COVID-19

[SlickAg]

Are you saying everyone is wearing masks?

So your belief is that if Hillary Clinton were President then everyone would be wearing a mask?

Now, I know your response is going to be “of course, we wouldn’t have ever gotten to this point if she had been elected in the first place.”

It would help if the leader of the United States and head of the Republican Party, Orange Man Bad, would stop undermining science and the states trying to control this.

By undermining science do you mean having the Surgeon General and Dr. Fauci tell people there was no reason for people who weren’t sick to wear masks?

How exactly is he undermining science and preventing each governor from doing what they think is best to control it. I mean, the evidence clearly shows that lockdowns don’t work, and yet California is about to do it again. I don’t see our President stopping him. Do you?

Also I’d appreciate a clarification: if Donald Trump completely closed our borders, like New Zealand did, you would support something like that? You made it sound earlier like you were envious of both Taiwan and NZ’s responses, so just wanted to be sure that’s what you were advocating for.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Are you saying everyone is wearing masks?

Pretty much everyone I see indoors is wearing a mask. I imagine California is similar.

 

[Hair Warrior]

So your belief is that if Hillary Clinton were President then everyone would be wearing a mask?

Now, I know your response is going to be “of course, we wouldn’t have ever gotten to this point if she had been elected in the first place.”

Duh. There would be no pandemic if Hillary were president. She and illuminati space aliens released the virus to distract the world from Epstein’s murder hornets. Also, Carole Baskins killed her husband. <micdrop>

 

[FrankTheTank]

Overweight and obesity is an underlying condition. Americans are dying from this virus because they are unhealthy. Healthy people aren’t dying! If you take blood pressure medicine, you ain’t healthy. If you take statins for cholesterol, you ain’t healthy. If you take (insert pill commercial on tv), you ain’t healthy. If you don’t get an annual check up and physical, you might not be healthy! Americans need to stop trying to run and hide; and instead, get healthy!

 

[Spekkio]

Pretty much everyone I see indoors is wearing a mask. I imagine California is similar.

Maybe they got them from AW ads...

 

[Spekkio]

If everyone wears a mask, it drives the risk towards zero by making R0 < 1.

New Zealand and Taiwan are both back open and operating normally, mask-free. They were smart. We're not.

I don't know why people are crediting countries as 'success' and 'failures' when the pandemic is still in its infancy. One day New Zealand is going to reopen its borders and the virus will be reintroduced to its non-immune population.

The number that matters is PFR, since limitations on testing make the IFR unknowable. The PFR is going to eventually approach around 0.1-0.2% in all affected countries until there's a vaccine. Wait till flu season. Linear increase with no end in sight (from MIT's COVID-19 projection tool)... Only thing we can do is try to lower the slope.

 

[Spekkio]

By undermining science do you mean having the Surgeon General and Dr. Fauci tell people there was no reason for people who weren’t sick to wear masks?

How exactly is he undermining science and preventing each governor from doing what they think is best to control it. I mean, the evidence clearly shows that lockdowns don’t work, and yet California is about to do it again. I don’t see our President stopping him. Do you?

Also I’d appreciate a clarification: if Donald Trump completely closed our borders, like New Zealand did, you would support something like that? You made it sound earlier like you were envious of both Taiwan and NZ’s responses, so just wanted to be sure that’s what you were advocating for.

According to the MIT projection tool, the biggest impact would be gained if sick people just stayed home until they got better. Which shouldn't be suprising to anyone.

Throwing around blame to Trump, Obama, Fauci, or governors is silly. A significant portion of people are simply ignoring the guidelines to minimize transmission. Perhaps the next aid bill should be focused on giving workers unlimited paid sick days while getting tested for and recovering from COVID.

 

[Hair Warrior]

the biggest impact would be gained if sick people just stayed home until they got better.

Unless they live in a nursing home.

 

[SlickAg]

According to the MIT projection tool, the biggest impact would be gained if sick people just stayed home until they got better. Which shouldn't be suprising to anyone.

