Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #64

[Deleted member 158085]

There "won’t be social distancing" at Mount Rushmore July 4th event attended by Trump, governor says

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said those who are concerned about the event — which is actually taking place on July 3 — should stay home.

"We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home, but those who want to come and join us, we'll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one," she said.

"We won’t be social distancing. We’re asking them to come, be ready to celebrate, to enjoy the freedoms and the liberties .....”

The website Recreation.gov warns: “This event will be attended by thousands. Participants will be in close contact for an extended amount of time, please plan accordingly.”

So many Darwin awards...

 

[Betty P]

Fauci says new US coronavirus cases could hit 100,000 a day in stark warning to Senate – live

Fauci: 'We are going in the wrong direction ... it could get really bad'
America’s leading public health expert Anthony Fauci has confirmed what the record figures are telling us – the US is sliding backwards on its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are going in the wrong direction,” Fauci just told the Senate.

Last week the US saw a new daily record of 40,000 new coronavirus cases in one day.

Fauci just said, in testimony before committee, that he fears that the rate will rise dramatically.

“I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”

Yes, the disease burden on our population has become much too high. With 30% to 50% of cases asymptomatic, it's impossible to "tweak" public health guidelines. He also said "herd immunity" whatever that is, has become impossible in the US.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Wanna know how they don't run out of capacity? They send home patients who are not dying. As long as there are enough health care workers to care for the sick in their homes, it will provide a relief to the hospitals and may have good outcomes for the patients.

Hospitals make room for coronavirus patients by trying to treat people at home

Isn’t that what they are supposed to do. I’ve been hearing for months most people can recover at home. You recover at home if at all possible with any illness, not just covid. IMO

 

[Tippy Lynn]

And pass the disease along to other family members. I don't know how you could live in the same house with someone who is dying from COVID 19. That would be truly frightening, trying to help them and avoid getting it yourself.

IMO it would be nearly impossible to avoid getting it under the circumstances you describe.

 

[gngr~snap]

Someone has some sense:

President Trump's campaign has scrapped plans to hold a rally in Alabama next weekend amid concerns about coronavirus infections rising in the US.

Coronavirus live updates from around the world

Trump was slated to travel to the state ahead of the Senate race between his former attorney general Jeff Sessions and the former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, but plans were called off as state officials quietly voiced concerns about a mass gathering and campaign officials ultimately decided against it.

A person close to the campaign said there are currently no rallies on the horizon, but aides are scoping out possible venues for when they decide to host them again.

Not really. *Edit*& Duh you posted this already.
ANYWAY!!! This and planes packing people in like sardines is making me mad!!
S. Dakota gov says 'we will not be social distancing' at July 3 celebration with Trump at Mount Rushmore
MOO

 

[tresir2012]

Oh, so I can drink a whole bottle of vodka and then decide it's perfectly fine for me to go for a drive around the town? Is that how it works? Oh and I don't feel like wearing a seat belt. It should be up to me, right?
And then I might like to stop by a hospital nursery and smoke into babies faces? Wouldn't that be just fine, because it's up to me where I want to smoke?

I don't think I mentioned any of those things in my post did I? Where are you getting that from?

 

[Tigerlily75]

Sudden shutdown of Texas bars leaves owners, employees (and patrons) uncertain about the future

HOUSTON – Ed Noyes was trying to get some shut-eye when he woke up to seven different texts Friday morning.

Three of the five bartenders at his Fort Worth establishment — plus his girlfriend — delivered the news: Malone’s Pub had to shutter immediately under the governor’s orders. His employees wanted reassurances: Would the business survive? Should they file for unemployment? What were his next steps?

“We were just all in shock,” Noyes said.

On Friday morning, Gov. Greg Abbottdelivered another economic blow to bars and other places that receive more than 51% of their gross receipts from selling alcohol. The establishments had to shut down by noon after a statewide surge in coronavirus infections officials said was largely driven by activities like congregating bars. There’s no immediate plan for when they’ll be able to reopen.

“The announcement just came out of nowhere,” Noyes said. “When I went to bed last night I thought we’d be open for the weekend, so this really blindsided me.”

Restaurants were ordered to scale back their operations to 50% capacity. And Abbott also banned river-rafting trips. They were his most drastic actions yetto respond to the post-reopening coronavirus surge in Texas.

