https://www.vanderburghsheriff.com/jail-recent-booking-records.aspx
APRIL 6, 2020 “IS IT TRUE”
We hope that today’s “IS IT TRUEâ€Â will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?
IS IT TRUE that 50% of things we worry about never happen?…that 30% of things we worry about isn’t important? Â …we should only worry about the 20% that directly affects us? Â …we predict starting this week we will be forced to focus on the things that directly affect us?
IS IT TRUE according to the United States Surgeon General starting this week you better get ready to experience a 911 and a Pearl Harbor event all wrapped up in one?
IS IT TRUE the population of the United States is 327 million people? …it’s been reported by extremely reliable sources that around 2 million people have been tested for the COVID-19 virus? Â …so far the people that tested positive are very alarming?
IS IT TRUE we are told that numerous people are really upset that the Mayor of Evansville and Vanderburgh County officials are allowing area public and private Golf Courses to stay open during a time like this?
IS IT TRUE that the Coronavirus pandemic is creating large amounts of anxiety in the minds of Americans all over the nation?…when times of anxiousness are not ended by time people will often drift from anxiety and into desperation and the paralysis of fear?…the common thing that causes anxiety, desperation and fear among people is uncertainty?…uncertainty can be blunted by leaders being transparent about the reality of what is expected when it is expected and what the plans are to do about it?…there are daily updates on the number of cases of coronavirus, the deaths and the number of new cases in a given day?…right now, the most valuable metric is to look at and study the new cases per day?…when that stops increasing for a week or so and starts down that is an indicator that there is light at the end of the tunnel with some idea of when we will get there?
IS IT TRUE the decisions on how we should attack the deadly COVID-19 virus should be determined by scientific research and evidence, not by self-serving politicians?
IS IT TRUE that every day, the Trump administration held a press conference to update the American people on what is going on with the coronavirus?…the inclusion of Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci in the mix has been an excellent learning opportunity?…these two people have presented significant information that has been instrumental in teaching the nation to shelter in place and showing the dramatic difference it makes?…we have states that were doing the wrong thing and they are paying the price in lives and commerce?…the graphs they show to teach us what to expect to a certain extent and even when the curve may really be flattened?…transparency is what is calming the nation and the few states where governors are doing daily updates?…this is something that should be happening in every significant city in the United States, including Evansville?
IS IT TRUE in other locations that are more transparent, people know what plans are being made for the months of April and May with respect to dealing with the projected overcapacity coming to our hospitals?…it is a well-known fact that some cities have created makeshift morgues to deal with the deaths caused by the COVID-19 virus?…makeshift morgues are being prepared in industrial kitchens that are closed, in cold storage facilities used for food, in refrigerator trucks, and in hockey rinks? …a lack of transparency concerning emergency actions promotes fear and anxiety, desperation and fear when transparency would assuage that fear?
IS IT TRUEÂ in Evansville, Indiana that transparency is the job of the Winnecke Administration and if there is one thing that Mayor Lloyd Winnecke excels at, it is talking?…the CCO would like to see Mayor Winnecke initiate some sort of a television question and answer news event where people of Evansville can learn exactly what are his plans to eventually lead us to a safe outcome in the upcoming serge of the deadly COVID-19 virus?…holding this question and answer event would be way more heroic than getting national attention for forgoing haircuts?…this is a chance for Mayor Winnecke to transition from his self-appointed role of a good news ambassador for Evansville to a more important role of a leader during a major health crisis?
IS IT TRUE when people get desperate they will do desperate things? …desperation can be caused by loss of employment, not able to pay your water bill, gas and electric bills, mobile phone bill, can’t pay your rent or mortgage payments, experiencing a medical issue, going through a divorce, can’t buy food or medicine, or can’t make your car payment?
IS IT TRUE we remember when people felt desperate back in the sixties? Â …many of those people rioted in most every major city in America which left death and destruction in their wake?