Throwing around blame to Trump, Obama, Fauci, or governors is silly. A significant portion of people are simply ignoring the guidelines to minimize transmission. Perhaps the next aid bill should be focused on giving workers unlimited paid sick days while getting tested for and recovering from COVID.

I agree with you, but where I live (someplace that's been on the news a lot recently), everyone I see is in compliance with the mask mandates. The only people I've seen not wearing them are outside exercising or in the parking lot with their household members or by themselves. You would't know it from watching the news or reading the paper, but we are no longer two weeks away from moving into phase 3 of our ICU capacity, and the curve of ICU and hospital admissions for covid is flattening for now.

I'm just a little non-plussed by people on here who claim to be so guided by science yet seem okay with ignoring the science that doesn't align with their political views. An earlier comment saying that New Zealand's success thus far has been due to wearing masks is absolutely silly. Hence my question about whether or not @taxi1 views absolute border shutdowns as an acceptable situation. Can you imagine the response from your Mark 1 Mod 0 anti-Trumper if he did that?

Overall, the US is still not in a head space where people are making calm and rational decisions using science and data. This isn't March or April anymore and although people are still dying from this and that's tragic, the death rate is dropping. And that tidbit seems to be getting almost zero mentions.

 

[FrankTheTank]

Here’s a good one.. So several people in my town (a small suburb of Memphis) have tested positive for COVID; however, funny thing is that they never even took the test. I am having a really hard time believing anything I see or hear anymore. And when I say tested positive, they were called and notified of a positive test by a local acute care clinic.

 

[taxi1]

An earlier comment saying that New Zealand's success thus far has been due to wearing masks is absolutely silly.

New Zealand did a lot of things right. I didn't say it was masks only.

Taiwan is an excellent case.

Masks and medical care: Two keys to Taiwan's success in preventing COVID-19 spread

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Despite being close to China, Taiwan has stopped the COVID-19 with general screening strategy and encouraging people in Taiwan to wear a mask. Taiwan reported the first COVID-19 case on January 21, 2020. About 850,000 and 400,000 of Taiwan's 23 million citizens live and work in mainland China, respectively. There were 2.71 million visitors from Mainland China in Taiwan in 2019 [1]. The narrowest point between Taiwan and mainland China is just 130 km. Taiwan is one of the areas with the highest risk of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it did not happen. Taiwan has recorded just 443 cases and 7 deaths on June 04, 2020...

On the basis of Taiwan's invaluable experience in the prevention and control of epidemics: 1. We encourage the public to wear face masks during the epidemic while keeping the price of face masks low by controlling the manufacture and sale of face masks; 2. We ensure public access to affordable comprehensive screening tests and medical care for COVID-19. We believe that these two approaches are among the main factors contributing to the success of Taiwan in limiting the spread of COVID-19. Taiwan's experience may help European countries and the United States to contain the COVID-19 epidemic.

We are failing on both of these elements. It used to take 48 hours to get a test back here, now it is taking well over a week, pushing it into the realm of the useless. The supply chain is getting crushed by the new outbreak.

Wear a mask, maintain social distance, and wash your hands, and we get R0 <1. It is not that hard.

 

[sevenhelmet]

Here’s a good one.. So several people in my town (a small suburb of Memphis) have tested positive for COVID; however, funny thing is that they never even took the test. I am having a really hard time believing anything I see or hear anymore. And when I say tested positive, they were called and notified of a positive test by a local acute care clinic.

Some kind of clerical error, maybe? Had they donated blood or had some medical procedure recently that may have been tested without their knowledge?

 

[taxi1]

Some kind of clerical error, maybe?

A town where everyone is named Cleetus, most likely.

 

[sevenhelmet]

A town where everyone is named Cleetus, most likely.

I always assume incompetence over conspiracy.

 

[FrankTheTank]

Some kind of clerical error, maybe? Had they donated blood or had some medical procedure recently that may have been tested without their knowledge?

Dunno.. Whole COVID thing is being run by the County Health Dept.. It’s Memphis area; only thing they are good at here is shooting sideways and smoking weed...