First, the good news:
Birmingham designer creates face masks for men with turbans
Sunnie Delilah began the project after seeing her Sikh father-in-law struggle, and now has orders from around the world https://t.co/4Pvh4KXgWh pic.twitter.com/RA22LTP07B
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) July 22, 2020
(Yes, my Spousal Unit has had a beard since he was old enough to grow one, and no I do *not* want to find out what he looks like without it! He’s been able to work from home, so wearing a standard mask hasn’t been a problem… yet.)
US reports 70,043 new cases, 8.8% positivity. 1126 fatalities.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 22, 2020
Coronavirus cases in US total 3,944,151, with 143,380 deaths.
(As of 3:30 p.m. ET, July 22)States experiencing highest percentage increase of cases over past 14 days:
• AK: 230%
• MT: 137%
• ND: 126%
• WI: 111%
• MO: 107%
• KY: 93%(As of 12 a.m. ET, July 22)
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 22, 2020
White House document shows 18 states in coronavirus “red zone.” Unpublicized recommendations say states should return to stringent #COVID19 control measures https://t.co/rcYAh6aNPs
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 23, 2020
Our daily update is published. States reported 70k cases today, the third-highest number we’ve seen. The country is nearing the peak level of COVID-19 patients hospitalized (~60k). States reported 1,126 deaths, and the 7-day average is now over 800, back to the levels of June. pic.twitter.com/YZbulLnCvw
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) July 22, 2020
Essential data on the US response to Covid is shockingly absent. The fault doesn't lie with the states—it’s a federal failing. https://t.co/cLJbZvA0K2
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) July 21, 2020
Reasons for optimism:
– possibly reduced flu season in US coming up
– continued innovations in treatments
– multiple vaccine candidates. Even with uptake < 100%, will offer some protection.
– concerns about loss of antibody protection seem overblown https://t.co/3qUbd3Xkfm— Arpit Gupta (@arpitrage) July 22, 2020
A tale of two countries – the US and Canadian Maid of the Mist boats at Niagara Falls. pic.twitter.com/z20fKSsVXr
— Kate Simpson #wearamask (@kateredleaf) July 22, 2020
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Latest count of confirmed #COVID19 cases worldwide at 1500 GMT, July 22: Johns Hopkins University
World: 14,982,950
US: 3,903,684
Brazil: 2,159,654
India: 1,193,078
Russia: 787,846
South Africa: 381,798
Peru: 362,087
Mexico: 356,255
Chile: 334,683
Britain: 297,391
Iran: 281,413 pic.twitter.com/vCTeZlMxxJ— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) July 22, 2020
Outsized outbreaks: The small, neighboring sheikhdoms of Bahrain and Qatar have the world’s highest per capita rates of coronavirus infections. In both countries, the virus found a home in cramped quarters that foreign laborers live in. By @jongambrellAP. https://t.co/1FiQKKzfUf
— AP Middle East (@APMiddleEast) July 23, 2020
India reports record 45,720 new coronavirus cases, deaths rise by 1,129 https://t.co/c4Ap8Is9Ma pic.twitter.com/ickoRky1At
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020
I almost posted the kent brockman "time to panic" gif. it's probably not time to panic, but it is… not good… to see the biggest jump since cases in tokyo abruptly went from double digits to above 200 and stayed there https://t.co/uMEIJXskm3
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) July 23, 2020
Signs of farm 'revolution' in India as coronavirus prompts change https://t.co/sm77d0f99p by @MayankBhardwaj9 @naveenthukral pic.twitter.com/vMel7iRhcs
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020
Australia reports highest coronavirus deaths in three months, infections climb https://t.co/injwfrMwH4 pic.twitter.com/i2libgfdF2
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020
Wearing masks became compulsory in Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne as hot spot Victoria state posted 403 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths. https://t.co/sHjAUWV0Zb
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2020
Wow. 25 leading Swedish scientists:
➡️”?? hoped herd immunity would curb #COVID19. Don't do what we did.”
