Tag Archives: health

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, August 4, 2025. There couldn’t have been a more explosive Senate hearing than today when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS) agency was grilled by both Democrats and Republicans for being so incompetent in his role as the purveyor of this country’s health. An online MSNBC article by Brandy Zadrozny entitled “Senators tear into RFK Jr. over vaccine restrictions in explosive hearing” outlines some of the salient points that came out in today’s hearing.

Amid many calls to resign and accusations that he is a danger to Americans’ health, Kennedy struggled to defend himself against these most accurate allegations. The hearing spanned about three hours in front of the Senate Finance Committee in which both sides of the aisle accused the health and human services secretary of lying to senators during his confirmation hearings (Duh!) and harming public health by restricting access to vaccines. The only thing he could do just like Demented Don was to lash out, accusing senators of misleading the public and allegations of corruption.

This hearing marked itself as the harshest congressional oversight of any Cabinet official since the start of Demented Don’s second term in January. I say it’s about time that those lawmakers have found a spine here. One after the other, both Republicans and Democrats peppered the abnormally tan “black sheep” of the Kennedy clan with questions over his chaotic leadership of the Department of Health and Services, including his firing of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), his anti-vaccine record and rhetoric, and his ongoing attacks on disease-fighting treatments.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed into the conspiracy theorist of a secretary by noting that Kennedy’s new recommendations for COVID vaccines have limited their availability at pharmacies in many states. She outright accused Kennedy of lying to the committee during his nomination hearings, breaking his promises not to restrict access to vaccines.

She fumed, “Last November, you said, ‘If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away.'” But just last week, she noted, “You announced the Covid-19 vaccine is no longer available for healthy people under 65.” So you be the judge here: Didn’t Kennedy just lie here about having the COVID vaccine available to all people, despite their age? Hell yes, I’ll answer. The brain-devoured secretary has been caught in a momentous lie.

At one point during the heated exchange, Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, became quite exasperated during his questioning – at one point asking Kennedy to tell him how many Americans had died of COVID. The clueless secretary responded, “I don’t know.” He should have known that the pandemic has killed more than 1 million people in the United States – a figure that Kennedy has baselessly disputed.

Then Warner exhorted, “The secretary of health and human services doesn’t know how many Americans have died from Covid, doesn’t know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths, and you are sitting as secretary of health and human services. His voice rising, Warner postulated, “How can you be that ignorant?”

During the contentious hearing, Kennedy acknowledged he had rejected the expertise of veteran CDC officials. When asked who at the CDC he does rely on for vaccine expertise, here Kennedy should just have said voodoo experts. Instead of just acknowledging how cuckoo he really is, Kennedy named William Thompson – a longtime CDC scientist who once claimed the agency had withheld data linking vaccines to autism and who was the central figure in the 2016 anti-vaccine documentary Vaxxed. Oh, that “expert”!

At one time, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, told Kennedy, “Every single day, there’s been an action that endangers the health and wellness of American families. He accused Kennedy of elevating conspiracy theorists, crackpots, and grifters to make life-or-death decisions about the health care of the American people.

Even a key Senate repugnican, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor and chairman of the Senate health committee who had stupidly voted for Kennedy’s confirmation, joined with blistering questions of his own.

Cassidy accurately pointed out the inconsistencies inherent in Kennedy’s support for Dump’s Operation Warp Speed, the first-term program that delivered COVID vaccines to Americans, and Kennedy’s recent statements saying those vaccines have caused widespread injuries and deaths. Cassidy charged, “I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines.” Of this, Kennedy stated incorrectly, “You’re wrong.”

Well, now that the hearings are over, where do you think this leaves us with Kennedy being the head of HHS? Let’s hope he has enough common sense to know that lawmakers and the American people hate him and want him gone. Do you think he got the hint today?

I’ve been a little coy with you in not mentioning my plans for travel tomorrow. I just didn’t want anyone to say, “Oh, there he goes again!” Anyway, Elliot and I are traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark, tomorrow for about four days and then we’re flying to Israel to see Elliot and my family in Tel Aviv. Here we stay about five days. Everyone has warned us about traveling to the Middle East in light of the ongoing conflict, but we have no intention of traveling anywhere in the country. We intend to stay with Elliot’s cousins in a suburb of Tel Aviv the whole time. Therefore, we return – hopefully – on September 17. See you when we get back.

Until we meet again! Farvel which is Danish for goodbye.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Friday, August 29, 2025. Out of a show of support, Elliot and I attended an invitation-only screening of our polymath friend “Ralph”s film which was a filmic recreation of his Dictator for a Day musical that played off-off Broadway last October – before the election. The showing was supposed to have begun at 6:30, but it was delayed a full hour. There were supposed to have been about 50 people at this event, but I was informed there were only about 35 people instead. I had no idea that the screening was planned to take place in someone’s huge loft apartment on Canal Street, right near the Holland Tunnel. It was truly a schlep to get to our destination, but we had all the time in the world, since we left much earlier to spend some time in historic Chinatown and have dinner there.

