PA Brings "Dram Shop Law" to Nursing Homes

Pennsylvania establishments serving liquor are subject to "Dram Shop Law" (https://palawblog.stark-stark.com/2010/09/articles/personal-injury/pennsylvania-dram-shop-law/) - basically the idea is that if you server a "visibly intoxicated person" you, the waitstaff, owner, etc. is responsible after an accident regardless.

Wait, are the service people driving the car?

No.

How is this reasonable?

It's not.

It's a hand out to trial lawyers to get you and your insurance company to fund irresponsible behavior.

Lawyers have turned this into a tool to extract money from the misery of others an accident.

You, the bar owner, are never convicted under the "Dram Shop Law"- the responsible person (who drove the car) finds a lawyer and blames the bar owner who should have known the patron was intoxicated.

Note that someone with a .1 (PA is .08) comes in behaving normally - no visible symptoms - and is served on drink.  This person leaves and has an accident.  The last waitstaff/bar/restaurant to have served this individual is now responsible...

Now look what the Pennsylvania Attorney General is up to: "Pennsylvania AG Opens Criminal Probes Into Nursing Homes Long-term care facilities have struggled for months to contain the coronavirus" (https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/coronavirus/pennsylvania-ag-opens-criminal-probes-into-nursing-homes/2394287/).

We KNOW that Levine and Wolf forced home to take Covid-19 ill patients.

And boom, just like a bar, now the home will be responsible for lack of testing, death, harm, etc.

Why would anyone want to run a nursing home or bar in Pennsylvania?

Why would anyone want to live where people who are not responsible have the behavior of those that are forced onto them?

Wake up!

Where will grandma go if all the nursing homes are forced go out of business?

It's not like anyone predict any of this: the nursing home owner could never have predicted this.

Will you, soccer mom, quit your job to take care of grandma?

The problems here are much, much larger than Wolf and Levine...

General lack of owning responsibility for your own actions is the problem here.

Mr. Attorney General needs to start with those responsible: Wolf and Levine.

Coronavirus: Georgia's Early ReOpening "Human Sacrifice?"

A few weeks ago I wrote how government and health care workers were responsible for Covid deaths (https://lwgat.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-real-angles-of-death.html).

About the same time this article appeared in "The Atlantic:" Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice - The state is about to find out how many people need to lose their lives to shore up the economy (link: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georgia-reopening-coronavirus-pandemic/610882/)...

Human sacrifice...

(Remember this was published April 30, 2020 - probably reflecting information from a few days earlier.)

First let's look at the facts from Gerogia (snapshot from today): https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report (see "Deaths" under "Georgia Cases by County"):

As you can see there is a steep decline in death over the last few weeks indicating a distinct lack of "human sacrifice." (Note recent cases are dimmed due to confirmation - these are estimates based on death reports not given time to "settle.")

Modeling (from Dr. Frank Models on Facebook) indicates the same:

A bit further down on Georgia's page we see "Demographics" - if you select the "Healthcare Workers" tab you will find this chart:

So these are confirmed "Covid" cases by people working in health care.

What do you see?

The cases have been reduced to near zero, and well ahead of the "general population" cases.

If over-all Covid cases in the general population were driving the "Healthcare Workers" infection rate we should see it continue to rise.  (Pick March 16th, for example, where both general population and healthcare worker rates are rising, comparing we see a vast decline in May in health care infection rates even though over all cases are much higher.)

We see Covid declining.

We also know anecdotally that some 10% of Georgia's healthcare workers have Covid (for example: https://www.wabe.org/10-of-confirmed-covid-19-cases-in-georgia-are-among-health-care-workers/).  This is probably low because there is no reason to test people that appear to be healthy.

(As compared to Pennsylvania nursing home cases make up a much lower percentage of cases in Georgia, perhaps 25% according to this : https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/assisted-living-facilities-make-up-big-portion-of-central-georgia-virus-cases/93-cf15b72e-068d-40a7-98e5-0a122948c5a0)

So if general population is not driving the healthcare worker rates perhaps it's the other way around:  Healthcare workers were driving the cases in the general population. It would seem that as Georgia figured this out and pushed down the infection rate of their healthcare worker population the case load in the general population declines.

