Coronavirus thread for June

Parent Cafe
1501

Totally agree that all outbreaks should be handled and honed in on a community level. Our states are HUGE, bigger than most individual European countries. I really wish the CDC were giving real time local information on outbreaks to inform the public. X new cases today in zip code X in age group X. Break out the assisted living positives and deaths DAILY. This would go a long way.

Regarding people’s loss of trust - because this has been extremely politicized, i think there are very few “trusted figures”.. even Dr Fauci, who was at one time the most trusted, has been vilified to a point he has death threats and now has to have security. I think that people have made up their minds on this virus and act accordingly, and it will be hard to change it, even with new scientific information coming out every day. Anti-experts don’t trust them.

1502

According to Worldometers, the US has now moved to be #9 in the world in deaths per capita. We were #12 a week ago. We have passed Ireland, Sint Maarten, and the Netherlands since then.

I wish we could just freeze all this and not have any more deaths. I don’t need any more bad milestones.

1503

I don’t see how we will be able to keep things open for much longer in a lot of places.

Once again, we have screwed up. And this time everyone knew what the consequences would be.

“The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.” - Albert Einstein

‘Coronavirus Cases Spike Across Sun Belt as Economy Lurches into Motion’

“Arizona, Texas and Florida are reporting their highest case numbers yet. As of Saturday, coronavirus cases were climbing in 22 states amid reopenings.”

“The warning has echoed ominously for weeks from epidemiologists, small-town mayors and county health officials: Once states begin to reopen, a surge in coronavirus cases will follow.”

“That scenario is now playing out in states across the country, particularly in the Sun Belt and the West, as thousands of Americans have been sickened by the virus in new and alarming outbreaks.”

“Hospitals in Arizona have been urged to activate emergency plans to cope with a flood of coronavirus patients. On Saturday, Florida saw its largest single-day count of cases since the pandemic began. Oregon has failed to contain the spread of the virus in many places, leading the governor on Thursday to pause what had been a gradual reopening.”

“And in Texas, cases are rising swiftly around the largest cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.”

“I’m very concerned about it,” said Mayor Eric Johnson of Dallas, noting that after months of warnings and isolation, many residents had stopped wearing masks and maintaining social distance out of sheer fatigue. “They’ve been asked for quite some time to not be around people they love, and that they want to spend time with. Wearing a mask is not pleasant. And I think people are tired.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/us/coronavirus-united-states.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

1504

Things will stay open. Most people have a different risk tolerance, or weigh the competing interests differently than you do, @emilybee.
Of course, you are free to remain isolated for as long as you wish or can afford to do so.
Your experience in Albany county, NY (population 97k, with over 100 COVID deaths) doesn’t remotely resemble the experience in Harris county, TX (population 5 million, 269 covid deaths).

1505

That is why the most likely outcome is that the US will fail to stop the spread of the virus and fail to restore the economy.

1506

I do not think they should reimpose any sort of quarantines unless they have data that is indicating the hospitals and other capacities are in imminent danger of being severely overwhelmed. I also hope that during the quarantines there were plans put in place to handle more ICU patients than typical and that should be in the calculation too. I would rather get through more of this before flu season is here.

1507

DD has a friend whose family just came back from a week-long vacation in Florida. They are self-quarantining at home now to make sure none of them come down with symptoms.

I feel like I am missing something. I completely understand the desire for a change of scenery right now. But have museums and tours opened there? Or is everyone just content to sit on the beach or play golf for five or six days straight? I guess my family tends to spend a lot of our vacation time exploring, and that must be the stuff that is still closed. Is that a fair assessment?

Other than reasonable safety measures such as masks and social distancing, are those of you in tourist-dependent areas able to offer a basically full experience right now? Or are people setting for “less than” just for the chance to get away? Obviously five days of playing golf and sitting on the beach is not everyone’s idea of settling. It’s just not enough to entice me personally into spending my vacation dollars.

1508

That is the population of the city of Albany, not the county.

1509

I am currently visiting my mom in S, florida, by the beach in the hollywood area. The beach finally opened this week for sunbathing. I understand why they shut it down because of spring break, but S. florida in the summer is not as crowded. The chairs were more than 6 feet part, and social distancing was fine. The pool area was a bit less so, as kids, and I actually wore my mask in the hot tub.
I walked to walmart this morning. This walmart had an entrance area that at one point looked to have a line. Masks were “mandatory” and everyone seemed to be complying . It was crowded though. I found yeast!

I have not ventured to outdoor dining or anywhere else yet. Today the weather will be meh, will likely hang out on the balcony
biggest issue has been keeping my mom 6 feet away from me while we are in the condo. I dont want to take any chances in the rare case I somehow have this. I got a test Thursday and was supposed to have the results by yesterday. but not yet. The bedrooms are a split plan. no I would have never traveled if I was sick or felt sick in any way but when you hear about Asymptomatic carriers this worries me the most. And how contageous they are. The WHO says one thing, but who knows. (different than pre symptomatic). I took the risk to visit her, as she really wanted to see me and we talked at length about it.

