Associated Press

ViacomCBS drops Nick Cannon, cites 'anti-Semitic' comments

LYNN ELBER

July 15, 2020, 1:37 AM

FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2018, file photo Nick Cannon poses for a portrait in New York. Cannon's “hateful speech” and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories led ViacomCBS to cut ties with the performer, the media giant said. “ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism," the company said in a statement Tuesday, July 14, 2020. It is terminating its relationship with Cannon, ViacomCBS said. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP, File)

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nick Cannon's “hateful speech” and anti-Semitic theories led ViacomCBS to cut ties with the TV host and producer, the media giant said.
“ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism," the company said in a statement Tuesday. It is terminating its relationship with Cannon, ViacomCBS said.

The company's move was in response to remarks made by Cannon on a podcast in which he and Richard “Professor Griff” Griffith, the former Public Enemy member, discussed racial bias. The podcast reportedly was filmed last year and aired two weeks ago.

“We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast ‘Cannon’s Class’ on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” ViacomCBS said.
“While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him,” the company said.

Cannon produced “Wild ’n Out,” a comedy improv series for VH1, a ViacomCBS-owned cable channel. He's been a regular part of TV shows unconnected to the company, including as the former host of NBC's “America's Got Talent” and host of Fox's “The Masked Singer.”
There was no immediate response to requests for comment made to a representative for Cannon and to him through his website. Fox also didn't immediately respond to a request for commen

In Cannon's hour-plus podcast, he and Griffin contend that Black people are the true Hebrews and that Jews have usurped their identity.

Cannon then segues into a discussion of skin color — “And I’m going to say this carefully,” he begins — to allege that people who lack sufficient melanin are “a little less.”
Those without dark skin have a “deficiency” that historically forced them to act out of fear and commit acts of violence to survive, he said.
“They had to be savages,” Cannon said, adding that he was referring to “Jewish people, white people, Europeans,” among others.

ViacomCBS’ action came as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball great and writer, condemned several sports and entertainment celebrities for anti-Semitic tweets and posts and what he called a “shocking lack of indignation” in response.
Abdul-Jabbar made his comments in a column for The Hollywood Reporter that didn’t refer to Cannon.
As controversy over his remarks began to bubble up Monday, Cannon replied in a Facebook post.
“I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric ... The Black and Jewish communities have both faced enormous hatred, oppression persecution and prejudice for thousands of years and in many ways have and will continue to work together to overcome these obstacles," he wrote.
In the lengthy post, Cannon also said he welcomed being held accountable for his statement and that held himself accountable “for this moment and take full responsibility."

NEVER....EVER apologize for YOUR OPINION

Freedom of Speech is YOUR RIGHT !

U.S.

Gun violence kills 160 as holiday weekend exposes tale of 'two Americas'

Joanna Walters in New York and agencies

July 7, 2020, 5:00 AM EDT

Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

A six-year-old in Philadelphia, a seven-year-old in Chicago, an eight-year-old in Atlanta, a 15-year-old in New York, all shot. Community cries of “enough is enough”.
Neighborhoods in some of the largest US cities erupted in gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend, killing an estimated 160 people and leaving more than 500 wounded from Friday night to Sunday.
Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, declared a state of emergency on Monday after 31 people were shot and five killed over the weekend in Atlanta. He authorized 1,000 national guard troops to “protect state property and patrol our streets”.
Related: 'There are two pandemics': Chicago's gun violence persists amid lockdown

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But Chicago saw the worst violence in one of the bloodiest holiday weekends in recent memory, ending with 17 people fatally shot including a seven-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy and 63 more wounded, an increase of five shootings on the high figures that had marred the holiday weekend the previous year.

Chicago police investigate the scene where a seven-year-old girl was fatally shot in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago on Friday. Photograph: Tyler LaRiviere/AP

Despite an effort that included an additional 1,200 officers on the streets and pleas from the city’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, for residents not to reverse limited progress that had been made against the epidemic of gun violence, Lightfoot lamented the children whose “hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun”.
The city’s south and west sides have seen worse weekends this year, however, and a one-year-old and a three-year-old were killed during recent shootings. The rising violence prompted Donald Trump to write to Lightfoot and the Illinois governor, JB Priztker, both Democrats, accusing them of receiving more than $1bn in special federal funding for anti-crime measures and coronavirus relief that was “not being turned into results”.
“Your lack of leadership … continues to fail the people you have sworn to protect,” the letter said.
Lightfoot dismissed Trump’s letter as “all talk, little action”.

