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solarbirdCOVID-19 is surging in a lot of places in the US, and the Trump-led government won't do a single fucking thing about it except literally make it worse. Literally. Make. It. Worse.
----- 1 -----
A Mask is a Stupid Hill to Die on, America
June 17, 2020
John Pavlovitz
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/06/17/a-mask-is-a-stupid-hill-to-die-on-america/
Yesterday, I stumbled into a war zone.
A friend of mine was being besieged on social media by a furious crossfire of rapid-fire vitriol from a disparate army of toddler moms and dudebros, in full-throated outrage because she’d had the stratospheric gall to post an article about the merits of wearing masks to prevent the exponential spread of a virus that has already ravaged the planet.
This apparently was a salvo so offensive that it could not go unpunished—so they began a brutal and coordinated keyboard frenzy.
It was a familiar sight, as this kind of virtual civil war is playing out thousands of times a day, and the responses to my friend were the fairly typical mix of anti-Science religious speak, ‘roided-up tough guy posturing—and lots and lots of flag-waving, chest pounding, Don’t Tread On Me nationalism. (Not wearing a mask, apparently makes America great—somehow.)
A mask?
This is where we are, America?
That’s what it’s come down to?
Half of you still won’t do this?
Despite how many people have died, despite how decimated our economy is, despite the near complete shutdown of life (that you’ve been moaning like a dirty-diapered infant for months about)—this minuscule task is too much to ask?
----- 2 -----
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
19 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1273999266067988480
Trump told the WSJ on Wednesday that Oklahoma's coronavirus spike "has already ended."
On Thursday, Oklahoma reported another record increase in new cases.
[EMBEDDED IMAGES: Trump quote, KOCO-TV headline about record number of new COVID-19 cases]
----- 3 -----
Jeffrey Schweers
twitter.com/jeffschweers
19 June 2020
https://twitter.com/jeffschweers/status/1274004424759918592
Florida sees biggest single-day spike ever with 3,822 new cases of #coronavirus, bringing total to nearly 90k confirmed cases. Positivity rate 11.67%. Death toll jumps by 43 to 3,104.
----- 4 -----
Fauci: Americans ignoring science during pandemic is "frustrating"
By Grace Segers
June 19, 2020
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-fauci-coronavirus-pandemic-americans-ignoring-science/
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious diseases expert, is frustrated about the nation's inability to stop the continued spread of coronavirus, which he says is largely because Americans aren't following recommended health guidelines.
"Clearly, we have not succeeded in getting the public as a whole, uniformly to respond in a way that is a sound scientific [response to a] public health and medical situation. I mean, it is clear because right now, you're seeing people throughout the country [contracting the virus]. And it's unfortunate. And it's frustrating," Fauci told CBS News Radio's Steven Portnoy in an interview Friday morning.
----- 5 -----
In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm
By Rick Noack
June 19, 2020 at 7:38 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/19/countries-keeping-coronavirus-bay-experts-watch-us-case-numbers-with-alarm/
As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored.
“It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,” said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has confirmed only three new cases over the past three weeks and where citizens have now largely returned to their pre-coronavirus routines.
“I can’t imagine what it must be like having to go to work knowing it’s unsafe,” Wiles said of the U.S.-wide economic reopening. “It’s hard to see how this ends. There are just going to be more and more people infected, and more and more deaths. It’s heartbreaking.”
----- 6 -----
‘All smoke and mirrors’: How Trump’s meatpacking order has failed to keep workers safe
By Rachel Axon and Sky Chadde / USA TODAY
Posted Jun 18, 2020
https://www.news-journalonline.com/zz/news/20200618/all-smoke-and-mirrors-how-trumps-meatpacking-order-has-failed-to-keep-workers-safe
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order April 28 to declare meatpacking plants critical infrastructure, he tapped the secretary of agriculture to keep the plants open amid a wave of coronavirus outbreaks.
The move signaled that the nation’s priorities focused more on the continued production of meat than the safety of workers.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have nothing to do with worker protections. Their mission, as Perdue noted May 5 in a letter to meatpacking companies, “is to inspect meat and poultry products to ensure that they are wholesome and safe.”
Worker safety is the purview of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Perdue said the USDA was partnering with OSHA and the CDC to protect meatpacking employees.
