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September 2020 COVID 19

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September 2020 COVID 19

September 1, 2020: reports of new cases had fallen significantly around the country since July; they were flat in 26 states and falling in 15 others. But in nine states, cases were still growing, and in some, setting records — especially in the Midwest.

Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota all added more cases in a recent seven-day stretch than in any previous week of the pandemic. Together, they reported 19,133 new cases in the week ending Sunday, according to a New York Times database — 6.4 percent of the national total, though the five states are home to only 4 percent of the population. In each, some of the biggest surges in new case numbers have come in college towns. (NYT story)

September 2020 COVID 19

855,652 COVID Deaths Worldwide

September 1: 25,671,845 case worldwide; 855,652 deaths worldwide

187,793 COVID Deaths USA

September 1:  6,212,708 cases in the USA; 187,793 deaths in the USA.

September 2020 COVID 19

Steroid treatment

September 2: published international clinical trials confirmed the hope that cheap, widely available steroid drugs could help seriously ill patients survive Covid-19.

Following release of the new data, the World Health Organization strongly recommended steroids for treatment of patients with severe or critical Covid-19 worldwide. But the agency recommended against giving the drugs to patients with mild disease.

The new studies include an analysis that pooled data from seven randomized clinical trials evaluating three steroids in over 1,700 patients. The study concluded that each of the three drugs reduced the risk of death.

That paper and three related studies were published in the journal JAMA, along with an editorial describing the research as an “important step forward in the treatment of patients with Covid-19.” [NYT article]

September 2020 COVID 19

US/WHO

September 3: the Trump administration pulled U.S. officials from the headquarters of the World Health Organization.

The U.S. officially announced its withdrawal from the WHO this summer, initiating a year-long process that will not go into effect until a year later on July 6, 2021. But the State Department announced on this date that the U.S. was already beginning to scale down its engagement, including “recalling the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailees from WHO headquarters, regional offices, and country offices, and reassigning these experts.” [NBC News article]

September 2020 COVID 19

Pledge

September 4: a Wall Street Journal article stated that a group of drug companies competing with one another to be among the first to develop coronavirus vaccines announced a pledge that they will not release any vaccines that do not follow rigorous efficacy and safety standards.

The manufacturers that are said to have signed the letter include Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi. [NYT article]

September 2020 COVID 19

Trial halted

September 8: the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca halted global trials of its coronavirus vaccine because of a serious and unexpected adverse reaction in a participant, the company said.

The trial’s halt, which was first reported by Stat News, would allow the British-Swedish company to conduct a safety review.

In a statement, the company described the halt as a “routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”

September 2020 COVID 19

902,537 COVID Deaths Worldwide

September 9:  27,769,074 case worldwide; 902,537 deaths worldwide

194,037 COVID Deaths USA

September 9:  6,514,376 cases in the USA; 194,037 deaths in the USA.

September 9:  on this date media reported that on February 7 President Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus even though he was aware it was life-threatening and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.

President Trump said: “This is deadly stuff,” Mr. Trump said in one of 18 interviews with Mr. Woodward for his coming book, “Rage.”

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” the president told Mr. Woodward in audio recordings made available on The Washington Post website. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

But three days after those remarks, Mr. Trump told the Fox Business anchor Trish Regan: “We’re in very good shape. We have 11 cases. And most of them are getting better very rapidly. I think they will all be better.”

A little less than two weeks later, he told reporters on the South Lawn that “we have it very much under control in this country.” [NYT article]

September 2020 COVID 19

September 10: top regulators at the Food and Drug Administration issued an unusual statement promising to uphold the scientific integrity of their work and defend the agency’s independence.

In an opinion column published in USA Today, eight directors of the F.D.A.’s regulatory centers and offices warned that “if the agency’s credibility is lost because of real or perceived interference, people will not rely on the agency’s safety warnings.”

“We absolutely understand that the F.D.A., like other federal executive agencies, operates in a political environment,” they wrote. “That is a reality that we must navigate adeptly while maintaining our independence to ensure the best possible outcomes for public health.”

They added, “We and our career staff do the best by public health when we are the decision makers, arriving at those decisions based on our unbiased evaluation of the scientific evidence.” [NYT story]

September 2020 COVID 19

Temperature check have little value

September 13:  the practice of checking for fever in public spaces had become increasingly common, causing a surge in sales of infrared contact-free thermometers and body temperature scanners even as scientific evidence indicating that they are of little value has solidified.

While health officials had endorsed masks and social distancing as effective measures for curbing the spread of the virus, some experts  say that taking temperatures at entry points is a gesture that is unlikely to screen out many infected people and offered little more than an illusion of safety. [NYT article]

September 2020 COVID 19

925,373 COVID Deaths Worldwide

September 13: 28,989,073 case worldwide; 925,373 deaths worldwide

198,150 COVID Deaths USA

September 13:  6,679,023 cases in the USA; 198,150 deaths in the USA.