Secoriea Turner, eight, was killed near a Wendy’s in Atlanta. Photograph: Atlanta Police Department Handout/EPA

The shooting death of an eight-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, in Atlanta, prompted the mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to call for justice while noting the shadow such street violence casts over the huge and largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests against racism and police brutality.
“Enough is enough,” Bottoms said. “If you want people to take us seriously and you don’t want us to lose this movement, we can’t lose each other.”
The shooting happened near the Wendy’s restaurant where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by a white police officer in June.
“She was only eight years old,” Charmaine Turner said of her daughter Secoriea. “Right now, she would have been on TikTok, dancing on her phone.”
Atlanta police said two other people were killed and more than 20 injured in gunfire during the holiday weekend.
In New York, a series of shootings on Saturday and Sunday claimed at least nine lives and wounded 41 others in a rise in incidents in some neighborhoods. A 15-year-old boy was wounded in the Bronx.
And in Philadelphia, a six-year-old boy died of a gunshot wound amid five fatal shootings in about five hours on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The Trace, a non-profit news website covering gun violence in the US, which tallied the weekend toll of shootings in the US, reported that preliminary research from the University of California, Davis, has found a potential link between the rise in violence and a surge in gun-buying during the coronavirus pandemic, of more than 2.1 million more guns than usual between March and May.

Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities and across the country it’s a tale of two Americas
Rev Gregory Livingston

The Rev Gregory Livingston, a pastor and civil rights leader who moved to New York last summer after many years running an anti-violence community organization in his native Chicago, spoke of Chicago “going through absolute madness”.
But he warned that nationwide systemic racism that is not being addressed, and the “violent history” of America that has not been reckoned with were dividing people and causing some communities to break down.
“Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities, and across the country it’s a tale of two Americas. Chicago is a very segregated city, and that legacy is part of what’s fueling this horrific violence,” Livingston told the Guardian.
He condemned “corruption and racism” and said the pandemic and economic fallout had exacerbated inequality. The pandemic has been disproportionately hard on Black Americans already suffering economic and healthcare deprivations.
Livingston campaigned strongly to vote out the previous Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Lightfoot has been in the position since May 2019, and has just appointed a new police chief.

The Rev Gregory Livingston: ‘Chicago is a very segregated city and that legacy is part of what’s fueling this horrific violence.’ Photograph: Joshua Lott/The Guardian

Lightfoot agreed with Livingston’s point that a long history of segregation in Chicago and under-investment were “at the root” of the “explosion” of violence.
“You have to give a sense of hope. You have to reach out to those young men on the corners who are the shooters, but it can’t just be on the police and the city government. It’s all hands on deck,” Lightfoot said.
She said of Trump: “We are leading. He needs to take our lead and follow it.”
Livingston called on Lightfoot to tackle racism and policing problems “head on”.
“There is an individual responsibility [among those shooting], but there are also conditions that create a climate of violence,” he said.
He accused the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, of being “scared” of confronting racism in the New York police department. “There is no courage in city hall,” he said.
And he warned mayors across the US that Chicago was the “control” for what would happen elsewhere this summer if inequality and the demands of protesters coast to coast since George Floyd, an African American, was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer did not spur change.
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, declared herself dismayed that she was not asked about the weekend shootings at her briefing on Monday, despite citing “a doubling of shootings in New York City for the third straight week”.

Multiple shootings in multiple Democrat-run cities such as New York and Chicago. Tragic loss of life.

But not one question during the briefing... pic.twitter.com/krdPbmyr1w
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) July 6, 2020

Journalists at the briefing responded that she had ended the 22-minute briefing and departed while many were still waiting, hands raised, to ask questions.

Whoa................Scared whites will pick up a gun, but are too scared to pick up a book | Opinion

U.S.

Scared whites will pick up a gun, but are too scared to pick up a book | Opinion

Leonard Pitts Jr.