Since the executive order, COVID-19 cases tied to meatpacking plants have skyrocketed from fewer than 5,000 to more than 25,000 as of last week, according to tracking from the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
Deaths have increased fivefold to 91.
Rather than protecting workers, a half-dozen experts and advocates said, the federal government is failing them.
“It’s all smoke and mirrors. There was never any expectation by the industry or the government that they would impose any requirements on the industry to change its practices to protect workers,” said Debbie Berkowitz, who spent six years as chief of staff and senior policy adviser at OSHA and is director of the National Employment Law Project’s worker health and safety program.
----- 7 -----
TSA insider faults agency’s response to coronavirus
By DAVID KOENIG
June 19, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/reports-tsa-insider-faults-agencys-response-to-coronavirus/
A Transportation Security Administration official is accusing the agency of failing to adequately protect airport screeners from the new coronavirus, endangering both the officers and the traveling public.
The top TSA official in Kansas, Jay Brainard, says the TSA’s actions amount to “gross mismanagement.”
“TSA staff at airports both became a significant carrier to spread the pandemic and were themselves improperly protected from the pandemic,” Brainard’s lawyer, Tom Devine, said in a complaint filed with the Office of Special Counsel, which handles whistleblower complaints.
The special counsel has ordered TSA’s parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, to conduct an investigation.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment.
----- 8 -----
It Doesn’t Look Like the Protests Are Causing a COVID-19 Spike
What does that mean for other outdoor activities?
By Fred Kaplan
June 17, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/protests-covid-outdoor-masks.html
When tens of thousands of people hit the streets protesting the police killing of George Floyd, many worried that the crowds—often too dense to allow the recommended 6 feet of social distancing—would spark a new wave of COVID-19 cases. Yet in New York, city and state officials tell me, there have been no spikes of the illness.
Nor have there been sudden surges in several other cities where large demonstrations were held, including Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed and the first protests erupted, and Philadelphia. Spikes have occurred elsewhere—especially Texas, Arizona, Florida, and California—but they coincided with the reopening of bars, restaurants, and other indoor establishments, making it hard to trace the upticks to the protests.
The absence of surges in the cities with massive demonstrations but few other large gatherings has taken many officials and health analysts by surprise. However, as they’ve examined the data and the video footage, one thing has clarified matters, to an extent: A large percentage of the protesters wore masks.
Several recent studies have suggested that masks may be the single biggest impediment to the spread of the coronavirus. What’s new in the data about the demonstrations is that social distancing may be much less important, may be not much of a factor at all—at least if the crowds wear masks and the crowding takes place outdoors.
----- 9 -----
A story in four parts: Oklahoma Supreme Court denies lawsuit requiring COVID-19 protections at Trump rally
**** part one:
Tulsa arena asks Trump campaign for detailed health plan as Oklahoma Supreme Court hears arguments about rally
By Joshua Partlow, Colby Itkowitz and Annie Gowen
June 18, 2020 at 4:25 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-arena-asks-trump-campaign-for-detailed-health-plan-as-oklahoma-supreme-court-hears-arguments-about-rally/2020/06/18/4e490308-b197-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html
The managers of the arena in Oklahoma where President Trump plans to hold a controversial campaign rally requested on Thursday that the Trump campaign provide a detailed written plan outlining “health and safety” measures ahead of the event to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to a statement from the venue.
**** part two:
Amy Siskind
twitter.com/Amy_Siskind
June 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1273991046733729792
A Trump campaign spokesperson said this morning they do not plan to respond. They are literally setting up to infect their supporters, their families and communities - leading to countless unnecessary deaths. Authoritarianism is by design about cruelty.
**** part three:
Kyle Griffin
twitter.com/kylegriffin1
June 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1274060723153522694
Breaking on twitter.com/MSNBC: The Oklahoma Supreme Court has denied a request for an order directing the BOK Center in Tulsa to enforce coronavirus CDC recommendations at Trump's campaign rally.
Oklahoma reported another record one day total of new cases just yesterday.
**** part four:
We won't have part four for two weeks.
----- 10 -----
King County approved to move to Phase 2 amid coronavirus pandemic
By Becca Savransky, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Friday, June 19, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/king-county-approved-to-move-to-phase-2-covid-19-15350732.php
King County on Friday was approved to move to Phase 2 of its reopening plan amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The county applied to enter the second phase on Monday, after getting approval earlier this month to move to a modified version of Phase 1.
