I’ve been wondering what’s going on with California’s COVID response. This Guardian piece has some plausible explanations — it’s the suburbs and the rural wingnuts:
In Imperial county, which borders Mexico and Arizona, defiance of a statewide mandate to wear face masks and lax social distancing appears to have exacerbated a crisis both within and across state and national borders. “Whether people here brought infections to Yuma, Arizona and Mexicali, or whether they brought it back from those places is kind of immaterial at this point,” said Dr Thomas Henderson, director of the Imperial County Medical Society. “What we’re seeing here is craziness.”
The crisis has overwhelmed local hospitals, he said. “It’s just a horrible time to be a physician” he added, because doctors have found themselves pleading with the community to wear masks and stay safe, “but it’s all become so political”.
Four suburban Southern California counties are among those primarily responsible for a dangerous rise in California’s coronavirus hospitalizations, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis. The four counties have seen significant upticks in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in recent weeks.
Increases in Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties have contributed to an overall rise in hospitalizations recorded statewide that began after Memorial Day, just as officials were rapidly reopening the economy.
I guess the free wind blowing through your hair keeps you from wearing a mask.
California is a much bigger state than New York, but we’re plenty big, and we have plenty of gun-toting, confederate-flag-waving wingnuts, and they made noise at the start of this mess. One of the (many) smart things the Cuomo administration did was to split our reopening into regions, most of which have a large city coupled with a few rural counties. Part of the reason for this was that upstate wasn’t as hard hit as New York City, and there was no reason to keep us locked down while NYC recovered. Another reason was to put a locus of regional reopening power into a regional entity so some dumbfuck wingnut county exec couldn’t make a name for him or her self by defying the lockdown. It looks like California managed their re-opening on a statewide basis, but some counties getting “variances”.
Maybe it would have been smarter to bundle the suburbs with the cities. Or, maybe not enough people died in a big city near the suburbs to make people afraid enough to be cautious during re-opening. I’m not from California, so I’m not sure, but maybe some of our Cali readers have some theories.
ant
I think heat is playing a role. People are gathering in indoor air conditioned spaces-because it’s too hot to be outside.
It’s like this all across the south.
WaterGirl
@ant: We can do this all week! Yes, it’s hot, but many people have air conditioning at home.
I think the issue is that people are going to PUBLIC places to get their air conditioning.
Maybe now that libraries are starting to open, people who get relief from the heat by going to the library can go there, but then will libraries become a problem?
jonas
Not that they didn’t try, mind you. At least one Republican state rep is trying to introduce a bill in Albany to strip the governor of executive powers in the case of another major pandemic. It won’t go anywhere, fortunately, but you can see the mindset. My own county exec happens to be a Republican, but thankfully a pretty sane one and while he occasionally griped about something Cuomo was doing, mostly kept things in line. As a result, there’s been relatively little community spread here — vast majority of fatalities were in nursing home or other group-living facilities.
Juice Box
Orange County on the coast and Riverside and San Bernardino are purple to red counties. In 2008, OC was the only coastal county between the Mexican and the Canadian borders to vote for McCain. It has provided such fine politicians as Darrell Issa and Dana Rohrbacher to the US Congress.
OzarkHillbilly
“It’s just a horrible time to be a physician” he added, “but just imagine what it’s like being a patient.”
Finished that thought for him. Really tho, idiots are about to have a Come to Jesus moment and for a lot of them it’s going to be too late.*
*or too soon, depending on how you look at it.
FelonyGovt
Californian here. One problem is that there are still lots of wingnuts in counties neighboring Los Angeles County, like Orange and Ventura. Once they started Pressuring officials to open prematurely, LA businesses started complaining about how unfair it was that people could just drive to the nearby county. And here we are.
ant
Yeah, well, I believe people need social interaction with other people. Some more than others, yes, but yeah.
If it’s too hot out, they do it inside.
We need to be careful not to just think that the problem will stay in the south. Kids back in school will produce the same result. Below freezing temps in the winter will produce the same result.
Of course leadership matters. Masks matter.
We live in an idiocracy. It will not end well.
jonas
On California, where I’m originally from, I think this take is about right. California is super liberal along the coast, but the further you go inland, it gets pretty damn red and pretty soon you’re in solid Trump/Fox country. Wingers are completely shut out of state government, so the one thing they have to show how much they hate Gavin Newsom is to flaunt the mask-wearing order, cram into honkey-tonk bars, and lick doorknobs to pwn the libs.
mrmoshpotato
Who has the decoder ring these days? Hoooollllly shit.
Word salad? Why are you insulting salad?
download my app in the app store mistermix
@FelonyGovt:
Whatever you want to say about Cuomo being an asshole, and Lawd knows he is, he was constantly knocking down the whining about restrictions by saying “is it worse than death?” Seems like there wasn’t that kind of leadership in California.
Searcher
I think a lot of the overconfidence is people confusing being lucky for being competent (which New Yorkers familiar with finance will have plenty of experience with).
There was a lot of talk back in April about how New York bungled its response and a lot of self-congratulatory self-back-patting, to explain the differences between New England and the rest of the country. But there was probably a healthy amount of good and bad luck in New England getting hit hard with a lot of cases early on, and everyone else having relatively few cases before locking down.
I know this has been going on for 4-6 months, and feels like it has been going on forever, but we are still very early in a very long pandemic, and it is far too early to start saying who did well and who did poorly in their handling of the pandemic.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Holy fuck!
Beth
A personal anecdote: I drove up the coast to look at a property in rural Mendocino County, which has a sign at the border telling folks basically that the county isn’t open for business, and to please stay away. During my trip I didn’t stop anywhere, but met the RE agent outdoors, using a mask (she often forgot, but followed my lead). There was little COVID up there.
On my way back down I hugged the coast of more southern and populous Sonoma County, and it was both astonishing and sickening to see hordes of folks gathering in restaurant parking lots, going in to galleries, basically doing ALL the tourist activities, and few masks to be seen. It was honestly shocking, disturbing, and angering. I wondered what the lockdown was for, when everyone was throwing away all our efforts and sacrifice.
So, not surprised by the uptick. People seem to feel that they are ‘free’ now in certain situations.
OTOH, back here in the Bay Area, everyone is wearing a mask in just about every situation. I walk a great deal, and even outdoors we put them on as we pass, for example, and stores are No Go zones without one.
I have no answers. Just sense that some will have to learn lessons the long, difficult way.
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato: “You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody in order to kill them. Just let Covid do it for you.”
Betty Cracker
Meanwhile in Florida, here’s the genius governor’s response to an explosion in new cases:
That’s super helpful, fucking dumb fuck.
Wapiti
@ant:Yeah, well, I believe people need social interaction with other people. Some more than others, yes, but yeah.
And rational governments encouraged single adults to have a covid snuggle buddy. Social interaction is fine. Thinking people would limit their interaction to a known group. So if 5 people only interact together, they’re like a household.
Some people are unthinking.
Wag
@jonas:
I guess its just because I’m old, but when I see that someone claims to have “pwn’ed” someone, I see that they’ve pawned something, and the bill will come due, or they’ll lose whatever they value.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Let’s compromise with “Holy fuck! What is this shit?!” :)
It’s ummmmmm…. something, isn’t it? Wow. BUT HER EMAILS! ?
patrick II
At first, I did not believe the “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Ave and shoot someone and not lose any voters” was meant to be literal. But it is. I would have never believed in a million years “I could stand in the middle of the oval office and cause the death of hundreds of thousands and not lose any voters”, but among 40% of us that also seems to be true.
namekarB
California Here. I live about 400 miles north of LA (everything south of the Tehachapi Mountains is LA to me). The problem I see is opening stages by county. Yes the great bulk of new cases are in LA. But also on the county level we have urban and rural areas and the bulk of cases at the county level are also in the urban areas. In my urban area, the spread is not from opening up businesses but rather from more social and family gatherings.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: If you don’t test for it, it doesn’t exist. Duh.
I just ignored the hurricane, so my house didn’t wash away.
catbirdman
@Juice Box: OC is purple-to-blue now, with 6 D and zero R representatives in Congress. But it’s got a pretty strong “libertarian” contingent that doesn’t like being told what to do. Also, people tend to think that, because they’re active and healthy they are somehow not prone to getting sick from this virus. IMO.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@mrmoshpotato: But Sleepy Joe Biden has dementia. Yep.
Freemark
Waiting for PA to follow Florida. I never understand why PA isn’t mentioned with the other Northeast states considering how hard Philadelphia and it’s suburbs were hit. But anyway, here in Pennsabama we are controlled by the wingnuts and they control the legislature. They are doing everything they can to override Gov. Wolf and Floridanize us. At least Cali has a Democratic legislature that will allow measures to be taken in those counties.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: May I suggest Ron DeDumbass?
Just have Rubio taunt the virus with tweeted Bible verses!
What the fuck is Batboy up to by the way? Committing more fraud but now as Senator?
hedgehog mobile
@mrmoshpotato: Wut.
/puts Bailey’s in coffee because can’t find brain bleach/
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
mrmoshpotato
@Bluegirlfromwyo: I will break the side-eye emoji! ?
