My brother was recently hospitalized for something or other. He and I live only a mile away from each other, but we never really see each other unless there is some sort of emergency. Well, his being hospitalized would definitely constitute an emergency and thus it required that I go see him. He was under observation, and I figured a leisurely visit was in order. When I got to the local hospital—you know which one I am talking about, I mean, there is only one—the security would not let me go see him. They wanted me to show them my vaccine card. I can understand their requirement to wear a mask, just to be safe. I saw all of their medical staff wearing masks, even though most of them were wearing them on their chins like a beard, instead of covering their noses and mouths. That showed me how seriously they took this requirement. But a vaccine card! I didn’t know we were still doing this [s-word].

Needless to say, I don’t have a vaccine card, because I have not been vaccinated for COVID. “My body, my choice”—hehehe—as I repurposed that slogan. I was very disappointed, and I didn’t want to leave without saying something. I said, “You know, these vaccines don’t even work.” The collective gasp from all those within earshot must have been heard all around the world. A hushed silence blanketed the area around me. It was so thick one could cut it with a knife. People turned around to take a look at this infidel, who dared challenge the status quo.

One young intern, or something, took the bait and engaged me. He said, “Yes, they do work. They save lives.” I was ready. I replied, “If they do work, then why are we on the ninety-seventh booster shot. I mean, vaccine is supposed to be taken only once and our immune system remembers the information about the invader and fights it off on next infection. Why are we taking booster after booster after booster, which may not even boost anything, and for all we know, may very well even be a new vaccine? We are basically guinea pigs for these pharmaceutical companies, and they will keep boosting us until the judgement day.” Young intern then retorted, “Well, you need booster shots because vaccines lose their efficacy after a few months.” I continued my attack, “They lose their efficacy because they are not real vaccines. They are fake. I had my childhood vaccines, now those are real vaccines, and after one thousand and one years, they are still working, and keeping me safe.

There was no response from anyone. The young intern was busy in thought. I then delivered the final blow, “Why is it, that CDC data shows that COVID is no longer the pandemic of the unvaccinated? Why are more vaccinated people dying from it than unvaccinated?” Someone tried to answer, “Well, more people are now vaccinated. That’s why more deaths are attributed to vaccinated people.” I replied, “That means, statistically, vaccines have no effect. Go back to your basic math.” A senior doctor knew how to shut me up. He signaled the security personnel, and they threw me out of the hospital.

Two things were for sure: One, I needed a vaccine card to see my brother, and two, I did not want to be vaccinated. The only alternative I had was to get a fake vaccine card. As we all know, the Internet provides anything we need, so I found a lot of suppliers that would provide me

with an “authentic” card. Just to be ironic, I picked one from Wuhan. My card was here within days, and it looked pretty good to me. I didn’t have to Photoshop any logos or signatures, or find matching paper, or to have my printer friend print me an exact replica. It was ready to go the minute I received it.

I was ready to visit my brother in the hospital and this time, nothing and no one would stop me. It turned out, they had shifted him to a hospital in Temecula. I arrived at this hospital fully prepared. The security team greeted me, and one of them said, “Can we please….” I reached into my pocket and grabbed the vaccine card before he even finished his sentence. As I extended my arm to hand it to him, he finished his sentence, “…see an ID.” I was confused. “Wait, what?! Don’t you want to see my vaccine card?” He smiled at me and said, “Oh, no. That’s not necessary. We don’t require that.” He didn’t even have a mask on.

As you can see, I was justifiably flabbergasted. As I made my way to the room where my brother was, I couldn’t help but feel upset that I was never going to get those ten dollars (plus shipping) back that I had spent, that I didn’t need to spend. I mean, my brother is okay. They did some procedure on him and got everything straightened out. But who cares?! He didn’t have to go through all that hassle that I had to go through.

• DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Tuesday restated their recommendation that Americans wear masks on planes, trains and buses, despite a court ruling last month that struck down a national mask mandate on public transportation.

Americans age 2 and older should wear a well-fitting masks while on public transportation, including in airports and train stations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended, citing the current spread of coronavirus and projections of future COVID-19 trends.

