Pirate's Cove

I mean, come on, some of us have been working at our work place the entire time. Granted, early on, my place was on a split schedule, so only half of us were there each week, going through Memorial Day. We’ve all been there since. We’ve made adjustments, doing our morning meetings in the showroom, rather than upstairs in the conference room, and limit the size of meetings for training and such upstairs, even after the governor did away with social distancing rules when he ended the mask mandate (a mistake, IMO. The distancing part). But, apparently, in Liberal World, they have let the Chinese coronavirus rule their world with fear

New York City employees say they fear working from their offices as Covid-19 cases rise

City officials and workers are sounding the alarm over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mandate for in-person work amid the explosive spread of the Omicron variant.

Details: Covid-19 test positivity has doubled within a three-day period — a speed that New York has not reported during the pandemic, according to former City Hall aide Jay Varma. According to the most recent City Hall data, 6.5 percent of Covid-19 tests were positive, as of Dec. 13.

“Given what we are seeing right now, I think it would be wise for the City & other large employers to let non-essential employees work remotely through the end of the year,” Comptroller-elect Brad Lander tweeted Friday. “Especially as people are in & out over the holidays, the more we can reduce unnecessary contact the better.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what does Lander mean by non-essential? Is that like the definition they trotted out last year of non-essential, like, this person, this job really needs to be in the office, or, like “this person, this job, really doesn’t help at all”? Because if it’s the latter, then that job should be cut from the government payroll.

Secondhand accounts: An Instagram account called cityworkers4nyc, which has posted in favor of a state bill to establish a permanent telework policy for municipal employees, has shared messages from staff members that discuss their fears of getting sick on the job.

This is really all about city workers, not really private workers. If the city workers do not want to do their jobs, there are plenty of fast food places hiring. Because lots of them, say, sanitation, police, and fire, have to go to their office to work. The rest just want to do their stuff from home, saving the commute, not having to get up, shower, and dress. Besides, aren’t these same people those who are COVID cultists, the ones who lose it if someone else isn’t wearing a mask? Aren’t they vaccinated?

Bad Covid winter brings questions about what’s ‘fully vaccinated’

The Biden administration was bracing for a bad Covid winter surge long before the Omicron variant. Now, with two competing strains and a burst of new cases, officials are rethinking what it means to be fully vaccinated — and how to steel the public for the possibility they’ll need fourth shots.

It’s not just an exercise in semantics. Changing the criteria and messaging could influence how quickly workplaces and public events reopen, and how much a crisis-weary and in some cases confused population responds to pleas to get booster shots.

And then it will be four shots. And five. And however many. And incompetence

Harris says Biden administration failed to see either delta or omicron variants coming: report

Vice President Harris says the Biden administration foresaw neither the delta nor the omicron COVID-19 variants.

Both variants are currently present in the United States. The newer omicron variant is highly contagious and is expected to quickly replace the delta strain, which spread over the summer.

“We didn’t see Delta coming. I think most scientists did not — upon whose advice and direction we have relied — didn’t see Delta coming,” she said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that was published Friday. “We didn’t see Omicron coming. And that’s the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.”

Wasn’t it rather their job to get the necessary information from experts? Another fail, just like with the economy.

Meanwhile, in New York

New York state reported 21,027 positive COVID test results on Thursday, a new single-day record, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday.

This brings the positivity rate in New York to 7.98%. The state also reported 60 new COVID-related deaths over the last two days.

And in Florida

COVID-19 cases across Florida more than doubled over the course of a week, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health on Friday.

From Dec.10 to Dec.16, Florida had 29,568 COVID-19 cases and 134.6 cases per 100,000; the week prior, Florida had 13,530 COVID-19 cases and 61.6 cases per 100,000. This makes for an increase 16,038 in COVID-19 cases and 73 cases per 100,000 in the span of one week.

The increase in the new case positivity rate saw parallel increases: from Dec. 10 to Dec. 16, Florida had a case positivity rate of 5.4%, up 2.8% from the previous week.

Hmm, so, New York is at 7.98 with all their COVID authoritarianism, Florida is at 5.4, with their open state.