The Coronavirus

[pbrower2a]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/us/tulsa-...index.html

Two weeks after President Trump made an irresponsible and pointless campaign trip to Tulsa, Tulsa-area hospitals have had 500 new cases of COVID-10 in two days.

I am surprised that the Secret Service, which is charged with the safety and security of the President, did not nix that trip.

................................

an aside: I have a suggestion for masks that would offer free advertising for their suppliers and make the message obvious. The advertisers?

Funeral homes!

I do not ordinarily offer free advertising to anyone... and the subject is ordinarily too macabre for my taste. But this is an abnormal time, and this is the one time in which I would make such an exception.

I am tired of seeing people without masks. At this point the alternative to "Mask it" is the rhyme "casket".

I want to hear that people got two blocks away from their intended destination and turned back so that they could get a mask.

[Eric the Green]

A tisket, a tasket,
Now's the time to mask it.
You'd better do the task, it
keeps you from your casket.

[Eric the Green]

New sad record for the USA in daily case numbers: 61,848.
world: 213,280

Nations with the most reported new cases today:
USA 61,848
Brazil 41,541
India 25,571
South Africa 8810
Russia 6562
Mexico 6258
Colombia 4144
Peru 3633
Argentina 3604
Bangladesh 3489
Saudi Arabia 3036
Pakistan 2980
Iraq 2741
Iran 2691
Philippines 2486
Chile 2064
Indonesia 1853
Kazakhstan 1376
Israel 1335
Oman 1210
Dominican Republic 1158
Turkey 1041
Bolivia 1036
Egypt 1025
Panama 960
Ethiopia 928
Ghana 854

States with most new reported cases today:
Texas 10,199
Florida 9989
California 8561
Arizona 3520
Georgia 3420
Tennessee 2472
Louisiana 1888
South Carolina 1557
Ohio 1250
Alabama 1177

It is notable that there is only one first world country on the list now, the one at the top. And only one blue US state.

[Eric the Green]

(07-08-2020, 12:29 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-08-2020, 05:39 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: CNN reports WHO confirms there's 'emerging evidence' of airborne transmission of coronavirus

This doesn't seem like news.  The major purpose of masks is to vastly decrease the wearer's putting coronavirus spray in the air.  Masks have been a big part of fighting the bug since Wuhan.

I think the new info here is the degree to which the virus can travel and be persistent.  If 6 feet is simply not enough, and the virus hangs in the air for hours, we're in a new ballgame.  Most of the indoor recommendations become moot, except for masking.

Ventilation may help for indoor places, reducing that persistence, so I heard.

[Bob Butler 54]

(07-08-2020, 08:52 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(07-08-2020, 12:29 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-08-2020, 05:39 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: CNN reports WHO confirms there's 'emerging evidence' of airborne transmission of coronavirus

This doesn't seem like news.  The major purpose of masks is to vastly decrease the wearer's putting coronavirus spray in the air.  Masks have been a big part of fighting the bug since Wuhan.

I think the new info here is the degree to which the virus can travel and be persistent.  If 6 feet is simply not enough, and the virus hangs in the air for hours, we're in a new ballgame.  Most of the indoor recommendations become moot, except for masking.

Ventilation may help for indoor places, reducing that persistence, so I heard.

Yes, some filters that block particles the size of the virus could help but not totally block the spread.  Not cheap or common yet.  Not clear if such systems will become part of the new normal.  They might become standard in places which are extremely vulnerable, such as meat packing plants, nursing homes and prisons.

[David Horn]

(07-08-2020, 08:52 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(07-08-2020, 12:29 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-08-2020, 05:39 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: CNN reports WHO confirms there's 'emerging evidence' of airborne transmission of coronavirus

This doesn't seem like news.  The major purpose of masks is to vastly decrease the wearer's putting coronavirus spray in the air.  Masks have been a big part of fighting the bug since Wuhan.

I think the new info here is the degree to which the virus can travel and be persistent.  If 6 feet is simply not enough, and the virus hangs in the air for hours, we're in a new ballgame.  Most of the indoor recommendations become moot, except for masking.

Ventilation may help for indoor places, reducing that persistence, so I heard.

The only limitation to ventilation is how the waste air is handled. If it's a case of full replacement every X minutes, then the cost of heating or air conditioning has to be considered.  Commercial aircraft fully circulate the air in the passenger cabin every 30 seconds, but it's scrubbed by a multistage HEPA filter prior to being reintroduced to the cabin.  That's a best practice that could also be used in buildings if the owners are willing to invest in it.  So far, no recommendation from the CDC or anyone else in authority.

[TnT]

USA - 4.5% of the world's population.

