Category: Covid-19

There have been at least two dozen lawsuits filed around the U.S. demanding hospitals give ivermectin, a deworming drug, to COVID-19 patients, The Associated Press reported.

The lawsuits follow much of the same format; families have gotten a prescription for the drug, but hospitals refuse to use it on the patients, many of whom are on a ventilator, close to death, the news outlet noted.

Many of the lawsuits are filed byRalph Lorigo, an attorney in Buffalo, N.Y. who says doctors "are not gods because they wear white jackets," adding that he takes issue with the choice not to useivermectin on patients, according to the AP.

He also said hospital administratorsare the only ones able to make the decision.

"Im not accepting that as a rule of law for us, he told the AP.

Lorigo filed his first of many ivermectin casesin January afterthe family of an 80-year-old woman in the hospital on a ventilator came to him for help.Another lawsuitcame later that month, this time for a hospitalized 65-year-old woman. In both cases, the judges ruled to give the women ivermectin as their families wanted. Both survived their hospital visits.

While the drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat tiny parasites in people, the administration, state health departments and even the drugs leading manufacturer,Merck,have all warned against using it for COVID-19.

The FDA also warned that taking it in large doses can cause harmful side effects, such as vomiting, seizures and even death. However, Lorigo said his clients have not asked for those types of doses.

Nevertheless, other judges have refused to order hospitals to administer the drug. Hospitals have argued their standards of care will not allow doctors to give patients a drug not yet approved for COVID-19, adding that it could potentially cause harm, the AP reported.

Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine, said he is also concerned that allowing laypeople and judges to overrule hospitals is a dangerous road.

The way medicine works is, they are the experts, the doctors and ... the hospitals, he said, according to the AP. When you go there, youre not going to a restaurant. You dont order your own treatments.

You cant have a medical field thats subjected to having to practice according to patient demand backed up by court orders," he added. "That is positively horrible medicine."

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Dozens of lawsuits seek to force hospitals to treat COVID-19 with ivermectin | TheHill - The Hill

Throughout the pandemic, media outlets and online dashboards have provided constant updates on the number of people who have died from COVID-19. Far less prominentbut just as strikingare the tallies of those left behind.

According to an estimate published recently in the journal Pediatrics, at least 140,000 American children had lost a parent or caregiver because of the coronavirus by the end of Junemeaning that one of roughly every 500 children lost one of the most important adults in their life. Susan Hillis, a co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the CDC, told me that as of earlier this month, the total had reached at least 170,000.

Fully grasping this complicates some of the standard narratives about the tragedy of the pandemic. It is not only the number of lives cut short by COVID-19 that should mark the scope of our losses, but also the millions of people who had a loved one die. And it is not just older Americans who suffereven if kids are less vulnerable to the virus itself, they are no less vulnerable to the loss it causes.

In a typical, non-pandemic year, many children lose a parent, but globally, an additional 1.5 million children were estimated to have lost a parent or caregiver from March 2020 to April 2021. And in the U.S. alone, the number of people who have lost a close relativewhether a child, sibling, spouse, parent, or grandparentto COVID-19 is thought to be about 6.5 million.

Read: 4 numbers that make the pandemics massive death toll sink in

For children in particular, the death of a caregiver is tremendously destabilizing. It essentially shatters kids assumptions about the world when their parentsthese figures who are supposed to provide a sense of security and safety and meet basic needsdie, Tashel Bordere, a professor of human development and family science at the University of Missouri, told me. Many kids who lost a parent during the pandemic will continue living in the same home, but some will move in with another family member or close friend. Others will enter the foster-care system or become homeless.

The racial disparities among this group are stark. According to the Pediatrics study, Hispanic children have been almost twice as likely as white children to lose a caregiver because of the pandemic, Black children have been more than twice as likely, and American Indian and Alaska Native children have been more than four times as likely. Hillis told me that these inequities reflect the facts that Americans of different races have died of COVID-19 at different rates and have different fertility rates.

Bordere said that the way children respond to a death can vary based on their developmental stage, gender, and personality, among other factors. But in general, children who lose a parent tend to be at higher risk of experiencing physical- and mental-health problems, housing instability, academic and behavioral issues, and sexual abuse. They are also more likely to enter povertyfor many, a parents death means a loss of income.

The passing of a sole caregiver whos a grandparent can be especially hard, because it represents a double loss, after the earlier death of or separation from a parent. (Approximately 10 percent of American children live with a grandparent in their household; that rate is higher for Black, Hispanic, and Asian children.)

