Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Yes, the heat should, but only if temps reach above 105. There's little to no humidity this time of the year, and while we had a stretch last week of 110+, this week, temps haven't reached 100. Viruses thrive at 98.6, and struggle when temps reach 103 or 104 (high fevers).

Plus, these are just outdoor temps in Phoenix, which is one of the hotter areas in Arizona. Tucson is a good 5 - 10 degrees cooler, and then there are elevations of 7000 feet above that rarely reach 90 degrees in towns like Flagstaff and Show Low/Pinetop. Not to mention, most of my time is spent indoors in A/C, and the only significant time I go outside is when I go swimming.

Things are starting to pull back here. My school district was holding summer workouts for fall sports including football, band, and cheerleading, and those have just been put on pause. I'd bet more restrictions will come.

 

I mean it's very possible that someone that is asymptomatic has a low viral load and is less contagious. The real problem is that every announcement seems to get politicized into either "we are all gonna die" or "it's not even a real disease". You have to take this stuff with a grain of salt as most announcements are preliminary and there are a lot of studies left to do. Best to just be cautious until they all agree on something.

 

This is an interesting question, and something that is actually somewhat plausible. As we've seen, FL has done FAR better than I expected in regards to spread and deaths. That's great news.

So how does a virus weaken? Natural selection. Viruses replicate at an amazing rate, and mutations are common. Some mutations make it more deadly, others would make it less so. That part is fairly random. A deadly virus generally doesn't spread well - if you're laid up in bed or hospitalized (or dead), you don't get many opportunities to infect others. On the other hand, a milder form that causes only minor symptoms and allows a person to go about their normal business presents many more opportunities to be passed along.

A little bit of social change (distancing, mask usage) makes it harder in general for a virus to spread. People who feel sick are being encouraged to isolate. These things combined suggest that milder forms of the virus would be more likely to be passed on, "weakening" the virus over time. It's really hard to prove something like this is happening, but would be an ideal scenario if this was to occur.

 

Sure some states are on the right side of it. The ones that were hit really hard in April have shown a big reduction in new cases since the start of May because they had to do such extreme shutdowns to get it under control. If you take just New York and New Jersey out of the calculation, there has been no reduction in average daily cases for the rest of the nation. And if you take a few a few other states out of it, like MA, PA, and MI, there has been an increase in the average daily cases for the rest of the nation.

 

Another hiking shout out to @oragator1. Went about an hour north to Tettegouche state park. Total seclusion until we hit the falls.

 

The pup had a great time too. Lake Superior in the background.

 

Good question. I'd like to think that if we get some answers that people might actually listen. That willingness to listen to evidence is, I think, one of the most important factors. This is strictly anecdotal, so take it for what it's worth. People in my county appear to be very vigilant. We're a low-count area, but when I visit the stores, almost everyone is wearing masks and almost all are mindful about physical distancing. Mindfulness is a pretty well-known trait for people in the northern midwest. While the state of Minnesota continues to increase substantially, our county has gained about 3-5 cases during the past 10 days. It's been incredibly low.
I would like to think that it goes back to that mindfulness. Today I went up north into more rural areas where the virus is extremely limited. Apparently they want to keep it that way. People were wearing masks. Folks on the hiking trails were respectfully distancing. The liquor store was curbside only. Again - just anecdotal, but these behaviors appear to be similar to what my wife describes in Taiwan, where they STILL have only seven fatalities. SEVEN! We've had more than a thousand fatalities in Minnesota. Florida is above 2700. Taiwan has seven.
Based on my limited knowledge, it appears that vigilance is tantamount to snuffing this virus out.

 

Hospitalizations are on the rise in Texas, which is totally unsurprising.

Texas reports record number of coronavirus hospitalizations weeks after reopening

 

Florida’s hospitalizations keep staying down, which is totally unsurprising.

https://tallahasseereports.com/2020...ive-trends-for-florida-in-coronavirus-battle/

 

No actually that is surprising. It likely won't last though. You don't see a near doubling of the number of daily cases without more hospitalizations following.

 

I just read about this.
I think states and even area within states need to reopen but take into account their local circumstances. Besides increased cases and hospitalizations, the ICU room availability is a key metric to look at in my opinion. As this article notes, that number is edging up in some pretty populated areas yet it doesn't seem to be changing to plan to expand reopening.

 

14 states plus Puerto Rico recorded all-time record high cases this past week. These states include: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

The link also has links to studies that show the lockdowns around the world saved millions of lives. A gain that will be lost if we open up too early and treat this pandemic like it's nothing, or something we've already beaten.

 

a little off topic, dr. birx says rioters destroyed over 70 covid test sites, gee, how many would have been destroyed if these were not " peaceful " protests?

 

Rioters =/= peaceful protesters. I know you desperately want to lump them together but they aren't the same thing.

 

you missed the sarcasm, of course rioters are different than peaceful protesters, most are just looking to destroy others property and loot businesses, they give the actual cause that was being peacefully protested a bad name, off course, now people want to scale back police forces, what will the next riot look like w/o them to try to preserve order?

 

Probably the same since the national guard was deployed in most cities.

 

have not posted daily totals for a couple of days, so here goes. today 485,000 tests 20,852 positive, a 4.3% positive result, 982 deaths, 6th day out of the last 7 with slightly over 1,000 or less deaths.

 

Tue hike put off til today due to high winds. Grey Rock. (meditating woman was not with me)