1510

My sister lives in NC. Her club opened for dining few weeks ago. They just closed it down because few members came down with the virus. I am just hoping they are not my sister’s friends.

1511

You are right, @emilybee, the county has 305k. Still, the experiences are quite different

1512

This is copied from a friend:

ALMOST 5,000 NEW CASES OF COVID-19 REPORTED IN GEORGIA THIS WEEK ALONE #MemorialDay
For comparison’s sake:
Total Number of Cases in Georgia: 56,801
Total Number of Cases in Oregon: 5,377

What’s different? Leadership.

1513

Well, leadership is one factor, as are population size, percentage of African American and Latino population, density, poverty rate, congregate living outbreaks…

Or do you wish to add New York’s 383k corona cases to your list?

1514

I agree, and don’t see many areas reimposing SIP again unless healthcare resources are in danger of being overwhelmed.

Yep. It’s my sincere hope that this Pandemic will result in more people getting flu shots. After all, the average flu death rate of .05%-.1% is attenuated by about 40%-50% of the population getting vaccinated every year, and by the availability of modestly effective treatments (Tamiflu, Relenza).

1515

Our metro area is 4 counties and 3 cities, 4 if you count Saratoga Springs - in very close proximity to each other. People live in one county and work in another. The population is approx 1 million.

You can’t separate the numbers in one county from the others. That’s why NYS did the reopening based on regions, not counties.

1516

https://rt.live/

“Throughout” in this case means since April 26. If you click on Massachusetts, it displays the daily cases since April 26. The trend is sharply down, indicating that on average, an infected person infects fewer than one other person in that time period. Early, the R in Massachusetts was higher, but that time period is not shown in the graph.

Massachusetts had its spike in April. If you look at the NYTimes data, you see the peak in late April. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/massachusetts-coronavirus-cases.html

1517

Another lockdown? Not here. The businesses have not even had a chance to reopen at phase 1 1/2 capacity… what is to lock down other than large maskless crowds congregating in the park on Capitol Hill. No way the youngsters who are now having a good time on Capitol Hill will go back into lockdown. They have no jobs, no school to attend, and the future looks bleak. They are protesting all of the above in addition to BLM. The cat is out of the bag, and we will need to learn how to deal with it.

1518

That is not the average flu death rate.

1519

I just came back from two weeks at the beach near Ocean City, MD. I wasn’t spending any “vacation dollars” as I was staying in my family’s beach house. We went purely for a change of scenery. I brought nearly all of our own food, as we prefer to cook at home. We got carryout once. My husband made one quick trip to the grocery store for a couple of necessities. We don’t do all the “touristy” things anyway. We avoid the boardwalk like the plague. We mainly just like to hang out on the beach, read, swim in the ocean, ride bikes, golf. We do usually hit the surf shops, but not this time. While we were there, restaurants were still only open for outdoor dining and carryout, most shops were closed, I did see people mini-golfing outside but the go-Kart tracks and amusement rides were not open. The day I left, more places were able to re-open to some extent. Contrary to what was published in news reports (some articles were linked in this thread way back), the beaches were most definitely not crowded while I was there. While I did not go to the boardwalk, the part that was supposedly “crowded” is such a small segment of not only the boardwalk, but Ocean City in general. Staying away from that 1/2 mile area of a 10 mile long island, there were no crowds and people were social distancing. I know several people who were content to book last minute beach rentals just to get away (we are 2 hrs from the beach). I do expect that Ocean City will start to see more crowds now that the weather is getting warmer after unseasonably cool temperatures as well as the touristy businesses reopening.

On the flip side, I live in a tourist town in MD that relies heavily on tourist dollars. May is one of the biggest months for tourism dollars. One of the biggest tourist draws of the year was canceled. Most of the restaurants catering to tourists were not open. Many of the locally supported restaurants managed to stay open doing carryout and delivery. Since MD went into Phase 2 last week and our county and city decided to follow those guidelines (some counties are taking it more slowly), more and more places are reopening. Recovery zones have been set up with street closures in the tourist area to allow for outdoor dining. With warmer weather arriving, we will probably start seeing more boaters arriving. Visitors still wont get the full experience and I certainly don’t expect to see anything remotely resembling the typical amount of visitors we see in the summer. I think we will get more local visitors this year - people around the DC area who may have canceled vacations that required air travel or longer road trips. My town is a nice place to visit for the day for people living locally and they can still experience that now that things are opening up a bit more (strolling the waterfront, eating outdoors, browsing reopened shops).

1520

Do you think Washington State is going to reopen more or stay in the phase they are in now?