If the healthcare workers were "just like" the general population we would expect their caseload to decline in sync.  But it doesn't.  It declines faster.

This "human sacrifice"nonsense is total, utter idiocy!

You'll die if you are older, have comorbidity factors and in close contact with someone who has it, like a healthcare worker.

If states like Pennsylvania had any notion at all of "real science" it would see the same thing.

Nursing Home Democide in PA and NY

Democide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide) is a term proposed by R. J. Rummel since at least 1994[1] who defined it as "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or high command."

Here in Pennsylvania we see this story: Police: New Kensington mother left son, 3, in care of abusive boyfriend charged with killing him (https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/police-new-kensington-mother-left-son-3-in-care-of-abusive-boyfriend-charged-with-killing-him/) "Police charged the boy’s mother, Teresa Lynn Fetterman, 23, on Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter and other offenses. She was charged less than a week after police charged Keith Dale Lilly Jr., 31, with homicide following the boy’s death. Both were being held Wednesday in the Westmoreland County Prison."

So let's play a word game...

Let's change these words:

"New Kensington mother" => "Governor Tom Wolf and Rachel Levine"
(https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/pa-forced-nursing-homes-take-covid-patients-health-secretarys-mother)

"New Kensington mother" => "Governor Andrew Cuomo and Howard Zucker"
(https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-sent-recovering-coronavirus-patients-to-nursing-homes-it-was-a-fatal-error-11589470773)

"left" = "ordered"
("ordered" when coming form a state official)

"son, 3" = "elderly nursing home patients"

"abusive boyfriend" => "facilities unable to handle, ill prepared for Covid-19"

So if Ms. Fetterman is a criminal, why aren't Wolf, Cuomo, Zucker and Levine?

Clearly if they were disadvantaged in some way they would be guilty...

Maybe it's time to call the FBI.

Sure sounds like Democide, Mass Murder, Crimes Against Humanity or Genocide to me?

Coronavirus: Wolf's Frightening Reasoning...

The Wolf Administration: Rotten to the Core

Your governor has no rational argument for essential and non-essential services and he thinks destroying your business is not a problem (from his Supreme Court filing).  Read for yourself, don't trust my interpretation.

So two things.

First off Wolf's rotten to the core argument to Alito and the Supreme Court can be found here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19A1032/142846/20200504095730241_Respondents%20Opposition%20to%20Appl%20to%20Stay.pdf

Wolf makes a number of claims, two I believe are fatally flawed.

First, as to what is "Essential" and "Non-Essential" - page #20 in the above link:

"The Governor’s list of life-sustaining businesses is divided among industries using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which is well understood by businesses. These codes and classifications were developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget and are utilized by the U.S. Census Bureau to group similarly situated organizations and entities together for classification purposes. See U.S. Census Bureau, North American Industry Classification System, https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/ (last visited 5/2/20). By using this highly regarded and ubiquitous classification system, the Governor ensured that similarly situated entities would be treated the same. As demonstrated by this action, Applicants certainly understand upon which side of this divide they fall."

So what is NAICS you ask?

(from https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/2017NAICS/2017_NAICS_Manual.pdf):

"NAICS is an industry classification system that groups establishments into industries based on the similarity of their production processes."

It's all set up by codes, digit, prefixes, stuff like that.  For example:

11 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting—Activities of this sector are growing crops, raising animals, harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from farms, ranches, or the animals' natural habitats.

So looking at Wolf's list we see this (https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/wfmz.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/18/c18a1c60-6b71-11ea-ba4c-778e1c007dd3/5e760c683d14e.pdf.pdf):

No materials for face masks?  No problem.  We just lumped everybody together.

This doesn't say dick about what the things are used for.  It's based on how they are made.

It says nothing about people, proximity, anything related to disease, disease prevention, ...

Nothing.

So you are lumped into some category you had to pick on your PA100 filing; none of which you fit into because most businesses that are small don't.

Many businesses do more than one thing.  How's that handled?

Arbitrary and dumb and WRONG...