For months, the Transportation Security Administration had been enforcing a requirement that passengers and workers wear masks.

The government had repeatedly extended the mandate, and the latest one had been set to expire May 3. But a federal judge in Florida struck down the rule on April 18. The same day, the TSA said it would no longer enforce the mandate.

The CDC asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision, which the department did. On Tuesday, CDC officials declined to comment on the status of the appeal. DOJ officials did not immediately respond to a request for information.

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The quickly approaching fall semester has America’s colleges under pressure to decide how far they should go to guard their campuses against COVID-19 while navigating legal and political questions and rising infection rates.

Hundreds of colleges nationwide have told students in recent months they must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before classes begin.

California State University, the country’s largest four-year public university system, joined the list last week, along with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Their announcements cited concerns about the highly contagious delta variant and came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated mask guidelines based on new research regarding its spread.

CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro called case surges linked to the variant an “alarming new factor that we must consider as we look to maintain the health and well-being of students, employees and visitors.”

Yet many more colleges have held off on vaccine mandates in a reflection of the limits school leaders face in adopting safety requirements for in-person classes.

In many Republican-led states, governments have banned vaccine mandates, or school leaders face political pressure to limit their anti-virus actions even among students who live in packed residence halls. Opponents say the requirements tread on personal freedoms.

Some campuses have sidestepped pushback by instead offering enticements, such as prize drawings for free tuition and computers, as they seek to boost student vaccination rates to 80% or higher.

And a few have gone against the grain of their GOP-led states, such as Nova Southeastern in Florida requiring employees to get the shots and Nebraska Wesleyan mandating vaccinations for its 2,000 students.

Private colleges like these have more legal leeway regarding coronavirus rules, experts say. Prominent private universities mandating student vaccinations include Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Duke and Stanford.

University of California law professor Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, who writes and teaches about vaccine law, said the biggest legal gray area is whether colleges can require the COVID-19 vaccines while they remain under federal emergency use status.

Courts will likely allow university leaders to take such steps to protect student health, but many colleges can’t avoid the reality of states taking a stance against vaccine mandates, Reiss said.

“Especially a state university, going against the prevailing political view is probably going to be short-lived,” Reiss said.

Coronavirus politics have been a complicating factor for the vast majority of campuses without vaccine requirements, said Dr. Michael Huey, interim CEO of the American College Health Association, which in April recommended vaccination mandates for all students taking on-campus classes.

“If you set up a situation where you can’t require vaccination, you can’t ask about vaccine status and you can’t have required testing or mitigation strategies, like masking, it can’t be safe,” said Huey, former executive director of student health services at Emory University in Atlanta.

Indiana University has so far prevailed against a court challenge to its student vaccine requirement, which school officials say is a “clear path forward” to removing limits on in-person classes, sporting events and social activities.

Noah Hamilton, who’ll be a sophomore at Indiana’s main campus in Bloomington this fall, said he had anxiety about getting the shots and likely wouldn’t have done so without the requirement.

“But I don’t want to be stuck doing 100 percent online,” Hamilton said. “I want to be back on campus and actually trying to have a normal college experience.”

Among the some 4,000 college campuses across the country, more than 600 have imposed a vaccine mandate, according to tracking by the Chronicle of Higher Education. But their requirements vary.

The University of Washington and the University of Maryland, for example, are among the public schools mandating shots for both students and employees. The University of Connecticut and the University of Maryland require the doses for students but not faculty or staff.

In some cases, union contracts or state laws prevent schools from requiring staff member vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the University of California and California State University — California’s two major state systems, with more than 750,000 total students — initially were holding off on inoculation requirements until at least one COVID-19 vaccine had full Food and Drug Administration approval. But both have now mandated shots for students and employees.

Religious and medical exemptions from vaccine requirements are commonly offered, although the universities are generally making those students undergo frequent COVID-19 testing and wear masks in public areas.

Opponents of student vaccine requirements have gone to federal court challenging mandates issued by Indiana University, the University of Connecticut and the California State system.

