Flagler County’s weekly case load fell from a pandemic high of 936 last week to 789 this week, as of today, still the second-highest total of the 20-month crisis. Nearly half the total number of infections is among students and employees of Flagler County schools.
Health & Society
An Arsonist’s Redemption: How Daniel Da Costa Avoided 35 Years in Prison on the Strength of His Own Recovery
Daniel Soares Da Costa, now 27, was facing 35 years in prison for setting fires outside a Publix off Belle Terre Parkway in Palm Coast 16 months ago. The story behind Da Costa’s act–his addiction, the loss of his father, and his recovery since his arrest all played into the prosecution’s and the judge’s leniency in a case illustrative of the judicial system’s rehabilitative side.
Judge Issues Written Ruling Barring DeSantis from Banning Mask Mandates or Enforcing Order, But Appeal Is Imminent
Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on Thursday released a written ruling that said Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his constitutional authority in a July 30 executive order that sought to prevent school districts from requiring students to wear masks. Cooper issued an injunction barring the enforcement of DeSantis’ order.
Leaders Gather to Film Groundbreaking at AdventHealth Palm Coast’s New Hospital, Now a Larger, $145 Million Project
AdventHealth executives, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin and County Administrator Heidi Petito gathered this morning at the construction site of the new hospital, now a $145 million project on Palm Coast Parkway, to film what will be a virtual groundbreaking ceremony airing on Sept. 14. Here’s a sneak preview.
When Human Life Begins Is a Question of Politics, Not Biology
Understanding what it is to be human requires a lot more than biology. And scientists can’t establish when a fertilized cell or embryo or fetus becomes a human being. Flawed surveys and political declarations can’t change the fact.
Flagler Schools Have 3rd Highest Covid Infection Rate Among 38 Florida Districts Reporting Figures; Masked Districts Fare Better
The Flagler County school district has the third-highest rate of Covid infections among students and staff out of 38 Florida school districts that are reporting their Covid numbers since the resumption of the school year less than four weeks ago, a FlaglerLive analysis finds. There is still no “appetite” for changing course and adopting a mask mandate, according to the school board member who tried enacting one two weeks ago, though data points to a direct correlation between masks and lower infection rates in Florida districts.
Covid Hospitalizations in Flagler Crest, But Schools See 173 Infections in 3 Days and County Adds 10 Deaths
Admissions at AdventHealth Palm Coast hospitals in central Florida, which had reached record levels in the fourth Covid wave, crested seven days ago, and have been falling each day since–slightly, but visibly. Covid deaths in Flagler and school district infections are another matter.
Lawmaker and Non-Profit Sue Department of Health Over Its Refusal to Release Previously Available Covid Data
The Florida Center for Government Accountability and House Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, late Monday sued the Florida Department of Health and Surgeon General Scott Rivkees over the department’s refusal to provide Covid-related statistical records it used to make public daily.
An Emergency Room Nurse Pleads from the Darkness of Covid’s Front Lines: ‘Start Supporting, Stop Fighting’
“Stop fighting over what is real or not. Stop fighting over whether you should get the vaccine or not. Stop fighting over whether to wear a mask or not,” Megan Dunaway, an ER nurse manager, writes, pleading against covid denialism and for more support for hospital staff. “We, as a community, are in crisis.”
Is It a Crime to Forge a Vaccine Card?
When people are caught knowingly buying, selling or using false cards, the proof of guilt will often be clear. The real question is about the appropriate punishment. The law gives prosecutors and judges huge discretion on how to charge and sentence offenders.
$2.3 Billion in Federal School Aid Still Sits Unused Because Florida Hasn’t Sent In Spending Plan
Florida is one of only five states that has not submitted a state plan for Covid relief to the U.S. Department of Education, holding up billions in federal funds to help the Florida education system recover from the impacts of Covid-19 in schools.
Those Disappearing Covid Stats: It’s Not Just Florida
Florida has been accused of being less than transparent with covid health data. Newspapers have sued or threatened to sue the state several times for medical examiner reports, long-term care data, prison data and weekly covid reports the state received from the White House.
The Story of the Women Behind the First Domestic Violence Shelters
The women who set up the first women’s refuges in the UK in the 1970s changed the world. They saved the lives of many women. And the projects and political actions they began have grown into an international movement which campaigns for justice and supports all survivors and victims of domestic violence.