➡️ “?? approach to COVID has led to death, grief and suffering. The only example we're setting is how not to deal with a deadly infectious disease” https://t.co/fnIPCnex5V
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) July 22, 2020
Brazil, Argentina hit coronavirus records as Latin America exceeds four million cases https://t.co/YbH8KZazfF pic.twitter.com/T1MFxtD0NS
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020
Amid the pandemic, desperation is growing in Bolivia, one of Latin America's poorest countries. Hospitals are full of COVID-19 patients, even as the government says the peak of the outbreak is not expected until next month. https://t.co/v5F9b8Lw60
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2020
Emigrants from a Mexican village have reduced the money they sent home from the U.S., thanks to the COVID-19 recession. But their advice has protected loved ones from the virus. https://t.co/Rbi8qwyZoP
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2020
======
Don't expect first COVID-19 vaccinations until early 2021: WHO's Ryan https://t.co/9rknJwApq2 pic.twitter.com/lQ15yW32MX
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020
Promise and prevention: Experts discuss the race for a COVID-19 vaccine https://t.co/4yrb9m2hr7 pic.twitter.com/Suzb0vA3AM
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2020
Studies suggest the #coronavirus kills 0.5% to 1% of people infected. While less deadly than other infectious diseases, it's deadlier more because it's more widespread. https://t.co/hK7gwPNJsQ via @WSJ
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 23, 2020
.@WHO: 4 #Covid19 vaccines are in Phase 3 trials designed to show if they work. 3 are from China. A 5th, Moderna, is to start its P3 next wk.
The Chinese vaxes are being tested in Brazil & UAE; not enough Covid in China. Won't be a problem for US testing. https://t.co/Tcff0xs20T— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) July 22, 2020
If producing and approving safe & effective vaccines for COVID-19 is job#1, approaches to prioritizing recipients is job #2. Do not underestimate the complexity and trade-offs in such decisions, even when it’s clear who is responsible, not presently the case. @HelenBranswell https://t.co/tZfEWpWin6
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) July 22, 2020
Antiviral remdesivir, which speeds recovery time for #COVID19 patients now on the black market https://t.co/qoQSDT9yhH pic.twitter.com/1SI8kD4bpf
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 23, 2020
======
BREAKING: The mayor of Washington, D.C., says she will order mandatory mask use outside home as coronavirus cases increase in the nation's capital. https://t.co/vFPMlunbbQ
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2020
California surpasses New York as worst-hit state in coronavirus cases https://t.co/aXyPN6Dq6D pic.twitter.com/VCJabIawM9
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 22, 2020
Health leaders & @PublicHealth analyzed all online #COVID19 State databases: "we found that the data reported is inconsistent, incomplete & inaccessible in most locations. There is high variability in the data presented," & in its quality & transparency.https://t.co/WrZSFOnmzI
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) July 22, 2020
Deaths are now at least 10% higher than normal in most states. That group includes states in every region of the country. (I’ve left off the top 4: NY, NJ, CA, PA) https://t.co/el2F4irjhD pic.twitter.com/KtMEIP9tlU
— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) July 22, 2020
Not all of these deaths are necessarily due to coronavirus itself. Some could be due to the strained health care system, fears of seeking treatment or social isolation. But most are probably Covid. https://t.co/el2F4irjhD
— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) July 22, 2020
6 months after the coronavirus crisis was first detected in the U.S., the Northeast stands in sharp contrast with the rest of the nation.
It has gone from the country's worst hot spot to its most controlled. “It’s acting like Europe,” one expert said. https://t.co/ZHxLCH52AH
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 22, 2020
Coordination would mean not testing beyond lab capacity to provide meaningful, actionable results. That means accuracy, timeliness, and tracing/notification comms. Without that, it’s testing as stats (useful only in macro) and as theater.
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) July 22, 2020
U.S. virus surge in June preceded by May surge in Yelp entries for bars, restaurants https://t.co/oEm6RRSNsP pic.twitter.com/YmXJ12QNP2
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 22, 2020
Chaser: https://t.co/13wjvkbgiW
— Robert Marchini (@rhcm123) July 22, 2020
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 19 new domestic confirmed cases, 1 new domestic suspect case, and 24 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 18 of the confirmed cases are at Urumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region, 16 of whom were previously identified as asymptomatic cases already under quarantine. The Urumqi outbreak now has 82 confirmed cases (80 at Urumqi, 1 each at Kashgar and Xinjiang Construction Corps), and 77 asymptomatic cases (all at Urumqi), plus 1 asymptomatic case exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province.
