{"id":8673,"date":"2020-09-16T17:11:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T17:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=8673"},"modified":"2021-11-13T18:00:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T18:00:39","slug":"09-16","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/09-16\/","title":{"rendered":"09-16"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Wednesday, September 16<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 6.64 million
US Deaths 196,658<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Sep 12: At a rally in Nevada, Trump accuses<\/a> Nevada’s Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak of trying to “rig the election” because the Trump campaign had to move the rally out of Reno because of COVID-19 restrictions. Two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies are shot<\/a> while sitting in their patrol vehicle in Compton.<\/p>\n

Sep 13: Michael Caputo, press secretary at Health and Human Services, posts<\/a> a Facebook video<\/a> accusing CDC scientists of \u201csedition\u201d and warning that left-wing hit squads are preparing for an insurrection. He further accuses CDC scientists of fostering \u201cresistance units\u201d within the agency in order to undermine the president. He states: \u201cthere are scientists working for this government who do not want America to get better.\u201d A federal judge  blocks<\/a> the U.S. Postal Service from sending people in Colorado a misleading postcard about voting by mail. The postcard said incorrectly that you had to register to vote 15 days before the election. Hurricane<\/a> Sally is headed to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Sep 14: The government announces it will stop screenings<\/a> taking place at some airports. Pfizer and BioNTech announce they will expand the phase 3 trial<\/a> of their COVID-19 vaccine by 50% to 44,000, in order to increase their data sample. Trump says<\/a> that the fires on the West Coast are the fault of bad forest management, not global warming.<\/p>\n

Sep 15: Alex Azar, head of HHS, bars<\/a> all of the nation\u2019s health agencies, including the FDA, from signing new regulations or rules without his signature.  Caputo, HHS press secretary, meets<\/a> with the marketing company awarded the $250 million “defeat despair” coronavirus ad campaign contract and proposes during the meeting that one of the themes of the ad campaign should be: \u201cHelping the President will Help the Country\u201d and that one of the concept is to communicate an effective mask-wearing PSA. A study published<\/a> in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report<\/em> finds that people who recently tested positive for COVID-19 were 2.4 times more likely to have dined out. <\/p>\n

Sep 16: Caputo, HHS press secretary, goes on a two month medical leave. Meanwhile, top HHS officials testify in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee<\/a> and emphatically underscore the importance of mask wearing to prevent coronavirus transmission.  CDC Director, Robert Redfield, and Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS, both warn that, “These face masks are the most important, powerful public health tool we have.” Refield says that vaccines are not likely to be available until the summer or fall. Trump insists later in the day that Refield is wrong.  Redfield then rescinds his claim about the vaccine timeline. A plan devised<\/a> by HHS and the DOD aims to make a COVID-19 vaccine free for all Americans, with the vaccine being rolled out in January 2021.  Hurricane<\/a> Sally causes historic flooding in Alabama and Florida. The federal government unveils<\/a> a plan to make a COVID-19 vaccine free to all Americans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the Trump administration should investigate a whistleblower complaint alleging that mass hysterectomies were being performed on immigrant women <\/a>in a federal detention center in Georgia. For the first time in 175 years, the journal Scientific American<\/em> endorses<\/a> a presidential candidate (Joe Biden).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Three weeks ago, I awoke in the night with one browser window linked to the cameras set up by HurricaneTracker.com as Hurricane Laura scraped across Louisiana. On another browser window, I watched wildfires consume California. I thought this split-screen apocalypse would be a one-time event. But this morning, I\u2019m up early watching Hurricane Sally hit my own state while a friend of mine packs up to leave her home because wildfires are consuming Oregon. We are almost certainly going to be moving into Greek-alphabet-named tropical storms over a month earlier than in 2005, the worst year before this one.[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>

Whereas Laura brought punishing wind, Sally has carried incredible rain and destruction to the Gulf Coast.[2]<\/a> It is going to be a multi-billion-dollar clean-up.[3]<\/a> To towns that are almost completely tourism dependent, the one-two punch of the pandemic and this hurricane and subsequent flooding are going to create a barrier to recovery that is hard to measure.<\/span><\/p>

At the same time, Jo Weaver writes me about her family\u2019s frantic evacuation from the \u201cHoliday Farm\u201d fire that has engulfed the state.[4]<\/a> She had resisted leaving, even though she was under a Level 1 evacuation warning. She packed their bags plus their \u201cbirth certificates, the deed to the house, favorite stuffed animals, a paper map in case the GPS died on the way out, instant coffee packets, because I will kill if I don\u2019t get coffee, sleeping bags\u2014you know, survival-in-a-car stuff.\u201d The evacuation warnings in her vicinity were \u201cjust jumping up and back\u201d between level 1 and level 3\u2014the \u201cget out immediately\u201d level\u2014so it was hard to know exactly what one\u2019s danger level was. The fires were moving so fast.[5]<\/a><\/span><\/p>

