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ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK: THE SECOND YEAR

ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK: THE SECOND YEAR The first positive test among Fields residents and staff for the virus was reported on 3/17/20. No residents have tested positive at Bellamy since the initial outbreak ran its course. No residents…

ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK – Part I: The Staff

By JOHN HOPKINS, DR.P.H. (All rights reserved. Names and identifying information have been changed for privacy's sake) Bob's Facebook page shows him and his family in Florida in mid March 2020. Older parents, his wife and college age sons...cheerful,…

ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK – Part II: The Residents

By JOHN HOPKINS, DR.P.H. (All rights reserved. Names and identifying information have been changed for privacy's sake) Louise and Thelma each lived about 90 years before they met as roommates at Bellamy Fields. Among my theories about…

ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK – Part III: The Virus

By JOHN HOPKINS, DR.P.H. On the head of a pin sit either a million angels or a million particles of corona virus 19. The outbreak in China is well publicized but not well understood because of the obfuscation. Had American and other international…

ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK – Part IV

By JOHN HOPKINS, DR.P.H. "Caught in the Devil?s Bargain" Joni Mitchell, "Woodstock" PART IV A million virus particles on the head of a pin. Got it? It's not a hundred pins in your lungs; now it's a thousand... It's the 4th of July…

You’ve Got A Plastic Spoon…Part V

By JOHN HOPKINS, DR.P.H. ...AND THE ICE CREAM IS FROZEN... PART V The quarantine opposition is ready for a confrontation. Hoping to further obfuscate and downplay the initial failures of the viral immunization trials reported on Friday…

CAMUS; the Plague Part VI

Reader discretion advised: 13% of us will have a stress-related psychotic break during the pandemic. If you feel responsible for giving the virus to others and you feel guilty for causing their death, you have a psychosis. Medication and cognitive…

Sometimes as an Antidote to Fear of Death I Eat the Stars – Part VII

Rebecca Elson. Part VII When we wrestled as 8th graders on the verdant or muddy yard at the corner of North Washington and Green Ridge streets in Scranton in 1967, if Timmy or Danny got you in a headlock, you knew you were toast and you yelled…

Johnny and Stefanie, Part VIII

She drives in there with a couple of hard lefts, in a Rubicon going too fast and when she gets to the window she yells over the blaring oldies 96.9 "two of whatever Benny gets." She bristles. "Where's Benny?" She bristles back. "So you're…

Johnny is an Opposer, Part IX

Johnny has her monkey voices and her brilliance battles with her mania, a.k.a. ADHD on the spectrum, somewhere. I.Q. Score is 141 (thanks Stanford-Binet). If I cared I could be a doctor, like you. Could be or would be? asks Bennie. Her…