Urumqi Municipal Health Commission has reported that, as of 7/21, swab samples have been collected from 1.03M residents of the Tianshan District, that is 30% of Urumqi’s total population. Mass screening has moved on to the Saybag District.
The remaining domestic case, as well as the suspect case, was reported by the port city of Dalian in Liaoning Province, in the Dalian Bay District. The confirmed case is a worker at an imported seafood processing facility. It is not known if fomite transmission from contaminated surfaces of the packaging of imported seafood is the vector, but I am sure it will be a focus of investigation. The case developed symptoms (fever and exhaustion) from 7/16, called in sick from work from 7/19, and tried unsuccessfully to self-medicate. He visited a fever clinic and tested positive on RT-PCR on 7/21, and results confirmed by Dalian Municipal CDC on 7/22.While on sick leave, he visited game rooms (playing cards and mahjong) every day, as well as visiting bath houses. The case likely has been infectious since 7/13, went to work until 7/18, and socialized from 7/19 – 7/21. He very likely has seeded a cluster already. Dalian Municipal Health Commission has yet to announce the response plan, but social media reports have already indicated that the Dalian Bay Metro Station is shut, and residential compounds in Dalian Bay are placed under restricted access management. I assume the seafood processing plant is also shut.
China also reported 3 imported confirmed and 8 imported asymptomatic cases:
Guangzhou in Guangdong Province: 1 confirmed and 1 asymptomatic cases, Chinese nationals returning from Ghana and Togo, respectively
Xi’an in Shaanxi Province: 1 confirmed and 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Kazakhstan
Shanghai Municipality: 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the US (via Germany)
Nanjing in Jiangsu Province: 3 asymptomatic cases, origin not published
Zhengzhou in Henan Province: 1 asymptomatic case, origin not published
Yesterday, Hong Kong reported 113 new cases, 105 from local transmission, 63 with unknown sources of transmission. Today reported 118 new cases, 111 from local transmission. It is the high percentage of community spread that is deeply concerning, and evidence that the authorities do not yet have the outbreaks under control. The source of the recent outbreak is unknown. While Hong Kong has been limiting entry to residents only, and has mandatory 14 day quarantine (and a strict one at that, requires wearing tracking bracelet), there is a glaring hole in the treatment of crews from foreign airliners and cargo ships. Such crew members are not consistently tested upon entry (unlike Mainland China), and are not required to quarantine. At least 1 American pilot has tested positive, and was socializing in bars before receiving the results. Several Filipino crew members of a cargo ship had tested positive at Qingdao in Shandong Province, and it was later determined that they embarked at Hong Kong. The Hong Kong SAR government has raised the possibility of requesting assistance to Beijing, in terms of medical and testing personnel, if the need develops. Medical teams are on standby at Shanghai and other cities in China.
Patricia Kayden
What a hell of a Democratic hoax.
I’m grateful that I live in a state with one of the few sensible Republican Governors who took this virus seriously from the get go.
eath
Death, Death, Death, the boys are marching!
Come on, everyone!
YY_Sima Qian
Update on the outbreak in Dalian. Upon the initial identification of the first case on 7/21, the city’s health authorities has already conducted intensive contact tracing, and as of the morning of 7/23 have identified a further 2 confirmed cases and 12 asymptomatic cases.
The 1st case and the 12 asymptomatic cases all work in the same imported seafood processing plant. Dalian Municipal CDC has collected environmental samples from the seafood packages, warehouse, factory floor, dormitories, cafeteria, restrooms, admin building, etc., with multiple samples testing positive. The 2nd case (a close contact of the first case) also works at a factory, but environmental samples from that factory turned up negative.
The 3rd case developed symptoms on 7/21 (fever and diarrhea), and visited fever clinic. He tested positive on 7/22. Not sure if the 3rd case is related to the first two. All 3 confirmed cases have claimed that they have not traveled outside of Dalian in the past 14 days, and have not had contact within anyone who tested positive or came from a Medium/High Risk area. A further 1318 environmental samples have been collected from the places the 3 cases have frequented, and will be tested.