IS IT TRUE next time you vote for someone running for public office we highly recommend that you spend some quality time researching and analyzing them to determine if they have the skills to manage a public crisis? Â …it’s obvious that several elected officials are not managing the Coronavirus crisis very well because they are allowing the crisis to manage them?
IS IT TRUE we give five (5) cheers to TV Channels 14 and 44 for doing a phenomenal job covering the Coronavirus news?
IS IT TRUE we also give five (5) cheers to Channel 14 TV news anchor Jackie Monroe for doing an excellent job interviewing the President of Deaconess Hospital System, Dr. James Porter?
IS IT TRUE when the people fear the Government we have Tyranny! Â When the Government fears the people we have Liberty? Â
IS IT TRUE our “READERS POLLS†are non-scientific but trendy?
Today’s “Readers Poll†question is: How do you rate Mayor Winnecke’s performance preparing us for the COVID-19 so far?
Please take time and read our articles entitled “STATEHOUSE FILES, LAW ENFORCEMENT, “READERS POLLâ€, BIRTHDAYS, HOT JOBSâ€, EDUCATION, OBITUARIES and “LOCAL SPORTSâ€.
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Hospitals Face Severe Shortages Of Medical Gear, Confusing Guidance From Government
Government watchdog: Hospitals face severe shortages of medical gear, confusing guidance from government
An internal government report found that one hospital was so short of thermometers it could screen staff and patients for coronavirus only at random.
By Laura Strickler, Hannah Rappleye, Dan De Luce and Ken Dilanian
WASHINGTON — Hospitals across the country face dire shortages of vital medical equipment amid the coronavirus outbreak — including testing kits and thermometers — and fear they can’t ensure the safety of health care workers needed to treat patients with COVID-19, according to an internal government watchdog report released Monday.
The alarming findings, based on interviews conducted from March 23 to March 27, represent the first government assessment of how the country’s hospitals are coping with the outbreak and confirm previous media reports and warnings from health workers that the medical system is under unprecedented strain.
Hospital administrators also said conflicting guidance from federal, state and local governments on how to use personal protective gear and other issues has led to “a greater sense of confusion, fear and distrust among staff that they can rely on hospital procedures to protect them,” according to the report from the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
Equipment provided to hospitals from the federal government fell far short of what was needed and was sometimes not usable or of low quality, said the report, which was based on interviews with administrators from 324 hospitals and hospital networks of varying sizes.
According to the report, one hospital received two shipments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with protective gear that had expired in 2010. Another hospital system received 1,000 masks from federal and state governments, even though it expected a much larger delivery, and “500 of the masks were for children and therefore unusable for adult staff,” the report said. Elastic on N95 masks from one state government reserve had “dry-rotted” and could not be used, it said.
NBC News found its own examples of problems with the federal government’s emergency national stockpile similar to those detailed in the report.
State officials in Alabama, South Carolina and Pennsylvania said they had received expired medical supplies.
In Michigan, hospitals were surprised to have made orders with suppliers only to find that they were diverted to the national stockpile, according to Ruthanne Sudderth, senior vice president for the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. “Vendors have told us that they need to send whatever they have to the national stockpile,” Sudderth said.
‘Unable to take employee temperatures’
According to the inspector general’s report, hospitals told investigators that thermometers were in short supply, undermining hospitals’ ability to check temperatures of staff members and patients for indicators of the coronavirus.
One hospital resorted to screening patients, staff members and vendors at random because it did not have enough thermometers, according to the report. Another hospital with more than 700 staff members reported having one or two thermometers and therefore was “unable to take employee temperatures,” the report said.
Ann Maxwell, the assistant inspector general for HHS, said she was startled by what she heard from the hospital directors and the findings detailed in the report.
“It is unprecedented,” Maxwell said in an interview.
“I think one moment that stands out for me is when I was talking to a hospital administrator and he told me that he had staff in the hospital out trying to procure masks and gloves from auto part shops, from home supply stores, from beauty salons, from art supply stores,” Maxwell said.
“I was just taken aback.”
In that example, she said, “you could see both the desperation of the challenges they are facing and the ingenuity they were putting forward in trying to solve these problems so they could provide good patient care and save lives.”
