Red State Anti-Vaccine Mantra: Just Say No

 

Thousands of people are reporting very serious life changing vaccine side effects from taking covid vaccines.

5,946 deaths are reported on the CDC website.

Social media is censoring their stories & the media is silent.

Biden is going to homes to push shots.

Just say NO!

— Tweet from GOP Congress Person Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) July 11, 2021

What remains stunning, particularly as the COVID-19 Delta variant is taking down more victims, is the continued politization of what should be purely a medical issue. To many, notwithstanding the former President’s near-fatal bout with the disease, standing firm against vaccination is a test of loyalty to Trump and the Trump-infused GOP. “A CBS News-YouGov poll found that 52 percent of Republicans are either fully or partially vaccinated, while 6 percent plan to be vaccinated and 6 percent are undecided. Twenty-nine percent do not plan to be vaccinated, the poll found.

“Meanwhile, 77 percent of Democrats said they were either fully or partially vaccinated, while 12 percent plan to be vaccinated and 6 percent are undecided. About 5 percent of Democrats say they don't plan to be vaccinated.” TheHill.com, June 13th.

“Three in 10 adults in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they have not gotten a coronavirus vaccine and definitely or probably will not get one. In this group, a broad 73% say U.S. officials are exaggerating the risk of the delta variant -- and 79% think they have little or no risk of getting sick from the coronavirus.” ABCNews.com, July 3rd.

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zientz is telling us that there is severe resistance, particularly among the remaining unvaccinated segment of the population with surprising resistance from younger “we’re strong enough” people: "Younger people, particularly those in their 20s, have felt less vulnerable to the disease and, therefore, less eager to get shots. They were made eligible later so they have not been eligible as long and we continue to see hundreds of thousands of young people vaccinated each week,” he said on a segment of ABC’s “This Week” in early July. Many believe, as Trump and other elected Republicans have told them, that COVID is just another kind of flu.

What we are seeing is rapid rise in new COVID infection rates, almost all from the more virulent Delta variant, pushing many state and municipal governments to reinstate mask mandates indoors. But the pressure on GOP-run states to resist “backsliding” to past preventative measures is fierce. For example, Tennessee school children will return to their public classrooms in the fall without any mask requirements, even as Delta cases are soaring.

If too many unvaccinated people continue to refuse to deal with this accelerating variant, they represent a demographic segment where even more infectious and dangerous mutations can form and multiply. The COVID virus has now mutated thousands of times since the pandemic began, although most such changes are without measurable consequences. And so far, those variants with genuine dangerous new abilities are still well or adequately contained by most of the existing vaccines. Nevertheless, Pfizer has announced that it is developing more advanced booster shots that may soon be available to those who have undergone the two-shot protocol (Pfizer and Moderna), one that they believe may have to be administered to older or medically vulnerable vaccinated individuals. It is clear that getting a third shot currently increases immunity many times over, even using the older vaccine.

What we are seeing is a particularly high rate of serious infection among younger individuals, many requiring hospitalization. They are clearly vulnerable to the Delta variant. The high rate of vaccination among older Americans is showing excellent result in that demographic. Not so much among eligible younger people. Even for those unvaccinated younger people who are strong enough to survive a COVID infection, even where there are minimal current effects, there are severe long-term health risks that simply cannot be worth avoiding vaccination. A recent UK study examines the pervasiveness of after-infection issues, some of which is referred to as “long-COVID”:

“Younger adults admitted to hospital with Covid are almost as likely to suffer from complications as those over 50 years old, a study has found… Four in 10 of those between 19 and 49 developed problems with their kidneys, lungs or other organs while treated… The research looked at 73,197 adults of all ages across 302 UK hospitals in the first wave of Covid in 2020.

“‘The message is that this is not just a disease of the elderly and frail,’ said Prof Calum Semple, who led the work… ‘The data reinforces the fact that Covid is not flu and we are seeing even young adults coming into hospital suffering significant complications, some of which will require furthering monitoring and potentially further treatment in the future.’

“The study, conducted by researchers at seven UK universities, the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, looked at the number of ‘complications’ in those needing hospital treatment for Covid-19, defined as an organ-specific medical diagnosis.

