Omnibus COVID-19 virus discussion thread
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Scape @ Tue Sep 15, 2020 6:57 pm
If you listen to fools... the mob rules.
Thanos @ Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:03 pm
Anti-mask Karen incident erupts at Fabricland in Calgary
Strutz @ Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:36 pm
Thanos Thanos:
Awesome. What a covidiot.
DrCaleb @ Wed Sep 16, 2020 7:15 am
Strutz Strutz:
And what were they doing at Fabricland? I bet, getting stuff to make masks.
DrCaleb @ Wed Sep 16, 2020 7:15 am
DrCaleb @ Wed Sep 16, 2020 7:26 am
$1:
‘Inconceivable': NDP blasts government for information search that came up empty
The Alberta NDP is accusing the education ministry of withholding correspondence related to the COVID-19 school re-entry plan, citing multiple freedom of information requests that came up empty.
The official Opposition says it submitted freedom of information requests seeking all correspondence from school boards and superintendents to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s office related to re-entry between May 1 and July 27 and all communications and emails from within the office discussing that correspondence and correspondence received from teachers. They also asked for emails sent by senior staff mentioning reporters covering the re-entry plan from June 1 to Aug. 10.
In all three cases, the NDP was told that a search by staff members for the minister and deputy minister did not find any records.
“That is ridiculous. I’ve been cc’don correspondence that met that criteria that was sent to the minister,” NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman said Tuesday.
Article content continued
“So the fact that not even those letters were returned under the request is shocking to me. They said there were no records.”
Hoffman called it “inconceivable” that no records would exist during a time when the minister said she was planning for schools to reopen.
She is calling on LaGrange to release the correspondence “rather than us having to tie up the information and privacy commissioner with an additional complaint.”
LaGrange’s press secretary, Colin Aitchison, said the ministry follows the law when it comes to retaining records.
“FOIP is managed by non-partisan public officials, not political staff,” he said in an email.
“When a request comes through, political staff turn over any applicable documents in their possession, as required by law.”
The Alberta NDP is accusing the education ministry of withholding correspondence related to the COVID-19 school re-entry plan, citing multiple freedom of information requests that came up empty.
The official Opposition says it submitted freedom of information requests seeking all correspondence from school boards and superintendents to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s office related to re-entry between May 1 and July 27 and all communications and emails from within the office discussing that correspondence and correspondence received from teachers. They also asked for emails sent by senior staff mentioning reporters covering the re-entry plan from June 1 to Aug. 10.
In all three cases, the NDP was told that a search by staff members for the minister and deputy minister did not find any records.
“That is ridiculous. I’ve been cc’don correspondence that met that criteria that was sent to the minister,” NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman said Tuesday.
Article content continued
“So the fact that not even those letters were returned under the request is shocking to me. They said there were no records.”
Hoffman called it “inconceivable” that no records would exist during a time when the minister said she was planning for schools to reopen.
She is calling on LaGrange to release the correspondence “rather than us having to tie up the information and privacy commissioner with an additional complaint.”
LaGrange’s press secretary, Colin Aitchison, said the ministry follows the law when it comes to retaining records.
“FOIP is managed by non-partisan public officials, not political staff,” he said in an email.
“When a request comes through, political staff turn over any applicable documents in their possession, as required by law.”
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politi ... back-empty
Once again, the UCP detracts from the problem. FOIP may be non partisan, but it is still up to Partisan staff to comply with requests and give information to FOIP.
And that puts children at risk.
DrCaleb @ Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:06 am
Billionaire critic of COVID-19 restrictions says Ottawa let her skip 14-day quarantine
DrCaleb @ Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:13 am
$1:
N.B. doctor blamed for COVID-19 outbreak receives letter of support from 1,500 physicians
The package delivered to Dr. Jean Robert Ngola's home was pressed between two pieces of sturdy cardboard held together by silver tape. After he peeled off the tape to reveal the unexpected gift, the Congolese-Canadian doctor said, tears started to well in his eyes.