July 7, 2020, 4:04 PM EDT

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Scared whites will pick up a gun, but are too scared to pick up a book | Opinion

So now, Karen’s got a gun.
To be clear, her name wasn’t actually Karen — it was Jillian Wuestenberg. But Wuestenberg’s behavior — she and her husband, Eric Wuestenberg, drew guns on a black woman and her daughter in a parking lot near Detroit last week after she and the girl inadvertently collided — is certainly Karen-like. As in the social-media meme of white women weaponizing their entitlement and privilege against people of color.
Karens call police on black people for barbecuing in a public park, swimming in a public pool, selling bottled water on a public street. Amy Cooper, a New York City Karen, notoriously called 911 claiming she was being attacked in a public park by an African-American man after he asked her to put her dog on a leash. Karens have become ubiquitous.
But they aren’t usually armed.
One is wary of falling into the journalistic trope of labeling any three similar incidents a “trend.” Yet, this sort of thing does seem to be happening a lot lately. Days before the Michigan confrontation, one Patricia McCloskey came out of her home in St. Louis awkwardly holding a handgun as a group of Black Lives Matter protesters marched down the street toward the mayor’s house. Her husband had a long gun.
Two weeks before that, Joseph Max Fucheck, a male Karen — a Kevin? — in Miami-Dade County pulled a gun on a black man, Dwayne Wynn. Wynn had been standing across the street from his house talking to a neighbor when Fucheck drove by and left a business card in his mailbox. When Wynn retrieved it, Fucheck circled back, produced a handgun and, in a tirade punctuated by racial slurs and other profanity, accused Wynn of stealing “my property.” This, he said, is “why you have people like you getting shot.”
Taken together, these incidents, all caught on video, paint a grim picture of how many white Americans are responding in this summer of racial justice uprising. Namely, with the desperate panic of people who think the race war has come to their doorsteps. They’re breaking out guns and circling the wagons in defense of privilege and prerogative.
It’s a dangerous, combustible mindset, egged on by the arsonist in the White House. Which makes one all the more thankful for those white people who have not lost their damn minds.
If the police murder of George Floyd was, for many African Americans, superfluous confirmation of things we already knew, it was, for many white Americans, a jolting revelation of things they never guessed. It cannot be easy to learn that much of what you’ve been taught is a lie, that you are the product of a system designed to inculcate and maintain racism in you, to ensure there are voices you never hear, people you never see, stories you never know.
Such a discovery can upend one’s understanding of one’s country and oneself. So Karen got a gun. But we’ll be a better country when Karen gets a book, when she emulates morally courageous white people seeking to know things that have been withheld. They’re the ones now reading Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin DiAngelo, Michelle Alexander and Douglas A. Blackmon, the ones now watching “13th,” “I Am Not Your Negro,” “Do The Right Thing” and “Eyes On The Prize,” the ones chanting “Black lives matter!” — even in lily-white places where no black lives are lived.
In so doing, they bring hope to a difficult crossroads of our national existence. Hard truths are being told at last and so many white people are running away from them.
We are redeemed by the ones rushing toward them instead.

Chicago violence erupts during holiday weekend, at least 67 shot and 13 killed

July 5, 2020, 1:08 PM EDT

Nine of the victims were minors involved in the Chicago violence, with two fatalities so far; Garrett Tenney reports.

If you are going to erase history by getting rid of statues and changing names..... doesn't that mean that you erase slavery too?

We all know that it happened just like the history that everyone is trying to get rid of. But you can't have it both ways.

Either it happened or it didn't.

Protesting is nothing more than complaining about something that p_sses them off.

It has turned from protesting something that YOU REALLY FEEL STRONG about.... to just walking the streets yelling and screaming about what pi_sses you off TODAY.

Grow the hell up!

Either KNOW why you're protesting or stay home !!

Report: NFL to play Black national anthem before 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Week 1 games

 The NFL is doing nothing but separating the country.

==============================

 

Report: NFL to play Black national anthem before 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Week 1 games

Jack BaerWriter

July 2, 2020, 4:13 PM CDT

Scroll back up to restore default view.

The pregame festivities during Week 1 of this year’s NFL season are reportedly going to include a new song.
The NFL is planning to have “Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing,” widely known as the Black national anthem, performed at its season openers this fall, according to ESPN’s Jason Reid. The song will reportedly be played before the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The NFL is also reportedly considering other measures for the season to recognize victims of police brutality. That could reportedly include listing names of victims on uniforms through helmet decals or jersey patches, as well as educational programs.
All of this comes after a notable shift in the NFL’s approach to racial inequality. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made headlines when he stated “Black lives” matter and conceded the league was wrong for not listening to past player protests, a statement that came in response to a public demand from many of the league’s Black stars.
Much remains to be done if the NFL is serious about helping foster change. Colin Kaepernick also notably remains a free agent, though Goodell has said he encourages teams to sign the quarterback.
Several players — including Adrian Peterson, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray — have already signaled they will still protest racial inequality during the national anthem this season.