USA - 25+% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

QED

[David Horn]

(07-09-2020, 02:19 PM)TnT Wrote: USA - 4.5% of the world's population.

USA - 25+% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

QED

Even worse: it's unlikely to change.  We're in for a bumpy ride.  It's best to stay out of GOP-run states if you value your health.  Either that, or have a UV light inserted... never mind.

[Bob Butler 54]

CNN reports that there is no plan.

CNN Wrote:As the US plunges into an ever deeper coronavirus morass, setting record new infection rates and the death curve begins to rise again, there's no prospect of the nightmare ending for months.

I know there are people who think CNN is part of a partisan coastal media, but beyond calling ignoring the problem and hoping the resultant healthy economy will get him elected, I doubt there is a plan.

Can the truth be partisan?

[pbrower2a]

(07-10-2020, 05:36 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: CNN reports that there is no plan.

CNN Wrote:As the US plunges into an ever deeper coronavirus morass, setting record new infection rates and the death curve begins to rise again, there's no prospect of the nightmare ending for months.

I know there are people who think CNN is part of a partisan coastal media, but beyond calling ignoring the problem and hoping the resultant healthy economy will get him elected, I doubt there is a plan.

Can the truth be partisan?

Simpler explanation: the President is incompetent.

[pbrower2a]

That season is coming.

Worse, this season is already here.



...and I thought alligators, rabid dogs, and hurricanes were dangerous.

[pbrower2a]

Can you imagine the deaths that could result from a combined hurricane and COVID-19 season? If the whirlwind doesn't get one, then COVID-19 might. COVID-19, I predict, will kill more people than the hurricane.

[Eric the Green]

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer from "Pollution"

If the storms don't get'cha, the virus will

[Bob Butler 54]

The local Facebook page had an entry written by a member who had just been to a particular store. Customers were ignoring the one way aisle signs, not waring masks, ignoring social distancing. The employees were not militant about enforcement. As a result, the poster resolved to shop elsewhere.

And this is in Massachusetts, one of the near break even states with a high population density.

If the population doesn't switch to a value lives over personal convenience ethic, one typical of a crisis, things just are not going to change.

[TnT]

(07-09-2020, 03:37 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 02:19 PM)TnT Wrote: USA - 4.5% of the world's population.

USA - 25+% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

QED

Even worse: it's unlikely to change.  We're in for a bumpy ride.  It's best to stay out of GOP-run states if you value your health.  Either that, or have a UV light inserted... never mind.

Here in New Mexico we now have the TX and AZ flare-ups leaking into our state.  Our governor took an aggressive approach to controlling the virus and it was working.  Now we have southeast NM (near Lubbock, TX) and El Paso on the south going out of control, and of course that brings the population centers like Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces back into the frying pan.

All while lunatic Republicans like Steve Pearce, the erstwhile U.S. Rep, prattle on about our constitutional "liberties."  They babble about the issue AS IF the economy and the pandemic are two disparate things that have no overlap.  The biology and the economics of it are that we GET the bad economic effects AND we GET the bad pandemic.  Only careful nuanced hard work and cooperation can optimize and minimize the badness on both hands.

[TnT]

"Can the truth be partisan?"

Yes, indeed. Truth has a distinct liberal bias.

[pbrower2a]

(07-11-2020, 11:50 AM)TnT Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 03:37 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 02:19 PM)TnT Wrote: USA - 4.5% of the world's population.

USA - 25+% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

QED

Even worse: it's unlikely to change.  We're in for a bumpy ride.  It's best to stay out of GOP-run states if you value your health.  Either that, or have a UV light inserted... never mind.

Here in New Mexico we now have the TX and AZ flare-ups leaking into our state.  Our governor took an aggressive approach to controlling the virus and it was working.  Now we have southeast NM (near Lubbock, TX) and El Paso on the south going out of control, and of course that brings the population centers like Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces back into the frying pan.

All while lunatic Republicans like Steve Pearce, the erstwhile U.S. Rep, prattle on about our constitutional "liberties."  They babble about the issue AS IF the economy and the pandemic are two disparate things that have no overlap.  The biology and the economics of it are that we GET the bad economic effects AND we GET the bad pandemic.  Only careful nuanced hard work and cooperation can optimize and minimize the badness on both hands.

Wearing a mask is about as much a hindrance to my life as is keeping a driver's license. What could be easier?

Human rights are meaningless for the dead. 

I live in one of the most redneck parts of Michigan. I try to go one way, and I wear a mask. Just take a look at the people not wearing masks, and I see all the more reason to wear one. You never know what viruses someone is having. It's like using a condom during the lethal heyday of AIDS.

