25% Of US Restaurants Will Never Reopen: Opentable
A quarter of US restaurants will go out of business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a forecast by OpenTable, which reported that total restaurant reservations and walk-in customers have fallen 95% over the previous year ending May 13.
Susan Upton, 53, works on her computer at Mambo’s, her family restaurant, in Glendale Calif., on March 18, 2020. Mambo’s was forced to close after 32 years in the midst of the global pandemic. (Lucy Nicholson—Reuters)
The company tracks over 54,000 restaurants on its reservation site, which offers the ability to make online, walk-in, and phone reservations – but does not track data for take-out and deliveries, according to Bloomberg.
The company’s data shows that there are growing signs that patrons are willing to dine out again in states like Arizona and Texas where it’s allowed, though the numbers are still far below where they were last year.
Scottsdale showed the greatest improvement. It had zero reservations almost every day since March 21, but on May 13 this eased to a down 72% from reservations on the same day in 2019. The next most significant recoveries were in Houston and Phoenix. –Bloomberg
At the state-level, Florida showed the greatest statewide gain, with foot traffic only down 83% y/y after launching a phased reopening May 4 during which restaurants were allowed to operate at one-quarter capacity.
Indiana, which is now in phase two – allowing restaurants to operate at 50% of capacity – has come in second. The state is planning on a full reopening by the Fourth of July.
“Restaurants are complicated beasts,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of OpenTable parent company, Booking Holdings. “You have to order food and supplies. You have to make sure you’ve prepped the kitchen and service areas to be easily disinfected.”
According to Hafner, state unemployment benefits with the federal booster is one reason why restaurants have struggled to hire help. “A lot of people are making $1,200 a week doing nothing. That’s good pay.”
Meanwhile, restaurateur Danny Meyer – who shut down all of his 19 New York restaurants on March 13, says his dining rooms will stay closed for the foreseeable future, according to Bloomberg.
“We won’t be welcoming guests into our full-service restaurants for a very long time—probably not until there’s a vaccine,” he said, adding “There is no interest or excitement on my part to having a half-full dining room while everyone is getting their temperature taken and wearing masks, for not much money
“It’s very frustrating, but it’s the only safe way to go,” he added.
It’s a caution shared by fellow restaurateur Daniel Humm, who said he may not re-open Eleven Madison Park at all, and by David Chang who just announced the closing of his Chelsea restaurant Nishi and his Washington, DC, Momofuku location.
Meyer, in the meantime, is taking the first steps back into business by opening his café Daily Provisions for take out service as early as next week. The storefront, which is next to Union Square Café on East 19th St., was designed for grab-and-go coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and signature crullers. Initially, it will open for curbside pickup of breakfast items, with an expanded menu expected to follow. –Bloomberg
Meyer will likely open his Flatiron District pizza restaurant, Marta, for takeout – saying “We had been on the cusp of takeout at Daily Provisions, Marta, and Blue Smoke [the company’s barbecue spot] when we closed. It makes sense now.”
“I would think about anything that is safe and profitable. If it’s not safe, we won’t do it, we all lose,” he said, adding “Profitable matters, as well. The only way we can responsibly get back in the business of employing people is to not go out of business. It’s already incredibly hard to survive.”
“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” said President Donald Trump Monday, as he supported the opening of the U.S. economy before the shutdown plunges us into a deep and lasting depression.
Tuesday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, made clear to a Senate committee his contradictory views.
“If states reopen their economies too soon, there is a real risk that you may trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” said Fauci.
“My concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks of the disease (and) the inevitable return of infections.”
Fauci is talking of the real possibility of a second and even more severe wave of the pandemic this summer and fall, if we open too soon.
There is evidence to justify the fears of Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield of the Centers for Disease Control, who told the same Senate committee, “We are not out of the woods yet.”
Yet, there is a case to be made for the risks that Trump and red state governors are taking in opening up sooner.
The Washington Post daily graph of new deaths nationally has been showing a curve sloping downward for a month from April’s more than 2,000 a day. On no day yet this week did the U.S. record 2,000 dead from the virus. On some days, there were fewer than 1,000.
The graph for new coronavirus cases, which was showing more than 30,000 a day in April, is now closer to 25,000.
Also, hospitalizations and ICU occupancies are not as high as they were. Hospitals put up in Central Park and the Javits Center seem not to have been needed. There was and is no shortage of ventilators. The Navy hospital ships Comfort and Mercy are returning to their home ports.
Also, not all states are suffering equally, nor are all communities in the hardest-hit states. There have been three times as many COVID-19 cases in New Jersey as in Texas, though New Jersey is a fraction of the size and has a fraction of the population of Texas.