“Overall, around half of all adult patients suffered a least one complication during their hospital stay. The most common was a kidney injury, followed by lung and heart damage… The highest rates were in those over 50 years old, with 51% reporting at least one problem. But they were also "very common" in younger age groups. Some 37% of 30 to 39 year olds and 44% of 40 to 49 year olds had at least one complication recorded by nurses and medical students involved in the study.

“Doctors are not yet certain how a severe Covid illness can cause organ damage, but it is thought in some cases the body's own immune system can spark an inflammatory response and injure healthy tissue.” BBC.com, July 15th. For those Americans claiming that the US Constitution gives individuals a right not to socially distance, wear a mask and makes is unlawful to condition returning to work on vaccination, let me perfectly clear: WRONG. There is no such “right,” direct or indirect in the Constitution. Instead, these recalcitrant individuals should instead focus on government’s right to protect “everybody else” from those scofflaws most likely to infect others.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is time to let experienced scientists and doctors set serious medical priorities and pull politicians completely out of the mix.

Drip, Drip, Drip… Until…

 

Such a huge part of climate change revolves around water. Superstorms absorbing greater volumes of sea water as surface temperatures rise, slowed in their progress by the increased weight, vastly more intense in their power and flooding/surging impact. Premature melting sends raging floodwaters beyond river and lake banks, flooding plains, cities and farms. Polar thaws, glacial contraction, coastal erosion by the millions and millions of acres. That’s all on the wet side.

Drought (cyclical) has become desertification (permanent) all over the sun-drenched world. Land lost forever. Farms no longer able to produce food. Farmers and their families forced to abandon multigenerational homesteads. Mass migrations. Dust. Conflicts over still arable land. Water and still productive farmland generating more value than even petroleum rich tracts. Forests literally drying up, lush greenery become kindling when become unending fire seasons. Severe wildfires swallow entire forests, now consuming homes and towns in their wake. Heat, heat and more intolerable heat. Today is about that dry side, more particularly a continuing examination of the rising possibility of massive collapse of life as we know it. Today, I will look at the richest and most productive region in the United States: California. Environmentally sensitive California? 

California has none of that red state skepticism about climate change and efforts to combat its clear and present ravages. The state is increasing willing to confront businesses who continue to shift the burdens of their imprudent failure to contain their own toxic and otherwise dangerous emissions to the general public. Alternative energy is the rule. California leadership winces at red states (like oil-rich Oklahoma) that actually tax those emboldened enough to install solar panels. Petroleum-based vehicles will not be sold in California after 2035. 

Governor Gavin Newsom has requested that Californian reduce water consumption. Meanwhile in his state, wildfires rage. Vast tracts of farmland lie fallow. And lakes and reservoirs recede to perilous levels. Is this too little too late? Can any one isolated jurisdiction make a difference to a problem that requires massive global cooperation anyway?

Writing for the July 15th Los Angeles Times, Ari Plachta observes: “When Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Californians to voluntarily conserve water last week [second week in July] as he stood in front of the retreating shoreline at Lopez Lake in San Luis Obispo County, some must have had déjà vu.

“It was only six years ago when his predecessor Gov. Jerry Brown stood in a field near Lake Tahoe that was bereft of normally plentiful snow and called for water restrictions amid the state’s punishing years-long drought… But by that point, Brown was done asking. In April 2015, he ordered cities and towns across the state to cut water use by 25%, the first mandatory statewide water restrictions in California history that browned lawns and shortened showers to the tune of more than 500 billion gallons saved that year.

“As Californians wonder when mandatory water restrictions might be coming, officials and experts including those who played roles in addressing the 2012-2016 drought say the pace and strategy of Newsom’s current response sufficiently incorporates insights gained from the past.

“The governor’s approach, however, has also frustrated some scientists who consider his actions too little too late as record-high temperatures intensify the water shortage, particularly in northern and central parts of the state.