Dalian will conduct mass screening of the 190K individuals living in the Dalian Bay District, the sub-district that the 2nd case resides in, as well as two large rental communities that factory workers congregate at. The city has issued an advisory that residents should not leave the city unless on urgent business.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. Nine new cases. Six cases from local infection: four Malaysians, two non-Malaysians. Three cases from imported infection: one Malaysian returning from Singapore, two non-Malaysians coming from the India and the Philippines. Cumulative total 8,840 cases.
Eight more patients recovered and were discharged, total 8,574 recovered or 97% of the cumulative total. 143 patients with active and contagious cases are in hospital for isolation/treatment; five are in ICU, two of them on respiratory devices.
No new deaths, total still 123 deaths, 1.39% of the cumulative total and 1.41% of resolved cases.
DG of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah noted some warning signs at today’s media briefing. The spikes in daily new cases, the doubling of active cases in hospital, and the detection of 15 new clusters were very likely a sign that Malaysians were starting to get complacent, he said. He also noted that Malaysia’s R0 had gone from under 0.3 to 1.36, another worrying sign. He also said while registrations for the MySejahtera monitoring app were still going up, day-to-day usage was falling off.
In other news, Senior Minister for national security Ismail Sabri Yaacob has announced that masks on public transport and in crowded public spaces will be mandatory from 1 August.
mrmoshpotato
It just requires not acting like a tool.
-Dan Rather (88)
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
Strong language, but appropriate in the circumstances.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Calling someone a “tool” isn’t that strong, but it is appropriate and hilarious from a man in his late 80’s.
Now if only Bob Dole or Jimmy Carter would tweet to “Stop acting like selfish, shitbag, plague rats. Wear a damn mask, you assclowns!”
Baud
I didn’t realize the extent to which Sweden messed up. Their per capita death rate is higher than ours!
@mrmoshpotato:
I wonder if other countries have ads that say, “Don’t act like an American.”
OzarkHillbilly
Things are getting real here. The little small town health clinic I have been using ever since I moved out here almost 2 decades ago? It is now a Respiratory Crisis Clinic/Center. I suspect they are serving a rather large geographical area.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: “Don’t act like a stupid, selfish American who didn’t vote for Hillary. Vote for the candidate who believes in science and democracy.”
Strangely that has a sing-songy rhythm. Completely unintentional.
PST
I’m negative. I was tested Saturday just before 5:00 p.m. and got my results late Wednesday morning. Not a great turnaround but not ridiculous. I had no symptoms. I passed a pop-up test center with no line and figured why not? I think Illinois was trying to test random asymptomatic people for research purposes. I don’t like the way our case numbers are creeping up, but we do a lot of testing and the positive rate is still low.
Ohio Mom
Ohio is requiring masks statewide starting later today —IIRC, 6 pm.
A handful of Ohio counties already had mandatory masks, mine included. Maybe DeWine had to see he survived that in order to make it statewide.
Anyway, when I am out and about (to the limited extent I am out and about), and everyone I see is wearing masks, I feel like I am part of something big and special.
I don’t know if I can completely explain this feeling. It’s akin to when you are walking towards a major event, like a sports game or a parade or a big concert, and everywhere you look, people are with you, walking toward the same thing, all in hopeful anticipation.
NotMax
Countries reporting more than 10k new cases over most recent 24 hours.
Brazil ~68k
U.S. ~63k
India ~52k
France ~20k
South Africa ~13k
France moving so high is a slight puzzlement. Perhaps a catch-up from a lag in reporting?
Baud
WRT to masks, I understand why the necessities of public health prevent us from saying this more widely, but since this is sub top 10,000 blog that no one of importance reads, I’ll say it:
The Democrats were right and Trump and the GOP are caving.
gkoutnik
Chinese virus, indeed.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato: I like it.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Well, when a public health crisis kills your voters by the thousands because you’re a bunch of anti-science, craven assholes, and this crisis is completely your Trump-trash party’s making…
(Yes, I AM this cynical about a party that’s been a POS since before I was born. Why do you ask?)