Diagnostic testing kits to identify patients or staff members with the virus were also in short supply, according to the inspector general. Hospitals said they were struggling with “a severe shortage of test kits,” limiting their ability to monitor the health of patients and staff members, the report said. There were also problems with incomplete testing kits missing nasal swabs or reagents to detect the virus.
“Across the industry, millions are needed and we only have hundreds,” a hospital administrator was quoted as saying.
The shortage of testing kits was aggravated by delays in testing results, straining hospital resources and bed capacity as doctors waited for the results, the report said. One hospital reported test results’ taking as long as eight days, it said.
Hospitals said that presumptive patients waiting for test results took up bed capacity needed for other patients, according to the report, and that staff members were forced to use personal protective equipment, or PPE, as a precaution because of the slow pace of test results, wasting precious resources.
Hospitals said they were concerned that supplies of protective equipment would run out quickly if they faced a surge in patients. “One hospital administrator stated that before COVID-19, their medical center used around 200 masks per day and that they were now using 2,000 per day,” the report said.
One of the biggest challenges, hospital officials told the inspector general, was securing ventilators, given the machines’ necessity in treating COVID-19 patients. With the supply of standard ventilators uncertain, some hospitals reported jury-rigging other equipment — including anesthesia machines — to serve as makeshift ventilators. In other cases, ventilators were adapted to serve two patients instead of one.
Hospitals said they were concerned that supplies of protective equipment would run out quickly if they faced a surge in patients. “One hospital administrator stated that before COVID-19, their medical center used around 200 masks per day and that they were now using 2,000 per day,” the report said.
One of the biggest challenges, hospital officials told the inspector general, was securing ventilators, given the machines’ necessity in treating COVID-19 patients. With the supply of standard ventilators uncertain, some hospitals reported jury-rigging other equipment — including anesthesia machines — to serve as makeshift ventilators. In other cases, ventilators were adapted to serve two patients instead of one.
Because of shortages of medical supplies, hospitals were “using new, unvetted, and non-traditional sources for equipment, but were concerned about quality, price gouging and fraud,” it said.
Chaun Powell, vice president of preparedness for Premier, a group purchasing organization for hospitals, told NBC News that the federal government or another independent organization needed to help vet products sold to hospitals.
“Someone needs to say these have been tested and validated. They [sellers] request a material deposit on purchases frequently exceeding millions of dollars, and there is no current process for buyers to even know if the product that they are receiving is valid, fraudulent or faulty,” Powell said.
The disruption in the global medical supply chain and a spike in demand meant health care providers and various government agencies were competing for a limited pool of resources, the report said. “We are all trying to pull from the same small bucket,” said a hospital administrator cited in the report.
Apart from equipment shortages, hospital administrators also reported concerns about a lack of specialized health workers to meet the anticipated patient surge, including infectious disease specialists, respiratory therapists and doctors and nurses who can provide intensive and critical care.
“You can build thousands of ventilators, but you need an army to manage the equipment and care for those patients,” a hospital administrator said in the report.
Lack of clear guidance from government
Hospital directors said federal, state and local authorities had failed to provide clear guidance on the criteria for testing, on defining which nonemergency or elective medical procedures to delay or on supplies from the national stockpile and the use of personal protective gear.
Hospital chiefs also told the inspector general’s office that the federal government needed to offer advice on how to handle difficult ethical decisions about treating patients with limited resources and the potential legal liability for doctors.
“For example, one hospital administrator described concerns about the liability embedded in decisions regarding which patients would receive assistance from a ventilator and which would not,” the report said.
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The administrator told the inspector general: “Government needs to provide guidelines on ethics if health resources are limited and decisions need to be made about which patients to treat. Are physicians liable for their decisions if that happens?”
Hospital directors voiced concerns about staffing for medical centers that already operate with stretched workforces with little or no surplus manpower, according to the report, and administrators at rural hospitals with small staffs are particularly worried.
