Tag Archives: pandemic

The Chilling Statistics of AIDS Deaths in Gay Men Help Understand The Long-term Trauma They Endure Today

The Chilling Statistics of AIDS Deaths in Gay Men Help Understand The Long-term Trauma They Endure Today

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An article by Dr Dana Rosenfeld, Director of the Keele Centre for Ageing Research reported more than 5 years ago on the affects that gay men who lived through the AIDS crisis and the trauma they endured and how it still stays with them today.

The article points out that older gay people were aged 50-70 in 1980, when HIV / AIDS emerged in the west, gay male ‘baby boomers’ (born 1946-1964) were aged 34-16 and how for them, the high number of AIDS deaths at the epidemic’s peak (1987-1996) shaped their lives, during the epidemic, throughout their life course, and into later years. 

Statistics: AIDS killed 324,029 men and women in the USA between 1987 and 1998.

AIDS deaths were highest in major cities with thriving gay communities with a far higher proportion of gay male residents than the national average. In 1990, AIDS caused 61% of all deaths of men aged 25-44 (born 1946-1965) in San Francisco, 35% in New York, 51% in Ft. Lauderdale, 32% in Boston, 33% in Washington, DC, 39% in Seattle, 34% in Dallas, 38% in Atlanta, 43% in Miami, and 25% in Portland, Oregon. Older gay men, myself included who had lost friends and / or partners during the AIDS epidemic described cities becoming virtual ghost-towns.

The AIDS epidemic’s impacts on this generation of gay men, now aged 54-72, are still being explored. High mortality within tight gay networks have inspired the term ‘multiple loss syndrome’ to capture these deaths’ psychological toll. 

Dr Rosenfled also found that ‘nearly all older gay men alive today, regardless of their HIV status or when they come out, have been impacted in some way’ by HIV / AIDS. Many of these men were (and continue to be) AIDS activists and / or carers, and have played, and continue to play, a central role in the LGBT community’s history.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, 79.3 million [55.9–110 million] people have been infected with the HIV virus and 36.3 million [27.2–47.8 million] people have died of HIV. Globally, 37.7 million [30.2–45.1 million] people were living with HIV at the end of 2020.

It’s still not over.

#COVID19 – Comatose Anti-Vaxxer Flown To Texas After Minnesota Hospital Decides To Turn Off Ventilator.

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Via The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Scott Quiner, 55, of Buffalo, was flown from the Twin Cities to Texas over the weekend, an attorney representing the family said. Scott Quiner’s case drew widespread attention last week after Mercy Hospital said it would disconnect the ventilator on Thursday. Quiner, who was unvaccinated, had been in the hospital’s ICU since Nov. 6 with critically low oxygen levels and had shown little signs of improvement since his arrival.

Quiner’s wife, Anne, went to Anoka County court seeking an emergency restraining order to prevent Mercy from disconnecting the ventilator. Without a judge’s decision, “my husband will die,” Anne wrote in her petition seeking the court’s action. A GoFundMe has pulled in more than $28,600 as of Monday morning. A second fundraiser on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo was seeking to raise $100,000. As of Monday, the effort had brought in $41,000

Of course anti-vax extremists and QAnon/Trump loons are besides themselves and Quinner’s wife wants to keep giving him futile care while taking up an ICU bed in a pandemic so she can give him ivermectin and vitamins.

I’m sure everything will turn out just fine. (No it won’t)

Marjorie Taylor Greene Crazy Lunatic

“Isolation Boxes” Proposed For Mask Refusing House Reps All of Whom are Republican

COVID-19, , , , , ,

House Democrat, Katherine Clark (D-Mass) the fourth-ranking House Democrat and Assistant Speaker has the sergeant-at-arms to force lawmakers who defy the chamber’s mask mandate to cast votes from enclosures in the gallery above to limit potential spread of COVID-19.

