AFTER FIVET H E N O R T H S T A T E M A G A Z I N EJANUARY 2021 / 34th Year / No. 3 THE NEWS, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MONTHLY

2020 WEIRD NEWS FAVORITES, PLUS NEW ONES - PAGE 7

Déjà Vu All Over Again: 1918 & 2020 Pandemics

Disappearing Acts

Covid-19 Survivor

ON THE COVER

Page 2 / January 2021 / After Five

When in Weaverville...

Editor’s Note: After Five Magazine has chosen to withhold the last name of the subject of this article for privacy reasons.

By Aaron WilliamsHe was a faithful mask-wearer. He

carried hand sanitizer with him while delivering multiple publications in Redding and other areas of the north state. Yet, Bob still contracted Covid-19, and his message is a sobering reminder that the coronavirus is very contagious and potentially lethal.

“I need to tell people who say that ‘It’s just a cold or the fl u’ – that it’s not true,” he said more than three weeks after his Covid-19 bout nearly killed him. “I was told in the hospital that I was a lucky one.”

Bob, 79, is one of more than 19 million persons in the United States to contract the virus in the past year and one of more than 80 million worldwide. As the year draws to a close, the death toll has now surpassed 330,000 in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. The combined counties of Shasta, Tehama, Siskiyou, Trinity, Butte, Glenn, Lassen and Modoc all remain in the most-restrictive purple tier as do most of the counties in the state, according to guidelines set forth by California.

Bob, a self-described “workaholic,” who previously worked for 35 years for a wholesale sash and door business in Southern California, credits staying active and relatively healthy as he approaches 80 for his ability to survive a three-week stint in Mercy Medical Center battling the virus.

Unsure of where or how he contracted Covid-19, Bob said his wife, Dorothy, was the fi rst to show symptoms.

“We have absolutely no idea where we go it,” he said. “From day one, we were wearing masks. While delivering, every single day I wore a mask and carried hand sanitizer.”

According to the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, the coronavirus is most frequently spread during close contact via airborne transmission. However, respiratory droplets can also land on surfaces and infect a person if he or she touches that surface and then his or her eyes, nose or mouth, the CDC says.

But Bob was also delivering publications in late October and early November all over Redding when the virus had already begun to spread rapidly in the area, including among many people who have chosen to not wear masks or keep their distance.

Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency spokeswoman Kerri Schuette said while nothing is 100 per-cent eff ective in preventing coronavirus, preventative measures do add up.

She likened mask wearing, hand sanitizing, social distancing and hand washing to the analogy of stacking Swiss cheese upon one another.

“There are holes in the slices, but as you stack them up, the holes are harder to fi nd,” she said. “Still, it is a contagious disease that is spread from person to person.”

When Bob and his wife began showing symptoms, they went to Mercy Medical Center where they found out they had both tested positive.

“I wasn’t as bad as she was (at the time),” Bob said. “We both couldn’t breathe very well. When we got to the hospital, she passed out and they kept her there.”

Bob was sent home. But his symptoms got progressively worse over the ensuing days to the point where it was diffi cult for him to even utter a word due to a lack of oxygen.

“I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs (to talk),” he said. “I had headaches, shortness of breath, a low-grade fever, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, body aches, a cough and fatigue.

“I was quickly down for the count.”When his granddaughter, who is a

nurse, stopped by to check on him, he told her to call for an ambulance.

“When I got to the hospital, they said I slept for three straight days,” Bob said. “I absolutely thought I was done for.”

A few days after he was admitted to the hospital, his wife was doing better and was released. And his daughter,

who lives with them, tested positive for Covid-19 but had not shown any symptoms, an indication of how the virus is aff ecting people diff erently.

Bob spent the following three weeks fl at on his back at Mercy. He was placed on oxygen and was given the antiviral drug Redemsivir.

Doctors asked him for permission to be placed on a ventilator if it became necessary, but he told them no, he would stick with the option of high-fl ow oxygen, adding he heard most people don’t come off the ventilator once they go on it. So he stuck with oxygen.

It worked. Bob steadily improved over the next few weeks strongly determined he would get better.

“I heard a nurse say her dad got it in March and didn’t get up and around until October, and I thought ‘That won’t be me,’” he said.

Bob said he received very good care while at Mercy with a rotating stream of physicians and nurses who he said “were amazing and unsung heroes” in all that’s happened in this pandemic.

“The doctors and hospital were outstanding,” he said.

After his breathing fi nally improved, he was allowed to go home with oxygen and a wheelchair. By late December, he was fi nally off the oxygen and convalescing at home, although still laboring a bit with his breathing. He continues to be a staunch believer in masking up and doing his part to help combat Covid.

“We need to do our part and put a mask on,” he said. “It’s not that big of a deal and can save a lot of (people from dying).”

Bob said, when the time comes, he will get back to work, as well as stand in line to get one of two vaccines that have so far been approved, though because of his treatment he’s ineligible for it for at least 90 days.

“Am I nervous to go back out (in public)? Absolutely,” he said. “But when I’m physically able, I will get back to work.”