We have arguably the worst President for meeting a Crisis. I know what rhetoric I would use if I were President... and it would be the language of war and sacrifice. I would be wearing a mask in public. Maybe I would have a microphone under the mask or I would have one that is clear around my mouth so that people who rely upon lip-reading to figure out what others are saying could do so. I wouldn't be staging rallies; I would revive the fireside chat. 

Instead I get to make such a comparison as "that is one 9/11 attack", "that is two sinkings of the RMS Titanic", "that is seventy careers of serial killers Ted Bundy or John Gacy", or "that is twenty incidences of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building". 

I hate that virus like I hate Osama bin Laden.

[Ragnarök_62]

(07-11-2020, 11:50 AM)TnT Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 03:37 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 02:19 PM)TnT Wrote: USA - 4.5% of the world's population.

USA - 25+% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

QED

Even worse: it's unlikely to change.  We're in for a bumpy ride.  It's best to stay out of GOP-run states if you value your health.  Either that, or have a UV light inserted... never mind.

Here in New Mexico we now have the TX and AZ flare-ups leaking into our state.  Our governor took an aggressive approach to controlling the virus and it was working.  Now we have southeast NM (near Lubbock, TX) and El Paso on the south going out of control, and of course that brings the population centers like Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces back into the frying pan.

All while lunatic Republicans like Steve Pearce, the erstwhile U.S. Rep, prattle on about our constitutional "liberties."  They babble about the issue AS IF the economy and the pandemic are two disparate things that have no overlap.  The biology and the economics of it are that we GET the bad economic effects AND we GET the bad pandemic.  Only careful nuanced hard work and cooperation can optimize and minimize the badness on both hands.

You forgot Oklahoma. Oklahoma, where the virus comes sweeping down the plain, with an obese population and where few folks wear masks can be seen. New Mexico lives in a bad hood.

[beechnut79]

(07-11-2020, 06:22 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(07-11-2020, 11:50 AM)TnT Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 03:37 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-09-2020, 02:19 PM)TnT Wrote: USA - 4.5% of the world's population.

USA - 25+% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

QED

Even worse: it's unlikely to change.  We're in for a bumpy ride.  It's best to stay out of GOP-run states if you value your health.  Either that, or have a UV light inserted... never mind.

Here in New Mexico we now have the TX and AZ flare-ups leaking into our state.  Our governor took an aggressive approach to controlling the virus and it was working.  Now we have southeast NM (near Lubbock, TX) and El Paso on the south going out of control, and of course that brings the population centers like Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces back into the frying pan.

All while lunatic Republicans like Steve Pearce, the erstwhile U.S. Rep, prattle on about our constitutional "liberties."  They babble about the issue AS IF the economy and the pandemic are two disparate things that have no overlap.  The biology and the economics of it are that we GET the bad economic effects AND we GET the bad pandemic.  Only careful nuanced hard work and cooperation can optimize and minimize the badness on both hands.

You forgot Oklahoma. Oklahoma, where the virus comes sweeping down the plain, with an obese population and where few folks wear masks can be seen. New Mexico lives in a bad hood.

A pun on your last paragraph would be if Oklahoma got a peak in cases sooner than neighboring states. It’s nickname is the Sooner State.

[pbrower2a]

The President finally wore a mask in public today.

He could have done so several months ago when it would have been a good example... but he didn't then.

Oh...

Quote:SAN ANTONIO (KENS 5) — A 30-year-old patient died after going to a “COVID Party,” according to Dr. Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer at Methodist Hospital.

“This is a party held by someone diagnosed with the COVID virus, and the thought is that people get together to see if the virus is real if anyone gets infected,” Appleby said.

Appleby said a member of her staff told her the story this week.

“Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said, ‘I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,'” Appleby said.

She said many of the critically ill patients being treated at Methodist Hospital for COVID-19 are in their twenties or thirties, which is a developing trend across the San Antonio area.

San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg said said 25% of the positive cases in Bexar County are made up of young adults.

“We’re in a period of very high community transmission,” Nirenberg said. “If you’re having a party with people who aren’t part of your social circle in your household, it has the potential to be a COVID party whether you like it or not.”

Appelby says she hopes that, in sharing this patient’s story, she can help people realize the severity of the virus.

“This is just one example of a potentially avoidable death in a young member of our community, and I can’t imagine the loss of the family,” Appleby said. “We’re here to help you. At the same time, we hope that you don’t need our help. Please wear a mask, stay at home when you can, avoid groups of people and sanitize your hands.”

https://myfox8.com/news/i-thought-this-w...vid-party/

I have loosened up a bit, having taken some day trips, one to a favorite out-of-town bookstore, one to a couple of beaches on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and one for some photographs so that I could get out of my brother's way while he is doing some telecommute work... I did not loosen up on the mask.

I want to do something interesting before the world shuts down again.