There are twice as many cases in Massachusetts as in Florida, the nation’s third-most populous state with one of its highest percentages of retirees and elderly. There have been five times as many cases in New York as in California.
It is the nursing homes filled with the elderly and ill that have proven to be the real killing fields of this virus.
According to The New York Times, one-third of all deaths from COVID-19 have come among residents and staff of nursing homes. Beyond these are the meatpacking plants and the prisons where social distancing is almost nonexistent.
Moreover, while Fauci and Redfield are specialists in epidemics, Trump’s portfolio goes far beyond that.
He is chief of state, head of government and commander in chief, responsible for the security and defense of the nation. His portfolio is broader and deeper than those of Fauci and Redfield.
In the first hours of the Normandy invasion, General Eisenhower must have been rightly alarmed about the high U.S. casualties on Omaha Beach. But he also had to concern himself with the failure to capture the Port of Caen to bring ashore the armor to stop any German counterattack that might turn D-Day into another Anzio.
Ike could not worry about casualties alone.
According to The Washington Post, economists already project that 100,000 small businesses have shuttered, never to reopen.
“(D)eeper and longer recessions can leave behind lasting damage to the productive capacity of the economy,” warned Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday.
“Avoidable household and business insolvencies can weigh on growth for years to come.”
Ultimately, Fauci is not “The Decider” here. Trump is.
It is he who is accountable to the nation for weighing the losses, both human and material, due to his decisions.
Fauci may be the best at what he does, but he is still only an adviser.
As John F. Kennedy said after the Bay of Pigs, it is the president who ultimately bears responsibility for what he does and fails to do, while “the advisers may move on to new advice.”
Believing he can do no more than his White House is now doing to contain the incidence of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Trump has decided his primary job is to prevent the nation from a catastrophic economic collapse from which it might take years to recover.
The country is slowly moving in Trump’s direction, slowly opening. And he will be responsible for whether the policy succeeds or opens the floodgates to a second and worse wave, should it come.
As Abraham Lincoln put his situation: “I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all right, then what is said against me won’t matter. If I’m wrong, ten angels swearing I was right won’t make a difference.”
Dr. Mikovits joined NIH in 1980 as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Molecular Virology at the National Cancer Institute and began a 20-year collaboration with Frank Ruscetti, a pioneer in the field of human retro virology. She helped Dr Russetti isolate the HIV virus and link it to #AIDS in 1983. Her NIH boss Anthony Fauci delayed publication of that critical paper for 6 months to let his protégé Robert Gallo replicate, publish and claim credit. The delay in mass HIV testing let AIDS further spread around the globe and helped Fauci win promotion to director NIAID.
In 2006, Dr Mikovits became director of Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease and collaborated with Dr Ruscetti searching for the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which suddenly became epidemic in the 1980s. The male dominated medical community dismissed CFS as psychosomatic “yuppie flu” caused when fragile females cracked in corporate jobs.
Dr. Mikovits discovered that 67% of affected women carried a virus—called Xenotropic Murine Leukemia related Virus—that appeared in healthy women only 4% of the time.
XMRV is also associated with prostate, breast, ovarian cancers, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. Many women with XMRV bore children with autism.
In 2009, Drs. Mikovits and Ruscetti published their explosive findings in the journal Science. But the question remained: how was XMRV getting into people?
Dr Fauci ordered Mikovits to keep her mouth shut. When she refused, he illegally confiscated her work books and hard drives, drove her from government work and blackballed her from receiving NIH grants ending her science career. XMRV remains in American vaccines.
Video Transcript
The Truth About Fauci, featuring Judy Mikovits, Joint PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, George Washington University; Postdoctoral Scholar in Molecular Virology National Cancer Institute; Research Director of Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease and target of Anthony Fauci—Twice.
In Washington DC Fauci’s tactics are an open secret. Intimidation. Bullying. And reckless disregard for the health and safety of the American people.
Dr. Judy Mikovits was one of the most skilled scientists of her generation. She had a 20-year collaboration with Frank Ruscetti, a pioneer in the field of human retro virology.
The first Fauci episode:
Mikovits: I took a job at the National Cancer Institute. I was under the direction of Frank Ruscetti. I isolated HIV from blood and saliva confirming Dr. Luc Montagnier’s earlier isolation and description of HIV as a possible causative agent of AIDS. I refused to do that because it’s unethical.
And then, Anthony Fauci intervened.
Mikovits: When Frank Ruscetti was out of town, I received a call from Dr. Fauci and he demanded that I give him our manuscript on the isolation and confirmation of HIV, while it was still in press. I refused to do that because it’s unethical. These manuscripts are confidential and only authors can give him a copy.
