The Coronavirus thread

[Richhamleigh, DC]

Commence rant. 

Thank you, Governor Cooper, as a Democrat in a purple state, you may have the crappiest job in the nation right now.   The governor is responsible for the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state of North Carolina.  I'm sick and tired of malcontents whining about how the virus doesn't affect them or they can't get to a gym to walk on a treadmill, or go to a bar for a drink (psst, ABC stores are open; restaurants with bars are open).  

Instead of coming up with solutions, Republicans whine and cry crocodile tears. Republicans had to protest and march against the shut-down in May and basically gave the Governor the middle finger and basically said to other North Carolinians, this is no big deal, it's a lie, etc., so how many people quit being safe because of them?    A month later, the number of cases are soaring.

Now, they complain that the equality protesters were out marching -- you opened the door, argued for your freedom of speech, but you want to close that door for people you don't agree with?   Hypocrites.

IF you are genuinely worried about the survival of bars, instead of allowing drinks-to-go or funding a financial bridge to businesses that are required to stay closed (for solid public health and safety reasons backed by facts), the Republicans in Raleigh hire lawyers and pontificate.  Who are they going to offend?  The religious right?  Here's a radical idea, legalize marijuana and only permit bars to sell it.   That will give them a life-line and also help local distributors, workers, and farmers.  

Foot-tapping....waiting, GOP....what are YOU going to do to help small business that doesn't involve an army of political pundits, religious fanatics, and lawyers to help you find a way to just say "no" and turn this into a political bludgeon?  Step up.  YOU are the problem, NC GOP. 

 

[KJHburg]

Back to the virus here is a new antibody test Labcorp of NC is developing.

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2020/06/25/labcorps-new-test-could-be-a-boost-to-fight-against-covid-19/

[gman430]

New record set today: 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-26/u-s-breaks-two-month-old-record-for-new-coronavirus-cases?sref=4ZGeBqkb&utm_content=business&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&utm_medium=social

Cake and ice cream for everybody to celebrate. 

Edited June 26, 2020 by gman430

[gman430]

Florida just hit a new daily record and Texas is closing up shop again. Ruh roh. 

[kermit]

Texas and Florida just shut down their bars. Texas also reduced restaurant capacity.

The saddest thing about this Sunbelt spike in infections is everyone who believed in science knew it was going to happen and knew exactly how to prevent it from happening. Unfortunately Abbot, DeSantis and McMaster just clutched their 'but we are an exception to science" beans and dove into the infection pool. These deaths are due to the negligence of our public officials and the asshats pushing back against mask wearing and speeded reopening (or never closing) against the advice of subject experts. Credit where credit is due! 

Edited June 26, 2020 by kermit

[Crucial_Infra]

Florida just hit its highest daily number: 9,000. Yesterday it was 5,000. And Duval county (Jacksonville) is exploding in cases just as the RNC prepares to come to town. I’ll be honest, I’m feeling pretty smug about this. 

[elrodvt]

Is there a correlation between red States with R governor's who bow to dear leader and the current outbreaks? That would be interesting to see. Or stacked legislatures with R obstruction to enforcing mask rules etc.

I read there are only 7 States with the manpower and skills to do increased testing for contact tracing. Surprisingly SC was on the list along with well managed States like VT. NC was absent of course. Why be proactive after all?

Edited June 26, 2020 by elrodvt

[Crucial_Infra]

20 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

Is there a correlation between red States with R governor's who bow to dear leader and the current outbreaks? That would be interesting to see. Or stacked legislatures with R obstruction to enforcing mask rules etc.

I read there are only 7 States with the manpower and skills to do increased testing for contact tracing. Surprisingly SC was on the list along with well managed States like VT. NC was absent of course. Why be proactive after all?

It’s actually pretty complicated. Red states were hit later and have been on the upswing but now blue states — which had been improving — are increasing in numbers too. Here’s an interesting graph of red and blue counties. As you can see, it’s complicated and the relationship between partisanship and new cases is pretty weak. 