“Newsom, who is facing a September recall election, called on Californians on July 8 to voluntarily cut their water use by 15% compared with last year and expanded his regional drought state of emergency to 50 counties, home to roughly 42% of the population… ‘We’re optimistic that Californians are going to step up as they have in the past,’ said Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot. ‘And if the drought persists and conditions get worse, we’ll obviously have to contemplate other actions including mandatory restrictions.’

“Conditions already appear to be outpacing the previous drought: Scant winter rainfall led to minimal snowpack on the Sierra Nevada mountains, and spring heat evaporated much of the runoff that was expected to flow into reservoirs.” 

If conditions worsen? We know it is just a matter of when. Even though there have been momentary respites as rainfall has increased, with decreasing frequency in recent years, do we really believe we are just dealing with a drought, a lower-level repeat of the Midwest dust bowl of the 1930s, or is this a continuing and possibly unstoppable march to permanence. Not a drought. Desertification? And what exactly happens to large cities and even small towns when access to water simply trickles away? If this is environmentally conscious California, what about red states that simply do not care much at all?

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you haven’t noticed, younger Americans have placed climate change, the legacy their parents seem to be leaving them with, at the top of their political priorities; I wonder why.

Battle against Higher Education (Elites) and Science

  

“I refused to blindly follow Dr. Fauci ... and allow him to strip Floridians of their God-given freedoms… I chose to lift Florida up, not follow the lead of Dr. Fauci and lock Florida down… Corporate media are attacking me for having the backbone to call Fauci out for the damage he has caused.” 

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis

 

Step a few years beyond the end mark on the chart on the left (from Wikipedia), and the Lumina Foundation tells us that today 40% of our younger generations are achieving a college degree, a process that may have been slowed by the pandemic but heading for a likely marker of 60% by 2025. This despite the rising cost of tuition (which has been more than double the rise in the overall cost of living for decades) and the staggering cost of student loans. Among millennials, for example, about 60% have had at least some college education, and the Z generation is doing better. 

The above map, also from Wikipedia, is very telling. The reddest of the red states, marked by the lightest yellow, are the areas in the United States with the lowest levels of college education. Arkansas, one of those states, is also currently one of the least vaccinated states that currently hold the dubious record of having the greatest current per capita COVID infection rate, mostly with the new Delta strain. The average age of those requiring hospitalization for COVID in Arkansas is 40; a year ago that age was 60. For those hospitalized, almost all require being put on ventilators, and all of them are unvaccinated. 

The story parallels in the other light-yellow states, but even a moderately-educated red state, Florida with about 6% of the US population, it alone accounts for 20% of the latest COVID infections. Both Florida and Arkansas are fully committed to banning any mask mandate of any kind, come hell or high water… pretty much the legal practice in almost every red state. Northern, more conservative and less-college-educated Florida counties, where vaccination rates are low, are experiencing the worst outbreaks in the state. COVID is anything but contained as there is an a serious uptick in infections now in all 50 states.

One of the hallmarks of Trump populism, which is now the mantra of virtually the entire GOP congressional contingent, is a rejection of “educated elites,” a belief that if you repeat an untruth enough, it becomes an immutable axiom. There is a belief that a political movement has the power to change the laws of physics and the dictates of nature. A president, who apparently did not fare well in college, prescribes medications – hydroxychloroquine for example – which are not remotely effective, and his flock runs to the pharmacy to buy the drug… but will not accept a highly effective vaccine, because to use is both politically disloyal and evidence that the man in the bully pulpit was wrong all along. Despite the unanimity of qualified doctors echoing vaccine safety and effectiveness, decrying the medical prescriptions from politicians to the contrary, yet a large part of that loyal flock succumbs to the virus.

Strange that this rejection of the credibility and power of that appropriately educated and rapidly growing cadre of educated Americans is occurring as parents – so many of whom embrace the anti-scientific bent of Trumpism – fight so hard to insure that their children get a college education. Are they aware that college education is a leading indicator of a rejection of Trump populism? That two-thirds of rising, first-time voters, supported the Biden candidacy? 

