Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

I fear it is going to get much, much worse unfortunately.

 

It is a pretty kick ass mask. Maybe if that trends on Twitter he’ll wear it as often as one is supposed to.

 

Cannot tell if this is a civic leader doing her job (finally) or simply a political FU to the republican governor, Atlanta taking steps to finally try and protect its citizens.

Mayor orders rollback to Phase 1 reopening guidelines; governor calls it ‘unenforceable’

 

probably both.
All that matters though as that it’s the right thing to do. Georgia had almost 4500 cases yesterday

 

Coronavirus deaths take a long-expected turn for the worse

“It's consistently picking up. And it's picking up at the time you'd expect it to," said William Hanage, a Harvard University infectious diseases researcher.

According to an Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily reported deaths in the U.S. has increased from 578 two weeks ago to 664 on July 10 — still well below the heights hit in April. Daily reported deaths increased in 27 states over that time period, but the majority of those states are averaging under 15 new deaths per day. A smaller group of states has been driving the nationwide increase in deaths.

California is averaging 91 reported deaths per day while Texas is close behind with 66, but Florida, Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey and South Carolina also saw sizable rises. New Jersey's recent jump is thought to be partially attributable to its less frequent reporting of probable deaths.

 

more younger people dying too. 30 year old who attended covid party spent his last breaths saying he made a mistake, this isn't a hoax. Will anybody listen?

Another mid 30's man in Ohio died after partying at Put-In-Bay. He also had a history of claiming covid as a hoax.

Texas hospital says man, 30, died after attending 'COVID party'

A Texas hospital says a patient who was a healthy young man died from coronavirus after attending a “COVID” party.“ This is a party held by somebody diagnosed with the COVID virus, and the thought is people get together to see if the virus is real and if anyone gets infected,” Appleby said, NBC 4 San Antonio reported Friday.

“Just before the person died they looked at the nurse and they said, ‘I think I made a mistake. I thought it was a hoax but it's not,” she said, according to the station.

 

This saddens me. I don't want this to happen, not to anyone. Not even when that person does a monumentally stupid thing like attending a Covid-19 party and certainly not when they are influenced by an ignoramus president calling it a hoax.

 

This is really looking bad. Not sure why we had such a simple solution available (wear a mask) and we couldn’t be bothered to do it.
I expect some of here to move the goalposts soon. Maybe 1000 deaths a day per state will be the new target.

COVID-19 surge pushes US toward deadly cliff


The breadth of the spread is staggering. Forty-three states have seen the number of cases confirmed on an average day increase in the last two weeks. The number of patients in hospitals has risen over the same period in 29 states. More than 80 percent of intensive care beds are occupied in Alabama, Arizona and Georgia.

 

I got a call yesterday from one of my managers way up north in a low Covid state. One of our staff is positive. He was at a meeting with him last week and several others. No masks. Clearly I’m not doing a good enough job communicating to my team. I hope we have only the one case.

My message is act like you live in Houston or Phoenix and not somewhere you think is safe. I clearly have to repeat it more often.

 

732 deaths yesterday, highest Saturday number since May 30th(1033)

 

Harvard analysis says we are at the tipping point now and should not travel. The herd immunity experiment in sunbelt states continues.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzann...oint-per-harvards-covid-19-tracking-site/amp/

 

If you are the boss, you might consider making it policy

 

I am. It is the policy. Written. Disseminated. And ignored. I’ve got people at almost 80 papers and have not been able to travel since March.

Apparently I need to improve my communication of the policy. I shared, nameless, that story broadly with my team yesterday.

This is human nature at work. “It won’t happen to me”. Hopefully the group benefits from this and we reinvigorate our effort.

 

Folks need to understand that you demand accountability. In my firm, we wear masks in common areas. In our private offices, we can take them off. Only takes one. I have a friend whose son was getting married. Instead of a big wedding that he would have had ordinarily, he had a small wedding. These are well to do people. So they tested everyone 2 days before the wedding, the day of the wedding and three days after the wedding. Wouldn’t you know it: one fellow who is older was asymptomatic positive in the first set of tests. Most places can’t test before work etc. everyday. So we all have to be careful to stay open and work. In the Den, everyone is bemoaning the likelihood of less or no football. That is the consequence of our policy decisions. And those who don’t follow recommendations.

 

Damn, son. Florida posted 15,300 new cases today alone.

 

Bingo. Our company also has a very strict policy of masks in the office and has had it since April. I have not been to my office (and obviously not traveled) since March to see how it is going, but from some of the email messages, you would think we were asking the US engineering staff to shove a hot poker into their own eyes upon entering the campus (at 4 US locations). Meanwhile, I have not even had to ask our China teams to follow the rules once. They have even continued to ship us excess masks and cleaning supplies out of worry for their American co-workers.

I understand the Chinese have "rule-following" beaten into their heads from birth under severe government penalty, and I am not advocating that system in the US, but we simply cannot continue to allow Americans to be THIS ignorant.

 

On the upside, my manager volunteered the information that he had a no mask meeting. We at least know who to quarantine and test. I’m hopeful my team more broadly takes this as a learning opportunity. I have.

 

If you look back at the March and April numbers, you will see the spike in deaths didn’t wait three weeks. It was more like 10 days.

 

Better treatment.