DeSantis, Social Media Posts Mislead on COVID-19’s Toll in Florida

 https://www.factcheck.org/2021/11/scicheck-desantis-comments-social-media-posts-mislead-on-covid-19s-toll-in-florida/

Daily COVID-19 cases in Florida surged over the past year, as we’ve reported, with the state reaching record-high levels of hospitalizations due to the disease in early August. However, the daily number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Florida has decreased in recent weeks, according to the Florida Department of Health, as the wave of cases caused by the delta variant subsides. 

 According to data compiled by the New York Times, Florida — the third largest state — has the third most COVID-19 deaths and cases in the nation, with more than 3.6 million cases and more than 59,000 deaths since February 2020. When adjusted for population, Florida’s COVID-19 death rate also ranks 10th among the 50 states, with 278 deaths per 100,000 people.

The steady decline in cases has led to sunny social media posts proclaiming Florida has the “lowest Covid rates in the country without having to institute communist mandates & lockdowns.”

Florida’s recent rise and decline of cases fit a pattern that health experts have seen with other variants, where cases peak and decline over a two-month cycle. 

“There’s this weird two-month thing that goes on. We all picked it up,” Michael Sweat, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and a leader of its COVID-19 tracking team, said in a university blog post. “I mean, it’s like every time when you get a wave, it goes up, peaks and declines in about two months.”

21,000 deaths later, do-nothing DeSantis takes a COVID victory lap | Editorial

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/editorials/os-op-ron-desantis-undeserved-covid-victory-lap-20211029-2jp2ykdeofh3xag3ellf27vqo4-story.html

 Florida’s summer of suffering was also a summer of silence for Ron DeSantis.

The governor had nearly nothing to say about his state’s lengthy run as No. 1 in the nation in COVID cases, No. 1 in hospitalizations and No. 1 in deaths.

Instead, the governor held almost daily news conferences intended to burnish his presidential bona fides among the MAGA crowd, and boost his presidential ambitions.

Through it all, the governor pointedly ignored the elephant in the room: That Florida — his state, his responsibility — was the epicenter for a deadly new COVID outbreak caused by the delta variant.

 Florida led the nation in case rates for much of the summer, and our governor was silent. Well, not totally silent. He did rail against mask and vaccine mandates, measures intended to prevent people from falling ill.

 As others have already noted, it’s like a firefighter tossing a bucket of water on a house that’s already been burned to the ground and then declaring victory.

What a fraud. What a phony.

It’s so transparent, but far too many gullible Floridians and complicit politicians are going to buy and echo DeSantis’ savior rubbish. Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez already has.

COVID-19 Data Misrepresented by Florida Governor

 https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/covid-19-data-misrepresented-florida-governor

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that the Florida Department of Health had commenced an inquiry into the state’s reporting of COVID-19 deaths, after Governor Ron DeSantis suggested that the official reports overstate the number of deaths. According to the report, Governor DeSantis and members of his staff repeatedly questioned the accuracy of the COVID-19 death rates, with his press secretary Fred Piccolo Jr. tweeting: "we can tell you definitively that Florida is counting deaths that were not directly caused by COVID-19.” Mr. Piccolo has also sought to downplay the COVID-19 pandemic in other ways. On one occasion, he erroneously tweeted: “we had one COVID death in Florida yesterday . . yes you read that right. One.” In fact, on the day in question, there were 47 deaths.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and other independent public health experts suggest that Florida’s total death toll from the pandemic is actually understated. Experts noted that Governor DeSantis’ administration has used a COVID-19 infection rate that gives “more weight to negative test” results, and thus skews the results. Governor DeSantis has used the skewed rate to justify reopening schools and businesses. In response to criticism, Mr. Piccolo denied that Governor was attempting to question the official death toll, stating “[n]o one in the administration is trying to cast doubt on the number of COVID deaths, we are trying to get to the facts.”

Florida Sees COVID Cases Triple as 27 Percent of Those Eligible Have Booster Shot

 https://www.newsweek.com/florida-sees-covid-cases-triple-27-percent-those-eligible-have-booster-shot-1660537

Florida is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases ahead of the holidays.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the number of daily new cases the state is reporting has tripled over the last week or so.

The CDC reported that Florida saw 6,846 new cases on Wednesday, December 15. On December 7, the state reported just over 1,900 new cases, and over the last few days new case numbers had generally hovered between two and three thousand.

