You can tell by looking at the graph this new wave of Delta Variant is far worse than it's parent COVID-19.

COVID - 19 New York Times graph (click here)

Take a good look at all the inclines to the wave of the COVID-19 and it's variants. Which incline going up is steeper? Yes, that is correct, the current one. The winter of 2020 into 2021 has the steepest decline, but, the current Delta Variant spreads faster, infects the host, and rampages through the body faster damaging the ONLY SET OF LUNGS A PERSON HAS.

What is the latest census of people with COPD, asthma, and emphysema? It would be easy to track escalations in lung disease because the inhalers are being sold at a higher rate than before.

Then take a look at the demand for other medications, like heart disease medications, mental health medications, appointments for rehabilitation after hospitalizations. There are ways of deciding what the exact toll is of these viruses and whether there were adequate precautions by state governors.

With this graph alone there is reason to keep schools closed. Then add the nightmare scenario of IGNORANT parents and children that contract the viruses and there is even more reason to keep the children enrolled in distant learning and home. That is especially true for the children of minority parents. 

August 9, 2021
By Emily Anthes

Pilar Villarraga had spent much of the summer (click here) counting down the days until her daughter Sophia’s birthday. In early August, Sophia would turn 12 — and become officially eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine. “I didn’t want her to start school without the vaccine,” said Ms. Villarraga, who lives in Doral, Fla.

And then, in late July, just two weeks before the milestone birthday, Sophia caught the coronavirus. At first, she just had a fever, but on July 25, after four quiet days convalescing at home, her ribs began to hurt. The next day, Ms. Villarraga took her to the emergency room, where chest X-rays revealed that Sophia had developed pneumonia. She soon began coughing up blood.

Sophia was promptly admitted to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, in Miami. Her parents, and their friends, were in shock. “I didn’t think that kids could get that sick,” Ms. Villarraga said.

Why would anyone think that? Why would any rational adult in the USA think that children were not going to get violently ill and possibly die? It is all politics and the politics are deceiving Americans and making them and their children ill. BECAUSE if a parent, like Ms. Villarraga, doesn't think that children could get that sick from the killer viruses among us, then Ms. Villarraga is getting BAD INFORMATION from a source she trusts.

Amazing. After all the death in this country that is illustrated in the shortening longevity of Americans, people can't see the forest for the trees. Absolutely, Amazing.

130 children were admitted to hospitals across the entire country with the same problem, they were sick from deadly viruses. If that rate continues, which will probably increase after children return to school and winter sets in, but, 130 children hospitalized over a year is more than 45,000 children. Are there 45,000 pediatric intensive care beds in the USA on an annual basis? If there is not a census of pediatric intensive care beds in the USA to match the census of children, then the country needs to get busy building them.

Not only do pediatric intensive care beds need to be in line for this variant, but REHABILITATION beds for children exposed to these viruses will also be ultimate long haulers that need to be treated for their impairments and disability. The American people think there are too many special needs kids now, wait, you ain't seen nothing yet.

But Sophia was one of roughly 130 children with Covid-19 who were admitted to a U.S. hospital that day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number has been climbing since early July; from July 31 to Aug. 6, 216 children with Covid were being hospitalized every day, on average, nearly matching the 217 daily admissions during the pandemic’s peak in early January....

"Morning Papers" 

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

August 9, 2021

Justice Department (click here) says it intends to release some secret 9/11 files on Saudi Arabia....

"Good Night, Moon"

The new 

0.5 days old

0.3 percent lit

August 7, 2021
By Brian Lada

One of the best meteor showers (click here) of the year will unfold next week during arguably the best time of the year to enjoy a night gazing up toward the heavens. And this year's edition will be enhanced by the moon phase.

The night of Wednesday, Aug. 11, into the early morning hours of Thursday, Aug. 12, is the peak of the popular Perseid meteor shower. It is often touted as the best annual meteor shower, in part due to the weather.

“The Perseid meteor shower offers a consistently high rate of meteors every year and it occurs in August when the temperatures are usually nice enough for a night under the stars,” the American Meteor Society (AMS) explained on its website.

Only December’s Geminid meteor shower boasts more meteors per hour, but cloudy and cold weather often accompanies the peak of this event across North America....