My county is up to 92 cases now. Last week it was 75 and the week before 52 so we are definitely surging. Now whether it's from all the Memorial Day gatherings or because people here have decided it's over (or they just don't care anymore more likely) and are open for business and no one is wearing masks for the most part is anybody's guess.
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My grocery store still has the plastic shields up, employees still wear masks but they have removed the social distancing decals from the floor in front of the registers.
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In general, coronavirus news is slim to none. Some states are refusing to submit their data and in Florida many deaths are being recorded as pneumonia instead of the virus, all the health scientists have been sidelined by the administration, the news outlets are focused on the protests against police brutality and rightly so, and the only thing coming across my news feeds re the virus is:
a dozen states are undergoing surges (mine included), all but one I think led by Republicans,
this is not the second wave as infections had almost (key word here) leveled out before rising again because people in this country are stupid and selfish so this is still the first wave, the second wave comes after infections decline,
the general assumption that with the heat of summer will come a drop in infections has proved to be false,
new research supports wearing masks to control the spread of covid-19,
there is still no treatment, there is still no cure, there is still no vaccine, people are still dying with 433,085 deaths worldwide,
the reason why this virus is so contagious and humans have no immunity to it is because it is an animal virus that finally mutated enough and jumped to humans unlike the flu which is a human virus that mutates which allows humans to build up immunities to it.
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Current US statistics as of today 6/14/20, 14:30 GMT (last twelve weeks' totals in parenthesis): cases – 2,143,646 (1,992,453, 1,837,525, 1,685,367, 1,512,267, 1,384,681, 1,168985, 976,403, 741,230, 534,494, 312,223, 123,958, 38,757); deaths – 117,542 (112,141, 106,190, 99,286, 90,206, 81,724, 67,954, 54,965, 39,103, 20,637, 8,483, 2,231, 400); (no longer care about recoveries).
I guess this will be the last post dedicated to coronavirus news unless more info and coverage comes out though I will include any new information in future posts. Stay home, wear masks and social distance when possible when you do go out because this thing is real and even if you recover, you can be really fucked up by the damage to your lungs, your other organs, and your blood.
Our State, led by Red, has a graph trajectory like a Rocket Launch, almost 2,000 new cases every DAY! We had 1,654 new cases on the 12th and I do have to Google stats since the News is not covering the Plague like they should be and thus people are acting as if it's over, when it's worse than ever and Nationally we doubled to over 2 Million Cases so quickly everyone should be very alarmed! There's still about 700 Deaths a day, that we know of and I agree, most aren't reporting a lot of COVID Deaths as Virus related. We have no surge capacity at our Hospitals and they're past 80% capacity right now, by July they will no longer have enough beds and since our outside temps are about 116 degrees, it's not like they can set up Tents outside to handle surge for people who already are having trouble breathing!
ReplyDeleteThat's what we need to do.
ReplyDeleteOur government has moved on, and a majority of people are “over it”, but the virus is as much of a killer now as it was last month. This, as a result, will make it last longer. Other countries have done such a better job.
ReplyDeleteThe media has moved on too. No more stories of overworked health care workers and so forth. Just...move on, nothing to see here.
ReplyDeleteI agree... need to wear masks and social distance as much as possible. My state is seeing a slight decline in positive test cases and deaths but we are, for the most part, still vigilant. Makes me upset to see so many people still not wearing face masks.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to mu aunt the other day & she said that her church was starting back up (yesterday), but they weren't going to require masks. She asked what I thought about that & I gave her an earful - ha! She said that she doesn't understand people her age or older who won't wear masks. I told her that a lot of the people I know who weren't wearing masks seemed to really like our president & since he has downplayed the necessity they're running with that. She was already not planning to go to church, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteI saw something today that a photographer wanted to see if she could photograph moisture particles coming out of people's mouths when they sang and it took several setups and the right lighting but she did manage it.
DeleteHi Ellen! Here in AZ, temps have been over 100 for weeks now, and we are SURGING in COVID cases. So much for the heat hoax.
ReplyDeleteGlad you seem to be doing well, all world things considered. I'm back to blogging after a 9 mo. hiatus.