On the brink of succumbing to Covid-19, a local man survives to tell his story

PHOTO / shutter_o

After Five / January 2021 / Page 3

Page 4 / January 2021 / After Five

AFTER FIVEThe North State Magazine

After Five is published monthly for the communities in the north state and southern Oregon. Founded October 28, 1986. Advertising policies: The subject matter, form, size, wording, illustrations and typography are subject to the approval of After Five. Because a product is advertised in After Five does not necessarily mean we endorse its use. Display advertising rates and more detailed explanation of our ad policies are available on request. The entire contents of After Five are copyright 2021 by After Five. Mailed subscriptions are $50 per year. Editorial portions of the magazine may be reprinted by non-profit organizations. All other reproductions require the express written consent of the publisher. After Five welcomes editorial contributions, suggestions and story ideas from its readers. After Five is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. Manuscripts or materials unaccompained by a stamped, self-addressed envelope will not be returned. Space is offered for short announcements and calendar events on a regular basis. Readers should submit calendar items between the 1st and the 15th of the month preceding the month of publication. No phone call submissions; email or regular mail only.

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Publisher: Craig HarringtonP.O. Box 492905, Redding, California 96049

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The Performing Arts Society of Redding presents jazz artists Greg Takemoto and Cleveland Boney in a virtual performance on the “PAS Redding” YouTube channel at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 8.

Saxophonist Greg Takemoto and pianist Cleveland Boney will play jazz originals and selections from “The Great American Songbook.” Often referred to as “American Standards,” the songs published during the Golden Age of this genre include enduring tunes from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Featured songs and pieces to be included in the concert: “Dienda” by Kenny Kirkland; “I Remember You” by Victor Schertzinger; “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” by Manning Sherwin; “Orvieto” by Stefano Bollani; “Changing Faces” by Cleveland Boney; “The Long Walk Home” by Greg Takemoto; and “Life Is a Circus” by Greg Takemoto

This concert will be available on the PAS Redding YouTube channel after the Jan. 8 performance. Previous PAS concerts are also on the channel.

Donations to PAS are appreciated and welcome by check at P.O. Box 990904, Redding, CA 96099, or through PayPal.

Cleveland Boney and Greg Takemoto

Virtual jazz concert slated Jan. 8

After Five / January 2021 / Page 5

By Jim Miller

Is a portion of Social Security income taxable?Dear Savvy Senior,I understand that a portion of

my Social Security benefi ts may be taxable when I retire. Can you tell me how to calculate this?

- Ready to Retire

Dear Ready,Whether or not you’ll be required to

pay federal income tax on your Social Security benefi ts will depend on your income and fi ling status. About 35 percent of Social Security recipients have total incomes high enough to trigger federal income tax on their benefi ts.

To fi gure out if your benefi ts will be taxable, you’ll need to add up all of your “provisional income,” which includes wages, taxable and non-taxable interest, dividends, pensions and taxable retirement-plan distributions, self-employment, and other taxable income, plus half your annual Social Security benefi ts, minus certain deductions used in fi guring your adjusted gross income.

How to CalculateTo help you with the calculations,

get a copy of IRS Publication 915 “Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefi ts,” which provides detailed instructions and worksheets. You can download it at IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf or call

the IRS at 800-829-3676 and ask them to mail you a free copy.

After you do the calculations, the IRS says that if you’re single and your total income from all of the listed sources is:

• Less than $25,000, your Social Security will not be subject to federal income tax.

• Between $25,000 and $34,000, up to 50 percent of your Social Security benefi ts will be taxed at your regular income-tax rate.

• More than $34,000, up to 85 percent of your benefi ts will be taxed.

If you’re married and fi ling jointly and the total from all sources is:

• Less than $32,000, your Social Security won’t be taxed.

• Between $32,000 and $44,000, up to 50 percent of your Social Security benefi ts will be taxed.

• More than $44,000, up to 85

percent of your benefi ts will be taxed. If you’re married and fi le a separate

return, you probably will pay taxes on your benefi ts.

To limit potential taxes on your benefi ts, you’ll need to be cautious when taking distributions from retirement accounts or other sources. In addition to triggering ordinary income tax, a distribution that signifi cantly raises your gross income can bump the proportion of your Social Security benefi ts subject to taxes.

How to FileIf you fi nd that part of your Social

Security benefi ts will be taxable, you’ll need to fi le using Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR. You also need to know that if you do owe taxes, you’ll need to make quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS, or you can choose to have it automatically

withheld from your benefi ts. To have it withheld, you’ll need to

complete IRS Form W-4V, Voluntary Withholding Request (IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4v.pdf), and fi le it with your local Social Security offi ce. You can choose to have 7 percent, 10 percent, 12 percent or 22 percent of your total benefi t payment withheld. If you subsequently decide you don’t want the taxes withheld, you can fi le another W-4V to stop the withholding.

If you have additional questions on taxable Social Security benefi ts call the IRS help line at 800-829-1040.