In the first ruling among those cases, a judge last month rejected arguments from eight students that Indiana University’s requirement violated their constitutional rights to “bodily autonomy” by forcing them to receive unwanted medical treatment.

A court in Chicago also denied an appeal from their attorney, James Bopp, who’s been prominent in many conservative political causes. Bopp works with the group America’s Frontline Doctors, which criticizes the COVID-19 vaccine and has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments.

Bopp said hundreds of people across the country have contacted him wanting to challenge vaccine mandates. He argues the students he represents, primarily young adults, are at low risk of severe COVID-19 illnesses while facing possible dangers from the vaccine being administered under federal emergency use authorization.

“Why are they being targeted for a vaccine that older people aren’t required to take even though their risk is enormously greater?” he said.

Indiana University says nearly 85% of its students have reported receiving at least one dose. Purdue University, Indiana’s other Big Ten school, isn’t requiring vaccinations but is telling students who don’t submit documentation that they could face weekly COVID-19 tests.

Purdue, which says at least 60% of students are vaccinated, tried to entice students to get the shots with 10 prize drawings for a full year’s tuition.

Many other schools are offering similar incentives, such as the University of Wisconsin’s regional campuses giving away 70 $7,000 scholarships to vaccinated students at sites with at least 70% vaccination rates. Missouri State has a $150,000 program with prizes that include free tuition, meal plans and computers.

Face masks won’t fade away as much as hoped on campuses this fall, either. Purdue and the University of South Carolina were among those in the past week to announce a return to required masks following the new CDC guidance that fully vaccinated people wear them indoors if they live in areas with high virus transmission rates.

Rachel “Rae” Applegate, an incoming Notre Dame freshman, was vaccinated this summer with her 16-year-old sister and said she was hesitant because the vaccines are so new. She also feared a greater risk of COVID-19 exposure on campus than at home in Evansville, Indiana.

“I can understand people’s concerns about not wanting to be told what to do, but to me, this (getting vaccinated) just makes sense,” Applegate said. “When we’re all together on a campus like this … and with the variants and everything else, it’s like, don’t we all want to be as safe as possible?”

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney World in Florida is making it easier to see smiles again, but guests still can’t hug the characters.

Starting Tuesday, face masks will be optional for visitors to the theme park resort who are vaccinated, though Disney workers won’t require proof of vaccination, the company said on its website.

Visitors who aren’t fully vaccinated still will need to wear face masks indoors and on all rides and attractions. Because vaccines aren’t yet available for children under age 12, they too will have to mask up still.

All visitors, whether vaccinated or not, will still be required to wear face coverings on buses, monorails and Disney Skyliner, the resort’s aerial gondola, according to the latest guidelines.

The decision on masks is Disney World‘s latest tweak to the virus-related safety rules it created when the coronavirus pandemic was declared in March 2020. Disney World closed for two months last year at the start of the outbreak and reopened last summer with strict safety guidelines that involved masking, social distancing and crowd limits.

Last month, Disney officials started allowing visitors to go without masks outdoors. Disney officials said they expect to ease up on physical distancing guidelines in the near future.

“It’s important to remember that some experiences and entertainment may still be operating with limited capacity or may remain temporarily unavailable,” the company said on its website. “We’re not quite ready to bring back everything yet, but we are optimistic and look forward to the day when Disney pals and princesses are able to hug once again.”

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On Thursday, May 13, 2021, the CDC announced that people who have been vaccinated were no longer required to wear masks outside or in specific enclosed venues.

Here’s the announcement.

“People fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.”

Since then, there has been some discontent in California in regards to the CDC guidelines.

Statewide

The other day Ricky Schroder, the childhood actor, was in a confrontation at a local Costco over wearing his mask inside the store. It was recorded on video and posted on the web.

While I understand his frustration over wearing a mask, stores, restaurants, and other enclosed buildings in California can still require people to wear masks for the safety of others.

Even though the CDC has advised all of us of guideline changes, there is always a hidden rule that needs to be flushed out for each individual instance.

California is taking the precaution of not adhering to the CDC guidelines till June 15 or later.

In his announcement today, the state’s health secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said, “the date aligns with the state’s plan to reopen California’s economy on June 15 and allows more time for more Californians to get fully vaccinated.”