L85NJGT
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
Probably because Newsom is ten years younger and still calculating on how to move to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Or maybe it’s the nipple rings.
kindness
It’s the Fox News effect really. When the lockdown first happened here in CA, everyone was really good about wearing masks in grocery stores and out in public. Especially when we started seeing the ICUs fill up. Then Fox went on a tear and right wing media followed them insisting that it was a ‘personal freedom’ issue rather than a medical one and the wing nuts followed, because of course the did. That is what they do. Mask wearing dropped to less than half the people out there where I live. Since Monday though it’s gone back up as Gov Newsom implimented new orders requiring masks in public. But the wing nut toddlers out there have found a bone they won’t let go of and they will do everything they can to not obey it. Screw them. I don’t hope they all get it but won’t be shocked when many of them do.
mrmoshpotato
@hedgehog mobile: Well, we know you don’t have the decoder ring. I’ll check you off the list.
Juice Box
@namekarB: We here in San Diego would take exception to your idea that everything south of the Tehachapis is LA. We are thankful to be protected by Camp Pendleton.
laura
I’m parked at Korbel Winery killing time before I head to Guerneville to vote 1 of 2 contracts today. Trepidation doesnt even begin to describe my level of concern. The belief that this is all a hoax is very prevalent- and while i “mostly” agree with the coastal/interior split, the reach of the right wing first on radio followed by fox and then book of the face there is idiocy penetration at all levels. The second contract ratification is in Sonoma and the Members are less inclined to ignore the seriousness of CV. Still the plan is get home call spouse from up the street so spouse will have the front door open and I’ll head straight to the shower for a silkwood scrub and all my clothes go into a hot wash cycle – then to clean out the car and sanitize errrrthing. These are my very last contracts and I’m out in 8 more weeks – hopefully punctuated by burning vacation. This job has always had its risks including the unsolved murders of 2 agents about 15 or so years ago. Pandemic wasn’t on my job risk bingo card, but it was the motivator to wrap it up.
The daily numbers are scary/bad.
FelonyGovt
@download my app in the app store mistermix: I grew up in NYC so I’m familiar with both places. New Yorkers are used to tough talk and respond well to it. Californians, not so much. I think as a new Governor, Newsom has done quite well and I don’t fault him.
mrmoshpotato
@laura:
Stock. up. :)
hells littlest angel
The kindest thing I can think of to say: there are stupid people everywhere.
Fair Economist
I’m not entirely sure what to blame OC’s problems on. I just did a by-city analysis of changes since 5/30 (I hadn’t saved the number since then) and cases have roughly doubled in every city. That includes overwhelmingly Hispanic areas like Santa Ana, beach communities, south county Karen-havens, and upscale Irvine. A month ago the problem was being driven by cities with large proportions of poorer Hispanics, leading me to think the issue was people forced to work and/or lacking resources to properly social distance (crammed into boarding houses, no money for masks and sanitizer, etc.) But now it’s growing everywhere at about the same rate. Maybe private gatherings from people being more lax? Everybody going back to work?
To be clear: South County and some upscale areas still have a lower rate of new cases, but it’s because they have fewer sick people to pass it on. Growth rates are pretty similar.
feebog
Another Californian here. I live in North San Fernando Valley, which is part of LA. Most people in my neighborhood are adhering to mask protocol, but plenty of reports of slackers and non-compliance. A couple weeks ago I got a haircut in Pasadena, about a half hour drive, because I knew the barber was following all the protocols. Governor Newsom already put out an order mandating masks statewide anytime you go out, but enforcement is the issue. Maybe police could concentrate on that for a while.
Fair Economist
@feebog: OC’s sheriff just said he will refuse to enforce the mask order. Yes, he’s Republican, how did you guess?
Omnes Omnibus
@Fair Economist: Hmmm…. Yep, sure sounds like a lack of tough talk from Newsom.
rp
Great title.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
No one’s going to cross a librarian enforcing social distancing and masks.
Shush!!!!!
Betty Cracker
@mrmoshpotato: Batboy is certainly defrauding someone somewhere, but I haven’t seen him in the news lately. He’ll detach from his rafter and wing his way to a Fox News studio if there’s any more talk about Congress giving money to citizens instead of corporations.
Fair Economist
@download my app in the app store mistermix: Newsom has had a good tone and people have listened to him. The leadership problem IMO is that they started “reopening” before actually meeting the stated metrics (although close in NoCal), and, even worse, continued to do so even after the reopening was clearly worsening things.
kindness
The compliance issue regarding forcing people to wear masks here in CA has never been a police issue. From what I’ve seen it’s been each business’ issue. If the store, bank or place of service requires masks, people will wear them. And I’m seeing less of the offended morons claiming this is tyranny if a store won’t let them in w/o a mask like we saw back in March & April. Honestly I think that is a better way to go anyhow as everyone has dealings with stores almost every day and very few of us have dealings with the police on an regular basis
I don’t understand why some of you who aren’t from CA are shitting on Newsom. He’s been great really.
Omnes Omnibus
@kindness: Well, if the cops shoot everyone not wearing masks, it will keep the COVID numbers, if not the death count, low. Trump wins!
Betty Cracker
Well, this is bad.
debbie
This is becoming a thing in my area: fake face mask exemption cards.
The Freedom to Breathe Association. Yeah, right. //
Jinchi
Maybe, but that’s literally the opposite of the theory that was being pushed 3 months ago. The heat was going to get everyone outdoors and transmission would drop. Exposure of the virus to sunlight was supposed to do the rest. Everyone was talking about the need to get control of the pandemic before the second wave arrived in the Fall.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I saw Scott make a pretty definitive statement that people should wear masks. He didn’t call for DeSantis, much less trump, to fucking step up, but it was mildly interesting to see that bit of distance. I guess you don’t get away with a massive and lucrative Medicare fraud while remaining super-rich and out of jail by being completely stupid.
jonas
@mrmoshpotato: And Hannity sits there looking like he’s listening to Churchill’s “Finest Hour” speech or something.
For a voting bloc that’s really hung up on everyone in the country speaking English, they sure have an ironically high tolerance for this guy’s alien jibberish.
Oklahomo
I’m surprised that the CA/OR State of Jefferson region isn’t worse than it is.
StringOnAStick
@catbirdman: What I’m seeing here on the blue side of CO is the main group not wearing masks are young people. I don’t know about this state but I did read recently that the average age of a new positive diagnosis in FL is 37 when early on it was 65.
I’m 61 and I enter no commercial establishment without a mask. When I go hiking close to our house, I wear a neck gaiter that is easy to pull up into a mask when encountering others in the trail; that’s where I’m seeing no masks, young people traveling in groups of 4-10, no attempt to stay 6′ from each other or from me. I’ve gotten quite agile at getting away from them but the poison ivy crop is robust this year and you often have to make a quick decision on where to jump off the trail to avoid them. Given the age group where cases are now spiking, avoiding the young is critical.
I know youth = invincible mentality, but risking a lifetime of lung and heart damage is insane. And yet, here we are; it’s hot outside, I want to see my friends and go party because it’s summer, etc.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Ohio — the reddish state with the one Republican governor who actually cared and the bestest Director of Public Health — reported just under 900 new cases in 24 hours. We are fucked.
debbie
@StringOnAStick:
Here, the sharpest rise has been in the 20 — 49 age group.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: The ADA requires businesses and employers to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. I would suggest that a reasonable one here would be that you can be maskless as long as you don’t breathe inside my business.
Seriously though, that kind of bullshit makes it tough for people who may actually have a condition that makes mask wearing difficult.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie:
I fantasize about getting on the PA in a store and issuing a warning to shoppers that a person not wearing a mask is entering the store, so they should keep their distance. Then as the unmasked person goes around the store, I say, “The possibly contagious shopper is now in the paper goods aisle. Again we warn you, keep your distance.”
FelonyGovt
@kindness: I agree. He was the first to issue a lockdown, has been modeling good behavior and has done a really good job. I blame Trump and the wingnuts.
jonas
@kindness: I agree, in terms of the state government response, CA’s has been as good as anybody’s. It’s a massive state both size and population-wise so being able to force compliance across the board was never in the cards. Maybe now, though, that things have gotten so bad again and people see the consequences, idiots out and about w/o a mask, or throwing big house parties, will at least be shamed into better behavior.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Seems bad.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not to sound too superficial, but I bet I could spot the fakes before they even pulled out their fake cards.
MisterForkbeard
I’m in the bay area in CA, and our counties’ rolling 7-day average has gone up about 3x since June 1st – particularly in the last week or so.
People are masking consistently inside buildings, but otherwise not so much. And businesses have largely all returned tonormal, with the exception of restaurants who can dit less people inside.
I can see why the count is going up. :(
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That would be awesome.
germy
Members of the league included physicians, citizens, civil libertarians, and at least one member of the Board of Supervisors.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fun factoid: Scott hates DeSantis’s guts and vice versa. I’m not sure why, but there’s bad blood between them, and their hostility may have benefited Floridians in unexpected ways, such as DeSantis undoing some bad shit Scott did (on the environment and education) and Scott shitting on DeSantis and his team to the detriment of the FL GOP. If it ends in a steel cage death, my money’s on Scott.
randal m sexton
From the SF chron – a good break out of bay area counties: https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2020/coronavirus-map/
Its not just rural counties, most of the Bay Area counties are having big upswings.
JPL
Florida cases are up 700 percent vs three weeks ago.. Whoa!
Gov. Kemp just informed everyone that he has no plans to require masks or scale back openings due to the increases in our state.
Jager
@Beth:
Your description of Sonoma County is what is going on here in Ventura County
The Moar You Know
Our death rate has been several hundred out of five million souls here in San Diego County. Nobody knows anyone who’s had it, much less died from it. And they think “we’re reopened and it’s all over” and are behaving accordingly.
