Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

297 deaths from Covid-19 today. Lowest since March 24th. Deaths are down 90% from their highs. I’m sure that will be the headlines at most media outlets...

 

Went to an new spot today - the state opened a new park called seven bends in the last year. One shot of the road bridge over the Shenandoah river into the parking area, which is cool but must flood all the time. The hike was great, didn’t see anyone once I got on the ridge trail. Because it’s a new park there weren’t any online reviews or directions, I kinda did it on faith just based on the trail map. All the way up the ridge, I was like, this is a beautiful trail but no payoff with a great view, until literally the last hundred yards of the trail. Maybe my favorite view anywhere - that’s the Shenandoah River below, and Shenandoah national park in the distance.

 

What is the nearest town?

 

Woodstock.
It’s off of mile marker 283 on I81.

 

That bad ole media again. What conspiratorial, evil organization(s).

It's Sunday. Wait for post-weekend confirmations on deaths.

You appear to be a poster child for HMP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect

 

Not to mention complete numbers aren’t submitted by 7:00 pm...

 

Worldometer says 267

 

you don’t like facts. Checked USAToday, CNN and MSNBC and not one of their headlines had anything about the lowest deaths in 3 months. You’d think that would be news. I guess good news doesn’t get reported unless it fits a certain narrative. Same for Fox as well. Don’t know when the media gave up the truth for money and ratings, but it’s been a bad thing for our country ever since.

 

I am truly sorry the evil press isn't covering the stories you think are important. They are all just so despicable. HMP Forever!

 

Very mature. Not surprised though. You knows it’s true so you try to make a stupid joke. Silly for me thinking the lowest deaths in 3 months would be newsworthy. Let’s get back to those breakouts and terrible republican governors!

 

It would hold more significance if cases weren’t climbing to the highest single day totals ever. In a vacuum it’s great news because it would imply we really have a handle on this thing. Unfortunately the reality is it’s fools gold because based on new cases, it’s HIGHLY unlikely to hold. That could be why it isn’t getting the coverage you desire.

 

Ever get down near Pembroke? My discipline hosts a biannual colloquium at the Mountain Lake Lodge. It's a smidge north of Blacksburg. Beautiful area. The Washington & Jefferson National Forest looks like a nice area

 

I have hiked a fair amount around Roanoke, but not that far west that I remember. Roanoke has a ton of great spots, the most famous is mcafee knob, on the AT, the most photographed spot on the trail. This isn’t me, this is a stock photo, but I did do it a few years ago.

 

Beautiful. I'm a super novice hiker, so we find short & interesting places to explore around the north shore of Lake Superior. Shortly after moving to Minnesota, the wife and I decided to visit Canada. The greatest nearby adventure was definitely Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and with a 900 ft cliff surrounded by Lake Superior, I HAD to try it. So I avoided the truth about the distance of the hike (13 miles) to convince my wife to do it. According to the websites, it was supposed to be a 4hr hike. When we arrived, a park employee informed us it would be six. Well, it took us eight, but we did it!

Saw a black bear right at the beginning. Made our way up to the cliff - well-groomed trail. The view was spectacular. Here's a stock photo.

The hike up wasn't too bad. The hike back to the car dragged on and on and on. But we made it. After a 45 min car ride back to town, we found a restaurant and could barely lift our legs to walk across the street. Good times! If you're ever seeking a hiking adventure, Sleeping Giant is truly special.

 

That is awesome.
13 miles is really good for a novice hiker, heck for any hiker. I don’t even do ones that long generally...I did a 10.5 mile one last fall with 2500 feet vertical in it and survived, so maybe one day. That hike was actually one in Douthat state park here, maybe an hour and a half from Pembroke. Another good one if you get bored up here.

 

Funny to see some people trying to deflect from the current hotspots being in red states after crowing about how the previous hotspots were in blue states.

 

You mean like the lIbs did for NY/NJ? The “Cuomo is awesome he just got dealt a bad situation” crowd? I’m not judging based on cases. I’m judging based on deaths. IF Florida gets anywhere near NY death counts I won’t defend DeSantis like you guys did with Cuomo.

 

So it shouldn’t even be mentioned. Sounds stupid to me. Report the facts. Didn’t realize that is so hard to do.

 

I didn’t say it shouldn’t be mentioned, I just don’t see at as a shouting from the rooftops worthy kind of statistic. Every time I hear someone celebrating a low number while case counts soar I’m reminded of the image at Arthur Blank dancing at halftime of the Super Bowl at the 50 yard line because the Falcons were up 21-3. In this analogy you’re Arthur Blank.

 

Something I was thinking about, and there may be someone who has info handy to disprove my concern, but I don’t have time to look it up....

cases are trending up and fast with a huge contributor being young people that don’t fear it spreading it like crazy. They don’t fear it because the death count for young people is extremely low.

when this thing was growing exponentially and deaths were taking that trend too, much of the young population was sheltered in place and finishing school with little exposure to the virus. What percentage of under 24 year olds were infected relative to the 65 and older? Do we have a large enough sample size of the young to actually be stating with confidence that the virus doesn’t kill them? There weren’t a lot of people under 24 leaving the house to even get infected so logically not as many would die.