A new song is reportedly coming to NFL pregame ceremonies. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman)

Approaches to national anthem amid pandemic have varied

As leagues slowly return to action amid the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL’s addition of “Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing” to their season openers is one of a few ways leagues are handling the national anthem differently in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests.
After the vast majority of its players knelt while the national anthem was played for an empty stadium, the National Women’s Soccer League changed its policy to allow players to remain in the locker room while the song is played.
Major League Soccer has said it will take a different route by simply not playing the anthem, citing the lack of fans in the stands.
MLB and the NBA have not yet announced if they will do anything differently with the anthem when they return to action.

'You’ve been warned': Florida sheriff says he may deputize gun owners against protesters

Andrew Pantazi, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union

July 1, 2020, 1:48 PM CDT

Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels in October, 2018.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels, no stranger to making viral videos appealing to tough-on-crime politics, released a video Tuesday that said he will make “special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county” if he feels the county is overwhelmed by protesters.
The three-minute video shows Daniels standing in front of 18 deputies as he derides civil rights protesters as godless disruptors and tells them to stay out of Clay County, a suburb of Jacksonville.
"If we can’t handle you, I’ll exercise the power and authority as the sheriff, and I’ll make special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county and I’ll deputize them for this one purpose to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility," he said.
"That’s what we’re sworn to do. That’s what we’re going to do. You’ve been warned."

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Daniels, the county’s first Black sheriff, is himself under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement related to an affair he had with a fellow officer when he was at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and a subsequent false arrest of that officer.
Watch: Black teens reflect on what it’s like to grow up in Tamir Rice's America
Qualified immunity: Why police are protected from civil lawsuits, trials
Daniels is a first-term sheriff up for reelection who has said he wants to one day be a congressman. He is being challenged by six opponents, including former Atlantic Beach Police Chief Michelle Cook, former Clay County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management Director Ben Carroll and Mike Taylor, a former FDLE agent and state attorney’s investigator who has earned the endorsement of former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Post by ccsofl.
His challengers accused him of inviting chaos to Clay County and insulting the training necessary to become a sheriff’s deputy.
“We train under intense situations to control the adrenaline dump,” Taylor said, “and we don’t do a perfect job at it, but we train to be prepared to make decisions under pressure. That’s necessary to be effective. To think we can put anyone in that role and it’ll be OK, we’re asking for a much bigger problem and inviting chaos and anarchy in the streets. The citizens of Clay County deserve better than that.”
Taylor added that deputizing private citizens could make the county liable to pay out lawsuits if the newly deputized citizens don’t act appropriately. “I don’t believe it was intended to be a pro-police message. I believe it was intended to be a propaganda message. Real police professionalism actually acknowledges that professionally trained police officers cannot be replaced by a swearing-in ceremony.”
Cook said the video was a sign Daniels wasn’t capable of leading. “What Daniels said yesterday may sound tough and macho. But, instead, it is a call for vigilantism and another signal that he is incapable of leading the sheriff’s department and keeping Clay County safe.”
She added: “Instead of dealing with real issues in a meaningful way, he is behaving like a reality show sheriff and calling attention to himself. To make matters worse, he pulled 18 officers off the streets to be used as props for his taxpayer-funded campaign stunt. It’s no wonder morale is so low among our fine officers.”
Carroll, who spent 14 years at the Sheriff’s Office, said he runs a nonprofit that trains churches and private schools, and he believes it’s foolish to think private citizens could replace deputies.
“I’m sure that was a political production for the sheriff. I doubt seriously that there will ever be the need in Clay County to deputize all the citizens to stand in the gap. I believe the sheriff’s department is totally capable of standing in the pike.”
Carroll said he supports citizens owning and training to use firearms to protect themselves, but he believes the Sherrif’s Office must be capable of handling protesters on its own.

All black cast of a movie is just as racist as an all white cast.

