After seeing people were not adhering to her recommendation two weeks ago, Sonoma County’s top public health official on Monday made clear everyone must wear a face covering starting Friday when they go inside any building other than home, or when outside if unable to remain at least six feet away from others.
Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, said residents can use a scarf or bandanna to cover their faces. She urged people not to buy N95 respirator or surgical masks, because health care workers are “in dire need for” them.
“These facial coverings are meant to protect the public from you,” Mase said during a live Facebook video briefing. “You’re not protecting yourself from coronavirus. What you’re doing is ensuring that if you had coronavirus but you are asymptomatic, you’re not giving it to other people.”
A gay man has detailed his horrific experience of being beaten by police in his home country of Turkmenistan for the simple crime of having HIV.
The 23-year-old spoke anonymously about his ordeal to RadioFreeEurope. He has successfully claimed asylum in a European country, but he is still haunted by the anti-gay brutality he faced at home.
Maksat hid his sexuality when he was growing up in the central Asian country, and he fled to Russia to study business management when he was 18-years-old.
In 2019, Maksat was diagnosed with HIV. He was later deported under a Russian law that sends HIV-positive foreign nationals back to their home countries.
Back in Turkmenistan, Maksat retreated into the closet and kept his HIV-status hidden, knowing he would face discrimination and possible criminal charges if anyone found out.
Gay man taken in for questioning by police when he tried to access HIV treatment in Turkmenistan.
But he still needed to access treatment. Last December, Maksat went to a local HIV/AIDS centre in an attempt to access antiretroviral therapy. He took a blood test and was asked to return two days later.
When he went back to the HIV/AIDS centre, two police officers were waiting for him.
First they questioned me. Then began to beat me badly.
“The officers asked me how I got infected [and] I told them I didn’t know,” Maksat said. He knew not to disclose details of his sexuality because gay sex is illegal in Turkmenistan.
More than 24 hours later, three police officers turned up at Maksat’s apartment and hauled him in for questioning.
“First they questioned me. Then began to beat me badly. They told me: ‘We know where you got HIV. You’re gay.’ I told them that it’s not true. But they kept beating me.”
Police then forced Maksat to sign papers admitting that he was gay. When he initially refused, they said they would out him to his entire family if he did not comply.
Maksat was also terrified that he would be convicted of “knowingly” infecting others with HIV, an offence that carries a maximum of five years in prison in Turkmenistan.
He is now claiming asylum in an LGBT-friendly country.
He was told to report to his local police station in January as law enforcement authorities in the country close for several days at the end of December. Instead, Maksat took the opportunity to flee his home country.
Maksat first returned to Russia where a friend helped him contact an LGBT+ rights organisation, and he was subsequently able to claim asylum in an unnamed European country.
He now lives in an LGBT-friendly country, but he is still afraid to be completely open about his sexuality. He fears that he will never be able to return home and see his parents as he would likely face criminal charges if he did.
Maksat is terrified that his parents will find out he is gay, saying it would “bring shame” on them. He also worries that police could question his family in an effort to uncover his whereabouts.
Life in Turkmenistan can be extremely difficult for members of the LGBT+ community. Gay and bisexual men can face up to two years in prison for daring to love, and society is largely unaccepting of queer identities.
Immigration Equality says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released four of its gay clients with HIV.
Two of the men had been in ICE custody at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, La. The other two men were detained at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, La., and La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz.
LaSalle Corrections operates the Richwood and Winn Correctional Centers. CoreCivic, a company previously known as Corrections Corporation of America, runs La Palma Correctional Center.
“All four of these clients are gay men living with HIV who had been persecuted in their countries of origin simply for being who they are,” said Immigration Equality Legal Director Bridget Crawford on April 10 in a YouTube video. “Unfortunately, when they sought safety in the United States they were put in detention centers where they received horrendous HIV care, and lived in deplorable conditions and with the outbreak of COVID our clients’ lives were placed in great danger.”
Immigration Equality on March 23 demanded ICE release detainees with HIV who are at increased risk for the coronavirus. The four men who ICE released are among the six men who Immigration Equality named as complainants in the complaint it filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Crawford in her video said some of Immigration Equality’s clients in ICE custody “hadn’t even been told about COVID or the ways to protect themselves.”
