My county just opened the beaches. They gave up trying to police people - it was a lost cause.
Whether or not the protests have led to a spike will be determined by ones’ politically held position. One side will say 'no way …because …(insert logic). The other side will say YES…because (insert logic).
Whichever side is right, the visual impact of seeing large numbers of people doing exactly what we’ve been told we should not do has resulted in a ‘well if they can, so can I’ mentality.
The mental and gyrations needed to justify the crowd gathering behavior (as evidenced by the HCP letter supporting large outdoor gathering for a certain purpose were necessary for mental health) can not be processed by a reasonable logical person in such a way that it makes sense. It was politics. You can’t have a drive in church service but it would be okay for all those folks to march thru the drive-in if it were for another - approved- purpose.
Now, how can you tell a group of young people NOT to gather at a beach and sit close together? How can you tell families NOT to go to the park, let their kids play on the playground while the parents sit SD and have a coffee? How can you tell people to not gather at an outdoor bar and have a drink. How can you tell non family groups to NOT get in their individual cars, drive to a common area and commingle for whatever outdoor activity they would like.
While we may find out the protests had no effect on the number of cases, the attitude and outright silly attempts to explain how it was all of a sudden okay have large group gatherings has caused previously compliant, average citizens, to just say WTH???
States like NY, who had huge protests for days on end, numbers have not gone up at all. In fact, they have kept flat at a measly rate of 1.1% positive.
“Whether or not the protests have led to a spike will be determined by ones’ politically held position. One side will say 'no way …because …(insert logic). The other side will say YES…because (insert logic).”
In the Colorado ski towns, masks are also mandated. There are HUGE signs “Wear Your Mask” as you drive into them. You can’t miss it.
Locals wear them. But the tourists aren’t. It’s really infuriating. And it’s starting to cause major friction.
A friend witnessed a scene: a local yells at a tourist “Wear your mask, d*** it!” The tourist replies “You can’t make me, ***hole!” The local yells back “You gonna shoot me, Texas?” (The presumptive state from which the tourist is from.) At this point both women with the two antagonists drag the men away… everyone else left shaking their heads.
“Whichever side is right, the visual impact of seeing large numbers of people doing exactly what we’ve been told we should not do has resulted in a ‘well if they can, so can I’ mentality.”
This was my point exactly. The protests gave everyone permission (and, no, not everyone was whooping it up over Memorial Day) to ease up drastically on the social distancing and mask measures. It was an informal declaration that the virus was “over”.
I am seeing more people on FB having parties at home and taking pictures with their faces right next to each other. I can’t click on “Like” on any of those pictures.
Was this recent? or awhile back? In my area, very easy to get tested now. And contact tracing does appear to be happening, at least to an extent.
Who will pay for the tracers? The federal government has to step in/up and help with the costs. Additional funding will be needed. Not ideal but needed, IMO.
I promise I’ll quit obsessing about this bar in East Lansing, MI - but…
Looks like one of the patrons infected at the bar then threw a party in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI - even though said patron had symptoms of the disease at the time of his party. 23 new cases of covid have since been diagnosed among those party-goers.
We will pay for the tracers. There is no magical pot of federal money sitting around to be used. We will pay much more in taxes, and that tax money will pay tracers.
In NYS, former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $5 million toward contract tracers (including instruction/guidance from Johns Hopkins school of public health)
@doschicos Happened 2 weeks ago. He just finished his 14 day quarantine. Testing is very available in our area that’s why my friend found it odd the nurses administering the test had attitude about doing it. She was more surprised at the lack of interest in contact tracing than the testing pushback.
@privatebanker and anyone who writes that we flattened the curve. The problem is, we flattened the curve at too high a level of infection (and it didn’t last long either).
I have seen a lot of different graphs, but for convenience, this article has one for national infection rate which was, at the lowest level of flattening, just over 20k. I saw another chart that showed Europe flattened at 4k.
Since the flattening area of the graph is so short, and still so high, I don’t think we can say this is a second wave. The first one never really abated, on a national basis, but has moved around geographically.
It is encouraging that the Northeast looks so much better, but summer may change that too.
On the positive side, I try to read about all the treatments being tested, a long list, and smart people working tirelessly on them. Vaccine seems more elusive but trying to think about that too.
I and family members (who are far away I can’t see them) are trying to continue to shelter at home as much as possible, hoping that something will be found to treat this virus, with more knowledge as well as to what stage to treat it with what medicine, because that seems to vary.
@katliamom I took my walk at 7am today, a Saturday, which always means more people. I am tired of feeling annoyed and even angry. So if I have to, I’ll walk at 5 am
Expect it differs by area. A relative of my wife’s got a call this week from local health board. Relative had come into contact apparently with someone who tested positive. Went in for a test and relative is positive. So from what I have read and heard, there is contact tracing. Expect some areas better than others (more cases you have the more difficult tracing will be). Also depends on willingness to share info. I have heard of people who are unwilling to name names so to speak. And I work with someone who was exposed to someone else who tested positive. She called other people she came into contact with but she said those were not easy calls and the reactions varied. Co-worker tested negative. And she had not been at a bar or large gathering (contractor who came to her house).
I haven’t seen any posts about this yet and thought it was interesting.
It doesn’t necessarily mean dining out is directly related to increases. I think it’s likely that in-person diners may represent a group that is out-and-about taking more chances than those staying/cooking at home and being more careful in general. Still interesting, though.
