Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Tallahassee, Sarasota: university dorms, distance)

[wondermint2]

Florida only state to not submit plan for COVID funds; US Department of Education wants to know why

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fl...why/ar-AAP7Ysc

The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran Monday asking why his agency hasn't submitted a plan for $7 billion in federal aid for local schools.

The state received the first two-thirds of the money, but failed to provide a plan by the June 1 deadline and also blew past July and August submission timelines after talking with state Department of Education staff. Upon approval of the plan, the state would receive the remaining $2.3 billion.

Florida the only state that hasn't filed a plan for that money.

Florida received $7 billion or two-thirds of its American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) allocation in March to be used to support student "health and safety, and address their social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," the letter said.

The state is spending the money, as demonstrated by a $177 million drawdown in ARP ESSER funds, but has not released money to the local school districts, federal officials said.

"Yet we have heard repeatedly from parents, teachers, and superintendents from school districts in Florida that FDOE has not yet awarded ARP ESSER funds to local educational agencies," Rosenblum said.

[wondermint2]

I think there's already enough population level immunity in Florida that this will not effect the downtrend. At least not anytime soon.

Number of Floridians getting vaccinated against COVID slows to a crawl

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nu...awl/ar-AAP3h54

The number of Floridians receiving coronavirus shots climbed more slowly in the past week than at any time since late December, an analysis of state data shows.

The state added just 85,026 more residents to Florida’s COVID-19 inoculation count in the past seven days, a Health Department report published Friday says. That’s the smallest increase since Dec. 28, the second week of statewide coronavirus immunization reporting.

[wondermint2]

On my previous post from today with the local CDC data - I forgot to post the link for my source. Here it is (you can enter any state and county to get Covid-19 information). This page updates daily usually by the afternoon or evening:

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra...sion_level|all

[wondermint2]

Florida with CDC update on Covid-19 deaths:

55,619 deaths, up 608 since Friday CDC data.

New high for pandemic: 401 deaths on 8/27
7-day moving average peak of 371 on 9/1

2,590 deaths per million, # 9 in nation, ahead of Arkansas.

Florida Tops New York In Total Covid-19 Deaths

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

As of Tuesday, Florida has recorded 55,619 deaths, compared with 55, 057 in New York, according to the New York Times’ coronavirus tracker.

Florida’s been steadily creeping up on New York in per capita deaths as well. We’re now No. 9 in the nation, at 259 deaths per 100,000 people; New York is No. 5, at 283 deaths per 100,000 people, a figure largely attributable to the state’s deadly mistakes at the start of the pandemic.

At the beginning of July, Florida had recorded about 38,000 COVID deaths, which means that between then and Oct. 1, more than 17,000 families lost loved ones.

New York? It had about 1,500 deaths during that same period.

[wondermint2]

Ellume recalls hundreds of thousands of home coronavirus test kits over false positive concerns

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

An Australia-based company is recalling hundreds of thousands of coronavirus tests after discovering some Ellume COVID-19 home tests deliver higher-than-anticipated false positive results.

Ellume became the first company to gain Food and Drug Administration authorization to sell consumers kits at major retailers such as Walmart, CVS, Target and Amazon. The kits don't require a prescription and deliver results in minutes.

But the company discovered false positive results at higher rates than the company's original clinical studies showed and "isolated the cause and confirmed that this incidence of false positives is limited to specific lots."

The company has recalled 43 lots shipped from April through August to retailers, distributors and the Department of Defense. Customers can check the lot number on the test's carton and check whether it is among the recalled lots listed at www.ellumecovidtest.com/return. Or customers can call 1-888-807-1501 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

[wondermint2]

FDA authorizes another COVID-19 at-home test

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Monday that it had issued an emergency use authorization for the ACON Laboratories Flowflex COVID-19 Home Test.

The over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 antigen test will be added to the growing list of tests that can be used at home without a prescription.

The agency said that the authorization is expected to double rapid at-home testing capacity over the next several weeks and that by the end of the year, ACON expects to produce more than 100 million tests per month and potentially 200 million tests per month by February 2022.

