Monthly Archives: September 2021

911, A Promised Land, Stephen Golub

Benicia Author Stephen Golub: From 9/11/01 to 9/11/21

From 9/11/01 to 9/11/21

By Stephen Golub, A Promised Land, September 11, 2021

2001: United Flight #93 terrorists’ attempted attack on the Capitol, foiled by heroic passengers acting together.
2021: Insurrectionists’ successful seizure of the Capitol, egged on by a demagogue tearing us apart.

2001: Terrorists from abroad, determined to destroy our way of life.
2021: Terrorists from here at home, determined to do the same thing.

2001: The day after the attacks, an empty sky, devoid of both planes and faith.
2021: A virtual sky, filled by vitriolic, disinformation-spewing social media.

2001: An attack driven not just by violent religious radicalism, but by the notion that the attackers’ faith, beliefs, people and tribe are better than others’.
2021: A cancerous, home-grown tribalism fueled by resentment of the racial, ethnic, political and geographic “other.”

2001: America united.
2021: America asunder.

2001: Freedom defined in terms of democracy, humanity, commonality.
2021: Freedom defined as Me First, Screw You.

2001: Decrying the sickness underlying the attacks.
2021: Suffering through both a literal plague and a sickness that prioritizes selfishness.

2001: We have met the enemy, and they’re half a world away.
2021: We have met the enemy, and they are some of us.

But let’s remember:

2001: An unprepared president not up to the job, who misled us into horrific misadventures abroad and an economic crash at home.
2021: A president, inevitably imperfect but defined by his humanity and wealth of experience, and easily overlooked recent and prospective victories such as the massive March 2021 American Rescue Plan, which among other things helped cut poverty nearly in half, with even better results for children.

More than the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2021. But for all our faults, America has always been about building and rebuilding a less imperfect union. True, sometimes it’s one step up and two steps back. But sometimes it’s something far better.

Even as we look back with sadness, even as we contemplate the state of play today with wariness, we can still look ahead with some semblance of grit and hope.

Stephen Golub, Benicia – A Promised Land: Politics. Policy. America as a Developing Country.

Benicia resident Stephen Golub offers excellent perspective on his blog, A Promised Land:  Politics. Policy. America as a Developing Country.

To access his other posts or subscribe, please go to his blog site, A Promised Land.

Benicia CA, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Solano County Health Department discloses over 500 previously unreported COVID hospitalizations

By Roger Straw, Friday, September 10, 2021 (With apologies for a mathematical error in hospitalizations, updated here on September 12)

Friday, September 10: Solano reports 4 dead and a massive increase in hospitalizations

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Four new deaths today, 2 age 50-64 and 2 age 65+.  Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic now at 280.

CASES: The County reported  221 new COVID cases in the last two days, 111 per day.

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION RATE: Over the last 7 days, Solano has seen 1,144 new cases, OVER 2½ TIMES the CDC’s population-based definition of a HIGH rate of transmission!  Based on Solano County population of 449,432, the CDC would rate us in “SUBSTANTIAL” transmission with 225 cases over the last 7 days.  Double that, or 450 cases in the last 7 days would rank us in “HIGH” transmission.  And we are at an astonishing 2,616 cases as of today!  [Reference: CDC’s level for “High Community Transmission”.]

YOUTH CASES: The percentage of Solano’s cases among our youth has increased very slowly over the course of the pandemic, starting below 6%, and only gradually reaching 12% in mid-April of 2021.  The percentage of youth cases has jumped a full 0.9% since mid-August.

ACTIVE CASES: Solano’s 838 ACTIVE cases is up from last Wednesday’s 813, and up alarmingly up from 212 on July 2, and in the range we experienced during the deadly surge last winter.

POSITIVE TEST RATE:  Our 7-day average percent positivity rate was 9.7% today, down from 11.7% on Wednesday.  COMPARE: today’s California rate is 2.9% and today’s U.S. rate is 10.0%.  [Source: Johns Hopkins]  WARNING: The Delta Variant is here in Solano County and spreading fast.  Time to mask up again – watch out and take care!

HOSPITALIZATIONS:

CURRENT hospitalizations were down today from 112 to 106 persons, but still in the range we saw during the winter surge.

ICU Bed Availability rose from Wednesday’s alarmingly low of 9% of ICU beds available to 17% today, back into the yellow danger zone.  Again, we are still in the range we saw during the winter surge.

Ventilator Availability was up today from 51% to 59%, but still in the range of last February’s winter surge.

TOTAL hospitalizations  Solano County’s TOTAL hospitalized over the course of the pandemic must be independently discovered in the County’s occasional update of hospitalizations by Age Group and by Race/Ethnicity.  The County SUBSTANTIALLY updated its Hospitalizations charts today, adding over 500 previously unreported hospitalizations (by age, or nearly 450 by race/ethnicity).  See below.  (NOTE CORRECTION – THE NUMBER OF NEW HOSPITALIZATIONS WAS NOT OVER 1,000 AS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED HERE.)  Interestingly, the race/ethnicity numbers don’t square with the age group numbers.

FACE MASKS… Good News in Benicia and Vallejo

GOOD NEWS!  Benicia City Council passed a citywide indoors mask mandate. The mandate went into effect immediately and includes everyone 4 years old and up when indoors in public places, even those of us who are vaccinated.  The mask resolution, press release, and a flyer now appear on the City website.