WereBear
@Ohio Mom:
Mr WereBear and I have been engaged in the beginning, since we’re a certain age and he’s got a serious chronic condition. It is also kinda gratifying that we have been on the right side of this from the beginning.
It helps SO MUCH to have a sensible governor. I think the stress would be even worse in a Trumpasskissing red state. My heart goes out to everyone with this incredible added danger.
Starfish
People in Colorado have been running into people on vacation from Wisconsin. The Wisconsin people need to both go home and wear their masks.
Mary G
The OC is better – new cases down to 767 today from 1300s last week, and percent positive tests down from 14.9 last week to 12.9 this week. Still way too high, but not shooting up into the 20s Florida and Arizona had.
Schools in our large district will be closed and online only to start. Hospitalizations up a bit – 1.3% in three day average, but still plenty of space. Gov. Newsom threw a bone to people by saying that nail and hair salons may provide services outdoors with proper PPE for all parties. Tattoos still verboten.
Salty Sam
“THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG!” has been a mantra of mine since early in the Reagan administration… not that anyone listened or believed me.
Kay
Another flat out lie, announced to the public. Barr lies as much as Trump does. I think this is a good example of how the Trump people corrupt the whole organization, because a spokesperson for the DOJ then had to correct Barr’s lie – because “arrests” obviously come with paper and they couldn’t possibly back this claim up – they’re then in the position of contradicting their boss. Every day it’s a choice- either contradict the Trump employees by telling the truth or go along with the lie. Over and over and over.
Mary G
Effective Biden ad showing all the members of the administration who voted by mail. Ivanka “tried to vote by mail.”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Our state (PA) is under a mandatory mask order but compliance in our neighborhood is near zero. Neighbors had a 16th b’day party last week with what looked like a half dozen teenage guests.
And this is not a super conservative area. Like the rest of our county we’ve shifted from Republican stranglehold on government to majority Democrat over the last few election cycles.
We don’t get out much but from what we’ve seen compliance is better outside our immediate neighborhood.
Brachiator
Some nuggets from Los Angeles County
Officials said the 7-day average of daily new infections has more than doubled in the past month. The daily positivity rate of new tests is now 8.5 percent….
Coronavirus is on track to becoming the second leading cause of death in Los Angeles County, health officials said Wednesday.
The Department of Public Health reported another 64 deaths and 3,266 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 164,870, with 4,213 deaths due to the virus. The virus has killed more patients than any other illness except coronary heart disease during the first six months of this year, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said….
Hospitalizations of coronavirus patients remain at troubling levels, with 2,207 people currently hospitalized — marking the fourth day in a row they have exceeded 2,200, officials said.
The number of hospitalizations has increased significantly since last month, reaching an all-time high of 2,232 people being treated Monday. And the largest increase in hospitalizations has been among children.
The number of hospitalized patients age 17 and under rose by 50% from June 14-18 to July 14-18, according to the Department of Public Health. Hospitalizations of people between 18 and 40 years old increased by 29.7% since mid-June while that figure is 33.5% for people age 41 to 64 and 12.8% for those over 65.
Still, with the exception of those who have underlying health conditions, the oldest patients remain the mostly likely to die from the virus, according to health officials. No children have died of the virus, Ferrer said.
People under age 40 make up about 57 percent of new cases
People over age 65 make up about 11 percent of the new cases, but about 75 percent of the deaths
YY_Sima Qian
How does the mask mandates work in the States, or I should say different states and cities and counties? Is it a government regulation that can be and should be enforced? Are there penalties for violation? Can law enforcement decline to enforce such mandates? Why is it called a mandate if it only works as a suggestion?
frosty
Here in South PA Trump Country there’s no mask wearing in the neighborhood either, not even by us when we go on a walk. I know at least one family who’s had graduation and July 4th parties with lots of guests. No masks or distancing. OTOH, pretty much 100% in stores and retail with signs requiring masks for entry. Even the WalMart finally.
Brachiator
@YY_Sima Qian:
In California, in many places, it is mandated by health authorities, so not necessarily a written law or regulation.
Enforcement can be spotty. A business can eject customers who do not wear a mask, or call law enforcement to remove the person.