Continued at link

Do we know if they are getting financial support? I never really see that mentioned. I’m in Melbourne, Australia and we have 10 “hot spot” postcode areas that are going back into strict lockdown. All businesses in those areas will get another $5k from the state government, on top of $10k they already got, on top of federal assistance and on top of federal JobKeeper payments ($3000 per month per employee towards wages). For many it’s still a struggle depending on their overheads, but for the most part they’re keeping the lights on and paying staff.

Those bars have to shut, but they need real assistance.

 

[CharlestonGal]

So many Darwin awards...

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...

 

[tresir2012]

Here’s a joint press release by Houston hospitals. I will take them at their word. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy by all of these hospitals to lie. They employee thousands of people, I doubt they could get away with a lie. IMO

Joint Statement from St. Luke’s Health, Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann Health System & Texas Children’s Hospital Regarding Houston Hospital Capacity and Executive Order

C/P of the complete statement below

HOUSTON (June25, 2020)

CEOs across the Texas Medical Center have monitored the ongoing transmission of COVID-19 in our community and across the state since the earliest days of this pandemic. In response to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, we want to reassure the public that this pandemic is not eclipsing our capabilities. Our hospitals have the ICU capacity, staff and supplies to meet the healthcare needs of our community. In addition, Texas hospitals continue to reserve 15 percent of capacity for COVID-19 patients and medical care continues to be routinely provided in inpatient and outpatient settings without taxing the overall hospitalization capacity.

We realize that the letter issued by the Texas Medical Center yesterday afternoon caused unnecessary alarm. Our intent was to educate Houstonians and not alarm them about capacity, which is not an immediate concern.

This morning, the governor issued an executive order restricting elective surgeries across several Texas counties, including Harris County. We respect what the governor is doing to fight this terrible virus and we will continue to work with him and local officials to care for our community.

It is our hope that the executive order will only be in place for a short period of time, as it is critically important that we continue to meet the health needs of our community.

Each hospital system has prepared for months to address the anticipated needs of this pandemic and has surge plans in place to successfully manage its own capacity to continue treating COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. Additionally, our hospitals are working together to manage capacity levels and ensure the highest quality care for all who need it. We will continue to work closely with state leadership and public health experts to help maintain statewide visibility on acute capacity issues and other critical concerns.

While this pandemic is unprecedented, our hospital systems have learned a lot, very quickly, and our coordinated efforts have allowed us to nimbly respond to this fluid situation. As leaders, we can attest to the heft, might, devotion and compassion of our workforce in caring for those with COVID-19 and those who arrive at our doors seeking care for other urgent medical needs. We are ready to serve the community and will do so in the safest way and environment possible. Through enhanced testing efforts, strict screening procedures and dedicated units to separate potentially infectious patients from the general population, hospital care is safe, ready and available for those who need it.

As we continue to navigate this pandemic, the public plays an essential role in helping preserve hospital capacity. It is critical to wear a mask or face covering anytime you leave your home, practice appropriate social distancing by avoiding large crowds and gatherings, wash your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds, and avoid touching your face.

Responding to emergencies with precision is a hallmark of Texas hospitals. Our mission and responsibility is to provide the care our community needs. We must maintain a thoughtful balance between caring for those impacted by COVID-19 and addressing all other healthcare needs of our community, including critical surgeries and procedures. We stand ready and committed to providing you and your family with the health care you need.

 

[JerseyGirl]

About 91% of intensive care unit beds are full, with nearly 40% of those occupied with Covid-19 patients, in Houston Methodist Hospital, according to President and CEO Marc Boom.

On Memorial Day, the hospital had about 100 coronavirus patients, compared to 480 now, he said.

The Fourth of July holiday “scares me,” Boom said. Houston officials must ensure that social distancing guidelines are enforced to stem the tide of coronavirus, he said.

Coronavirus live updates from around the world

 

[JerseyGirl]

New York City update:

The daily Covid-19 indicators remain under desired thresholds, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday calling it a “great day.”

The daily number of people admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 is at 40, under the 200 threshold.

The daily number of people at health and hospitals intensive care units at 301, under the 375 threshold.

The percent of people who tested positive for Covid-19 is at 1% under the 15% threshold, which the mayor said “is wonderful.”

Coronavirus live updates from around the world

 

[JerseyGirl]

Massachusetts will require all travelers to quarantine except those from northeast states

Looks like 42 states are now "banned", Massachusetts requiring self-quarantine for 14 days.