Donald Trump’s Megaphone

 https://gfile.thedispatch.com/p/donald-trumps-megaphone

During the Trump years a lot of people found safe harbor in changing the subject or playing tu quoque games. It only makes sense. If you can’t defend something indefensible, bring up something the other side did that’s not defensible either and talk about that. To any inconvenient charge or fact about Trump, his defenders would respond, “What about …?” the Democrats, Antifa, Hillary, the New York Times, Barack Obama, Hunter Biden, the designated hitter rule, whatever. 

There are three chief advantages to such rhetorical tactics. First, we live in an idiotic age where people believe that the alleged hypocrisy of a critic nullifies the merit of criticism. A parent who smokes is a hypocrite for telling his kid not to smoke—but that doesn’t mean the kid should therefore smoke.

Second, it’s what the audience wants to hear. And no “principle” explains cable news opinion shows more than “the customer is always right.” The Fox audience craved permission to be saved from its own cognitive dissonance and whataboutism as an exit ramp from having to confront the actual facts.

Finally, it lets you avoid explicitly lying. You just don’t answer the question that matters by pointing out the flaws of the other team. 

The problem, at least for me, is that if you follow this approach too long you’ll eventually become complicit in a larger deceit. And that’s where the lie by omission comes in. 

Anti-5G necklaces found to be radioactive

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59703523 

The Dutch authority for nuclear safety and radiation protection (ANVS) issued a warning about ten products it found gave off harmful ionising radiation.

It urged people not to use the products, which could cause harm with long-term wear.

There is no evidence that 5G networks are harmful to health.

The World Health Organization says 5G mobile networks are safe, and not fundamentally different from existing 3G and 4G signals.

Mobile networks use non-ionising radio waves that do not damage DNA.

Jewish groups pan Trump antisemitic tropes after remarks on Israeli, Jewish control

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-groups-pan-trump-antisemitic-tropes-after-remarks-on-israeli-jewish-control/

 Jewish organizations slammed former United States president Donald Trump’s remarks published Thursday, in which he said American Jews don’t love Israel and charged that Israel used to have “absolute power over Congress.”

“Insinuating that Israel or the Jews control Congress or the media is antisemitic, plain and simple,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote on Twitter Friday.

Trump’s comments from an interview in July with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, were broadcast Thursday on the Unholy Podcast, hosted by Yonit Levi of Israel’s Channel 12 news and Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian.

Compared to Polio and Smallpox, America's COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Is Going Great

 https://time.com/6126442/covid-vaccine-hesitancy-polio-smallpox/

These examples suggest that sometimes, dramatically reducing the incidence of a disease requires only adequate, not absolute, compliance with a public-health regimen. In addition, the more insistently a vaccination campaign is pursued, the more doubt it raises in the minds of the hesitant about its true aims. This is especially so where authorities seem otherwise unconcerned about the public’s well-being: where basic medical care is inaccessible and living or working conditions foster ill health.

Shiva for Rabbi Yehoram Max

 https://www.misaskim.org/aveilim

860 East 16th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11230, USA

To'aiva BGTLQ "marriage" bill alert

Pls Call to oppose "Mabul Marriage" by Monday morning:
Please urge your State Senator & BOTH assemblymen to actively vote NO, against redefinition of Marriage  A5367/ S3416*
{* NOT 342«6}

Especially important are:
Sen.Singer,Asm Thomson,&Kean/ LW:
7329875669

Assemblyman Gary Schaer /Passaic: 9732493665 AsmSchaer@njleg.org

Even though NJ Courts recognize To'aiva marriage, the Legislature must not; it would lead to MANY more such antireligious edicts.

Alert for All NJ residents, especially Lakewood & Passaic:

It's critical - by tomorrow, Friday Dec. 17th - to urge your state Senator and BOTH of your state Assemblymen to actively vote NO on the Marriage De-definition bill (S3416/ A5367) scheduled for a full floor vote in BOTH houses on this coming Monday Dec. 20th.

NJ Legislative Contact Info for Senate & Assembly:

v: 609-847-3905 or (800) 792-8630 

email: LegInfo@NJLeg.org

w: www.NJLeg.state.nj.us Silence of our legislators threatens to allow our irreconcilable opposition to To'aiva "marriage" (e.g. see Chullin 92b, Maharal) to be "cancelled" from even being considered a "shitah" fit for public discourse. We and our institutions would eventually be targeted and ostracized, R"L.

Please follow the guidance of our Gedolim and make a Kiddush HaShem - call TODAY.