State TaxationIn addition to the federal

government, 13 states – Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia – tax Social Security benefi ts to some extent too. If you live in one of these states, check with your state tax agency for details. For links to state tax agencies see TaxAdmin.org/state-tax-agencies.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

Page 6 / January 2021 / After Five

By CARRIE CLASSONA fellow I know was grousing about the past year. His birthday was coming up and he felt, once again,

that this year failed to meet his expectations. He was unhappy with the year, unhappy with himself, unhappy

that 2020, of all years, was going to be better than the

how things work out,” he told me. “When I step back

it matters.”

hopes up at all. He seemed to feel that expecting

game and he was not going to fall for it again.

any chipper remarks because I knew he

f o r c o m m i s e r a t i o n for what he saw as a lost and wasted year. But I did spend some time thinking about his complaints and I decided

go clean out his refrigerator.

The new year is an excellent time to take a peek at

look at it under a good strong light. Throw out the sweet and sour sauce of frustrated

expectations. Pitch that packet of expired yeast for

the sourdough starter and get something new going, something you can pass on to your friends.

Today is special. Put that mustard on a hotdog tonight

Take out those empty containers that used to be

those things anymore. Get rid of the reminders. Throw out the empties.

and ask myself, “Does this make me happy? Or is it

If I can still imagine the person who might eat it,

away and get on with my cleaning.

refrigerator for new stuff.

or want or care about. The new year is a good time to

some shelf space.

THE POSTSCRIPT

Throw Out the Empties

After Five / January 2021 / Page 7–Please See Page 10

News of the Weird staff ex-tends greetings for a happy and blissfully less weird 2021.

-

––––––––––––––––––––Seattle dad and self-

described travel enthusiast Steve Simao attracted a fol-lowing after his daughter, An-nisa, called him out on her Tik-Tok account for his purchase

seats taken from a Delta MD90 Jetliner, complete with an air safety card.

Simao, who is vice presi-dent of sales at Windstar Cruises, found the seats on eBay in November, reported The Washington Post, and has had fun scratching his itch to travel with them ever since, sending his daughter videos of her mother “bringing food to the (tray) table and him just sitting there enjoying it,” An-nisa said.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian has taken notice and given the

class tickets to anywhere in the United States. Hawaii is high on their list.

A woman who would not leave a St. Petersburg, Flori-da, Mobil gas station was ar-rested for trespassing on Oct. 14, The Smoking Gun report-ed.

Melinda Lynn Guerrero, 33, was also charged with providing a false name to law enforcement after she repeat-edly said her name was “My butt just farted.”

Guerrero from a series of ar-rests over several years, and her last name is tattooed on her back.

They noted she may have -

cohol or drugs.

Kazakh bodybuilder, actor and self-described “sexy ma-niac” Yuri Tolochko announced his marriage to his beloved, a sex doll named Margo, on In-stagram and shared with his followers their wedding video, in which the joyous couple, wearing a tuxedo and a full-length wedding dress, ex-change vows and welcome friends and loved ones to a reception after the ceremony, The Sun reported.

-self as pansexual and able to fall in love with “a character, an image, a soul,” and said the two became engaged a year ago, after he rescued her from

some unwanted attention in a nightclub.

“Couples need to talk less and connect more,” Tolochko said. “Margo and I realized that it takes more than words to have a conversation.”

An Amazon delivery driver in Nuthall, Nottingham, Eng-land, is out of a job after Sha-ron Smith, 53, discovered him defecating in her back garden in late July.

Smith said she saw the man run toward her garden and went to investigate.

“I asked what the heck he was doing,” Smith told Metro News, “and he just remained pooing whilst asking me what my problem was – the cheek

of it.” The driver told police he

-ize he was in a private garden.

Smith agreed to not press charges as long as he cleaned up the mess and his employer was informed; Amazon prom-ised a gift voucher as a good-will gesture.

An unnamed man in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia, posted notices offering a $100 prize to the person able to best impersonate Chewbacca from “Star Wars,” but the contest turned out to be a hoax de-signed to harass the woman who dumped him.

The posters listed the

invited contestants to call and deliver their best Chewbacca roar.

getting phone calls at really strange hours of the night. ... I thought it was quite funny, ac-tually, a good joke.”

However, she drew the line when the ex abandoned his car, without tires, in the drive-way of her home, blocking her in. “The police ... are going to do something about it,” she said.

Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, arrested Robert Lee Noye, 52, on Feb. 17 and

harassment and false impris-

onment after his victim told them Noye kidnapped her and forced her to watch the 1977 historical miniseries “Roots” “so she could better under-stand her racism,” The Ga-zette reported.

He allegedly told her if she did not sit for the entire nine-hour series about slavery, he would “kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago.”

The Design Museum in London has included a “DIY meal kit” featuring steaks that

own human cells among the nominees in its Beazley De-signs of the Year exhibit.

Developers of the Ourobo-ros Steak envision that an in-dividual will be able to harvest cells from their own cheek and feed them with serum derived from donated blood that has expired, Dezeen reported.

After about three months, the steaks would be fully grown.