All travelers arriving in Massachusetts, including residents returning to the state, will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days, Gov. Charlie Baker announced today.

The order goes in to effect tomorrow. It does not apply to travelers from these states:

1. Rhode Island
2. Connecticut
3. New Jersey
4. New York
5. Vermont
6. Maine
7. New Hampshire

Essential workers also continue to be exempt. The announcement follows a similar quarantine announced by Rhode Island Monday along with New York, New Jersey and Connecticut which announced their own quarantine last week.

Coronavirus live updates from around the world

 

[Sundog]

In Canada, the mayor of Toronto is asking the city council to make masks mandatory in public indoor spaces.

“You have told us you don’t want to see a repeat of what you see when you turn on your TV and see reports from the United States,” mayor John Tory said. Tory believes the vast majority of councillors will support it. The bylaw will come into effect July 7, if passed.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, said there is growing evidence that shows non medical masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and noted many cities in the U.S. are seeing a resurgence in cases since reopening.

Coronavirus live updates: India warns citizens against 'negligence'; Spain prepares to open borders

Why doesn't the mayor of Toronto call upon the federal government to make masks mandatory, or maybe they have?

 

[squareandrabbet]

From April:

https://nypost.com/2020/04/19/food-banks-feeding-more-people-amid-coronavirus-unemployment-crisis/

NYC soup kitchens are now serving grad students, actors and musicians

“In Richmond Hills, Queens, at the River Fund, we had an agency serving 1,000 to 1,500 people before COVID,” said Leslie Gordon, Food Bank’s president and chief executive. “It’s now going up to 5,000 people in line and that could continue to grow. This is not unique. It’s a bellwether for what is happening across New York City.”

As of last week, 791,000 New Yorkers had applied for unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor. A New School study found that the state has lost 1.2 million jobs so far, and estimates that one-third of the city could soon be out of work.

On Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio announced a plan to spend $170 million on food for the hungry. “People are literally asking, ‘Where is my next meal coming from?’,” de Blasio said.

[snip]

Now, Rethink Food, a local nonprofit, has launched a pop-up soup kitchen outside the church and is doing 600 to 1,000 meals a day, five days a week. “We could easily do 5,000 meals a day,” Rethink founder Matt Jozwiak said — and lines would be even longer if it weren’t for fear of infection.

Kumbe, a 52-year-old mother of four from the Ivory Coast who recently lost her job as a caregiver and declined to give her full name, came to the pop-up Friday with her 16-year-old son to grab meals for the family. “Before, I had a job,” she said. “Now, I don’t have anything. I am afraid.”

[snip]

“I felt like I had landed in a war zone,” Lee said. “There were hundreds of people lined up around the block. They were fighting for food, shouting at each other when they thought some people were taking too much. It was really hard. I’ve never seen anything like it. By the time we unloaded all of the food, 75 percent of it was already gone.”

If a bartender (not quoted herein, but I could easily have quoted the whole article - his GF talks up top), couldn’t help by providing his GF money for food at the end of April, how’s he probably doing now, with NYC stuck in the middle of Phase 2?

Why would anybody let a (I assume medical) caregiver go in April? Assuming this person did nothing wrong, which is my default assumption; how secure is their job market?

June article based upon May data, BBM:

NYS ECONOMY ADDED 137,300 PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS IN MAY 2020

In May 2020, the statewide unemployment rate decreased from 15.3% to 14.5%. New York City’s unemployment rate increased over the month from 15.0% to 18.3%. Outside of New York City, the unemployment rate decreased from 15.6% to 11.9%.

I really don't understand this current mania to portray New York City as booming along economically when it is clearly IMO doing nothing of the kind; and I'm more than happy to revisit this issue in July after the NYSDOL gives us the June figures; but it cannot be gainsaid that if we don't move out of Stage 2, most of the restaurant workers haven't, and aren't, getting picked back up again because the amount of restaurants in NYC that have successfully negotiated to get outside tables and chairs aren't coming close to regaining more than 10% of the previously let-go hospitality employees.

The below, for example, is an entertainment facility and Nancy Pelosi thought it so necessary to keep open, that she allotted it $25M in the recent "HEROES Bill", as follows:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/27/why-kennedy-center-got-money-bailout-bill/

What many critics don’t seem to realize is that the Kennedy Center is actually part of the federal government. It is more self-sufficient than, say, the National Park Service or the Smithsonian, because it generates most of its funding through private donations and ticket sales. In ordinary times, the federal dollars it receives can go only toward maintaining and operating its facility.

Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

But if the Kennedy Center cannot hold performances, most of that outside funding evaporates. In a March 17 email to staff members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, a Kennedy Center official spelled out the dire state of the center’s finances amid the epidemic. It expects to lose $20 million in revenue into May, which means it will run out of cash on hand and deplete its $12 million line of credit.

Like millions of businesses around the country, the Kennedy Center is a job generator whose workforce has been hard hit. It has laid off 29 people from its parking staff, 493 ushers, 126 workers from its food-service operation and upward of 100 stagehands. More furloughs are coming. Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter is foregoing her $1.2 million annual salary until the crisis recedes, and the artists whose performances were canceled will not be paid.

The above certainly seems like a crisis to me; but it's not a crisis to have NYC's entertainers out of money?? It seems obvious to me that if the pandemic is deemed a crisis for the Kennedy Center, it's a crisis for Broadway and other areas of the performing arts, and no justification should be necessary to want to save the latter either.

 

[Lilibet]

I agree with most what you say but it did take a long time to persuade our allies to join us in 1944, and Pearl Harbor probably helped with that decision. We benefitted from financial and other assistance greatly before that, which, without that we would have fallen when France did so we will be forever grateful.

Latest news.

Death rate 'back to normal' in UK

Deaths back to normal.

Yes, it certainly did take a long time for the U.S. to join with the Allies in WWII, but I’m not exactly sure how that relates to my point. I used WWII to illustrate that a unified messaging campaign is needed at the federal level to obtain cooperation and sacrifice (masks and social distancing) from U.S. citizens. Without that messaging (and Washington’s willingness to cooperate with other countries), it’s impossible to convince people that they need to make sacrifices unitedly to win the war against coronavirus. Just as in WWII, once the U.S. finally entered the war, there needed to be, and was, organized leadership and messaging from the top, leading to cooperation and sacrifices from everyone. Citizens here were taught that their actions were crucial to the U.S. and its Allies victory.

WWII could not have been fought the way the U.S. is currently fighting the Coronavirus War...each state forced by Washington to fight the Axis powers (insert coronavirus) independently and frequently at odds with each other and with the federal government...and no unified message from the top. The leadership here appears to feel no responsibility toward it’s own people and those in other countries, and the citizens pick up on that attitude. No wonder it seems impossible to get people to stop partying and wear masks. They haven’t been inspired by a messaging campaign as I described in my OP. Maybe you’re saying we need the equivalent of a Pearl Harbor?

 

[jjenny]

And pass the disease along to other family members. I don't know how you could live in the same house with someone who is dying from COVID 19. That would be truly frightening, trying to help them and avoid getting it yourself.

Yes, exactly. If these patients live with relatives, those relatives could very well get infected. If the patients lives alone, then there is nobody to take care of them if they need that care (such as buy groceries, prepare food, get them drinks, and so on). But I guess that's what happens when hospitals are full and can't accept more people.

 

[Lilibet]

I’ll just park this here - sign spotted in a vintage store

View attachment 253480

Wow! That ought to stop mask rebels in their tracks...I hope.

 

[jjenny]

So are Houston's ICU full or not? Was that fake news? I am just trying to follow what happened. It is looking like a knee jerk reaction ATM but Mooooo....

The hospitals are the ones who released the numbers that their ICUs were nearing 100 % capacity. Then they changed the reporting.
But either way, I think it's pretty obvious there is not a lot of room left in there to house covid patients.

 

[Trino]

Neither does the low road either. People have to make their own mind up about most things, including smoking, drinking, going to protests, parties, etc.

If someone builds it, they will come. Yep. No matter how difficult a race course, how dangerous a venue there will be those who will attempt and/or enter.

 

[Yesiamapirate]

So are Houston's ICU full or not? Was that fake news? I am just trying to follow what happened. It is looking like a knee jerk reaction ATM but Mooooo....

Good question. I can only speak from my experience working for a major medical ctr. in Michigan. Our general ICU for adults runs at capacity most times. Such was the case last weekend. I was not full of Covid patients, just typical for our health system on any given day. The problem is when the hospital ICU is typically full and you get a COVID surge you have a problem. We dealt with this by adding more ICU beds, converting regular units to ICU. Perhaps the ICU is full in that Huston hospital but they are also able to add beds so it is not a crisis? These are my thoughts and opinions only. MOO