Tag: CDC

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The DIY Pandemic

CREDIT: Wikipedia Commons

I remember vividly where I was on September 11, 2001, and I bet you do, too. Everything stopped. We were in shock, battered by one revelation after another. Commercial airliners used as weapons. Tall buildings collapsing like Jenga towers. Tales of heroism in the sky and on the ground. Images of destruction and death filling our senses for days.

We lost 3,000 American citizens that day. In the aftermath, the country rallied together. The president’s team formulated a plan of action. We now know it was a horrible plan of action, one that didn’t even target the right perpetrators, but we responded as a country, united at least in the belief we needed to take a stand, to do something! National emergencies usually do bring us together — to heal communities after a mass shooting, to help fellow Americans rebuild after disasters, to fight fires and hurricanes and floods in blue states and red.

Wikipedia Commons

H. L. Mencken

In 2020? Not so much. For the past six months, we’ve been losing around 1,000 American lives a day to a pandemic that our president refuses to take seriously — the equivalent of 67 September 11ths and counting. So we wallow along, some of us wearing masks, some of us making fun of people wearing masks, some of us not even believing there is a pandemic. Some of our leaders take the disease seriously. Some don’t. Some schools are open. Some aren’t. Should we go to the movies? Eat in a restaurant? Ehh, your call.

It’s the DIY pandemic, and it’s going to continue to kill thousands of us every week until there is a coordinated national plan to take it on, as has happened in most of the civilized countries of the world. One day last week, Canada had zero deaths. England, Spain, Italy, etc. are averaging less than 15 deaths a day. But here in TrumpWorld, we’re just letting it roll, baby, encouraging morons who don’t believe the disease even exists because in America masks take our freedom.

Our own national Centers for Disease Control has been politicized with a spokesperson, Michael Caputo, who posits bizarre conspiracy theories about CDC undercover scientists, who says the “shadows are long” in his apartment, and that he fears being assassinated by leftist death squads.

This is madness. Quite literally. No one’s at the wheel. We are splintered, careening from one appalling revelation after another, with no letup in sight. Trump eats the news cycle. We’re all reduced to just reacting to his impulses — frogs sitting in water that’s about to reach a boil, and we have no idea where to jump. We are distraught and angry and sad and exhausted by it all.

At least, most of us are. Then there are the working men in Ohio who were interviewed by The Economist this week. Here’s a sample: “He’s done a great job, he’s got everyone back to work. I’m pretty much 100 percent for him,” said Kyle, a 30-year-old electrician. “He shoots his mouth off but at least that shows he’s honest,” said Jason, a pipe-fitter, who said he especially liked Mr. Trump’s commitment to reducing the national debt. “He’s done more for our country than the past 10 presidents put together,” said an older builder, Jeff, skimming wet concrete on a new road. “He’s made — who is it, China or Japan? — pay our farmers millions of dollars. He got healthcare done, which the Democrats could never do. He built the wall.”

Whatever “news” ecosystem these fellows are consuming has filled their brains with misinformation and mush, and they’re quite happy about it. There are millions of people like these in America. And they vote.

I leave you with the words of the newspaper columnist H.L. Mencken, writing for the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1920 — 100 years ago: “In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by the force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

“The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

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News News Blog

How COVID-19 is Affecting the City’s Services for the Homeless

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Guests line up to enter Room In The Inn

Organizations providing shelter and other services to homeless individuals in Memphis remain open, but are making changes to the way they serve amid the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Memphis Union Mission, the largest shelter provider in Memphis, remains open, but is taking precautions and preventive steps.

Mission officials said Monday that they are adhering to the recommendations of the Citygate Network’s Toolkit for Managing Impact of Aerosol Transmissible Diseases sanitation, hygiene, and infection prevention practices.

Scott Bjork, President and CEO, said, “We are taking these precautionary measures knowing that our homeless clients may suffer from a variety of chronic and acute conditions that may affect their immune system response.”

If a client is identified during screenings as possibly having COVID-19, Mission staff will follow isolation protocols and communicate with the health department for the evaluation and care of the client

Bjork said the Mission is working with the health department and the Memphis Office of Emergency Management to monitor COVID-19’s impact in the city.

Room In The Inn, which places homeless individuals at churches across the city for the night and provides them with a meal and a place to sleep, and sometimes access to showers and clothes closets, remains open.

Lisa Anderson, executive director of Room In The Inn, said that it will continue to operate as long as “we have congregations that will host, which means it’s night-to-night for us.”