Benicia was the first Solano city to take action despite the County’s lack of strong guidance on masks.  Benicia was joined by Vallejo on August 31.  In the Bay Area, Solano County REMAINS the only holdout against even RECOMMENDING masks in public indoors spaces. 

COUNTY-WIDE MASK MANDATE?  The Solano County Board of Supervisors has agendized a consideration of a MASK MANDATE on Tuesday, September 14.  Good news??  Maybe not!  The description of the agenda item uses mandate language as follows: “Consider and provide direction regarding a Board Member request for the establishment of mandatory indoor face mask order for Solano County.”  BUT… County staff has offered a DRAFT resolution that merely “encourages” and “recommends” and doesn’t even use the words “mask” or “face covering” in the body of the resolution.  Your comments might be important before or during the Board’s Tuesday September 14 meeting.  For instructions on how to participate, see the Sept 14 Agenda.

Cases by City on Friday, September 10:
  • Benicia added 8 new cases today, a total of 1,362 cases since the outbreak began.  Benicia has seen 43 new cases over the last 7 days, over 1½ times the CDC’s definition of HIGH community transmission level based on Benicia population.  [Note that Solano County is also rated far above high transmission, and Solano’s 6 other cities are likely also individually experiencing high transmission.]
  • Dixon added 16 new cases today, total of 2,378 cases.
  • Fairfield added 41 new cases today, total of 11,529 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 6 new cases today, total of 539 cases.
  • Suisun City added 15 new cases today, total of 3,004 cases.
  • Vacaville added 73 new cases today, a total of 11,211 cases.
  • Vallejo added 62 new cases today, a total of 12,508 cases.
  • Unincorporated added 0 new cases today, a total of 134 cases (population figures not available).

Continue reading Solano County Health Department discloses over 500 previously unreported COVID hospitalizations →

Benicia CA, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant

Benicia still registering above CDC’s measure for HIGH TRANSMISSION of COVID-19

Data shows a dip in 7-day COVID case numbers in Benicia, but transmission level still HIGH

By Roger Straw, September 11, 2021

Over the last 7 days, the number of newly reported COVID infections in Benicia fell from an astonishingly high 105 to 43.  This is good news, but Benicia remains substantially over the CDC’s definition of a HIGH level of transmission.

Based on Benicia’s population of roughly 28,000, when Solano County reports 14 or more new Benicia cases over the last 7 days (the red line in the graph above), the CDC classifies us as having a level of “SUBSTANTIAL transmission.”  If we see 28 new cases over the last 7 days (the purple line) we are in an area of “HIGH transmission.” That’s where we were at the County’s most recent report on Friday, with 43 total new cases over the last 7 days.

Benicia entered into substantial transmission on July 12, and high transmission on July 23, with numbers increasing until last Wednesday, September 8.

The daily data is shown in the chart above and also in the table below.

Note that Solano County’s reporting is often tardy, based on tardy reporting from hospitals and the State.  So the massive rise in outbreaks we saw on September 1 could be off some.  But the CDC’s 7-day formula is helpful in mitigating the delays in reporting, similar to taking an average.  Our numbers continue to be at least in the Substantial range, and the numbers are clear evidence of Benicia’s continuing delta surge.

For more, see my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet).

>>The data on this page is from the Solano County COVID-19 Dashboard.  The Dashboard is full of much more information and updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 4 or 5pm.  On the County’s dashboard, you can hover a mouse or click on an item for more information.  Note the tabs at top for “Summary, Demographics” and “Vaccines.”  Click here to go to the most recent Solano County Dashboard.

Sources
Benicia CA, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Delta variant, Hospitalizations, Solano County CA, Solano County Health Department, Vaccine

Four dead in So-Lan-O

By Roger Straw, Friday, September 10, 2021
NOTE – This Friday BenIndy report is incomplete due to circumstances beyond my control.  Check back tomorrow, on Saturday, for a my usual in-depth analysis.  – Roger Straw

Friday, September 10: Solano reports 4 dead, 221 new infections and a massive increase in hospitalizations among all ages

Solano County COVID dashboard SUMMARY:
[Sources: see below.]

DEATHS: Four new deaths today, 2 age 50-64 and 2 age 65+.  Total Solano deaths over the course of the pandemic now at 280.

CASES: The County reported  221 new COVID cases in the last two days, 111 per day.

For more, see today’s data in my ARCHIVE of daily Solano COVID updates (an excel spreadsheet

Check back tomorrow for the usual more complete report.  But for now, I’ll just publish a poem I wrote the last time the County reported 4 new COVID deaths, on July 28, 2021.  Note that today’s 4 new deaths make a total of 31 Solano residents who have died of COVID in the 44 days since July 28….

Four Dead

An old old lyric
Anew now in my head,
‘Four dead in O-Hi-O…’
‘Four dead in O-Hi-O…’

The memory lingers from long ago,
Kent State killings
That stalked my college dorm
Like dragon breath
With mental sirens and communal alarms.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Still echo beyond that time,
The truth beneath the number four –
Death comes to families and friends
Unprepared for the brutal end of those we love.

And so now again,
‘Four dead’ –
Yes, Four dead in So-Lan-O
In Solano … our county count
Of newly demised, of COVID dead,
The rising toll over just the last two days.

Two of us of middle age
And two beyond those years,
Succumbed to the suffocation
Of the Delta Death,
News of import and deepening unrest,
Setting off sirens and private and public alarms.

Four dead today
In So-Lan-O.

Roger Straw
July 30, 2021

Continue reading Four dead in So-Lan-O →