This isn't science, it bureaucratic zero real world experience stupidity.

Instead you'd say - hmmm - no one knows what goes on in these businesses so let's device simple policies everyone can follow regardless of their business.

Problem one - start out with the wrong model.

On to section D. There has been no “taking” of Applicants’ properties under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments

First this: He also argues police powers are appropriate as "Courts have consistently held that a State need not provide compensation when it diminishes or destroys the value of property by stopping illegal activity or abating a public nuisance. It is hard to imagine a different rule that would be consistent with the maxim “sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas” (use your own property in such manner as not to injure that of another).

I don't think we are all criminals.  But apparently he does...

Wolf next spends a great deal of time talking about how what he's done is not effectively eminent domain.  He uses arguments like the government cutting down trees of type A to save trees of type B and the government not having to compensate the type A owners because its for a good, public cause.

And then, which in my view is very telling and very, very wrong: "Here there is not even contemplation of property being damaged or destroyed.  Rather, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court correctly recognized, the Governor’s Order “results in only a temporary loss of the use of the Applicants’ businesses premises” in order to “protect the lives and health of millions of Pennsylvania citizens[.]”"

Think about this: "Here there is not even contemplation of property being damaged or destroyed."

When your employee quits that you've invested time and money into... that's not damage?

This is very, very scary...

Most businesses will have credit issues with suppliers, banks, and so on.

People they will lose along with their investment in those people.

Then Wolf says: "... unremarkable proposition that government action rendering property permanently valueless constituted a taking. That is not the case here, where the restrictions are by their nature temporary. Indeed, after review and consideration of public health data, the Governor has recently announced the reopening of certain business locations for 24 counties beginning May 8, 2020."

So it's okay for the government to render your equipment useless because you can't bring in a repair person.

That's not taking?

(See too how he hedges with the "reopeneing ..." will be soon...)

This guy is out of touch with reality.

Totally.

If I go to your work and literally throw a monkey wrench into your tire balancer and break it you can't call the cops?

That's destruction of propery.

And its the same here.

This is what our state is telling the Supreme Court.

Our tax dollars are writing this tripe.

This loser is hawking this bullshit.

This smacks of hastiness, sloppiness, and government lackeys pointing and misfiring from the hip.

Little wonder no one publicizes this.

And, to boot, I filed a FOIA (RTK in PA) on Wolf's office.

Guess what I got back (though other departments excluding health responded) from Wolf's office:

"Please note that the Office is currently closed due to the COVID-19 disaster emergency. Requests will be processed upon resumption of business."

His office isn't closed.

He delivered the arguments Monday.  Bet the lawyers worked over the weekend on triple over time on our tax dollars: https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2020/05/04/pa-gov-wolf-urges-scotus-not-to-take-up-fight-over-covid-orders-closing-businesses/

It's hiring lawyers to write bullshit arguments.

Why are these lawyers even working?

(Note they are not allowed as non-essential...  Yet I see Edgar Snyder adds on various TV channels.)

Oh, wait, defending this sorry ass is "essential."

His office is open to defend but not open for me...?

What a double dealing loser...

Coronavirus: A Cure Hidden by Trump Hate?

I have written here about Dr. Vladimir Zelenko.

He clearly and plainly describes a cure for the unusual pneumonia portion of Covid19 that kills people and he claims success in curing some 1,500 patients (https://lwgat.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-dr-vladimir-zelenko-and-cure.html).

I will explain the cure here.  It's very simple.

And I will also explain why you don't know about it.

First, please listen to the entire audio interview portion, and, if you don't please don't comment.

In the last few days an "investigation" of Zelenko has been whipped up according to the Washington Post (see https://www.axios.com/hydroxychloroquine-fox-news-doctor-doj-probe-59d9aeae-f23d-4a56-99b5-c2337b5cb601.html) "The Justice Department is probing the communications of Vladimir Zelenko, a New York doctor who has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment and has been touted by Fox News host Sean Hannity, the Washington Post reports."

I have been following Zelenko since March 30, 2020 or so.

Apparently Zelenko contract Trump with regard to his "cure."

