https://wtop.com/dc/2021/09/fences-up-security-heightened-as-dc-prepares-for-justice-for-j6-rally/

U.S. Capitol and law enforcement groups were ready to go and the fencing was put up around the Capitol as the “Justice for J6” rally moved into D.C.
Saturday’s rally was organized by a group calling for justice for those who, eight months earlier, stormed the same area in a deadly insurrection.

At 12:40 p.m., United States Capitol Police officers arrested a man who had a knife, for a weapons violation.

WTOP’s Ken Duffy was there when police were searching a man for weapons.

Just after the scheduled start time of noon, there were very few people that showed up for the demonstration.

WTOP’s Mitchell Miller said one of the counter-protesters was Doug Hughes who in 2015 flew a gyrocopter onto the West Lawn of the Capitol near the site of today’s rally. He was jailed and lost his job but says he has no regrets. He was protesting government corruption.

The rally is scheduled to last until 1:15 p.m. at Union Square between 1st and 3rd streets. Some 700 people are expected to attend the demonstration, according to the event permit, but U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said it is not clear how accurate that number is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/09/14/january-6-protesters-preparation/

D.C. officials think a demonstration planned for Saturday by far-right groups supporting the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 will prove to be a small gathering, attracting no more than a few hundred people.

But city leaders are worried that those who do attend may bring firearms illegally, setting up the potential for clashes in an area expected to be bustling on Saturday with crowds at multiple events: the annual H Street festival in Northeast that typically attracts thousands; a Howard University football game at Audi Field in Southwest; a baseball game at Nationals Park; and a Harry Styles concert at Capital One Arena downtown.

“This is a great day for the city. This is showing that we’re open and folks can come here and do everything” from taking in a sports game or a show to attending a political protest, said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Christopher Geldart on Tuesday. “It’s really what the city’s about.”

But Geldart also acknowledged the concerns. As he spoke, more than 30 staff members from Democratic Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s office walked the blocks on H Street NE that will host Saturday’s festival. They stepped into each business on the commercial corridor to offer window signs noting that guns are prohibited inside.

“If you see someone with a firearm, immediately call 911,” some of the signs said. Proprietors of restaurants, pharmacies and gyms accepted the fliers.

https://thewhyaxis.substack.com/p/gop-covid-policy-is-killing-gop-voters

Republican attitudes, conspiracy theories and policy failures have created conditions for the Delta variant to thrive.

It’s well-known, by this point, that the Delta variant is currently hitting Republican states and counties the hardest. In the South especially, vaccination rates are low and mask use has typically been spotty, resulting in skyrocketing case and hospitalization numbers in several states.

But the picture on mortality has been less clear. Deaths lag behind hospitalizations, so the former have been slower to rise than the latter. Covid treatment has also improved since the early days of the pandemic, boosting patients’ odds of survival. And senior citizens, the group most vulnerable to the virus, have high rates of vaccination relative to other age groups.

But several months into the Delta wave and the data are clear: over the past month, people living in the most staunchly Republican counties have been three times more likely to die of Covid than those living in Democratic strongholds. While the disease doesn’t make political distinctions, Republican attitudes, conspiracy theories and policy failures have created conditions in which the Delta variant can thrive.

In counties where Donald Trump got fewer than 20 percent of 2020 presidential votes, for instance, there have been, on average, fewer than 5 Covid deaths for every 100,000 people since July 31, 2021 — roughly the start of the latest wave of death corresponding with the Delta variant. In places where he got 80 percent or more of the vote, on the other hand, the death rate is closer to 15 per 100,000. Across all counties there’s effectively a dose-response relationship between Republicanism and Covid mortality: as the share of Republican voters increases in your county, your likelihood of dying from the disease rises as well.

A few notes on these numbers, before we go on. They exclude the states of Nebraska and Florida, which, unconscionably, no longer report reliable county-level Covid statistics. They exclude Alaska as well, as the state does not report election data at the county level (I’m sure there’s a way to finagle this, but I was running short on time).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/02/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/



A new study that included more than a million adults in Britain has found that instances of people contracting the coronavirus after full vaccination are extremely rare — and that their risk of experiencing lingering symptoms of the disease in what’s known as “long covid” is reduced by almost half.

The study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Wednesday, included nearly 1 million fully vaccinated British adults who reported receiving their first dose from December 2020 to July 2021. The study’s participants included people who received vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or AstraZeneca — the latter of which is not approved for use in the United States.

The study adds to the evidence that vaccinations not only protect people against severe covid-19 symptoms and reduce the risk of hospitalization, but also significantly reduce the likelihood of ongoing, debilitating symptoms after an infection — and drastically reduce the chances of getting infected at all. The study’s authors also suggest that immunocompromised people are the ones who should be prioritized for booster shots, rather than making the decision solely based on age.

https://dcist.com/story/21/08/27/covid-cases-hospitalizations-increasing-with-delta-spread/



As the D.C. region barrels towards another pandemic autumn, cases and hospitalizations are continuing to rise in the D.C. region.

Just last week, key metrics like the rolling average of new cases per day, the positivity rate, and hospitalizations looked similar to the numbers reported locally in April, before vaccines became widely available. Now, the region’s case numbers and hospitalizations are hitting levels not recorded since earlier this spring, when vaccination rollouts were still hobbled by low supply and overwhelming demand. While hospital capacity remains stable and the rise in infections has not yet led to a similar spike in deaths from the virus, the consistently climbing metrics and plateauing vaccination rates underscore the severe infectiousness of the delta variant.

On Thursday, D.C. reported 210 new COVID-19 cases in one day, marking the first time the city has recorded more than 200 infections since February. (One day in early March, the District reported more than 300 daily cases due a backlog.) Since Aug. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified D.C.’s level of spread as “high,” the most severe category. As of this week, the city’s average rate of new cases per 100,000 residents has hit levels not seen since March, per D.C.’s coronavirus data.

Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the city dipped significantly in the early summer months, but began to climb this August. As of Wednesday, 116 people in the city were hospitalized with the virus, and 26 of those people are being treated in intensive care units. One month ago, a total of 21 residents were hospitalized due to COVID-19. The number of patients hospitalized with the virus last topped 100 in late April into early May, and began steadily declining throughout the summer.

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/national/president-biden-expected-to-sign-paws-act-would-allow-va-to-pay-for-service-dogs-for-veterans/77-bc7ad07c-a961-42ad-bbf6-263ea35cf3fa

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — President Biden signed the PAWS Act into law Wednesday.

The PAWS ACT, or 'Puppies Assisting Wounded Service members for Veterans Therapy Act,' authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to create a pilot program on dog training therapy that will provide dog-training skills and service dogs to veterans with mental illnesses.

"This has been a five-year battle to try and convince the federal government that what we do every day is valuable and helps veterans," Rory Diamond, CEO of K9s for Warriors said to First Coast News. "They're finally agreeing and we're getting a big breakthrough here."

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the bill earlier this month after it was passed by the House in March.

Diamond said the $10 million, five-year pilot program will take effect on Jan. 1, 2022. For the first time in American history, he says the VA will pay for service dogs for veterans with PTSD.

The news release says the new law will also:

Designate eligible veterans to receive dog training instruction from nongovernmental accredited 501(c)(3) nonprofit Service Dog training organizations (i.e., K9s For Warriors)
Allow eligible veterans to learn positive reinforcement training in skills that are unique to their own needs to help address or alleviate their PTSD symptoms
Provide veterans participating in the program with the opportunity to adopt a dog that they actively assisted in their training, provided that the veteran and their health provider determine it to be in the best interest of the veteran.