Cases rising or dropping by you?

[disneychrista]

My area has seen a dramatic drop in cases. From a 7-day average 10.00 to 5.86 in ONE WEEK. We went from 12 cases on Sunday to 1 case in the past three day. I'd like to see this as a positive sign but if I am honest it makes me think that we might be having testing issues again. Maybe the holiday, the massive fires and horrible smoke is causing people to not go for testing.

 

[okeydokey]

About to see a big jump in Florida due to University students and bars re-opening. It’s so discouraging.

 

[JimMIA]

About to see a big jump in Florida due to University students and bars re-opening. It’s so discouraging.

Yeah, we'll see. If bars re-opening doesn't cause a huge spike, nothing will.

They're re-opening for most of the state on Monday, with 50% occupancy I believe. Not re-opening in Miami-Dade yet; not sure about Broward.

 

[midnight star]

My area has seen a dramatic drop in cases. From a 7-day average 10.00 to 5.86 in ONE WEEK. We went from 12 cases on Sunday to 1 case in the past three day. I'd like to see this as a positive sign but if I am honest it makes me think that we might be having testing issues again. Maybe the holiday, the massive fires and horrible smoke is causing people to not go for testing.

May I ask what county you are in in CA? One testing issues could be related to the fires. I know LA county had to close some testing sites because the area was just too dangerous. So the amount of tests they are running are lower than their goals. Not sure if other counties are dealing with the same thing.

 

[disneychrista]

May I ask what county you are in in CA? One testing issues could be related to the fires.

I'm rural Northern California. As far as I know they have not closed our Optumserve testing site because of the fires. The fairgrounds, where our Optumserve testing site is located, is also a staging area for out of area firefighters for the August Fire (the largest fire in California ever) so it is possible that they have reduced capacity & hours. I do expect that testing might be down due to the Holiday, the smoke keeping people from venturing out and evacuations we've had both due to the August Fire and the smaller Oak Fire. We have had a sharp decrease in the number of tests reported from 1,295 last week to 661 this week.

 

[DisneyOma]

We have a vaccine for the flu and 60,000 to 80,000 people die every year from it. We have gone from 2 weeks to stop the spread to shut everything down until no one dies. Here in Florida where so much is based on the tourism industry, I have seen devastation of lost jobs. You should see the lines at the food banks.

I was all for the restrictions at the beginning of the pandemic. However, at this point I’m wondering if the cure is worse than the disease.

The "cure' being to do nothing and let people die?

 

[DisneyOma]

Texas is doing real well. I don't understand it to be honest.

I heard that the southern states are improving but now the northern states are getting worse. It never seems to end.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map
My neck of the woods up here in the north is doing great (the big white patch in New England) but I see a lot of red down south and quite a bright quilt of color in Texas? So I'm not sure what data you are looking at?

 

[TLSnell1981]

The "cure' being to do nothing and let people die?

We are finding more efficient treatments, social distancing, masking plus vaccines are close to being a reality. I wouldn’t say we’re doing nothing. Also the virus appears to have weakened significantly. The extreme measures will have lasting effects on our children and the economy.

 

[JimMIA]

The "cure' being to do nothing and let people die?

I think you got Pyotr's meaning turned around exactly backwards.

I think they were pointing out (correctly) that there is an economic and social cost to all the restrictions and lockdowns. It's a difficult choice for governors and others in authority to make between reasonable anti-Covid actions and preserving/restarting the economy.

A good example is the question of re-opening schools. A lot of people on both sides of the question WAY oversimplify that situation. Yes, there is increased chance of infection to both children and teachers. But there is also the problem of parents not being able to work because they can't leave their kids home alone -- and that can have catastrophic effects on the family's financial structure.

These are not the simplistic issues many think they are.

 

[Colleen27]

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map
My neck of the woods up here in the north is doing great (the big white patch in New England) but I see a lot of red down south and quite a bright quilt of color in Texas? So I'm not sure what data you are looking at?