Of course, the media seized on this claiming Trump was promoting hydroxchloroquine (from https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-trump-drugs-290e024f-cc70-420a-841c-d7658ee6d62e.html) "President Trump tweeted on Saturday that hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, and azithromycin, an antibiotic, "have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" when taken together — as novel coronavirus cases surge in the U.S."

This has been been amplified, just like PCR, beyond recognition (just like the unreliable PCR-based Covid19 tests).

Clearly Trump is not a scientist, he's a business man.

What's so interesting here is comparing what Zelenko says with what the media reports.

Zelenko was quite clear on his protocol, offering it freely in multiple interviews:

Hydroxychloroquine 200mg, 1 pill twice a day for 5 days,
Azithromycin (not a Z-pack) 500mg, 1 pill a day for five days
Zinc Sulfate 220mg 1 pill a day for five days

Okay, search around for "Trump", "Zelenko",  Covid19 cures, and whatever you like.

There's one think you won't find anywhere...

And that's Zinc Sulfate.

So keep that in mind...

Now the NY Times and others are whipping up a "Zelenko-fest" of bad publicity.

Why?

Because apparently Zelenko isn't a democrat.

(See: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/us/coronavirus-doctor-zelenko-malaria-drug.html and https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/zelenko-669-coronavirus-patients/ - on and on but that's not the point...)

Everyone likes to report on the hdroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

Why?

Look at the Trump tweet above.

No Zinc.

Zinc has been around for some time (see: https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/corona/colds.html going back to the mid 1990s -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam) and there are many studies about how well it works.

So why doesn't anyone write about it?

Why do they ignore Zelenko's actual treatment?

Is the media so dumb that they actually completely ignore a Covid19 treatment that works?

Apparently NOT!

So are doctors going around treating people based on two thirds of the treatment?

(Actually it work's with or without Zinc see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102549/ - but I think better with Zinc.)

In fact this is likely the study Zelenko mentions: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04370782

(Remember from the previous posts that Fauci himself would try these kinds of things rather than waiting years for vaccines.)

But because Trump said it it must be wrong.

And media simply parrots Trump as if he were a doctor.

And as a result a treatment which Zelenko provides for anybody at his clinic that actually works is simply misrepresented.

Hence you are locked down...

It's curable as far as I can tell.  Guys like Zelenko are literally staking their reputations on it.  Not because they are frauds or dumb or Trump lovers but they actually care about curing people.

Trump hate is killing you.

Trump hate is locking you down.

Trump hate is killing old folks in nursing homes.

Trump haters would rather people die than be cured.

This is truly fascinating.

Taking this to its logical conclusion one imagines in Pennsylvania Dr. Levine's literally destroying people's lives because of comments Trump has made.

(No one can cure the coronavirus common cold but we can whip up a Covid19 vaccine in a few weeks to exactly match the Fauci-predicted pandemic...)

USC 18, Section 242: https://www.justice.gov/crt/deprivation-rights-under-color-law

Cures exist.

Lockdowns ignore cures.

Governors are making decision based on tweets.  No research.  No thinking.  They should be tried for crimes against humanity.

Yes, they really are this dumb and/or evil.

As you can see from the last post things are starting to change.

You have rights.

They can only scare you into giving them up.

Grow up.

Do you research.

Coronavirus: Freedom of Religion Wins

The Maryville Baptist Church, Inc. v Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky - It seems Freedom of Religion will triumph:

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca6/20-5427/20-5427-2020-05-04.html

MARYVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH,INC.;
DR.JACK ROBERTS,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

ANDY BESHEAR,  in  his  official  capacity  as  Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Defendant-Appellee

Similarly...

LIGHTHOUSE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH,
Plaintiff,

v.
Case No. 2:20-cv-00204-AWA-RJK
RALPH NORTHAM, in his official capacity
as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
Defendant.

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.474453/gov.uscourts.vaed.474453.19.0.pdf

Basically temporary restraining orders to prevent enforcement of "anti-religion" life-sustaining  only Covid19 edicts.

These restraining orders would not have been granted (as each states) unless "The  Church  is  likely  to  succeed  on  its  state  and  federal  claims, especially with respect to the ban’s application  to  drive-in  services."