A caregivers death during a pandemic presents unique challenges for grieving kids. Job instability and general stress may have depleted the abilities of other adults in their lives to support them. And they have to live with constant reminders, in the media and daily life, of why their parent is gone. [The] replaying of an event can retraumatize children, Bordere said. The masks, the numbers that were updated onanything related to COVID will be a trigger for a child who has dealt with a loss.

Not every child even gets room to process their emotions. Bordere told me that Black children are frequently penalized in school for perfectly normal reactions to a death, such as crying, distractedness, and fatigue. This punishment can impede their grieving process. In a study from before the pandemic, Black Americans were found to be more likely than white Americans to have experienced a death in their family during childhood.

And children in general may struggle more than adults with how inexplicably the virus arose and with not getting to be present for the end of their parents life. Children are imaginative, particularly younger children, Bordere said. Theyre left with [mental] images that may be far worse than what actually happened in their parents final days.

What would help these children? Weve learned that programs that target one type of vulnerable child (e.g., an AIDS orphan or COVID orphan) can be highly stigmatizing and inefficient, Rachel Kidman, a social epidemiologist at Stony Brook University, wrote to me in an email. Instead, she suggested anti-poverty initiatives and additional resources for counseling in schoolsprogramming that is more universal, but still sensitive to the needs of these children.

These children dont match the oversimplified portrait of a typical COVID-19 victim: an old person near the end of their life. But the coronavirus can also have awful effects on people at the very start of their lives, even when they themselves dont get sick. For every surge in COVID cases, until we have widespread, adequate vaccination, there will be a surge in COVID deaths, Hillis told me. And for every surge in COVID deaths, there will be a surge in COVID orphanhood.

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The Children Who Lost a Parent to COVID-19 - The Atlantic

Sarah Ostrowski was convinced to finally get vaccinated after reading numerous stories on Reddit's r/HermanCainAward of unvaccinated people dying from Covid-19.

Courtesy of Sarah Ostrowski

For most of the pandemic, Sarah Ostrowski went to her full-time gas station job in Indiana, accepting the risk of being unvaccinated. Many times a day she interacted with customers and even cleaned up the public bathroom with no protection beyond her mask.

Ostrowski doesn't believe Covid-19 is a hoax. She takes it seriously. But she had reasons for not getting the shot.

She was concerned about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine causing blood clots, as had been reported in a few recipients. She was hesitant about the mRNA technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. She also worried about potential side effects forcing her to take time off work.

And then there were her parents, who were constantly spouting anti-vaccine rhetoric, warning her that she would die if she got the shot.

"You care about what your parents think of you and whether or not they think that you're making a good decision or the right decision," Ostrowski said. "It's almost like a groupthink kind of thing. Even though you know the answer is wrong you're still going to say it just to fit in or conform."

That all changed last month. Ostrowski, who regularly scrolls through her feed on social media site Reddit, stumbled upon the forum r/HermanCainAward. It's a grim section of the app dedicated to showing visitors the real-life consequences of being unvaccinated and catching the coronavirus.

Reddit users upload screenshots multiple times a day of people who previously posted anti-vaccine comments and content on Facebook only to end up getting sick with Covid-19 before dying. The name of the subreddit refers to former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who died from Covid-19 in July 2020, after refusing to wear a mask and attending a Donald Trump re-election campaign event.

"Nominees have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or Covid-hoax views, followed by admission to hospital for Covid," the page description reads. "The Award is granted upon the nominee's release from their Earthly shackles."

Since the subreddit's creation in September 2020, it's expanded to more than 375,000 members, with the top posts garnering thousands of user interactions.The forum has been the 10th fastest-growing subreddit over the past 30 days, according toFrontPageMetrics.com, which tracks Reddit usage.

An entry this week included a screenshot of an Aug. 12 post from a man who put a meme out to his followers: "I heard the government is putting chips inside of people. I hope I get Doritos."

A friend of the man later wrote on his feed that he was asking for prayers because the man and his wife had both been hospitalized with Covid-19. The wife had to have an emergency C-section to deliver their baby over 10 weeks early.

A following post came from the man's wife: "The world lost an amazing daddy, husband, brother, son, and friend today. My heart is in a million pieces."

Ostrowki said she'd eventually seen enough. On Sept. 12, she got her first shot.

"If dad thinks I'm an idiot because I fell for the government and I'm a sheep, so be it," Ostrowski said. "I clean a public restroom for Christ's sake. I deal with some really gross stuff. So no, I was done playing."