*quote from The San Franciso Chronicle

How much backlash this causes is sure to be a debate soon on Governor Newsom’s recall and the way he has handled the COVID pandemic this past year locally

Locally

Still, in Fresno and Clovis and most likely in other cities in the valley, restaurants and businesses are not requiring the wearing of masks while shopping.

Friday evening, the day after the announcement, I went to a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Clovis; all of the restrictions in the past, such as entering and exiting through different doors, carriages only at one entrance had been relaxed as well as the wearing of masks while shopping.

Everything in life is about timing. We are starting to see our numbers decline when it comes to infections of COVID.

Nationally

The other day President Biden made this statement about COVID cases and their decline as well as vaccinations.

“To date, we have given out 250 million shots in 114 days, and we’re seeing the results. Cases are down in 49 of the 50 states. The New York Times has reported that hospitalizations are the lowest they’ve been since April of 2020, over a year ago, right after the start of the pandemic. Deaths are down 80 percent and also at their lowest levels since April of 2020.”

*quote from The White House.gov

Everything seems to be going in the right direction, so what’s the holdup in California?

Thoughts

I can see one main issue for not just California but every state and business. How do you know if a person has been vaccinated?

I was thinking about this after the announcement on Thursday if asked to prove my vaccination.

I know I can carry my vaccination card, but since you can’t laminate them, it would get ruined overtime in my wallet or pocket. Or I would wash my pants with the card in them by accident. Then what?

Patti, my wife, suggested we take a picture of our cards and keep them on our phone if asked for proof.

That sounded like a great idea, except I started thinking about some of the people that have been producing fake vaccination cards and if a picture would be acceptable?

I mean, pictures bring on an entirely new phase of fake products, am I right?

When it comes to proving you’ve been vaccinated, I wonder how much authority a business would have in asking for that. Doesn’t that kind of defeat the HIPPA privacy act?

So many questions arise with no real good answers that I can see so far. Then again, maybe the right questions haven’t been asked yet?

We’re all in this together. Whether you believe in vaccination or not, this is our pandemic, and we need to take whatever precautions we deem necessary to protect our health.

Remember, it’s our life.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California won’t lift its mask requirement until June 15 to give the public and businesses time to prepare and ensure cases stay low, state Health Director Dr. Mark Ghaly said Monday.

“This four week period will give Californians time to prepare for this change, while we continue the relentless focus on delivering vaccines particularly to underserved communities and those that were hard hit throughout this pandemic,” Ghaly said.

Many other states lifted their mask requirements last week after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it’s safe for fully vaccinated people to skip face coverings and social distancing in most situations.

“On June 15 California plans to implement CDC’s guidelines around masking to allow fully vaccinated Californians to go without a mask in most indoor settings,” Ghaly said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom already has said that if cases remain low the state will drop nearly all COVID-19 restrictions on June 15.

Until then, California will keep its rules saying people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus do not need to wear a mask outdoors unless they are attending crowded gatherings.

But the state has said they still must wear masks indoors unless they are meeting with other vaccinated people. The state has other rules for businesses and other public places that vary by county under its color-coded tier system, which is based on the prevalence of the virus.

The federal agency’s guidelines, issued Thursday, similarly say people should wear masks in crowded indoor locations like airplanes, buses, hospitals and prisons.

Businesses are expected to adhere to the state’s guidelines, Ghaly said. That four-week delay will help businesses prepare for the transition to fewer restrictions, he said.

Ghaly noted that the CDC has said that it will keep the mask requirement in place for students for the rest of the calendar year, and said California will do the same.

John Kabateck, director of the California chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said the split between state and federal requirements will increase public confusion if people believe they no longer have to wear masks.

“It’s very difficult for small business owners to have to play ‘mask cop’ on a daily basis,” he said. “We hope that they will not be vulnerable to penalties and scrutiny by state regulators or plaintiffs’ attorneys because they’re trying to make sense of this labyrinth.”

But he was generally supportive of the state’s decision.