Dr. Mikovits’ standards of ethics and moral courage are unparalleled.
Mikovits: He threatened to fire me for insubordination but still I refused. It’s unethical.
Mikovits: When Frank Ruscetti returned a few weeks later, he gave the manuscript to Dr. Fauci, and Dr. Fauci purposely delayed the publication of our manuscript in order that his crony, Dr. Robert Gallo, could copy our work and submit a competing manuscript and get it into press before ours.
On May 4, 1984, Dr. Robert Gallo famously published a series of papers demonstrating that a retrovirus he’d isolated was the cause of AIDS.
Appropriating her work wasn’t the worst of it. This delayed the development of testing and spread the HIV epidemic through the world, killing millions.
Driven by greed and cronyism, Anthony Fauci—”America’s Doctor”—is directly responsible for the further spread of HIV throughout the world.
Rather than being punished for his actions, six months later he was appointed Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases–a position he still holds today.
The second Fauci episode:
Mikovits: In 2006 I co-founded and developed the first neuroimmune disease institute to study the cause and treatments of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome became epidemic in the 1980s. Doctors dismissed the ailment as psychosomatic “yuppie flu.” CFS primarily struck women. The medical community assumed they were physically and emotionally fragile and cracked under the pressure of corporate jobs.
Dr. Mikovits discovered that 67% of women affected with CFS carried a mouse virus–called XMRV– Xenotropic Murine Leukemia related Virus–that appeared in healthy women only 4% of the time. XMRV is also associated with cancers like prostate, breast, ovarian, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. Many women with XMRV go on to have children with autism.
In 2009, Drs. Mikovits and Ruscetti published their explosive findings in the journal Science. But the question remained: how was XMRV getting into people?
Mikovits: Then in 2011, our research strongly suggested that it entered the human virome through a contaminated blood supply and vaccines.
The dangers of mouse brain derived vaccines are now widely acknowledged.
“… mouse brain derived vaccine has been associated with serious allergic and neurologic adverse events.” –American Academy of Pediatrics
Mikovits: We recognized that this mouse retrovirus was causing an alarming national health crisis. That is if the blood supply and vaccines were heavily contaminated with mouse retroviruses of many strains.
As Dr. Mikovits and her team prepared to sound the alarm, Dr. Fauci used his power to silence her.
Mikovits: What Tony Fauci, Ian Lipkin and Harold Varmus did was pressure me to be silent and withdraw our manuscript. I refused again.
Anthony Fauci gave his own career and the vaccine program priority above the health and safety of all Americans.
Mikovits: When I refused to be silent, Dr. Fauci stepped in and ordered that my computers and notebooks be confiscated and orchestrated the retraction of our science paper.
Dr. Fauci abused his power and misused his office.
Mikovits: He then removed all of my funding and prevented me from getting a job in government research from 2012 forward.
Hundreds of millions of Americans may have received vaccines contaminated with XMRV.
While everyone’s been following the Fauci(rhymes with Grouchy)-Lieber-Wuhan virus plandemic narrative, something has been going on “up there” that’s worth noting. Indeed, part of me thinks that one objective of this whole plandemic exercise (Secretary of State Pompeio’s word, not mine) was to function as a gigantic distraction while “they” get other pieces in place. One of those “pieces” the Trump administration is trying to put into place are the so-called Artemis accords, which essentially would allow private interests to mine the Moon and keep as property whatever they recover there.
If your suspicion meter is already in the red zone with that one, then join the club, because mine is too, and it was also way beyond the red zone and into the purple zone for G.B., who shared this article, and also some very intriguing high octane speculations which I want to pass along to you:
As the title of the article makes clear, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Mr. Dmitry Rogozin, is comparing the effect of the Artemis accords to the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan:
Earlier in the week, reports emerged that the Trump administration is working on a new international pact under the name ‘Artemis Accords’, which will allegedly provide a framework under international law for companies to own the resources they extract from the moon.
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, lambasted alleged US plans on “moon mining” and creating “safety zones” on Earth’s only natural satellite, comparing the situation with the US presence in Iraq and saying that the “invasion method” remains the same. He described the method as creating a “coalition of volunteers” and “heading to the goal” no matter who may be against it.
The tweet reads: “The principle of invasion is the same, whether it be the Moon or Iraq: the creation of a “coalition of consonants” is initiated (as an option – a “coalition of willing”), and then, bypassing the UN and even NATO, if anyone doubts there, forward to the goal. However, it is only Iraq or Afghanistan that can come out of this”.