During the pandemic, social media sites turned into a haven for misinformation and conspiracy theories, whether related to masks, the vaccines or advice from public health experts. Facebook, in particular, has struggled to weed out false content, with users sharing misinformation even in the comments section of posts from authoritative sources, according to internal company documents reviewed last month by the Wall Street Journal.

With multiple vaccines having been available for months for anyone 12 or older, vaccine resistance has become the central challenge to ending Covid-19. President Joe Biden said as recently as last month, "This is a continuing pandemic of the unvaccinated."

Only 57% of the country has been vaccinated, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 22% of Americans self-identify as anti-vaxxers, according toan academic study published in May. Experts, including White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said the U.S. will need as much as 90% of the population to get vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity.

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters on the South Lawn upon return to the White House in Washington, DC on October 5, 2021.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Since hitting the U.S. in March 2020, over 722,000 American have died from Covid-19. Ostrowski said the harrowing stories of death among the unvaccinated have had a major impact on her.

"It really hits home when you literally see yourself in these people," she said.

Reddit still has plenty of anti-vaccine content across its site, which reaches over 50 million daily active users. As it gears up to go public, Reddit recently took steps to remove several subreddits that were being used to share misinformation. But numerous subreddits are still surfacing such content with names like r/Conservative, r/Ivermectin and r/FauciForPrison.

A Reddit spokesperson said the company has policies in place to remove inaccurate posts on Covid-19 vaccines.

"Our Content Policy prohibits many kinds of harmful content, including health-related disinformation and other forms of manipulated content," the Reddit spokesperson said in a statement. "We have experienced teams dedicated to detecting and actioning content that violates our policies. As a result of these teams' efforts, we remove 99% of violating content before a user sees it."

Chana Joly visits r/HermanCainAward with regularity. She said she does it for her dad.

Despite losing her brother to Covid-19 in January, Joly's dad has refused to get vaccinated. She said he's been radicalized in the past few years by misinformation and anti-vaccine conspiracies.

"I think it's especially sad with my dad because he is an educated person," Joly said. "He's not unintelligent. He just believes people he shouldn't."

Joly scrolls through the Reddit forum to gather stories that she can send her dad. When he gets defensive and disputes the posts she shares, she tells him to prove her wrong.

"You find me these stories on social media," Joly said, describing what she tells her dad. "These people dying in their own words from the vaccine. Find me these stories and you show me as many of those as I'm showing you of these. Or even a tenth of them."

Reddit user Chana Joly visit r/HermanCainAward to gather stories of real anti-vaxx people who die from Covid-19 that she can send to her dad, who has yet to get vaccinated.

Courtesy of Chana Joly

Reddit user Rockets9495 of Houston is a medical doctor who works in an emergency room. He uses r/HermanCainAward for anecdotes that he can share with nurses, technicians and patients who may be on the fence.

He agreed to speak with CNBC but didn't want to disclose his name publicly to maintain his privacy. He showed CNBC his hospital badge.

"Misinformation is so goddamn dangerous, especially after this last president," the doctor said. "This is not a game. This is not a joke. You don't live in a Tom Clancy novel. This is real."

He said that scientific evidence hasn't been effective for him in trying to convince people about the safety of the vaccines.

"But this seemingly weaker evidence word of mouth, anecdotal 'All these people are dying' seems to hit people way harder," the doctor said.

The subreddit also includes some stories with happy endings. Those posts get labeled IPAs, or Immunized to Prevent Awards, and are given to users who show pictures of their vaccine immunization cards on the channel as proof that they got their shots.

A Reddit user with the handle lovelylady227 achieved the label.

"This subreddit was what fully convinced me, after waffling back and forth," she wrote on Sept. 22, adding that she's "officially out of the running" for the award that gave the channel its name.

Her post got tagged with the IPA label and received more than 7,000 upvotes and 380 comments. She posted her immunization card on Reddit after getting her second dose.

Lovelylady227 is a woman named Hannah. She asked to have only her first name published because she hasn't told her anti-vaccine family members about her decision.

Hannah received her first dose of Moderna's vaccine in August, but became fearful of getting the second shot after hearing her parents and her sister, who works in health care, discuss their concerns about the vaccines. Her family members would show anti-vaccine content on their phones to one another, and they believe that people who are vaccinated are shedding the virus.

Hannah went to Reddit in search of information. She started at r/CovidVaccine. There she found numerous posts from people complaining about the side effects they'd experienced after getting their second shots. Some described trembling, and others said they'd suffered heart attacks.