That map is cumulative, not current rates. So once the numbers are bad, on that visualization, they will never get better.

Here's one of current trends: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

 

[tex1989]

Who the heck knows! It came out in Houston that Harris County is actually going back as far as May and if they did not pick up a case that was reported then they are adding it now so there is virtually no way of know what the real numbers are. How you count cases is based on what the story elected officials want to tell today is. I got no use for any of these so called "experts" because they are just making it up as they go because they don't know any more than the average Joe on the street does.

For example the Health Director of the LA County schools comes out and says we plan on reopening in person classrooms after the election. ????? Seriously you could have said November 1, you could have said October 31, you could have said the second week of November, but you stand up and say "after the elections"?

We will never know the truth because to many have a vested interest of keeping us all feed with BS and living in the dark.

 

[Vysecity]

My county has hit a plateau it looks like. Last weekend we reported 15 cases in 3 days. Then one day 90 were reported. Yesterday 56. Im in the Imperial County in California where about 1 in 16 have caught it. It has decreased dramatically from the late June spike but hasn't dropped further in weeks

 

[DisneyOma]

I think you got Pyotr's meaning turned around exactly backwards.

I think they were pointing out (correctly) that there is an economic and social cost to all the restrictions and lockdowns. It's a difficult choice for governors and others in authority to make between reasonable anti-Covid actions and preserving/restarting the economy.

A good example is the question of re-opening schools. A lot of people on both sides of the question WAY oversimplify that situation. Yes, there is increased chance of infection to both children and teachers. But there is also the problem of parents not being able to work because they can't leave their kids home alone -- and that can have catastrophic effects on the family's financial structure.

These are not the simplistic issues many think they are.

Maybe it needs to be reworded then. But sending kids back to school when it is not safe to do so, (increasing chances of infection, right?) so parents of those kids can work puts the teachers and kids at risk. Why does the parents' needs to have someone take care of their kids trump the needs of the teachers and kids to stay safe (and alive)? Are businesses having meetings with 12-15 people in a room, for hours and hours (elementary school), maybe having 6 meetings a day with different people (high school)? This is the hybrid version of school in a district that averages 24-30 kids in a class.

 

[Pyotr]

Maybe it needs to be reworded then. But sending kids back to school when it is not safe to do so, (increasing chances of infection, right?) so parents of those kids can work puts the teachers and kids at risk. Why does the parents' needs to have someone take care of their kids trump the needs of the teachers and kids to stay safe (and alive)? Are businesses having meetings with 12-15 people in a room, for hours and hours (elementary school), maybe having 6 meetings a day with different people (high school)? This is the hybrid version of school in a district that averages 24-30 kids in a class.

For schools it is far more complicated. Not every child has access to a computer and internet. There are many children who are poor and struggle getting meals. How do you expect these children to learn? How do you expect the parents of these children to help them learn when a) they don’t understand the material, or b) they’re unavailable to help?

It it easy for someone to say “keep the kids home and distance learn,” when they don’t see things from a different perspective.

Children, unless they have severe underlying medical conditions, are not in danger from the coronavirus.

 

[LuvOrlando]

There is a growing swell around college towns here, not just my own, and my worry grows with time over how much that will seep into communities. Trying to keep a damper on concern by reminding myself that we have come a long way with knowledge and treatments. In March the world was a black hole and now it's not the same, the medical community knows the monster. Still, I'm not convinced hospitals have recovered enough to absorb what is bound to follow the "I missed you" house parties that will come when colleges close in November which will then be followed by impetuous holiday gatherings. I wish I could trust what I read more, hearing our leaders was a comfort when this started and now it's all so quirky, I don't like the fractured information, it's making me feel skittish.

 

[disneychrista]

Children, unless they have severe underlying medical conditions, are not in danger from the coronavirus.

Not 100% accurate. Plus children can be spreaders infecting parents, teachers and other at higher risk.