[wondermint2]

Angry protesters target School Board Chairwoman Shirley Brown's house

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...on/6001468001/

A crowd of roughly a dozen angry protesters stood outside of Sarasota County School Board Chairwoman Shirley Brown's house on Monday evening with a siren and bullhorns, calling her a "tyrant" and urging her to come out, according to photos and video of the event.

Pictures that Brown took from inside her house show roughly nine adults and six young children standing in the street in front of her house.

An unidentified man speaking into a bullhorn called for Brown to come outside and face them.

"We demand that you resign," the man said. "Let Shirley come out for our First Amendment redress of grievances. She is a tiny tyrant."

"I was concerned," Brown said. "When you’ve got somebody in a Proud Boys T-shirt, when you know these are the same ones who went to Washington (on Jan. 6)."

The protesters came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo addressing "violent threats against school officials."

Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Offices to meet with local law enforcement leaders across the country to address the trend of people threatening School Board members.

[wondermint2]

Today's Update From Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Today's COVID patients total: 74 (76 yesterday) (79 on Monday)
Includes 41 COVID patients cleared of infection but still hospitalized due to complications delaying recovery/discharge.

COVID patients in ICU today: 38 (no change from yesterday) (41 on Monday)
Includes 23 COVID patients cleared of infection but still hospitalized due to complications delaying recovery/discharge.

% Unvaccinated COVID patients in the hospital: 81%

7-Day SMH positivity rate: 2.5% (4.5% for week ending Oct. 1, 2021)

0 COVID deaths since yesterday (2 COVID deaths since Monday)

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update

[wiesenhauffer]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I hpe YouTube is cracking down on pro-vaxer mis-information too.

you can forget that given their track record of fomenting division through their leftist bent, which permeates all discussion and opinion LOL



people are hell bent to dramatize, politicize, criticize and promote their own agenda in the name of providing "true" information through repetition and fanaticism

[wondermint2]

It's still early but there are some signs suggesting that the new Merck Covid-19 drug doesn't work very good for "moderate" Covid -19. This would be contrary to the Merck press release/study that said monupiravir reduces hospitalization & death by 50% in "mild to moderate" Covid-19 cases. IMO it's going to be like Regeneron in that works better when used early.

Two Indian drugmakers seek to end trials of Merck's antiviral drug for moderate COVID-19

https://www.reuters.com/business/hea...ts-2021-10-08/

Two Indian drugmakers have requested permission to end their late-stage trials on Merck & Co's (MRK.N) experimental antiviral drug molnupiravir in moderate COVID-19 patients.

The two Indian drugmakers, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (ARBN.NS) and MSN Laboratories plan to continue late-stage trails of the drug for those with mild COVID-19, the Indian drug regulator's expert committee said on Friday.

The two companies separately sought permission to end trials in the case of moderate COVID-19 patients after having submitted interim clinical trial data around the effectiveness of the drug in treating this category of patients, the committee disclosed, throwing into question the efficacy of the experimental drug in improving outcomes for patients with moderate cases of COVID-19.

Separately, a senior source at India's drug regulator told Reuters that molnupiravir had shown no "significant efficacy" against moderate COVID-19 cases.

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'Entirely unsurprising': Merck slammed for 4,000% markup of taxpayer-funded COVID-19 drug

https://www.salon.com/2021/10/07/ent...ed-19_partner/

The New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Merck is facing accusations of price gouging after it charged the U.S. over $700 per patient for a taxpayer-funded coronavirus treatment that, according to research, costs just $17.74 to produce.

Last week, Merck announced plans to request emergency federal authorization for molnupiravir after a late-stage clinical trial showed that a five-day course of the antiviral drug cut the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or death in half in patients with mild-to-moderate cases.

The same day Merck unveiled the results of the trial and White House officials hailed the drug as another possible tool against COVID-19, the "New York Times" reported that "the federal government has placed advance orders for 1.7 million courses of treatment, at a price of about $700 per patient"—far more than the estimated cost of manufacturing the drug.