TTISB 18
Cold open: Means Morning News
- mmn clip 1: intro w title cards 5:13
welcome to ttisb on this brisk Sep 30 2021, we are your hosts, our pronouns are such and such. today we bring you mostly bad news. we’ll let sam continue:
COVID-19 Updates, Prisons Especially
- mmn clip 2: main segment 9:17
COVID-19 vaccine mandate: finally
– smn clip 1: 8ish min
(September 27 was) the deadline for health care workers to get first COVID-19 vaccine dose
(Twitter) Gov. Kathy Hochul is signing an executive order to allow her to deploy National Guard members, retired health care workers, recent grads, and those licensed in other states and countries to step in over the health care worker vaccine mandate.
“We are taking all the steps preemptively in anticipation of what I call a preventable staffing shortage,” said Governor Kathy Hochul who is signing an executive order that will allow her to deploy medically trained National Guard members, retired health care workers, recent grads, and those licensed in other states and countries to step in over the health care worker vaccine mandate.
She’s also working with the federal government to try to “expedite visa requests” for medical workers as well.
New York State Public Employees Federation President Wayne Spence says while he hopes the Governor’s plan is sufficient, he doesn’t think it will be. “I don’t think there’s enough people to go around to plug the holes because a lot of nurses have left New York State as of last year,” Spence said.
NY Dept of Health’s August 2020 report on nurse staffing
New York Declares State of Emergency as Vaccine Mandate Chaos Looms
The vaccination deadline for healthcare workers coincides with one for educators in New York City, which was set to require all school employees to have received at least one shot by Monday. A federal judge temporarily blocked the move, sending it to a three-judge Appeals Court panel to decide on an expedited basis.
Should it survive the legal challenge, those who do not receive a shot will be barred from entering school buildings and placed on unpaid leave for a year, though they will keep their health insurance.
Healthcare workers who are terminated on Monday won’t be eligible for unemployment insurance if they don’t have a medical exemption or doctor’s note, according to state Department of Labor guidance.
Both healthcare workers and teachers’ unions are engulfed in lawsuits challenging the vaccine mandates, with some believing the mandate infringes on their religious freedoms. A federal judge has blocked the mandate from affecting those seeking religious exemptions until at least Oct. 12. But for all others, the mandate is set to take effect Monday.
As tens of thousands of unvaccinated New York health-care workers [were] set to be fired on Monday[, Sep 27th,] once the state’s COVID-19 vaccination deadline kicks in, Gov. Kathy Hochul has a plan for a potential staffing shortage: a statewide state of emergency.
Hochul said preparations were underway Saturday to make an emergency declaration, clearing the way for health-care workers not licensed in New York to fill in the gaps of those terminated. The declaration will also allow workers from other countries, recent graduates, and retirees to practice in New York. In addition, the state may deploy “medically trained” National Guard troops, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
We are still in a battle against COVID to protect our loved ones, and we need to fight with every tool at our disposal. I commend all of the health care workers who have stepped up to get themselves vaccinated, and I urge all remaining health care workers who are unvaccinated to do so now so they can continue providing care.
— Kathy Hochul
State data shows that 84 percent of the state’s 450,000 hospital workers are vaccinated, along with 83 percent of its 145,400 nursing home workers. Even still, that means as many as 94,000 workers are unvaccinated, leaving a potentially dire shortfall in workers from Monday.
This means 17% of NY Healthcare workers have still refused vaccination! (as of sept 22)
Teachers, too
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in August that about 148,000 school employees would have to get at least a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination by Sept. 27. The policy covers teachers, along with other staffers, such as custodians and cafeteria workers.
With good reason!!
Three weeks. That’s how long we’ve been in school. Our school district lost it’s first elementary school student to Covid in three weeks.
There are people w/
-appendicitis who are losing parts of their gastrointestinal tracts to sepsis
-fractures who are losing their limbs
-cardiothoracic ailments who are losing their lives
bc they have to wait so long to get treated/there are no resources & staff to treat them
When I got Covid in 2020 and spent weeks in the hospital, it was harrowing. But it was nothing compared to what my family is dealing with now—also as a result of Covid.
