🤶Dear Santa: Please, we need some Public Private Partnerships in ##Westchester for Christmas and the Covid Surge! Can you transfer some #privatesector elves to help @westchestergov provide free, accessible (by mass-transit and by drive through) rapid #PCR#testing Also, 1/6
🎅for stocking stuffers, how about enough seven-piece packages of rapid #antigen#testing for home use, available by mail or at local #health departments or local houses of worship or even by #reindeer for every #Westchester resident, free, upon request? Also, 2/6
🎅maybe Mrs. Claus can come on down to speed up our county health department to get #TestToStay rolling in our 40 #publicschool districts? It's been too much talk and no action. Finally, just want you to know, 3/6
🎅cookies will be on the mantel, carrots on the roof, and #HandSanitizer by the mailbox. Sincerely, Your #Vaxxed and #Boosted Friend" P.S. I know it's hard to #MaskUp with that big old beard of yours, but do it for the community. 4/6
Almost impossible to get a PCR test in #Westchester (or NYC) right now. This evening on FB, the County Executive, George Latimer, provided an update on the #COVID testing situation in Westchester County. See below for content: 1/12
"Update on #COVID#Testing & more…We’re all well aware of the long lines faced by those who want/need COVID testing. This post will update what is being done about it.Two things have worked to push more people to get tested:more infection exposures; #holidayseason#travel 2/12
The ability to satisfy this demand has been compromised by insufficient number of test kits, and staffing gaps in the health care field.We’ve seen an explosion in #COVID cases the last week - 2,000+ new cases in less than a week. A surge we haven’t seen in a year. 3/12
Regarding the #Hartsdale#TraderJoes specifically:
"In Hartsdale, New York, one Trader Joe’s employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and another has been diagnosed as a suspected case by their doctor, according to one current and former employee...
"....Erica Mildner worked at the #Hartsdale store until she quit March 20 after being sent home for asking to wear gloves, which previously were not explicitly permitted by the corporate office. [ #OSHA ] is now investigating her case.......
"....Mildner said she does not trust Trader Joe’s guidelines regarding whether a store is closed for a deep cleaning.
'We all know it takes a few days to feel symptoms, get access to a test, and then get the results of that test,' Mildner said....."
"And People Stayed Home" by Kathleen O'Meara (pen name Grace Ramsey) (1839 - 1888)
And people stayed home
and read books and listened
and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and stopped
and listened deeper
someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their shadow
and people began to think differently
and people healed
and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways,
dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
even the earth began to heal
Message from my friend @NeilPlotnick, a #teacher in Massachusetts (where staff had zero warning about the decision to close #schools for six weeks; he was unable to prepare any materials to give them) sent to his high school students, entitled #KeepADiary:
"The next few weeks are going to be something that you will remember for the rest of your lives. There will be a time in the years to come when your children and grandchildren will ask you questions......"
"....It may be important that you take some time to share your thoughts by writing them down. Clip some newspaper articles. Record some videos. Draw, paint and sketch.
You can look back at the memories in 10, 20 and more years from now...."