Thank you for this correction, emilybee.
Weird how many times I’ve seen posters here loudly assert the 2nd amendment for religious freedoms. Is it because guns and religion just go together in some people’s minds? Dunno.
Sorry that you are missing it @MarylandJOE. I just personally find them stupefyingly boring. I’m always amazed others take pleasure from them. But I’m sure they are amazed that I hate every minute of them.
No idea.
It’s something I thought everyone knew. I don’t know how anyone can confuse the two, the language is pretty specific in both what is being addressed.
Record high number of cases in my county for two days in a row. 
Not just the flu and definitely not over.
‘Fauci describes the virus as his ‘worst nightmare’ and discusses possible vaccines’
“The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, delivered a grim assessment of the devastation wrought around the world by the coronavirus, describing Covid-19 on Tuesday as his “worst nightmare” — a new, highly contagious respiratory infection that causes a significant rate of illness and death.
“In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” Dr. Fauci told biotech executives during a conference held by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “And it isn’t over yet.”
His discussion with a moderator was conducted remotely and videotaped for conference participants. Although Dr. Fauci said he had known that an outbreak like this could occur, one aspect surprised him: “how rapidly it just took over the planet.”
“Dr. Fauci said that he had spent much of his career studying H.I.V., and that the disease it caused was “really simple compared to what’s going on with Covid-19.”
“The differences, he said, included Covid’s broad range of severity: no symptoms at all to critical illness and death, with lung damage, intense immune responses and clotting disorders that have caused strokes even in young people, as well as a separate inflammatory syndrome causing severe illness in some children.
“Oh my goodness,” Dr. Fauci said. “Where is it going to end? We’re still at the beginning of it.”
^ That is not good news, @“Youdon’tsay”
Many schools around here had a different type of graduation. Most had some kind of drive by, or a drive in theater event. In many cases the grads got much more attention than they would have in the school gym or rented auditorium. The Zoom ceremonies gave more than the ‘John Smith, Jane Smith, Morgan Jones’ parade across the stage. I’ve seen stages set up so that pictures can be taken (at a much closer range) in cap and gown.
I graduated early from high school and didn’t go to the ceremony. I lived to tell about it.
There are things people are missing that are much more important than a graduation ceremony and can never be recaptured. Visiting granny in the nursing home and being with her at the end. Visitations with parents for kids in foster care. Visiting with someone who is in jail (maybe unjustly), a hospital. Weddings, funerals, recitals, awards.
It’s sad to miss the fun times but really isn’t the end of the world.
I knew @jym626 I was hoping to take an important-to-me plane trip next month, and now I might cancel.
There was a picture o f a US map with all the states that had the highest number of increases in reported cases recently (and I doubt it just because of increased testing). They were all southern states. It was like almost the bottom half of the map was lit up. Well, so much for thinking the warm weather was going to quell the virus.
The
The problem with relying on warm weather is that as soon as it gets this warm (it was mid 90s and humid here today), people aren’t outside in that warm weather, they’re inside in the AC. For the hot, humid south, our summer behavior looks more like the winter behavior of the northerners - much more inside, brief trips outside.
How exactly do you define being “pretty careful in the gym when close to others”?
If you are close to others, working out, breathing hard, not wearing masks, what exactly can you do to “be careful,” other than wiping down surfaces, which doesn’t address the main form of transmission at all?
I get the whole living in Florida and being outside on the beach is safe. I would have no problem being outside and staying a fair distance from others, enjoying my day. But inside a gym in Florida is no different than being inside a gym in any other city as far as I can tell.
The pandemic has resulted in countless people missing many events and experiences and in great losses and tragedies (including, obviously, loss of life). I think we all deserve to grieve, for whatever losses we have suffered.
From Andy Slavitt, a public health expert, on Twitter, commenting about Arizona: Cases are up 240% in last 2 weeks & hospitalizations are up 77% this past month, 31% this week alone.
The positive rate for COVID testing is increasing. That’s not a great combination.
Can’t get much hotter in the USA than Arizona. Of course, as mentioned upthread, if everyone is indoors in air conditioning…
There was never any doubt, considering we were too far behind the curve to do what NZ or SK did, that it was going to wash through. Absent killing as many or more with shutdown while waiting on a vaccine that may never come, it was going to sweep.
Deaths are still decreasing and, to a large degree, seem de-coupled from cases. More testing, reduced virulence, or less killing of patients with treatment. Take your pick.
Or, maybe states finally abandoned the model of pushing patients into nursing homes… that’s a possibility, too.
Anyone tracking areas of warmth but not overly hot with humidity? I’m thinking NorCal, up thru Oregon. Many of us don’t even have AC. We spend time outdoors and usually have many windows open at all times.