I know two people who have it: in South Carolina.
Combine that with our rather large anti-vax population and a large contingent of remnant Republicans and you’re gonna have to see a shitload of people die here before the stupid people start changing their behavior.
germy
I have turned around and walked out of stores where I saw maskless customers. And cashiers wearing their masks incorrectly (nose uncovered). Fuck their business.
trollhattan
CA’s contact tracing regime is mostly in place. In our county, which this week has recorded the highest daily number of new cases, the top source has been large indoor family gatherings. African American and Hispanic populations are the hardest hit here.
They do not find a large caseload resulting from the protests, which is a relief.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Only one way to find out. Maybe Ted Cruz can make it happen through Twitter trash talk.
Chyron HR
@mrmoshpotato:
Just you wait until Don-Don’s new website blows the lid off the “Biden no make right word” scandal.
OGLiberal
@Jinchi: I never got the heat argument. Based on what? There’s so much we don’t know – still – about this virus so basing stuff on past viruses doesn’t always apply. New Orleans was a huge hot spot in the early going and it’s not exactly cool in Louisiana in March and April. Now, the places where it’s growing most are almost all in the South. And heat doesn’t just increase the number of people gathering together indoors – it also increases outside activity and I see plenty of pictures of people on the beach, boardwalk, in the park, not really social distancing and not wearing masks. I know in my town on the Jersey Short there aren’t usually a lot of folks on the boardwalk/beach in February and March…or even April. But now….
germy
White men rebelling. In the south.
Didn’t end well last time, either.
Jinchi
The northeast is still the worst hit overall, but that won’t last long at the pace we’re going. It’s the one region in the country that’s well on it’s way to recovery. It looks a lot like the situation in Italy. They were very hard hit early on, but now have nearly beaten the pandemic.
NotMax
@germy
Better a live sheep than a dead duck.
// ;)
geg6
@Freemark:
THIS. I live in Beaver County and the percentage of people wearing masks and distancing has dropped to (by my own estimates based on what I actually see) about 10-20% from about 70-80%. I drove by a local bar/restaurant, which has an outside bar and dining area, a couple of days ago. The parking lot was absolutely jam packed and it’s a huge parking lot with overflow into a next door plaza. It was about 6:30 pm, so the businesses in the plaza were closed, meaning all the cars and trucks there were definitely patrons of the restaurant. Knowing the capacity of the inside and outside of the place, I deduced that there was no fucking way anyone was anywhere near six feet apart. In fact, it had to be standing room only at both the inside and outside bars. And the tables had to be packed, too. It was nuts. My John and I have decided we will never step foot in the place ever again and I’m writing the owner about it. Fuck this shit. The place is less than a mile from my house. I don’t need or want super spreader events because all the assholes from TX and OK and LA who are here to build the Shell cracker plant are too delicate of flowers to take any sort of safety measures. Also does not give me any confidence about the safety of the plant, for which I had minimal confidence to start with.
Jinchi
Based on Trump wanted the problem to go away without actually doing any work. Plus we were still comparing it to the flu and flu season tapers off in the summer.
Ladyraxterinok
@WaterGirl:
If you’re out of work, how do you pay the electric bill for AC!
IIRC one yr when many poor in Chicago were without heat, companies turned their heat back on so they wouldn’t die.
trollhattan
@OGLiberal:
My understanding, limited as it is, the virus viability exposed to heat and high UV is short and thus, does not survive long on hot, sunlit outdoor surfaces. Heard an interview with a virologist who speculates when cold, wet weather returns, viruses on outdoor surfaces will remain viable longer and can be picked up and “reaerosolized” to use his term. i.e., become airborne again and thus, spreadable.
I bet indoor versus outdoor transmission is an order of magnitude greater and because folks are indoors a higher percentage of the time in winter, that’s the meaningful difference.
opiejeanne
@Juice Box: Oh, you missed a couple of the Big Nutjobs : John G Schmitz, brought to you by Carl Karcher, among others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Schmitz
And B-1 Bob Dornan, who was elected to the House from the Garden Grove Congressional district. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dornan
We lived in Riverside for 23 years when they were both congressmen behind The Orange Curtain, and heard about their insane behavior all the time. From 2003-2010 we lived in Anaheim, a couple of blocks from the Karchers’ house.
They were both outrageous, but Schmitz was the horror I remember. His remarks when addressing a group of pro-choice women, referring to the sea of “hard, Jewish faces” before him, his constant hateful comments are what I remember. One of his nine children is Mary Kay LeTourneau, and at least two of the others are active in politics, with similar beliefs to their old man.
NotMax
U.S. has reclaimed the topmost spot for number of cases reported over most recent 24 hours, pushing that uppity Brazil back to #2.
So much winning.
OGLiberal
@geg6: A popular bar/club in a town near me on the Jersey Shore – which gets way more popular when the beachers/summer renters arrive – converted their parking lot to an outdoor bar space. They required masks to get in but per the local news stories, almost everybody took their masks off once they got in so, yeah, that didn’t help. And it also looks like the crowd outside was not all that different to the size of the crowds inside when the interior space is open. They got chastised by the town government but my guess is that future infractions aren’t going to result in any kind of serious punishment – maybe just more, “hey, stop doing that!”, requests.
Amir Khalid
What I’m seeing in this thread is just frightening. Basically, some Americans have decided that unilateral surrender to Covid-19 is better than self-protection.
Mallard Filmore
@debbie: Treat everyone you see without a mask as a zombie, out to kill you.
Its the zombie apocalypse!
germy
Sorry, libs.
I’ve got more important things to worry about than your “virus”
hedgehog mobile
@StringOnAStick: Can confirm. I live in South Jeffco and work downtown (I come in once a week). I don’t go anywhere that humans gather without a mask. Most of the maskless I see are 20 to 30 somethings. (FWIW I’m 62).
artem1s
I seemed to remember there was a problem with the 1%ers fleeing Manhattan and demanding they be treated in the tiny, no ICU hospital in the Hamptons. Italy had a similar issue. They tried to quarantine the northern states where the outbreak first occurred (skiing resorts). By the time they realized the rich skiers had left the quarantined areas to head home to the south, it was too late and the rest of the country was now experiencing a massive outbreak.
The problem is the US has never had a unified policy on interstate travel. If they had done regional lock downs AND instituted air and long distance travel bans across the country, we might have had a chance to contain the outbreaks from the NY and CHI airports to smaller areas. But Flori-duh, NOLA, and the Carolinas decided they had to get one more week of spring break revenue and suddenly half a million kids were spreading it across every state east of the Mississippi.
The US’s problem is COVID doesn’t give a shit about State’s Rights and invisible lines on the ground.
Jinchi
It looks like Georgia is starting a trend following Florida’s, just 10 days later. This might be a good time to stock up on supplies if you live there.
japa21
What is really fascinating in a deranged way is how the whiners, mask non-wearers, etc., don’t even know what a real lockdown is. I don’t think any part of our country went into the kind of lockdowns they saw in much of Europe. Imagine how these whiny folks whose mental and emotional development obviously stopped when they were around 12, would have reacted to the measures that would really have shut this down when there was a chance.
OGLiberal
@opiejeanne: Here’s one of the Schmitz kids:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Schmitz
Was a Trump campaign advisor in 2016. Tight with Eric “Blackwater” Prince, Betsy’s bro. These people are all horrible.
The Schmitz family is a piece of work, even outside of Mary Kay. The dad had two kids with a mistress…he refused any support. Family values….
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Fixed.
JPL
@Jinchi: Crazy is as crazy does. Republican governors need to be defeated next time they are up for election.
The Moar You Know
@kindness: I am from CA and a former SF resident and I thought he’d be an absolute disaster as governor. Couldn’t decide if I loathed him or was embarrassed by him more.
He has stepped up to the occasion and then some, done a damn good job in a state that at the best of times I would term “resistant to governance”, and I will vote for him again.
OGLiberal
@Amir Khalid: The fact that it has hit minority communities more than others is a feature, not a bug, for many Americans – and just proves to them that “those people” are inferior to the super strong, virus-proof white genes. Also, they don’t seemed too worried about grandma/grandpa or anybody with pre-existing conditions – being old or not old but having a pre-existing condition is apparently all due to a lack of personal responsibility. Hear a lot of anti-shutdown/anti-maskers say, “people are doing to die anyway” as a justification for their recklessness.
Chyron HR
@germy:
Why does the GOP let the literal actual documented pedophile pimp speak for them? Does he have seniority? Or is going “Yeah we’re child molesters and you can’t do anything about it” part of the thrill for them?
NotMax
OT.
Been keeping a weather eye on numbers from South Africa. To say they’re now in profound doo-doo is an
underabyssalstatement.No expert, but from what have been reading would call whether the present government continues in power in the immediate future a toss-up.
Chris
@Juice Box: Yes, but the county demographics are rapidly changing which led to Katie Porter and other Dems getting elected in 2018.
OC’s cases are primarily in Anaheim and Santa Ana, not the GOP south-county. To me this speaks to population density and economic reasons that make it hard for people to continue to distance along with lots of politicization of mask wearing too.
Betty Cracker
This just happened.
glc
Additionally – LA County decided that once the neighboring counties stopped fighting the epidemic, they saw no point in continuing the fight. Totally different from the Bay area, and a major contributor to CA mortality overall.
The state’s response has clearly been ineffective. New York also adopted a head-in-the-sand policy early on, then reversed itself dramatically. NYC budged when the head of the health agency threatened to resign – only to be overruled at the state level. Costing an estimated additional 22,000 deaths there. But now NY serves as a model, compared to states like CA.