I have not seen that there are formal fines, or ticketing by police officers. In some communities, the police try not to get heavily involved in compliance, depending on people voluntarily following guidelines or mandates.
Similarly, I have not observed any strict policing of social distance rules.
YY_Sima Qian
@Brachiator: So, like Sweden, but with a population less compliant to government guidelines and less instinctively social distant, and worse health care…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@YY_Sima Qian: I’ve heard of states and localities with fines and I think I’ve heard of tickets being issued but can’t swear to it.
I just read the updated guidance for PA and read that the Health Department “is not asking police to enforce the order.” Presumably that means they could theoretically and that there are theoretical fines. I haven’t found an explicit statement about fines though.
Mary G
@YY_Sima Qian: The cops are much too busy oppressing minorities to enforce something a lot of them don’t even do themselves.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Perhaps more accurate to say that Democrats and some Republican officials paid attention to and followed the science. Trump and the GOP are caving or playing catch-up.
YY_Sima Qian
@Mary G: Yeah, cops are out there interacting with the general population all the time, sometimes violently. If many of them do not have the sense of self-preservation to mask up, it really does not speak well of their qualification for the job. Perhaps especially true of the leadership (sheriffs, commissioners and union bosses).
Brachiator
@YY_Sima Qian:
In Los Angeles County, people have tended to be compliant. Masks were strongly suggested fairly early on, and required in some places and when riding public transportation. I have observed people, even young college age people, generally wear masks and follow other guidelines.
In Orange County, California, there were and remain pockets of strong resistance and non-compliance.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland update — 16 new confirmed cases, a positive test rate of 0.4%. Four of those new cases are further infections from a call centre on the outskirts of Glasgow (Maxim Park) which was carrying out COVID-19 contract tracing for NHS England. A big effort is being made to trace secondary contacts from this hotspot and persuade them to self-isolate for two weeks. How well “persuasion” works is another matter.
No new deaths from COVID-19 in Scotland were announced today. There has been just one confirmed death from COVID-19 in Scotland over the past two weeks. The numbers of people in hospital (287) and in intensive care beds (2) is down a little.
Gvg
@Ohio Mom: I know that feeling from hurricanes here in Florida. After Hurricane Andrew in the 90’s, Florida put a lot into planning for hurricanes, but we had a lull again with no storms to test if the plans would work till 2004, the year of 4 hurricanes. After the 1st one, my aunt and I had to travel to check on my parents house as they were on vacation out of state. The interstate was a mass of organized hurricane response. There were convoys of more than a hundred trucks with power line repair equipment and supplies with logos showing they were from out of state power companies all over the country. More convoys of national guard. Wave after wave of grocery trucks, Home Depot, and everything else I could imagine. Loads of trucks with power poles were conspicuous and all in large groups heading south, obviously with a plan. At gas stations, we met RV people who turned out to be insurance adjusters being sent in by their companies. The plan was to live in the RV and set up shop in a parking lot near an office, but this way it didn’t matter if the office had been damaged or housing was hard to find. I can’t describe how impressive it was and how much it cheered me up. That year, we kept having storms and needing new repairs, I went and watched the interstate to see the organizations kept going. It helped because it was hot and tiring when we didn’t have power and boring too. This planning goes on every year, both state government and private businesses. I see little notices if I look for planning meetings. Every time a storm gets close, I see the plans happen, especially businesses that Now treat it as a normal event, storm windows get put up, businesses close if needed etc.
The next year was Katrina and it turned out that our preparations had been Florida and not federal, plus the other gulf states hadn’t paid any attention to our failures or success and weren’t ready. It was so aggravating to watch them do nothing.
people are capable of doing big amazing complicated things with some leadership and will. It’s really something to be part of and feels good. It’s good to remind others of that when we face a daunting mess. Tell people it feels good.
Brachiator
@Robert Sneddon:
Wow. Very impressive, especially compared to England.
Has Scotland begun re-opening businesses and schools?
YY_Sima Qian
Speaking of Sweden, how come its daily case count, hospitalization and death count have fallen to low levels in these past 3 weeks, without a change in the strategy that led to such disastrous results from Apr. to Jun.? They are still very far from herd immunity. Their death curve also does not track case curve (with delay) either.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
The Tennessee Department of health reports a total of 84,417 positive tests as of July 22, 2020, with 888 deaths, 3,907 hospitalizations and 49,748 recovered; more details at their website here: https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov/data.html
I don’t know if those are current or total hospitalizations; but I suspect they’re current.