“One small, rural hospital explained that if one of its patients had tested positive for COVID-19 they would have had to put 16 staff members in quarantine, which the hospital said would essentially halt its operations,” the report said.
In a statement, an HHS spokesperson said: “HHS, alongside other federal agencies, has been working day and night to support local communities and take actions to help our healthcare system respond quickly and effectively. Secretary [Alex] Azar has already taken action on a recommendation in this report, requesting, among a series of proposals, that governors allow licensed healthcare providers to practice across state lines.”
“We appreciate valuable feedback from those on the frontlines of this pandemic, and we will continue to support [hospitals and other health care providers] in every way possible to defeat it.”
‘A world of hurt’
In the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 in West Africa, HHS required hospitals to submit preparedness plans for how they would handle the emergence of a serious infectious disease.
In a sign that the hospitals could not imagine the magnitude of what they are facing now, 86 percent of hospital administrators told the HHS inspector general in October 2018 that they felt “prepared” for an infectious disease outbreak. More than 90 percent had purchased additional supplies, including personal protective gear.
But hospital chiefs at the time said they were not focused as much on dealing with an emerging infectious disease because they were focused on the possibility of an active shooter or a natural disaster. One official noted the difficulty of “budgeting funds for the ‘what ifs’ when there is only so much money available and there are other priorities you know will happen.”
Another administrator told the inspector general in 2018, “We are prepared and have our processes in place, but if we were really hit with the large-scale influx of an [emerging infectious disease], we would be in a world of hurt.”
Gov. Beshear Implores All Kentuckians to Follow Guidance, Stay Home in COVID-19 Fight
Gov. Beshear Implores All Kentuckians to Follow Guidance, Stay Home in COVID-19 Fight
Crystal Staley or Sebastian Kitchen
FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 5, 2020) – Gov. Andy Beshear on Sunday said there will be a need to crack down on those who continue to ignore guidance and gather in public without practicing social distancing if people continue to risk the lives of fellow Kentuckians and spread the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
People can go out for groceries and supplies and, when practicing social distancing, for walks or other exercises in their neighborhood, but otherwise need to stay at home.
“You individually have more control during this crisis than probably ever before in our history,†Gov. Beshear said. “Your specific actions make a difference in how protected the population is. So remember, it is your patriotic duty as an American, your duty as a Kentuckian to stay healthy at home.â€
Gov. Beshear said he will likely announce further steps to reduce gathering this week.
“It really shouldn’t take this,†he said of the need to take further action because some are being irresponsible.
The Governor is asking all Kentuckians to continue to fight the spread of the virus by following his 10-step guidance, which includes practicing social distancing and staying healthy at home. Gov. Beshear says these efforts have the potential to save the lives of as many as 11,000 Kentuckians.
“Do not travel anywhere for any reason,†Gov. Beshear said.
The Governor said social distancing is the key to blunting a surge in cases and urged Kentuckians not to let their guards down, even during the nice weather.
Dr. Steven Stack, a commissioner for the Department for Public Health, said Kentucky’s increase in cases has been slower than almost all other states because Gov. Beshear took decisive action and most people are listening to the guidance and direction.
“Kentucky jumped on it, took quick action and our curve started to flatten,†Dr. Stack said.
Gov. Beshear said Saturday that Kentucky is adopting, on a voluntary basis, the new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending that people wear cloth masks in some situations.
The new CDC guidance on masks can be found here.
“Cloth masks do not eliminate the need for you to do all of the social distancing,†Dr. Stack said. He said, even with masks, people must remain six to 10 feet apart.
“That’s what’s going to help us,†Dr. Stack said. “The hand hygiene, the covering your cough and your sneeze, that’s what’s going to keep us healthy.â€
Testing update
“We have entered a new agreement that we’re pretty excited about. It’s with Gravity Diagnostics in northern Kentucky. That agreement will provide up to 2,000 tests a day that we will be able to use around the state. The goal is going to be to use those outside the golden triangle, which has U of L and UK and a number of other avenues to get quick testing,†Gov. Beshear said.