"It just really freaked me out," she said.

Hannah's continued browsing on Reddit eventually brought her to r/HermanCainAward. What she found struck a nerve.

She read stories that start with people mocking the vaccine and end with their spouse asking friends to contribute to a GoFundMe page because of the hospital bills or the funeral expenses.

"You don't really realize how bad it is to be in the hospital with Covid until you see these people who are somehow giving you a play-by-play," Hannah said. "When you get those first-hand experiences from a Facebook profile, and you see the people experiencing regret, it's just like, 'Oh man, I really need to take this seriously. I can't put it off anymore.'"

Hannah said she's hoping to wait until three months after her vaccine before casually bringing it up with her family. At that point, she can show them that no harm has been done.

"The fact that they won't have noticed anything different is one of my main hopes," she said.

In the meantime, she's grateful for the positive reaction she received on Reddit after posting her vaccination card.

"I know you don't need other people to tell you you did the right thing, but it sure helps when there's a bunch of people saying, 'Hey, good job,'" she said. "Because it's not coming from my family, that's for sure."

Ostrowski, the gas station manager, also received an Immunized to Prevent Award for posting her vaccine card.

"Late to the party but finally fully vaxxed," she wrote on Oct. 4. The post received more than 2,000 upvotes and more than 100 comments.

She said she's hoping to encourage more people to acknowledge they were wrong and that they can still change directions.

"I finally came around and made the right decision," she said.

WATCH: Facebook whistleblower slams company in '60 minutes' interview

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Reddit channel posts stories of anti-vaxxers dying of Covid, scaring fence-sitters into getting the shot - CNBC

BATON ROUGE - Game day in Death Valley is back in full force, and fans are excited to be back in Tiger Stadium without the strict safety measures for COVID-19.

"It feels like before COVID ever was a thing," Tiger fan Jared Lafleur said.

It is the first game where people will not have to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.

"Last year was definitely a lot worse. This year's been better, but I think it'll be even better with absolutely no restrictions," LSU student Grace Matthews said.

The past 18 months have been tough for many students like Matthews and Kayleith Montana.

"It's been hard. Especially for people who had to send in their negative COVID-19 tests or vaccinations, and then they can't go to the game," Montana said.

But, the promise of normalcy for LSU's gameday is looking bright.

"It was really hard, but now that restrictions are lifted, it's really nice," Montana said.

LSU officials told WBRZ that a decrease in cases allowed for the change in protocols.

Fans still have to wear masks in the indoor parts of the stadium.

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Fans excited to celebrate game day in Tiger Stadium without COVID-19 protocols - WBRZ

JERUSALEM, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Four months into one of its worst COVID-19 outbreaks, Israel is seeing a sharp drop in new infections and severe illness, aided by its use of vaccine boosters, vaccine passports and mask mandates, scientists and health officials said.

Israel was struck by its fourth coronavirus wave in June, fuelled by the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Rather than imposing new lockdown measures, the government bet on a third booster dose of the Pfizer Inc (PFE.N)/BioNTech vaccine for people age 12 and up, mandated face coverings and enforced use of a Green Pass - proof of vaccination, recovery from the illness or a negative test for the virus - at restaurants and other venues, even for children.

Since peaking in early September, daily infections in Israel have fallen more than 80%, with severe cases nearly halved.

"Day by day we are breaking the Delta wave," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday, crediting government policy for "close, smart and flexible management allowing life alongside coronavirus."

Israel's "Living with COVID" strategy, which has not come without cost or controversy, has kept schools and the economy open.

The Israeli Health Ministry on Thursday presented the latest safety and effectiveness data from its booster campaign to a panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considering authorization of additional booster shots.

The data show that among people over 60 - the first group to receive boosters - infections began declining rapidly about two weeks after third doses were administered, while still climbing among other age groups.

A data analysis by Doron Gazit and Yinon Ashkenazy of the Hebrew University's COVID-19 monitoring team showed the virus' reproduction rate - its ability to spread - began a sharp fall among each age group following the third shot.

Two months into the Delta wave, vaccinated people over the age of 60 made up more than half of severe COVID-19 cases. The majority were over 70 with health conditions that put them at higher risk.

Since administration of boosters, mostly unvaccinated, often younger, people are bearing the brunt of serious illness. They make up about 75% of hospitalized patients in severe condition, while those vaccinated with two or three shots account for a quarter of such cases.

A third dose has so far been effective in curbing severe breakthrough cases among vaccinated people age 40 and up, according to the health ministry.