However, no new guests are being accepted at this time. So those who have not previously been a guest at Room In The Inn prior to this week aren’t able to receive services for now.

Anderson said the congregations that continue to host guests are taking extra cleaning precautions and ensuring that guests’ sleeping arrangements are spaced apart.

The Hospitality Hub, which is located Downtown Memphis and provides a range of services to homeless individuals, will be limiting its services until further notice.

On an average day, the Hub is visited by 125 people. Among other needs, the organization helps clients find housing and jobs, obtain a state ID or birth certificate, access a mailbox, apply for food stamps, and pay for health care. The Hub said last week that it is suspending its counseling services, but will continue its Work Local program, and keep access to mail and personal lockers open on a limited basis.

At St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, the weekly Wednesday morning community breakfast and clothes closet services, which is open to homeless individuals, will continue. Volunteers will serve guests with gloves and follow all guidelines from the health department, the church notes.

Though Calvary Episcopal Church will refrain from serving any other food, for the time being, it will continue to serve its weekly Sunday community breakfast to those in need, but will do so in disposable containers in the alley behind the church. The church began using this method this week and was still able to serve close to 150 individuals.

Two at a time, guests were allowed to go inside the church to use the restroom and visit the clothes closet.

However, Christine Todd, Calvary’s community ministries coordinator said that the church is running low on hand sanitizer and will not be able to continue to serve without it. Church leaders will meet Tuesday to decide how to move forward. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released interim guidelines for homeless shelters last week amid the outbreak of COVID-19.

The CDC guidelines advised homeless shelters on how to prevent the spread of the virus before, during, and after the outbreak.

During the outbreak, the CDC said that shelters should limit visitors to their facility, ensure clients are sleeping at least six feet apart, provide clients with respiratory symptoms a face mask, and confine clients with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 to individual spaces or a designated room if possible.

The CDC has not made any recommendations that homeless shelters should close during the outbreak.


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News News Blog

Tennessee Health Department Reports First Death Related to Vaping

CREDIT: Cherie Moncada | Dreamstime.com

Cherie Moncada | Dreamstime.com

A Tennessean has died from a vape-related lung illness, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) reported Thursday.

This is the first reported fatality related to the use of vaping or e-cigarettes in the state.

The patient suffered from a “serious respiratory disease,” according to the TDH, which did not provide any additional information about the deceased patient.

In a Thursday statement, Dr. Lisa Piercy, Tennessee Health Commissioner, offered condolences to the family and urged Tennneseans to avoid using vapes or e-cigarettes.

“We are extremely saddened by this loss of life and extend our sincere condolences to the patient’s family,” Piercy said. “We are working with partners across the country to investigate these cases of vaping-associated illnesses in Tennessee, and recommend Tenneseans consider refraining from using e-cigarettes or vaping while this investigation is underway.”

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To date there have been 53 reported cases of lung illnesses related to vaping in Tennessee, according to the TDH. Most of the patients are adolescents and young adults. There have been 1,299 cases across the country, leading to a total of 26 deaths, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC, along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a cluster of pulmonary disease among people who use vapes or e-cigarettes.

Symptoms related to the illness include cough, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Other symptoms may include fever, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

At this time officials have not linked a single product, substance, or chemical to all of the cases. However in many cases, patients have admitted to using a vape containing THC or tetrahydrocannabinol.

TDH is continuing to provide details about its ongoing investigation into these cases and the number of affected patients here. The numbers are updated every Thursday at 3:30 p.m.


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News News Blog

Vaping: Insights From the State, a Store Owner, a Street Dealer, and a Doctor

CREDIT: Pexels/Ruslan Alekso

Pexels/Ruslan Alekso

As the number of vaping-related lung illnesses continues to rise around the country, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) is recommending that Tennesseans avoid using e-cigarettes and other vaping products.

In Tennessee, there’s been 49 reported cases of vaping-related illnesses, according to the latest data from the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH). The department is updating this number here every Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Four of the 49 reported cases are in West Tennessee.

Shelley Walker, director of TDH’s office of communications and media relations, said the department is working with healthcare providers around the state to gather information about the cases. The goal is to collect information on specific components or brands of vaping products to find common factors which may reveal the source of the illness.

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“We continue to urge caution to Tennesseans who are using or considering the use of Juuls or other e-cigs,” Walker said. “For those trying to stop smoking, we recommend talking with a health care provider, using only FDA-approved smoking cessation products, and calling the Tennessee Tobacco QuitLine.”

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites 1,299 reported cases of lung injuries related to vape or e-cig use across the country as of October 8th.