“Even in the best of times these facilities are highly unsanitary with little access to adequate handwashing stations, soap,” said Crawford. “Social distancing is virtually impossible, so when you add COVID to the mix it is a tinder box for spread of the virus.”
“Needless to say, we needed to jump into action to secure the safety of our clients,” added Crawford.
ICE on its website says there are 61 detainees with coronavirus.
Two of these detainees are at La Palma Correctional Center. One detainee at Winn Correctional Center has coronavirus, and another at Richwood Correctional Center has tested positive.
These statistics were last updated at 5:35 p.m. on April 10.
“The health, welfare and safety of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees is one of the agency’s highest priorities,” says ICE in a statement it posted to its website on March 15. “Since the onset of reports of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), ICE epidemiologists have been tracking the outbreak, regularly updating infection prevention and control protocols, and issuing guidance to ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) staff for the screening and management of potential exposure among detainees.”
“ICE continues to incorporate CDC’s COVID-19 guidance, which is built upon the already established infectious disease monitoring and management protocols currently in use by the agency,” adds the statement. “In addition, ICE is actively working with state and local health partners to determine if any detainee requires additional testing or monitoring to combat the spread of the virus.”
ICE has also suspended “social visitations” at all of its detention centers.
All of us here at Face to Face hope that this message finds you safe and healthy while Sheltered In Place. This is a challenging time for all of us with things changing on the daily. Although it may seem like there is not much good going on at this time, we must all remember that the fires and floods of the past three years have shown us how to deal with catastrophe and we are Sonoma County Strong!
Here at Face to Face we remain resilient, hopeful and committed to our work. That has not stopped from day one of this pandemic and we will continue to do our work in the best and most safe way possible that we can at this time.
Along the way there are always silver linings. At times like these we need to dig a little deeper to find them. But trust us, they are all around and we wanted to take some time to share some of those silver linings with you.
Our Work Continues to Enhance the Lives of Others
Over 10,000 Needles per week along with Naloxone have been provided by Face to Face during this pandemic.
Harm reductionists are among the invisible healthcare workers continuing to provide essential services to our community. Lorie Violette, our Prevention Director is working on the frontlines here in Sonoma County to continue to provide Syringe Exchange services as well as Overdose prevention with supplying people with Naloxone. She has given out over 10,000 needles per week since the arrival of COVOID-19 by providing mobile services out of the trunk of her car.
Lorie has also filled 17-eight gallon containers that hold approx. four thousand used needles in them since she has gone mobile. This in part helps keep needles off of the streets in our community. People with underlying chronic health conditions face increase severity and risk of death from Coronavirus. The more that we can provide this service in our community the more lives we will be saving.
We have placed 5 clients into new homes in the past month!
Our Case Workers Consuelo Ardon and Tania Silvia along with our Housing Administrator Miasha Terry have placed 5 clients into their new homes, including two homeless clients into hotels in the county. We are thrilled to report that as of today 3 more homeless clients are going to be placed in hotels during this most fragile time. Homelessness is a health risk especially during a pandemic. The more we can assist in getting people off the streets the better chances we have at keeping people healthy.
Our Executive Director, Sara Brewer is navigating through this crisis on a daily basis.
In times of crisis one must be ready to take charge and lead their team through the rough challenges that they all face. We are so fortunate to have an Executive Director that puts the care of her team at the forefront while having to balance that with keeping the organization up and running. Sara has been able to do both while actively looking at all the options that are out there to keep Face to Face fully functional and operating. Wading through all the government options along with applying for Grants are taking up most of the days while keeping in touch with the team via Zoom meetings. Please send all your positive vibes out there to Sara!
Homemade Masks for our Prevention DirectorLorie Violette, our Prevention Director here at Face to Face has been on the front lines since Day 1. She has become a one-person Syringe Exchange team providing exchange and overdose prevention to those in need.Just this week she received an email from the Harm Reduction Coalition based in Oakland informing her that one of their mom’s was making home made masks since she is a tailor/clothing maker. She has been making these masks which include a filter and nose piece and has offered some to Lorie to get her through her days meeting up with clients.