There is less available data for teens and young adults. However, the ministry said its findings so far show that a third dose has not increased the risk of myocarditis, a rare heart inflammation, in younger people.

'THE JURY IS STILL OUT'

Ran Balicer, who heads the government's coronavirus expert advisory panel, said a combination of measures curbed the Delta surge.

"These include the masks mandate, the Green Passes, the massive testing both with PCR testing and rapid antigen tests. But undoubtedly, the most important impactful factor in bringing down the Delta summer surge was the mass vaccination campaign with booster doses," Balicer said.

In England, where boosters have been administered to roughly 5% of the population, masks have largely been abandoned and vaccine passports are not mandatory, COVID-19 cases are on the rise.

Some scientists said Israels decision in late August to approve a third vaccine dose for young adults and teens was premature, lacking clear evidence of a benefit. They argue the focus should still be on convincing unvaccinated people to accept the shots.

The United States and several European countries have so far authorized boosters only for older adults, people with weakened immune systems or workers at high risk of coronavirus exposure.

The World Health Organization has pleaded with wealthier nations to hold off on boosters while many countries struggle to access vaccines.

"Israel rushed, even gambled, when it came to approving a third dose for the whole population and not to specific age groups as other countries did, said Hagai Levine, professor of epidemiology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In the midst of a pandemic you sometimes have to make a decision based on partial evidence," Levine said. Nevertheless, the jury is still out on third doses for the entire population."

Bennett has been criticized by some scientists for rejecting tougher measures that would have kept Delta infections lower from the start. They included government health officials who feared the "Living with COVID" policy exacted too heavy a toll.

"We have 1,400 people who died in this wave. So there are benefits to keeping the economy open and there is some cost to that," Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at Israel's Health Ministry, told The Jerusalem Post conference on Tuesday.

By September, hospitals strained to care for COVID-19 cases that could have perhaps been avoided, doctors and health officials said.

"It's a good policy, but it has its price," said Yael Haviv-Yadid, head of the critical care ward at Sheba Medical Centre, whose unit saw an influx of young, unvaccinated patients. "The teams are very tired, burned out."

So far, 3.7 million people have taken a third shot, more than a third of Israel's population.

"Israel was the first country to deal with the combined challenge posed by the Delta variant and mass waning immunity, but it is definitely not the last" Balicer cautioned.

"Other countries that will be faced with this complex challenge will have to figure out their own balance," he added, "and the costs can be high."

Additional reporting by Dedi Hayun in Tel Aviv and Ryan McNeill and Alistair Smout in London; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Analysis: With boosters, masks and Green Pass, Israel sees a COVID-19 wave in retreat - Reuters

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio When Mike Michelsen of Cuyahoga Falls tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday afternoon, he quickly started looking for a test for his wife.

I had difficulty in locating a place locally to get a test for her, Michelsen said.

Michelsen, who is 76 years old, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in April of this year. The semi-retired pharmacist still works part-time at CVS, where he said in recent weeks staff have been delivering and administering COVID-19 booster shots and flu shots.

Michelsen is fully vaccinated, having received two doses of the Moderna vaccine, and is eligible to get his booster shot soon, too. He said hes encouraged by the number of first-dose or second-dose shots of the vaccine hes administered to patients recently.

In the process of trying to find a test for his wife, Michelsen called pharmacies and checked for openings, but there werent any. He also called his primary care doctor and even the hospital where he got tested, but he said he never received calls back.

Its been very frustrating. I did finally find a local Walgreens that had one opening, Michelsen said. She actually had her test [Friday], and fortunately for her and for me, she tested negative.

For Michelsen, the combination of COVID-19 symptoms and exhaustion from chemotherapy treatments made the difficult process of finding a test even tougher.

I feel pretty exhausted, Michelsen said. Its one thing to be sitting and feeling tired. It's another thing to walk across the room and feel like you've walked or ran a marathon.

Michelsen said the health care system that makes it difficult to find tests outside of hospitals needs to change, and some patients need to be prioritized. He believes its a matter of better communication among doctors and medical staff to make that happen.

Certainly people that are in high-risk situations should somehow get moved towards the front of the line, Michelsen said. I'm not promoting that some people are more important than others. I'm not promoting that at all, but a person that needs a test for whatever the reason is, there should be a way.

Making testing more routine

Dr. Claudia Hoyen is the director of infection control at Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital and the University Hospitals Health System. She described the availability of testing in the past 19 months as either feast or famine, in part due to supply chain shortages.