[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>

After a few days of this not-knowing, the fires themselves became secondary to the smoke and ash. \u201cI seriously couldn\u2019t breathe even with my N95 mask on,\u201d she says. Some days the sky was so thick with smoke that it felt like a dome was overhead, they were sealed within a snowglobe. \u201cLike a Mad Max<\/em> movie, with a red sun dot\u201d in that grey shell. Outside, nothing but \u201craining ash and the smell of burning\u2014reminded me of Pompeii.\u201d She began thinking about what kind of look she should have on her face if she was to be buried in ash for centuries. Two centimeters of ash coated every tree and plant. Sweeping it only created clouds. She prudently taped up her doors and windows, but it didn\u2019t help. When she drove to the store, the smoke plus \u201cjust all the ash whirling\u201d made her feel disoriented, nauseated. Today, with the air quality at a level never before seen in Oregon, she felt compelled to leave.[6]<\/a> She\u2019s going back east to her parents, thankful that they can still accommodate the whole family, fully recognizing her privilege: her relatively secure finances and a job that allows her to work remotely.<\/span><\/p>

All these disasters signal to her something even more unnerving. \u201cIt\u2019s clear and obvious that we as a country are fucking ourselves.\u201d It\u2019s not just the fires, it\u2019s the rumors that \u201cAntifa\u201d set these fires. \u201cEven natural disasters push us apart.\u201d She believes that the Portland protests are still continuing even in the face of this, but that even in her neighborhood, people are divided over who is responsible for what. Should we blame the cops, the protesters, the \u201cwhite extremists\u201d who do the looting or the \u201cwhite extremists\u201d who fire off the tear gas at the protesters? Underneath that, she wonders \u201cwill my kids have an ordinary lifespan?\u201d If we cannot handle something straightforward like a killer virus\u2014if even pandemics<\/em> divide the country into two roughly equal, opposite chunks\u2014how will we address the heat that\u2019s coming, heat that will start fires sooner, that will make hurricanes wetter?<\/span><\/p>

Her advice for our future era of climate change? \u201cBuy a bus.\u201d \u201cProperty is optional.\u201d \u201cAgility is the most important thing.\u201d \u201cSurvive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Notes<\/span><\/p>

[1]<\/a> Gabrielle Calise, \u201cWe\u2019re Running out of Hurricane Names during the 2020 Storm Season,\u201d Tampa Bay Times, September 14, 2020, https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/hurricane\/2020\/09\/14\/were-running-out-of-hurricane-names-during-the-2020-storm-season\/.<\/span><\/p>

[2]<\/a> \u201cHurricane Sally Blasts Ashore as a Powerful Category 2 Storm, Bringing Punishing Rain, Flooding,\u201d CNBC, September 16, 2020, https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2020\/09\/16\/hurricane-sally-latest-updates.html.<\/span><\/p>

[3]<\/a> Sarah Lynch Baldwin, \u201cHurricane Sally Aftermath: Flooding Threats Expand across the Southeast,\u201d September 17, 2020, https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/hurricane-sally-gulf-coast-path-track-death-toll\/.<\/span><\/p>

[4]<\/a> Telephone conversation with author, September 15, 2020.<\/span><\/p>

[5]<\/a> \u201cEXCLUSIVE: Dashcam Video from First Night of Holiday Farm Fire,\u201d KEZI News, September 15, 2020, https:\/\/www.kezi.com\/content\/news\/WATCH-Dashcam-video-from-first-night-of-Holiday-Farm-Fire-572419861.html; News Staff, \u201cHoliday Farm Fire East of Springfield Burns Area Nearly 4 Times the Size of Eugene,\u201d KVAL, September 9, 2020, https:\/\/kval.com\/news\/local\/holiday-farm-fire-east-of-springfield-has-burned-over-100k-acres-since-monday-night; Shane Dixon Kavanaugh | The Oregonian\/OregonLive, \u201cHoliday Farm Fire Ravages Oregon Towns, Premier Outdoor Playground near Eugene: \u2018Catastrophic Damage,\u2019\u201d oregonlive, September 9, 2020, https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/news\/2020\/09\/holiday-farm-fire-ravages-oregon-towns-premier-outdoor-playground-near-eugene-catastrophic-damage.html.<\/span><\/p>

[6]<\/a> Joseph Winters, \u201cOregon\u2019s Air Quality Is so Far beyond \u2018Hazardous\u2019 That No One Knows What It Means for Health,\u201d Grist<\/em> (blog), September 11, 2020, https:\/\/grist.org\/climate\/oregons-air-quality-is-so-far-beyond-hazardous-that-no-one-knows-what-it-means-for-health\/.<\/span>
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“Oregon man describes start of Holiday Farm fire in Lane County,” The Oregonian<\/em>, September 16, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/xO20D2dgYFs<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nina Melhoff, “Lake Oswego family narrowly escapes Holiday Farm Fire,” \u00a0KGW News Eugene, September 16, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/p-ujbLhA8UA<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Chris Terrill, “Why Are Wildfires Becoming More Unpredictable?,” Stormrider: Fire Storm, Spark, Little Dot Studios, August 14, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/y8aKqbya_qc<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Northwest Sawyer, “Escaping The Oregon Wildfires! Fire within 100′ of my house!!!” September 12, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/El9kEo7FD-c<\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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“Dozens dead and thousands displaced in West Coast wildfires,” CBC News, September 12, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/neMObfw8Dqs<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“Hurricane Sally Slams the Alabama Coast,” Max Olsen Chasing, September 16, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/FT6DmKXdmFQ<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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