Along with a hand-painted card and a book for his daughter was a letter of support signed by more than 1,500 fellow doctors across Canada. The letter, which Ngola shared with CBC News, is five paragraphs long, but the list of signatories takes up nine pages.
"When I received the letter, I was so emotional. My tears flowed," said Ngola from his home in Louiseville, Quebec, where he now practices medicine after being accused of triggering a COVID-19 outbreak in northern New Brunswick earlier this spring. "I am so grateful to my colleagues. I don't feel so alone."
The letter of solidarity expresses condolences for those hit by COVID-19 in Campbellton while lamenting that Ngola was judged by the public "prior to due diligence being conducted."
It reads in part:
"All of us signed below have felt tremendous anger, discomfort and frustration with the backlash that followed once you were publicly identified. What unravelled thereafter was unjust, unkind and dehumanizing.… We strongly believe that systemic racism coupled with the stigma surrounding individuals infected with the COVID-19 virus have significantly contributed to the crucifixion of your character within the public eye.
The package delivered to Dr. Jean Robert Ngola's home was pressed between two pieces of sturdy cardboard held together by silver tape. After he peeled off the tape to reveal the unexpected gift, the Congolese-Canadian doctor said, tears started to well in his eyes.
Along with a hand-painted card and a book for his daughter was a letter of support signed by more than 1,500 fellow doctors across Canada. The letter, which Ngola shared with CBC News, is five paragraphs long, but the list of signatories takes up nine pages.
"When I received the letter, I was so emotional. My tears flowed," said Ngola from his home in Louiseville, Quebec, where he now practices medicine after being accused of triggering a COVID-19 outbreak in northern New Brunswick earlier this spring. "I am so grateful to my colleagues. I don't feel so alone."
The letter of solidarity expresses condolences for those hit by COVID-19 in Campbellton while lamenting that Ngola was judged by the public "prior to due diligence being conducted."
It reads in part:
"All of us signed below have felt tremendous anger, discomfort and frustration with the backlash that followed once you were publicly identified. What unravelled thereafter was unjust, unkind and dehumanizing.… We strongly believe that systemic racism coupled with the stigma surrounding individuals infected with the COVID-19 virus have significantly contributed to the crucifixion of your character within the public eye.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brun ... -1.5724926
bootlegga @ Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:52 am
DrCaleb DrCaleb:
$1:
‘Inconceivable': NDP blasts government for information search that came up empty
The Alberta NDP is accusing the education ministry of withholding correspondence related to the COVID-19 school re-entry plan, citing multiple freedom of information requests that came up empty.
The official Opposition says it submitted freedom of information requests seeking all correspondence from school boards and superintendents to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s office related to re-entry between May 1 and July 27 and all communications and emails from within the office discussing that correspondence and correspondence received from teachers. They also asked for emails sent by senior staff mentioning reporters covering the re-entry plan from June 1 to Aug. 10.
In all three cases, the NDP was told that a search by staff members for the minister and deputy minister did not find any records.
“That is ridiculous. I’ve been cc’don correspondence that met that criteria that was sent to the minister,” NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman said Tuesday.
Article content continued
“So the fact that not even those letters were returned under the request is shocking to me. They said there were no records.”
Hoffman called it “inconceivable” that no records would exist during a time when the minister said she was planning for schools to reopen.
She is calling on LaGrange to release the correspondence “rather than us having to tie up the information and privacy commissioner with an additional complaint.”
LaGrange’s press secretary, Colin Aitchison, said the ministry follows the law when it comes to retaining records.
“FOIP is managed by non-partisan public officials, not political staff,” he said in an email.
“When a request comes through, political staff turn over any applicable documents in their possession, as required by law.”
The Alberta NDP is accusing the education ministry of withholding correspondence related to the COVID-19 school re-entry plan, citing multiple freedom of information requests that came up empty.
