving ahead with a rule that would write transgender people out of sex discrimination protections in health care. While advocates fight the rule in court, transgender people will continue to face discriminatory treatment and refusals of care.

This comes despite a United States Supreme Court ruling last week that affirmed employment protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, reasoning that gender identity discrimination is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by law.

[…]

The rollback of healthcare protections is the latest in a long string of Trump administration attacks on transgender people.

The administration’s cruel assault on transgender rights shows no signs of letting up. Just after the healthcare regulation was finalized, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would propose a rule permitting single-sex homeless shelters to turn away transgender people.

On the heels of the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration is ignoring the court ruling and plunging ahead to strip us of health insurance protection of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) Section 1557. In addition, Trump wants to scrap the whole ACA forcing 20 million people to lose their health insurance.

Opinion: New federal rule will harm transgender health

Houston Chronicle

By Dr. Aliza Norwood 

June 26, 2020

Riah Milton and Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, both black trans women, were murdered earlier this month. Their deaths appear to be part of an epidemic of hate crimes against transgender people, particularly trans women of color. Yet that same week, against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests, a global pandemic and Pride month, the Trump administration issued a rule to further imperil transgender people by stripping them of their right to seek health care without discrimination.

The rule, finalized on June 12 by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights, rewrites part of the Affordable Care Act by interpreting “sex” discrimination to apply only to biological sex, thus allowing health care providers and insurance companies to refuse care or coverage to patients merely because they are transgender. Although the Supreme Court’s recent groundbreaking ruling that employers cannot fire individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity sets an important precedent, it doesn’t keep the HHS rule from taking effect.

[…]

As the global pandemic has taught us, our nation is only as healthy as its most vulnerable citizens. The HHS rule is medically unsound and will harm individual and public health. We cannot continue to allow the seeds of transphobia that kill so many people to be buried in our medical system.

This is the most cold-hearted administration ever, they are devoid of any empathy.

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Another death by the hands of correctional officers…

17 Rikers Workers to Be Disciplined for Transgender Woman’s Death in Solitary

Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

By Parker E. Quinlan 

June 27, 2020

NEW YORK — The New York City Department of Corrections will discipline 17 officers for their conduct surrounding the death of 27-year-old Layleen Polanco, a transgender Rikers Island inmate being housed in solitary confinement.

The decision comes after the New York City Board of Corrections (BOC) released a scathing 16-page report that documents how both DOC and Correctional Health Services (CHS), which administers medical aid to inmates, ignored signs that Polanco was not medically fit for solitary confinement.

Polanco, who had schizophrenia and frequent epileptic seizures, died in her cell in June 2019. She had been arrested for allegedly attempting to bite a taxi driver and was being held on $500 bail. She was unattended for nearly two hours before staff tried to assist her, according to the report.

Despite it being against DOC policy to house inmates with medical conditions in solitary confinement, the report charges medical staff cleared her to be housed in the unit anyway.

As the Black Lives Matter movement has shown… “law enforcement” agencies need to have their funding cut, this should have never been a legal matter but rather a social work matter, she needed mental healthcare not to be locked up in jail because she couldn't make bond. Attempting to bite a person shouldn’t be a life sentence.

Being Counted.

I completed the Census yesterday and you should also fill out the Census questionnaire.

When we were trying to pass the non-discrimination bill for us the most common question was “Well how many trans people live in Connecticut?” and all we could do was shrug our shoulders.

There was no definitive answer to their question because there never was any accurate counting of trans people. When the first National Transgender Survey came out we now had some answers to the question about the needs of our community.

The 2020 Census originally had questions about us, but the questions were stripped out by the Trump administration.

2020 census: What LGBTQ Americans should know
The decennial survey won’t inquire about individuals’ sexual orientation and gender identity, but it will count cohabiting same-sex couples for the first time.
Out NBC
By Tim Fitzsimons
March 24, 2020

As households across the United States start to receive their 2020 census packets, LGBTQ advocacy groups are ramping up efforts to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people living in the country are counted and understand what’s at stake when it comes to the decennial survey.

“We want LGBTQ folks to know that census data are used to allocate political power,” said Meghan Maury, policy director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, which runs the Queer the Census campaign. The drive, formed just before the 2010 census, works to raise LGBTQ awareness and participation in the population count.

Under the Obama administration there were questions pertained to us such as sexual orientation and gender identity but they were removed from the questions. However, some questions about marriage remained.

The 2020 census asks respondents about their relationship to the person with whom they share their home, and now includes “‘opposite-sex husband/wife/spouse,” “same-sex husband/wife/spouse,” “opposite-sex unmarried partner” and “same-sex unmarried partner.” In previous surveys, the options were “husband and wife” or “unmarried partner.”
[…]
According to NBC News’ reporting from 2017, LGBTQ advocates pushed to add an explicit question about sexual orientation and gender identity, and they briefly rejoiced when a draft of the census was leaked in 2017 showing such a question. But soon after, the Census Bureau issued a statement saying that the question had been a “mistake.”

Why we need to be counted.

Mainly it boils down to money. But it also effects Congressional representation… how many House districts would represent Connecticut, we could lose a seat in the House. Funding for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, Ryan White funding for those who have AIDS/HIV, and public housing.

The questions would also help to answer questions that we get from legislators when we try to pass needed legislation.