 

[wombat_5606]

For schools it is far more complicated. Not every child has access to a computer and internet. There are many children who are poor and struggle getting meals. How do you expect these children to learn? How do you expect the parents of these children to help them learn when a) they don’t understand the material, or b) they’re unavailable to help?

It it easy for someone to say “keep the kids home and distance learn,” when they don’t see things from a different perspective.

Children, unless they have severe underlying medical conditions, are not in danger from the coronavirus.

There are huge challenges for those children you describe, even in the classroom setting. My area schools are providing meals (Breakfast and Lunch) and have been during the entire Covid crisis. As school began, they passed out Chromebooks and have set up wi-fi hotspots for those disadvantaged children.

The underlying medical conditions that they are seeing in children is #1 Obesity, #2 Chronic Lung Disease and #3 Prematurity. The CDC estimates there are about 13.7 million obese children between the ages of 2 and 19 in this country.

If you look at the statistics generated by the American Academy of Pediatrics each week, you will see that children are becoming increasingly more susceptible to Covid and it's because they are now out of their homes more, especially since some schools have restarted. Mortality of children has increased to .07% of all deaths(.02% of children getting Covid). There are many, many schools home studying virtually and if they weren't, I wonder what the number would be? Perhaps we will find out how many children we are willing to sacrifice in the next 3-4 weeks.

To think there is no other way to educate our children rather than send them to a school building that may be inadequate to protect them from a harmful disease, is incredible to me in a technologically advanced society in 2020.

There are solutions that don't require putting children in harms way, but our society would rather look to the most simple ones that require minimum effort.

Edited to correct child mortality.

 

[JimMIA]

Why does the parents' needs to have someone take care of their kids trump the needs of the teachers and kids to stay safe (and alive)?

First of all, that's a terribly stark choice that probably very very few parents would have to make.

I'll give you a much more common predicament parents face.

Single mom, low job skills, just getting by before Covid.

She's been out of work for six months, and has subsisted only on her unemployment and the $600 supplement the federal government provided. That $600 payment has now expired, and Congress is not even negotiating to replace it. The President created a temporary $300 supplement by executive order, but that was only for 6 weeks and that's expiring now as well.

The mom has no income, no savings, and can't return to work or get a job because she has nobody to take care of the kids.

She is now facing eviction from her apartment, and that federal protection is now also expiring and Congress isn't even talking about a solution.

Her employer wants her to come back to work, and is at the point where they will replace her if she can't return. They need her back; their business is suffering because they have a lot of employees in the same boat. The business could fail, putting many more people out of work.

She and her children are going to be homeless in a few weeks.

This example is not one Mom. This is millions of real people, and this is why these problems are not as simplistic as we sometimes think.

 

[wombat_5606]

First of all, that's a terribly stark choice that probably very very few parents would have to make.

I'll give you a much more common predicament parents face.

Single mom, low job skills, just getting by before Covid.

She's been out of work for six months, and has subsisted only on her unemployment and the $600 supplement the federal government provided. That $600 payment has now expired, and Congress is not even negotiating to replace it. The President created a temporary $300 supplement by executive order, but that was only for 6 weeks and that's expiring now as well.

The mom has no income, no savings, and can't return to work or get a job because she has nobody to take care of the kids.

She is now facing eviction from her apartment, and that federal protection is now also expiring and Congress

Her employer wants her to come back to work, and is at the point where they will replace her if she can't return. They need her back; their business is suffering because they have a lot of employees in the same boat. The business could fail, putting many more people out of work.

She and her children are going to be homeless in a few weeks.

This example is not one Mom. This is millions of real people, and this is why these problems are not as simplistic as we sometimes think.

Just sending children back to school isn't the simple solution, either, because most likely this single mother is making horrendous pay and she has no hope of making up her rent/mortage that is in arrears.

I've bolded, italicized and underlined the simple solution. Our country is failing it's citizens in a phenomenal and historic way.

 

[hsmamato2]

Children, unless they have severe underlying medical conditions, are not in danger from the coronavirus.

Sigh. If only this were true.