Of course, this sort of thing is supposed to follow policy set at the national level, where we used to have an actual pandemic task force. So everyone is improvising and they don’t have the basic institutional framework to process what has been learned in the last couple of decades in terms of making and adjusting policy. In addition to being told by the federal government not to test during the initial outbreak (Seattle, who did so anyway and found the first identified case of community transmission), and having their PPE shipments stolen by the feds and diverted to private middlemen.
Anyway, it will be getting much worse, so eventually this won’t look so bad. Who knew 2019 was a good year?
I’m a little out of sorts at the moment.
Jinchi
It’s probably even greater than that and not just because people spend more time indoors. The air indoors is contained, if you’re sitting close to a sick person for several hours, the amount of virus in the air is going to increase steadily, because it has nowhere else to go. You’re basically at risk of sharing every breath they’ve exhaled while in the room.
If you’re sitting next to the same person outside, you risk breathing in air that’s blown towards you, but only in the moment. The rest is blown on the wind.
JPL
Potus is canceling is Bedminster trip this weekend.. I wonder what’s up with that
Weather doesn’t look great with thunderstorms in the area.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: They can stay open though.
Ruckus
@Beth:
Some people seem to never want to learn. They act like they know everything and there’s no more room for new information. What it really shows is their self imposed limitations. Never understood why so many seem to think their brains are full. Except maybe they are…
The Moar You Know
@Omnes Omnibus: My wife’s being treated for melanoma right now and can’t wear one. Very painful.
We also raise for Guide Dogs and are EXTREMELY well-informed on the ADA. We deal with the blind often. We will not and will never abuse the law for our convenience. In addition to being utterly morally abhorrent and fucking over people who rely on the ADA to live their lives with any semblance of normality, Guide Dogs would permaban us if we ever did so.
Solution: I go out, wife stays home.
There is nothing in the ADA that covers mask wearing or respiratory issues. These people pulling this shit are degenerate scum, and God help any of them who cross my path in public. Claiming ADA exemptions/privileges when you don’t actually qualify is a felony.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: well considering that…2024 should be exciting (if we ever make it there, that is)
After all, Henry Olsen is already handicapping the 2024 GOP contenders and Scott vs DeSantis pits a ‘Restoration Crew’ member up against an ‘Imperial Successor’ (yes, that’s really how Olsen puts it).
BLECH
I think Olsen is forgetting that exactly none of these brainless vipers is likely to offer much to the still-recovering American people, nor escape their endless fellating of trumpov himself (who may well be in a cell or Moscow by the summer of 2023).
This is the party, after all, where Ted Cruz was the runner-up to trumpov…and where ‘reformers’ or ‘moderates’ are simply not to be found.
Mike in NC
Woke up this morning to read in the newspapers that Confederate statues were coming down like hailstones all across North Carolina. Maybe we can sell a few of those shitty things to Orange County, CA.
“Alexa, play The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down“
debbie
@JPL:
He can just sit in the Rose Garden and fiddle while the country dies. //
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
“Yeah, we’ll have two orders of buffalo wings and two large Cokes. And six of the Jell-O shooter suppositories.”
//
Jinchi
Does that mean DeSantis is coming to his senses, or did somebody act without clearing it with him first?
JaneE
I think your take on CA is about right. Right now the virus is moving out of the urban centers like LA and SF, and the surrounding counties and even the rural areas like mine are seeing more cases with large numbers of people just not following the guidelines. Generally, the rural areas are Republican, but they are also law-abiding, so there is some conflict between following the public safety guidelines and supporting Trump. Where I am, the locals tend to break on the side of protecting grandma, who may be living with them or across town. Tourists are a different story. They are not staying home, and they are going out to dinner. Our confirmed cases have gone up 50% from where they stopped before reopening.
bemused
A Twin Cities, MN, restaurant owner may go back to banning dine-in service due to surge in customers being rude to staff in already difficult work conditions. The rude customers come in, sitting inside, walking around, moving from table to table which forces staff to keep disinfecting surfaces, complaining about price increases and smaller menu, not considering covid reality. Owner stated, “I have the nicest, flexible and caring staff ever and they don’t deserve it, so check yourself. If I’m hearing it happen, I’m going to ask you to leave. I’m just not going to tolerate it.”
I don’t think anyone would be surprised they are trumpers, not known for respecting others.
JPL
@debbie: Thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday in NJ, while it looks like he can play golf tomorrow in DC.
I was hoping that he was sick due to the virus. shucks
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: In another couple of months you can change that “some” to “most”. America’s coming unglued at the seams. You can feel it everywhere.
namekarB
@Juice Box: Understood and apologize. But it is matter of perspective. Viewed from the Moon looking down, Los Angeles and San Diego butt right up next to each other and the southern part of the state is a long way off from Placer County. But yes I over generalize a lot. I apologize a lot also.
Sab
@StringOnAStick: I could write the exact same comment from Ohio
Fair Economist
@Jinchi: I have been twitter following a nurse supervisor in August GA and she says it’s gotten awful again already. Ward is full, she’s working double shifts, but this time the patients are mostly young.
I suspect the death rate will be lower than in the first go around, but the hospital load will be the same or higher, precisely because the patients don’t die as much and continue needing care.
Ruckus
@glc:
What mechanism is there for one county, in basically the middle of several others to do if the surrounding counties don’t even give much of an attempt, especially in our open society where we drive many miles to do much of anything? IOW what can LA county do? It’s like going to the store and one jackass is trying to enter without a mask. That video of a wally world with the moron 50ish white guy trying to bully his way into the store without a mask. One can be stopped, but an entire county?
As always, stupid will be the death of all of us.
lee
Here in my red county of North Texas mask wearing had dropped to about 50% or less until this last week. Now I’m guessing it is at 75% or more (at least in my outings). Yeah it was a dramatic turnaround.
I live in a wealthy, educated area.
Gin & Tonic
@JPL: NJ Governor just issued a very strong advisory on self-quarantine for anyone entering NJ who’s been to a hot-spot state (like, say, Arizona.) There was some bleating from the Trump camp that it wouldn’t apply to him because he’s “not a civilian” [ed. note – he actually is] and that everyone around him is tested, blah, blah. Maybe somebody convinced him that it wouldn’t be a good look, though?
Fair Economist
@Betty Cracker: Wow, FL is actually taking a useful measure? Bars are certainly a major problem, even if just this won’t stop it.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: Idiocy is its own reward, is it not? I’m so pleased to see this. It was really the right thing to do. DeSantis could have done this the smart way, didn’t, so now he gets to do it the really bad, high cost way.
Y’all are gonna have riots over it, so stay home.
Alison Rose
@Beth: I live in Sonoma County and……..yeah. Seems like 90% of the population here are stone-cold idiots. I haven’t left my apartment complex at all during SIP, but any time I go down to get mail or do laundry, with my mask on, almost NO ONE in my building is wearing one, and they’re coming in with bags from stores or restaurants, cramming into the elevator together, etc. My mom tells me when she’s in the grocery store, at most half the people are wearing masks, and the six feet rule is barely observed.
And yet everyone is like OKAY THINGS ARE GREAT LET’S OPEN BACK UP. While our cases keep spiking. Sure. Fantastic.
I think part of the problem has been the focus on how most people, if they get it, will just have a normal flu and then get better. Sure, it’s good to reassure people in that way, except that stupid people hear that and think that’s the case for 100% of patients, when it’s obviously not, so they don’t give a shit and don’t see the point of masks and distancing. So comforting to know I’m surrounded by brainless sociopaths.
JPL
@Gin & Tonic: twitter is indicating that it would look bad, but time will tell. We’ll see if he sneaks out to play golf tomorrow.
FelonyGovt
OT has anyone posted this yet? From trump’s interview with Hannity: “Biden can’t put two sentences together but he’s going to be president because some people don’t love me”
WTF???
Fair Economist
In my area of OC CA, mask wearing is good in the supermarket. 90%+. Walking on paths outside is bad, maybe 25%. Other than that it’s – well, I don’t know because I don’t do anything else, and won’t until things are under control. Hubby does say people are good at his company (engineering/manufacturing).
Ladyraxterinok
@NotMax:
From Evangelicals
1) JimBakker guests, hosts many times warn government requiring wearing masks, maintaining social distance is part of a plot to soften US up for a coming tyranny from the demonic Democrats, socialists. If you wear a mask, you’re weakening your ability to resist.
2) Perry Stone warns against Obamacare. To get govt insurance your name gets put on a list. Soon ‘they’ will embed a chip in your wrist with all info about you, not just your medical info. They will be able to trace you, see where you go and what you do and read. Yhey will have total control. Obamacare is the 1st step in implementing the Mark of the Beast warned against in Revelations?
CaseyL
@The Moar You Know:
Quoted for fucking truth.
Three endless years ago, I was gobsmacked at how quickly all the Federal guardrails collapsed in the face of T*’s corruption and cruelty.
Now I am seeing the country fall apart altogether under the weight of pandemic cases and economic decay.
All the guardrails are gone.
What we have is worse than “no Federal government,” we have an actively malevolent Federal government.
Kay says they’re bad hires. They’re not, though: they are deliberately ruinous hires, sabotage hires, destroy-from-within hires.
Not sure how much of the country will be left for a Biden Administration to repair…
Sab
@debbie: An elderly unmasked asshole on a park trail yesterday asked my hisband why oir dog wasn’t masked.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Moar You Know: Well, aren’t you a little ray of sunshine.