The Census form that I filled out yesterday was the short form, it just asked who lived at your address and a few demographic questions.

Please fill out your Census forms, it could mean a lot to you and Connecticut.

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Day 14 of Social Isolation… er… Social Distancing

Same as all the other days except that I dropped off my bills at the post office and went grocery shopping. The only thing different at the grocery store was when I went to get my cart, there was a store clerk who handed me my cart after she wiped the cart with a disinfectant.

At night I had a NASW macro committee meeting (National Association of Social Workers) which was held via a conference call. It wasn’t very productive because everything we had planned was canceled. Workshops on macro social work… canceled. Macro social workers career panel... canceled. Social Workers meet and greet… canceled. The state NASW CT conference… canceled.

Stepping Up To The Plate.

Sometime trans people are in the background, not attracting attention, just doing their job when suddenly they thrust into the spotlight.

Who is Rachel Levine? Pa. health secretary offers calm, reassurance amid pandemic
“She’s been exemplary in her public health approach and exemplary in her communication."
PA Post
By Ivey DeJesus
March 19, 2020

(Harrisburg) — Dr. Rachel Levine joined Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration amid a raging opioid epidemic, which up until now she had described as the worst public health crisis in the state.

Then came the coronavirus.

In the weeks since public health officials have scrambled to address and contain the potentially lethal public health crisis, Levine, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, has distinguished herself among medical professionals and peers, pre-emptively and proactively addressing the coronavirus and the state’s response to the virus.

“She has been exemplary in her approach,” said Dr. Jennifer Chambers, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Capital BlueCross. “She’s been exemplary in her public health approach and exemplary in her communication. She’s been thoughtful and measured. She’s been very good providing calm, timely and accurate updates. Her voice of reassurance has been very helpful.”

And she’s trans!

But not all are happy with a trans woman leading the fight against COVID-19

Central Pa. restaurant owner apologizes for ‘hateful’ message on sign about Rachel Levine
PA Live
By Sue Gleiter
March 19, 2020

A Cumberland County restaurant/bar is under fire for posting a derogatory message directed at Pa. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine on its business sign.

Trindle Inn Bar & Grill’s sign in Carlisle read “Dr. Levine or is it Uncle Fester in a wig?" and prompted hundreds of people to express outrage on Facebook.
[…]
“Well, if you frequent Trindle Inn, I hope you don’t anymore. This is absolutely disgusting. In a time where we should be banding together, this kind of [explicative] is even MORE appalling than it usually is,” wrote Bryden Farrell McCurdy.

Levine has been instrumental in leading Pennsylvania during the coronavirus pandemic.

Of course with all the backlash over his comment he is now trying to back off of his comment. Sorry your true nature has shown through and the people don’t like it.

Still Kicking

Day 12:
It has been twelve days in self-isolation, except for grocery shopping, a walk in the park and a friend stopping by I have been in isolation… I read a couple of books, listen to a book, watched YouTube videos, listen to “Old Time Radio” shows, I’m on Facebook too much, and I talked to friends on the phone. For an introvert it is heaven.

No, not really. I like to be with friends just like everyone else. But I am in the high risk group… a senior and a diabetic. I am not worried or scared, I’m just taking sensible precautions and keeping away from idiots who think that they are immortal. Yeah, they probably won’t die of COVID-19 but someone they give it might.

The infected young people can pass it along to the “at risk” population to seniors like me, or to my friend who is undergoing chemo. And the younger generation are also getting infected and need hospitalization.

New analysis breaks down age-group risk for coronavirus — and shows millennials are not invincible
STAT
By Sharon Begley
March 18, 2020
[...]
In general, the U.S. experience largely mimics China’s, with the risk for serious disease and death from Covid-19 rising with age. But in an important qualification, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday underlines a message that infectious disease experts have been emphasizing: Millennials are not invincible. The new data show that up to one-fifth of infected people ages 20-44 have been hospitalized, including 2%-4% who required treatment in an intensive care unit.
[…]
In an alarming development, however, scientists in China are now reporting that the new coronavirus does not spare the very young. In the first retrospective study of Covid-19 among children in the country where the pandemic began, they count 2,143 cases in children. Of those, they report in the journal Pediatrics, more than 90% were mild or moderate, confirming earlier observations that children are at lower risk of severe disease. (That may be because the molecule that allows the virus to enter human cells seems to be less developed in children.)

But 6% of pediatric cases were severe and even critical, compared to 19% of adult cases. And in an unexplained finding, nearly 11% of the Covid-19 cases in infants were severe or critical, though no babies died. An important caveat, however, is that some of what doctors believed to be Covid-19 might have been another respiratory disease, including respiratory syncytial virus, which is known to cause severe illness in children.

The young people think that it is just like the flu but it isn’t, COVID-19 infects to lungs unlike the flu and can very easily turn into pneumonia. I had pneumonia back in the 70s when I was in my thirties and I can tell you that it is not fun. I still remember not being able to catch my breath and the feeling that you are drowning. The fever cause hallucination; I remember seeing people who were not there walking up and down in front of my bedroom door. After my doctor said that I could now go back to work after being out of work for eight weeks, I remember being out of breath just walking across the parking lot.

Just this morning I found out that a friend who already has breathing issues is hospitalized with the flu and the doctors are worried that she could also get the COVID-19 virus.

Please follow the CDC guidelines… keep your physical distance from people. The life you save might be a loved one.