COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (34 Viewers)

[StudioSaint]

I think this is the first time there hasn't been protester's in downtown Portland! They live to protest almost everything.

Yeah, after my post I realized there weren't any counter protesters at the few organized protests. These are definitely not normal times.

 

[St. Geezy]

I hereby declare New Zealand the 2020 Coronavirus World Champions...

How New Zealand beat the coronavirus

The isolated island nation enters the post-pandemic future.

www.politico.eu

New Zealand says it has 'eliminated' the virus. Here's how the country did it

After weeks of lockdown, New Zealand has achieved its ambitious goal of eliminating the coronavirus.

www.cnn.com

They did it the right way, and did not wait for the problem to become a problem to begin mitigating said problem. They took the analytics and blueprint for success, or rather, the blueprint for failure, and stayed ahead of everything.

Yes, yes...I know their per capita is smaller than some U.S. states and all that, but the general principle remains the same - you beat this thing by being proactive, not reactive. You lockdown before the situation escalates, not afterwards.

 

[saintmdterps]

This is a read. OF course, we all saw all of this. This is Financial Times. Not Vox, not MSNBC.

https://www.ft.com/content/97dc7de6-940b-11ea-abcd-371e24b679ed

Irish columnist Fintan O' Toole stated in his piece that this is the first time the world has felt pity toward the US. I agree. The world in the past has lauded, criticized, envied, or been angry with the US, but never pitied us. Until now.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

This is a read. OF course, we all saw all of this. This is Financial Times. Not Vox, not MSNBC.

https://www.ft.com/content/97dc7de6-940b-11ea-abcd-371e24b679ed

couldn't make it through - just got too distressed that it will not matter at all

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I know its fun making this a strictly political issue, but the truth is that the protestors are a tiny minority.
There is far more danger posed by people that are apathetic than are making a political statement

both a very problematic and will help to extend (and perhaps worsen) this crisis

 

[LonghornSaint]

couldn't make it through - just got too distressed that it will not matter at all

Couldnt finish it either, my head started boiling. I do appreciate how it encapsulates a timeline of events.

 

[bclemms]

I know its fun making this a strictly political issue, but the truth is that the protestors are a tiny minority.
There is far more danger posed by people that are apathetic than are making a political statement

I agree, the protestors are only part of the problem. What disturbs me is it isn't just the fringe right, we're talking like 35% of the country believe the virus is a Chinese bioweapon made in a lab that was released in China to spread across the world to prevent Trump's reelection. 35% that will ignore the top 1000 virologists and epidimiologists before latching on to the 1 General Practicioner that goes against the global consensus.


In more than a decade, we may have agreed on issues a couple of times, this is one of those times. Not only is what you posted true but many of us even predicted it based on how we were responding to the virus back in February and March. It's not like this thing snuck up on us and was a matter of circumstance or bad chance either, it was so obvious it was like watching a movie you'd seen a 100 times in slow motion. I thought it was funny when Trump got elected because the internet was going to explode and I hated both candidates with equal passion and had come to accept that one of them was going to win. Trump's actions and his followers inability to comprehend basic math because it goes against what their political beliefs are is one of the scariest and most disappointing things I've seen in my life. It's cult like behavior that is extremely dangerous. The scariest part of it all, is at a time when when our leadership is failing us at catastrophic levels, the best the Dems can put forward is Joe Biden. The country is broken and if the pandemic can't pull us together I'd hate to see what it would take.

Also, congrats to New Zealand. Their economy is probably about to explode in a good way. I may use all of my American Airline miles to fly out there in July with the family for vacation to give them a bit of normalcy. I have a ton of miles and I get the feeling AA is going to go bankrupt so might as well use them while I can. Even if a 14 day quarantine is required to go it may be worth it.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Went out to dinner last night with another couple to Toups' Meatery. We sat outside, waitstaff wore masks. Great meal and drinks (try the Toups Manhattan - holy cow it's good).

Left a huge tip and went home. It was great to have a semi normal Saturday night.

 

[superchuck500]

Interesting model site that gives projections based on a current data set for each state. LA looks pretty good. Others not so much. Predictive modeling always has to be taken with a grain of salt.

COVID-19 Projections Using Machine Learning

We use artificial intelligence to accurately forecast infections, deaths, and recovery timelines of the COVID-19 / coronavirus pandemic in the US and globally

covid19-projections.com

 

[FootballLady]

I agree, the protestors are only part of the problem. What disturbs me is it isn't just the fringe right, we're talking like 35% of the country believe the virus is a Chinese bioweapon made in a lab that was released in China to spread across the world to prevent Trump's reelection. 35% that will ignore the top 1000 virologists and epidimiologists before latching on to the 1 General Practicioner that goes against the global consensus.