“People think that eating oneself is cannibalism, which technically this is not,” said Grace Knight, one of the de-signers.

Researcher Orkan Telhan added, “Our design is scien-

-sible but also ironic in many ways,” he added.

Cockroach farms are not new in China, where the bugs have long been used in Chi-nese medicine, but a new fa-cility near the eastern city of Jinan is gaining attention as a way to deal with food waste while producing organic pro-tein supplements for animal feeds.

In four industrial-sized han-

reported, rows of shelves are

from restaurants through an elaborate system of pipes.

--

ing to keep the roaches from escaping.

“In total there are 1 billion cockroaches,” farm manager Yin Diansong said. “Every day they can eat 50 tonnes of kitchen waste.”

Said project director Li Yan-rong, “If we can farm cock-roaches on a large scale, we can provide protein that

cycle.”

Residents in the upscale neighborhoods of Woodway and Edmonds, Washington, have been visited recently by

An unnamed hunter near the Czech Republic village of Horni Plana

woods, United Press International reported. The gun was unloaded, and police said another hunter saw the stag more than a half-mile

Page 8 / January 2021 / After Five

This article originally appeared in The Aggie on Dec. 17, 2020. Reprinted here with permission.

By Sneha RamachandranThe California Aggie - UC Davis

It has been over 100 years since the world experienced the devastating 1918 pandemic, and history seems to be repeating itself, according to UC Davis professors.

Before COVID-19, it had been over 100 years since the world experienced the H1N1 infl uenza pandemic, more commonly known as the Spanish fl u. The fl u hit right at the end of World War I and continued in waves into the 1920s, and the virus was believed to have far more fatalities than the war. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Spanish fl u caused 50 million deaths worldwide.

Despite its name, the Spanish fl u was thought to have originated from the U.S. Spain remained a neutral country during the war, and the national newspaper in Spain was one of the only papers that reported about the virus, leading to the name “Spanish fl u.”

Covid-19 parallels the Spanish fl u in many ways. Pictures of people wearing masks in 1918 and anti-mask protests have been circulating around social media as of late.

Last April, The California Aggie completed its digitalization of its archives since its foundation in 1915. The archival records show articles written by Davis students in 1918, when the Spanish fl u pandemic was at its peak. Here was one article:

Infl uenza Regains Foothold at Farm, Students Are Warned to Prepare Against Dreaded Epidemic

“The infl uenza, it seems, is with us again. The infi rmary is again doing a rushing business. Several cases are reported in the University House, and some of the sturdy farm-hands have also found themselves not immune to the terrible disease. We all thought that we had gleefully bid it farewell for the last time but it seems ‘the cat came back.’ We all hate to see it back, because we all found the mask to be uncomfortable, but they seemed to do the work. Thanks to our able school physician we are able to say we have not had any deaths among our classmates. That is a record that a good many institutions cannit boast of. Don’t let us spoil this record! Come, let us put on the masks again! Yes, they are uncomfortable and we all hate to wear them. But what is that compared to loss of life. You, yourself might be a victim. If you feel the symptoms of the disease go immediately to the infi rmary and see the doctor. You are not doing the right thing by going to your classes and going among your fellow students if you are aff ected. It is not right for you to spread this disease. In order to stop this disease we all must co-operate.”

1918 and 2020 PandemicsDr. Sarah Dye, an assistant

professor of global disease biology, gave a brief overview on the scientifi c similarities and diff erences between the two diseases.

“Scientifi cally they’re completely diff erent viruses,” Dye said. “They are in two totally diff erent taxonomic groups, although they are both respiratory viruses, have similar symptomatology and both originated from animals and migrated to humans. But they aren’t closely related.”

Another key diff erence between the two viruses is the age group they aff ect the most. According to Dr. Edward Dickinson, a professor of world history and the history of imperialism, the Spanish fl u mainly targeted men ages 20 to 40 whereas Covid-19 is believed to most severely impact individuals ages 65 and older.

Dr. Neil McRoberts, a professor of plant pathology, studies the epidemiology of vectored plant diseases and the impact of the spread of diseases throughout populations. According to McRoberts, Covid-19 is believed to be much more deadly.

“Even though there were 40 million people who died from the Spanish fl u, Covid-19 is known to be much more infectious, so you are more likely to catch it compared to the fl u,” McRoberts said. “The fatality rate for Covid-19 is

much higher compared to infl uenza and the reason that there were signifi cantly more people who died from the Spanish fl u is largely due to the fact that we were not scientifi cally advanced enough to treat infl uenza back then.”

Research has shown that the 1918 infl uenza strain was highly virulent and transmissible. According to

Johan Leaveau, a professor of plant pathology and disease and society, a combination of low quality medical care, poor hygiene and lack of medical technological advancements contributed to the higher numbers of deaths for the Spanish fl u. By the end of 1919 there were believed to be 50 million lives taken by infl uenza. So far Covid-19 has taken about 1.5 million lives.

In early March of 2020, California was the fi rst state to issue a stay-at-home order. Dye discussed how the concept of quarantining was implemented during the Spanish fl u as well.