There have been 26 related deaths. The CDC reports that most of the affected patients report using a vape containing THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

However, the CDC does not yet know which specific chemical or chemicals are causing the lung damage, as no single product has been linked to all of the cases.

The Industry

A local vape store worries what all of this will mean for the industry — and ultimately its customers.

Clarissa Warren, director of operations for VaporWize, Memphis’ first vape store, believes that the products sold in the store’s locations (more than a dozen of them) are safe. Warren said everything VaporWize sells is USDA-regulated: “We’re not selling anything that’s harmful to people.”

Warren maintains that it’s been scientifically proven that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking. VaporWize sells over 400 different flavors of e-liquid and Warren said it’s these flavored liquids that has helped many adults quit smoking cigarettes.

“People don’t want to taste tobacco when they quit smoking cigs,” Warren said.

VaporWize

She said President Donald Trump’s recent push to ban all flavored e-cigarettes is a “mistake.” The Trump administration announced last month that the FDA is in the process of creating a plan to remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market.

As a result, Warren said customers here have been buying more e-liquid than usual because they are concerned that “the thing that keeps them off cigarettes will be taken away.”

“People who are switching to vaping have been helped by this,” Warren said. “I have thousands of success stories. I’ve been a vaper for six years and I’ve been to the doctor less in those six years than I ever did when I smoked cigs for 20 years.”

A group of Tennessee healthcare organizations, led by the Tennessee Medical Association recently sent a letter to Gov. Bill Lee, urging him and the Tennessee General Assembly to “take a firm stance on this important public health issue by implementing an emergency temporary measure to restrict Tennessee youth from obtaining vaping products and encouraging the General Assembly to take more permanent legislative action when it convenes in 2020.”

Read the full letter below.

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Warren agrees that e-cigs should be out of the hands of youth. This can be done by eliminating internet sales of the products, she said, and only offering the products in “reputable stores,” where customers must provide an ID and be 18 or older.

Although the CDC has not found a single common cause of the reported illnesses, Warren believes it’s the illegal cartridges that people are buying off the street that are dangerous.

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“The biggest problem is that people are labeling these deaths saying they were caused by vaping,” Warren said. “It’s not vaping. It’s not a legal product these people are dying from. It’s the illegal cartridges from someone who made it in their house. That’s the problem and it’s hurting our industry.”

For those who wish to continue smoking e-cigs, Warren said it’s important to only use products from legitimate vape shops in order to “make sure you’re getting the correct product that won’t do you harm.”

Street Vapes

Dank Vapes

The Flyer spoke to a local man who sells what Warren would call illicit vapes. The vape dealer spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Among other THC products, he sells vape cartridges containing THC that he believes come from California. He’s sold about 100 this year, he said. They sell for about $50 a piece. The most common brand he sells is Dank Vapes, an unregulated brand whose products were recently found to contain contaminants in some cases.

Investigators in Illinois and Wisconsin found last month that 66 percent of patients with vape-related lung injuries in the two states reported using Dank Vape products. The investigators’s findings were published by the CDC.

They concluded that “Dank Vapes appears to be the most prominent in a class of largely counterfeit brands, with common packaging that is easily available online and that is used by distributors to market THC-containing cartridges.”

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The local dealer said he can’t be 100 percent sure that the cartridges he’s selling are pure and without additives: “It’s just trust.” But, if one of his customers does get sick, he said he’d close up shop.

“They could come back and get their money and I’d stop selling cartridges — point blank, period,” he said. “I don’t sell poison to my community. That’s why I sell what I sell and it’s some stuff I don’t mess with.”

Effects of Vaping

Dr. Catherine Sanders, a pulmonology physician at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, said smoking anything, especially something you don’t know the ingredients of, can have long term effects on the lungs.

“If you inhale anything into your lungs, you’re changing the cells of your lungs and your airways,” Sanders said. “So there’s always potentially adverse effects from that.”

Because vaping is relatively new, Sanders said there isn’t a lot of research that shows its long-term effects.

“We know that vaping can cause acute illnesses like we’ve seen, but what we don’t know much about the long-term effects of vaping yet because it’s so new,” Sanders said. “It’s important for the public to know that it’s so much the medical and science community don’t yet know about it. That’s scary. You really take a gamble if you continue to vape.”

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At this point, Sanders said it’s hard to definitively say if vaping is a healthier alternative to smoking regular cigarettes.

“It’s important to know that vaping is not a safe alternative to smoking, which it has been considered before,” Sanders said. “It’s not this great way to quit smoking or a better way to start. It could just be as harmful and young people especially need to know that.”