We are so grateful to have people who are reaching out to others to protect them while they are doing their work that puts them in harms way.
Ways to help others in Sonoma County during the Coronavirus Pandemic
It is so beautiful and inspiring to see a community coming together in times of need. The Press Democrat did a great piece on a number of ways to help out while SIP. While we would love you to donate to Face to Face, and we hope that you will. We realize that we are all in this together and that there are so many organizations that provide amazing services in our county. Some of them include Meals On Wheels, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Food For Thought, La Luz Crisis Fund, Undocufund, Ceres Community Project and PEP Housing.
New Initiatives Pay Struggling Restaurants Thousands to Feed the Needy
As our restaurant industry is hurting at this time we love the way that people are finding ways to be creative in coming up with new initiatives that are helping restaurants feed so many in our communities. You can read the full article in SfEater here that feature some of our local establishments.
DO YOU HAVE SOME “SILVER LINING” STORIES TO SHARE?It is at times like these that we need to find inspiration. There are so many out there doing good at this time and we would love to hear from you so that we can share these stories with our community. Email your stories to [email protected]
When his officers raised concerns about catching the coronavirus, a South Florida police chief tried minimizing their worries by claiming a Broward County deputy’s COVID-19 death was caused by his “homosexual” lifestyle, the officers alleged.
Chief Dale Engle, the head of the Town of Davie’s police department, made the remarks during an angry tirade against the officers after a patrol briefing on April 7, according to a complaint filed to town administration by a state police union that represents the officers.
Engle was placed on administrative leave Saturday evening “pending further review of allegations,” the town administration said in a statement. The remarks allegedly came four days after BSO Deputy Shannon Bennet, a 12-year veteran at the sheriff’s office, died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced HIV/AIDS service organizations and advocacy groups in Puerto Rico to change the way they work.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation Regional Director for Puerto Rico Silvana Erbstein on Tuesday told the Washington Blade in an email the organization’s clinic in Trujillo Alto, a municipality that is less than 15 miles southeast of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, “remains operational.”
Erbstein said the clinic continues to provide medical, case management and pharmacy services and transportation for its patients.
“All staff is on site and our clients are being served in person when needed (emergencies, needed lab, treatment) or via phone consultation,” said Erbstein. “Strict policies and procedures on safety for patients and staff, and social distancing are followed.”
Erbstein said AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s pharmacy “continues its operations as usual,” although it is delivering most medications to patients’ homes or making them available for on-site pick up. Arianna Lint, executive director of Arianna’s Center, a South Florida-based organization that works with transgender Puerto Ricans, told the Blade that Arianna’s Center has also reached out to the pharmacy to “make sure transgender people in Puerto Rico have a continued relationship” with it during the pandemic.
Wilfred Labiosa, executive director of Waves Ahead and SAGE Puerto Rico, told the Blade on March 31 during a telephone interview from San Juan that local pharmacies have also given medications to patients without prescriptions.
Labiosa said Waves Ahead and SAGE Puerto Rico went fully online on March 17, the day before Gov. Wanda Vázquez issued an island-wide lockdown and curfew. Labiosa told the Blade the organizations’ roughly 300 clients who live in the San Juan metropolitan area and in Cabo Rojo, a municipality on Puerto Rico’s west coast, access services through their smart phones.
Waves Ahead and SAGE Puerto Rico also continue to provide coronavirus and non-coronavirus information and services on their Facebook pages.
“We are adapting to the new reality in Puerto Rico,” said Labiosa.
Bill’s Kitchen is a San Juan-based organization that prepares meals for nearly 900 people with HIV/AIDS.
Sandy Torres, the group’s executive director, on April 3 told the Blade during a telephone interview that she and her colleagues began to plan for the pandemic’s arrival in Puerto Rico in February.
Torres said Bill’s Kitchen provided clients with two weeks worth of supplies after Vázquez announced the curfew.
She told the Blade that Bill’s Kitchen received additional funds that allow her staff to deliver food, medications and other basic needs to more than 100 clients. Torres also said case managers continue to call their clients to see what they need.
“We put that intervention together three weeks ago and we have been doing that on the phone everyday since then,” she said.
