Conspiracy Theorists in San Luis Obispo County, Hurricane Ian and Flesh-Eating Bacteria, and Today’s Statistics
Florida Republican Who Sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Takes Plea Deal for Covid Relief Fund Fraud
Photo caption: What many people presume a board of supervisors meeting would look like
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,320th day of the pandemic.
In news we report today, conspiracy theorists ran rampant in San Luis Obispo County after a masking order was issued for healthcare workers, the Florida Republican who sponsored the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill in the Florida House and faced 35 years in prison for Covid relief fund fraud took a plea deal, and flesh-eating bacteria are not just something in horror films.
UNITED STATES
States in the New England, Central, Northern, and Pacific parts of the country remain the areas with the highest rates of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the country, according to the latest data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The states with the highest positivity rates in the country Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, where the positivity rate was 13.4%, the highest in the nation.
An order by San Luis Obispo County’s chief health officer, Peggy Borenstein, requiring healthcare workers to either be vaccinated against flu and Covid or to wear a mask while working, has drawn criticism from the county’s Republican Party. At a recent board of supervisors meeting for the county, one dozen speakers took to the mic to provide what amounted to disinformation about vaccines, the pandemic, and healthcare in general.
One speaker called the coronavirus vaccine a “bioweapon,” while another accused pharmaceutical companies of engineering the latest vaccine mandate because it wants to unload anti-Covid drugs. A speaker who identified herself as a registered nurse called for Borenstein to be “relieved of her duties.”
P.S. She wasn’t.
Florida state Representative Joe Harding, who was arrested in December after being indicted by a grand jury on six counts alleging he illegally obtained $150,000 in pandemic-related small business loans by using the names of two dormant companies, was sentenced to four months in federal prison after accepting a plea deal. He faced up to 35 years in prison for the crimes he committed.
According to the indictment, Harding, between December 1, 2020, and March 1, 2021, used the dormant companies on applications for Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and included false bank statements as supporting documentation. Harding is known for having sponsored legislation in the Florida House that banned discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in classrooms up until third grade.
Harding’s four-month sentence, which will begin in January, will be followed by a two-year supervised release period, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Harding egregiously betrayed the public trust by stealing from Covid relief funds meant to help the very people who elected him.,” said Brian J. Payne, an Internal Revenue Service investigator who worked on the case, in a statement.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
It seems that Hurricane Ian did more than cause flooding and wipe out people’s homes. It also killed 149 people, but more people might have died months later as a result of the storm.
A study published this week reported that the cyclone stirred up flesh-eating bacteria in Florida, causing a spike in cases of Vibrio.
In Lee County, where Ian made landfall, some 38 people were sickened by the bacteria and 11 people died from Vibrio vulnificus, the highest number of Vibrio cases in a single month in Florida in more than 30 years. State health authorities said that there had been no reported cases of Vibrio in the weeks that preceded the cyclone.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, October 22.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 696.88 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.01 million in the past day, and 6.93 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 668.77 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.02 million.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 21,179,601, a decrease of 14,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, 21,141,589, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,012, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded 109 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.18 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,930.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.53 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 706,276, has recorded 37.86 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.2 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.78 million, and Russia, with 23.08 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending October 7, 2023, the test positivity rate was – based on data released on October 13 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – 9.5%, a figure that is down 0.7% from the previous 7-day period, while the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.3%, a figure that is down 11.9%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 16,158, a figure that is down 5%. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.5%, a figure that is up 4.2% over the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.52 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 37,306 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.6% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)