Fox News Deletes Soros ‘Puppet Master’ Cartoon After ADL Calls Out Antisemitism

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-deletes-soros-puppet-master-cartoon-after-adl-calls-out-antisemitism

 After the Anti-Defamation League called out Fox News on Wednesday, the cable giant deleted its social-media posts portraying Jewish philanthropist George Soros as a “puppet master”—a common antisemitic trope.

Posted to both the network’s Instagram and Facebook pages this week, the cartoon by conservative illustrator A.F. Branco features the liberal billionaire Soros—who has long been a right-wing catch-all bogeyman—controlling local prosecutors and attorneys general.

Just last month, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt denounced Fox Nation host Lara Logan after she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, calling it an “outlandish and offensive” analogy. The group has also repeatedly called for the network to fire star Tucker Carlson for relentlessly promoting the white supremacist “Great Replacement” theory on air.

 The network, meanwhile, eventually stopped booking pro-Trump lawyer Joe diGenova—once a frequent guest—after he peddled an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Soros on the Fox Business Network in late 2019. (Greenblatt called it “disturbing” after diGenova made a brief return a month later, saying it showed a lack of “remorse” on Fox’s part. The attorney hasn’t been back and has since said Fox is beholden to Soros.)

One Israeli family causes mass Omicron outbreak - here’s how

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/one-israeli-family-causes-mass-omicron-outbreak-heres-how-689052

 A family of four may have caused the country’s largest Omicron outbreak to date because they chose not to quarantine after returning from a trip to South Africa. 

The haredi (ultra-Orthodox) family from Jerusalem - parents and two young children, known as “Family P” - recently returned to Israel from South Africa.

The Vaccine Scientist Spreading Vaccine Misinformation

 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/robert-malone-vaccine-inventor-vaccine-skeptic/619734/

 Wherever he appears, Malone is billed as the inventor of mRNA vaccines. It’s in his Twitter bio. “I literally invented mRNA technology when I was 28,” says Malone, who is now 61. If that’s true—or, more to the point, if Malone believes it to be true—then you might expect him to be championing a very different message in his media appearances. According to one recent study, the innovation for which he claims to be responsible has already saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States alone; there’s talk that it may soon lead to a round of Nobel Prizes. It’s the kind of validation that few scientists in history have ever received. Yet instead of taking a victory lap, Malone has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of his own alleged accomplishment. He’s sowed doubt about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on pretty much any podcast or YouTube channel that will have him.

 Karikó replied that she hadn’t told anyone that she is the inventor of mRNA vaccines and that “many many scientists” contributed to their success. “I have never claimed more than discovering a way to make RNA less inflammatory,” she wrote to him. She told me that Malone referred to himself in an email as her “mentor” and “coach,” though she says they’ve met in person only once, in 1997, when he invited her to give a talk. It’s Malone, according to Karikó, who has been overstating his accomplishments. There are “hundreds of scientists who contributed more to mRNA vaccines than he did.”

 The irony is that, to the audiences who tune in to those shows, the vaccines are seen as a scourge rather than a godsend. No matter how nuanced Malone might try to be, or how many qualifiers he appends to his opinions, he is egging on vaccine hesitancy at a time when hospitals in the least-vaccinated parts of the country are struggling to cope with an influx of new COVID-19 patients. If you want proof of that, scroll through the many comments from his followers thanking him for confirming their fears. Malone has finally made his mark, by undermining confidence in the very vaccine he says wouldn’t be possible without his genius. It’s a victory, of sorts, but one that he and the rest of us may come to regret.

The Jan. 6 puzzle piece that's going largely ignored

 https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/16/jan-6-gohmert-lawsuit-pence-524839

As Donald Trump and his allies squeezed then-Vice President Mike Pence to single-handedly stop Joe Biden’s presidency in the weeks ahead of Jan. 6, they used one particular tool that’s been largely ignored ever since.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) sued Pence on Dec. 27, just as Trump was ratcheting up his pressure campaign against his vice president. Backed by a squad of lawyers associated with Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, Gohmert argued Pence should assert unilateral control over certification, governed only by the vague wording of the Twelfth Amendment.

 Pence allies have long believed that Trump played a role in Gohmert’s legal strategy, and they've indicated that Trump was frustrated that the Justice Department intervened to defend his vice president against Gohmert’s suit. But what remains unknown is just how involved Trump was in Gohmert’s legal strategy. A spokesperson for the former president did not respond to a request for comment.