Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

[JacksinPA]

Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

CLANTON, Ala. (AP) — It seemed like Billy Joe Driver, 84, was always around in this Alabama city after 36 years as mayor.

Most weekdays you’d find Driver working at a first-floor conference table at Clanton City Hall, and many nights he’d eat at Green’s Small Town Diner with friends. On Fridays it was lunch at the local senior center, and Wednesday night and Sunday meant worship at his church, Temple Assembly of God.

All that visibility meant people noticed when Driver disappeared from public in June, and friends bowed in prayer when word got out he was sick with what many had assumed was a big-city disease, COVID-19. Driver died of the illness in July, forcing a reckoning that’s still rippling through the community.
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A lot of close associations. Wonder if he wore a mask?

 

[Felis Leo]

Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

CLANTON, Ala. (AP) — It seemed like Billy Joe Driver, 84, was always around in this Alabama city after 36 years as mayor.

Most weekdays you’d find Driver working at a first-floor conference table at Clanton City Hall, and many nights he’d eat at Green’s Small Town Diner with friends. On Fridays it was lunch at the local senior center, and Wednesday night and Sunday meant worship at his church, Temple Assembly of God.

All that visibility meant people noticed when Driver disappeared from public in June, and friends bowed in prayer when word got out he was sick with what many had assumed was a big-city disease, COVID-19. Driver died of the illness in July, forcing a reckoning that’s still rippling through the community.
==============================================================
A lot of close associations. Wonder if he wore a mask?

Unless I am grossly mistaken, and from everything I have read up until this point, it would not have mattered if he did wear a mask unless he had PPE equipment to go along with it.

The mask only helps to protect others from you if you are infected. It does not protect you from contracting COVID-19.

And unfortunately he was of the age group most vulnerable to this disease.

 

[chuckiechan]

Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

CLANTON, Ala. (AP) — It seemed like Billy Joe Driver, 84, was always around in this Alabama city after 36 years as mayor.

Most weekdays you’d find Driver working at a first-floor conference table at Clanton City Hall, and many nights he’d eat at Green’s Small Town Diner with friends. On Fridays it was lunch at the local senior center, and Wednesday night and Sunday meant worship at his church, Temple Assembly of God.

All that visibility meant people noticed when Driver disappeared from public in June, and friends bowed in prayer when word got out he was sick with what many had assumed was a big-city disease, COVID-19. Driver died of the illness in July, forcing a reckoning that’s still rippling through the community.
==============================================================
A lot of close associations. Wonder if he wore a mask?

It seems like he lived a full life. I’m sure he knew that something would eventually end his life. Personally, I’d prefer to be remembered for what I did that what I died of.

Hell, at 84 opening your eyes in the morning is a surprise!

 

[Mr Person]

Unless I am grossly mistaken, and from everything I have read up until this point, it would not have mattered if he did wear a mask unless he had PPE equipment to go along with it.

The mask only helps to protect others from you if you are infected. It does not protect you from contracting COVID-19.

And unfortunately he was of the age group most vulnerable to this disease.

From what I gather, not quite.

It's not that masks provide no protection whatsoever. They provide some, in regards to inhaled droplets containing the virus. Just not so much overall, since that protection is imperfect and there are many other ways to contract it that a mask has nothing to do with. But the main point is indeed protecting others from you if you are carrying COVID.

 

[Mr Person]

It seems like he lived a full life. I’m sure he knew that something would eventually end his life. Personally, I’d prefer to be remembered for what I did that what I died of.

Hell, at 84 opening your eyes in the morning is a surprise!

Always with the deflection.



In this case, what he died of does matter. It showed people not taking this seriously enough that it is quite serious. "But old people might die of some other thing" is no response.

“People had gotten lax on trying to protect everyone else. They weren’t wearing their masks like they ought to,” she said. “I think with Mayor Driver’s death, it opened people’s eyes and they realized, ‘I could be next with this.”’ Vanessa McKinney said Driver’s death “devastated our community.” “We were taking it serious before, but after that, it really shook us to the core,” said McKinney, who runs Chilton Senior Connections, the senior center that Driver helped create in an old store and visited regularly.


Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

How many more people have to die for Trumpists to stop accusing the left of hoaxing, to stop claiming that mask requirements, distancing requirements, controls on businesses, are not actually some secret plot by liberals to take your freedoms? Does every Trumpist have to lose a beloved family member before you listen? Will you not even listen then?

 

[chuckiechan]

Always with the deflection.



In this case, what he died of does matter. It showed people not taking this seriously enough that it is quite serious. "But old people might die of some other thing" is no response.