September 2020 COVID 19

Again At Odds

September 16: President Trump rejected the professional scientific conclusions of his own government about the prospects for a widely available coronavirus vaccine and the effectiveness of masks in curbing the spread of the virus as the death toll in the United States from the disease neared 200,000.

Trump publicly slapped down Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the president promised that a vaccine could be available in weeks and go “immediately” to the general public while diminishing the usefulness of masks despite evidence to the contrary.

Dr. Redfield had just told a Senate committee that a vaccine would not be widely available until the middle of next year and that masks were so vital in fighting the disease caused by the coronavirus, Covid-19, that they may even more important than a vaccine.

September 2020 COVID 19

945,782 COVID Deaths Worldwide

September 17: 30,070,457 case worldwide; 945,782 deaths worldwide

201,348 COVID Deaths USA

September 17:  6,828,301 cases in the USA; 201,348 deaths in the USA.

Unapproved post

September 17: The New York Times reported that a heavily criticized recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, The posted guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus.

It came at a time when public health experts were pushing for more testing rather than less, and administration officials told The Times that the document was a C.D.C. product and had been revised with input from the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield.

Officials told The Times this week that the Department of Health and Human Services did the rewriting and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process.

September 2020 COVID 19

September 22:  NPR reported that the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 200,000 — reaching what was once the upper limit of some estimates for the pandemic’s impact on Americans. Some experts  warned that the toll could nearly double again by the end of 2020.

“I hoped we would be in a better place by now,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It’s an enormous and tragic loss of life.”

COVID-19 became the second leading causes of death in the U.S. after heart disease.

945,782 COVID Deaths Worldwide

September 23: 31,828,741 case worldwide; 976,342 deaths worldwide

205,491 COVID Deaths USA

September 23:  7,098,291 cases in the USA; 205,491 deaths in the USA.

September 2020 COVID 19

White House Overrules CDC

September 30: the White House blocked a new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep cruise ships docked until mid-February, a step that would have displeased the politically powerful tourism industry in the crucial swing state of Florida.

The current “no sail” policy, which was originally put in place in April and later extended, was set to expire. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., had recommended the extension, worried that cruise ships could become viral hot spots, as they did at the beginning of the pandemic.

But at a meeting of the coronavirus task force on September 29, Dr. Redfield’s plan was overruled, according to a senior federal health official who was not authorized to comment and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The administration will instead allow the ships to sail after October. 31, the date the industry had already agreed to in its own, voluntary plan. [NYT article]

1,016,433 COVID Deaths Worldwide

September 30: 34,081,921 case worldwide; 1,016,433 deaths worldwide

211,475 COVID Deaths USA

September 30:  7,436,898 cases in the USA; 211,475 deaths in the USA.

September 2020 COVID 19

Previous and subsequent COVID-19 posts:

Peace Love Art and Activism

Woodstock Bill Chelf

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Woodstock Bill Chelf

 “We had one rehearsal and it really wasn’t enough. I didn’t think it would be a big deal anyway. I’m trying to remember if there’s been concerts before that with that many people, I don’t know if there had been.”

Featured image and above quote  is  from a brief  2019 WBKO News broadcast… https://www.wbko.com/content/news/Bowling-Green-man-remembers-playing-at-Woodstock-550437841.html

Bill Chelf played keyboards with Tim Hardin at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. It is interesting to me not because Hardin had a keyboardist, but because Hardin had six other people in his band besides himself. If you are familiar with Hardin’s work , you already know that it is beautifully simple and hardly needs accompaniment.

In any case, Bill Chelf, like most Woodstock performers has had an interesting path.

Woodstock Bill Chelf

Woodstock?

In the above referenced WBKO News broadcast, Chelf says that he didn’t realize how big the Fair would be. Like many covering the Woodstock event, the name and the place were confusing. There is a town in Ulster County, NY called Woodstock and it is the inspiration for the name of the Fair, but it took place in Bethel, NY.

Woodstock Bill Chelf

Kaleidoscopic Career

The  THIS Bill Chelf google site had this to say: With a kaleidoscopic career spanning over fifty years, he’s played churches to honky tonks.   Bill Chelf (THIS) played Woodstock (’69) and Carnegie Hall with singer/ songwriter Tim Hardin. Recording sessions in New York and Nashville  encompassed a wide cross section of bands and singers. An album,”Teachers”, was made with jazz giant James Moody. A year was spent playing with Charlie Daniels. A somewhat different venue included performing and recording with prominent New York poet Barry Wallenstein.

Ten years were spent in Bermuda’s major resort hotels. With the Ghandi Burgess Orchestra Bill backed internationally renowned entertainers such as Gordon McCrae, Helen O’Connell, Helen Forrest, Frieda Payne, Johnny Desmond, Don Cornell, Julius LaRosa, the Drifters and more. Lately, Bill has been at sea performing extensively with the Norwegian and Royal Carribbean Cruise Lines, singing and playing with showbands, as a single and also with his trio.

His quartet, Jazz & Jam On Whole Wheat, performed for over 13 years at Windows On The Cumberland in the historic Market Street District of Nashville,TN. In 1998 he joined Henry Cuesta and Barney Liddell of the Lawrence Welk Orchestra along with remaining members of the Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Harry James orchestras for a U.S. tour billed as “The Battle of the Big Bands”.