Fallen Deputy’s Daughter’s Anguish: ‘This Virus Has Come Home, It’s Everywhere and It’s Killing the People We Love’
Tina Luciano, the 30-year-old daughter of Paul Luciano, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Corrections Deputy who died on Thursday of covid complications, had written of witnessing her father’s struggle three weeks ago, and wrote again after losing him on Thursday, both times voicing her grief–and both times urging people to get vaccinated.
UNF Launches 2021 MedNexus Innovation Challenge for Palm Coast Area High School Students
The Mednexus Innovation Challenge is a competition that encourages high school students to participate in designing ideas for the future of healthcare through purpose-driven education and to apply innovation, science and technology to solve real state/local healthcare challenges.
Who Wants to Be Ron DeSantis’s Surgeon General? No Easy Answers.
Scott Rivkees announced he will leave his post as surgeon general and secretary of the Florida Department of Health next month. But the move comes amid a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Combine that with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ antagonism to federal health authorities and mask mandates, and it might make it difficult to find a replacement.
Will More School Districts Impose Mask Mandates Following Leon Court Ruling on Mask Policies?
A court ruling vindicated the mask policies of 10 Florida school districts that have mandated masks in schools without parental opt-outs. Now, the court ruling, in a verbal format, could lead to other districts adopting similar policies because the court determined that these kinds of mask mandates are legal, according to the judge.
Covid’s Casualties: Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Luciano Dies in Flagler, Circuit Judge Steven Henderson Dies in Volusia
Flagler County Sheriff’s Correction Deputy Paul Luciano was 60. Volusia County Circuit Judge Steven Henderson was 49. Both were still in their prime, at work as professionals and at home as family men. Neither fit the profile of Covid casualties, at least not of previous covid waves. Henderson died of the disease on Thursday at a hospital in Volusia County. Luciano died the same day at AdventHealth Palm Coast.
Judge Rules DeSantis Had No Authority to Ban School Mask Mandates or Punish School Boards That Adopt Masking
Judge John Cooper of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida ruled today that Gov. Ron DeSantis had no legal authority under the recently-enacted Parental Bill of Rights to prohibit local school boards from adopting mask mandates that did not include opt-out provisions. The judge found DeSantis’s order “capricious” and not based in evidence, but rather based on an incomplete reading of the Bill of Rights.
Flagler Schools Covid Cases in 3 Weeks Exceed All of Last Year’s; County Shatters Weekly Record; Florida Adds 1,727 Deaths
The county recorded 936 confirmed cases of covid in the week ending today, breaking last week’s record by over 200 cases. The health department is unable to conduct systematic contact tracing because it’s overwhelmed by the numbers. As of Thursday, 155 Flagler County residents had died of covid since the beginning of the pandemic, 41 of them in the last four weeks.
In Maskless Flagler, We’re All Covid’s Sitting Ducks
Flagler County is in the worst public health crisis it has known in its history, with at least 10 covid deaths a week as many school infections in 3 weeks as all of last year combined, yet the debate remains immobilized by a war on masks that defies science and daily grim realities.
Half of Florida’s Students Now in Districts Defying DeSantis Ban on Mask Mandates as Judge Readies to Rule
Circuit Judge John Cooper said he was “still wrestling” with the “sophisticated legal issues” presented in the case and promised to issue a verbal decision at 10 a.m. Friday. DeSantis on Thursday promised to appeal if Cooper does not side with the state.
Carla Cline’s New Project: Raise 1,000 Local Restaurant Gift Cards of $20 for Hospital’s Overworked Health Care Staff
Carla Cline, the Flagler Beach philanthropist, is raising a thousand $20 restaurant gift-cards to distribute to health care workers at every level at AdventHealth Palm Coast (and beyond) in an effort to counter the indifference and “nonsense” that has overwhelmed the public debate about the pandemic.
Clues to Misinformation Behind Public’s and Right-Wing Media’s Misuses of Vaccine Database
Unverified reports of vaccine side effects in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, aren’t the smoking guns portrayed by right-wing media outlets, but they can offer insight into vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.
Florida House Rep. Sabatini Threatens Flagler School Board of Legal Action in Letter Laced in Fabrications Over Covid Rules
Florida House Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote a letter to Flagler Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt and the school board today falsely claiming Indian Trails Middle School students are “being deprived of their right to a public school education,” and building on fabrications about the illegal quarantining of a child at Indian Trails Middle School that began pinballing around local social media pages last week.