Nothing evidences that inane rejection of science like the accelerating red state attack on a highly credible doctor, just doing his job. Dr. Anthony Fauci has become the pin-receptible voodoo doll of the GOP rejection of science… because truth is not politically popular among its constituents. A belief in science and medicine has become the hallmark of the hated “radical, liberal left.” And the Florida governor, seemingly vying for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is joyfully leading the attach on educated elites and science itself. That DeSantis could not be more of a member of that elite (Yale, BA magna cum laude, Harvard Law School, JD cum laude) underscores the hypocrisy of the entire populist movement.

Michael Hiltzik, writing an OpEd for the July 20th Los Angeles Times, expounds: “DeSantis has targeted Fauci because the latter became the face of the anti-pandemic battle; by attacking Fauci’s reputation, DeSantis is undermining the bedrock science at the heart of the battle.

“That includes vaccinations, which are indispensable and in which Florida’s record is nothing to brag about. The state currently ranks 23rd in both total doses administered per capita and total doses administered to residents over 18 per capita. (California, by comparison, ranks 13th in the first metric and 12th in the second.)

“The real threat to the country’s ability to fight the virus is no longer a lack of resources — it’s the partisan politicization of masks and vaccines to the extent that the most reliable indicator of a locality’s vaccination rate is the percentage of votes that went for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. 

“It’s proper to ask whether DeSantis recognizes the consequences of his campaign rhetoric or even cares. The points he makes aren’t really designed to communicate policy positions. Rather, they’re shibboleths — code words, phrases and images aimed at touching a specific community — in this case, the GOP’s Trumpian right wing. For them, Fauci has become merely a symbol of liberal overreach.” China, which is amping up their emphasis on college STEM education, is laughing all the way to the global competition bank. And if viruses could celebrate and honor their champions, Ron DeSantis would win COVID’s No Bell Piece Prize.

I’m Peter Dekom, and until the vast majority of Americans accepts facts as facts, we are in a hopeless downward spiral that continues to give unwarranted comfort to our enemies.

Can Southwestern Cities Survive

  

As black-market marijuana growers suck the sparse remaining water supply in the high deserts east of Los Angeles, willing to us semi-automatic gunfire to keep anyone from getting near, it’s hard to equate this illicit form of water usage with the acres and acres of idle agricultural land that lie fallow throughout central and southern California (slowly enveloping points north as well). Only an occasional scattered irrigation circle with active growing crops among a surrounding litany of brown lifeless circles. Grapevines without life. Nut trees doomed to starve to death by water deprivation. Forests turning into pure tinder from lack of rainfall… waiting for the next wildfire to explode. Is the vast and incredible California fruit and vegetable farm doomed? That’s all about our food supply and California’s role as a major source for the entire nation.

But there are so many cities facing a withering future as water resources are quite literally vaporizing. In 2018, Cape Town, South Africa literally ran out of water until a January downpour offered a temporary respite. In Australia, Perth and Adelaide just might be the next Cape Town. The record temperatures in the Pacific Northwest suggest that even some of the rainiest regions can no longer take rainfall and a temperate climate for granted. For nations with vast tracts of desert, if temperatures continue to climb as they have, such regions could be rendered completely uninhabitable by humans… and by more than a few long-running indigenous species of plant and animal life.

Access to water is very likely to outstrip the seemingly unending quest for gas and oil as the biggest value proposition on earth. Will we be towing giant icebergs, to the extent they continue, to urban coastal regions as replacements for dwindling well, aquifer, lake and stream water? Even as those of us in Southern California depend on the Owens Valley water supply and trickles from the Colorado River, the once abundant lakes all over the state, we are just beginning a gubernatorial “request” for all Californians to implement a 15% statewide cutback in water usage. Photographs of “gardeners” spray-painting brown lawns with green paint are no longer the brunt of local jokes. The water shortage is very, very real. 

Desalination? A process that uses a lot of electrical power, is massively expensive to build and produces a deeply toxic effluent of salt that cannot simply be released back into the ocean. Pumping water from areas with a surplus to those where there is a dearth? Pick up a bucket of water. It takes massive infrastructure to move that water and an even more massive need for electricity to lift that weight up and over even slight rises in the landscape. None of these alternatives is practical on a scale that is obviously required. Make better use of what we have?