Clark said it’s clear that existing fines are not enough to deter certain lawmakers from repeatedly flouting rules requiring everyone to wear masks in the House chamber. And with the highly contagious omicron variant driving caseloads in the nation’s capital to record levels, Clark argued that pandemic safety rules need to be enforced.

She suggested using plexiglass enclosures in the gallery overlooking the House chamber, which were installed last year so that lawmakers subject to quarantine could still cast votes when proxy voting was temporarily unavailable.

Yahoo news

The House mask mandate was first established in July 2020 because numerous GOP lawmakers refused to wear masks, including one who tested positive for COVID-19 after spending time in the chamber and at committee hearings.

Every Democratic House of Representatives member has been vaccinated and boosted.

Two far-right extremist Republicans, Georgia Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde, have each been fined tens of thousands of dollars for repeatedly ignoring the requirement that everyone in the House chamber wear a mask during the pandemic.

If the House chamber has a rule and you break the rule – for example, you refuse to wear a face mask – why aren’t you barred from entry into the chamber? Totally barred.

The entitlement of the GOP and the the inherent failure of House Rules Committee when the Republicans break rules to take them to task is a massive failure of our Government.

Did Madonna Expresses Solidarity with Anti-Vaxxers Right Wing Nuts or Trash Cancel Culture?

Did Madonna Express Solidarity with Anti-Vaxxer Right Wing Nuts or Trash Cancel Culture?

COVID-19, Entertainment, Featured, , ,

In a recent interview for V Magazine playwright Jeremy O. Harris asked Madam X if peace can exist in a world affected by a pandemic?

“It’s interesting because peace is subjective the way people think about the pandemic, for instance, that the vaccination is the only answer, or the polarization of thinking, you’re either on this side or the other. Later Madonna added: “There’s no debate, there’s no discussion. No one’s allowed to speak their mind right now. No one’s allowed to say what they really think about things for fear of being canceled, cancel culture. In cancel culture, disturbing the peace is probably an act of treason.”

Madonna – V Magazine 

And while Madonna railed against the cancel culture tying it to the pandemic and the life saving Covid-19 vaccine was not the best analogy. This is not the first issue Madonna has had with her COVID-19 related opinions. In July, 2020, Madonna’s Instagram account was flagged for spreading “false information” about coronavirus after she shared a video of physician and pastor Dr. Stella Immanuel, who falsely claimed that social distancing and face masks are ineffective in the fight against COVID and made the unsubstantiated claim that hydroxychloroquine is a cure for the virus without any due diligence on her part.

Madonna was condemned by many fans and followers, including Annie Lennox, who wrote, “I can’t believe that you are endorsing this dangerous quackery.

So is Madonna anti-vax or anti-cancel culture or BOTH?

Or does she just like publicity.

You decide.

Older LGBT Americans Face Chronic Illness, Other Health Challenges Because of the COVID 19 Pandemic.

Older LGBT Americans Face Chronic Illness, Other Health Challenges Because of the COVID 19 Pandemic.

COVID-19, Featured, , , , ,

A new July report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has found that LGBT adults are more likely than their non-LGBT peers to report certain health-related challenges and negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Via AARP:

The report looked at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly a quarter (24 percent) of LGBT people reporting that they have sought mental health care because of the pandemic, compared to 12 percent of non-LGBT respondents. Three-quarters (74 percent) of LGBT people reported that the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health, compared to 49 percent of non-LGBT respondents.

The report also cited that LGBT adults were more likely than other adults to quit a job for a coronavirus-related reason or to take time off of work because of personal illness with COVID-19, or caregiving for someone who was infected or to quarantine.

Among the 30 percent of LGBT people who reported having trouble paying medical bills in the last year, more than half (58 percent) said that the COVID-19 pandemic was at least in part to blame.

Trump Calls For More UN-Civil Disobedience With Impending Arrest on Tuesday.

Trump Administration: “We’re Not Going To Control The Pandemic”

COVID-19, Featured, , ,

They surrender. We die.