Those things have settled down a bit, but we still are always a little bit on edge as to when our next shipment is coming, Hoyen said.

Hohen also noted that, with many health care workers leaving the industry and with a surge in COVID-19 cases, there are fewer people available to man freestanding testing stations.

In the early part of the pandemic when everything was closed down and there weren't surgeries, we had lots of people who weren't doing anything, and so we were able to deploy them to testing stations and centers, Hoyen said.

Now, though, those kind of extra hands are being put to use in in hospitals. You know, helping the nurses take care of patients, Hoyen said.

Hoyen said UH was working to make testing more routine. Pediatric practices within the UH system have been testing for COVID-19 for more than a year, and adult practices have been rolling out more testing the last couple of months.

She urged people in need of a test to call their primary care physicians. In total, she estimated that 50 to 100 tests were being given out at primary care offices at UH each day for the last six weeks.

It's kind of shifted from that, you know, Am I going to go to CVS, am I going to go somewhere else [a freestanding center], to now where it's becoming very routine and we're starting to do it within available practices, Hoyen said.

She noted that testing is an important part of stopping the spread of COVID-19.

Early COVID can look like a lot of different things, but those other things, you don't need to quarantine necessarily for 10 days, Hoyen said. It is really important that people know if you have a runny nose, a cough, vomiting, diarrhea or whatever the symptoms are you're having, as we're in this surge and we know there's a lot of COVID around, to be sure that we're still doing what we need to to make sure that we're not spreading it to others around us.

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COVID-19 testing can be hard to come by in Northeast Ohio - News 5 Cleveland

As the COVID-19 death toll in Texas reached 60,000 in early September, marking another grim milestone, Victoria County had just experienced its deadliest month of the pandemic in August.

Forty-eight Victoria County residents deaths were attributed to COVID-19 that month, according to data collected by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The next deadliest month was in September 2020, when 44 residents died because of the virus. In September, there were 39 COVID-19 deaths in the county, making it the third deadliest month.

Despite the existence of vaccines, said David Gonzales, the countys public health director, the death rate this summer was comparable to last summer.

However, the vast majority of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been in unvaccinated people, he said. And the delta variant, which accounts for more than 90% of new cases in the county and country, is both more contagious and severe than the earlier variants that were spreading last summer.

Hopefully, now that we have a combination of built immunity within folks, as well as the vaccine, we wont see another spike this holiday season, said Gonzales. Thats really what were trying to look ahead to. Theres a lot of unknowns with that piece, and hopefully, we wont get into the situation we had last year.

The Victoria Mortuary and Cremation Services was serving upward of 150 customers a month at the end of this summer, said owner Adrian Fulton. Thats still lower than the numbers they were doing at the beginning of the year. At that time, they served nearly 200 customers one month and had roughly a monthslong backlog, he said.

A normal month sees 80-100 customers, he said.

His company also provides cremation services for many of the areas funeral homes and is averaging around three to four cremations a day right now, he said.

Isaias Vega, manager of Heavens Gate Funeral Home in downtown Victoria, said theyve also seen a higher number of customers in the past few months as compared to this time last year. Last year they averaged around 20 customers a month, while this year theyve served roughly 35 customers a month, he said.

Manager Isaias Vega stands for a portrait inside the casket selection room Thursday at Heavens Gate Funeral Home in Victoria.

Local funeral homes like Heavens Gate as well as Victoria Mortuary and Cremation Services often provide burial services for people who died outside of Victoria County.

Various local funeral homes have reported difficulties with ordering caskets or urns, including prolonged shipping times and higher costs.

Our urns have been an issue. The company we deal with, theyre backlogged right now. Theyve been back ordered for months, said Fulton. Previously, an urn would take roughly three days to arrive, now its closer to four weeks or longer.

Vega said that while they have never failed to secure a casket for any of their customers, their customers will often have to go with their third or fourth choice, as many are out of stock.

Have we been stuck-stuck? No. Thank God. But weve had obstacles like this, where youre real adamant about one, but were not able to get it for you, said Vega.

The cost of wood has also gone up nearly 300%, said Fulton. Bodies are required to be inside a casket or combustible container before being put into a cremator, and Fulton tries to keep around 100 containers in stock. Hell order a new shipment when his stock approaches 60, usually every three months or so.

A family room inside of Heaven's Gate Funeral Home in Victoria.

A shipment of 60 containers previously cost him around $700. That cost has now more than doubled to about $2,000, he said. Hes had to pass many of these costs on to his customers.