The official Opposition says it submitted freedom of information requests seeking all correspondence from school boards and superintendents to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s office related to re-entry between May 1 and July 27 and all communications and emails from within the office discussing that correspondence and correspondence received from teachers. They also asked for emails sent by senior staff mentioning reporters covering the re-entry plan from June 1 to Aug. 10.
In all three cases, the NDP was told that a search by staff members for the minister and deputy minister did not find any records.
“That is ridiculous. I’ve been cc’don correspondence that met that criteria that was sent to the minister,” NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman said Tuesday.
Article content continued
“So the fact that not even those letters were returned under the request is shocking to me. They said there were no records.”
Hoffman called it “inconceivable” that no records would exist during a time when the minister said she was planning for schools to reopen.
She is calling on LaGrange to release the correspondence “rather than us having to tie up the information and privacy commissioner with an additional complaint.”
LaGrange’s press secretary, Colin Aitchison, said the ministry follows the law when it comes to retaining records.
“FOIP is managed by non-partisan public officials, not political staff,” he said in an email.
“When a request comes through, political staff turn over any applicable documents in their possession, as required by law.”
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politi ... back-empty
Once again, the UCP detracts from the problem. FOIP may be non partisan, but it is still up to Partisan staff to comply with requests and give information to FOIP.
And that puts children at risk.
The way to get around FOIP - as Notley did - was just to delete everything that comes in after you've read it.
This isn't a defence of the UCP, but I remember a news story when they did a FOIP request on Notley's chief of staff (when she was Premier) and found he only had something like 37 emails in his inbox! That makes it kind of hypocritical of the NDP to accuse the UCP of doing the exact same thing that when they were in power.
FWIW, the UCP has done an even shittier job at protecting families, chidldren, teachers and otehr educational staff in their BS back to school plan which got almost no provincial funding, while at the same time funneling billions to the oil and gas sector.
At this point, if someone loses their little one, the consequences for the UCP will be very real and I don't mean just getting kicked out of office. I can honestly see people threatening UCP politicians with physical harm if the worst happens. And if it does, I will have exactly the same amount of empathy for the UCP as they seem to have for teachers and children - ZERO.
DrCaleb @ Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:28 am
bootlegga bootlegga:
The way to get around FOIP - as Notley did - was just to delete everything that comes in after you've read it.
This isn't a defence of the UCP, but I remember a news story when they did a FOIP request on Notley's chief of staff (when she was Premier) and found he only had something like 37 emails in his inbox! That makes it kind of hypocritical of the NDP to accuse the UCP of doing the exact same thing that when they were in power.
This isn't a defence of the UCP, but I remember a news story when they did a FOIP request on Notley's chief of staff (when she was Premier) and found he only had something like 37 emails in his inbox! That makes it kind of hypocritical of the NDP to accuse the UCP of doing the exact same thing that when they were in power.
I recall. And as a former mail admin, I know those emails sit in 'Deleted Items' for months until they are set to auto-delete. It's also easy to restore them from backup.
bootlegga bootlegga:
FWIW, the UCP has done an even shittier job at protecting families, chidldren, teachers and otehr educational staff in their BS back to school plan which got almost no provincial funding, while at the same time funneling billions to the oil and gas sector.
Kenny said it would cost billions to build new schools to maintain social distancing class sizes, and left it at that. Instead, he could have proposed shoring up the school from home infrastructure for millions. I know there are stacks and stacks of PCs and laptops sitting around taking up space and gathering dust in a warehouse waiting to be sent to auction and sold for pennies each. But he decided to lead from the rear.
Even Mexico is home schooling kids by having school lessons delivered by television. Different grades, different channels.
bootlegga bootlegga:
At this point, if someone loses their little one, the consequences for the UCP will be very real and I don't mean just getting kicked out of office. I can honestly see people threatening UCP politicians with physical harm if the worst happens. And if it does, I will have exactly the same amount of empathy for the UCP as they seem to have for teachers and children - ZERO.