Mr. Rogozin’s observation is worth pondering, for like it or not, he may be “on” to something: the American invasions of those two countries were, as many regular readers of this blog are probably aware, were designed to accomplish a multitude of goals; the invasions functioned as bridgeheads not only in the war on terror, but also for coalitions of the participating governments and their “most favored corporations.” Some have made the case – in my opinion a strong one – that those invasions were principally for corporate enrichment, and that the war on terror was merely a narrative designed to sell the venture to the public. Add to this the drug trade tied to Afghanistan, the pipeline ventures tied to the region, and one has a powerful motivation for the establishment of such coalitions deliberately designed to create enough weight to bypass international law or major geopolitical players like Russia or China (considerably weaker as they were back then).
But there’s a hidden implication to Mr. Rogozin’s speculations, and it’s a very intriguing one to ponder, and this is where G.B.’s own high octane speculations come in. In drawing the analogy to Iraq and Afganistan, Mr. Rogozin is hardly unaware of the fact that the analogy breaks down between the Moon and those two countries. To be sure, all three are “desolate,” but the Moon, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, is uninhabited. There is no one there to protest any such corporate invasion…
…or, perhaps, that is Mr. Rogozin’s point: maybe there is someone there, or someone at least watching it in order to make sure the hairless monkeys on the parent planet don’t get too “uppity.” Normally, I’d dismiss such speculations as being too high octane even for this website, except there’s one thing hovering uneasily in the background, and it can hardly be coincidental: President Trump’s “Space Force.” I mention this because recently the “Space Force” began running recruitment videos, videos which emphasize an “off-planet career.” And let’s not forget the army general a few years ago who mentioned that the future soldier would have to fight “little green men.”
Now here’s where G.B.’s high octane speculation comes in, and I consider it important enough to pass along: Mr. Rogozin, he reasons, can hardly have selected his analogy of the “American method of invading” between the Moon, Iraq, and Afghanistan by accident. One of my own high octane speculations with respect to the invasion of Iraq in particular, was that a very hidden motivation for doing so was to physically occupy and plunder its archaeological sites. By “plunder” I don’t necessarily mean exclusively taking physical items and not returning them. I mean also taking measurements, photographing cuneiform tablets, and so on. We were told by Schrubb junior’s administration that the invasion was to deny Saddam Hussein the acquisition of “weapons of mass destruction,” and I advanced at the time in various interviews and in books that this was not, as many believe, a complete lie, but merely a lie covering a truth: the search was for weapons of mass destruction, but of the “ancient” kind as described in old Mesopotamian texts, not the modern atomic, biological, or chemical kind. To this end, I’ve speculated in various books that the Baghdad museum looting was perhaps a part of this operation, and Saddam himself certainly wasn’t helping matters by sponsoring archaeological digs all over the country, and letting it be known that he viewed himself as the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar. Whoever did rob the museum knew what they were doing and exactly what they were looking for, and I remain unconvinced to this day that (1) it was an American operation exclusively, and (2) that all of what was stolen was recovered and returned to Iraq (which is the public narrative). We know, for example, that some cuneiform tablets are simply missing, and other artifacts made their way into private collections (such as Hobby Lobby’s).
All this brings us to G.B.’s speculation: What if Rogozin, knowing all this, is really trying to warn people that under the cloak of “keeping whatever private corporations may recover on the Moon” includes archaeological artifacts, recovered under the cloak of, and during, normal mining operations.
After all, one way to make sure things stay secret, is to make them proprietary… and Space Force + private mining corporations + museum lootings do, as Rogozin points out, fit the “American pattern” of invasions.
In the midst of a crisis, big or small, you may find yourself feeling afraid of what’s next because things seem uncertain. What if rather than becoming wrapped in the fear of uncertainty, you use these moments as an opportunity to grow in love?
When events of global impact occur, you may feel confronted by the limitations of your control in the physical world. You may find yourself questioning your power or feeling uncertain about your future. The vacation trips you planned, conferences you scheduled, playdates/events you arranged—everything suddenly halts, and it is as if time itself has come to a sudden stop.
It is within this in-between state of things that is precisely the right time to turn inward and plant seeds with the lessons you’re learning. It’s a time to learn so much about what is important to you and who you might become.
A Lesson from Improv Comedy
In 2016, I was living in Washington, D.C., and effectively experiencing a quarter-life crisis while working at an environmentalist organization. I felt as if I let life fly by while being too afraid to chase my dream of being a professional artist and entertainer. My job sent me to a content marketing conference in Cleveland, Ohio, where I sat in on a session about creativity in business. In the session, a comedian explained to us the difference between someone who is incredible at improv and someone who struggles with it. He told us, “The comedian who is incredible at improv silences the fear in their mind.” Improv is all about stepping into the unknown with curiosity and enthusiasm; the game asks its players to agree to whatever is happening in the scene and to build on top of that.