STOP FREAKING DIVIDING.

'White lives don't matter' Cambridge academic has post 'deleted by Twitter'

June 26, 2020, 6:03 AM CDT

Dr Priyamvada Gopal sparked a backlash after tweeting: "White Lives Don't Matter". (Churchill College Cambridge)

A controversial tweet by a Cambridge University professor saying ‘White lives don’t matter’ has been deleted by Twitter, she has claimed.
Professor Priyamvada Gopal, a fellow of Churchill College, sparked a backlash after she posted the tweet saying: “I’ll say it again. White Lives Don’t Matter. As white lives.”
Since posting, the professor has received death threats and abuse, while a petition was launched demanding that she be fired by Cambridge University.
It comes after a banner reading ‘White Lives Matter’ was flown over the Etihad Stadium in Manchester just after kick-off between Manchester City and Burnley on Monday night, sparking a police investigation.

A controversial tweet by Dr Priyamvada Gopal has been deleted by Twitter, she has confirmed. (SWNS)

Prof Gopal later confirmed that the tweet had been deleted by Twitter, but said she stood by it as it was about “structure and ideology” rather than people.
She wrote: “I would also like to make clear I stand by my tweets, now deleted by Twitter, not me.
“They were very clearly speaking to a structure and ideology, not about people. My Tweet said whiteness is not special, not a criterion for making lives matter. I stand by that.”
Read more: Black Lives Matter: Pictures show scale of demonstrations around the world
The academic and activist also shared abuse she had been received both publicly and privately following the tweet.
One person replied saying she was “disgusting inside and out”, and, “[i]f you don’t like white people, pack up your sh*t and go home. Problem solved.”
Other examples included: “...On another note, kill yourself. Else someone might show you which lives really Matter :)”
“Why would you want to abolish whiteness anyway, we’ve given you everything you own, without us you’d still be chasing Bush meat with a blowpipe.”

Dr Gopal says she stands by the tweet because it was about ideology, not people. (Twitter)

Prof Gopal, who revealed on Thursday that she had been promoted to full Professorship in the English department, was defended by Cambridge University as well as by the University and College Union (UCU).
In a statement, Cambridge University said: “The university defends the right of its academics to express their own lawful opinions, which others might find controversial.
“[It] deplores in the strongest terms abuse and personal attacks. These attacks are totally unacceptable and must cease.”
The Cambridge branch of the University and College Union (UCU) wrote: “Solidarity with Priyamvada Gopal - being targeted with vile sexist and racist abuse for speaking up against white supremacists.
“We are proud to be your colleagues both on the picket line and off it. #BlackLivesMatter #Solidarity.”
However, the university’s support of Prof Gopal has been criticised by some as inconsistent, with some pointing to the recent removal of Noah Carl from a research position at St Edmund’s college over links with far right extremist groups.