TS (the original)
@JPL:
Maybe NY, NJ, CT are going to require 2 weeks quarantine for people coming from DC. That would be interesting
Edit: Just saw G&T post above re trump in Arizona – sounds quite possible
Calouste
@NotMax: Don’t be a sheep, be mutton!
Amir Khalid
@FelonyGovt:
Trump is right about one thing. The way he’s conspicuously going off the rails, he’s definitely going hand Biden the presidency.
Tom Levenson
My corner of CA wingnuttia (Plumas County) has been mostly COVID free. For most of the spring the total there was stuck at 4 positive cases, all recovered, and strong encouragement from the county government for second-home/tourist folks to stay away.
It’s up to seven positives now, with something like 90 pending tests. The three new cases are still ongoing–though I couldn’t find any information on how severely ill they may be.
Plumas has a tiny year-round population, less than 20,000 in the whole county. But it’s a summer recreation destination, with Lassen National Park being a draw, along with Lake Almanor and some destinations along the Feather River. That’s how my family has come to be there–my parents built a very rough cabin on an approach to the national park.
The risk is coming from there. Lassen reopened this week–the visitor center and campgrounds. Cabin rentals are resuming at the two in-park facilities tomorrow. I’m sure folks from the Bay Area and the Central Valley are escaping to their summer places.
It’s plenty wingnuttish–the county health executive exempted business from enforcing masking back in May, though they are complying with the new state wide order. I won’t be surprised if gathering spots in the small towns don’t become riskier and riskier over the next month.
As for me–the family place up there is my idea of paradise. It has no town services at all, and no cell service, and hence no internet. I would sell body parts (or less-loved relatives) to be there now. But I don’t see how it’s going to be sensible to fly anytime between now and when the snow cuts off access to the place (November, often October).
Kelly
Oregon mandated masks in 7 counties covering about 40% of the state population. All in the NW corner of the state. Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to see 100% compliance at our hardware store. I’m in the very red hinterlands of Marion county and the hardware store owner is a wingnut. Maybe the statistics are getting through.
Ken
You of course demonstrated why, by releasing the leash and uttering the kill command “maskless”?
download my app in the app store mistermix
@artem1s:
A lot of NYC residents who had winter places in Florida went there, too.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I LOVE THAT IDEA!
edit: Maskless shopper gets mad and won’t shop at your store anymore. Bonus!
bemused
@Ken:
Old assholes think they are clever and humorous. Only to other old assholes.
namekarB
Same in Placer County. Most folks will obey the law. The problems we are having in the urban (southern) part of the county is
1) worse in the high density low income housing
2) Young people are immortal
3) Social and family gatherings
Baud
My years long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
Brachiator
I think the Guardian piece has it wrong. Especially with respect to Southern California, it’s insufficient to talk about “suburbs” and “rural areas.” Los Angeles County alone is huge, and includes numerous smaller cities. Long Beach in the South and Pasadena in the northern part of Los Angeles County, account for a significant number of cases, and have their own separate health agencies sending data to the LA County health officials.
Los Angeles County is becoming a problem, and everywhere significant numbers of cases are because of community spread as families and friends start reconnecting. And county officials are strangely just starting to realize that they did not always do a good job in getting information to non-English speaking communities. Ironically efforts to do more in this last area is sparking some resentment from reporters covering the pandemic, who don’t want to sit around while officials deliver briefings in languages other than English.
Ventura pressured officials into opening early, but this was not unreasonable since they managed their cases well. Problem was that people would drive up from other areas to take advantage of businesses that had opened up, and this led to increased pressure from LA County businesses to be allowed to open.
This is a persistent problem. People keep confusing the risk of their getting the virus and becoming ill with the problem of getting the virus and spreading it to other people even if they don’t become ill themselves. That the virus does not hit younger populations as hard as it does older people is leading to complacency.
We are still learning about the virus, and still making some bad decisions based on faulty judgements. And health officials probably should have worked more closely with businesses instead of coming up with inflexible rules and guidelines. Some places are finding it hard to stay in business with the 6 foot social distance rules in place. And some restaurants are ignoring the rules entirely.
I am not sure whether some of the plexiglass shielding being used actually does much or provides more surface area for the virus to spread.
But an even bigger issue is that I will bet that restaurants with outdoor seating are safe bets. But it is not just indoor seating that may be a problem, but ventilation. The air flow in some places may actually create zones where the virus can concentrate instead of dissipate. And this may also be a problem at home as people start including friends and family into what had previously been more isolated areas.
So, even where people where masks and try to do well, we may need to think more about how social spaces need to be modified to deal with the virus.
Hungry Joe
@The Moar You Know: Our (San Diego County’s) population is about three million, not five. And I know two people who have had COVIS. One just felt kind of lousy; the other said he was the sickest he’d ever been, but he had no trouble breathing so he rode it out at home.
But, yeah, you’re right — we’re going to get hit hard. I picked up some takeout last night and while waiting on the sidewalk I had to dodge and weave to avoid close-breathing space with maskless people strolling by. And I live in Kensington, a blue-ish neighborhood.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My own fantasy involves flights of drones that harass anyone without a mask, like they set up in China.
In the darker version of the fantasy, “harass” means “clamps onto their face, then either detonates with a 5% probability, or requires surgical intervention to remove”.
FelonyGovt
@Brachiator: I’m not so sure that restaurants with outdoor seating are safe bets, and I’ve been avoiding them. In many cases it looks like the tables aren’t that far apart. People sit there for quite a while and remove their masks to eat or drink.
Then again I’m 66 and have some health conditions and I’m not taking any chances (possibly erring on the side of caution).
Ken
I’m sure science fiction has many examples. Asimov’s The Naked Sun had a planet of people who never met one another, if I recall correctly.
Edit: And I see someone already got there; the wikipedia page for the novel now has a section on social distancing.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
It’s the worst kind of cowardice; they’re forcing the bars to close without officially saying they have to close so they (and their employees) can actually get some kind of bailout money.
CarolDuhart2
@Jeffro: I think Trump might be in the grave. If he loses, and is still living, the prospect of winning a sole term won’t appeal, and nobody is going to want to nominate someone who’s a one-termer from the start anyway. I look for Trump Jr to make a bid though to somehow rehabilitate the family image. I look for a wild card non-trumper to take the Republicans in another direction. Either will lose to Kamela or even Warren.
Robert
Northern Californian here. It’s probably difficult for someone from a place like New York to comprehend the magnitude of the population size in California. In Southern California alone, the population is close to 24 million – it’s the largest single market in the country. In that population are a lot of, shall we say, non wine swilling coastal dwellers. It’s definitely more on the conservative side and there are simply many of that persuasion who have decided that this thing is a hoax, cooked up by China, and Trump promised it was already contained in January and by the way Mexico is going to pay for a wall of Lysol, and now just drink your bleach.
Ksmiami
@germy: As someone smarter than me said, “This next Civil War might be the first one where the rebels kill themselves…”
Brachiator
A recent BBC News story about the pandemic in Peru shows how you have to pay attention to local conditions when applying the rules for a lockdown. Peru tried to do the right thing and imposed a lockdown early, and yet still has had problems with virus cases and deaths. And it is not just because they are a “poor” country, at least not in simple terms. A couple of problems stand out.
In the US, it is easier to stock up on food. But some states and cities without effective social programs may not be able to deliver food and supplies to elderly people who have sheltered in place. And in communities near me, some programs delivering meals to qualified older people are beginning to cut back or scale down.
Social distancing appears to be hard to maintain, especially as places “open up.” And this problem may only increase as the summer progresses and people want to crowd beaches and hang out together to recover from the weeks in lockdown. And families and friends are reconnecting but also spreading the virus.
Ken
@Ksmiami: Obligatory reference to the Judean People’s Front.
NotMax
@Brahiator
One thing we can say, it’s been a boomlet for plexiglass makers.
//
Brachiator
@FelonyGovt:
I hear you. A local coffee shop I visit for take-out has started doing dine in service again. I went there and admit that I felt some discomfort realizing that even though everyone who came in wore masks, everyone had to take them off in order to eat. Oddly enough, a couple that sat and talked after they finished their meal put their masks back on again. Very considerate.
The cafe owner may have initially had some tables too close together, but he has since modified this. There is some limited outdoor seating, but here the tables are more than 6 feet apart and well ventilated and may be the best seats in the house.
ETA: I notice a couple of eateries that have dispensed with metal cutlery altogether and now use disposable plastic. Also, no condiments at the table.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: “…bleach consumption, however, is encouraged.”
Omnes Omnibus
@CarolDuhart2: You think Biden will only serve one term?
Another Scott
Meanwhile, AlJazeera:
(Emphasis added.)
16/302 = 5.3%
Not good. But not unexpected.
I assume the season will be cancelled.
Cheers,
Scott.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: The amount of bullshit in there is really impressive. Literally NONE of those are actual scandals.
The closest you can get is Fast & Furious, which was a carryover from Bush and resulted in a few dead Americans that would have been shot by other guns if F&F hadn’t existed.
I can’t even say for sure what some of them mean.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
+1. I can’t complain about Gov Gav’s performance, either with COVID or the protests. He also continued Jerry’s support of maintaining a rainy day fund, which is seeming pretty important now (if pitifully overmatched by actual events).