The comedian who is great at improv has an idea and they bypass their fear of, “Will this be funny? Does this make sense?” They simply move into the idea on stage and perform their next action, whatever their comedic contribution is to the scene. A great improv comedian makes a choice to transform that moment of uncertainty into an opportunity to explore and create. A pro at improv answers the question of “What will happen next?” with a determination through humorous thought and action.
Moments in your life may sometimes feel like improv scenes because you share this world with others, almost like characters in a story, and you impact others but you don’t always know what’s coming next. I left that conference session with a lot of questions about the future of my career. The truth is, I had been afraid to ask myself, “What do you want?” There was a fear of failure and the uncertainty of success that made my heart pound. But there, in Cleveland, I found myself listening to the comedian daring me to be courageous.
3 Questions for Self-Transformation
In the session, I scribbled in my notebook as much as I could about the advice he gave us. When I got home, I meditated using lavender oil and cosmic music. I breathed naturally and closed my eyes. I asked myself, “What do I want? Who am I? Who do I want to become?” Images of a joyous me, a secure me, a me that is reassured about who she is and where she is in life—that’s what I saw before my eyes. I cried and asked myself aloud why I didn’t feel that way already—and I wrote it down. Then I began journaling regularly, “How do I feel right now? How do I want to feel a year from now? What experiences will create that feeling? What can I do right now?”
I followed the answers to these questions. They included things like wanting to feel at peace and whole, seeking experiences of community and support. I discovered that I needed to pour my love into the world if I wanted the world to pour love into me. I wrote poems to my loved ones, words of affirmation for the universe and myself, I took the time to listen to strangers. And while I quit my job and left D.C. without any certain idea about what would happen next, I still found myself in places filled with care and among people who received me with love as I made my way to living in California.
From Chaos to Peace
Now when I come across any defining moment in my life—a crisis, major transition, or advancement—I ask myself these same questions. I breathe. I visualize. I dream.
And it feels as if in an instant, the uneasiness of uncertainty dissipates. I return to my higher self, back to wholeness, and back to love. If you seek beauty, love, abundance, and peace, you will find it. Even in turmoil.
There is no doubt that suffering is happening as people seek appropriate healthcare, children are out of school, and people make ends meet to feed their families. There is also a great awakening happening inside of us. We are awakening our power of compassion, gratitude, and creation. Over the last month, air pollution in Los Angeles has cleared up, fashion designers have shifted their production from couture gowns to facemasks, and even certain CEOs have forfeited their salaries to make sure that their employees are supported.
In Portland, where housing costs have been trending upward for years, a landlord has elected not to collect rent from his tenants for the month of April. And in fact, when he discovered that one of his tenants was in need of food to feed her family, he surprised her with groceries on the front porch. In New York City, an advocacy group called Transportation Alternatives encourages people to donate unused bikes to essential workers. These are just a few of many stories that have emerged through this time of uncertainty.
It is easy to look at today’s circumstances and simply see what is lacking. But these people have seen the situation for what it is, and they visualized ways to contribute something meaningful, something that would make a difference. What they’re doing is something that you have the capability to do. You have the power to transform chaos into balance, it simply requires intention and practice.
The next time you become aware of uncertainty, ask yourself, “How can I help? How can I contribute? What gifts may I offer?” Watch what happens next. Soon you’ll find yourself creating ideas and giving support, feeling empowered. The uncertainty will dissipate, and a vision of love will arise in its place that will help you rediscover who you are meant to be.
ASTROLOGY FORECAST for MAY 2020 NO REST FOR THE WEARY
Recorded on April 30, 2020 in Redmond, WA ALWAYS: Thank you for sharing and reposting this video!
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It may seem as if the Great Pause has no end in sight. However, the message of the cosmos is clear as we enter a season of retrograde planets that remind us we still have work to do. Pluto turned retrograde on April 25. Saturn starts back pedaling on May 10, followed by Venus on May 12 and Jupiter on May 14. Meanwhile, the Sun, Mercury, and Uranus are working their way through plodding Taurus. Our motto could be, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Unfortunately, we are floating in a cloud of illusion and we’ve lost our way. We still don’t know what’s happening, even if we believe we have all the facts while a Venus-Neptune square holds for most of the month. Thankfully, we see glimpses of the truth when Mercury trines Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn on May 9-12, followed by the Sun doing the same on May 14-22.
