New heights

 Records are made to be broken. 

Louisiana reported the highest single-day increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

There were 6,199 confirmed COVID cases and an additional 3,179 probable COVID cases reported in the Department of Health's noon update.

The 6,199 confirmed cases mark the largest single day increase ever in Louisiana.

Interestingly this is happening within a context of  under-reported data be it from increased use of at home tests or just flat out lying by local medical examiners. 

In Lafayette Parish, COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause of death in 134 fatalities in 2020, even though there were 419 “excess deaths” – the number of deaths that exceed a normal, pre-pandemic year. The gap between these two numbers means hundreds more people probably died of COVID-19, researchers said. 

Deaths attributed to diseases that are often tied to COVID-19 increased. Deaths at home from hypertensive heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s all increased 30% or more in 2020. Those deaths, especially those that weren’t properly investigated, make up at least some of Lafayette’s missing COVID-19 deaths, according to experts.

Especially concerning are deaths in the community attributed to nonspecific causes, known as “garbage codes.” For example, 40 people in the parish who died at home since 2020 were certified as dead of “heart failure, unspecified.”

Meanwhile it looks like we're back to just waiting to see if it all blows over as a policy response. I saw some city agencies are reimposing mask mandates and the councilmembers are back on Zoom.  Everyone else is basically at the mercy of their boss for direction going forward.  Hope you don't work for the schools....

 

Just spoke with a nurse on the Children's Hospital covid testing hotline and she said they are not doing return-to-school tests as they are currently overwhelmed, so don't waste your time trying to get an appt.

— Molly Rouxdolph 🦌 (@hashtagmolly) December 29, 2021

Worst person of 2020?

Seems like a lofty title. The competition would be stiff. Pros only, please. Probably if you are a mayor of something, you've already got a leg up on it.  But it would be hard to beat Josh Guillory at this point. 

Instead of hurricane damage, Lafayette has faced the "serious, local security threat" of protesters, according to Lafayette Parish Mayor-President Josh Guillory's administration.

Cydra Wingerter, Guillory's chief administrative officer, sent a Saturday email to those involved in disaster response, urging them to "take a pause on any action to establish shelters at this time."

Hundreds of thousands of people without electricity or water right now.  But... "security threat." Brilliant. 

Chemical dispersants?

Do they think it's an oil spill? 

Police threatened to tow cars parked in the Acadiana Mall parking lot and the crowd seemed to disperse only to regroup on Camellia Boulevard near Kaliste Saloom Road.

Police in riot gear confronted the protesters about 8:20 p.m. About 8:40, pepper bullets released a chemical dispersant into the crowd.

In other places, the cops may be tear gassing some folks. Here they hit you with Corexit. 

Nobody could have predicted

Bobby Jindal "never would have imagined" that this horrible thing that happens with alarming regularity all over the place could happen again.

A KLFY reporter also asked Jindal about gun control. Here was his response:

"Right now we're just learning the details of what happened. ... Let's focus on the victims right now. Let's focus on their recoveries. There'll be a time, I'm sure folks will want to jump into the politics of this. Now is not the time."

At a news conference carried live after his initial comments, Jindal said this:

"Today is a day that not only angers but also saddens all of us. ... we never would've imagined it would've happened in Louisiana or Lafayette. ... (told story about teachers) ... We're going to hear about other acts of selfless heroism. ... I saw family members that were hoping for the best, waiting for information on their loved ones. ... They're praying and fearful and anxious. We've heard from folks all over the country. Now is the time to send them your thoughts, your prayers, your love ... (on first responders) They ran towards danger, not away from it. The first officers could literally still hear the gunshots."

We "never would have imagined" because the very act of allowing for the possibility is indecent to our posture.

@BobbyJindal Mass shootings make for good campaign rhetoric,right? Stop praying & fix the problem!#LafayetteShooting pic.twitter.com/hl58wqDtRr

— Jon Vecellio (@JonVecellio) July 24, 2015

"Now is not the time" to talk about it, though. That would also be indecent.  

Pepper

They're having a "Suspicious Package" break in classes at the UL-Lafayette campus this afternoon. 

Looks like two "packages" which, if the pattern on these sorts of things hold, are most likely a discarded wig and an old metal lunchbox. But the police explode them anyway just to be safe.  Sadly the Lafayette cops don't seem have a specialized bomb robot like the one NOPD occasionally get to play with.

They do have dogs, though.  According to the Advertiser report picked up by WWL, the university also has a dog.

The university's dog, Pepper, and those from other local law enforcement are being used to sweep all buildings on campus including the Cajundome and the University Research Park.

Does the University of Louisiana have a dog? Yes. How many dogs does it own? One. What is the dog's name? Pepper.  What does the dog do?  Hangs around mostly... deterring crime.

So what made University Police decide to add K-9 help?

"As an emergency response agency we try to use her as a deterant to crime, so we got her knowing that that's something we needed to do," Sgt. Lasalle says.

And they use her frequently, making random sweeps along the campus and bringing her to big events.  University Police also lend Pepper out to other agencies in the case of bomb threats or bomb scares around the area.

 Yeah sometimes the cops need her to help them do stuff. 



The UL cops are happy anyway.  They're even looking to expand the program and assemble a team of super-dogs to watch over the campus.

Pepper is only two and a half years old, and soon she might have other K-9's by her side.  University Police are looking for other dogs with other specialties to make this campus the safest that it can be.

Can't wait til the movie comes out.