Sanders said there hasn’t been much research on vaping until the last couple of years is “just starting to pop up now.” Sanders said there is currently no research in Memphis that she aware of.

“There’s a big need for research now,” Sanders said. “I think we need to learn more about these products so we can educate the public on the potential consequences.”

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

War is Peace

CREDIT: Imagecollect | Dreamstime

There’s been much discussion over the past few days about “banned words” in the wake of reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets that multiple agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), have been told by Trump administration officials that they cannot use certain words and phrases in agency documents.

The words purportedly banned for used in official agency reports being prepared for the 2019 budget were: entitlement, diversity, vulnerable, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based. Several sources at HHS also told the Post that they’d been told to use “ObamaCare” as opposed to the “Affordable Care Act” and to refer to “marketplaces” where people purchase health insurance as “exchanges.”

“The assertion that HHS has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,” said HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd to The Hill.

So, in conclusion, we have reports arising from multiple sources in several federal agencies to multiple media outlets saying they’d been given instruction as to what words they could and couldn’t use in government documents, followed by a denial from an official spokesperson that any of it ever happened.

Your call.

This semantic kerfluffle should serve to remind us that whoever controls language controls the message. George Orwell famously illustrated this in his novel 1984, set in a dystopian then-future world, wherein citizens of Oceania were constantly exposed by their government to such slogans as “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.” Thirty-three years after Orwell’s future tome, there is little doubt that a battle is raging in this country to control the message.

It seems quaint to think that until as recently as 1987, licensed broadcasters in the U.S. were required to observe something called the Fairness Doctrine, a policy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required broadcast license holders to present controversial issues of public importance in a manner that was — in the FCC’s view — honest and equitable. It was imperfect in its execution, but its intention was to guarantee that U.S. citizens would be able to rely on their broadcast media to present a fair and balanced picture of the news of the day. (“Fair and balanced”? I’ve heard that somewhere.)

National news networks, and even local news and affairs programs, were constrained from the kind of partisan cheerleading that passes for news and analysis these days. Broadcasters were required by law to grant equal time to opposing views. Crazy, right?

Nowadays, if you want both sides of an issue, you have to watch and listen to several news outlets. MSNBC is reliably left of center; CNN is slightly left, but usually makes an attempt to present both sides; Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News has basically disintegrated into state media, wholly in service to the Trump/GOP agenda — even going so far as to suggest this week that the FBI was staging a “coup” by pursuing its investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible Russian connections.

What’s next? Alex Jones as Sean Hannity’s new sidekick? I’m still trying to figure out how being “conservative” has come to mean siding with our arch-enemy, Russia, against our own U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. This is weird and dangerous turf.

The late, great comedian George Carlin had a blistering routine about the “seven words you can’t say on television.” I urge you to dial it up on your local YouTube and watch it. It’s hilarious and scary good. But again, “forbidden words.” How quaint. One night’s channel surfing will make it clear that there are no words that can’t be spoken on your television.

Oh, sure, Wolf Blitzer still can’t just pop off and rhetorically ask, “How the f**k can Kellyanne Conway say that with a straight face?” (Though that would be refreshing.) According to the FCC, there are still “forbidden words” for licensed broadcasters. But there are no forbidden ideas; no forbidden lies; no FCC policy to monitor fairness or equity or balance. It’s the wild west; every viewer for themselves.

Choose what’s fake. Choose what’s real. Choose your truth. Ignorance is not strength.

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News The Fly-By

The Art Part

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Most Community Development Corporations (CDCs) try to revitalize their chosen neighborhood, even if it’s just rehabbing one house at a time. South Main and its surrounding area are in the midst of a housing boom, but a new plan says it could benefit from a CDC, too.

Only this one would be charged with creating affordable housing for “low-income artists.”

“For an arts district to be sustainable, artist housing has to be an integral part of the community,” says Lorie Chapman, an urban planner with the Center City Commission and the facilitator of the South Main strategic plan presented last week.

Chapman began the project last September while working on her master’s in city and regional planning at the University of Memphis. She needed a final project and, having already studied arts districts in Indianapolis, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver on a travel fellowship, she had a solid background on what creates a viable arts district.

“I would say this pulls everything together,” she says. “People had looked at the neighborhood in terms of redevelopment and rezoning before, but no one had looked at it as an arts district. Arts were the stimulus for the revitalization, but none of the previous plans looked at arts in depth.”