Note, however, these are not "blank" decisions but merely prevent the state for singling out religion from what otherwise might be poor Covid19 decisions.

So this is good news.

I wonder what other Constitutional freedoms will be addressed?

The strategy here seems to be "if you let 1,000 people into Walmart with social distancing rules why can't people engage in a properly controlled worship service?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_v._Massachusetts is mentioned in passing but perhaps out of context.  It would seem that adults have a much broader range of rights than children in regard to making martyrs of themselves and also it seems that if you are sick you should stay home.

Coronavirus: Fauci on Hydroxychloroquine: "I'd see if these work"

Our old friend (and Hillary sycophant) wasn't always so circumspect about Hydroxychloroquine.

Nor was he thinking a coronavirus vaccine was right around the corner.

No, he was still in love with Hillary back in 2013...

Obama was president.

And Fauci was faced with MERS from the Middle East.

USA Today in 2013: "Scientists fight deadly new coronavirus" (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/18/scientists-develop-possible-treatment-for-new-sars-like-virus/2091443/)...

Quote: "We don't have to start designing new drugs," a process that takes years, Fauci says. "The next time someone comes into an emergency room in Qatar or Saudi Arabia, you would have drugs that are readily available. And at least you would have some data."

Even though the treatment hasn't gone through definitive trials, Fauci says, "if I were a physician in a hospital and someone were dying, rather than do nothing, you can see if these work."

Hmmm...

Fauci: "if I were a physician ... rather than do nothing, you can see if these work."

Yet USAToday seems to have forgotten all about their own article on the matter: (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/04/06/hydroxychloroquine-trump-anthony-fauci-peter-navarro-whos-right/2953317001/).

Today our friendly fact checkers say things like (https://factcheck.afp.com/fauci-not-alone-saying-hydroxychloroquine-unproven-against-covid-19) "Fauci not alone in saying hydroxychloroquine unproven against COVID-19"

The the above quote is quite true.

It's unproven (or at least you are supposed to believe it is).

Yet there's our old friend Dr. Vladimir Zelenko who claims proof it (in combination with other drugs) does work (see: https://lwgat.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-dr-vladimir-zelenko-and-cure.html).

Research (https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/3620/Email) goes back into 2005 on this a few years after the "Bird Flu" that was going to kill us all:

If you listen to Zelenko's audio in the link above it's clear he found these documents and was able to use them successfully...

Let's think about this...

1. Fauci is clear that in cases of emergency he would use it.  But that doesn't seem to be the message as far as Covid19 is concerned.  I guess he has an investment in this (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gilead-says-remdesivir-hit-primary-124822894.html) "NIAID’s trial enrolled more than 1,000 patients internationally and compared remdesivir treatment alongside supportive care with a placebo. Patients who got the drug recovered in an average of 11 days, while those who get a placebo recovered in 15 days, Fauci said."
   
2. Fauci says in an emergency situation he'd try it, or at least he would if, perhaps, Obama were president...
   
3. It works as far as Zelenko is concerned - he claims to have successfully treated hundreds of patients.  But poor old Vladimir's not a "big pharma" guy - he thinks anyone who says but then acts like Fauci ought to face a "crimes against humanity" trial.

We also need to notice a few things:

1. No one says much, at least until recently, about the demographics of Covid19. Had they early on it's like things would be different; to wit not sending recovering Covid19 patients to nursing homes to "recover" (while everyone else dies).  Funny how this hasn't come up...
   
2. No where I have seen does anyone say much about actual treatment regimens being used.  Do Republican governors use some secret protocol, perhaps involving hydroxychloroquine and Democratic governors use nothing?  You don't see much but I have seen a few reports indicating that states with lower death rates are more open to various treatments (just like Fauci used to be).
   
3. There's probably more subtle lying and cheating going on too.  Since Cuomo sent Covid19 patients to nursing homes to recover is it really fair to count those killed by the governors idiocy as Covid19 deaths when after all he caused them? (see: https://nypost.com/2020/04/28/more-blood-on-gov-cuomos-hands-amid-nursing-home-coronavirus-crisis-goodwin/ and decide for yourself).
   
