Same, but there’s literally been no testing. (and they’ve found 3 since last weekend, claiming no chance of anyone being into contact and that they got it from traveling from another city or state. Plus a nurse at a hospital. I haven’t searched more today.). As of Monday, in TX requesting tests still requires significant evidence of exposure to someone who had already tested positive plus the significant symptoms and negative flu test. There are private lab tests starting up though, which may have different rules. I expect to see cases in many of these areas pretending there are none.
Edit: Just did that search. Now it’s up to 11 in my city. After pretending 0 through last Friday. Cumulatively, they’ve tested 58 people in total now in the county.
But the only gain from distancing at this stage is if we all assume EVERYONE might have it and be contagious and act accordingly. Because we don’t know who does. We’re supposed to be trying to lower those transmission rates – from unknown asymptomatic or light-symptom carriers.
We get the typical "media’ is hyping this post on local Nextdoor. Unlike here, I try not to engage. Tonight a local doctor posted this very well written message. I thought I share with you all.
Richard Kaner
Coronavirus
As a physician, I’m spending most of my time trying to educate my patients, neighbors and friends about this pandemic. I’m watching the growing frustration of people as their lives and routines are impacted. So let me try to give you some perspective of what we’re up against without a lot of detailed numbers. When trying to understand this pandemic, think about RATE-OF-RISE! SARS was more deadly, influenza has killed more people, other diseases may pose a greater cumulative threat over your lifetime and yes, the death rate is very low in children and low in young adults…None of that is the issue that makes this so dangerous.
Coronavirus is the most rapidly spreading viral infection humans have faced…EVER! It is facilitated by the fact that we have no immunity in the general community, no proven treatment and no vaccine. While the vast majority will survive, the number of critical cases will be significant. Epidemiologists use models and predictions and people can argue about those but we don’t need them. We have China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, etc. to look at. Italy is 2 weeks ahead of us on the curve. They are currently using a well-vetted algorithm to decide who gets a ventilator and who dies because they don’t have enough ventilators.
Here are some facts:
The number of cases and the number of deaths are both doubling in THIS country every 5-6 days.
Per capita, Italy has more ventilators than the US
At the current rate-of-rise, we will exceed the number of critical care beds and ventilators in the next 3-4 weeks.
You are most contagious the first day of illness but we now have data proving asymptomatic spread so even if you’re not sick you can transmit.
We can argue about whether the media is “fake”, whether this is overblown and whether the government is overreacting. When you step back from this and think about it, do you really think the government wants to impose these measures that are grinding our economy to a crawl during an election year? They’ve been slow to respond and you can argue about the reasons, but they have seen the facts and they are finally taking action.
It’s painful, it’s an economic hardship, it’s anxiety provoking and it’s scary. If we do this right, we will rebuild businesses, watch our 401Ks rebound over time and perhaps have a better appreciation for our neighbors and communities. If we do this right and you become ill(like the 20+ yr old at Swedish and the 40+ yr. old ER doc at Evergreen), there will be a hospital bed, a medical staff and a ventilator for you.
If we don’t do this right, we’ll be having a different conversation.
Suck it up, do your part and let’s pray it’s an overreaction!
As of a few days ago, only 54,903 tests had been done in the entire US. South Korea is doing nearly 20,000 tests a day.
Georgia has done 146 tests, all 146 positive for coronavirus.
…more testing saves lives by preventing the next infection, not by allowing doctors to catch an individual patient earlier. The “treat early” paradigm works when there is an effective drug against the disease.
Reading the report that radically changed the UK’s CV policy leads me to believe the most valuable members of society in the fall of 2020 will be young people who have already recovered because they got infected early.
Trump, who still has not closed the southern border or instituted health checks for the illegals coming across daily, now supports giving 20 million of those same illegals $1000 each.
Walk in, get your thousand bucks . . . what a country!!!
I’ll take the $1000 but as someone who works normally from home and will keep getting paychecks (actually just got a raise) through this, what’s the point of sending someone who’ll keep making 6 figures this year, a $1000 check?
Would it not be better to target unemployed/underemployed people more aggressively? Yes it’d be more progressive wealth redistribution but I’m very concerned that we’ll be just digging the deficit more (on top of the wasteful tax cuts of the last tax reform) for little gain in the case of people only slightly affected by this crisis.
In principle, yes but it would be also hard to implement. A lot of big companies are planning to give out cash to small business around them. I think Amazon already pledged $10 million.
I’m having a laugh, just look at us, we are all Keynesian when SHTF. Not only that, UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME is finally here, well, sort of.
All right. To be fair Trump, in his news conference just concluded, said he finally would close the southern border using his emergency powers. He had not yet said that when I wrote what I did. Besides, what’s he waiting for . . Christmas?
And he also has finally just closed the Canadian border for non-essential stuff. S’bout time. Canada has been far too lax, allowing people we prohibit to arrive there instead then simply cross over into the USA.
Course none of this stuff has ever been an issue for the globalists; and it never will be. You know, the same ones who are uncomfortable when you say this problem came to us courtesy of China. WABOA
It was “consensual”. Canada didn’t want our cases flooding over the border. Past gross negligence really shouldn’t be the focus now.
It’s what we do going forward.
Finally DPA today. Unfortunately not sure how automakers, etc, can make medical equipment. Slightly different than making tanks. Which factories we actually have can convert to medical equip?
I’m starting to get depressed, doesn’t seem to be a way out even down the line.
I don’t know what closing the border will do at this point. With nearly non-existent testing, we have over 5k cases reported, over 100 deaths, and closing the border only applies to non-US citizens anyway so we’ll allow potentially infected US citizens returning from abroad to come back in.
If it makes some folks sleep easier, fine but hopefully it won’t lull folks into a false sense of security. Just need to realize that there are things a border wall will simply not stop, be it drugs, immigrants, or viruses already widespread in the country.
When was the last time a Republican cared about reducing the deficit? Besides, the Federal deficit will soon exceed $1 trillion so why don’t we add another billion?
I’m starting to get depressed, doesn’t seem to be a way out even down the line.
