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COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 1,009 new COVID-19 cases, a nearly 60% increase from the prior day, a departure from the general downward trend of cases and the highest single day count since the end of January (and might also be a random hiccup and the result of late-arriving test results). The new cases bring the statewide total so far to 253,024. DOH has designated 223,201 of those cases as recovered.
Bernalillo County had 303 new cases, followed by San Juan County with 140 and McKinley County with 55. Santa Fe County had 34 new cases.
The state also announced 13 additional deaths, 11 of them recent; there have now been 4,801 fatalities. As of yesterday, 336 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 49 more than the day prior.
Currently, 79.9% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 70.5% are fully vaccinated. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 63.8% people have had at least one dose and 54.3% are fully inoculated. In Santa Fe County, among those 18 years and older, 90.9% have had at least one dose and 80.9% are fully vaccinated.
The health department has added a tool to its vaccination website that allows recipients of the Pfizer vaccine to determine if they are eligible for a booster.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
NM lawmakers support IATSE
All the Democrats in New Mexico’s congressional delegation have signed a letter to the the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers asking it to negotiate a fair contract with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE. Union members are reportedly slated to begin voting today on whether to authorize a strike, having failed to negotiate an agreement on issues such as unsafe working hours; unlivable wages; and failure to provide reasonable rest during meal breaks, among other contentions. “These workers have risked their health and safety for the last year, working through the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that the motion picture and television production industry emerged intact,” the letter, signed by more than 100 members of Congress reads. “Production has now returned to pre-pandemic levels, due in no small part to the essential role these workers play in the creative process. The entertainment you jointly produce is helping to heal our nation.”
In New Mexico, as SFR reported recently, filmmaking has reached its highest-ever level of spending in New Mexico with an estimated $624 million pumped into the economy thus far in 2021, according to the state Film Office—and the highest level of days worked by crew, an aggregate 520,000 days this year compared to nearly 320,000 in 2019. IATSE Local 480 reportedly has approximately 1,600 members. Local leaders also have issued statements of support, with New Mexico Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, and Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, releasing a statement noting that “The Legislature has worked hard to incentivize bringing work to New Mexico and we are proud of the incredible productions made here” and that “the members of IATSE 480 are the backbone of this industry…[who have] risked their health and safety for the past year, working through the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the motion picture and television industry remained intact.” Local AFL-CIO leaders also published a letter of support, as did Speaker of the House Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, along with House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, and Majority Whip Doreen Gallegos, D-Las Cruces.
PED updates social studies curriculum
For the first time in 20 years, the state Public Education Department is updating its social studies curriculum—and accepting public comments on the revisions. “It is beyond time for this update,” Public Education Secretary Designate Kurt Steinhaus said in a statement. “To keep the curriculum relevant, we regularly review what we’re teaching in every subject and incorporate new developments. In social studies, that includes a fuller understanding of the many cultures that together make New Mexico unique.” To that end, the state says the new social studies standards will align with a court order in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, which required the state “to provide students with an education that is culturally relevant for New Mexico, where 46% of the population is Hispanic, 9% is Native American and 34% of households speak a non-English language at home.” According to a news release, the revision work on the social studies standards began in July 2020, nearly a year prior to a Thomas B. Fordham Institute report that rated New Mexico’s current civics standards mediocre and US history standards inadequate. Social studies standards writing teams made up of New Mexico educators concluded their work in July. Written comments may be submitted through 5 pm Friday, Nov. 12, on which day there also will be a public hearing from 1-3 pm in Mabry Hall in the Jerry Apodaca Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar Ave. in Santa Fe.
Let’s talk about STDs
The state health department yesterday issued a public health order that mandates all medical providers serving pregnant women follow best practices by testing all pregnant women for syphilis multiple times. According to DOH, congenital syphilis—when syphilis is passed from mother to child—presents a “significant public health threat because it can lead to serious birth defects, miscarriage and infant death.” As they have elsewhere, rates of both primary and secondary syphilis in New Mexico have risen steadily in the last 20 years and New Mexico ranked second in the US for having the most syphilis as of 2019. In other STD news, state lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee heard an update yesterday on the topic. To wit: New Mexico also has relatively high rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea. According to a DOH presentation, STDs disproportionately impact certain regions, ethnic/racial groups and ages, and the state has been using targeted outreach and disease intervention specialists to provide testing, counseling and other services to those populations. The state received $1.4 million per year in federal American Rescue funds for 2021 to 2025 to expand its disease intervention staffing and plans to add 12 positions.
Listen up
In the most recent episode of the Resilient New Mexico podcast—which explores climate-related stories, issues and ideas—University of New Mexico Law School Professor Clifford Villa discusses environmental justice; Villa spent 22 years as an attorney for the US Environmental Protection Agency. While both New Mexico and the US have executive orders related to environmental justice, there are no laws that bridge what Villa describes as the confluence of civil rights and environmental laws. While environmental justice had an initial “strong and important” focus on racial and ethnic diversity, Villa says, “in the age of climate change,” the list of vulnerable groups has expanded to include the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.
The smell of art
Last year, the New York Times explored restaurant critic Tejal Rao’s “personal smell museum” and invited readers to submit “what scents are so alive for them that they have become part of them.” Tonight, SITE Santa Fe presents artist Oswaldo Maciá's new show, New Cartographies Of Smell Migration—one of three exhibits available during a 5 to 7 pm opening—”a multi-sensory sculptural installation” that celebrates movement and migration through sound, smell and sight. As described, an “olfactory-acoustic sculpture diffuses the fragrance of tree resins sourced from forests in El Salvador and Honduras,” and is “set among hand painted maps annotated with notes on the cultural history and biological role of smell.” The other two shows opening at SITE tonight are artist Joanna Keane Lopez’s show Land Craft Theatre and the museum’s second Creative Residencies installation featuring the work of Johnny Ortiz, which includes video and ceramic work documenting Ortiz’s culinary celebrations of place. Maciá's installation is one of SFR’s picks of the week, where you will also find suggestions for all the senses: apple picking, theater and multi-media.
Santa Fe modernity
In her forthcoming book Santa Fe Modern, author Helen Thompson “reveals the high desert landscape as an ideal setting for bold, abstracted forms of modernist houses.” The featured architects in the book use “wide swaths of glass, deep-set portals, long porches and courtyards” to allow “vistas, color and light to become integral parts of the very being of a house, emboldening a way to experience a personal connection to the desert landscape.” Thompson spoke recently to Artspace about the book, the third in a trilogy she’s created with photographer Casey Dunn. “For all three books,” Thompson says, “we made the decision to create photographs of the houses that were somewhat different from the formal, styled photos that are the norm in books about interior design and architecture. We wanted our photographs to be more accessible to a reader, and more relatable. We wanted to make each room look lived-in and as if the homeowner was going to walk back into the frame of the shot at any minute.” Artspace notes that all the Santa Fe homes have great art, and asks Thompson to identify her own picks for a home art collection, many of which naturally also have a Santa Fe/New Mexico connection or influence.
Fall weather is here
It may have rained overnight (too dark to tell right now) and it may rain some more today, according to the National Weather Service, which forecasts a 70% chance of precipitation with showers and maybe thunderstorms after noon. Otherwise it will be cloudy with a high near 55 degrees and east wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. As for the weekend, Saturday and Sunday look sunny with highs in the mid to high 60s. Welcome to October!
Thanks for reading! The Word is listening to the birds chirp while playing around with this Bird forecasting map (you can read more about it in Vox).