Nothing screams utter desperation, perhaps signaling a “sooner or later” end to cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles, more than one of the earth’s largest reservoirs, the massive lake created by the construction of Hoover Dam. We call it Lake Mead (pictured above). The entire Southwestern part of the United States depends on this dwindling water supply. 

Writing for the July 11th Los Angeles Times, Jaweed Kaleem and Thomas Curwen tell us: “Lake Mead, a lifeline for 25 million people and millions of acres of farmland in California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico, made history when it was engineered 85 years ago, capturing trillions of gallons of river water and ushering in the growth of the modern West.

“But after years of an unrelenting drought that has quickly accelerated amid record temperatures and lower snowpack melt, the lake is set to mark another, more dire turning point. Next month, the federal government expects to declare its first-ever shortage on the lake, triggering cuts to water delivered to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico on Jan. 1. If the lake, currently at 1,068 feet, drops 28 more feet by next year, the spigot of water to California will start to tighten in 2023.

“The crisis, said Eric Kuhn, former general manager of the Colorado River Conservation District, can no longer be ignored. ‘According to Merriam-Webster, a drought is a temporary condition,’ he said. What is happening, he suggested, is something more permanent and troubling. ‘This is aridification.’

“As fires sweep over large swaths of the West and scorching temperatures fry others, the scarcity of water is a less visible but perhaps the most pressing consequence of climate change confronting the states that depend on Lake Mead.

“First to be hit are locals along the Nevada-Arizona border near Las Vegas, who rely on the lake for tourism, fishing and recreation. Ramps are closed. Jammed boats are towed from newly shallow waters. Fishermen scour to figure out where to catch striped bass. The iconic lake’s predicament is marked by a ‘bathtub ring’ of calcium deposits that highlight the rocky edge where water once flowed.” But agricultural lands are already suffering. How long before the cities that depend on this water supply are no longer able to function? There are no “Great Lakes” sitting in reserve here, as glaciers melt away, fires decimate forests, rainfall fades and the earth’s water supplies simply dry up.

And still, we still have conservative political forces unwilling to face the climate change reality under some bizarre notion of an economic burden that our business community is unable to afford to cost. Tax cuts are fine. Adding taxes to deal with climate change and perhaps forestall the trillions and trillions of dollars of natural disasters we now know are inevitable without a serious effort to the contrary… not anything they will ever vote for or support. Maybe they can toast to their self-destructive intransigence with a glass of scotch and sand!

I’m Peter Dekom, and we may  already live in an era of “too late” for a whole lot damage but we have not yet passed into the land of inevitable and totally over.

We’ve Long Since Lost the Moral High Ground

 “When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,

‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’” 

New Testament, John 8:7

American foreign policy has long since blasted repression against Putin’s Russian political opponents, China’s human rights violations against Hong Kong dissidents and Muslim Uyghurs in Northwest China, Syria’s indiscriminate gassing and barrel-bombing of its own citizens (with Russian support) and generally any rogue or autocratic government that chooses to crush free speech and political/ religious beliefs. Yet we live in a nation that is no longer viewed by most of the rest of the world as the bastion of true democracy. 

Indeed, based on a form of government that allows gerrymandering, racial discrimination, voter suppression and disproportionate voting power (for example, half the US Senate is elected by less than one third of the voters), the prestigious UK journal, The Economist, has labeled the United States as a “flawed democracy,” one that cannot claim to be fairly representational. As we lambast other nations in their brutality, we get some pretty justifiable pushback. Like this tirade noted in the February 5th edition of Newsweek, in the earliest days of the Biden Administration, based on our firm stance against the Chinese repression noted above:

“The Chinese Communist Party said mass shootings, poverty rates and foreign wars are all evidence of U.S. ‘double standards’ on human rights violations, with Beijing's largest publication accusing American lawmakers of ‘concocting lies’ about China's Xinjiang Uyghur population… The state-controlled outlet [the People’s Daily] said the U.S. government is utilizing the ‘twisted logic of a robber acting like a cop’ as Washington lawmakers try to hide COVID-19 deaths and millions of civilian casualties caused by the U.S. military abroad…

“The People's Daily piece said the U.S. military has ‘laid to waste’ to countless countries and populations across the globe while American lawmakers have ignored domestic mass shootings and skyrocketing income inequality. In an apparent appeal to ordinary Americans, the outlet said it agrees with middle- and lower-class people who say the U.S. is only a ‘paradise for the rich.’” As blue on black killings in the US escalated, as the BLM movement exploded angrily across America, China and Russia also used these as continued examples of that “double standard.” 