The Scorpio Full Moon on May 7 reveals the complexity of even our simplest intentions. Although logical Mercury is conjunct the Sun, turning this lunation into a communication fest, it’s imaginative Neptune that steals the show. Falling into fantasies can be a trap yet using our dreams to conjure up the future is empowering. The Sun shifts into flighty Gemini on May 20, beginning the new astrological month. The Gemini New Moon on May 22 invites us to ritualize our intentions in writing or verbally. Again, Mercury’s involvement is crucial as it conjuncts Venus and squares Neptune. Once more, we are being reminded to use our mental faculties in order to work our way out of this crisis.
Nevertheless, the powerful retrograde undertow indicates a slow process of moving into the next phase. And this is where the weariness sets in. At first, the whole pandemic/shutdown was unbelievable. Then is was unavoidable. Now, it’s like Groundhog Day — an endless cycle of repetition. We are being forced to reconsider issues beyond “when will this be over?” We can either stay in an infinite loop as the global situation continues to deteriorate or we can come together as a global community, break the cycle, and change the outcome. We have our work cut out for ourselves. There will be time to rest later on, after the December Jupiter and Saturn conjunction in Aquarius. In the meantime, “Think cosmically and act locally.”
A counselor takes calls from the Montgomery County Hotline, including from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, from her home office in Chevy Chase, Maryland on March 18, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a spike in calls to mental health and suicide prevention hotlines. Katherine Frey / The Washington Post via Getty Images
The growing unemployment crisis, the stress of self-isolation and the fear of contracting the novel coronavirus are likely to lead to as many as 75,000 deaths due to drug or alcohol misuse and suicide, according to an analysis conducted by the national public health group Well Being Trust and reported on by CNN.
Not knowing when a sense of normalcy will return may lead to an increase in what the group calls “deaths of despair.” Federal agencies and experts warn that a crisis in mental health problems is on the horizon: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, according to The Washington Post.
“Unless we get comprehensive federal, state, and local resources behind improving access to high quality mental health treatments and community supports, I worry we’re likely to see things get far worse when it comes to substance misuse and suicide,” Well Being Trust’s chief strategy officer Dr. Benjamin F. Miller told CNN.
Miller emphasized that the numbers are just a projection and could easily change with a bit of intervention.
“We can change the numbers — the deaths have not happened yet. However, it is on us to take action now,” Miller said to CNN.
Already, communities across the country have seen an increase in overdoses. In Jacksonville, Florida, the fire and rescue department reported a 20 percent increase in overdose emergency calls in March. There were similar spikes in Columbus, Ohio and in at least four counties in New York State, according to ABC News.
“I think we need to consider the role that social isolation coupled with non-stop reporting on the pandemic may have on the feelings of desperation and hopelessness among those struggling with substance abuse,” U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York James Kennedy Jr. said in a statement, as ABC News reported. “Amidst the current crisis, we need to remember that substance abuse existed long before COVID-19, and it will likely remain long after we have wiped out the virus.”
Similar to the way hospitals were caught unprepared for a pandemic, the U.S. mental health system, which is underfunded, stigmatized and difficult to access, is less prepared to handle a mounting crisis.
“That’s what is keeping me up at night,” said Susan Borja, who leads the traumatic stress research program at the National Institute of Mental Health, to The Washington Post. “I worry about the people the system just won’t absorb or won’t reach. I worry about the suffering that’s going to go untreated on such a large scale.”
The Well Being Trust looked at the impact unemployment, isolation and uncertainty had in certain areas to create a detailed map of where it expects to see spikes in suicide and overdose-related deaths for the next decade. They used historical data to make their predictions, noting that overdoses and suicides increased in tandem with the unemployment rate during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, as CNN reported.
Well Being Trust predicts the most deaths per capita will occur in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, West Virginia, Rhode Island and Delaware, according to CNN.
The group said that federal, state and local authorities should try to find opportunity within the crisis. For instance, people could be hired for contact tracing. They also said that more leeway should be granted to telemedicine for mental health to increase access to services.
“This screams for an opportunity to examine what wasn’t working about mental health delivery prior to COVID and examine new strategies to create a new and more integrated approach to mental health post-COVID,” said Miller, as CNN reported.
More people are seeking help. Talkspace, an online therapy company, has seen a 65 percent increase in clients since mid-February.
“People are really afraid,” Talkspace co-founder and CEO Oren Frank said to The Washington Post. The increasing demand for services, he said, follows almost exactly the geographic march of the virus across the U.S. “What’s shocking to me is how little leaders are talking about this. There are no White House briefings about it. There is no plan.”
Well Being Trust believes the rising issue of mental health issues could be addressed and mitigated.