In more than a decade, we may have agreed on issues a couple of times, this is one of those times. Not only is what you posted true but many of us even predicted it based on how we were responding to the virus back in February and March. It's not like this thing snuck up on us and was a matter of circumstance or bad chance either, it was so obvious it was like watching a movie you'd seen a 100 times in slow motion. I thought it was funny when Trump got elected because the internet was going to explode and I hated both candidates with equal passion and had come to accept that one of them was going to win. Trump's actions and his followers inability to comprehend basic math because it goes against what their political beliefs are is one of the scariest and most disappointing things I've seen in my life. It's cult like behavior that is extremely dangerous. The scariest part of it all, is at a time when when our leadership is failing us at catastrophic levels, the best the Dems can put forward is Joe Biden. The country is broken and if the pandemic can't pull us together I'd hate to see what it would take.

Also, congrats to New Zealand. Their economy is probably about to explode in a good way. I may use all of my American Airline miles to fly out there in July with the family for vacation to give them a bit of normalcy. I have a ton of miles and I get the feeling AA is going to go bankrupt so might as well use them while I can. Even if a 14 day quarantine is required to go it may be worth it.

Hopefully, New Zealand lets Americans come in the country.

 

[bclemms]

Hopefully, New Zealand lets Americans come in the country.

They had proposed a 14 day quarantine and testing of anyone coming into the country but not sure what they actual policy is now and how much that will change. For me, it wont really matter until the USA can come up with a logical way to travel on planes and they aren't even close to that.

 

[DaveXA]

Fwiw, apparently some people have forgotten there actually was and is a CDC pandemic playbook that has been summarily dismissed by the administration and was summarily dismissed because the White House thought they knew better than the experts. Ever since this whole thing started, I just get the feeling that the experts have been turned into an extension of election year political strategy rather than a national resource.

The CDC's own recommendations are being dismissed by many states as too onerous and taking away from people's personal freedoms when the intent couldn't be farther from the truth. It's precisely the desire to give people their freedom to live without the disease, free from worry for all age groups. But people have little patience and don't like being inconvenienced because of an invisible bug. There has to be a clear and coordinated response to not only flatten the curve, but also eliminate the disease entirely. COVID-19 may stick around for years, but it's also possible it may disappear at some point with an effective vaccine, or burn out on it's own.

History is littered with viruses that have come and gone. This one is the worst since the 1918 pandemic, but the story is still being written. i still hold out hope that we'll get through this, but a lot of damage has been done that likely would have been avoided with a better, more coordinated response in which everyone buys into the game plan. Our overall response has left a lot to be desired, and we'll be well over 150k deaths before this is all said and done. It's unfortunate, and had we been better prepared in hot spots like NYC, New Orleans and particularly nursing homes, we probably would have half the number of deaths we have now.

While the pandemic is a medical and scientific issue, the strategy we've employed as a country has been overly influenced by political considerations, and while discussion of the pandemic in this thread has been mostly focused on the nature and effects from COVID-19, the outcome of the political influence on our national response is unavoidable.

I know some people would disagree with me, but I'd rather have my health than wealth. Sure we can and some do have both, but when given a stark choice, I'd rather be living with quality health and few means than jacked health up with plenty of resources.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

It should be pointed out that he switched parties because he thought Republicans, and I'm paraphrasing his own words, would be gullible enough to vote for him.

At the same time, it should also be pointed out that the main reason he was a democrat was bc that was the NY power structure and he learned palm greasing from his father
It does not appear that he was a democrat (or is a republican) for any ideological reasons

 

[FootballLady]

I know some people would disagree with me, but I'd rather have my health than wealth. Sure we can and some do have both, but when given a stark choice, I'd rather be living with quality health and few means than jacked health up with plenty or resources.

To paraphrase a certain former President, that we have to choose between health and the economy points to there being something wrong with our economic system.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Interesting model site that gives projections based on a current data set for each state. LA looks pretty good. Others not so much. Predictive modeling always has to be taken with a grain of salt.

COVID-19 Projections Using Machine Learning

We use artificial intelligence to accurately forecast infections, deaths, and recovery timelines of the COVID-19 / coronavirus pandemic in the US and globally

covid19-projections.com

Overall pretty interesting stuff


I think what caught my eye is the assumption in their forecast model that any uptick in cases would precipitate a reimposing of lockdown guidelines. I am not sure that will happen in a lot of places like Florida or Texas.

I mean Texas for example is seeing their cases spike and their highest single day death toll yet in the last few days and Abbot today reconfirmed he is going forward with reopening gyms and letting restaurants move to 50% tomorrow, while looking toward opening bars sooner than later.

The range seems good enough to capture that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their projection comes in a bit low in a number of these states that refuse to look at the data and act accordingly....and that’s worrying.