“I want to say thank you to Gravity, which has significantly increased their capacity and what they’re doing at a really rapid rate. They’re a Kentucky group and we’re proud of them. And we appreciate them putting us first.â€
Gov. Beshear also thanked Kentucky’s hospitals and the state Department for Public Health, including Commissioner Stack, who helped make this agreement come together.
National Guard
Gov. Beshear said 334 members of the Kentucky National Guard have been activated to help at hospitals and food banks.
“They’re doing everything from helping at hospitals to helping at our food banks, which need that help more now than ever. We will see more of our Guard being activated as we go,†he said.
Case information
As of 5 p.m. April 5, Gov. Beshear said there were at least 955 cases in Kentucky, 38 of which were newly confirmed. Of those cases, at least 306 patients have recovered.
“Let’s make sure we keep these numbers as low as possible. Let’s make sure we are all doing our part,†Gov. Beshear said.
Officials have confirmed that at least 18,767 people have been tested, but the Governor said that the real number of tests likely is larger as there is some lag in reporting from different labs.
There were five new deaths reported Sunday, raising the state’s toll to 45 deaths related to the virus.
Those include 80-, 66- and 54-year-old females from Jefferson County, an 85-year-old female from McLean, and an 80-year-old female from Shelby.
Read about other key updates from the week by visiting Gov. Beshear’s website, governor.ky.gov.
More information
Gov. Beshear has taken decisive action to protect all Kentuckians since the first case was confirmed in the commonwealth. To read the full list of actions Gov. Beshear has taken to limit the spread of the coronavirus, visit governor.ky.gov/covid19.
The CDC encourages people to follow these steps to prevent illness. Kentuckians who want advice can call the state hotline at 800-722-5725 or call their local health care provider. To read Gov. Beshear’s news releases and watch other news regarding COVID-19 visit governor.ky.gov.
Each day at 5 p.m. ET, Gov. Beshear holds briefings for Kentuckians that are streamed online at his Facebook and YouTube pages.
Gov. Beshear continues to urge Kentuckians to be cautious of rumors and depend on proven and good sources of news, including governor.ky.gov, kycovid19.ky.gov and the Governor’s official social media accounts Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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Detroit, Still Clawing Back From The Financial Crisis, Reels As Coronavirus Claims Lives
Detroit, Still Clawing Back From The Financial Crisis, Reels As Coronavirus Claims Lives
“It seems like one after another after another, and it’s just hitting close to home,” one city leader said.
By Erin Einhorn
DETROIT — The police officers, high school students and longtime residents who gathered for breakfast March 6 had a common purpose: improve their corner of the city.
Marlowe Stoudamire, a dynamic community leader and entrepreneur, led the discussion at the Police & Pancakes event on the city’s east side. He flashed a daunting list of challenges on a screen — unemployment, domestic violence, drugs, homelessness — then asked the roughly 100 participants to discuss solutions.
“We all agreed that we need to become more involved, more engaged, more vocal and to be supportive of one another,” said Willie Bell, an elected member of Detroit’s Board of Police Commissioners. “It was a very uplifting and positive forum.”
But as people around the country have painfully learned in the weeks since Stoudamire led that community discussion, the list of challenges he named was incomplete.
Not mentioned was the coronavirus that was likely lurking in the room that day. The virus would follow some of the police officers back to their precinct — at least three who attended later tested positive, the Detroit Free Press reported, and dozens were quarantined — and would ride with others that weekend to churches and restaurants and family gatherings.
The coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world but it has taken a particularly painful toll on Detroit, where the growing list of deaths includes some of its most prominent citizens: state Rep. Isaac Robinson, 44; Capt. Jonathan Parnell, 50, the police department’s homicide chief; and Dwight Jones, 73, a legendary high school basketball coach.
Also on that heartbreaking list is Stoudamire, 43, a champion of Detroit who was a father of two young children. He died March 24.
“It seems like one after another after another, and it’s just hitting close to home,” said Luther Keith, a former columnist and editor for the Detroit News who is now the executive director of ARISE Detroit!, a coalition of 400 churches, block clubs and community groups. “It seems like everybody knows somebody who died.