As the film finally rolled at 7:30, the audience was treated to a pastiche of skits, musical numbers, dancing, all over about 85 minutes, and all on the gaffes and foibles of the 45th president. The Dump impersonator, J-L Cauvin, really outshone as the dimwitted president; I can’t name the other cast members since we didn’t really receive a program of any sort. I do know that some of the other performers were probably friends of Ralph. There was one who did a very good impersonation of Columbo the detective from television, but here I thought the segment was superfluous and could have been cut. But I’m no critic. There was even a Bernie Sanders impersonator who had two numbers; his latter routine could have also been pared down a bit, I think. However, after listening to some of the songs now, many things that have played out during Chump’s second term were forecasted in these songs. Remember, this played originally in October, a month before the election.

Right after the film, three cast members appeared up front to take questions from the audience. At this point, Elliot darted out to go home. I waited until the bitter end, which was about 9:30. Someone asked J-L Cauvin the question I would have asked him, which was when did he originate his Trump impersonation and how long has he been doing it. Now I can’t recall the answer. It was a long day. I have checked him out and he does have videos on YouTube, so if you’re intrigued, check him out yourself.

Of course, when Ralph wrote this skewering of Dump during his first term, he never envisioned him actually winning on Election Day. He spoke about this in remarks he made to the audience before the film was shown. He thought he would just go away, which was what everyone in the room probably thought too. Boy, were we wrong!

This is news you don’t want to hear, but there is a huge nationwide spike in COVID cases and emergency room visits as Labor Day nears. This is not very good news, considering that the head of the Health and Human Services agency is a lunatic, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is the most unqualified of Dump’s lackeys in his cabinet. There is an online article from Axios on this issue entitled “CDC warns of huge COVID spike amid internal turmoil,” by Herb Scribner.

This dire warning comes as the federal health agency struggles with its own internal chaos and the ramifications of a new COVID vaccine policy.

If you haven’t followed developments within the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) lately, there have been walkouts and resignations fostered by the stupid head himself, Kennedy, who just terminated the CDC director just weeks after she was sworn in, Susan Monarez. On Thursday, dozens of staff members and leaders at the CDC rallied in support of departing colleagues.

In an email Wednesday, a CDC spokesperson told Axios, “COVID-19 activity is increasing in most areas of the country.” He added, “Emergency department visits for COVID-19 are low but increasing” for all age groups.

Five states thus far have driven that increase: Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana. These states have a positivity rate of 15 percent to 19.9 percent.

The CDC’s warning comes as Kennedy announced new recommendations for the coronavirus vaccine.

I seriously hope that Democrats push for this idiot’s termination from the very agency that is responsible for saving lives in this country. There is no room for a vaccine denier in the highest pinnacle of this agency. Kennedy is no doctor, no medical professional of any kind, just a privileged member of an old-guard political clan whose family members have practically disowned him. If anyone deserves the boot before people die on this orange asshole’s watch, just like during the first pandemic, it’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We might just be closer to a second pandemic than anyone thinks! Heaven forbid, but the warnings are there, and when this happens, this will be a total disaster!

Today’s adventure took us to a general appliance store in my old neighborhood to purchase a new refrigerator. Yes, a new refrigerator! For only about two days, we noticed that items in the appliance were not cold. We played with raising the coolant numbers in the refrigerator, but nothing happened. Today we called the store where we bought it and a spokesperson recommended a repair person to come to our apartment. And he did! Unfortunately, he declared the 15-year-old silver Amana dead and not worth repairing. Something about a hole in the back letting freon out. That it was expensive to repair the appliance, given its advanced age. Thus we drove as quickly as we could to Len Harris Appliances and ordered another similar refrigerator. This one is now a Whirlpool. Luckily for us, we were promised delivery and installation tomorrow. However, we intended to drive to Ralph and Sandy’s house in Easton, Pennsylvania, to have a sleepover with them before driving to Sellersville, Pennsylvania, to attend a retirement party for “Harold,” my childhood friend from the Bronx. Now we have to wait for the appliance to be delivered and installed before doing this.

As I just reported then, today is my last blog before Sunday or, even, Monday. I don’t know when we’ll get back on Sunday, so I might just pass on writing my blog if we come home late that day.

By the way, there are protests planned for Monday, Labor Day, to demonstrate against the authoritarian policies of this autocrat. I have participated in at least three protests against this administration but have sadly missed a few because of scheduling conflicts. I haven’t even considered going to this one if it is even going to be held in New York.

It’s hard to believe I’m writing have a good Labor Day weekend, but here I am doing just that.