In April, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began offering reimbursement funding for funeral expenses of those whose death certificate lists COVID-19 as the cause of death. The financial assistance is available for COVID-19 related funeral expenses incurred after Jan. 20, 2020.

COVID-19 cases in the area have been dropping over the past month, according to state data. Gonzales said most projections right now really only go through the fall, but they do show cases will continue to decrease, which has been accurate so far.

Obviously, any time folks are getting together its a concern, he said. But Halloween is not as big a concern as the holidays Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years when the weather is different and more folks are inside together.

But right now its hard to tell what the winter holiday season will look like this year, he said.

Were trying to project ahead and look ahead at where we might be in January again, but we just dont know, said Gonzales. Theres so many unknowns right now. Were hopeful, but we wish we could project ahead.

Cat writes about Victoria's city and county government. Questions, tips, or ideas? Let me know cdelaura@vicad.com or (361) 580-6511

More:

More Victorians died of COVID-19 in August than any other point in the pandemic - Victoria Advocate

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) There were 318 new total COVID-19 cases reported on Friday, bringing the states total case count to 149,996 up from Thursday (149,678).

While the difference in the total case count reported Friday and Thursday equals 318, when you add the PCR, or newly confirmed, cases (267) and antigen, or new probable, cases (53), there were 320 new cases.

The number of active cases reported on Friday is at 5,868, down from 5,963 reported on Thursday.

The death toll from COVID-19 is at 2,189, up from Thursday (2,182). The new deaths are five women and two men in the following age groups: 70-79 (2); 80+ (5). Deaths were reported in the following counties: Jones (1); Minnehaha (2); Pennington (3); Todd (1).

Current hospitalizations are at 185, down from Thursday (201). Total hospitalizations are at 7,660, up from Thursday (7,646).

Total recovered cases are now at 141,939, up from Thursday (141,533). The latest seven-day PCR test positivity rate for the state is 13.5% for October 7 13.

The DOH currently reports total tests each day. There have been 1,551,880 total tests reported as of Friday, up 3,730 from 1,548,150 total tests on Thursday.

Of South Dakotas 66 counties, 54 are listed as having high community spread. High community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.

There have been 626 Delta variant cases (B.1.617.2, AY.1-AY.25) detected in South Dakota through sentinel monitoring.

There have been 172 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), three cases of P.1. (Gamma variant) and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta variant).

The DOH announced changes to how it reports vaccinations on the COVID-19 dashboard as of Thursday. It now includes a breakout of how many people have received booster doses. Due to data clean-up efforts, the percentages of people whove received one dose or completed the series have changed.Find the DOH explanation in this story.

As of Friday, 65.92% of the population 12-years-old and above has received at least one dose while 56.93% have completed the vaccination series.

There have been 483,526 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered, 337,112 of the Moderna vaccine and 29,680 doses of the Janssen vaccine.

There have been 158,706 persons who have completed two doses of Moderna, an increase of 113 over Thursday. There have been 194,842 persons who have received two doses of Pfizer, up 820 over Thursday.

As for booster doses, 25,896 people have received a 3rd Pfizer shot and 2,860 have received a 3rd Moderna dose.

More:

COVID-19 in South Dakota: 318 total new cases; Death toll rises to 2,189; Active cases at 5,868 - KELOLAND.com

The Ben Simmons saga has been discussed so much over the past few months that at times it's felt like going in circles. But now, just ahead of the season there have finally been some new developments. Most importantly, Simmons finally reported to Philadelphia. Whether he actually plays for the 76ers this season remains to be seen, but he is now with the team.

In addition, there's been some interesting new reporting on the Sixers' disastrous season-ending Game 7 loss at home to the Atlanta Hawks in the second round of the playoffs. That, of course, was the game in which Simmons passed up a dunk in the final minutes of the fourth quarter and finished with just five points.

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We knew about that infamous play and the quotes from Doc Rivers afterward, but what we didn't know is Simmons almost didn't even play that night due to a COVID-19 scare. And what's more, multiple members of the organization thought he was lying about it in order to avoid playing, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:

"They're not letting me play," he told his brother Sean Tribe and several teammates via text message.

Simmons was being held out of the team's shootaround, he told them, due to a possible exposure to a team masseuse, who'd returned an inconclusive COVID-19 test.

Several players were questioned about whether they'd seen her that morning, but only Simmons said that he had.

"He answered the question honestly, without thinking of the implications," says one source close to Simmons.