‘Here we go again’
Michigan has seen a swift and dramatic increase in coronavirus infections over the last week, with the number of confirmed cases and deaths now among the highest in the nation. Those cases have been heavily concentrated in Detroit and its suburbs, with the city recording 97 deaths as of Thursday.
Detroit has seen more deaths than even larger cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, and some Detroiters say the city’s history makes the crisis feel more personal — and its consequences more severe.
Detroit, rocked by job losses as the auto industry faltered, has seen roughly a third of its population leave in the last 20 years alone, continuing a population slide that began in 1950 when the thriving city had 1.8 million residents. Today, it has fewer than 700,000. Its public schools have been hobbled. Some of its neighborhoods have been hollowed out, replaced by overgrown fields and burned-out homes. In the years before the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history freed the city from some of its most crippling debts, much of Detroit’s 139 square miles were pitch black at night, its streetlights broken and dark. Emergency services were so strained that, for years, residents never knew if an ambulance would come when called.
The people who stayed in spite of all of that weren’t just those without the resources to leave, Keith said. People stayed because they had deep ties to their neighborhoods, their churches and their schools.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
“Detroit was the last on every list,” he said. “The worst city to live in, the highest crime rate, the highest poverty rate, the lowest education, but all of these people stayed here. They kept working. They kept raising their kids, educating them, trying to maintain their neighborhoods when no one else believed and no one else cared.”
That common experience forged ties across the city, he said, especially among African Americans, who comprise nearly 80 percent of the city’s population.
Many Detroiters have large interconnected networks built through families, churches and schools. So when someone dies, the impact can be felt across the city, Keith said. “It’s very personally jarring.”
The headlines about Detroit had finally begun telling a different story as the bankruptcy brought new money and attention to the city. There were new investments, especially downtown, blight remediation efforts and a newly empowered school board. Now, as the coronavirus has threatened public health, shut down businesses and put huge numbers of people out of work, Detroiters worry that progress could disappear.
“I did feel like we’d turned a corner,” said Al Elvin, who leads the Detroit chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest African American fraternity. “We were starting to get some restaurants and businesses sprouting up, and now here we go again with something like this.”
His fraternity has lost a number of members in Michigan, including Bassey Offiong, a 25-year-old college student who was about to graduate with a degree in chemical engineering. Elvin knows others who have died, are sick or have been hospitalized.
He worries especially about the city’s most vulnerable residents, those who hadn’t yet seen much benefit from the economic turnaround. Even before this crisis, a third of Detroiters were living in poverty.
“A lot of the Detroit community had not recovered from the last crisis before the next crisis is taking them,” said Jeffery Robinson, the principal of Detroit’s Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, an elementary and middle school that lost one of its staff members this week.
That staff member was Thomas Fields, 32, who had come back to Detroit after serving in the Navy, determined to help kids at the school he attended as a child, Robinson, who had been one of his teachers, said. “That he was a little boy I met when he was in the fifth grade is adding to the heartbreak.”With the state on lockdown and schools closed, Robinson, 51, can’t easily connect grief counselors with his young students as they cope with the loss. In his own life, he can’t visit his mother, who is in the hospital, fighting the virus, or his sister, who was just released from the hospital to make room for sicker patients.
And the thing that Detroiters have most relied on to get them through past difficulties — coming together as a community to support one another — is much more difficult now than it was before, he said.
Still, Robinson, who is also the pastor of a church on the city’s east side, remains hopeful that the crisis will draw more attention to the urgent needs of people in the city, such as children attending schools that he believes are grossly underfunded. With Michigan schools ordered to remain closed for the rest of the school year, many of those children are now struggling to get enough to eat, let alone keep up with their school work.
“I’m confident that on the other side of this crisis, there will be lessons and experiences that hopefully we learn from and we’ll be better people for it,” he said.
‘We are survivors’
As the number of infected Detroiters has climbed rapidly in recent days, President Donald Trump and national health leaders have flagged the city as a new center of the virus.