“The models we have created rely on the way it happened before. When our communities were faced with rising unemployment, social isolation and individual uncertainty the people suffered and that led to increased deaths of despair. It might be different,” they said in their report, according to CNN.
“By taking stock of the current crisis, predicting the potential loss of life, and creatively deploying local community solutions, it may be possible to prevent the impending deaths of despair. We should not sit idly by, waiting for 75,000 more deaths of despair.”
European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers are astonished to find the closest black hole from Earth. The researchers are saying if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you can observe this black hole with the naked eye at night. The reason one can so easily view it is that it is only a thousand light-years away from us!
Petr Hadrava is the co-author of the paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, which discusses this black hole. He is a scientist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague. He explains how the team was surprised to realize that they had found the first stellar system with a black hole that can be observed from Earth unaided.
This relatively dark black hole was rather difficult to spot for the scientists. Black holes are known to flare up when they feed on their companion stars’ matter, which reveals their location to the astronomers. But this particular one did not exhibit such behavior. So it had to be spotted only by tracking its gravitational effect on 2 nearby stars. ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile found this black hole with its 2.2-meter telescope.
The researchers were initially observing this HR 6819 system for its 2 very closely spaced stars. One of those stars was orbiting a black every 40 Earth days. So the researchers studied its trajectory to conclude that the black hole was quite big.
“An invisible object with a mass at least 4 times that of the Sun can only be a black hole,” Thomas Rivinius, lead author and ESO scientist, said in the statement.
The handful of black holes discovered in our Milky Way were all discovered with the help of the bright flashes of X-rays they gave away when they were interacting with their environment. But the way our closest black hole was discovered, by studying its gravitational effects, means there are many more such black holes we can now find with this method.
Astronomers are trailing another system LB-1 which they believe also has 3 bodies like the HR 6819. LB-1 is further from Earth than HR 6819 but still relatively close, said another co-author of the paper, Marianne Heida.
In 1847, a Native American , the equivalent of $5,000 today, to aid the Irish in the Great Famine. Now, more than 170 years later, Irish people are returning the favor by donating generously to the Navajo Nation in their time of crisis due to the coronavirus.
The Navajo Nation is an American Indian territory situated in north-eastern Arizona, south-eastern Utah and north-western New Mexico. The 2016 population estimate was 350,000.
“The heartache is real. We have lost so many of our sacred Navajo elders and youth to COVID-19. It is truly devastating. And a dark time in history for our Nation,” Vanessa Tulley, an organizer for the Navajo and Hopi family fundraiser, said.
Navajo Nation disproportionately hard hit
A lack of access to running water for almost a third of residents and crowded living conditions have contributed to the quick spread of the disease.
Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund organized by Ethel Branch
The Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation are extreme food deserts with only 13 … Ethel Branch needs your support for Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund
gofundme.com
There is also a disproportionately high number of high-risk people – elderly, diabetic, asthmatic, and cancer-afflicted.
To help with relief efforts, a GoFundMe page was created on behalf of the Rural Utah Project Education Fund on March 15.
The Irish open their hearts
And the funds have been pouring in, with total donations as of Sunday 10 May tallying over $3.4 million. A large portion of these donations have come from Ireland.
The Navajo Nation has more confirmed cases per capita of COVID-19 than 48 US states! Navajo has depleted all of her limited resources to battle. Funding to fight is now grassroots fundraising – help if you can: Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund https://www.gofundme.com/f/NHFC19Relief?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet …
The relationship started in the 1840s, when the Choctaw Nation raised $170 to give to Ireland during the Great Famine. This was after failed potato harvests has resulted in a quarter of the Irish population fleeing the country and the death of at least 1 million.
It has been reported that the Choctaw Nation heard about the famine from an Irish soldier who had been overseeing the forced displacement of Native Americans.
Donal Fallon, a broadcaster and historian from Dublin, said that the support which the Native Americans gave to Ireland had a “strong lasting imprint on the Irish collective memory. What is often overlooked about the Great Hunger is that it represents not only the great humanitarian crisis of the Victorian Age but also the greater humanitarian response.”
Dermot Burke, a donor, wrote on the GoFundMe page: “At Ireland’s time of need during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Native American people donated to the famine relief effort even though they themselves were still living in hardship. Their generosity will never be forgotten.”
The pursuit of truth requires the ability to see beyond the appearance of things to the meaning and substance behind the forms. In no field of study and research is this more essential than that of UFOlogy, a field beset by mystery, partial information, misinformation and deliberate disinformation. And, alas, in no field is there so great a deficiency of this very quality.