Not that I would condone violence, but I also would understand they brought it on themselves.
xerxes @ Thu Sep 17, 2020 6:06 pm
White House abandoned plan to send 650 million face masks across the U.S. in April, report says
$1:
The U.S. Postal Service had drafted a press release announcing plans to send 650 million masks out across the U.S. early in the coronavirus crisis, but the White House ultimately abandoned the plan, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The plan would have sent a pack of five reusable masks to every residential address in the country, the Post reported, citing one of thousands of internal post office documents obtained by watchdog group American Oversight.
“Our organization is uniquely suited to undertake this historic mission of delivering face coverings to every American household in the fight against the COVID-19 virus,” then-Postmaster General and CEO Megan J. Brennan said in the scrapped news release, which was dated to be released in April.
Brennan was succeeded in the summer by Louis DeJoy, whose drastic cost-cutting measures at the government agency have sparked controversy in advance of the 2020 election.
The idea to have USPS ship out personal protective equipment came from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Post reported. The reported plan was to start distributing masks in April, with Covid-19 hot spots getting first priority.
The newly uncovered documents suggest the government had initially intended to utilize the Postal Service in early pandemic response plans. The distribution program would have come at a time when President Donald Trump largely resisted wearing a mask.
The White House ultimately canceled the program, senior administration officials told the Post.
“There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” one administration official told the newspaper. Trump had told journalist Bob Woodward in March that he sought to downplay the virus because he didn’t want to create a panic, according to recently released recordings.
HHS later launched Project: America Strong, a $675 million program to distribute face masks across the country. An HHS spokesperson told the Post around 600 million masks have been distributed out of the 650 million set aside.
The USPS declined to comment on the reports. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plan would have sent a pack of five reusable masks to every residential address in the country, the Post reported, citing one of thousands of internal post office documents obtained by watchdog group American Oversight.
“Our organization is uniquely suited to undertake this historic mission of delivering face coverings to every American household in the fight against the COVID-19 virus,” then-Postmaster General and CEO Megan J. Brennan said in the scrapped news release, which was dated to be released in April.
Brennan was succeeded in the summer by Louis DeJoy, whose drastic cost-cutting measures at the government agency have sparked controversy in advance of the 2020 election.
The idea to have USPS ship out personal protective equipment came from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Post reported. The reported plan was to start distributing masks in April, with Covid-19 hot spots getting first priority.
The newly uncovered documents suggest the government had initially intended to utilize the Postal Service in early pandemic response plans. The distribution program would have come at a time when President Donald Trump largely resisted wearing a mask.
The White House ultimately canceled the program, senior administration officials told the Post.
“There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,” one administration official told the newspaper. Trump had told journalist Bob Woodward in March that he sought to downplay the virus because he didn’t want to create a panic, according to recently released recordings.
HHS later launched Project: America Strong, a $675 million program to distribute face masks across the country. An HHS spokesperson told the Post around 600 million masks have been distributed out of the 650 million set aside.
The USPS declined to comment on the reports. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/17/white-house-abandoned-plan-to-deliver-650-million-face-masks-across-us-report-says.html
This would have been a shockingly good program at a critical time that really could help retard the spread of the virus in the US. Which is why it wasn't done. Trump will do whatever he can to spread the virus.
Thanos @ Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:13 pm
BTW the official count of dead in the United States from COVID should hit 200,000 by early next week. MAGA, anyone? 
DrCaleb @ Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:48 am
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet tests positive for COVID-19
llama66 @ Fri Sep 18, 2020 10:06 am
Thanos Thanos:
BTW the official count of dead in the United States from COVID should hit 200,000 by early next week. MAGA, anyone?
It's important that the US remains leaders in the world.
Scape @ Fri Sep 18, 2020 1:53 pm
Public Health Agency president stepping down, cites need for a break
Almost one million dead in just six months 30,000,000 COVID CASES
Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet tests positive for COVID-19
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