Edited June 26, 2020 by Crucial_Infra

[elrodvt]

^That along with borders being logical constructs with, in our case, people freely coming from SC into NC. You're right I don't see an easy way to get to the bottom of it without contact tracing back to the source. With that information it would be easy to slice by she group & state where initial contact occurred. With no federal government it's pretty hard to imagine the States having compatible data (and the funds to collect it)  to enable that. Then there are the persistent rumours that Desantos is cooking the FL books. Further complicating the issue is red is far more rural than blue?

Edited June 26, 2020 by elrodvt

[joenc]

3 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

^That along with borders being logical constructs with, in our case, people freely coming from SC into NC. You're right I don't see an easy way to get to the bottom of it without contact tracing back to the source.

What about 100s of thousands of people congregating in the streets for protests a few weeks ago? Does the virus stop spreading for a good cause?

The public health officials that supported the protests further undermined their own authority to half the country. It's a huge mess.

Edited June 26, 2020 by joenc

[elrodvt]

6 minutes ago, joenc said:

What about 100s of thousands of people congregating in the streets for protests a few weeks ago? Does the virus stop spreading for a good cause?

The public health officials that supported the protests further undermined their own authority to half the country. It's a huge mess.

I agree somewhat. But outdoors is much less dangerous plus those were one time events. I imagine having bars and restaurants open every day with people packed in without masks or distancing results in a far greater exposure number. In any case we don't know and only more data and contact tracing will get us answers. In the meantime dear leader plays his fiddle...

Edited June 26, 2020 by elrodvt

[Crucial_Infra]

5 minutes ago, joenc said:

What about 100s of thousands of people congregating in the streets for protests a few weeks ago? Does the virus stop spreading for a good cause?

The public health officials that supported the protests further undermined their own authority to half the country. It's a huge mess.

The data show no upswing in cases in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area where there were huge protests. Also, no jump in NYC where there were big protests so while I think large protests are risky — especially without masks — we just haven’t seen any correlation. It appears most of the upswing is a matter of re-opening coupled with failure to wear masks.

If you watched the BLM demonstrations, most people were masked, which was in stark contrast to Trump’s indoor rallies in Tulsa and Arizona where most people were not masked. I’ll be very interested to watch the numbers in Oklahoma particularly. 

[joenc]

23 minutes ago, Crucial_Infra said:

The data show no upswing in cases in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area where there were huge protests. Also, no jump in NYC where there were big protests so while I think large protests are risky — especially without masks — we just haven’t seen any correlation. It appears most of the upswing is a matter of re-opening coupled with failure to wear masks.

If you watched the BLM demonstrations, most people were masked, which was in stark contrast to Trump’s indoor rallies in Tulsa and Arizona where most people were not masked. I’ll be very interested to watch the numbers in Oklahoma particularly. 

When did the southern states start re-opening? SC the stay home order expired May 4th. We'll see soon with the protests too, but it'll be easy to wave that away with saying the Southern states are spreading it.

That's why the health officials should have been able to help themselves and keep quiet about the protests instead of actually supporting them. They won't have the credibility they need.

EDIT:
I'm not credible because of my past comments, but I'm just a guy on the Internet, these are public health officials.

Edited June 26, 2020 by joenc

[CLT2014]

1 hour ago, elrodvt said:

^That along with borders being logical constructs with, in our case, people freely coming from SC into NC. You're right I don't see an easy way to get to the bottom of it without contact tracing back to the source. With that information it would be easy to slice by she group & state where initial contact occurred. With no federal government it's pretty hard to imagine the States having compatible data (and the funds to collect it)  to enable that. Then there are the persistent rumours that Desantos is cooking the FL books. Further complicating the issue is red is far more rural than blue?

