COVID-19 disaster in Trump’s USA continuing

This video from the USA says about itself:

In Midst Of Pandemic SF School Bus Drivers Face Attack By SFUSD & First Student On Healthcare

The San Francisco Unified School District SFUSD superintendent and Board of Education are refusing to provide healthcare to school bus drivers who are members of SMART Local 1741. They are employed by subcontractor First Student.

A panel of union members discussed the issues they face. They included SMART 1741 president Sharon Chappill, Vice President Angel Watson, members Jim Charas, Shane Hoff and Leslie Salazar who discussed the issues they face.

There are 400,000 to 500,000 school bus drivers who also face a struggle to protect their healthcare and benefits. They also discussed the effort to subcontract their work to ZUM which is similar to UBER and Lyft where drivers are not certified and trained to transport children.

This interview was done by WorkWeek on August 18, 2020.

COVID-19 overtakes accidents as third leading cause of death in the US as testing continues to decline.

New excess death counts reveal more complete toll of coronavirus pandemic. By Bryan Dyne, 20 August 2020. As of mid-July, there were 178,500 excess deaths in just fifteen urban areas internationally, including New York City, Mexico City, Lima, Jakarta, Istanbul and Madrid.

Amazon workers describe spread of COVID-19 at warehouse in Romulus, Michigan. By George Kirby, 20 August 2020. Wayne County, Michigan, where the warehouse is located, is the state’s epicenter for the virus, with 29,242 confirmed infections and 2,841 deaths as of this writing.

COVID-19 cases surge on college campuses as Yale administrator warns students to prepare for deaths. By Matthew MacEgan and Genevieve Leigh, 20 August 2020. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence and the most recent experiences of school like UNC-Chapel Hill and Notre Dame, many schools are still pushing forward with reopening plans.

Detroit teachers vote overwhelmingly to strike against unsafe school openings. By Phyllis Steele, 20 August 2020. The 91 percent vote to strike is part of the widespread opposition to the opening of schools in the midst of a pandemic.

UNC Chapel Hill, Notre Dame and Michigan State University forced to revert to online learning after COVID-19 outbreaks: here.

Disastrous US school openings lead to 2,500 infections across 44 states.

Maryland’s Republican governor overrules county order for private schools to remain closed. By Ray Coleman, 20 August 2020. The effort to force schools to open in Montgomery County will have the effect of spreading COVID-19 among the school-aged population.

California wildfires: A climate crisis embedded in the COVID-19 pandemic. By Rafael Azul, 20 August 2020. The heatwave and numerous wildfires were all predictable, so why wasn’t California prepared?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A WILDFIRE MEETS A PANDEMIC Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a question has hung heavy over Californians: What happens if a bad wildfire season hits and we’re still in the throes of COVID-19? With about two dozen major fires burning across hundreds of thousands of acres, forcing people to evacuate across Northern California, they’re about to find out. “California’s firefighting resources are depleted as new fires continue to ignite,” Cal Fire public information officer Jeremy Rahn said of this week’s historic lightning siege, which set off more than 360 new fires across the state. Oh — and on top of everything else, there’s a heat wave and widespread power blackouts. [HuffPost]