“From what I understand about the 1918 pandemic, there were no strict lockdowns like we have now,” Dye said. “The response from health offi cials was like localized patchwork, meaning that the federal government didn’t have a lot of infl uence on how the 1918 pandemic was controlled. Local responses played a much stronger role, which is similar to what we are seeing with Covid-19 with states issuing diff erent policies about quarantining.”

According to Dye, another reason that stay-at-home orders were not mandated during the 1918 pandemic was because a majority of the working class held jobs that required in-person manual labor.

“A strict quarantine would have been more diffi cult to implement without

PHOTO & COVER PHOTO / Hamilton Henry Dobbin - California State Library

A line of people waiting for fl u masks in 1918 at 30 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. A sign on the window bearing the Red Cross logo reads: “Infl uenza. Wear Your Mask.” A sign underneath reads: “Enlist in the Army. We Must Win.”

“What strikes me the most are not so much the diff erences, but the similarities. People

were asked, as they are now, to stay home, socially distance and wear masks; shops closed

and went under; people got tired of the pandemic and of the mandates imposed by public health offi cials and

let down their guard, which resulted in additional outbreaks

and preventable deaths. It all sounds very familiar.”

- Johan LeaveauProfessor of Plant Pathology

and Disease and SocietyUC Davis

UC Davis professors compare and contrast the 1918 fl u pandemic and Covid-19While the two viruses scientifi cally differ, there are also similarities and lessons that can be learned from 1918Déjà vu

After Five / January 2021 / Page 9

completely shutting down the economy in 1918 because we didn’t have things like Zoom,” Dye said. “If people fell sick and stopped going to work, they stopped earning money and that would have made it diffi cult for them to support themselves and their families.”

Leaveau further explains how the lifestyles of people during the pandemic hasn’t changed much over the past hundred years.

“What strikes me the most are not so much the diff erences, but the similarities,” Leaveau said. “People were asked, as they are now, to stay home, socially distance and wear masks; shops closed and went under; people got tired of the pandemic and of the mandates imposed by public health offi cials and let down their guard, which resulted in additional outbreaks and preventable deaths. It all sounds very familiar.”

The public responses to the two pandemics have been signifi cantly diff erent in terms of provided care, Dye explained, largely due to the fact that the majority of the population was not treated in hospitals during the Spanish fl u.

“I think the fear was a bit more tangible in the 1918 pandemic,” Dye said. “With Covid-19, if someone gets really ill, they go to the hospital. You aren’t allowed to visit them, so you don’t really see the gruesomeness fi rsthand unless you are a healthcare worker. With the 1918 fl u, those who were sick were most likely put on bed rest in their homes instead of being treated at hospitals, and oftentimes they would see people on the streets getting very sick and dying.”

Similar to the Covid-19 pandemic, the health restrictions in 1918 like wearing a mask caused resistance, Dye said.

“Interestingly, there were people that protested wearing masks back in 1918 and there was even a whole anti-mask league that was formed in San Francisco with people claiming that masks made them hot and uncomfortable like they do now,” Dye said. “So I do think that there is a lot of similarity between the two pandemics in terms of the public responses (to health directives).”

There have been a lot of technological advancements in the past century, some of which have helped healthcare offi cials fi ght Covid-19. Advancement in social media and news coverage, however, has been detrimental to fl attening the curve, according to Dickinson.

“I think social media has clearly had a very negative impact (on Covid-19),” Dickinson said. “There are bizarre theories fl oating around—about this being a fake epidemic—that are given currency by the fact that anyone can post whatever they want to. The amount of disinformation that is being produced is incredible, and there wasn’t the capacity to generate nonsense in 1918.”

Dye believes, however, that the spread of false information was prevalent even in 1918, and countries went as far as censoring information about the virus to maintain wartime optimism.

“There was a lot of disinformation even back in 1918, but not (to) the extent that it spreads now,” Dye said. “The pandemic was going on during World War I and so countries that were actively fi ghting in the war wanted to suppress reports of how bad the infl uenza pandemic was to keep up morale for the war.”

McRoberts explained how through social media and the news coverage, the pandemic has become more of a political issue than a global health crisis.

“Social media is dangerous in a situation like this,” McRoberts said. “The ideas of social distancing and masks have become a political issue and the spread of misinformation about the importance of these things has become essentially uncontrollable. While we are battling the Covid-19 pandemic, we seem to also be fi ghting the misinformation epidemic, which was not as signifi cant or even possible in 1918.”

Dye noted that in addition to social media, a lack of a unifi ed message about the response to the virus in some countries has played a role in the spread of Covid-19 compared to the Spanish fl u.

“I do think that back then, staying home when you were sick and taking the proper precautions to stay safe were considered to be more a patriotic duty,” Dye said. “By staying home you would help win the war and (it would be) for the good of your country. And we’ve only heard that message from our government recently, from President-elect Joe Biden.”

McRoberts noted that in addition to the increased patriotism in 1918, the growing rate of social individuality has been a contributing factor in the countries with the highest rate of infections.