JPL
@CarolDuhart2: George Bush III will run undoubtedly. He’s the sole Bush still praising trump.
trump appears to have diminishing mental capacity so he might not even realize that he lost.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Our sportsballhoop team has three just themselves. I don’t see how this season gets revived.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I agree with you that Trump has radicalized the GOP base. You will not see moderate Republicans for generations.
And unless Trump is indicted, convicted and thrown in jail, i see him working his former president status to work new cons and to wield influence endorsing or slamming GOP candidates.
And yeah, I think that Don Jr and even Young Jared might try to keep the family brand involved in politics.
LeftCoastYankee
I’ve been pondering this theory (mostly worrying about how the West Coast would get hit again because the center of the country was full of dumbasses).
It’s likely the first wave to hit the West Coast was directly from Asia. Seattle got hit, and from the Bay Area north went into to lockdown quickly. So we survived the “Asia wave” and other than a slightly slower response in SoCal, that “wave” was stifled effectively.
The “wave” that hit New York was via Europe, and has slowly spread west, where enough of the middle of the country did jackshit and now it’s finally reached Arizona and SoCal.
And by “waves” I mean just the effect of time and distance, not necessarily strains/mutations or any of that stuff (which could be possible, but there’s no evidence yet).
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
Small world. My boss summitted Lassen last weekend. She wasn’t alone up there, either.
I backpacked three days in a wilderness and coming out Saturday we encountered hoards of folks hiking in, and cars circling for one of the scarce parking spots at the trailhead.
Craigie
Please don’t call it Cali. None of us do that.
Gravenstone
@debbie: When presented with such a card, tear it up, toss it in the trash and tell the presenter to get their ignorant ass out of your store. Eventually the bullshit will stop when they run out of places willing to put up with their crap.
Searcher
@Jinchi: Yeah, but New England as a whole is still only at about 10% exposure, by our best guesses (maybe 20-30% in NYC itself). There’s still a lot of people who could become infected and die. It’s under control for the moment, but it’s not “over”.
Will New England maintain the resolve to keep on top of things for the next 18+ months, or will they get over-confident, fatigued and unlucky and have another similar-sized outbreak in six months?
Miss Bianca
@laura: *unsolved murders of agents*?
*Blink*
Wow, what is it exactly that you do, if I may ask?
LeftCoastYankee
@Baud:
and we have the winner of the internets today.
PS Coffee doesn’t make your sinuses clearer.
MaryLou
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
@download my app in the app store mistermix: Can’t blame this on Newsom. He’s been doing daily updates a la Cuomo and had a regional re-opening strategy as well. The problem is cultural in the red counties. As a commenter upthread noted, wingnuts have been shut out of state governance. This kind of ‘pwn the libs’ behavior is all they have left to register their outrage. Taking the cues from Dear Leader in DC, they sincerely believe that COVID is like a bad cold, only kills old people in nursing homes, is a conspiracy by pro-vaxxers and Bill Gates to weaken America, and whatever the conspiracy theory de jour happens to be. Add in the party-hearty kids going to bars plus general lockdown fatigue and we are where we are.
trollhattan
@Alison Rose:
Ugh, I’d be so frustrated.
Elevators seem like a particular menace. When/if our office opens again I either want to see a smart elevator use policy or will be getting used to the stairs, all sixteen floors of them.
Suzanne
@geg6: I’m in Allegheny County now, and I have been very encouraged by all of the mask-wearing I’m seeing here. I went out to lunch with a colleague this week at a restaurant in Erie, sat outdoors, tables spaced far apart, waitstaff masked.
But in AZ, it was a mess. I left six weeks ago and no one was masking then, and Spawn the Elder got here two weeks ago and he said that on the rare occasions that he went somewhere, he was wearing a mask but most others weren’t.
My BIL is getting over COVID right now. He works in the dietary department of a hospital in Rogers, Arkansas. He wore all the suggested PPE, but he’s exposed to a lot of sick people all day. OTOH, Mr. Suzanne got serology testing, because he was convinced that he had contracted it in March, but he has no antibodies.
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: I pray for this. No one will remember who they are in five years if they take the reins.
I can’t think of two bigger failures.
PJ
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d guess that if (and it’s a big if) Democrats gain control of the Senate as well as the House and Biden and Co. do a bang up job at righting the ship and things are looking hunky-dory and malarkey is close to being eradicated (you can’t really ever get rid of it completely), Biden, at 82, might decide that things are in good hands and it’s time to retire and enjoy doing things with the grandkids. But if he’s in good health, and there’s still work to do that he thinks he is in a better position to do than others, I think Biden would run again in 2024.
But November 2020 is a long, long way from now, let alone November 2024, and if 2020 has been any guide, ain’t nobody gonna know how things will turn out.
OGLiberal
@Brachiator: If you’re going to open for dine-in, the disposable utensils and no condiments is a wise choice for both employees and customers.
That said, while I get the need to be “social”, I just don’t know why restaurants and bars should be open at this point for inside service. My family loves dining out and we’re getting bored with our own cooking but I think it was rare that places had to close for takeout/delivery. So, you can support those businesses by getting takeout or delivery. These businesses wait stuff put together take out orders (which most do anyway, but they’d have to do more of that due to more orders) and have some switch to delivery. As far as I know, grocery stores, pharmacies, dollar/general stores and, in most cases, liquor/beer stores either didn’t close or closed for a very short period of time. (can throw hardware/home improvement stores, car dealers and automotive shops into that mix as well) If there is no delivery grocery in your area (like mine) or curbside (have to drive 40 minutes for these nearest place that offers that service while the local grocery is 3 minutes from my house and won’t allow entry without a mask) you may have to go into the store, but no reason to go to a restaurant or bar for 45-90 minutes and sit there in close proximity to others partaking in something where you have to remove your mask.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: She does “contracts.” Are you sure you want to ask questions?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He endorsed trump after The Beast publicly pantsed his father, and will surely run for something bigger soon. I’d bet Senator or Gov before going for the White House. I assume that’s why Jebbie and the Shrub are being so careful.
And the country may get to spend another decade on the Bush Family Oedipal Loop-de-Loop.
Maybe Cousin Barbara will jump into politics and really fuck with the clan.
Suzanne
I am listening to a webinar about the future of healthcare environments post-COVID.
More outside air in HVAC, bigger oxygen lines, bigger exam rooms that could flex to patient spaces are predicted. Smaller office spaces, as more people are encouraged to WFH.
E.
I own a bakery in northern, rural, very red California. We took out our seating and now only have a couple chairs available for people to sit in while we put their order together. I feel if we made masks mandatory in this joint we’d get our windows broken and our equipment trashed some night. I am pretty outspoken on our social media about the importance of masks, and I get plenty of shit for it. This thing has taught me that many of the people here are, yes, racist, and ignorant, and quick to anger, and xenophic as hell, but overall they’re mostly just incredibly selfish sociopaths. It’s been pretty stark, the difference between the mask-wearers and the mask-shamers.
Coppersmith
I live at Lake Tahoe, people are coming here from all over the state. I got my groceries this morning, and not leaving the property until work on Monday.
different-church-lady
@mrmoshpotato: Same priorities as his first term:
The Moar You Know
@MaryLou: This is a huge part of it, I agree. The only reason Brown got the state turned around was because the election he won was also the election where the state GOP lost the final seat that kept them from blocking all fiscal legislation (we have that 2/3 requirement for anything fiscal because of prop 13, and although I very much do not want to end prop 13 for homeowners who reside in their homes, I do want it ended for legislation, commercial properties, and rentals). The state GOP needs only two seats to be able to bring all of the state to a halt. That should have been addressed by Brown, who frankly was the only person I think could have pulled it off, so it falls to Newsom, who I do not think will even try as he’s got visions of the presidency dancing in his head.
At any rate, CA GOPers are in a more-or-less constant state of rage and love to take it out on anyone they can find, and masks have been the perfect opportunity for them to shit all over their fellow citizens.
OGLiberal
@E.: The amount of effort that it takes to put on a mask for a short trip to the store is so minimal that there is no doubt they do this because they think it will make liberals cry. And/or they think it will make them look so weak that even their arsenal of semi-automatics won’t compensate for it.
I’m in a relatively red part of Northeast PA but it’s not far from bluer areas. I never seen folks in the stores without masks but that may be because it’s required in PA. People generally respect the tape lines/limited capacity rules as well. But a big driver may be that a lot of folks here are old – quite old or in frequent contact with somebody who is old. So, partly self-interest…but that’s fine with me if it makes them wear a mask.
Brachiator
@MaryLou:
it’s also frustrating that these dopes will not follow the data of their own pet theories.
For example, 2019-2019 flu season: 490,561 hospitalizations, and 34,157 deaths.
So far, from the pandemic, 765,000 recoveries from the corona virus, and 126,000 deaths. That’s more than just a bad cold.
And yeah, the recoveries may include more than hospitalizations, but still…
Just One More Canuck
@Ladyraxterinok:
these people have never heard of driver’s licenses?
joel hanes
@MisterForkbeard:
[Bay Area] businesses have largely all returned to normal, with the exception of restaurants who can [seat] less people inside.
I’m in Santa Clara County, where the rate of new cases/week more than doubled in the last week.
A study of correspondences between credit-card spending categories and infection shows the strongest correlation is with eating in-person at a restaurant.
Which some of the family members with whom I live have begun to do.
“But Grandpa, it’s outside and the tables are really far apart.”
So I’m going back to tidying up my affairs and finishing the list of my accounts and passwords and property so that my power-of-attorney doesn’t find his task too difficult.