4. The moron in charge of Pennsylvania's Covid19 response is involved with the same (https://whyy.org/articles/despite-risk-philly-facility-housing-seniors-will-take-covid-patients-from-hospitals/).

See the pattern?

The early patients went into the hospital, then to non-hospital facilities so the hospital could have more room for Covid19 patients.

Of course, this created more Covid19 patients, and more people to send to new nursing homes because the old ones were infected.

and on and on and on...

Now the rest of us have a problem.

In PA 60% of the cases are in nursing homes...

Coronavirus: Taking Your Rights Back

A small win in Florida... 

Galen Wood, the owner of Kitchen Table Games in Pinellas Park. FL was cited multiple times for operating his "non-essential" business.

There's a decent historical write up of "“Non-Essential” Business Wins Huge Court Case Against State After Refusing To Close Doors To Public" from: https://politicodailynews.com/non-essential-business-wins-huge-court-case-against-state-after-refusing-to-close-doors-to-public/

Under Federal Law18 U.S. Code  242 Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law makes (https://www.justice.gov/crt/deprivation-rights-under-color-law) "makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

For the purpose of Section 242, acts under "color of law" include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official's lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim."

See also: https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1256349799319851010

Attorney General Bill Bar has also addressed this issue (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/27/william-barr-orders-legal-action-against-governors/) and here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wDQS5wYqkFMtfw01_FfKmD3NhcUZLOWA/view

Coronavirus: US Supreme Court vs Tom Wolf

Filed with the US Supreme court against Governor Tom Wolf of PA (https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/19a1032.html).

This is the "Diveto" case regarding a golf course shutdown and now under review.

(Note: Think golfing isn't "essential"?  Ask Obama: https://www.foxnews.com/media/tucker-carlson-coronavirus-lockdowns-america-oligarchy) You can seem him in the linked video golfing despite a VA stay-at-home orders so you betcha - "golfing is essential" if you're important!)

Full text of suit: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19A1032/142444/20200427121304104_APPLICATION%20FOR%20STAY.pdf

Arguments in Pennsylvania Supreme court: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19A1032/142444/20200427121325640_EXHIBITS%20-%20APP%20FOR%20STAY.pdf

PA Supreme court rejects the argument: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/pa-supreme-court-rejects-challenges-to-covid-19-business-shutdown

Next up will be RTK's on what is "essential" and "non-essential", how did they come to the choice they did, what did they argue for but the PA and US Supreme Court cases...

I'll probably wait until after noon tomorrow to see what happens.  Noon is when Alito has requested Wolf to respond by (from the link: Response to application (19A1032) requested by Justice Alito, due Monday, May 4, by noon.)

Corornavirus: PA "Right To Know" Requests

A bit of background first:

A few years ago I was involved with FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests related to the FDA and vaping (see: https://lwgat.blogspot.com/2018/11/fda-foia-response-3.html).

Though the FDA effectively crushed vaping (in cahoots with along with states like Pennsylvania) they knew that the principles vaping relied on would work to stop the use of "combustion" tobacco. Nicotine itself is neither a carcinogen nor addictive yet the very idea that something "like" a cigarette could halt the use of cigarettes was so foreign they couldn't accept it.  (Look back in this blog for more info if you are interested.)

Ironically, a few days ago a Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos involved in the original vaping fight published a paper on how smokers unusually under-represented as Covid19 victims (see: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200430/smokers-hospitalized-less-often-for-covid-19 and https://www.qeios.com/read/Z69O8A.13)

Moving forward...

Today I filed a number of Pennsylvania "Right to Know" (https://www.openrecords.pa.gov/index.cfm) requests related to Covid19 and the various lockdowns "recommendations" from the Department of Health.

PA RTK is similar to FOIA. 

They have a web page here (https://www.openrecords.pa.gov/RTKL/AOROSearch.cfm) where you can identify individuals within the state government responsible for responding.  You can browse the rest of this sight if you are interested in RTK.