Trousdale County, north of Nashville, had a huge outbreak in a private prison, is now reporting only 84 active cases; they were lucky to get away with only 8 deaths—it’s unclear whether any of those were prisoners.
As a complicating factor, 20 of the 96 counties in the state don’t have a hospital; many hospitals have under a hundred beds. We didn’t get the Medicaid expansion through the idiot-dominated legislature this year either, although the unconstitutional anti-abortion bill was a lock.
Robert Sneddon
@Brachiator: The re-opening of businesses is proceeding slowly and carefully. Generally we’ve been opening pubs and restaurants a couple of weeks behind England which is still reporting significant numbers of new cases and ongoing deaths to the point where there have been localised lockdowns in cities like Leicester which have reported clusters of cases. Further lockdowns are being mooted for other towns and cities.
We’ll get an announcement about Scottish schools reopening tomorrow but from the general trends and the way the Scottish government has been talking the schools will open as normal at the end of August with no social distancing or other overt precautions in place (we can expect increased hygiene efforts and the like though). The government is warning that this decision could be reversed quickly if things get noticeably worse, same as with the business reopenings going on right now.
Cameron
@Baud: Wasn’t that the Bangles’ hit about wearing a mask, “Balk like an American?”
Ohio Mom
Gvg: yes, exactly what I was trying to get at.
On another note, it helps that there are finally masks for sale all over the place. At Kroger’s, at Target, at CVS, at Meijers — that’s my unscientific sampling of places I’ve been over the last couple of weeks. All of them have a display at the front of the store and the prices are very reasonable. Nobody can have an excuse anymore that they can’t find one.
terben
The Australian Dept of Health is now not releasing their 3pm update in its usual format until the following day, so I’ll supply them in my own ad hoc way.
Total Cases: 13,306 Total Deaths: 133 Recoveries:8,775
New cases in last 24 hours: 410 (+427/-17) Deaths: 5
New cases in Victoria: 386 (+403/-17)
The Moar You Know
Well. My own tale. Was pretty sure I had it after my ER visit two weeks ago. Test came back negative. So now I gotta look for some other reason I’m running a decent fever (controlled easily with ibuprofen and acetaminophen taken in rotation every three hours). That’s very worrisome considering what I went for originally was diverticulitis, but hey, that’s curable. COVID-19 isn’t.
Test turnaround is stunningly fast (one day) but that’s only because my doctor is part of the UC system and they have their own labs. If I weren’t part of that system I’d be waiting at least five days.
state of California says I gotta stay under quarantine anyway until I have three days of no temperature without fever reduction. Fine by me. I’m not going to be the asshole who gives this to someone – we have far too much of that around here these days anyhow. Look at our numbers.
Feathers
@YY_Sima Qian: Because, as the protests have shown, local governments do not actually have control over their police departments. They are also unwilling to let the people who have elected them know this. They don’t trust that the police will enforce the rules that they make, so the rules are officially unenforced. At the NYC protests, the police are usually unmasked, so their concerns are justified.
There is also the matter of disability law in the US. Businesses, etc, are required to offer accommodations to people with disabilities, such as some sort of breathing problem that would preclude a mask, but they are also forbidden from asking for proof of disability. I understand why the disabled community demanded this, but unfortunately the anti-science animus stirred up by the right means that disability laws are being used to undermine public health. Our medical privacy laws are also not helping. They mean that we are not seeing the horrific news footage that helped maintain the strict quarantines in Italy. They are also being abused by employers to hide the severity of outbreaks in workplaces. We need to come up with a way to balance privacy and public health.
