WCUP

Ah. Thanks for digging in.

I’d like to see what percentage of those Florida migrants are New York “half backs”.

Nashville and Charlotte share insecurity and defensiveness as prominent local values. Both are “world class” in my book.

Cinemark Movie Bistro off Monroe could qualify, no? Or were you considering this one already as “along 485”?

I can get on board with this. How about allowing a few Biergartens in the public parks?

Yeah kind of hard to draw conclusions with the lack of detail though. The Twain quote re: statistics applies here. Still, good news doesn’t get much publicity so I do like seeing the declines on quarterly YoY comparisons. I’m interested in the per capita data and to see the progress broken down over longer periods of time and by zip code.

https://www.charlottenc.gov/CMPD/Safety/Documents/CrimeStats/CS21Qtr1-Summary.pdf

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00091-2/fulltext#seccestitle150 https://mobile.twitter.com/GidMK/status/1382152013627097090

Thanks for clarifying. Do you blame maskers for the delay in treatment of your friend? J/k - just following your line of questioning...focusing on blame is unproductive. I don’t think who you blame matters...tempting, but distracting. Why does the empathy need to be segregated? We’ve had only bad decisions to choose between. I suppose you would argue that our measures to limit the impact of the virus were counter productive. How can you be sure that without lockdowns, distancing, masking, that the spikes wouldn’t have been greater and more severe? I’ve seen you suggest that they didn’t matter, and find this hard to believe. What data suggests otherwise? I express empathy for all of us impacted by the both the virus itself and the measures we’ve employed to mitigate its impact. We’ve learned quite a bit along the way, and had to deal with various supply shortages which explains why messaging on masks shifted. The traffic fatality rise is baffling. I wonder what the experts will determine to be the key contributing factor for that...less congestion = higher speeds? Stress?

@Dale Is there no relation between preventative measures (masks, distancing) and viral spread? Can you share more about the number of deaths being “normal winter burden”? Seems much higher from what I can tell. What sources do you have indicating otherwise? https://www.r-bloggers.com/2021/02/excess-deaths-february-update/

I think you're too entrenched in a position to have a good faith discussion of the facts. And no worries if we never get there - but in a way your clarification that 'Dems started it' illustrates my point. Maybe you can clarify your premise - what do you think we should be doing differently? I'm all for a moment of silence - good idea. That, and social distancing, wearing a mask and getting vaccinated. Really glad the J&J one was approved today as I think it will help push us forward. We can agree that empathy is a key lacking quality in the country. I'd even take a simpler step advocating for more 'kindness'. The disdain you have for those that represent opposing viewpoints is telling in many of your posts- and is equally true for many that find your viewpoints detached from reality. And this hatred is unproductive and self-defeating. The comment about 'not privileged to have succumbed to Rock Star Virus' shows a flippant lack of empathy. To make progress, the country needs a huge injection of empathy and, as vital, a commitment to truth and accountability. When there are two separate interpretations of what constitutes a fact, it's very difficult to find any consensus. Unfortunately, we're late to acknowledge the real harm that social media and the sensationalism of the media has done to the quality of civic dialogue and in turn, problem solving capabilities. We all have far more in common with our neighbors than we realize; and until we find a way to reduce the movement away from each other, our ability to solve problems will only further diminish. Irresponsible fear mongering and click bait headlines have desensitized our gauges and driven many to even more polarized misinformation. I'm not sure why acknowledging frontline hospital workers and grocery workers needs to be independent exercises. This has been a challenging issue for all. I think we're in a better spot due to Fauci's efforts and we'd be otherwise, but not sure a sidebar debate is worthwhile there. I'd love to learn more about your cursory review if you have facts to share. I read a report earlier that suggested that COVID deaths were overreported, and it was quickly pulled down and replaced since it lacked rigor and made false claims. I'll find it if you're interested.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-raw-death-count?tab=chart&stackMode=absolute&region=World

We saw his approach. Trump told us it would be gone by Easter and to look into injecting disinfectant. He failed. Failed to ramp up testing. Failed to supply PPE. Failed to unite America on the severity of the threat and the importance of measures that would reduce transmission and save lives. Discredited the CDC. Withdrew from WHO. He does get a smidge of credit for fast tracking vaccine research though. Either way, bigger mistake was not taking it seriously from the jump - cost many lives and hurt the economy in doing so. Without the insurrection attempt, he could have used the pandemic as a scapegoat for a host of obstacles and still addressed it head on and I suspect could have easily won the election; but instead buried his head in the sand and then shifted to denial and blame tactics when it became apparent that the virus wasn’t ‘going away’. In a scenario that demanded a leader who could prioritize humility and truth, we had Trump. Many of his supporters told us this whole virus was a liberal media hoax designed to discredit his performance. It’s a travesty that the virus was politicized so early on. A commitment to transparency and truth would have led to far fewer deaths. Unfortunately in a time where we absolutely needed trusted news and media outlets to share non-political guidance; we find ourselves in a heavily sensationalized and editorialized infotainment environment, where consumers are simply segregating into biased feedback loops that satisfy their preconceived bias’ instead of seeking truth, and drive us into polarized camps disillusioned to blame others for all perceived grievances. Your posts claiming inflated death counts assume that we don’t have a massive excess death trend on record. In a time where accidents should be reduced due to reduced activity, the impact on mortality actually outpaced those avoided accidents. We may have actually undercounted. It’s difficult to measure for a lot of reasons, but either way, your posts signal someone less interested in truth but simply seeking evidence to support your opinion. We’ve lost over 500k Americans and we’re going to likely see 60k more people die in the next few months - roughly another Vietnam - and you’re busy searching for lightning strike anecdotes. Get a grip. It’s callous and misinformed. Spits on the graves of those initial frontline workers and many lost loved ones. I take it you haven’t had a relative afflicted with Covid. Put on a mask and stay socially distanced. Get your vaccine ASAP so we can wrap this thing up.

Not sure if it's been mentioned but I heard it would be tolled from the start.

Much like the topics of schools or dealing with cold weather, I wish more transplants would talk about how good Wegmans and Wawa are and how the local groceries are insufficient. Don't hear enough about them.