(Please note that the people listed here are not your enemies.  The have a job to do and, in my experience, they do their best.  Also understand they are not there to answer questions; only to provide specific data which you must request as concisely and clearly as you can.)

I made requests of the PA Department of Health as follows (summarized below excluding all the surrounding red tape required to file):

DOH1: All scientific and medical information, supporting evidence, records, guidance, data, communications, and email justifying and utilized in the forming of the order "to protect the public from the spread of Covid-19" set forth in the Department of Health document (4/15/2020) "Order of the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health Directing Public Health Safety Measures for Businesses Permitted to Maintain In-person Operations" https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200415-SOH-worker-safety-order.pdf.

DOH2: All scientific and medical information, supporting evidence, records, guidance, data, communications, and email justifying and utilized in the substantiating the claim of “public health  emergency" set forth in the Governor's order (3/23/2020) "ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR INDIVIDUALS TO STAY AT HOME" "https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.23.20-TWW-COVID-19-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf" 

DOH3: All scientific and medical information, supporting evidence, records, guidance, data, communications, and email justifying and utilized in the forming of the specific order "To protect the public from the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)" set forth in the Department of Health document (4/15/2020) "Order of the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health to Stay at Home" https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.23.20-SOH-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf.

DOH4: All scientific and medical information, supporting evidence, software, records, guidance, data, communications, verification and auditing processes, web logs, operational logs, and email describing, documenting and implementing the "data driven" approach described as "a modeling dashboard under development and evaluation by Carnegie Mellon University to take a regional and sector-based approach to reopenings, the easing of restrictions, and response." defined in https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/#A.

DOHEC1: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the economic impact to residents and businesses of the order "to protect the public from the spread of Covid-19" set forth in the Department of Health document (4/15/2020) "Order of the Secretary ... Permitted to Maintain In-person Operations" https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200415-SOH-worker-safety-order.pdf.

DOHEC2: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the economic impact to residents and businesses to the states response to the “public health  emergency" set forth in the Governor's order (3/23/2020) "ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR INDIVIDUALS TO STAY AT HOME" "https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.23.20-TWW-COVID-19-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf

DOHEC3: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the economic impact to residents and businesses of order "To protect the public from the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)" set forth in the Department of Health document (4/15/2020) "Order of the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health to Stay at Home" https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.23.20-SOH-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf.

DOHEC4: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the economic impact to residents and businesses of from the utilization of "a modeling dashboard under development and evaluation by Carnegie Mellon University to take a regional and sector-based approach to reopenings, the easing of restrictions, and response." defined in https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/#A.

DOHEC5: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the economic impact to residents and businesses of from the utilization of "a modeling dashboard under development and evaluation by Carnegie Mellon University to take a regional and sector-based approach to reopenings, the easing of restrictions, and response." defined in https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/#A.

The following were requested from the PA Department of Revenue:

REV1: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the impact on state revenue due to the order "to protect the public from the spread of Covid-19" set forth in the Department of Health document (4/15/2020) "Order of the Secretary ... Permitted to Maintain In-person Operations" https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200415-SOH-worker-safety-order.pdf.

REV2: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the impact on state revenue due to the “public health  emergency" set forth in the Governor's order (3/23/2020) "ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR INDIVIDUALS TO STAY AT HOME" "https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.23.20-TWW-COVID-19-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf" 

REV3: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the impact on state revenue due to the order "To protect the public from the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19)" set forth in the Department of Health document (4/15/2020) "Order of the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health to Stay at Home" https://www.governor.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.23.20-SOH-Stay-at-Home-Order.pdf.

REV4: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the impact on state revenue due to the utilization of "a modeling dashboard under development and evaluation by Carnegie Mellon University to take a regional and sector-based approach to reopenings, the easing of restrictions, and response." defined in https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/#A.

REV5: State financial, revenue, and tax information, analysis and projections, records, guidance, data, communications, and email related to the impact on state revenue due to Covid-19 state response defined in https://www.governor.pa.gov/process-to-reopen-pennsylvania/#A

This is only a start...  There are a lot of bread crumbs to follow in all this.

They have five business days to comply but most likely they will ask for "more time..."

We shall see...

I will publish what I discover.