Take, for example, the present climate where every rumor, fantasy and observation is given a spin to fit into the preconceived framework of “alien” sinister designs and manipulations. From abductions, to animal “mutilations” to secret goings-on at US military bases, all are described in the “sinister aliens” mold. Their pervasive, if unspoken, status quo is to place all such events, real or imaginary, in the same dark and rather frightening shadows. To depart from this conventional wisdom, this unofficial party line, is to incur the derision of those self-appointed experts who, after all, know best.
It would appear that the UFO hysteria pendulum has swung full cycle: If the 1950s were the era of the gorgeous Venusians, space gods and saviors from the galactic federation, the past decade has brought us to the age of sinister “aliens” snatching mother and child alike from their bedrooms, harvesting cattle, cats, dogs and even fetuses for obviously nefarious purposes, and the collaboration of military fascists and “aliens” in a plan to dominate the Earth! For the most part, those who claim to be objective UFO “abduction” researchers, as well as UFO journalists and authors, have been swept up in this hysteria, this harvest of fear.
Even those who sincerely intend to “just describe the facts” are affected by the dominant milieu of fear, negativity and hysteria. Words such as victim, abducted, alien, mutilation, rape, sinister, disturbing, alarming, deception, controlling, manipulative, evil, and so on are accepted as automatic members of the UFO lexicon at once mandatory and unquestioned. There is an abundance of automatic interpretations and a real lack of deep analysis, which leaves us with nearly unquestioned – and unchallenged – conclusions, which are uniformly negative. Rather than objectively collecting facts, analyzing trends and making intelligent plans for future research and UFO-human interactions, there exists an increasingly powerful machine of hysteria bringing forth a harvest of fear. And facts which do not fit into this fear and negativity paradigm are either ignored or deliberately debunked as “alien” screen memories and deception.
The real victim in all this, of course: Truth.
Truth is hard to discern amid the din of hysteria and the clouds of fear currently holding sway over the UFO community. Events are prone to misinterpretation and even censure in this environment, and those facts which do survive intact are nonetheless presented with a patina of fear and paranoia. The danger in all of this is that we may perpetuate a trend which, while initially false, may create its own reality – and its own future conflicts. We must give serious thought and much reflection to this matter, for to do otherwise may result in serious and potentially catastrophic consequences for not only humanity as a whole, but for individual observers of the UFO phenomenon as well. Indeed, we do create our own reality, and we must contemplate deeply what reality may be.
Beyond those other sweeping if not abstract concerns, there is the more immediate and ethical question of what all of this hysteria is doing to the numerous innocent percipients of the UFO phenomenon. Aside from the fact that the trust is being continuously if not unintentionally distorted, those individuals who have had close interactions (a.k.a. “abductees” and “contactees”) with UFOs and their occupants are being forced, at times cruelly, to deny any positive or edifying aspects of their encounters, and are left to dwell only on the frightening and negative aspects of the experience. Is this common? Exceedingly so! We have interviewed several individuals who have stated that so called “abduction researchers” not only enforced a certain negative and fear-engendering interpretation of their experiences, but go further and actually “throw out” any aspects of the experience which do not fit this preconceived “fear paradigm”. That is, positive, loving, healing and edifying experiences with ET beings are either ignored or deemed screen memories which only constitute a further sinister deception by the ETs. Objectively, open – mindedness – and the truth – are cast away so that these experiences may be fit into a framework of preconceived (if unstated) negative conclusions. On the one hand these researchers will go to great lengths to establish the credibility and veracity of their subjects, only to turn around and ignore or actively debunk those aspects of the experience which do not fit the researchers’ own paradigm.
If we are to pick and choose among the facts of these cases, could we not just as well contend that the negative experiences are the “screen memories” triggered by the individual’s own internal fears and insecurities while the edifying and spiritual memories are the “true” ones? If we are to pick and choose among the facts, why not just take the happy alternative? Indeed, one alternative is just as dishonest and dangerous as the other, and both should be avoided. It is imperative that we accept – and report – all the facts, and then analyze their meaning in a calm and non-hysterical manner. With the information and experiences we collectively possess thus far, we can neither proclaim the ET beings to be sinister Darth Vader space conquerors, nor can we assert that they are perfect space gods. Our polarization on this question is one of the chief manifestations of a collective hysteria which is at once pervasive and unproductive. And the greatest task facing us is the elimination of this hysteria and the transcendence of our own fear.
From:
“Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications” by Steven M. Greer, MD
(NOTE: The whole issue of discerning truth in an environment with a strong agenda towards engendering fear is larger than just the question of Extraterrestrials. Take a look at the news today. Do your research!)
