Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

the mask debate continues here in alachua county. the city of newberry says they will not mandate mask wearing in their city limits, they are mad because the county commision changed their mind the other day, going from no mask back to mask because the city of gainesville objected, newberry is mad because they believe their opininions on the subject were not taken into account, that gainesvilles interest was put at the forefront, the battle continues.

 

Mask truthers have to be the single whiniest group I have ever seen. Far more than bathroom gender truthers, 9/11 truthers, etc. Wear. The. Damn. Mask. So. We. Can. Go. Back. To. Normal. Sooner.

 

i believe part of the problem over masks here in alachua county is that the role of the county commision is to take into account the will and desire of all the county residents. while gainesville is far and away the most populous city here, it is outnumbered in population by the rest of the county. for a long time the thought has been what ever gainesville and its commisioners want, they get, they say jump and the county says, how high? it was thought really strange that the mask order was recinded, then 6 hours later when gainesville complained it was put back.i have long said there cannot be , for lack of a better term, a hit and miss policy, 2 cities do 1 thing, 3 others do differant, especially when the perception is that alachua county commisioners bend to the will of gainesville..

 

Here comes Springs County.

 

as a question, for those of you outside alachua county, does your county have this kind of division on certain things, big city vs the rest?

 

Isn't that pretty much every county? (except for Duval)

 

update on the great alachua county mask war. the attorney for the county said that local cities cannot make ordinances that supercede county ones, that the county has the authority to enact stricter rules than the govenor, just not more lenient ones. so playing devils advocate, and causing a little disturbance, if they say they have the power to make stricter policies, what is to stop them from saying, all right, alachua county is going back to full lockdown, that is, after all, more stringent than what we have now.

 

ok boys and girls, here are todays numbers. i am no longer using the covid19tracking numbers, they seem to be a day behind in everything.so here we go new cases 27,734, about 500 higher than the last thursday, but according to worldometer, 470,540 tests today, over 90,000 more than last week, and i know some say more tests does not equate to more positives, but common sense tells me otherwise. deaths were 1,359, about 400 less than the lowest of the past 4 thursdays, and like i said, over 470,000 testds, closing in on 500,000 a day. again, many more tests, very little new case increase, and deaths below 1,500, really moving in the right direction

 

wonder how many few americans would have dies if the US went into lockdown on Jan 1st.

 

and how many fewer americans would have died if we never got into Vietnam, point being hindsight is 20/20

 

and how much richer would I be if I knew about the virus...we can go on and on with this game

 

If you are gonna do this every day, and compare the day's results to the previous weeks, why not wait until the reporting for the day is actually over?

 

You wear the mask. I will continue to maintain my distance from people and limit my exposure without a mask. You believe strongly that it's THE tool to stop a virus and I believe that it will not return us to normal and that spacing is all that is needed. All these restrictions being put into place will not be coming down because we Americans do not know how to return to normal. It hasn't happened with laws, taxes or literally anything. Once it's put into place then guess what..this is your new "robotic" life. Don't shake hands, don't kiss anyone, don't hug anyone, don't walk by anyone, don't sit in a restaurant with a large group, don't go to a baseball game, don't go swimming, don't go to a concert...my god where will it end? So, you see it as just do it and I see it as give me a break. Do we really want to live our lives through a computer screen? I don't but it does appear that some are so thrilled to have that separation from society.

Just read the questions on the CNN Global Town Hall and you will get an idea how ignorance creates compliance. Some guy just asked "if I can smell the smoke from a smoker does that mean that I can get the virus in the smoke". This is America. Whatever they want..they will get and right now ultimate compliance is being forced upon us by shaming just like 9-11 was supposed to be the beginning of Armageddon and disagreeing with the Iraq war was paramount to being the next Satan. Those laws affect our lives daily and they are the "new normal" for over 15 years now. Tell me what your parameter is to removing your mask? Seriously, when will you be satisfied that you are perfectly safe and can remove your defensive mask? You cannot tell because for some people they will never be comfortable no matter how little cases are out there..the drama will continue until we end the drama and look at reality. Of course your reality is the world is on fire and mine is that it is actually not.

I don't trust the facts because every news organization, every different state, and Trump are using different numbers and abusing graphs and trends simply to benefit their personal needs. Please do tell me which numbers are your facts? Is it the fact that Montana has a 50 percent rise in cases when there is no mention that they had 25 the week before and now they have 50? 50% just seems to be dramatic enough when trying to get people to wear masks. Did you know that Florida is having a rise in cases since restrictions eased? Did you also know that before the restrictions that Florida was having a rise in cases? That is the new case to be made but looking at logic isn't allowed. A rise can be as little as 1 but lets leave that fact out and wear our masks. There are dozens and dozens of statistics, opinions, graphs, predictions, observations, suggestions and so many experts just wanting to be heard with differing thoughts.

Not expecting you to read through all of this and definitely not expecting you to understand the "other side" but I will apologize for hijacking your point with a different look at the situation. By the way, the only numbers I care about are the declining death rates and that seems to be happening if one were to pay attention to that.

 

I am using this site Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in the United States as it clearly shows that all factors are on a downward trend. For further discussion the site also shows that just about every nation is on a downward trend with daily deaths and cases. I also stopped using Covid19 tracking for the same reasons as you.

 

Thanks for all your help; btw, it's universally understood at this point that wearing a mask is mutually beneficial... saw some numbers earlier that showed that mask-wearing in Florida was hovering around 80% (one of the best states in the nation in this category), and is one of the primary reasons we're in better shape. Our citizens are affecting the spread themselves with some responsible practices, while the slowpokes in some neighboring states like Georgia and Alabama, that aren't practicing mask-wearing, are seeing trouble ahead... I know a lot of folks in those 2 states, and they're both appalled and embarrassed by their own state.

 

Here's the thing, wearing a mask is not that big of a deal. You act as if your questions are tough to answer, they're really not. I and I believe most others will feel comfortable stop wearing masks when a vaccine is out. Does that answer your question?

So what if some people never feel comfortable enough to remove the mask? Let them wear it. People all over Asia wear masks all the time, it's just not the big deal you're making it out to be. You'll get used to wearing it, but even if you won't it won't be a problem getting used to others wearing them.

 

Yeah that’s true. However, pandemics are something we need to get used to and start taking more seriously. This warning comes from January 26:


But policy -and decision- makers need to act swiftly and avoid the fallacy that to have an appropriate respect for uncertainty in the face of possible irreversible catastrophe amounts to “paranoia,” or the converse a belief that nothing can be done.

Systemic Risk of Pandemic via Novel Pathogens - Coronavirus: A Note

 

People need to go back and read Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill. It makes clear that as far back as the 1970s-1980s, people came to believe that we have conquered infectious disease. But we are fooling ourselves. We've been doing so for decades now and sars-cov-2 has shown us how ill-prepared we are to deal with pandemic spread of a novel virus. Seems pretty ludicrous that people think, even today, that this isn't all that serious, even among some who really shouldn't think it (presuming they're more informed than the average bear).