In Phase 2, restaurants, retail stores and hair salons can all open at higher capacities than in Phase 1.5. Expanded sporting activities and outdoor recreation can also restart in the second phase.
Last month, Gov. Jay Inslee announced the state would continue its reopening on a county-by-county basis. All counties need to apply to to John Wiesman, secretary of Washington State Department of Health, to move forward in their reopening.
The state looks at a number of metrics to decide whether to approve a county's application. The state's targets include having fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 day period and flat or decreasing coronavirus hospitalizations. Counties should also demonstrate they have enough hospital capacity, personal protection equipment, testing and contact tracing to handle the virus going forward.
King County met a lot of the targets, but not all of them. The county had just under 25 cases per 100,000 over the past 14 days and showed decreasing hospital rates, according to its application. But the county's effective reproductive number was above the target set out by the state, and it also failed to meet some of the metrics for case and contact investigations.
----- 11 -----
The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles
The plastic tubes supplied for coronavirus testing by Fillakit, a first-time federal contractor with a sketchy owner, don’t even fit the racks used to analyze samples. And they may be contaminated anyway.
by J. David McSwane and Ryan Gabrielson
June 18, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-paid-millions-for-test-tubes-and-got-unusable-mini-soda-bottles
Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.
The state officials say that these “preforms,” which are designed to be expanded with heat and pressure into 2-liter soda bottles, don’t fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples. Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the company’s process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublica’s observation of the company’s operations.
“It wasn’t even clean, let alone sterile,” said Teresa Green, a retired science teacher who worked at Fillakit’s makeshift warehouse outside of Houston for two weeks before leaving out of frustration.
- A Mask is a Stupid Hill to Die on, America
- Trump told the WSJ on Wednesday that Oklahoma's coronavirus spike "has already ended." On Thursday, Oklahoma reported another record increase in new cases.
- Florida sets another single-day case spike record.
- Fauci: Americans ignoring science during pandemic is "frustrating"
- In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm
- ‘All smoke and mirrors’: How Trump’s meatpacking order has failed to keep workers safe
- TSA insider faults agency’s response to coronavirus
- It Doesn’t Look Like the Protests Are Causing a COVID-19 Spike
- A story in four parts: Oklahoma Supreme Court denies lawsuit requiring COVID-19 protections at Trump rally
- King County approved to move to Phase 2 amid coronavirus pandemic [EDITOR: This is actually bad. WTF, King County. WTF, state government?]
- The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles
----- 1 -----
A Mask is a Stupid Hill to Die on, America
June 17, 2020
John Pavlovitz
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/06/17/a-mask-is-a-stupid-hill-to-die-on-america/
Yesterday, I stumbled into a war zone.
A friend of mine was being besieged on social media by a furious crossfire of rapid-fire vitriol from a disparate army of toddler moms and dudebros, in full-throated outrage because she’d had the stratospheric gall to post an article about the merits of wearing masks to prevent the exponential spread of a virus that has already ravaged the planet.
This apparently was a salvo so offensive that it could not go unpunished—so they began a brutal and coordinated keyboard frenzy.
It was a familiar sight, as this kind of virtual civil war is playing out thousands of times a day, and the responses to my friend were the fairly typical mix of anti-Science religious speak, ‘roided-up tough guy posturing—and lots and lots of flag-waving, chest pounding, Don’t Tread On Me nationalism. (Not wearing a mask, apparently makes America great—somehow.)
A mask?
This is where we are, America?
That’s what it’s come down to?
Half of you still won’t do this?
Despite how many people have died, despite how decimated our economy is, despite the near complete shutdown of life (that you’ve been moaning like a dirty-diapered infant for months about)—this minuscule task is too much to ask?
----- 2 -----
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
19 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1273999266067988480
Trump told the WSJ on Wednesday that Oklahoma's coronavirus spike "has already ended."
On Thursday, Oklahoma reported another record increase in new cases.