CNN reports:

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday that the US is “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic, as cases surge across the country and nearly 225,000 Americans have died from the virus.

“We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas,” Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Pressed by Tapper on why the US isn’t going to get the pandemic under control, Meadows said: “Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.” He added that the Trump administration is “making efforts to contain it.”

Just unfucking believable. Donald Trump and his whole damn administration should be arrested and charged with murder for every American who ied of the Coronavirus

IT'S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

United States Sets New Record Reports 82,600 New COVID Cases In 24 Hours

COVID-19, Featured, , ,

Via The Washington Post

America on Friday hit its highest daily number of coronavirus case since the pandemic began, recording at least 82,600 new infections. The rising numbers put the nation on the precipice of what could be its worst stretch to date with some hospitals in the West and Midwest already overwhelmed and deaths counts beginning to rise.

The current surge is considerably more widespread than the waves from last summer and spring. The unprecedented geographic spread of the current surge makes it more dangerous, with experts warning it could lead to dire shortages of medical staff and supplies.

Already, hospitals are reporting shortfalls of basic drugs needed to treat covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The high case numbers of recent days have stoked concerns because the country has not even hit the stretch of holidays and cold weather, which experts have long warned will send cases soaring even higher.

Despite what Donald Trump the Super Spreader In Chief says There is NO cure. There will be NO vaccine available soon. We ARE NOT rounding the corner and the Coronavirus WILL NOT magically disappear.

Almost 250,000, a quarter of a million Americans have died in the last 8 months, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing. Your life, and the lives of others DOES depend on it.

IT'S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

Trump Administration Sent 17.8 TONS of PPEs to China to Combat Coronavirus in February While Calling It A Hoax

BREAKING NEWS, EXCLUSIVE, Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Of Interest, , ,

Six weeks ago in early February when Donald Trump and his administration was ignoring and calling the coronavirus here a hoax, he sent 17.8 TONS of PPEs including masks, gowns, gloves, and test kits to China according to an updated press release originally dated February 7th. on the state.gov website.

This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.  These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people.

Today, the United States government is announcing it is prepared to spend up to $100 million in existing funds to assist China and other impacted countries, both directly and through multilateral organizations, to contain and combat the novel coronavirus.  This commitment – along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector – demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak.

This assistance only adds to what the United States has done to strengthen health security programs around the world.  For the last 20 years, the United States through USAID has invested over one billion dollars to strengthen the capacity of more than 25 countries to prevent, detect, and respond to existing and emerging infectious disease threats.  Since 2015, under our commitment to the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), this support has helped improve surveillance and laboratory systems, risk communication, outbreak response, and address the rising threat of anti-microbial resistance.

The United States is and will remain the world’s most generous donor. We encourage the rest of the world to match our commitment.  Working together, we can have a profound impact to contain this growing threat.

Information about the coronavirus in China was received by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on December 31st. and as late as February 28th. Donald Trump was publically insisting that virus was a hoax.

Now 6 weeks later in America state governments are begging for much needed ventilators and doctors and nurses are dying without much needed PPE’s. and in some cases using plastic garbage bags as protective gear.

Americans are now left to fend for themselves.

Gay NYC Nursing Manager at Mount Sinai Hospital Dies from Coronavirus Because of Lack of Personal Protective Equipment

Gay NYC Nursing Manager at Mount Sinai Hospital Dies from Coronavirus Because of Lack of Personal Protective Equipment

Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, , , , ,

A gay assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, has died from the coronavirus, after being exposed to the disease due to the lack of personal protective equipment that has been widely reported at New York City hospitals.

Via The New York Post:

The shortage of safety gear at one Manhattan hospital is so dire that desperate nurses have resorted to wearing trash bags — and some blame the situation for the coronavirus death of a beloved colleague. A stunning photo shared on social media shows three nurses at Mount Sinai West posing in a hallway while clad in large, black plastic trash bags fashioned into makeshift protective garb. … Meanwhile, staffers at the hospital near Columbus Circle on Wednesday tied the lack of basic supplies there to the death of assistant nursing manager Kious Kelly, who tested positive for coronavirus about two weeks ago. Kelly, 48, was admitted to Mount Sinai’s flagship hospital on the Upper East Side on March 17 and died Tuesday night, the workers said.