Hi Willow. I tried to visit but you've got your setting on private.
Deletep.s. apparently I had my blog locked down from last year, so it looked like by invitation only. I've opened it up. dur. LOL Sorry!
DeleteWe have not yet fully opened, might do at the end of the month but waiting to see how it goes for states who have opened and disregarded safety measures. Does not look good for those states...
ReplyDeleteLooking at the US is scary in so many ways. Especially since in previous comparable scenarios the US always showed such dramatic leadership and drive in research and innovation.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers are way down here in Germany but people are crazy mad in my opinion and now the warnings are coming in hard and fast from the very same people who were banging on about opening up.
One of the scientists on the media today explained how studies show that to avoid a second wave 75% of the people should wear a face mask for 75% of the time.
For me, little has changed, I will continue my socially recluse life as before and I don't mind it one bit. But we have the privilege of a garden and bicycles and safe income.
Stay safe, Ellen.
basically same here Sabine, sticking to our anti-social lives which really aren't that different than before. he's going out less because his lungs are already compromised. he goes to the bank, post office, and library about once a week. I do everything else that needs to be done. I just got back from a grocery store run and maybe half the customers were wearing masks. it is scary living here in the US with a president who only does things if it benefits him personally and whose continuing cognitive and physical decline is becoming more and more apparent. and still he might be reelected! and he hates the job, doesn't do it, complains about it constantly, why the fuck does he want to be reelected. well, money, so he and his family can continue to raid the national treasury for themselves and their already obscenely rich buddies. it's a hot mess as they say.
DeleteWhen I went for groceries today during the early morning high-risk-shopper hours at Trader Joe's, which has a highly visible hand-drawn message on a chalkboard requesting that everyone entering the store wear a mask or face covering in consideration of other shoppers and of those who work in the store, I noticed that the stony-faced young woman standing in line in front of me wasn't wearing any face covering at all. I wondered what the Trader Joe's employee would do when the young woman arrived at the front of the line. If the young woman hoped to create a scene, she was disappointed.
ReplyDeleteYep, Lao Tzu wasn't thinking about about belly flops or jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge when he described water as soft and flexible.
Thank you for your laughter, Ellen (-:
I have not read that the virus info is being suppressed.Of course, what could we expect in this election year, with republicans who make the news trumpeting that Teflon Trump will slide to a landslide. That's the gist of the slogan, but I can't remember the last several words, exactly.
ReplyDeleteI saw that Teflon Trump and they think he'll win by a landslide. seems wishful thinking on their part. I read an article or two about how his campaign is floundering with no clear message this time around so they are falling back on last year's schtick. and rumors the campaign manager might be replaced. let's see how many people get sick after his first rally. I'm not saying there isn't a chance but there are lots of disaffected people who voted for him last time.
DeleteI think we're going to be in the COVID mess for a while. We all have to keep wearing our masks, maintaining six feet apart, and washing our hands. I just wish we had thoughtful leadership to help us through this crisis.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for stopping by the New Dharma Bums blog and commenting on Roger's post. It's so lovely to hear from you, Ellen.
Wonder why the stores took away the decals? Our stores are still using them. Speaking of which, I have to go shopping...ugh.
ReplyDeleteturns out I was wrong about that. perhaps they had taken them up to wax the floor or something or maybe I'm just crazy because they were there yesterday when I went to the store.
DeleteWell, thank goD we can fix all that virus rising nonsense by stopping all testing. Good grief.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your varied experiences in connection with the Vietnam War. R used heroin in Vietnam and went through heroin withdrawal in Vietnam. He nearly overdosed on drugs several times, both before and after returning from Vietnam. The day before he got on a plane headed for Vietnam, we went to a draft counseling center in Oakland, California. R didn't want to go to Canada or to prison and had absolutely no confidence that he would be given conscientious objector status. After talking with a draft counselor who was a woman and laid out his options, R made the fateful decision to go to Vietnam as a helicopter mechanic. He was against war until the day he died. That your son is named after one of the many good men who went to Vietnam and never really recovered from the effects of war moves me deeply.
ReplyDelete