[EMBEDDED IMAGES: Trump quote, KOCO-TV headline about record number of new COVID-19 cases]
----- 3 -----
Jeffrey Schweers
twitter.com/jeffschweers
19 June 2020
https://twitter.com/jeffschweers/status/1274004424759918592
Florida sees biggest single-day spike ever with 3,822 new cases of #coronavirus, bringing total to nearly 90k confirmed cases. Positivity rate 11.67%. Death toll jumps by 43 to 3,104.
----- 4 -----
Fauci: Americans ignoring science during pandemic is "frustrating"
By Grace Segers
June 19, 2020
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-fauci-coronavirus-pandemic-americans-ignoring-science/
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious diseases expert, is frustrated about the nation's inability to stop the continued spread of coronavirus, which he says is largely because Americans aren't following recommended health guidelines.
"Clearly, we have not succeeded in getting the public as a whole, uniformly to respond in a way that is a sound scientific [response to a] public health and medical situation. I mean, it is clear because right now, you're seeing people throughout the country [contracting the virus]. And it's unfortunate. And it's frustrating," Fauci told CBS News Radio's Steven Portnoy in an interview Friday morning.
----- 5 -----
In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm
By Rick Noack
June 19, 2020 at 7:38 a.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/19/countries-keeping-coronavirus-bay-experts-watch-us-case-numbers-with-alarm/
As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored.
“It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,” said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has confirmed only three new cases over the past three weeks and where citizens have now largely returned to their pre-coronavirus routines.
“I can’t imagine what it must be like having to go to work knowing it’s unsafe,” Wiles said of the U.S.-wide economic reopening. “It’s hard to see how this ends. There are just going to be more and more people infected, and more and more deaths. It’s heartbreaking.”
----- 6 -----
‘All smoke and mirrors’: How Trump’s meatpacking order has failed to keep workers safe
By Rachel Axon and Sky Chadde / USA TODAY
Posted Jun 18, 2020
https://www.news-journalonline.com/zz/news/20200618/all-smoke-and-mirrors-how-trumps-meatpacking-order-has-failed-to-keep-workers-safe
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order April 28 to declare meatpacking plants critical infrastructure, he tapped the secretary of agriculture to keep the plants open amid a wave of coronavirus outbreaks.
The move signaled that the nation’s priorities focused more on the continued production of meat than the safety of workers.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have nothing to do with worker protections. Their mission, as Perdue noted May 5 in a letter to meatpacking companies, “is to inspect meat and poultry products to ensure that they are wholesome and safe.”
Worker safety is the purview of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Perdue said the USDA was partnering with OSHA and the CDC to protect meatpacking employees.
Since the executive order, COVID-19 cases tied to meatpacking plants have skyrocketed from fewer than 5,000 to more than 25,000 as of last week, according to tracking from the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
Deaths have increased fivefold to 91.
Rather than protecting workers, a half-dozen experts and advocates said, the federal government is failing them.
“It’s all smoke and mirrors. There was never any expectation by the industry or the government that they would impose any requirements on the industry to change its practices to protect workers,” said Debbie Berkowitz, who spent six years as chief of staff and senior policy adviser at OSHA and is director of the National Employment Law Project’s worker health and safety program.
----- 7 -----
TSA insider faults agency’s response to coronavirus
By DAVID KOENIG
June 19, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/reports-tsa-insider-faults-agencys-response-to-coronavirus/
A Transportation Security Administration official is accusing the agency of failing to adequately protect airport screeners from the new coronavirus, endangering both the officers and the traveling public.
The top TSA official in Kansas, Jay Brainard, says the TSA’s actions amount to “gross mismanagement.”
“TSA staff at airports both became a significant carrier to spread the pandemic and were themselves improperly protected from the pandemic,” Brainard’s lawyer, Tom Devine, said in a complaint filed with the Office of Special Counsel, which handles whistleblower complaints.
The special counsel has ordered TSA’s parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, to conduct an investigation.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment.
----- 8 -----
It Doesn’t Look Like the Protests Are Causing a COVID-19 Spike
What does that mean for other outdoor activities?
By Fred Kaplan
June 17, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/protests-covid-outdoor-masks.html
When tens of thousands of people hit the streets protesting the police killing of George Floyd, many worried that the crowds—often too dense to allow the recommended 6 feet of social distancing—would spark a new wave of COVID-19 cases. Yet in New York, city and state officials tell me, there have been no spikes of the illness.