Census shows white decline, nonwhite majority among youngest

MIKE SCHNEIDER

June 24, 2020, 11:10 PM CDT

FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2019, file photo, people walk through New York's Times Square. The population of non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. has gotten smaller in the past decade as deaths have surpassed births in this aging demographic, and a majority of the population under age 16 is nonwhite for the first time though they are fewer in number than a decade ago, according to new figures released Thursday, June 25, 2020, by the U.S. Census Bureau. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — For the generation of Americans not yet old enough to drive, the demographic future has arrived.
For the first time, nonwhites and Hispanics were a majority of people under age 16 in 2019, an expected demographic shift that will grow over the coming decades, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.
“We are browning from bottom up in our age structure,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. “This is going to be a diversified century for the United States, and it’s beginning with this youngest generation.”
At the same time, the number of non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. has gotten smaller in the past decade as deaths surpassed births in this aging demographic, according to the Census Bureau population estimates.
Since 2010, the number of whites who aren't Hispanic had dropped by more than 16,600 people. But the decline has been escalating in the past three years, with the number of non-Hispanic whites dropping by more than a half million people from 2016 to 2019, according to the Census Bureau population estimates.
In 2019, a little under 40% of the total U.S. population was either nonwhite or Hispanic. Non-Hispanic whites are expected to be a minority of the U.S. population in about 25 years.
A natural decrease from the number of deaths exceeding births, plus a slowdown in immigration to the U.S., contributed to the population drop since 2010 for non-Hispanic whites, whose median age of 43.7 last year was by far the highest of any demographic group. If these numbers hold for the 2020 census being conducted right now, it will be the first time since the first decennial census in 1790 that there has been a national decline of whites, Frey said.
“It’s aging. Of course, we didn’t have a lot of immigration, that has gone down," Frey said. “White fertility has gone down."
In fact, the decrease in births among the white population has led to a dip in the number of people under age 18 in the past decade, a drop exacerbated by the fact that the much larger Millennial cohort has aged out of that group, replaced by a smaller Generation Z.
Over the past decade, Asians had the biggest growth rate of any demographic group, increasing by almost 30%. Almost two-thirds of that growth was driven by international migration.
The Hispanic population grew by 20% since 2010, with almost three-quarters of that growth coming from a natural increase that comes when more people are born than die.
The Black population grew by almost 12% over the decade, and the white population increased by 4.3%.
The nation's seniors have swelled since 2010 as Baby Boomers aged into that demographic, with the number of people over age 65 increasing by more than a third. Seniors in 2019 made up more than 16% of the U.S. population, compared to 13% in 2010.
In four states — Maine, Florida, West Virginia and Vermont — seniors accounted for 20% of the population. That's a benchmark that the overall U.S. population is expected to reach by 2030.
“The first Baby Boomers reached 65 years old in 2011,” said Luke Rogers, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Branch. “No other age group saw such a fast increase."
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

A&E canceled LivePD.... I say boycott A&E

Yep.... that is what's right.

Your OPINION is your opinion and don't let anyone tell you that you are wrong for it.

YOUR opinion is very important.

Every single person in this world will have an opinion about something that will make someone mad..... tough.....respect and move on.

When you see ANY COLOR when you look at someone ..... you are RACIST.....

When you think ONLY ONE COLOR IS SUPERIOR.... YOU ARE RACIST.

Airborne Coronavirus Detected in Wuhan Hospitals

Kenneth Chang

,

The New York Times•April 29, 2020

A worker disinfects a room at the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on March 18, 2020. - The hospital, which has been used to treat COVID-19 coronavirus patients, will be temporarily closed from March 18 for a week of extensive disinfection, before being returned to service as a general hospital. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Adding to growing evidence that the novel coronavirus can spread through air, scientists have identified genetic markers of the virus in airborne droplets, many with diameters smaller than one-ten-thousandth of an inch.
That had been previously demonstrated in laboratory experiments, but now Chinese scientists studying real-world conditions report that they captured tiny droplets containing the genetic markers of the virus from the air in two hospitals in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak started.
Their findings were published Monday in the journal Nature.
It remains unknown if the virus in the samples they collected was infectious, but droplets that small, which are expelled by breathing and talking, can remain aloft and be inhaled by others.
“Those are going to stay in the air floating around for at least two hours,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who was not involved with the Nature paper. “It strongly suggests that there is potential for airborne transmission.”
Marr and many other scientists say evidence is mounting that the coronavirus is being spread by tiny droplets known as aerosols. The World Health Organization has so far downplayed the possibility, saying that the disease is mostly transmitted through larger droplets that do not remain airborne for long, or through the touching of contaminated surfaces.
Even with the new findings, the issue is not settled. Although the coronavirus RNA — the genetic blueprint of the virus — was present in the aerosols, scientists do not know yet whether the viruses remain infectious or whether the tests just detected harmless virus fragments.
“The missing piece is viable viral replication,” said Harvey V. Fineberg, who leads the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. “Could you culture this virus from the air?”
In February and March, scientists collected samples at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and at a makeshift temporary medical facility used to quarantine and treat patients with mild symptoms. They also sampled the air in public areas around Wuhan, including a residential building, a supermarket and two department stores.
Very little virus was detected in the air of the isolation wards or in the patient rooms of the hospital, which were well ventilated. But elevated concentrations were measured in the small toilet areas, about 1 square yard in size, which were not ventilated.
“It kind of emphasizes the importance of avoiding small confined spaces,” Marr said.
The researchers also detected viruses in the air in the locations where staff members took off their protective garments, suggesting that viruses that had settled on clothing could be knocked back into the air. These readings were greatly reduced after the hospitals implemented more rigorous cleaning procedures.
The Wuhan data echo findings at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where other researchers also found coronavirus RNA in the air as well as on surfaces in rooms. That research, still in the process of being reviewed by other scientists before publication in a journal, did not determine the size of the droplets. But the presence of RNA from the virus in out-of-the-way locations, such as under a bed and on window sills, also suggested that small droplets were carried around the rooms by air currents.
In their paper, the Nebraska researchers detected the presence of coronavirus RNA, but not whether the viruses were still infectious. In additional experiments, the scientists are trying to grow the virus in cultures to determine if they are capable of sickening people.
“We’ve made a lot of progress the last couple of weeks,” said Joshua L. Santarpia, a professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “I really do hope that we’ll start being able to say something more definitive in the next week or so.”
In the Wuhan research, no viruses were detected in most of the public places they studied, including the residential building and the supermarket, although some levels were detected in crowded areas outside one of the hospitals and in the department stores. Marr said she calculated it would take about 15 minutes for a person to breathe in one virus particle.
“It was interesting to see there were measurable amounts,” Marr said. “I think it adds good evidence to avoid crowding.”
The paper did not state whether people passing through those areas were wearing masks, which would block much of the virus a sick person breathes out.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

