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Coffin stored in break room as Los Angeles funeral home overwhelmed
January 16, 2021
A corpse in the break room. Embalmed bodies in the garage.
Boyd Funeral Home, a small family business in Los Angeles, is so overflowing with Covid-19 victims it has begun turning away customers for the first time in its history.
<p>"The weekend before I turned down 16 families that I couldn't do services for," said owner Candy Boyd. </p><p>"It's sad. But that's pretty much how it is now."</p><p>In the past two weeks, as coronavirus has slammed Los Angeles, some 80 percent of the deceased passing through her doors died from Covid.</p><p>One-in-10 residents of the nation's second largest city has been infected since the pandemic began, with nearly 300 people dying daily last week as the virus surges.</p><p>At Boyd's reception desk, the phones keep ringing, mostly going unanswered as her overwhelmed staff have abandoned setting appointments and now tell customers to just show up and get in line.</p><p>She is even receiving calls from desperate families in other counties more than an hour's drive away. </p><p>Many hospital morgues are also full, with local coroners using refrigerated trucks to accommodate the victim load and some cemeteries warning of two week waiting lists.</p><p>"Things are getting more and more out of control," said Boyd.</p><p>During AFP's visit this week, a casket topped with a small wreath of flowers occupied the employee break room beyond the front desk. It had been there for a week.</p><p>"This room is our lunch area, however, we are having to use this room for space for caskets," said the owner. "We've done the services but the cemetery is so backed up... we have to hold them here until they have time to do the burial."</p><h1>Bodies in the garage</h1><p>Like much of surrounding South Los Angeles, the Westmont neighborhood is mainly inhabited by Black and Latino working class communities living in densely populated homes.</p><p>These demographics have been hit particularly hard by Covid, with mortality rates two or three times higher than nearby affluent communities.</p><p>Boyd's funeral home cold storage room has been consistently full.</p><p>Two weeks ago, Boyd brought in craftsmen to erect two large wooden structures in the company's garage to store embalmed bodies.</p><p>"He hasn't even gotten a chance to really finish because we needed (to store) these," she said, pointing to corpses wrapped in body bags lying on the rough shelves.</p><p>"I would never imagined having to build that in my wildest dreams."</p><p>Some funeral homes have reported a shortage of coffins due to lack of wood, though Boyd's supplier has kept up with orders so long as they are placed early enough.</p><p>- 'Nightmares' -</p><p>Worried about her five staff catching the virus at the start of the pandemic, Boyd initially refused to accept Covid victims.</p><p>"I was having nightmares. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep," she recalled. </p><p>Boyd has since created safety protocols and now feels comfortable dealing with the influx, although she insists it is "not about the money."</p><p>"It's about helping families and helping them get through this crisis," she said.</p><p>"It takes a toll on me every day, I'm dealing with this," Boyd added. "And I have to keep a stolid face because I have to be there for the family." </p><p>Sometimes, customers are people she has long known personally.</p><p>Other times, Boyd encounters families who still refuse to wear masks or respect physical distance, even as they make arrangements to bury their loved ones. </p><p>"The numbers don't lie. It's true. It's real," said Boyd of the disease.</p><p>Cases in California have more than doubled since early December to 2.8 million.</p><p>"If you don't take it serious," she warned an AFP journalist, "you could be one of the people that are in my back row back there, you know!"</p>
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US President-elect Joe Biden announced Friday he is upgrading the White House science advisor position to cabinet-level -- a sharp break from predecessor Donald Trump as America grapples with the pandemic.
The former vice-president will have to grapple with a nation hard-hit by Covid-19: known infections have surpassed 23 million with almost 400,000 deaths recorded.
<p>Eric Lander, a geneticist who helped map the human genome, will head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and advise Biden.</p><p>"Science will always be at the forefront of my administration -- and these world-renowned scientists will ensure everything we do is grounded in science, facts, and the truth," Biden said in a statement announcing the appointment of Lander and other experts.</p><p>"Their trusted guidance will be essential as we come together to end this pandemic, bring our economy back, and pursue new breakthroughs to improve the quality of life of all Americans," he added.</p><p>Lander is president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a top non-profit biomedical research.</p><p>He tweeted that he was "humbled and excited" to serve, adding: "So much to be done, and it will take everyone working together." </p><p>Trump is famously skeptical of science, questioning climate change and once referring to Anthony Fauci and other government pandemic advisers who called on Americans to wear masks and social distance as "idiots."</p>
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Five Hong Kong democracy protesters who reportedly fled to Taiwan have arrived in the United States intending to seek asylum, an activist group said on Saturday.
Their escape follows the mass arrest of democracy figures in Hong Kong under a new national security law that is part of a mounting crackdown by China on the financial hub.
<p>The Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), a US-based group, said it had welcomed a group of young activists to America this week and their journey had been "arduous and perilous".</p><p>"The activists, all under the age of 30, took part in the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, faced protest-related arrests and charges, and fled the city by boat last July," Samuel Chu, founder of HKDC, told AFP.</p><p>"I am relieved and overjoyed to welcome them to the United States and to assist them as they seek asylum and a new life," Chu added.</p><p>Through a statement issued by the HKDC, the five activists now in exile said their hearts have been "filled with anxiety and all kinds of emotions" from the moment they left Hong Kong. </p><p>Taiwanese media in August reported that the five tried to flee to the self-ruled island in late July and were intercepted by its authorities.</p><p>Officials in Taiwan have since kept a low profile regarding the case, declining to comment.</p><p>After massive democracy protests across Hong Kong in 2019 in which more than 11,000 people were arrested, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law late last June to silence dissent.</p><p>In August, another group of 12 Hong Kong activists, including one arrested under the national security law, made an attempt to flee by speedboat to Taiwan but were arrested by Chinese coastguards.</p><p>Last month a Chinese court jailed 10 of these 12 fugitives for up to three years for "organising and participating in an illegal border crossing".</p><p>Chu said that the five Hong Kongers could have easily perished at sea or met the same fate as the "Hong Kong 12" without the help from ardent supporters who provided shelter and protection along the way.</p><p>"Their desperate effort exemplifies the rapidly deteriorating human rights condition and growing humanitarian crisis Hong Kong is in right now," Chu said, adding that the options for safe passage are limited.</p><p>At least 50 former Hong Kong protesters applied for asylum in various jurisdictions before the coronavirus pandemic ended most international travel last year. Hundreds more have relocated to democratic Taiwan.</p>
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