That triggered what the city’s mayor, Mike Duggan, called “disturbing” news reports that connected Detroit’s surge in infections to its high poverty rate, or suggested that Detroiters weren’t taking care of their health.
“There is no evidence that the coronavirus checks your bank account before it jumps to you,” he said, listing affluent cities that have been hit hard by the virus.
Public health leaders say lower-income people of color, like many residents of Detroit and of other cities seeing high rates of infections, such as New Orleans, are often disproportionately affected by health and social threats. In Michigan, African Americans comprise just 14 percent of the state’s population but accounted for 35 percent of coronavirus infections and 40 percent of deaths, according to data the state released for the first time on Thursday.
One day earlier, Duggan dismissed the notion that race or economics are the issue. Detroit has been hit hard because “somebody brought the virus into this community early on. It spread in this community before we knew it was happening.”
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Regardless of the reason, that spread has been swift, hitting many parts of the city and infecting city leaders, including City Council President Brenda Jones and police Chief James Craig.
Craig is just one of 106 police department employees who had tested positive for the virus as of Thursday, Duggan said. Another 524 officers and 123 civilian employees are quarantined because they’d had contact with someone who was infected or because they had a fever when they showed up to work.
That’s put roughly a fifth of the police department out of service. And while 911 calls are down significantly because most Detroiters are staying home, these few weeks have been trying for the department.
“We have multiple people that are doing doubles, sometimes three or four days in a row,” said a 911 dispatcher who asked not to be identified because she wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. “It’s mentally exhausting, physically exhausting. Sometimes we don’t get breaks. We don’t eat.”
A 38-year-old 911 operator was one of the first in the city to die from the virus March 23. His death rattled his colleagues, the dispatcher said, making an already stressful job even more so.
“We’re side by side answering the phones, so it’s like a battle in your mind,” she said. “Is this the day I’m going to start experiencing symptoms? Or is this going to be the last day I’m sitting next to this person?”
The police department has peer counselors who work with officers and employees who need support, said Bell, the elected police commissioner who attended the March 6 pancake breakfast.
The department has been hit hard, he said, but he’s been impressed by how well it has handled the crisis.
“We haven’t missed a beat in terms of responding” to calls, said Bell, who served on the Detroit police force for 32 years before retiring in 2003. “They’re deploying officers who don’t normally work patrol. They’ve made adjustments.”
Police are trained to respond to emergencies and will come through this one, he said, adding that the same is true of Detroit itself.
Detroiters “have a different fiber” compared to people from other cities, Bell said. “We are fighters. We are survivors and we have stood the test of time.”
CORRECTION (April 2, 2020, 6:05 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article stated that O’Neil D. Swanson died of the coronavirus. His cause of death has not been reported.
I’M OK; YOU’RE OK; STAY AWAY!
I’M OK; YOU’RE OK; STAY AWAY
Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine
When I was a child nobody hugged or kissed anybody unless they were sweethearts or perhaps, occasionally, mother and child. People felt no need to get closer than arms length and nobody breathed on anybody. Then along came bleeding heart liberals and day-time TV shows and voila! Hugging was de rigueur. Suddenly perfect strangers were greeting one another as if they were Romeo and Juliet. I say it’s time to return to those not so thrilling days of yesteryear. It is not like people did not love one another before the 1980’s. After all, the human specie has thrived for thousands of years without faux hugs and kisses and families used to have lots more kids. But no one thought less of you back then if you did not invade their space. Maybe social distancing is a recommendation we can live with. Thank you Tony Fauci!
Peg and I would appreciate it if the rest of the world, except for family and delivery drivers, would stay away for the next few months. Maybe by then we will have a vaccine for COVID-19. One caveat, it is important that computers continue to create funny money pursuant to an on-going Congressional Resolution so that we can receive our Social Security checks. In return, Peg and I will pledge to leave everyone else alone and not attend any public events. No one would be there anyway since the rest of the world will be in their basements watching such enlightening Netflix entertainments as Tiger King.