And so it went!

Coronavirus Diary

Today is Tuesday, December 5, 2023. I thought I’d write about something different today since I’ve been going ballistic on the awful likelihood of a second Trump presidency after the 2024 election is over, so I’ll give you all a break – just this one time. Going through the paper, particularly my online edition of the Daily News, I was drawn to an article on Miami Beach’s role in spurring new HIV infections. I thought this pretty peculiar, given that this other pandemic has not received too much attention lately after our disastrous brush with the latest pandemic to wash across our shores, the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s just another one other reason why not to reside in DeSatan’s state.

The article is called “Miami Beach a hot spot for clubs – and new HIV infections” and it’s written by Cindy Krischner Goodman and it reports on a once-dreaded disease first found within the ranks of gay men oh-so many years ago. I have to think it a coincidence then that I took out today a book from the Forest Hills branch library entitled The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir by Lynn Curlee that speaks to the ravages wrought by the AIDS pandemic when the writer lived in New York during the time the disease was first breaking out among the gay population.

Today’s article reports on the burgeoning cases of new AIDS infections being discovered in a specific ZIP code in Miami Beach, that of 33139. The article notes that this area lures thousands of tourists a year to some of the most attractive hotels and nightclubs in the country and stretches along the famous Ocean Drive in South Beach, which also now boasts the highest AIDS infection rate in excess of four times the national average, according to newly released 2021 data from AIDSvu, an online mapping tool that visualizes the impact of the HIV epidemic on communities across the nation.

I was surprised to hear about the six metropolitan areas that have the highest rates of new infections in the United States, and they are Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. Another surprising statistic: Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties rank in the top 5 percent of U.S. counties for their high infection rates. Other areas that I know, especially Wilton Manors, Overtown, and Doral have high rates of new diagnosis as well. (For those who are not aware, Wilton Manors is predominantly a gay neighborhood.)

An infectious disease specialist and HIV researcher with the University of Miami, Dr. Mario Stevenson, said, “The situation doesn’t seem to be improving.” He added, “The problem has become white noise. A lot of people come to the area to party hard, and thy are not aware of the HIV risk. It is so important to get the message out so people know the risk.”

Stevenson indicated that local ZIP codes with large Hispanic populations in particular struggle with controlling the spread. Hispanics account for a rising share of new infections in the state. “Some of the messaging distributed around HIV awareness doesn’t translate well,” he said. “It’s not culturally tailored to resonate with vulnerable communities of color.”

Though the picture looks grim, South Florida has actually made strides. Organizations like AIDS Health Foundation and efforts by the University of Miami and Florida’s Department of Health to prevent, test, treat, and improve the quality of life for those affected by HIV have been effective.

Mobile units now enter the communities to test and treat people in an effort to keep persons from infecting others without knowing. Florida, like other states, has placed an emphasis on PrEP, medication taken by those at risk to prevent contracting HIV. PrEP can significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission, but a substantial disparity still exists in PrEP usage among minorities and women.

What hasn’t changed with HIV, unfortunately, is that it still has a stigma and too often those infected don’t want to get tested.

What is hopeful about treating this dreaded disease is the introduction of monoclonal antibody injections that can be potentially be given every four months as an alternative to a daily medication treatment, according to Dr. Zachary Henry at Fort Lauderdale’s AHF Healthcare Center. Another option being tested is a monoclonal antibody treatment that would act as a functional cure, keeping the levels of HIV suppressed indefinitely. Henry noted, “It basically would put HIV in remission.”

Dr. Marcus Conant, who was one of the first specialists in the country to treat AIDS patients in San Francisco, is now overseeing a gene therapy clinical trial that he feels has the potential to cure HIV. Conant is presently the chief medical officer at American Gene Technologies. He feels curing HIV with gene therapy could be at least five years away. However, he does offer hope, saying, “This is exciting stuff and we have seen some promise with early trials.”

Don’t you think it’s about time that medical researchers will be able to finally find a cure for a disease that decimated the gay population more than 40 years ago and that still resonates among the LGBTQ community to this very day? Too many people died needlessly during that time because the federal government under the watchful gaze of Ronald Reagan ignored treating the disease because it initially only affected gay men. When it eventually was transmitted to women and children, or straight people, did the government begin to take action and research how to combat it.

Another bummer in the news is an article in the same paper that takes note of new cases of COVID, flu, and RSV that are rising in California. Health officials there are urging residents to get vaccinated in hopes of reducing potential pressure on health systems across the state. This I won’t report on since I don’t want to alarm you. Just know that you should get your most up-to-date vaccinations as soon as you can.

Today I did get one of those vaccinations: the pneumonia shot at 3 p.m. at my local CVS pharmacy. So far, I am happy to say that I have no symptoms or side effects. But I would like to end earlier tonight.

Stay safe and be well.