Interesting info so heard on the radio tonight. I don’t have the data. Buttery stated that Florida ICU admissions are up in some areas and making it a bit tight on capacity in these hospitals. However, statewide totals are about the same level as this time last year.
I’m sure it has to do with less accidents etc.
Also Texas and some other hospitals saying that some hospitals are using icu as isolation rather than Ici required. Easier to house the sick Covid patients there vs other sections of the hospital.
The icu bed issue is the data point that is most important. And there’s only 100k beds nationwide and there’s some pretty high percentage used in general. There is not really a lot of capacity.
My hope is there is a lot of cases with relatively few people that need such intensive treatment.
We need to lock down nursing homes and assisted living. Test home health workers twice a week.
Etc.
However elderly poor that live in apartments without access to support are at huge risks. I think we keep going down the same path.
Agree on the testing. Elderly who live in apartments are mostly at risk from family or home health care. Everyone should be tested and very careful around them.
No fireworks here, although there are people who want to fundraise for it, bc “we have already lost so much.” Recent local community FB page filled with quarantine-fatigued people who are happy to proclaim they are not wearing masks and even if there was a vaccine, they would not be taking it. These folks are exactly why I am staying home.
Town fireworks are cancelled here. (CT). We live in a lake community and there are usually very decent fireworks done by property owners around the lake.
There are no big picnics or town wide celebrations scheduled for the 4th.
I predicted here 3 weeks ago that any increase in cases and people would be blaming the bad protesters almost exclusively.
I remember a colleague two months ago say that the homeless in LA would be spreading the virus like wild fire, which didn’t happen as they are isolated and no one really interacts with them but they are an easy target just like the protesters no matter if they are wearing masks and are protesting outdoors.
Except in my area, what is left after peaceful protests IS a giant block party that attracts youngsters from all over. The Chop already sent 4 folks to the ER for Covid-unrelated reasons; one is taking up an ICU bed… sadly, one is dead. The bars are not open yet, and there are no reports of any giant parties happening anywhere but in the “zone.”
I’d say we should separate the people who were just protesting from the CHOP people. Many protestors wore masks and attempted to keep their distance (not all, by any means, but many). The CHOP folks seem to have merely set up an intentional superspreading event.
Ventura County (Oxnard) has been very lax with their pandemic requirements. An Oxnard restaurant we had lunch at a few weeks didn’t even require servers to wear any kind of masks which is a rarity in SoCal. Maybe we dodged a bullet?
Ours were cancelled. I’m sad, because it’s one of those things where everyone in the community is in one place. I also love that from where we sit we can look up and down and across the Long Island Sound and see multiple displays.
That said, I think they made the right call. I would not have gone even though I think we’ve always sat six feet from other people, the crowds coming in or out tend to be denser than that.
NYC is dividing their displays into multiple locations. I just hope they’ve got locations where people really can spread out.
The under 30 set has not been asked to make many sacrifices or exercise self control in recent years, and is accustomed to having a lot of accomodations made for them. It is not really surprising that many are continuing to act out of sheer self-interest. It is not that they think Americans are exceptional. It is that they believe they personally are.
Our 4th of July village parade has been cancelled. The marching lawn chair dads will be sorely missed. There are a number of alternate activities scheduled - the fire trucks and police and classic cars carrying local politicians are doing a drive through of the neighborhoods. There is a find the flags along the pathways event, and a “chalk your driveways” competition.
The city’s fireworks have been cancelled. There was no way to hold them with any kind of physical distancing. People claim spots along the lake (more like a very large pond) a day ahead of time with blankets and lawn chairs. It is normally a madhouse.
Personally, based on only personal observations, I believe that outdoor activities in which all, or at least the vast majority of people, are masked in ANY sort of mask, and in which people are constantly moving, are pretty safe.
My daughter and her friends - in DC (and a niece and her friends in LA) have marched on multiple days. They are always masked, try to physically distance as much as possible, and use hand sanitizer liberally. None of them (maybe 20 people) have tested positive. Most of them have gotten tested.
It seems to me that interiors, where people are in close contact, without masking, for long periods of time, are the creators of recent high numbers of cases. And these groups are frequently in parties, and group vacation rentals. None of these are tracked or really controlled by government guidance. People are just doing them. Graduation parties, beach week groups, vacationing groups etc. seem to be the source of recent spikes.
A few observations from North Texas:
A couple of dozen school districts have had their newly resumed high school sports strength and conditioning camps disrupted or stopped because of students testing positive.
Our town has moved the 4th fireworks to a city Park from the retail center of town. They are publicizing heavily that setting them off at the highest point in town means everyone can see them from home, and that there will be * no access* to the area of the park. Plus the entire show will be focused much higher. Typically they are downtown and it’s crazy staking out beach towel area for your family in the hours before. I hope we can see then from our driveway, there’s a lot of trees in the way.