As 8 School Districts Approve Mask Mandates, DeSantis Administration Argues in Court Against Them
As the legal battle plays out, eight school districts as of Tuesday afternoon had voted to require masks for students, with exceptions only for students whose parents submit doctors’ notes. The mask mandates in the eight counties cover an estimated 1.23 million students, based on state enrollment data from the 2020-2021 school year.
Have You Thanked a School Bus Driver Lately?
Pandemic fears and enhanced unemployment benefits have left the nation facing a serious shortage of qualified school bus drivers. The problem is acute, despite districts implementing recruitment campaigns, offering sign-up bonuses, and even fudging on the standards.
8 Days After Revealing Daughter’s Infection, Commissioner Joe Mullins Says He Has Covid–Again
Mullins revealed that he is a so-called breakthrough infection–getting infected with covid despite having been vaccinated in March and April. He boasted of changing his car’s tire just before getting monoclonal therapy treatment.
Two Healthcare Heroes Appreciation Drive-bys Friday at AdventHealth Palm Coast
The thank you procession parade will be held at two separate times on Friday, August 27, 2021: Noon and 8:00 p.m. The community is encouraged to attend and bring and wave signs of support from their vehicles.
Full Appeals Court Will Hear St. Johns School District Transgender Bathroom Fight
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday vacated a July 14 ruling by a three-judge panel that said a St. Johns County School Board policy preventing Drew Adams from using boys’ bathrooms was “arbitrary” and violated equal protection rights.
14 Covid Deaths in Flagler in 4 Days Bring County’s Total to 154; Florida Reports 1,486 Deaths Last Week, a Record
There have been many a worst week since the coronavirus pandemic began in the winter of 2020. In Flagler County, last week was the worst yet as the tally of residents who died from the disease set another record, with nine deaths this weekend alone, the tally of new infections also set a weekly record, at 731 confirmed, and ICU admissions were still rising, though admissions had slowed.
The Meaning of Happiness from the Ashes of Pompeii
“Here dwells happiness,” confidently proclaims an inscription found in a Pompeiian bakery nearly 2,000 years after its owner lived and possibly died in the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the city in A.D. 79. What did happiness mean to this Pompeiian baker? And how does considering the Roman view of felicitas help our search for happiness today?
Citing Unprecedented Hospital Crisis, Sarasota Is 6th Florida School District to Defy DeSantis Ban on Mask Mandates
The Sarasota County School Board voted, 3-2, late Friday to impose a 90-day mask mandate for students, employees, and visitors, citing a soaring positivity rate in locals tested for COVID-19, ovewhelmed local hospitals, and the district’s struggle to conduct sufficient school-based testing and contact tracing.
Covid Wars: A Ripped-Off Mask and Verbal Assault Over Rules Unravels Tensions in a School District
Incidents in a Texas school district reflect tensions over masks radiating across the country: In one instance, a parent physically grabbed the mask off of a teacher’s face. In a separate incident, a teacher was repeatedly yelled at by a parent who requested the teacher take off their mask, claiming they couldn’t hear what the teacher was saying.
You’re Free to Refuse the Covid Vaccine. But It’s Un-American.
Throughout history, America’s leaders have recognized that without concern for others, without the highest tradition of cooperative national action, democracy is in peril. People who decide not to get vaccinated must understand that their actions are not just selfish, they are un-American.
State Will Cut Funding for School Boards in Alachua and Broward Over Mask Defiance
The Florida Board of Education will withhold money equal to the salaries of local school board members from districts in Alachua and Broward counties over their tough mask mandates for students, which state officials say violate Florida law.
School Board Members Term Janet McDonald on ‘Witch Hunt’ and ‘Dangerous’ as She Guns for Board Attorney in Wake of Tuesday Tumult
School Board member Janet McDonald called for what would have been an unlawful, closed-door meeting to review the school board attorney’s contract, then called for any special meeting to review last Tuesday’s meeting, when the chamber had to be cleared because of the crowd’s rule-breaking. Two board members–Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro–responded with withering criticism of their colleague.
School or ‘Russian Roulette’? Amid Delta Variant and Lax Mask Rules, Some Parents See No Difference
Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends “universal indoor masking” in schools regardless of vaccination status, schools across the country are not embracing mask requirements, including for students under 12 who aren’t yet eligible for protective vaccines.