By the way, I just saw a report on cable news that they may make a movie about Joe Exotic and his big cat petting zoo and crazy conspiracy theories. As announced from prison, Joe wants Brad Pitt to play Joe in the movie. I bet Brad is proud. Actually Peg and I had never heard of the Tiger King until our erstwhile neighbors, Chuck and Bonnie Minnette of New Harmony, Indiana, called to ask us about it. I guess since we recently moved to Oklahoma and there’s hardly anyone out here, the neighbors thought we might know Joe; we do not!Â
Regardless, back to the column at hand. Other than cable TV, with the COVID-19 panic about the only social activity left to any of us is contemplation of conspiracy theories such as those of Joe Exotic. I know we Americans have always been able to find boogeymen, et al, everywhere from Salem, Massachusetts to Roswell, New Mexico. But our current situation of a total national shutdown has caused a paradigm shift in our public psyche.Â
If the news reports can be credited, some in the Communist Chinese government posited, and maybe actually believed, that the original outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China in December 2019 was deliberately started by American soldiers. Then some in America floated the idea the pandemic may have been a deliberate creation of the virus as a weapon by China or Iran.
Those two conspiracy theories are about as credible as the reasons given by railroad engineer Eduardo Moreno who, once again according to news media reports, on April 2, 2020 attempted to ram a ship by driving his train’s engine off the tracks to within a few hundred yards of the U.S. naval ship Mercy. The Mercy is a military hospital ship sent by our government to aid the residents of Los Angeles during the COVID-19 crisis. Moreno told the police he believed the ship was part of a government conspiracy to takeover America. I had no idea a train could even travel that far off its tracks. Anyway, I think Mr. Moreno has been watching too much cable TV news.
Then there are the gun rights advocates who see a business lockdown as a government attempt to take away our right to self-defense. Also, there are those Religious Right devotees who see a nefarious plot behind the urgent government push to find an inoculation for the Corona virus. Apparently their fear is that such ideas as espoused by Bill Gates to implant computer chips in people for health reasons is really a cover to allow universal monitoring and control of our lives.
Well, Gentle Reader, you may know of other conspiracy theories. Heck, you may have one or two of your own. I know I sure do. However, as for Peg and me and social distancing, as long as our Social Security checks and the delivery workers keep coming, we are okay with whatever theory floats your boat. That is as long as you keep six feet away and wear a mask. Don’t worry; we promise to neither hug nor kiss you.
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Indiana SNAP Recipients Will Begin Receiving Maximum Benefit Amounts Next Week
Indiana SNAP Recipients Will Begin Receiving Maximum Benefit Amounts Next Week
INDIANAPOLIS—The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced today that more than 152,000 Indiana households will receive additional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits when April distributions begin this Sunday. The additional funds are intended to help Hoosiers obtain food and support for their families while Indiana responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act gives states the option to provide SNAP households with the maximum SNAP allotment, which is based on household size. SNAP households that are not currently receiving the maximum allotment will receive additional benefits that bring their allotment amount to the maximum. Households already receiving the maximum benefit will not receive additional benefits.
Maximum amounts per household size are as follows:
| Number in SNAP household | Maximum benefit |
| 1 | $194 |
| 2 | $355 |
| 3 | $509 |
| 4 | $646 |
| 5 | $768 |
| 6 | $921 |
| 7 | $1,018 |
| 8 | $1,164 |
| Each additional person | Add $146 |
Indiana SNAP recipients receive their benefits via electronic benefit transfer according to a schedule based on the first letter of their last name. Each month, distribution starts on the 5th and concludes on the 23rd.
All new applications authorized in April will also receive the maximum allotment for their household size. FSSA is working to inform various partners and stakeholders, including retailers, of the change to help them inform and explain to SNAP recipients the reason for the additional allotment.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides food assistance to low and no income people and families living in the United States. It is a federal aid program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Distribution of benefits occurs at the state level. In February 2020, 559,600 Hoosiers from approximately 253,658 households across Indiana received SNAP benefits.