But according to multiple sources, many within the team questioned whether Simmons had actually seen the masseuse -- or was just trying to get out of playing as he battled the basketball version of the yips.

Was Simmons really looking for an excuse not to play? That would be pretty remarkable, but he's the only one who knows what he was thinking in the moment. The problem for Simmons is that some of his teammates and coaches thought he was. That's a bigger issue than one game or one bad play because it shows a lack of faith in one of the supposed franchise cornerstones.

This quote from Shelburne's report sums the problem up well.

"'I don't know if he can face the team or the fans after everything that happened last year,' one source close to the situation puts it."

So far, everyone has been supportive of Simmons, and said publicly that they want him back. But if they thought he was willing to skip the biggest game of last season, will they be able to fully trust him if he does want to rejoin the team and play at some point? Likewise, will Simmons ever be comfortable again with the franchise?

Those issues are why a break-up feels inevitable at some point, and it's still not clear if Simmons is going to suit up or if he's just in town to make sure he gets paid. With or without Simmons, the Sixers are set to open the regular season on Wednesday night against the New Orleans Pelicans.

See more here:

Some Sixers thought Ben Simmons lied about COVID-19 exposure to try to get out of Game 7 vs. Hawks, per report - CBS Sports

Personal choice crosses partisan lines and ideological boundaries.

Personal choice for parents is emerging as a splinter issue. It is complicated by the fact that children don't have the legal power to make their own choices and they may be required by local governments to physically attend schools.

"My message for you and all that are listening is that Covid is not over, no matter what people who have been standing up here have said," Sperry, who also teaches in the district, said, according to CNN's report. "On September 27, during the last meeting, there were parents or concerned citizens that voiced misinformation to you."

Parental choice is the new euphemism for personal freedom. Covid-19 protection measures at public schools are turning into a key political issue -- one pushed by both the Republican Party as well as frustrated parents who disagree with either public health officials or freedom-guarding politicians.

With authorization for younger kids in the US to get the shot expected around Halloween, look for this debate to become even more heated.

Parental choice has emerged as a major element of the Virginia governor's race, where Republican Glenn Youngkin has seized on comments made during a debate by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

"I'm not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision," McAuliffe said at the debate, later adding, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

Using the rights of parents as an umbrella, Youngkin has been able to tuck in a number of other issues conservative activists have weaponized to rile up mostly White parents in suburbs across the country, including mask and vaccine mandates in schools, the role of racial equity education and transgender rights. These fights, especially on masks, have been particularly potent in the Northern Virginia suburbs, where political operatives from Washington have helped foment the anger.

Nationwide, most kids are required to wear masks at school. And parents are OK with it. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey from September found 69% of parents whose children attend in-person schools reporting masks were required there. Most parents are on board with masks in the Kaiser poll:

Moms are far more likely than dads -- 70% vs. 42% -- to support mask requirements.

Two-thirds of parents in the poll said their school district was doing "about the right amount" and only 11% said their district was doing too much to limit the spread of Covid-19.

It's expected that a lot of the maybes will, over time, get the shot for their kids. That's what's happened both with adults getting their own vaccines and for kids 12 and older, although vaccination rates for older kids still lag behind those for older Americans.

CBS asked parents about their support for masks in a different way than Kaiser, and saw the following results:

Opposition vs. anger. You can imagine it's people from among the committed anti-mask 6% who are protesting masked kids as they walk into schools.

It's a more sizable minority who are open to other people wearing masks but opposed to mask requirements.

The CBS News poll also uncovered festering animosity among the vaccinated toward holdouts.

Mandates, not vaccines, are the sticking point. Even most Republicans in the CBS News poll -- 64% -- said they prefer candidates who encourage vaccines. But only a quarter of Republicans and 54% of independents said they would back a candidate who supports mandates for vaccines.

In Texas, Abbott has tapped into Republicans' bristling at mandates with his new ban on vaccine mandates by any entity in the state.

He has also picked a fight with the federal government, which is moving toward requiring companies that employ more than 100 people to mandate vaccines as a matter of public safety.

Whose vaccine order should Texas employers follow? Per Isidore: "Major business groups had welcomed the Biden plans for employer vaccine mandates. They wanted their workforces to be vaccinated, both to reduce absenteeism and health care costs, and so that they didn't have to worry about vaccine-hesitant employees leaving and going to competitors who don't require vaccines. But the last thing they wanted was to be caught in the middle of a legal and political battle between competing orders."

Continued here:

Kyrie Irving, angry parents and personal choice in the Covid-19 culture war - CNN