Family Life Center’s Trish Giaccone Sternly Rejects Flagler Beach Mayor’s ‘Rogue’ Attack, But Fences Aren’t Mended
Family Life Center Executive Director Trish Giaccone responded bluntly Thursday to criticism from Flagler Beach mayor Suzie Johnston that Giaccone had gone “rogue” by appearing on a radio commercial hosted by an incendiary county commissioner. But it does not appear as if relations between the city and the Life Center will improve.
Covid Deaths in Flagler Reach 140, an Increase of 26 in 3 Weeks; 90 Hospitalized in Palm Coast, ‘All ICUs at Capacity’
Local infections and hospitalizations for covid continue to break records. Data is emerging that points to vaccines losing their efficacy over time, underscoring the push for booster shots in a significant shift from earlier guidance. The reason: the delta variant of the coronavirus, far more infectiously virulent, has radically changed the landscape, making so-called “breakthrough” infections of the vaccinated more common than originally thought and forcing public health agencies to adjust.
Schools and Covid Safety: What Works and What Doesn’t
Vaccines and masks work. Plexiglass and temperature checks aren’t worth it, testing everyone isn’t necessary, but students should still keep their distances when eating–and the delta variant still has many unknowns.
White House Orders Nursing Home Workers in Florida Vaccinated, Whatever DeSantis Says
As Covid-19 cases continue to surge in Florida, the White House announced Wednesday that nursing homes that rely on Medicaid and Medicare funding must require their staff members to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
School Board Rejects Renewed Mask Mandate in 3-2 Vote at Meeting That Devolves into Chaos and Defiance
It was one of the Flagler County School Board’s more raucous meetings in recent memory this evening, with several key votes, including a rejection by the board, on a 3-2 vote, to restore a mask mandate in schools, with an opt-out provision. The board chamber had to be cleared for 45 minutes, and more than half a dozen sheriff’s deputies responded.
No, Indian Trails Middle Isn’t Requiring Vaccines, Detaining or Banning Students, But Falsehoods Go Viral Anyway
The case of a parent’s reaction to her son at Indian Trails Middle School being required to quarantine for at least four days illustrates how easily inaccurate information is misused to politically tendentious ends–it’s led to a call for a showdown before the school board this evening–or inflated into non-existent problems or false claims.
Food Stamps Benefits Will Increase 25%, First Increase in 15 Years, Helping 15,000 in Flagler
In Flagler County, 14,809 people in 7,546 households were receiving food stamps, and 3.3 million Floridians in 1.9 million households were. Average monthly benefits will increase to $157, or $36 more than pre-pandemic levels.
21 Flagler Residents Have Died of Covid in Last 2 Weeks, 1,600 Deaths in Florida, But State Is Masking the Figures
Flagler’s death count was released only after a public record request. The state Health Department is masking death counts for the state as a whole, just as it has been fudging vaccination figures to make them seem higher than they are, just as it has eliminated daily reports of case counts, whether for the state or the counties, in an apparent effort to downplay the intensity of the crisis.
Flagler Mosquito District Will Expand in Plantation Bay and Palm Coast But Scraps Plans to Cover the Whole County
The East Flagler Mosquito Control District voted this morning to expand its spraying boundaries slightly west and south to include an area of U.S. 1 and all of Plantation Bay. But the district abandoned further plans to phase-in spraying of the entire county, opting instead to revert to a 2003 agreement with the county to continue spraying West only on an as-needed basis.
Fact-Check: DeSantis’s Executive Order Claim that Masking in Schools Lacks Scientific Support Is False
DeSantis’ July 30 executive order falsely claimed that “forcing students to wear masks lacks a well-grounded scientific justification” and cherry-picked a study that offers little basis for his position and includes a variety of elements that are not accurate.
U.S. Department of Education ‘Stands With You,’ It Tells Florida Superintendents Willing to Enact Mask Mandates
The U.S. Department of Education is “deeply concerned” about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order seeking to ban school mask mandates and is ready to help districts directly, the federal agency said in a letter to the governor Friday.
Pfizer CEO to Public: Just Trust Us on the Covid Booster
Pfizer has not yet delivered conclusive proof to back up confidence that a third, booster, shot would improve immunity. The company lacks late-stage clinical trial results to confirm a booster will work against covid variants including delta, which now accounts for 93% of new infections across the U.S.