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Not such a good a neighbor! 3M fails to deliver N95 masks to Twin City hospitals
While one of the local Twin Cities corporate media outlets, the Star Tribune, boasted about 3M’s efforts to ramp up production of N95 masks, the company did not explain why it did not deliver the desperately needed respirators to hospitals in the Twin Cities.
In fact, the Strib article mentions that the company flew masks to hot spots in Seattle and New York. So why didn’t the company, which according to the Strib is making N95 respirators at factories in Nebraska and South Dakota, send or sell any to Twin City hospitals?
The company is headquartered in the Twin Cities, so surely they were aware of the Minnesota Nurses Association’s drive to get PPE into area hospitals.
President Trump accused the company of selling their masks to other countries while overlooking the needs of the U.S., which was an unfair accusation. But what explains the company’s overlooking the needs of local hospitals in the middle of a pandemic?
Number of COVID-19 deaths surpassed 50,000
The CDC reported that as of this weekend, over 50,000 people have died from the disease and nearly one million have been infected in the U.S.
John Hopkins University estimated that COVID-19 has killed more than 195,000 people worldwide. And over 2.7 million people have been diagnosed with the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at the University.
The actual numbers are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, unreported cases, and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
In the U.S., the reported numbers are likely much higher for the same reasons. Many municipalities have reported a large upsurge in people dying at home and it is suspected that the large increase is due to people dying of COVID-19. But there is no way to know for sure because most of the dead have not tested for the coronavirus.
The president of the United States advocated injecting disinfectant to kill COVID-19 and some people took him seriously
Though President Donald Trump has labeled his suggestion that disinfectants could possibly cure COVID-19 as sarcasm, apparently a few gullible Americans took him seriously.
In the category of “you can’t make this up,” Trump suggested using ultraviolet light and disinfectant to battle COVID-19. He said at a press conference last week, “I see that disinfectant knocks it [COVID-19] out in a minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? You see in the lungs and does a tremendous number,…it sounds interesting to me.”
The look on the face of Dr. Deborah Birx a physician coordinating the White House response to the pandemic was absolutely priceless!
“Just don’t do that,” Jim Malley president of the International Ultraviolet Association said in a press interview. “You really have to rely on scientific experts. The comments were uninformed. A lot of information has been out there a long time on what disinfectants and UV light can do.”
U.S. citizens reportedly consider injecting disinfectant after Trumps suggestion
According to Fox News the Kentucky Poison Control Center receives 1,000 calls a day related to COVID-19 issues. Usually, the center gets around 150 calls a day. The Illinois Poison Center experienced an increase in calls and in New York City the poison control center reported 30 cases of exposure to Lysol bleach and other disinfectants.
In Maryland residents have dialed the Maryland Emergency Management Agency to ask about disinfectant use. There were so many calls that the agency was prompted to tweet, “This is a reminder that under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route.”
ABC News reported that Mike Ricci, the communications director for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, said the state “decided to take the step of posting the text alert after receiving more than 100 calls to our hotline.”
Black woman denied COVID-19 test/treatment at a hospital she worked for 31 years dies
Deborah Gatewood worked as a phlebotomist for at Beaumont Hospital in Farmington Hills, Michigan, a Detroit suburb for 31 years. And in the third week of March she developed a cough and a fever and was sent home after the hospital acknowledged she was likely showing signs of COVID-19 infection.
Gatewood’s daughter told the media that her mother tried to get help from the hospital where she had worked, but was turned away four times and simply told to rest. But her fever got higher and symptoms worsened. According to the daughter, she tried to get tested but was refused. She said on one of the visits her mom was given cough medicine.
The fever got higher and symptoms got worst. At the end of March, she collapsed and was rushed to the nearest hospital, Sinai Grace, where she spent her last days. Gatewood was 63.
Black businesses are struggling to get coronavirus relief loans; KB Brown print shop focus of magazine article
KB Brown who owns a small printing business located in North Minneapolis related his struggles with coronavirus relief funds in a recent article in Mother Jones magazine.
The article titled, “You’re Just Screwed”: Why Black-Owned Businesses Are Struggling to Get Coronavirus Relief Loans” sought to look at the efforts of Black small businesses to take advantage of loans offered as part of the coronavirus stimulus package.
The sub-headline which read, “An ugly history of inequality is compounding the economic crisis,” helped explain why Black small businesses have struggled.
The article reported that Brown went to Wells Fargo Bank to get information about what may be available to him, but Wells Fargo provided no helpful details, and he hasn’t applied for the financing.
“For a lot of the SBA stuff and other loans, you have to be bankable. So if you couldn’t get a loan from the bank before, you’re just screwed. And many of us are in that position,” said Brown.
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