While living in Rochester, MN, Bill performed with the Diamonds, the Shirelles, the Turkey River All Stars, numerous jazz, blues and country bands and his own quartet. For two years running he was featured at the Great River Jazz Festival in LaCrosse,WI.  He played New Year’s Eve 2004 and also in 2005 with the Guy Lombardo Orchestra.

Bill studied at seven universities, including the Berklee School of Music and the  Boston Conservatory and has developed a comprehensive method of commercial music instruction for students interested in learning jazz, blues and pop piano.

Bill also produces THIS_hypnotic-ambient-space music.

His home is now Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Woodstock Bill Chelf

THIS

Woodstock Bill Chelf

Soundiron

Soundiron website:  added this:  An album,”The Teachers”, was made with jazz giant James Moody in New York. A year was spent playing with Charlie Daniels in Nashville. Ten years were spent in Bermuda’s major resort hotels, most notably with the Ghandi Burgess Orchestra. Lately, Bill has been at sea performing extensively with the Norwegian and Royal Carribbean Cruise Lines. Bill also produces THIS_hypnotic-ambient-space music. His work often includes Soundiron instruments. He has this to say about Emotional Piano, “this instrument sings_with it I can just relax, listen and play”. CD’s and MP3’s can be accessed from his website His home is now Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Woodstock Bill Chelf

Anyone?

If anyone has any additional information please comment and I’ll try to add it.

Thanks.

Woodstock Bill Chelf

 

Peace Love Art and Activism

Resting Miles Davis Beaten

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Resting Miles Davis Beaten

Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois and raised in East St Louis.

He became a jazz trumpeter, a bandleader, and a composer, and is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

In 1955 and 1957 he was voted Best Trumpeter in the Down Beat Readers’ Poll. 

He was nominated for 32 Grammy Awards and won 8, including a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Oh yea, he was an African American.

August 25, 1959

On August 17, 1959 Columbia Records had released his Kind of Blue album. Kind of Blue is regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis’s masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time.

A week later, on August 25, Davis had just finished a set recording an Armed Forces Day broadcast for Voice of America. at the famous Birdland  in New York City. He’d been with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane,  Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and Ray Barrett.

Around midnight and before the next set, he went outside to get a taxi for a friend and then had a cigarette.

A cop–white–came along and told Davis to move along.

Resting Miles Davis Beaten

“That’s my name up there“

From the boatagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com site:

“Move on, what for?” Davis asked. “I’m working downstairs. That’s my name up there, Miles Davis.”

The officer repeated his command, then decided to make an arrest when Davis gave him a hard stare. The cop claimed that Davis pulled away, then tried to grab his nightstick; Davis, who’d taken boxing lessons, said he was moving forward to cushion the force of any blow that might come.

One of three detectives passing by saw the cop falling forward, then rushed toward the musician, pounding him repeatedly on the head with his nightstick.

The beating occurred in a terrible moment in New York, when a deeply racist police force was bringing to the surface long-simmering anger among African-Americans. Not long before, the arrest of a drunken woman in Harlem had led to a riot that required the intervention of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson to quell.

This time, with more than 200 people yelling for the cops to stop beating Davis, the potential for trouble seemed just as great. Hauled down to the 54th Street precinct headquarters, the musician was, he said later, constantly provoked by cops, then booked for disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer. A doctor from St. Clare’s Hospital put five stitches in his scalp.

Resting Miles Davis Beaten

In His Own Words

From Davis’s autobiography:

I had just finished doing an Armed Forces Day broadcast, you know, Voice of America and all that bullshit. I had just walked this pretty white girl named Judy out to get a cab. She got in the cab, and I’m standing there in front of Birdland wringing wet because it’s a hot, steaming, muggy night in August.

This white policeman comes up to me and tells me to move on. I said, “Move on, for what? I’m working downstairs. That’s my name up there, Miles Davis,” and I pointed to my name on the marquee all up in lights.

He said, “I don’t care where you work, I said move on! If you don’t move on I’m going to arrest you.”

I just looked at his face real straight and hard, and I didn’t move. Then he said, “You’re under arrest!” He reached for his handcuffs, but he was stepping back…I kind of leaned in closer because I wasn’t going to give him no distance so he could hit me on the head…A crowd had gathered all of a sudden from out of nowhere, and this white detective runs in and BAM! hits me on the head. I never saw him coming. Blood was running down the khaki suit I had on.

Resting Miles Davis Beaten

Media view

The NY Times reported the following day:
Resting Miles Davis BeatenOn August 27 it reported:

It was more than a year later that justice was finally served:

Note well that Gerald Kilduff, the arresting officer, “may well have been guilty of misguided zeal and not a deliberate violations of law, in placing the defendant under arrest for disorderly conduct , a charge later dismissed in the Magistrate’s Court.”

That’s about all the “justice” a innocent black person could get.

Resting Miles Davis Beaten