Further, as hundreds of bills are presented in red states across the US, with many passed and which are effectively aimed at denying minority voters their continued levels of access to the polls, as hostile racial attitudes seem inalterably embedded in so much of our country’s local police, callous immigration policies caused by our own gun/drug culture, as anti-cancel culture/critical race theory legislation reinforces a false narrative that justifies white supremacy, and as judicial rulings from right-wing appointed judges, autocrats the world over point to our obvious hypocrisy. Russia, China, Syria, North Korea and Cuba join even our Western allies in this critical chorus. It is particularly galling to watch as the former home of Adolph Hitler and his genocide, Germany, which has freely admitted its crimes and begged for forgiveness, has replaced the United States as the global leader in championing human rights.

Our critics particularly enjoy ripping us apart because of our racially and ethnically biased but legally sanctioned behavior. As the July 16th Los Angeles Times notes: “A 2019 paper, for example, found that Black men were 2½ times more likely than white men to be killed by police. Additional investigations around the U.S. have found that Black residents suffer a disproportionate share of use-of-force incidents relative to their share of the population…

“Scientists who analyzed the body-camera footage from more than 100 police officers have found a subtle but clear pattern: During traffic stops, officers spoke to Black men in a less respectful and less friendly tone than they did to white men… This disparity in treatment is not only real but may also help to fuel a cycle of mistrust between police and the Black community, the researchers reported this week [mid-July] in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.”

We are still looking at the reality of children, brought to the United States as part of the illegal immigration of their parents, who face deportation from the only country they have ever known. Based on purported economic burdens imposed on red state plaintiffs (Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia), “a federal judge in Texas on Friday [7/16] ruled illegal an Obama-era program that prevents the deportation of thousands of them brought into the U.S. as children… U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen… declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program illegal, barring the government from approving any new applications but leaving the program intact for existing recipients…

“In Friday’s ruling, Hanen wrote that the states proved ‘the hardship that the continued operation of DACA has inflicted on them.’… He continued: ‘Furthermore, the government has no legitimate interest in the continuation of an illegally implemented program.’

“Biden has proposed legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. without authorization… He also ordered agencies to make efforts to preserve DACA… Supporters of the program, including those who argued before Hanen to save it, have said a law passed by Congress is necessary to provide permanent relief. Hanen has said Congress must act if the U.S. wants to provide the protections in DACA to recipients commonly known as Dreamers.

“The House approved legislation in March creating a pathway toward citizenship for Dreamers, but the measure has been stalled in the Senate. Immigration advocates hope to include a provision opening that citizenship doorway in sweeping budget legislation Democrats want to approve this year, but it’s unclear whether that language will survive…

“The Trump administration announced it was ending the program in September 2017, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the administration hadn’t ended the program properly, keeping it alive once more… Hanen had rejected Texas’ request in 2018 to stop the program through a preliminary injunction. But in a foreshadowing of his latest ruling, Hanen said in 2018 that he believed DACA as enacted was probably unconstitutional without congressional approval… Hanen ruled in 2015 that Obama could not expand DACA protections or institute a program shielding their parents.” Associated Press, July 17th. Given the complexion of supermajority Senate requirements to bring a floor vote, it is unlikely to get the 10 GOP votes required to bring the measure to a floor vote. America hypocrisy reigns supreme. Remember when we fought Hitler? What’s changed?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder where a nation that pioneered civil rights and voter protection legislation, one that has touted that itself as a country of immigrants with a fierce commitment to protect justice and fairness around the world, went so terribly wrong.