Matt McIrvin
@Searcher: I’m worried that Charlie Baker eventually bows to Chamber of Commerce-style pressure to reopen everything because “it’s over”. You know many are leaning on him to do it now. Maybe the outbreaks in the West and South harden his resolve.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
This is not true. We still require a 2/3 majority to raise taxes, but the state reverted to a simple majority to pass a budget with Prop 25 back in 2010. That was the biggest single change that made governing possible again.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: You have a point. And it ain’t on the top of your head.
That we know of, anyway.
Uncle Cosmo
@The Moar You Know: The TBT left out the rest of the directive:
Calouste
Completely OT, but I read this morning that due to the European Union’s rotating presidency, Boris Johnson will have to deal with NFLTG Angela Merkel holding said presidency for the next 6 months while the final negotiations for Brexit are happening. Merkel has a press conference this morning and started with what should be described not as much as a warning shot, but a warning broadside.
Kent
The problem in CA is numbers.
Orange County alone has a population of 3.1 million. The county went for Clinton 50-42 so if you assume it is 42% GOP that leaves 1.3 million GOP-ers in that one county alone. Which is more than the TOTAL population of 9 different states.
In other words, there are more Republicans in Orange County than in say, Arkansas or Mississippi.
Soprano2
Here in MO our governor said he’s not any more responsible for the surge in COVID in our state than the janitor in the hallway of the Capitol building, so that’s what our state government is doing. Meanwhile, our local city council is thinking about a mandatory mask order in the city. I expect some of the people toting those fake “breathe” cards to show up and scream at them about it. I do feel fortunate, so far our cases in my area are still low enough that they can tell you every day in the paper where each new positive case went. I’m just terrified that won’t last. The county to the south of us has no restrictions at all since the governor lifted all of the state restrictions.
Uncle Cosmo
You could have replied that the dog’s muzzle needs to be free so it can sink its fangs into the leg of assholes like him. And watched him skedaddle.
(ETA: Ken at #137 supra got there first, damnitall.)
PPCLI
@JPL: Yes. Today they announced that yesterday there were almost 9000 new cases, an astonishing jump from the previous high.
(Though I’ve gotten sufficiently cynical about DeSantis’s manipulation of numbers that I’m giving some credence to the possibility that this is what the numbers have been like for awhile now, but DeSantis is releasing the real numbers (or even slightly inflated ones that take into account past, uncounted positive tests) so that he can then ratchet the announced cases down and claim credit for “getting things under control”.)
Kent
@Calouste: Based on how the UK is dealing with Covid-19 I would think that Germany and the EU would be saying right now:
“Thank God for Brexit so we can cut those plague-ridden limeys loose and isolate them from the rest of us.”
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Given the fragile state of the California economy, this may be the wrong time to tinker with Prop 13.
The state legislature is showing signs that they are misusing their majority. Brown was much more adept than Newsom at getting the legislature to behave.
Defying the governor, the legislature is uses tricks, smoke and mirrors to try to get around a $54 billion budget deficit. And they are operating a bit in the dark because the filing extension to July 15 means that the state doesn’t know what available revenues might look like.
A gas tax is also supposed to go into effect on July 1, and many Californians don’t know that they are supposed to have health insurance this year or pay a penalty.
And worse of all, AB15, designed to punish Uber and Lyft, will also hammer all kinds of small businesses and stifle recovery.
And none of this will help the governor’s presidential ambitions, if he’s got any.
PPCLI
@Uncle Cosmo: Not going to work. Everybody knows that the bleach has to be injected for full effect.
Mohagan
@Baud: You and my husband could be twins ?
The Moar You Know
@Roger Moore: Was not aware of that and thank you!
Steeplejack
I am intermittently watching, yelling at and muting the ongoing coronavirus task force press conference. (I’m watching on MSNBC.) Pence is straight up lying about stuff that is easily disproved. Birx is doing her usual mealy-mouthed “I am determined not to offend anyone, and do you like my scarf?” routine. I confess that I am even tuning out Fauci a little bit, because he is doing so much backing and feeling that the beep-beep-beep is obscuring any actual information he presents. And his mask hygiene is horrendous. (Not a problem for Pence, because he’s not wearing a mask at all.)
ETA: Pence’s theme seems to be that all of the increases in the “positivity rate” (his term) are from previously asymptomatic young people.
Roger Moore
@joel hanes:
I would be more inclined to believe that eating in restaurants is safe if the same people saying so didn’t require the people working there to wear masks and face shields.
Kent
@The Moar You Know: Many other states have means-tested property tax exemptions for retirees and homestead exemptions for home owners. Would be simple enough to implement in CA as well. If you are a retired home health care worker living on social security you get your property tax exemption. If you are a tech bro you do not.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: I had the exact same thought, in two parts, in that same order.
WaterGirl
@Sab: I don’t suppose you answered “because Fuck You, that’s why.” ??
burnspbesq
@Juice Box:
Ummm … Duncan Hunter, Duke Cunningham, Darrell Issa. You call that “protection?”
Brachiator
@OGLiberal:
If you’re going to open for dine-in, the disposable utensils and no condiments is a wise choice for both employees and customers.
Totally agree. I was just noting this. At one casual eatery, I notice there is nothing at the table, even the napkin dispenser has been removed. A number of places also have disposable menus.
It’s tough for some places to survive with just take-out service. People would spend more on extras, appetizers and such when dining in. And of course, drinks.
I think another commenter previously noted, and this has been confirmed by news stories, that some restaurants have eliminated menu items or made other modifications to try to adapt to take-out needs and preferences. But this also has a price. If a restaurant eliminates a specialty that takes more time to prepare, but for which it can charge more, the bottom line is affected.
And of course, we are seeing more restaurants shut down because they simply could not survive the loss of business over the past weeks.
It’s tough. And of course, even restaurants that are doing take-out have had to reduce staff, so the hit on employment continues.
burnspbesq
I was joking two months ago when I talked about carrying a lacrosse defenseman’s stick to enforce six feet of distance. Now …
Wolvesvalley
@Freemark:
Last week a bunch of Republican reps in the Pennsylvania state legislature introduced a resolution to impeach Governor Wolf for his “unconstitutional dictates and Orwellian overreach” in response to the pandemic.
trollhattan
@Wolvesvalley:
What, exactly, is “Orwellian overreach?” When George takes the last dinner roll?
L85NJGT
Trump’s failure as a politician start with his inability to roll his own constituencies.
glc
@Ruckus:
<blockquote>What mechanism is there for one county, in basically the middle of several others to do if the surrounding counties don’t even give much of an attempt, especially in our open society where we drive many miles to do much of anything?</blockquote>
That’s pretty much their attitude, so they are just going to let people die. Which strikes me as recklessly irresponsible. As it happens, Los Angeles is in Los Angeles county, so whatever rules the county sets would apply there.
I guess if the hospital capacity is exceeded they can always say it would have been difficult to prevent that, so it really made more sense not to try.
Did I mention I’m a little out of sorts?
Brachiator
@Wolvesvalley:
What do these idiots want done instead?
OGLiberal
@Brachiator: Thanks for bringing up the drink aspect. When we order out we often get appetizers as well but if we’re dining out, even if we get a limited number of drinks – a soda for each of the two kids, glass of wine for my wife, 2 beers for me, maybe a cup of coffee to finish off – that’s probably 20 bucks right there…and that’s conservative. Would cost me a fraction of that at home because I’m not going to order any drinks for take out. (and take out small alcohol orders almost never an option)
I have to give some credit to the Chinese restaurant down the street from me. They have one table so they were pretty much take-out only before all this. They don’t deliver and they actually closed for a couple of weeks at the start. When they re-opened they built a 2×4 framed equivalent of, say, a bank-teller window in the door to the store. It’s covered in a clear plastic tarp and in the middle there is a boxed and shelved “cubby hole” with a flap of tarp on the inside and outside openings. It’s basically a no-contact transaction. Pretty impressive and probably cost them the equivalent of one moderate sized take-out order.
L85NJGT
@Suzanne:
I take it from the WFH that turning enough air volume to dissipate suspended droplets is probably not possible for retail and office environments.
Kent
But…alcohol is a disinfectant. You can use it to make hand sanitizer. Didn’t Trump tell us something about injecting disinfectants into the body to clean out the Covid? You’d think those southern boys would be encouraging MORE drinking.
OGLiberal
@Brachiator: They probably think if Wolf caves in – as opposed to holding strong as he has been (and PA has done pretty well in keeping things from exploding) – it will kill off enough minorities in Philly, Pittsburgh, Erie and Allentown/Bethlehem that it will turn the state red forever and they can govern like the folks in the Pennsyltucky regions want them to.
joel hanes
@Kent:
Marin looks really bad this week.
Deep blue Santa Clara County, where I live, saw its rate of positive tests double in one week.
Re-opening looks as if it was more than a bit premature.
Gravenstone
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe he has implied as much, although not explicitly stated it.
joel hanes
@Brachiator:
Despite all the early emphasis on handwashing, fomites on surfaces and hands have apparently turned out to be a very minor part of the infection vector.
Being physically in the presence of unmasked strangers who are exhaling is the major part. Even worse if they’re talking. This fucker is airborne. Six feet is a _minimum_ separation, not a guarantee.
Wolvesvalley
@Brachiator:
OGLiberal at #218 probably guessed right. Other than that, of course, they probably just want their freedumbs (and Wolf out on principle, I suppose).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Craigie: That’s how we tell who the immigrants to California are.