New York City had added 3,101 new confirmed coronavirus cases since the same time on Wednesday, bringing the total to 23,112.

The total number of virus-related deaths climbed to 365 on Thursday, up from 280 the day before.

IT'S BACK:  New COVID-19 Subvariant XBB Is Part of a ‘New Class’ of Omicron

What To Expect During The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic by Dr. Juliana Grant, MD MPH

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NOTE: Dr. Juliana Grant is a medical epidemiologist with 17 years of experience in public health and epidemiology, including program management, monitoring and evaluation, and surveillance. She has worked on a variety of infectious and non-infectious conditions at local and state health departments, as well as with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and in international settings.

Hi folks,

A number of you have asked me what I think is going to happen with coronavirus (COVID-19) and what we should be doing to prepare. I have a few thoughts about what’s likely to happen and what you can do about it. For those of you who don’t know me well, I am a preventive medicine physician and infectious disease epidemiologist. I graduated from the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and have over 17 years of experience in the field, most of that with CDC.

Wishing everyone good health,

Juliana

Who should you listen to?

The CDC and your state health department are your best place for information about COVID-19. (Listen to them before you listen to me.) Be cautious about other sources of information – many of them will not be reliable or accurate.

How bad is this going to be?

It’s possible that COVID-19 will be similar to a bad flu year but there are a number of indications that it will be very much like the 1918 Flu Pandemic. To put that in perspective, the 1918 flu did not end civilization as we know it but it was the second-deadliest event of the last 200 years. Expect people you know to die.

However, there is one critical difference between COVID-19 and the 1918 flu – the 1918 flu virus hit children and young adults particularly hard. COVID-19 seems to be most severe in older adults. Children and young adults generally have mild infections. We are grateful for this.

What can we expect?

This is not the zombie apocalypse. Core infrastructure (e.g., power, water, supermarkets, internet, government, etc.) will continue to work, perhaps with some minor disruptions. 

There will be significant economic disruption: a global recession is very possible and there will probably be significant shortages of some products. The healthcare system will be hit the hardest. The number of people who are likely to get sick is higher than our healthcare systems can probably handle.  

Daily life will be impacted in important ways. Travel is likely to be limited and public gatherings will probably be canceled. Schools will probably be closed. Expect health departments to start issuing these orders in the near future, especially on the West Coast.

The acute pandemic will probably last at least for several months and quite possibly for a year or two.

What can we do?

We can’t keep COVID-19 from being a global pandemic but the more we can do to slow the spread of the disease, the less severe the impact will be. With that in mind, here are the things you can do:

Stay calm but take it seriously. This will likely be bad but it’s not the apocalypse.

Stay home if you’re sick or someone in your house is sick. 

Leave medical supplies for healthcare workers. You shouldn’t be stockpiling masks or other medical supplies. They are needed in hospitals to keep our healthcare workers healthy.

Wash your hands. Get in the habit of frequently washing your hands thoroughly and covering your cough.

Minimize your exposure. Now that we’re starting to see community transmission in the U.S., it’s probably time to start cutting back on your exposure to other people. Depending on your circumstances, consider:

  • Canceling non-essential travel
  • Avoiding large-scale gatherings
  • Working from home if possible
  • Minimizing direct contact with others including hand shakes and hugs
  • Reducing your trips out of the house. If possible, shop for two weeks of groceries at once or consider having your groceries delivered. Stay home and cook instead of going to a restaurant.

Remember, keep calm and prepare. This is likely to be bad but if we respond calmly and thoughtfully we can handle it.

Feel free to share this as you see fit.

FEBRUARY 29, 2020