 

Condo-Nation - Who Pays

For so many home/condo owners who have volunteered to sit on the boards of homeowners’ associations, are they really aware of the risks? Aside from issuing rulings that benefit their personal economic interests, perhaps at the expense of others, what are their liabilities for their acts or omissions? Is a contractual provision covering their engagement with the relevant insurance policies and providing indemnification sufficient? Clearly not for self-serving acts representing clear conflicts of interest, but that is not always clear. And what happens if the insurance, assuming there is insurance for their judgmental actions, is insufficient, can they assume they are safe as long as they are inside of a separate legal entity that defines the homeowners’ association board? Who pays the massive legal fees if the association is out of cash? Consult your local real estate/bankruptcy lawyer for the answer, but know that if the loss is big enough, the general rule is that “everybody sues everybody.” Stand back and stand by.

As climate change impacts the very assumptions made when buildings were designed and constructed, there are some very huge questions that will rage through the real estate/legal world with increasing frequency. In Surfside, Florida, the older buildings (built before 1990), the purchase prices and monthly rentals have been relatively modest when compared to the most recently built condos and rental apartment buildings (height limit of 12 stories). Luxury on steroids.

The community is clearly bifurcated between the haves – like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner who have a pricey unit in a nearby new-construction condo – and those have-nots living in older buildings, where, particularly after the recent tower collapse, prices are falling like a stone. The cost to update these older buildings can be steep. $80 thousand per unit was one estimated cost for the collapsed building. Who pays? What if they cannot afford the fix? Multiply these costs times the tens of thousands of buildings in the nation that truly require climate change and other retrofits merely for safety reasons.

In Surfside, the homeowners’ association got approval from a Miami-Dade judge (Michael Hanzman) for the appointment of a “receiver,” Michael Goldberg (partner at the local Ackerman law firm), whom the court referred to as “the most preeminent, experienced receiver in this community, if not throughout the country.” Was there a design flaw or a failure to implement necessary engineering recommendations presented to the association board in 2018? Were building inspectors too lax in their review? Was there assessable fault? Sufficient insurance? Debra Cassens Weiss, writing for the July 6th Journal of the American Bar Association, examined the various potential defendants and deep pockets likely to have to pick up a massive tab for this disaster:

“Hanzman said it appears that the building has $48 million in insurance coverage, and two insurers have already agreed to pay their maximum liability, for a total $3 million. The condo property is also an asset that is valued at $30 million to $50 million, the judge said… Hanzman authorized payments of up to $10,000 to condo owners who require housing assistance and allowed payments of $2,000 for families who have to pay for funerals. The money will be an advance on the total recovery…

“The condo association is already a defendant in lawsuits that blamed delayed maintenance on the June 24 building collapse. Also named as a defendant in one lawsuit is the engineering company that conducted inspections in 2018 and 2020, as well as an architectural company, according to Reuters and the Miami Herald… The engineering company, Morabito Consultants, is accused of failing to warn the association of the need to evacuate and failing to warn residents that recommended repairs had not been carried out. The architectural company, SD Architects, was hired as part of a recertification process. The suit was filed by the family of Harold Rosenberg.

“The town of Surfside, Florida, is also a planned defendant, according to the Rosenberg lawsuit… The defendants ‘ignored obvious and shocking warning signs and indications that a catastrophe was imminent,’ the suit says.” There is a deep sadness at the crushing loss of life, the destruction of family homes and the psychological damage to the entire community. These losses can never be corrected by the mere payment of money, but the lessons for building owners, homeowners’ associations and supervising governmental entities are massive. We will be watching the legal aftermath to this tragic debacle for years to come.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the longer our Congress, the relevant state legislative bodies and property/business owners across the country continue their prioritization of not fixing, not upgrading and not funding the obvious proactive climate change changes, we can expect trillions and trillions of higher costs in our reactive responses.

Open Office, Closed Office, Post-Pandemic

Not everyone is vaccinated. Many still resist for illogical or misinformed reasons, but which region of the country you may live in may well determine your risk in returning to work. The Delta variant is beginning to surge and decimate the unvaccinated. While employers do have the right to require workers to be vaccinated as a condition to returning to work, many, for ideological and other reasons are resisting that mandate. And while there remain tons of unfilled jobs, particularly in lower-level food services and hospitality and higher-level computer-related work, the post pandemic work world is still unclear and chaotic. Making sense of it all takes a more cautioned understanding.

