Being a mathematician and former Fulbright Scholar, Jay Leavitt trusts the science behind the incoming COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. He hopes their arrival means he ll soon see his wife again.
Leavitt, a resident of Polk County in Western North Carolina, hasn’t been with his wife, Virginia, since the pandemic began. Virginia lives on their family farm with two cats, two dogs, and two horses, while Jay, who is 85 and paraplegic, receives treatment in a long-term acute care facility about an hour away in Easley, South Carolina.
After a career in academia, he has spent the past several years in nursing homes on both sides of the state border. Virginia would always visit, until recently. Once COVID-19 started tearing through congregate living facilities like wildfires nationwide, his nursing homes clamped down on visitations.
North Carolina has now topped 8,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, another record as the state continues to see rising hospitalizations ahead of the holidays.
On Friday, North Carolina added 8,444 coronavirus cases more than 900 cases above the previous one-day high set a week ago. There are currently 2,824 people hospitalized with COVID-19, also a record. Only 17% of intensive care unit beds are empty and staffed according to state data, and health care workers on the frontlines say they re being stretched thin. Everybody that s on staff here is pretty much working COVID, said Christy Duncan, a nurse supervisor at the Toe River Health District in Mitchell County. We re just working a lot of overtime and putting in a lot of hours with COVID. It s very stressful and very time consuming.
North Carolina reported its largest one-day increase of COVID-19 hospitalizations in at least a month as hospitals continue vaccinating their first employees.
There were 2,735 people hospitalized with coronavirus Monday, 181 more than the previous day. Statewide hospitalization levels have increased every day but one this month, and state-collected data shows only 17.6% of intensive care unit beds are currently empty and staffed.
Out of more than 34,000 COVID-19 tests administered in North Carolina Sunday, 10.9% were positive. This marks the seventh consecutive day positivity rates exceeded 10%, more than double the 5% level state officials shave said they d prefer to see.
The state added 5,236 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, and the virus has now killed 5,881 North Carolinians.
The claim: John Hanson was the first Black president of the United States
In the past few years, multiple social media posts have declared John Hanson, not Barack Obama, as the first Black president of the United States. The posts, which often feature a black-and-white photo of a man in glasses, also claim Hanson was the very first U.S. president, even before George Washington.
Historians like James Robinson, formerly of the Durkeeville Historical Society Museum, credited the late comedian Dick Gregory with popularizing the belief about John Hanson in the 1990s.
In May 2016, a Facebook post stated Hanson, misspelled Hansen, was the United States’ first Black president. Barack Obama Was Never The First Black President. John Hansen Was The First Black President & He Also The First President Of The United States Even Before George Washington. We Never Hear About Him In Black History At All, the post, which is a photo of another post, claimed.
The long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in North Carolina, and the first health care workers are already getting the shot.
Dr. Katie Passaretti, Atrium Health s medical director of infection prevention, received the vaccination shortly after the Charlotte-based hospital system received its initial doses Monday morning. Feel perfectly fine, Passaretti said in a video posted on Twitter. Again, just a moment of hope. A moment of potential for change for the course that we re on with the pandemic right now.
During a media briefing later in the day, Atrium Health said it planned to vaccinate around 15 people Monday. The small number, Atrium board chair Gary Little said, would allow the health care system to work out the logistics of distributing a new vaccine.