Yutsano
@Feathers: ADA law does not say you have to let someone in who is not wearing a mask for medical reasons. Instead, the business is obligated to offer reasonable accommodation. This means that they can ask what the maskless consumer needs, have them wait outside, and deliver it to them. Or arrange to have them come back at store opening the next day when they can guarantee they will be the only person in the store. It does NOT mean the maskless person gets right of entry. The store can absolutely still enforce that. It’s not the store’s job to determine the disability and they don’t have to. But there are methods of accommodation that don’t involve letting the maskless person in. Which is why those throwing a fit about it don’t understand ADA law. And why they will be made to choke on it once it gets thrown in their faces. But more businesses need to be educated on that as well.
Sloane Ranger
@Robert Sneddon: Just to point out that there were a total of 769 new cases reported today throughout the entire UK. If Scotland had 16 of these, then there was a maximum of 753 reported in England (assuming there were no new cases in Wales of Northern Ireland which is probably untrue as Wales has a higher incidence than either England or Scotland).
Given that England’s population is estimated at around 56 million people and Scotland’s at around 5 and half million (Office of National Statistics), that doesn’t seem like a “significant” number of cases when looked at per capita.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
Not here in Glendale.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Fair point. Los Angeles County is huge. In my corner, compliance has been pretty good. And people I talk to have noted good compliance.
J R in WV
Here in West Virginia, now that the governor has issued a state-wide mandate that masks be worn in public, since that order I have seen exactly one obese middle-aged man and his arrogant early teen son in Kroger’s without a mask. Everywhere else everyone has been masked, although a very few were pretty ad hoc (tee shirt tied around one’s face) or meaningless, like a huge beard with a mask floating on top.
Masks are easily available commercially. I recently got a box in the mail from my health insurance provider, hoped it was a useful box of masks. Instead it was an unrequested test kit for colo-rectal cancer, which I plan to discard as I get that test annually at my doctor’s office. I have also had a “very clean” colonoscopy some time back.
Humana is the state’s pensioner Medicare supplemental health insurance provider, and they do pretty well with surgery pay out, PT etc , but some of my medications have fallen off their “formulary” due to outrageous price gouging by MBA scum who have bought off patent generic drugs with a single manufacturer and raise prices by 3 orders of magnitude.
While it makes me angry, I can’t blame them, and my doctor has so far been able to identify different inexpensive drugs that appear to work nearly as well for my ailments. Doc is both a Family Practice certified doc, he is also board cert in Geriatric Medicine, as he says, “I hoped that most of my patients would eventually be old!” And here I am.
Glad most people appear to be accepting of mask wearing, hope it helps as much as we would expect!
Nicole
Thank you. I feel like I spend time on FB now solely to keep disabusing people I know of the notion that ADA grants right of entry.
joel hanes
@YY_Sima Qian:
If the cops are tasked with enforcing a mask ordinance, they will use it to oppress black and brown people, and to justify detaining and beating black men.
So most American jurisdictions are reluctant to task the cops with enforcement.
joel hanes
@Gvg:
Your 2004 hurricanes got a lot of federal assistance because W was running for re-election, Florida was a swing state, and its governor was the President’s brother.
Louisiana had none of those advantages when Katrina hit.
joel hanes
@Feathers:
As the protests have shown, local governments do not actually have control over their police departments. They are also unwilling to let the people who have elected them know this.
Quoted for truth.
LongHairedWeirdo
I found a large mask, with an explicit chin cup, helps best. I also had good luck with a mask that was large enough, and had a neck strap, that could be tightened – that helped hold the mask snugly enough to keep the mask from riding up. I don’t know about other guys with beards, but that was my problem: my beard prevents the mask from properly gripping my chin, and lets it ride the hairs as it rides up. Getting a mask made to cup the chin a bit, or something that could tighten up the slack so it wasn’t floating on my beard hairs, was needed.
Also, remember: a wet mask doesn’t help, and it’s *possible* it is more dangerous than being maskless; if you’re exposed to droplets in a dry mask, they might evaporate, without any harm. If you’re exposed to droplets in a wet mask, the virus can travel through water. So I always keep a spare mask in the car – often one of the ones that doesn’t work too well, to encourage me to go home and remask properly.
Feathers
@Yutsano: However, there are also places which are allowing people with disabilities precluding wearing a mask to not wear one, but also saying that they won’t/can’t question someone’s disability status. For instance the MBTA buses and subways in Boston. The public disability accommodations run largely on trust, and that is being terribly abused by too many awful people.