Nor have there been sudden surges in several other cities where large demonstrations were held, including Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed and the first protests erupted, and Philadelphia. Spikes have occurred elsewhere—especially Texas, Arizona, Florida, and California—but they coincided with the reopening of bars, restaurants, and other indoor establishments, making it hard to trace the upticks to the protests.
The absence of surges in the cities with massive demonstrations but few other large gatherings has taken many officials and health analysts by surprise. However, as they’ve examined the data and the video footage, one thing has clarified matters, to an extent: A large percentage of the protesters wore masks.
Several recent studies have suggested that masks may be the single biggest impediment to the spread of the coronavirus. What’s new in the data about the demonstrations is that social distancing may be much less important, may be not much of a factor at all—at least if the crowds wear masks and the crowding takes place outdoors.
----- 9 -----
A story in four parts: Oklahoma Supreme Court denies lawsuit requiring COVID-19 protections at Trump rally
**** part one:
Tulsa arena asks Trump campaign for detailed health plan as Oklahoma Supreme Court hears arguments about rally
By Joshua Partlow, Colby Itkowitz and Annie Gowen
June 18, 2020 at 4:25 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-arena-asks-trump-campaign-for-detailed-health-plan-as-oklahoma-supreme-court-hears-arguments-about-rally/2020/06/18/4e490308-b197-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html
The managers of the arena in Oklahoma where President Trump plans to hold a controversial campaign rally requested on Thursday that the Trump campaign provide a detailed written plan outlining “health and safety” measures ahead of the event to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to a statement from the venue.
**** part two:
Amy Siskind
twitter.com/Amy_Siskind
June 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1273991046733729792
A Trump campaign spokesperson said this morning they do not plan to respond. They are literally setting up to infect their supporters, their families and communities - leading to countless unnecessary deaths. Authoritarianism is by design about cruelty.
**** part three:
Kyle Griffin
twitter.com/kylegriffin1
June 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1274060723153522694
Breaking on twitter.com/MSNBC: The Oklahoma Supreme Court has denied a request for an order directing the BOK Center in Tulsa to enforce coronavirus CDC recommendations at Trump's campaign rally.
Oklahoma reported another record one day total of new cases just yesterday.
**** part four:
We won't have part four for two weeks.
----- 10 -----
King County approved to move to Phase 2 amid coronavirus pandemic
By Becca Savransky, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Friday, June 19, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/king-county-approved-to-move-to-phase-2-covid-19-15350732.php
King County on Friday was approved to move to Phase 2 of its reopening plan amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The county applied to enter the second phase on Monday, after getting approval earlier this month to move to a modified version of Phase 1.
In Phase 2, restaurants, retail stores and hair salons can all open at higher capacities than in Phase 1.5. Expanded sporting activities and outdoor recreation can also restart in the second phase.
Last month, Gov. Jay Inslee announced the state would continue its reopening on a county-by-county basis. All counties need to apply to to John Wiesman, secretary of Washington State Department of Health, to move forward in their reopening.
The state looks at a number of metrics to decide whether to approve a county's application. The state's targets include having fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 day period and flat or decreasing coronavirus hospitalizations. Counties should also demonstrate they have enough hospital capacity, personal protection equipment, testing and contact tracing to handle the virus going forward.
King County met a lot of the targets, but not all of them. The county had just under 25 cases per 100,000 over the past 14 days and showed decreasing hospital rates, according to its application. But the county's effective reproductive number was above the target set out by the state, and it also failed to meet some of the metrics for case and contact investigations.
----- 11 -----
The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles
The plastic tubes supplied for coronavirus testing by Fillakit, a first-time federal contractor with a sketchy owner, don’t even fit the racks used to analyze samples. And they may be contaminated anyway.
by J. David McSwane and Ryan Gabrielson
June 18, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-paid-millions-for-test-tubes-and-got-unusable-mini-soda-bottles
Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.
The state officials say that these “preforms,” which are designed to be expanded with heat and pressure into 2-liter soda bottles, don’t fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples. Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the company’s process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublica’s observation of the company’s operations.
“It wasn’t even clean, let alone sterile,” said Teresa Green, a retired science teacher who worked at Fillakit’s makeshift warehouse outside of Houston for two weeks before leaving out of frustration.