“The shutdown last year was brutal and chaotic for both individuals and businesses, but it was also a unifying moment. We faced fear and uncertainty together. We all ran out of yeast and toilet paper at the same time. We were forced to rally and lean on each other with a common purpose: Stay healthy, take care of each other, and keep the business going so we’ll have jobs when this is over.

“Several factors make the return to work more challenging. For employees, it will be a staggered, disjointed process marked by uncertainty. Different regions will open up at different times, and some may be forced to close again temporarily. Workers will return to unfamiliar surroundings, with masks, plexiglass screens and hand sanitizer, wondering if their coworkers are vaccinated and how they should greet them.

“This is anything but a unifying experience, and it comes at a time when many people are mentally and physically drained after more than a year of lockdown. A study by the University of Chicago showed that employees worked 30% more than normal during the shutdown, and Microsoft found that work-related messages sent between 6 p.m. and midnight jumped 52%. No wonder people are burned out.” Laszlo Bock, founder/CEO of Humu and former head of people at Google, writing for the July 7th FastCompany.com. Where and how we work is being transformed as well.

For example, the very structure of the pre-pandemic open offices, problematical even without a contagious virus, should bring workplace designers to new conclusions. The assumptions behind open offices – greater interaction, team building, problem solving and internal communication – meet not only new health concerns but also force the question as to whether they really do in fact foster a happier and more efficient workspace. A recent study suggests otherwise.

Writing for the July 4th TheConversation.com, Libby (Elizabeth) Sander (assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Bond Business School at Bond University) illustrates a study that provides some challenges to that open office concept: “If you’ve ever felt your noisy open-plan office makes you cranky and sends your heart racing, our new research shows you aren’t imagining it.

“Prior to the pandemic 70% of office-based employees worked in open-plan offices. Employee complaints about this design are rife… Yet there is little experimental research investigating the effects of office noise on things like cognitive performance, physiological stress and mood… The results of our study, in experimentally controlled conditions using heart rate, skin conductivity and AI facial emotion recognition, shows the effects of that noise are very real.

“Our results show such noise heightens negative mood by 25%—and these results come from testing participants in a simulated open-plan office for just eight minutes at a time. In a real office, where workers are exposed to noise continuously during the day, we would expect the effects on stress and mood to be even greater.”

With resignations and jobs losses reaching unexpected and massive proportions, employers seeking to retain and recruit office workers just may have to approach office design from an entirely new perspective.  People who have recently worked from home are also finding that mandating exclusive in-person office work without at least some work-from-home alternatives can lead to job dissatisfaction as well: “Although open-plan offices rarely present an immediate physical danger in terms of sound levels, unrelenting exposure all day intensifies their effects. Chronically elevated levels of physiological stress are known to be detrimental to mental and physical health. Frequently being in a negative mood is also likely to harm job satisfaction and commitment. It potentially increases the likelihood of employees leaving…

“The pandemic has changed our tolerance for office work. Surveys show up to 70% of employees will seek new jobs if their employer does not offer flexibility to work from home some of the time. So creating a healthy work environment is more important than ever.

“As organizations seek to adapt to COVID-19, many are reconsidering how they set up and use the office. Though open-plan offices are unlikely to go away anytime soon, our study highlights the importance of understanding employee needs in designing work spaces.

“One advantage of more employees working from home at least some of the time is a less-crowded office, reducing both visual and auditory distractions. But there are other things that can be done. Acoustic treatments and sound-masking technologies—ambient sounds designed to make other people talking less intrusive—can help. Good old-fashioned walls or partitions may also assist. Such interventions can be costly, but so is the impact of poor office environmental quality on productivity.” Sander

In the end, the pandemic made a lot of us question aspects of work and life that so many of us had taken for granted. Unless employers can come to terms with these changes in values and expectations, they just may face job changing and unfilled openings for a very long time.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there will be long lasting changes in so many aspects of our lives generated by a shattering impact of the pandemic… and we damned well better get used to it.