“Back then, around the world there was a stronger social fabric,” McRoberts said. “People would conform to what was expected of them, and they generally had a stronger tendency to follow instructions, compared to what we see now.”

In the early 2000s the idea of One Health was introduced at the CDC. The goal of One Health is to have a method of local, national and global collaboration to achieve optimal health care for people around the world. Dye explained the role of One Health in the fi ght against Covid-19.

“We have scientists now who have been studying diseases like this and other animals for potential viruses,” Dye said. “To a degree, we had some knowledge about coronaviruses and how they worked, so we had scientists ready to hit the ground running because they were already studying zoonotic disease that had the potential to become catastrophic.”

It has been over a century since we experienced the Spanish fl u pandemic, and Dye shed some light on what she thinks we as a society have learned from these health crises.

“I think one of the biggest lessons that we learned from the 1918 pandemic is the importance of getting on top of it quickly,” Dye said. “Unfortunately,

I don’t know if that has even really been implemented now with Covid-19. Governments didn’t really start taking action right away, so the Spanish fl u was able to spread fast. Once it starts to spread it’s much harder to control it, which is what we also saw happen with Covid-19.”

Dye also emphasized the importance of having government and health care organizations that are able to gain and maintain the trust of the public.

“Organizations and governments in charge need to be transparent and openly communicate and give out reliable information,” Dye said. “Right now there is so much controversy because the information that was given to the public kept changing. And unfortunately, that’s just the way that science works; you learn and then you revise your hypothesis and then you revise your recommendations. But not everyone understands how the scientifi c method works. To them it might seem like no one knows what they are talking about.”

According to Dr. Joanne Emerson, an assistant professor of plant pathology, a sense of unity is important to combat a pandemic.

“What we can learn from the current pandemic and the 1918 pandemic is the importance of a coordinated body.” Emerson said. “As a society we need to do a better job of outlining how our personal actions can impact the welfare of others. This issue is not one dimensional and these are events that are going to impact our future generation, and we need to keep that in mind.”

Sneha Ramachandran — features@theaggie.org. Sneha Ramachandran has worked as a features writer at The California Aggie at UC Davis since 2017.

PHOTO / Hamilton Henry Dobbin - California State Library

Workers at an information desk wearing masks in San Francisco in 1918, with a couple of men in the background appearing to take a breather from their masks.

“I think social media has clearly had a very negative impact (on

Covid-19). There are bizarre theories fl oating around—about this being a fake epidemic—that are given currency by the fact that anyone can post whatever

they want to.”

- Dr. Edward DickinsonProfessor of World Historyand History of Imperialism

UC Davis

Page 10 / January 2021 / After Five

-From Page 7

documents who knock on doors, tell homeowners they own the property

home and want the people to vacate the premises,”

Edmonds police Sgt. Josh McClure

as Moorish Sovereign Citizens, Mc-Clure said, who “believe that they own

-gentina.”

are trespassing.

-plained to police about “Lawnmower

riding mower, Pasco County (Florida)

the situation.

-erty, which displayed “No Trespassing”

mower in response.

the patrol car so he could issue a cita-

Dwaine White, who lives across the street, told The Washington Post that

-ting grass.

it echoes all over the neighborhood,” White said.

Finally, Lawnmower Man went in-side his home, where he was ultimate-

-

he could spend 18 months in jail and

Srinivas Gupta, a businessman in

were building their dream home when she died in a tragic car crash in 2017.

But in many ways, she is still with Gupta – especially now that he has in-

the home.

position, clothed in a pink sari and gold jewelry.

entering this new house without her,”

daughters, told CNN.

and relatives posed with Madhavi on a couch and posted photos to social media.

statue in their courtyard: “She used to

had been missing since Dec. 31, 2019, is believed to have been eaten by his

Lubin District Prosecutor Mag-

-

--

dicated it was clear that the pigs had

bad omen, according to Reuters, when

when put on display.

in a vial that is brought out three times

-

remained dry.

why the substance in the vial some-

Bangalore, India, has always wanted

when he was 18, he decided to make red and white his signature colors and has worn only those two colors ever since.

Today, his home, his car and even

years, and their two children – sport nothing but red and white.

-

-cause he was the seventh child, and he now embroiders a crown symbol and the number 7 on all his suits and even has it stitched into the headrest

Sevenraj also speaks seven lan-guages. “Wherever we go, people rec-ognize us. They know us (as) the red

-tion,” he admitted.

-

guidelines in early December that

crews to wear diapers and avoid air-plane lavatories.

---

tion on wearing masks and other per-

“It is recommended that cabin crew members wear disposable diapers

–Please See Page 12

After Five / January 2021 / Page 11

Page 12 / January 2021 / After Five

and avoid using the lavatories barring special circumstances to avoid infec-tion risks,” United Press International reported.

died while apparently trying to bur-

the window he was crawling through closed on him.

window and he was dead by the time

-ily of the budding rap artist, who per-

accusation and call for further investi-gation.