“People had gotten lax on trying to protect everyone else. They weren’t wearing their masks like they ought to,” she said. “I think with Mayor Driver’s death, it opened people’s eyes and they realized, ‘I could be next with this.”’ Vanessa McKinney said Driver’s death “devastated our community.” “We were taking it serious before, but after that, it really shook us to the core,” said McKinney, who runs Chilton Senior Connections, the senior center that Driver helped create in an old store and visited regularly.


Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

How many more people have to die for Trumpists to stop accusing the left of hoaxing, to stop claiming that mask requirements, distancing requirements, controls on businesses, are not actually some secret plot by liberals to take your freedoms? Does every Trumpist have to lose a beloved family member before you listen? Will you not even listen then?

I plan to live forever, too. So far, so good!

 

[Robertinfremont]

Always with the deflection.



In this case, what he died of does matter. It showed people not taking this seriously enough that it is quite serious. "But old people might die of some other thing" is no response.

“People had gotten lax on trying to protect everyone else. They weren’t wearing their masks like they ought to,” she said. “I think with Mayor Driver’s death, it opened people’s eyes and they realized, ‘I could be next with this.”’ Vanessa McKinney said Driver’s death “devastated our community.” “We were taking it serious before, but after that, it really shook us to the core,” said McKinney, who runs Chilton Senior Connections, the senior center that Driver helped create in an old store and visited regularly.


Death of longtime mayor from COVID-19 stuns Alabama town

How many more people have to die for Trumpists to stop accusing the left of hoaxing, to stop claiming that mask requirements, distancing requirements, controls on businesses, are not actually some secret plot by liberals to take your freedoms? Does every Trumpist have to lose a beloved family member before you listen? Will you not even listen then?

You just had to attack a persons politics when it was a now common disease that took the Mayors life. Why did you do that?

 

[Felis Leo]

From what I gather, not quite.

It's not that masks provide no protection whatsoever. They provide some, in regards to inhaled droplets containing the virus. Just not so much overall, since that protection is imperfect and there are many other ways to contract it that a mask has nothing to do with. But the main point is indeed protecting others from you if you are carrying COVID.

Well yes, it is better than nothing, but only just. Having only a mask to guard against exposure from COVID-19 reminds me of the scene from the movie K-19 The Widowmaker where the Soviet submarine crewmembers, who have no radiation suits, are instead given chemical warfare hazard suits when they run in to repair a leaking nuclear reactor: "They may as well be wearing rain coats."

If you go out only wearing a mask and not expecting to get sick from a virus that can infect you by traveling through the membranes of your eyes, you may as well be wearing a chemical warfare suit at the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone thinking you will not get radiation poisoning.

 

[CaughtInThe]

I think fewer and fewer people from the South believe this thing is a hoax.

 

[snakestretcher]

From what I gather, not quite.

It's not that masks provide no protection whatsoever. They provide some, in regards to inhaled droplets containing the virus. Just not so much overall, since that protection is imperfect and there are many other ways to contract it that a mask has nothing to do with. But the main point is indeed protecting others from you if you are carrying COVID.

Indeed; masks aren't the solution, but they are a part of the solution in preventing transmission. This is a childishly simple concept anti-maskers seem to have trouble grasping.

 

[Drawdown]

Indeed; masks aren't the solution, but they are a part of the solution in preventing transmission. This is a childishly simple concept anti-maskers seem to have trouble grasping.

Masks don't work. Our ever expanding caseload shows that. People who never learned childishly simple math have trouble grasping it.

 

[snakestretcher]

Masks don't work. Our ever expanding caseload shows that. People who never learned childishly simple math have trouble grasping it.

Well in that case you can explain why in EVERY advanced nation, especially in Europe, which has either mandated or strictly governed mask wearing, rates of both infections and deaths have been steadily dropping, yet in America, the land of the 'free', where you prefer to whine about 'rights' being trampled and how wearing masks is some nebulous 'violation' of your constitution, rates of both are the worst in the world and rising steadily. I have all day.

 

[Helix]

Rest in peace, and condolences to his family.

 

[Helix]

Unless I am grossly mistaken, and from everything I have read up until this point, it would not have mattered if he did wear a mask unless he had PPE equipment to go along with it.

The mask only helps to protect others from you if you are infected. It does not protect you from contracting COVID-19.

And unfortunately he was of the age group most vulnerable to this disease.

pretty much, though the mask will discourage you from touching your face. that can help, IMO. i have also added gloves and borrowed lab goggles with side shields to wear whenever i go to the store. the goggles are probably at least slightly effective for keeping aerosolized droplets away from my eyes. i look like so much of a fool that my wife took pictures of me in my full regalia, but i'd rather be an alive and upright fool.

 

[Serenity]

It's impossible to convey just how much of an impact someone has in your life in a single article but this article did a pretty good job at explaining how much this man meant to the Community. Very heartwarming and happy he got his chance to say goodbye. So many don't.

RIP, what a beautiful man.