The pandemic arrived in Puerto Rico less than three years after Hurricane Maria devastatedthe U.S. commonwealth. A series of strong earthquakes caused extensive damage on Puerto Rico’s southwest coast earlier this year.
Former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, resigned last August after a series of homophobic and misogynistic messages between him and members of his administration became public. Vázquez was Puerto Rico’s justice secretary before she became governor.
The Puerto Rico Department of Health indicates there are currently 683 confirmed coronavirus cases on the island and 33 deaths. The latest statistics also indicate 6,696 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Puerto Rico.
Vázquez on Sunday announced all businesses except for pharmacies and gas stations will be closed over the Easter weekend. Labiosa and other activists and service providers continue to criticize the Puerto Rican government’s response to the pandemic that includes lost coronavirus tests and the resignation of two health secretaries in March.
“It’s hard to tell the impact on the LGBTQ community and Puerto Ricans living with HIV because the government has not made testing widely available,” Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a Puerto Rican LGBTQ advocacy group, told the Blade on March 31 in a text message. “To make things worse, there’s very little demographic information on who has tested positive.”
Serrano, who is a vocal critic of Vázquez and the New Progressive Party, added Puerto Rico is “flying with a blindfold imposed by the government and that is dangerous.”
“There’s no way of telling how widespread the pandemic is on the island,” he said.
Raymond Rohena of the Puerto Rico Trans Youth Coalition echoed Serrano.
“A lot of scientific information is needed to have an accurate picture of the actual situation with regards to coronavirus-related deaths,” said Rohena last week during a Facebook Messenger chat with the Blade their family’s home in the San Juan suburb of Carolina.
Labiosa noted San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has worked with Quest Diagnostics to open a drive-through coronavirus testing site in her city’s Río Piedras neighborhood. Labiosa nevertheless conceded testing remains limited in Puerto Rico.
“There’s a very limited access to testing here, like in many parts of the states, but here the central government has lost tests in route,” he said.
Rohena and other activists with whom the Blade has spoken say the lockdown and curfew the government has implemented in order to curb the pandemic have made people with HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ Puerto Ricans even more vulnerable.
Labiosa said one of his organizations’ clients — a 78-year-old man with HIV who lives in the San Juan metropolitan area — was eating only one egg every other day until he received his food stamp benefits at the end of March. Labiosa told the Blade the man then waited 45 minutes to enter a supermarket and had to use a shopping cart to bring his groceries home.
“He had to wait and then he exposed himself to go to a major store,” said Labiosa.
Labiosa told the Blade a lack of transportation and access to technology are among the other issues with which his organizations’ clients are dealing.
“It has been really hard for them to join into the platforms that we have developed in order not to stop the services,” he said, noting Waves Ahead and SAGE Puerto Rico are helping their clients get cell phones that can connect to the Internet.
“It is a challenge that we are meeting head on,” added Labiosa.
Lint said many of Arianna Center’s clients in Puerto Rico are sex workers. She told the Blade that many of them are “very, very concerned about their housing situation” because the curfew prevents them from working.
Torres said another concern is many Puerto Ricans with HIV have asthma and other health issues that make them even more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Torres told the Blade that many of Bill’s Kitchen’s clients receive food stamps and they are concerned about whether they will have enough food to eat during the lockdown.
“[There is] a very high level of anxiety,” Torres told the Blade. “There is also a lot of loneliness with this distancing.”
Rohena and Labiosa also expressed concern over the way the Puerto Rican government will distribute the money earmarked for the U.S. commonwealth under the $2.2 trillion stimulus package that President Trump signed on March 27.
The Associated Press reports anyone who makes under $75,000 a year will receive $1,200. Parents will also receive $500 for each child under the bill that Trump signed.
“I am afraid to ask about the distribution of that aid,” Labiosa told the Blade. “I told myself don’t hold your breath for the check. Let’s just celebrate if we receive it.” “We would be pleasantly surprised if all of our clients get that check,” he added. “It will really benefit them and a lot of the people in general who work in the tourism industry or those (industries that) are really impacted.”
The Blade has reached out to the Puerto Rican government for comment.