The community was also interested in things that may sound like any other redevelopment area: sidewalk improvements, attracting more retail and restaurants, and public transportation. “The question was: How do we create a thriving neighborhood that is also an arts district?” says Chapman.

“In South Main, so much of what has happened has come from the private, for-profit sector. It’s developers coming in and transforming properties. Some things need to happen with additional investment from the public sector.”

The plan suggests adding more public art at railroad underpasses and trolley stations, creating a street garden program, in which the community would maintain gardens in public spaces and lining the streets, and licensing artists to sell their work in designated areas of South Main.

“There was a lot of interest in the area known as the ‘dead zone’ between Linden and Huling. There are a lot of vacant storefronts,” says Chapman. The plan proposes displaying works of art from South Main galleries in the empty storefronts, or, if that is felt to be too much of a liability, displaying art posters instead.

In fact, many of the ideas center around making the area look like an arts district, in an art-imitates-life kind of way. Or life imitates arts district.

“I think if you stand at Beale or Linden, you can see a lot of revitalization going on, but you can’t really see what kind of revitalization it is,” says Arnold Thompson, owner of the Universal Art gallery at Central Station and president of the Memphis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association. “You have to get in front of an individual storefront to see the character of the neighborhood.”

Thompson opened his gallery in 2002 but originally worked in the area during the ’90s. He says the early residents thought the revitalization would be further along by this point.

“The veneer appears to be very successful. The residential is obviously very successful. But the retail and arts-district side is still very much a struggling experiment.”

An arts district needs artists to survive. Chapman’s research identifies roughly 20 artists who live in the district, but many of them moved to South Main years ago and she says she doesn’t see a thriving young-artist base in the area.

Consider the case of the residential boom around the South End. Condos are being sold in the area with price tags ranging from $130,000 to quadruple that.

Consider a 1,300-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath condo right off the trolley line on South Main. The asking price is $240,000, with $300-a-month in homeowner fees.

“It is important for it to be sustainable to accommodate younger artists. If the established artists leave, who is going to pick up the baton?” asks Chapman. “For the true artists who dedicate all their time to the art, South Main is not affordable.”

Which is why, in addition to the CDC, the plan suggests creating a limited-equity artist cooperative, retaining a nonprofit to develop artist housing, and looking at building dormitories for art students.

“There are more traditional revitalization models that you can apply other places,” says Chapman, “but I think an arts district is a special place.”

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News The Fly-By

Q&A: Helen Morrow

What if doctors could prevent cancer with a vaccine? In some cases, they can.

On June 29th, a federal panel with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously recommended Gardasil, a vaccine manufactured by Merck & Co., for most types of cervical cancer.

The vaccine targets Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, the second-most-common cancer in women worldwide. HPV is usually sexually transmitted and can spread even when couples use a condom. At least half of all sexually active people have acquired an HPV infection at some time.

The CDC panel recommended that females ages 11 to 26 get vaccinated, but that idea hasn’t been universally accepted. The Flyer talked with health officer Helen Morrow to find out more. — by Shea O’Rourke

Flyer: Will the Local Health Department offer the HPV vaccine?

Morrow: We don’t have it yet. We should have it soon for the “Vaccines for Children” program. For purchase immediately by the paying public, I can’t tell you — it’s a very expensive vaccine. It’s $120 per dose simply to purchase, and it’s a three-dose series. And then there are medical fees.

Why are some conservative groups protesting this vaccine?

I can only assume, having not spoken with anybody in these groups, that they’re feeling that it gives some tacit approval of sexual intercourse. I think one of the things is that they don’t want it to be a required vaccine for school.

Is there an HPV vaccine for males?

They have done some testing on it. Merck, the company that makes Gardasil, is scheduled to finish its study by 2008, so it may eventually be approved for males. Obviously, a female has to get HPV from somewhere, and it has also been related to certain cancers in men: penile, anal, and neck cancers.

When should girls get vaccinated?

The more sexual partners you have, the greater your chances of acquiring HPV. Once you become sexually active, most people have at least a 50 percent chance of getting it. Adolescents are especially vulnerable to HPV because it likes adolescent cervix. The vaccine is approved for down to age 9, and right now they’re saying to give it [to] 11- to 12-year-olds because we’re already giving other shots then. You can get the vaccine up to age 26.

Do you think this information will be presented in sex ed. programs?

I can only speculate that someone might stand up at a PTA meeting and protest it, and that has happened. You’ll have people on both sides of the fence. In 20 years, are we going to see some 50-year-old who sues her parents because she didn’t get the HPV vaccine and ended up with cervical cancer? Who knows?