I’ve been reading along and have a few things to share from my desk calendar. (I’m sure most of us have similar timelines.)
End of January-
Book club. Most members had a student doing semester abroad. We talked just a little bit about this virus in China, but nobody expected it would affect their kids. Not even those in SE Asia.
Mid February -
Dinner with 12 attendees where our son and his wife announced the first grandchild for both sides of the family. Big hugs and kisses all around.
Late February -
My stylist returns from a multi generational cruise out of Baltimore.
Early March -
My regular roots and trim… and I am a little uneasy with how close my stylist and I am as she dyes my eyebrows.
- two days later I attend my last, full scale social event - a bridal shower. There is talk about whether a bachelorette trip to Florida in two weeks will take place. Mostly, the young women still hope to go.
- the following weekend a baby shower for a close family friend is abruptly rethought due to most invitees not feeling comfortable attending. Just a few of us went. While there I tell my pregnant daughter in law that I don’t think she should go to Florida. Two days later they all cancel the bachelorette trip.
mid March -
- my state (maryland) shuts down.
-My daughter’s dentist cancels her cleaning, which was scheduled the day after the stay at home order went into effect.
-We have a regularly scheduled appointment with my husband’s oncologist (all was well). We stopped at the grocery store on the way home. That was the last time we went out in public without masks.
March 24 our regularly scheduled Semi annual HVAC check up happens. My technician stands at the foot of my front steps, masked and gloved as we both check with each other that we, and our families, are healthy. After he leaves I wipe down everything with Clorox wipes and feel very odd about doing that.
-the following morning(I think, I don’t have the exact date in my calendar) at 5AM An ambulance pulls up in our cul de sac, and picks up a neighbor. (Sick, but tests negative.)
- at some point in March, I believe that weekend, but it might have been earlier in the month, around 20 persons in the ObGyn department of my husband’s hospital are sent home to quarantine pending test results. A pregnant patient, a staff member and a resident test positive. The department quickly adjusts schedules to keep staff members in three discrete working groups to prevent potential spread. A Covid testing tent opens outside of the ER that same weekend.
Early April
Zoom meeting with my book club. We talk about the college semester abroad kids trying to get back home, and their move to online classes. Several members’ spouses have been furloughed.
- The wedding (see the bridal shower from the previous month) has been slashed from 200+ guests to 10 people in the bride’s parents’ back yard. We do a drive by receiving line, the concept of which went from too tacky for words to an awesome idea in one day. .
- Mid April trip to several Hawaiian islands is postponed. Later in the spring we outright cancel it, along with another trip to California.
- Late April we have our house exterior (cedar siding) repainted.... Because nobody is coming inside!
May
-May 2, I meet a friend outside for a Socially distanced chat. First time I have seen a friend since March. Woo hoo!
-May 5 we attend our son and DIL’s Cinco de Bebe Gender reveal - 12 of us outside. It feels wonderful to see other people.
Mother’s Day those of us at the gender reveal have an outdoor dinner together - with lots of space between us.
Later in May - DH has a regularly scheduled CT scan and bloodwork done. His follow up Appointment with his oncologist is done via telemedicine.
Late May our 22 YO daughter, who is living at home and working from home, had felt GI symptoms for a couple of days. She wakes up with a low grade fever and headache and has a Covid test done. Results come in less than 24 hours. They are negative.
June -
I marched in one local BLM March with our daughter. All attendees were required to be masked. I walked on the edges, hands in pockets, masked and wearing sun glasses. I felt comfortable.
Last weekend our daughter marched on both Saturday and Sunday in DC with her friends. Almost everyone she saw was masked and trying to maintain appropriate distancing.
Meenwhile, as the weather has improved in the past two weeks we have felt more comfortable spending time with friends outside, socially distanced, BYOB, sitting in lawn chairs.
Wearing masks to enter indoor public spaces is now the norm here. I can’t Imagine the future transition to unmasking around here.
Our community pools and gyms remain closed for the summer here. We have many trails to walk and bike, though. I can’t imagine when I’ll feel comfortable inside a gym or movie theater or sporting event. Thank goodness for nice weather. Outside, and with some distance between us, is the only way most of the people I know feel comfortable socializing.
Soooooo, @eastcoascrazy - is it a boy or a girl??? Congrats!!
@jym626
Sorry! Its a boy!
In Arizona, yes. They report a total number of all positive tests as well as totals for each kind of test. Not sure what other states are doing. They don’t report daily numbers of positives for each kind of test, only total tests, daily tests reported, and a percent positive for all tests given to date, as well as a weekly percent positive for each kind of test. You have to work the math backwards and make some educated guesses to figure out how many of each kind of test may have come back positive on any given day.