“We’re on our way to a full reopening in California,” Kabateck said. “If wearing masks for a little bit longer is an ounce of prevention that’s going to let mom-and-pops reopen their doors and get people back to work, that’s a step in the right direction.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the county will use the extra month to increase vaccination rates. So far 43% of residents 16 and over are fully vaccinated in the state’s most populous county.

“That means more than half of our adult population remains vulnerable,” Solis said.

Newsom initially gave conflicting previews last week on when the state might lift mask restrictions as it approaches a full reopening of its economy planned for June 15 with infection rates dwindling and inoculation rates rising.

On Friday, he said health officials were weighing “a whole host of complexities” including how to enforce a policy where some people are allowed to go unmasked and those without vaccines should still be wearing them. There also are issues around businesses that may want to still require masks for all, and at schools, where children under 12 still cannot be vaccinated.

More than a dozen states quickly said they would follow the new federal guidelines, but others were like California in weighing their response. Some retailers were also split, with Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe’s saying Friday that they won’t require vaccinated shoppers to wear a mask unless state or local laws say otherwise.

Newsom’s former chief of staff, Ann O’Leary, was among those upset by the CDC, which she said “acted so irresponsibly to adopt an ‘honor code’ for public mask wearing.”

“It’s not good public health advice to say to parents whose kids can’t get vaccinated, just trust the public to do the right thing with all the politicization over masks,” she tweeted, adding later that she was disappointed “that California isn’t going to remain stronger than the floor set by the CDC.”

Newsom, like the Biden administration, has been under pressure to ease mask restrictions particularly for those who are fully vaccinated and as coronavirus cases ease nationwide.

The governor is facing a recall election this fall driven largely by frustration with his handling of the pandemic.

One of his Republican rivals, Republican businessman John Cox, said it was notable that Newsom had Ghaly deliver the bad news, noting that the Democratic governor traveled the state last week to unveil his proposed budget driven by an unprecedented revenue surplus. Cox said in a statement that California should immediately follow the CDC and relax its own mask mandate.

“He wants to take credit for spending billions of dollars, but then goes into hiding when he has something unpopular to announce,” Cox said. “There’s a reason he’s hiding: he’s wrong.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to distribute millions of face masks to Americans in communities hard-hit by the coronavirus beginning next month as part of his efforts to ensure “equity” in the government’s response to the pandemic.

Biden, who like Donald Trump’s administration considered sending masks to all Americans, is instead adopting a more conservative approach, aiming to reach underserved communities and those bearing the brunt of the outbreak. Trump’s administration shelved the plans entirely.

Biden’s plan will distribute masks not through the mail, but instead through Federally Qualified Community Health Centers and the nation’s food bank and food pantry systems, the White House announced Wednesday.

The Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture will be involved in the distribution of more than 25 million American-made cloth masks in both adult and kid sizes. The White House estimates they will reach 12 million to 15 million people.

“Not all Americans are wearing masks regularly, not all have access, and not all masks are equal,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients.

The White House is not distributing safer N95 masks, of which the U.S. now has abundant supply after shortages early in the pandemic.

The cloth masks adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and “certainly they meet those requirements set by our federal standard,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Biden hinted at the move Tuesday during a virtual roundtable discussion Tuesday with four essential workers who are Black, saying he expected his administration to send millions of masks to people around the country “very shortly.”

Biden has asked all Americans to wear face masks for the first 100 days of his term, pointing to models showing it could help save 50,000 lives. He also required mask-wearing in federal buildings and on public transportation in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.

In late January, a Quinnipiac poll showed that 75% of Americans said they wear a mask all the time when they go out in public and are around others, and an additional 12% said they wear a mask most of the time.

Biden has made a virtue of his public displays of mask-wearing, drawing direct contrast with Trump, who only rarely was seen covering his face while president. Biden has also required the use of masks around the White House, unlike Trump, whose White House was the scene of at least three outbreaks of the virus.

Psaki suggested earlier this month that logistical concerns underpinned the decision to scale back the plans to send masks to all Americans.

“I think there are some underlying questions about how you target them — the masks — where they go to first; obviously, it couldn’t happen immediately,” she said.

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