Sharon Kleinbaum was installed in 1992 as rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan, considered the largest LGBTQ synagogue in the nation. At the time, AIDS was killing thousands of gay New Yorkers each year.
“The CBST community knows what it takes to live through a plague,” Kleinbaum says in a message posted on the synagogue’s website after New York became an epicenter of COVID-19.
Yet the pandemic poses challenges that weren’t present during the AIDS crisis — notably that she’s fulfilling virtually all her duties without face-to-face contact. She mostly works from her apartment in far-northern Manhattan, where she lives with her wife and dogs, 10 miles from the synagogue.
“That I cannot be with people physically is very hard,” Kleinbaum said.
During the AIDS crisis, she recalled, there were no such worries.
“I could be with people. I could hold their hand in the hospital. I could be with their loved ones.”
The Associated Press followed 10 New York City residents on Monday, April 6, as they tried to survive another day in the city assailed by the new coronavirus. For more, read 24 Hours: The Fight for New York.
One key challenge these days is technology, given the congregation’s reliance on digital communications.
“I’m not fluent with tech on the best of days,” Kleinbaum says. “I need to be more fluent very quickly.”
Yet she’s grateful for the ability to lead services online.
“I was shocked about how spiritually deep it felt,” she says. “I was prepared for it to be an alienating experience, and it wasn’t.”
Late Monday morning, she convened an online meeting with 14 staff members. Three have endured bouts with COVID-19; one lost a parent to the virus, another has a spouse who is battling it.
By phone, Kleinbaum spoke to a woman in the congregation who was traveling to a cemetery to bury her mother — under state orders, only 10 people were allowed at the funeral.
“I let her know that she’s not alone, that people in the congregation are thinking about her,” Kleinbaum said.
She also spoke to a congregant whose spouse, in hospice care at their home, is close to dying.
“It’s made worse because I can’t visit them,” she said.
Despite such difficulties, Kleinbaum is grateful — just to be there.
“I feel like God wants me to be alive right now,” she says. “Maybe for this you were born.”
We’re all giving up a lot these days, in the name of social distancing for the greater good. But something no one should have to give up is healthy, nutritious food.
Now more than ever, Food For Thought’s 850 clients, living with HIV and other serious illnesses, are in need of nourishing groceries. And you can help!
COVID-19 has forced the cancellation of the Sonoma County Human Race, which Food For Thought participates in annually. We hoped to raise more than $20,000 through our team of walkers and fundraisers at this year’s event.
To make up for this loss, we have created the GIVE IT UP campaign. This fun and engaging virtual fundraiser challenges you to give up something you love to eat while raising funds to feed those in need in our community. Set up your fundraiser today, it’s easy! Simply click the button below to become a fundraiser. Then ask your friends and family to donate in exchange for each day you give up a favorite food item.
Here’s an example of how it works:Kim really, really loves ice cream. And she’s been eating a *lot* of it while she has been sheltering in place. Kim posts her Give It Up! fundraiser on her social media accounts, and her sister Jane donates $10 in exchange for Kim not eating ice cream for a day. Jane gets their whole family on board to donate, and Kim’s college roommates and other Facebook friends pitch in, too. Kim raises $500 (and looks forward to eating ice cream again in late May).
The California Department of Public Health provided new data on the state’s positive COVID-19 tests on Wednesday, and provided the striking piece of information that health care workers make up nearly 10 percent of the state’s confirmed cases.
At the time of the report’s publication, there were 16,957 confirmed cases in the state, and 1,651 involved health care workers. However, just 299 of health workers were known to have acquired the virus in a “health setting,” while 462 were exposed via travel, close contacts, or community transmission, and a whopping 890 cases are of unknown origin.
“Since COVID-19 is moving rapidly within the community, health care workers now appear just as likely, if not more so, to become infected by COVID-19 outside the workplace,” the report states.
The report did not give any additional information on which workers are seeing higher infection rates.
“This larger number, which includes both occupational and non-occupational exposures, is important because it shows the overall impact of COVID-19 on the health care workforce,” the authors of the report write. “Regardless of the source of exposure, an infected health care worker needs to isolate from the workforce to prevent risk of infection to colleagues and the patients they serve.”