This is a Covid horror story in which no one actually gets Covid, and it could still happen to anyone
…
And on a personal note, it may have been the cancer which took my grandmother earlier this year, but it was COVID which kept her from getting the care she needed to fight that cancer.
— Scott.
COVID-19 violence
I live near Branson, MO. The hospital there has issued panic buttons for all medical staff due to violence caused by patients and family when they’re told they have covid.
Attacking a healthcare worker in MO is a felony. Have them arrested, sue them in civil court for injuries! I’m in agreement if you don’t believe in Covid-19 and vaccines- stay home and have Dr Bubba from FB treat ya!
I’ve noticed a significant increase in the “code violet” (violent patient/visitor) at my hospital in the last few months. North Florida.
Sept. 22, 2021: Hospital staff receive panic button badges after rise in violent patients
After an increasing number of patients became violent at Cox Medical Center in Missouri staff members were given personal panic buttons. The buttons use a GPS tracking system so security can locate employees when they are in trouble. KYTV’s Madison Horner reports.
– video clip: Hospital staff receive panic button badges after rise in violent patients 1:44
Bitcoin fuel
This segment didn’t make it into the program, but here are our notes anyway.
(thrad of articles compiled by @_wHyZgUy, rearranged)
How Bitcoin Mining Keeps Old Fossil-Fuel Plants Alive, by Jessica McKenzie, 5/7/21
“It’s a gold rush!”
Bitcoin Miners Are Giving New Life to Old Fossil-Fuel Power Plants, Brian Spegele and Caitlinn Ostroff, 5/21/21
The lofty prices of cryptocurrencies have investors sinking money into electricity generation, risking a backlash.
Bitcoin miners align with fossil fuel firms, alarming environmentalists, by Olivia Solon, 9/25/21
“When people don’t see pollution, they don’t think it’s there,” one expert said.
Bitcoin mining company buys Pennsylvania power plant to meet electricity needs, By Jimmy Pezzone, 9/26/21
Ailing Pennsylvania powerplant becomes a crypto mining stronghold.
According to Stronghold, who advertises their organization as an “environmentally beneficial and vertically integrated Bitcoin miner,” the plant will burn Pennsylvania’s waste coal to power on-site mining hardware located in shipping containers next to the plant. Waste coal is the residual material left over following coal mining operations; it can be particularly harmful to the environment by leaching metals such as aluminum, iron, and manganese into the soil and surrounding water sources.
“The lake is so warm you feel like you’re in a hot tub,” said a woman who lives near a gas-fired New York plant that powers 8,000 computers mining bitcoins.
The facility on the shores of Seneca Lake is owned by the private equity firm Atlas Holdings and operated by Greenidge Generation LLC. They have increased the electrical power output at the gas-fired plant in the past year and a half and use much of the fossil-fuel energy not to keep the lights on in surrounding towns but for the energy-intensive “mining” of bitcoins.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency — a digital form of money with no actual bills or coins. “Mining” it, a way of earning it, requires massive high-performance computers. The computers earn small rewards of bitcoin by verifying transactions in the currency that occur on the internet around the world. The math required to verify the transactions and earn bitcoins gets more complex all the time and demands more and more computer power. At Greenidge, the computers operate 24/7, burning through an astounding amount of real energy, and producing real pollution, while collecting virtual currency.
An estimate from the University of Cambridge says global bitcoin miners use more energy in a year than Chile. When the energy comes from fossil fuels, the process can add significantly to carbon emissions. The Greenidge plant houses at least 8,000 computers and is looking to install more, meaning it will have to burn even more natural gas to produce more energy.
Private equity firms like Atlas buy companies, often using debt, and hope to sell them later at a profit. They are secretive operations with investments that can be hard to track. The number of such firms has grown significantly in recent years, and they oversee $5 trillion for pension funds, insurance companies, university endowments and wealthy people.
In the past 10 years, private equity firms have poured almost $2 trillion into energy investments, according to Preqin, a private equity database. About $1.2 trillion has gone into conventional energy investments, such as refineries, pipelines and fossil-fuel plants, compared to $732 billion in renewables like solar and wind power, Preqin said.
what this means for the climate
discuss
Afghanistan
Clips from CD238. No notes necessary.