U.S.

A man who called COVID-19 a 'political ploy' on Facebook died from the virus. His family canceled his funeral livestream after 'misguided anger' from strangers.

kmclaughlin@businessinsider.com (Kelly McLaughlin)

INSIDERApril 23, 2020, 10:15 AM CDT

Signs protesting Ohio's stay-at-home order hang near the Capitol in Columbus on Monday.

Seth Herald/Reuters

• John W. McDaniel, 60, died from COVID-19 on April 15.
• As early as March 13, McDaniel had criticized the panic surrounding the novel coronavirus. In a Facebook post that has since been deleted, he called COVID-19 a "political ploy."
• In another, according to NBC News, he said: "If you are paranoid about getting sick just don't go out. It shouldn't keep those of us from Living our Lives. The Madness has to stop."
• His wife, Lisa McDaniel, canceled a livestream of his funeral after reading criticism of her husband online.
• "This news has opened the flood gates for people to share their own misguided anger and unfounded assumptions about a man they don't know," she said.
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An Ohio man who called COVID-19 a "political ploy" on Facebook has died from the disease, and his family has faced so much outrage over his posts that they canceled a livestream of his funeral.
John W. McDaniel, 60, died on April 15 after contracting the coronavirus. As early as March 13, McDaniel had criticized stay-at-home orders and panic surrounding the novel coronavirus, according to NBC News and The Washington Post.

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The posts have since been deleted. But in one he reportedly called the virus a "political ploy," and in another he said: "If you are paranoid about getting sick just don't go out. It shouldn't keep those of us from Living our Lives. The Madness has to stop."
People spread the news about McDaniel's death online, sharing criticism of his posts on social media while linking to his obituary, first published in the Marion Star on April 16.
His wife, Lisa McDaniel, canceled a Facebook livestream of her husband's funeral, announcing the news in a letter shared on the funeral home's website on Wednesday.
"During this time of mourning, John's story, along with early assumptions that he stated on twitter and Facebook have turned into national news," she said. "This news has opened the flood gates for people to share their own misguided anger and unfounded assumptions about a man they don't know. Wanting to protect my family and John's legacy, we have decided not to live stream his funeral services via Facebook today."
John McDaniel's sister said in a Facebook post that her brother became sick in late March and was put on a ventilator at a hospital in Columbus.
Lisa McDaniel said in her letter that her husband was "not fully aware of the severity of COVID-19" when he made the posts criticizing reactions to the virus.
"Many have retracted their statements knowing now the effects of this pandemic," she said. "We know if John was still here with us he would acknowledge the national crisis we are in, abide by the stay-at-home order, and encourage family and friends to do the same."
She added that she and her family would "never be able to erase from our hearts and minds the negative posts that have been made and shared" about her husband.
As of Thursday, Ohio had had more than 13,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 555 people had died from the virus.
Gov. Mike DeWine said earlier this week that he hoped to ease social-distancing measures in Ohio starting May 1. He said that the reopening would happen in stages and that businesses would have to follow safety guidelines.
"We cannot look at May 1 as a date when everything is back to normal," DeWine said, according to ABC 6. "Things cannot be back to normal unless we want to just throw caution to the wind and proceed carelessly and recklessly."