Police in Sarnia, Ontario, arrested two suspects after they allegedly broke into the wrong house and offered to

mistake. CTV reported that residents of the

home were watching television when

through a door, one holding a hammer, and demanded money they claimed was owed to them.

after discovering their error, according to police, who quickly apprehended them.

Fort Dodge, Iowa, that he had been walking by the building where police found him, pulling on doors to see if they were unlocked and “entered the property to get warm,” according to the police report. “But after spending some time looking around the building, he decided to start taking items.”

gold teeth and a laptop from a dental business, but police also found cash, a $5,000 digital camera and burglary tools on him, including a screwdriver

KCCI reported authorities also

was arrested and held at the Webster

Twenty-year-old Kaleb Kleiss was arrested in Clearwater, Florida, after a witness saw him driving with the barrel

--

gen, The Smoking Gun reported. Kleiss, who was intoxicated, ac-

he carries the gun for self-defense

moving to Florida.” When police tracked him down,

Kleiss was standing next to his car outside a laundromat, with the assault weapon “displayed carelessly ... on the dashboard ... in plain view of everyone walking by the store,” police said, and the gun was “loaded with a full maga-

Kleiss was charged with drunken driving and improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon.

-ter it plummeted into a ditch in North Grenville, Ottawa.

police determined the owners had left the dog in the running car, and it probably bumped the gear shift into re-verse, causing the van to slowly back up as the driver ran alongside, trying to get in.

said Grenville County police acting

While children across the world

in some parts of Europe had already been visited by Krampus, the Christ-mas devil, a half-goat, half-demon with horns, who, according to legend, ap-pears on Krampusnacht, Dec. 5, bear-ing whips and chains to beat wicked

and taking them away. The Mirror reports the centuries-old

-

and Norse mythology.

-

the evening of Dec. 9 in St. Petersburg when he encountered two women rid-ing a horse through the streets and decided he wanted to pet the horse, Fontanka.ru reported.

-rot to give to the horse, but “the horse turns sharply to me and bites!” – taking

-ting it out.

The missing piece was retrieved, and doctors were able to sew it back into place, but they expect there will be scarring.

Vasily denied the police report of the incident that claimed he was drunk and tried to kiss the horse.

Kansas, was home alone with his three kids when he switched on the oven in preparation for making dinner.

Inside, unfortunately, were the fam-

had been put there the night before to “warm up” after a day of being held captive in the refrigerator by the “bad milk,” KCTV reported.

-tower confessed to his wife, Chelsea, who was out Christmas shopping.

“Thankfully,” said Chelsea, after a

Belle and Magic have made a miracu-lous recovery and are back to their silly ways.”

Open 7 Days a week

One mile west of Interstate 5 - Exit 685

After Five / January 2021 / Page 13

Jin Wu, of Taiwan, told his Facebook followers about his good fortune in pur-chasing a PlayStation 5 the previous day, and marveled at the low price he paid for it, reported Taiwan News. The reason became clear when the seller revealed he had tried to pass the con-

turns out that women can tell the differ-

-man Rick Johnson told CNN. Closer in-spection revealed the unnamed driver

of his vehicle to replace the headlights, which had been damaged in a crash.

Flashlights-as-headlights are illegal -

vide enough brightness, Johnson said,

adding that the driver also had a sus-pended license.

gold coins dating from the reign of

their garden in New Forest. The coins, totaling 24 pounds and

The museum has experienced an

said people are spending more time in

unexpected archaeological discover-ies.”

French chef Benoit Bruel in Lyon struck a blow for French cuisine by

for most varieties of cheese on a pizza -

national reported.

making and then enjoying the pizza with friends along with its listing of the

took this as a patriotic challenge, as one of the things France is most fa-mous for is its cheeses.”

-From Page 12

Page 14 / January 2021 / After Five

By James BikalesCalMatters.org

As pandemic shutdowns intensify, more than a third of jobs in three California industries that rely on events — sports, performing arts and catering — have already disappeared. And they’ve been slower to recover than the state workforce as a whole.

While some California industries have managed to adapt their business models to the coronavirus pandemic, for many, the show simply cannot go on.

Spectator sports, catering and the performing arts rely on live events as the centerpiece of their business, and each has been decimated by the pandemic. Tens of thousands of Californians who work in sports arenas, the arts and catering have lost their jobs.

All three of these industries in California saw declines in employment of more than a third, and most of those jobs haven’t come back. As pandemic restrictions tightened in December throughout the state, there’s no recovery in sight for these hard-hit businesses.

Kent Wong, director of UCLA’s Labor Center, said the deep layoff s in these industries have harmed the broader California economy.

“It has a ripple eff ect with regard to the shutdown of major sports venues, major performing arts venues and all of the related industries that support them,” he said. “That includes catering, that includes transportation,

that includes hotels and restaurants — all of those are heavily reliant on spectator sports and performing arts and so, as a consequence, many of those subsidiary industries are suff ering.”

The three industries have had deeper cuts — and are slower to recover — than California’s workforce as a whole. While statewide California was the hardest hit state for job losses in the creative industries, which include fi lm, graphic design and music, according to a Brookings Foundation report in August. About 453,332 jobs were lost between April and July.

