Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Sad to hear about Texas, they seemed to be doing quite well for awhile, was kind of a bright spot. I have a lot of connections there and I have a little bit of a soft spot for parts of the state.

 

Funny how nobody ever mentions the increase in testing, of course you will have more positive tests, but the % positive rate has been decreasing for the most part in the last week. The positive case rate was only 4.7% yesterday.

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Again the worry with the re openings was a large spike in cases and the hospitals being overwhelmed. This has not happened in any of the states that re opened more than 2 two weeks ago. Can it still? Sure, but it hasn't.

 

Dire Situation In Alabama Capital: ICUs Full, Coronavirus Cases Double In May

 

won't the positive rate decrease as testing becomes more available and not necessarily reserved for suspected cases? Ga has drive thru testing now for anyone.

 

Yes it will, but if the virus was spreading at a rapid rate you would have more positive tests increasing the %. I don't think the majority of tests are folks getting tested just to get tested. Hopefully businesses are starting to test which is a good thing but for the most part I would think its safe to say a decrease in % positive is a good sign. At the end of the day, if we aren't seeing issues with ICU admissions I don't see the argument against re opening, as that was the entire point of the "curve" correct?

We have some drive through testing here in my county in FL and our % positive yesterday was under 1% for first time tests.

 

no, they've just refined their numbers as they learn about how the virus spreads.

 

So in your first sentence you cast doubt that the virus is spreading at a rapid rate and later you state that you don't think folks are getting tested just to get tested. Testing is increasing at a good clip in Texas. Either that is because the virus is spreading at a rapid rate or people are getting tested just to get tested.
I do believe reopening should be tied to resource availability.

 

I think you are being generous. It didn't have anything to do with learning more about the virus, they were just lumping antibody testing in with virus testing.

Latest data lapse inflated Georgia’s virus test count by 57,000

 

no, i'm being sarcastic

 

If 4% of all the tests are positive it isn't spreading at a rapid rate. I didn't see the total test by day on the website like they have on FL's, just saw the %'s. You do have a point, if the tests are increasing I would imagine business are starting to test employees like they are doing here, or people are getting tested because they think they have symptoms, not sure. I hope people have the ability to get test just to get a test, but I still doubt a large number are doing that or able to do that.

I also didn't see where the % differentiated between new 1st time positive tests or total positive tests %. Folks who have tested more than once are usually included for each time they test positive. I know the FL website has a category for both.

 

Texas doesn't exactly look like they are having a steady spike in cases.

 

The article originally posted by 96 stated an increase in Texas cases for week ending 17May. I am not running the numbers for the two sources but looking at your numbers, I could see where that is an accurate statement.

 

1. Considering the fact that The Gateway Pundit employed Jacob Wohl, it's quite easy to determine which sources actually vet and which sources do not.

2. You did not satisfy the burden of proof by telling other people to go disprove your assertion. It is your job to bring facts to the table to support it.

Here we can see NewsGuard rates The Gateway Pundit as an untrustworthy source of information:
https://www.newsguardtech.com/wp-co...-Gateway-Pundit-NewsGuard-Nutrition-Label.pdf

 

Delta is adding flights as demand slowly increases (heard this on the radio this morning too). They are trying to maintain a passenger load at a level that will at least help with the perception of safety. While this will lead to more revenue it may lead to even more expense.
This is good news for ATL and many of my friends from the navy and current neighbors who work for Delta. Many of my pilot friends haven't flown in about two months.

Exclusive: Delta will add flights to keep planes no more than 60% full as demand rises - sources

 

Texas began reopening on May 1. Your chart shows that cases have been consistently higher since reopening than they were before it.

 

As a Delta diamond medallion I trust Delta to get it right over any other airline. Taking my first flight in 2 months at the end of June. I luckily have some N 95 masks that I will bring with me and am interested to see what the flights look like. My last flight in March was almost empty, really hoping the airlines can get back to normal sooner rather than later, but I expect the demand to be down for some time unfortunately. I myself can't wait to get back to traveling for work.

 

I said a steady spike, that chart shows a steady spike to you? Guess we look at graphs differently, and no the last 4 days are not consistently higher than the days before May 1st. Texas had a few bad days with one real bad day but that trend hasn't continued so far. All we hear was re opening would be a disaster for new cases, that chart does not show that.

 

There is volatility from day to day. You're trying to claim there isn't a pattern when there is one. You're doing it by shrinking the window to take advantage of the volatility. There isn't going to be a "steady spike" (whatever that is supposed to mean). What we have is a "steady pattern" of cases being up since reopening versus where they were before reopening. And no, you can't talk your way out of it by trying to isolate a couple days and then cherry-picking a couple other pre-opening comparison days.

The point against reopening is that we hadn't done enough to mitigate the spread and didn't have the ability to trace the virus. The chart only shows that to be true. The numbers aren't continuing to go down. Instead, they're climbing again.

 

And I want to be clear that I'm not saying we should remain shut down forever. But we needed a better gameplan than "ignore the virus and it'll go away." The idea that graph vindicates opening up the state just is nuts to me. If in two or three weeks, it shows new cases steadily decreasing with proper context (i.e., they didn't just stop testing people). Then, we can say it was a success, but we certainly can't do that right now.