The virus is really picking up with young people and basically everybody has stopped social distancing in this area whether Blue  or Red party vote. Walk around South End (blue area) and you'll see just as many people hugging their friends, no masks, packed into the Waterman shoulder to shoulder, et... as you will out in Hickory (red area). Charlotte's youth and the desire to hang out with friends in different households in a large group at each other's homes, at the brewery or white water center might make us even worse off, compared to more mature areas where social networks are more family based.

On Sunday I went to a 30th birthday party for a friend and I was shocked she invited 25 people to her backyard and everybody was hugging, posing for photos together, going through a buffet line, et. like no pandemic is going on. 

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by CLT2014

[videtur quam contuor]

This pandemic reveals character.

[elrodvt]

Stupid is as stupid does. These people don't give a crap about others or are dumb or both. 

[kermit]

3 hours ago, Crucial_Infra said:

It’s actually pretty complicated. Red states were hit later and have been on the upswing but now blue states — which had been improving — are increasing in numbers too. Here’s an interesting graph of red and blue counties. As you can see, it’s complicated and the relationship between partisanship and new cases is pretty weak. 

This is nice chart, but keep in mind what it is mostly showing is the rise of cases in the Sunbelt. Sunbelt urban counties are generally very Blue (and have lots of people) so they push the blue line up. Unfortunately, total cases at the county level don't tell us much about the effect of partisanship since most public health decisions are made at the state level (which in the Sunbelt are overwhelmingly red). Add in the fact that two red (ish) states, Ohio (very red) and Maryland (red governor) have done a great job with public health (Larry Hogan in MD is a dick about transit). A better dividing line for political influence might be science denier vs. rational, evidence-driven and thoughtful human being -- strangely its hard for some journalists to apply those labels.

We already know that the protests had very little impact on infection rates (thanks to them being outside and mask wearing rates being high). Look at any map of infection growth rates and you will see growth in the South and declines in the North -- but protests were everywhere. If protests were superspreader events we would have seen infection rate increases everywhere, not just in the Sunbelt where we are seeing them now.

Edited June 26, 2020 by kermit

[CLT2014]

July 4 cancellations in the Charlotte area due to COVID-19:
Uptown SkyShow
US National Whitewater Center Fireworks / Celebration
Kings Mountain Fireworks Show
Lake Wylie Fireworks Display
Charlotte Symphony South Park Fireworks Pops
Indian Trail 4th of July Parade
Harrisburg 4th of July Parade

Still happening:
Gastonia Fireworks (rest of celebration like food trucks, et. canceled)
Mount Holly Fireworks
Cramerton Fireworks (downtown Centennial Center will be blocked, find a remote view)
Belmont Alfresco Dining & Fireworks (will block off main street for restaurants to use as outdoor alfresco seating downtown for viewing fireworks)
Tega Cay 4th of July Fireworks

[gman430]

Utah and Georgia just reported record new highs today. Yeesh.

[slipperypete]

1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

July 4 cancellations in the Charlotte area due to COVID-19:
Uptown SkyShow

At least we're still getting the always-on residential area skyshows each night. 

[gman430]

Another record high hit yesterday: https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-06-27-20-intl/h_bd8b6e4988614875307825830f202158 Let’s close everything down again.  That will definitely get rid of the problem seeing how it did the first time around. 

Edited June 27, 2020 by gman430

[gman430]

Miami just ordered all beaches closed again.

[gman430]

Florida hit another record again today: https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-06-27-20-intl/h_3e4b98dd3af0ffefa57a25166ec5284a

[nyxmike]

5 hours ago, gman430 said:

Another record high hit yesterday: https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-06-27-20-intl/h_bd8b6e4988614875307825830f202158 Let’s close everything down again.  That will definitely get rid of the problem seeing how it did the first time around. 

It was working and then all of these states reopened too early and didn't require masks. Don't roll your eyes... 

[gman430]

South Carolina today set a new record for most cases reported in one day.