The most impacted sub-sectors within the arts nationally were the fi ne and performing arts, with a staggering 50 percent of jobs disappearing, the report concluded.

California’s dancers, musicians and other performers have lost their audience to a pandemic.

Some may never return to the stage even when the patrons are back.

Marica Kumayama Petrey had put eight months of pre-production work into the live debut for her fi rst album with a new pop/rock band, Girl Swallows Nightingale, planned for March. She was also scheduled to wrap up fi lming her fi rst feature fi lm, Kaneko’s Owl, this summer.

All of that’s been put on hold by the pandemic, and she doesn’t expect to ever play the debut show she spent

so many months preparing. Still, she said she considers herself fortunate because she could use her video editing skills to pick up other gigs this year and spend the time writing her next album.

Like Petrey, with live shows off the table, many dancers, musicians and theatre actors this year have adapted new ways to apply their skills and make money.

Determined to “keep the arts alive,” dancers at the Redding City Ballet performed their annual Nutcracker show at an outdoor amphitheater for a streaming audience, according to Redding Arts Project owner Diana Christensen.

In Orange County, Pacifi c Symphony principal trumpet Barry Perkins had always been curious about fi lmmaking, and the symphony’s postponed season has given him the time to take it up, he said. This year, he’s produced and played the music for videos for the Pacifi c Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony and Costa Rica

Symphony. In San Francisco, the Kristin

Damrow & Company has cancelled all of its dance performances and cut practices to one hour outdoors a week. But it has pivoted to making dance fi lms and has four fi lms planned for 2021.

Still, it’s not the same as performing in front of a live audience.

“Trying to keep our audiences engaged has been one of the biggest questions because, for live art, we need the audience — not just for fi nancial support, but for the future of dance and future of live performance,” Damrow said. “Having those audiences seeing what we do is kind of the endgame of the work we make.”

The performing arts sector continues to face immense fi nancial challenges — Damrow estimated her budget has been slashed by 75 percent. Federal Payment Protection Program loans in the spring off ered only a temporary reprieve.

Most California performing arts centers, dance troupes and orchestras, including the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Opera and Segerstrom Center for the Arts, have been forced to shut down since March, except for some virtual events.

A dashboard created by Americans for the Arts found that 97 percent of responding arts organizations in California have canceled events this year, for a total lost attendance of nearly 8 million patrons. About 42 percent of organizations indicated

The Show Must Go OnBut will it after the pandemic?

A third of jobs in 3 California industries that rely on events, including performing arts, have disappeared

“The arts struggle in a normal year. They’re alwaysconsidered non-essential,

they’re always the last to be recognized.”

- Diana ChristensenRedding Arts Project

After Five / January 2021 / Page 15

they had to lay off or furlough artists, and 13 percent are not confi dent they’ll survive the pandemic.

“The arts, which is dependent upon gathering for a living, particularly the performing arts sector, shut down, and, eff ectively, we have been shut down ever since,” said Julie Baker, executive director of Californians for the Arts. “You’re looking at the 12 to 18 months of being out of business…they don’t teach this in business school, you don’t have that in your strategic plan.”

With so much time out of work, many artists are considering leaving the industry altogether, she said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced a $500 million grant program for small businesses, specifi cally singling out cultural organizations. Baker said the funds will be a good start, but she also called on legislators to fund a one-time budget increase for the California Arts Council, the state’s arts agency.

California Arts Council Executive Director Anne Bown-Crawford said in an email that her agency is grateful that its budget was not reduced this year, allowing it to distribute more than $1 million in relief funds to artists.

“Whether people recognize it or not, the work of artists and creative individuals has helped us all cope with these unprecedented times,” she said. “Listening to music, watching fi lms, writing, dancing, making art — this helps us process feelings of loss and hopelessness, to refl ect, and stay connected to our shared humanity.”

Even before the pandemic, the performing arts were often last on society’s priority list.

“The arts struggle in a normal

year,” said Christensen of the Redding ballet. “They’re always considered non-essential, they’re always the last to be recognized.”

Baker said the industry is looking for “parity” in the reopening guidelines with restaurants and bars, which were temporarily allowed to seat customers before the new lockdowns went into eff ect this month. Performing arts shows, however, have remained shut down the entire time, despite taking place in venues with state-of-the-art ventilation systems and being skilled at how to move people and equipment around the world safely.

Even when restrictions loosen, artists cannot immediately return to staging large shows since they need time to prepare.

“If you want to reopen a performing arts center, or theater production or dance production or a concert, it’s months and months and months of rehearsals and planning and booking the tour and bringing that team together,” Baker said. “It’s not an easy on-and-off switch.”

CalMatters.org is a nonprofi t, nonpartisan media organization explaining California policies and politics. Read more at calmatters.org.

Marica Kumayama Petrey at her home in Oakland on Dec. 19, 2020. Kumayama Petrey, a fi lm producer and musician, has had much of her work stop this year due to the pandemic.

PHOTO /Anne Wernikoff , CalMatters

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