Martin
(BTW, please post west coast stuff a little later in the day so some of us can get through our morning work routine first.) Posting at just before 7AM is going to result in a lot of east coast folks ruminating about what’s wrong with the west coast, and that’s slightly rude.
So yeah,
CA did a quite good job early on. We knocked R0 in the Bay Area and LA below 1, which was the place in jeopardy of blowing up, and near 1 in the rest of the state. We were ready for the long haul, but the wingnuts decided to take over Huntington Beach (btw, the old hub of conservative Orange County used to be the old money in Newport Beach and now it’s the QAnoners in Huntington Beach – NB is practically ready to give Obama a 3rd term). Anyway, the national narrative turned to ‘it’s all good’ once NYC started to improve, and counties here in CA started to demand to open up, and the Governor felt he had to yield, at least somewhat. Its always been clear we should have stayed close to us in the cities, and to Newsom, but you have to play the hand you’re dealt. Once that national narrative turned, Newsom started pulling things back to where he felt they ought to be.
And to be clear, we have a shit-ton of public health infrastructure here in CA. We have top tier universities that work on public health. There were no misunderstandings regarding what would happen if we opened a little. Orange County has been around R0=1.05-1.15 since March. Cases are growing, hospitalizations are growing, but very slowly. As the urgency came off of exponential growth, people lowered their guard. I’m the idiot running around reminding people that they are more likely to get it today than they were in mid March when they were irradiating their Cheetos and gargling with bleach. The risk had not changed – in fact it got worse, but the problem with reverting to the mean is that if you overreacted at first you’re going to overshoot and underreact on the way to the behavior you should mimic.
A few weeks ago my neighborhood hired an ice cream truck to come into the neighborhood to celebrate end of school for all the kids – hand out free ice cream (that’s how wealthy neighborhoods roll, it’s kind of weird). Ok. Apart from the two people working the truck, there was not a single mask. Now, I know every single one of those people would have worn a mask if they went across the street to the grocery store or the bank or the fast food restaurant, but there was this clear attitude that ‘oh, no, Covid would never infect a nice neighborhood like ours’. We good sanitary people with good mental hygene, not like the filthy urchins from the apartments down the road that might go to our grocery store.
That’s not an overt attitude, but it’s a subconscious one. We’ve been trained as a society to evaluate risk based on identity exclusively. That’s part of why we’re having this moment – it’s clear that black people aren’t the covid risk, it’s everyone. I’m sure plenty of you remember the 4Hs when AIDS first hit – homosexuals, haitians, hemophiliacs, and heroin users. So, okay, don’t do heroin, that’s always a good message, but also don’t affiliate with those 3 other groups – they’re bad. But feel free to go fuck anything else without a condom, that’s totally safe. It’s always about identity in this country. Tough drug to give up. Rural america about to learn that shit the hard way right now.
Jinchi
I’m less cynical. The numbers reported look very much like we’d expect if the virus is spreading rapidly – if true, we’d expect numbers that rival the worst seen in New York in the next couple of weeks. It’s not easy to cover up an exponential growth rate.
Martin
But, the bottom line is that while CA is going up, its not hair on fire problem because we were doing quite well before. We still have much lower infection rates per capita than parts of Idaho and Arkansas and such. So yes, the rise isn’t a good trend, but it’s not shooting up like Arizona is, and we never really pushed our hospital capacity to the limit outside of the Bay area and parts of LA, both of which pulled their infection rate back and have capacity again. So, hopefully this is a slip, which we will quickly correct. I think the statewide mask mandate knocked a lot of people back into the mode they needed to be in.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: She must work with Subaru Diane.
Martin
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, safe to say I had my reservations about Newsom as well when he became governor, but I have no complaints. He’s done a wonderful job so far.
Brachiator
@OGLiberal:
This is of course beyond stupid. The virus really is deadly to people with underlying conditions, and this is more than an issue of ethnicity.
But even here, the virus is much more deadly to men than women. So this could mean that when all is said and done, you will have a base of indestructible black women coming to kick ass.
Martin
@Oklahomo: Nobody lives there. Hard to spread it when the next human being is 4 miles away. My HOA is larger than the population of almost every one of those counties.
Kent
My impression of Marin County is that it is Karen-paradise. A more self-entitled white NIMBY locale I don’t think exists outside of small enclaves like Nantucket. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but it is my impression. I wonder how many Marin County Karens just decided they had to have their hair done and meet their friends for wine-tastings?
Martin
Can confirm. Not that they don’t respond to it, but you have to use it VERY judiciously. I’m well known at work as the guy that will talk to you in California polite terms right up to the moment that you stop listening and then I’m going to fucking steamroller you like a NYer.
laura
@laura: everybody masked – most had noses hanging out or so loose that it was more of a scarf.
joel hanes
@Kent:
My impressions of Marin correlate strongly with yours.
OGLiberal
@Brachiator: Of course, it’s stupid but that’s how they think – or, at least, their base does. My daughter’s friend had a birthday recently and her mother (Russian, originally from Estonia but now in Brooklyn) was pressuring us to visit, even after my wife explained that we have to avoid all contact as much as possible because our son is immuno-compromised. She replied with a copy of her positive COVID test results, implying that there was no risk even though there’s no indication the rest of her family (including her daughter) had it or the other kids who might be around. But the second argument she made was that it’s mostly only affecting “black and Spanish” people, followed by a smiley face. So maybe wrong of me to single-out Pennsyltucky, although it was kind of weird hearing the “only brown people” argument from somebody who had it and, by her account, had it pretty bad. (did not require hospitalization, though)
Martin
@joel hanes: Yep. Very similar to where I live. You can’t get me sick, you have such a well maintained lawn and always wash your car.
Brachiator
@joel hanes:
BTW, an interesting way to do tracking. You might be able to look at the restaurants involved and look to see if modifications could be done to reduce risk.
Interstadial
Imperial County isn’t a red county. I used to be, but it’s now become rather Latino and votes blue. I think the increase in COVID there is probably from poverty and close living quarters.
The other counties mentioned – Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange – from a population standpoint are dominated by suburban and exurban rather than rural conservatives. All but Orange County have very extensive low-density conservative rural areas that add up to a lot of square miles but not a lot of people. It’s the suburbs and exurbs where the people are.
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: Yeah, it sucks too because I’m on the third floor and I’m pretty frail from health issues. Having to lug laundry up and down the stairs or grocery delivery or whatnot is really difficult. Just today, I’d gone down to meet a delivery and was going to take the elevator back up, but it opens and three people come out, no masks, no nothing. Fucking pisses me off.
areyougonnaeatthatsandwich
@FelonyGovt: Overall, I give Newsom pretty solid marks, but he visibly backed down from the anti-lockdown protests and, imho, allowed reopening in some areas too quickly.
It made (and makes) sense not to treat California as a single entity, so permitting more rural counties to open up businesses more quickly was a rational response to both reality and to the protests. At the same time, people aren’t all that open to nuance, apparently, and so the more urban areas (including LA I think) moved too quickly to reopen businesses as they saw other counties moving that way. That seems to have signaled, at least to some, that social gatherings were okay again, when they decidedly were and are not.
LA is, even now, still doing more than marginally better than surrounding counties (Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside), but not nearly as well as the Bay Area, which was harder hit initially and so has been more cautious opening up.
I get it. I’m tired of this shit. I’d love to be able to go out to eat at a restaurant, or have friends over for dinner. I’m just not willing to risk choking to death alone (or risk my over-80 year old mother’s life, and she’s in our quarantine pod) in exchange. While humans can adapt to most anything, we are notably pathetic at long-term exercises of will power. And, here we are.
C Stars
@Kent: WELLLLL…it’s fun to blame Karens, but Marin County is bad because of two horrific outbreaks–one among sanitation/sorting workers at a recycling plant and one at San Quentin. Both poor and captive (in the case of SQSP, quite literally captive) populations. I think it’s important to note this if only so that we understand that this virus is disproportionately hurting poor people who have to work or exist in crowded places.
I’m kind of in the Norcal/Marin County milieu and there is definitely some degree of ambitious, competitive people (ETA yes, women too–some of us partake in activities other than getting our hair done) simply saying “fuck this, I’ve gotta get back to my 300k tech job in SF/Silicon Valley and am absolutely going to enroll my kids in expensive (indoor, all-day) chess/coding/drama camps because without these things our family has no identity or reason for being”
…OK, maybe not those exact words, but you get my meaning…
But I think in general, those who are most vulnerable here (as everywhere else in the country) are Black & Brown folks working what we call “essential” jobs or stuck in close quarters for whatever reason.
bluefoot
@Martin: Thanks for bringing up the AIDS crisis and how it was the “H disease.” I’ve been telling my younger (<40 years old) friends about how people had these blinkered ideas that it couldn’t affect them, and how just being homosexual, Haitian, etc meant that you were somehow carrying (or spreading) AIDS, and that you were “immune” if you just stayed away. We’re seeing that all over again. This idea that your identity protects you or means you can behave how you want with no consequences. And how that influences policy.
ETA: And SO MANY people are going to die as a result. And so many others suffer needlessly. And we’ll blow up the economy and the supply chain because of it. It’s *avoidable*. It makes me want to just put my head down and cry.
Charlie Victory
Doubt my contribution here is worth much but I live in rural Marin County (CA) …and the fact that our cases are going up is a head scratcher. Mask wearing is neatly 100% universal, social distancing is being practiced, and places that have opened up are still largely empty. But unlike our other Bay Area counties, cases are on the rise.
Why? I don’t know. People’s behavior appears largely unchanged from March