I agree. I'm waiting to see how the reopening of pubs in the UK will affect their cases. I've read about 3 pubs closing back down because of Covid-19. Ireland, which has enforced lockdowns of pubs and restaurants, barbers, etc..awhile has pretty much made the virus spread down to like 12 cases a day. As all these businesses reopen this month and flight restrictions easing it will also be interesting to see how that will work.
Montgomery County health officials confirm 42nd COVID-19 death and 105 new cases https://www.yourconroenews.com/neig...cnfeeds&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
I don't think 2 weeks is near enough at this point. We had over 2,000 new cases in Harris County today. That's more in one county than in 46 states across the US, and only lower than 16 countries in the world. Miami-Dade and Los Angeles counties were the top 2, with us 3rd.
I heard from someone who works with Abbott that this actually might happen as soon as Wednesday. But.. who knows.
I hope that person is right. But if it's another short shelter-in-place, it will be for naught like this one was. Magical thinking led to the reopening led to the explosion. Anyone could have predicted this and many of us did. Only in America...
I agree. Hopefully, if we do lockdown, we don't reopen too soon again. If we do, then we will be back to square one. Meanwhile, our President isn't even addressing what's happening at all. It's mind-blowing! He is going crazy over statues and locking up looters for years, but when it comes to Covid-19 parties, large groups blatantly disregarding social distancing, etc.. he doesn't utter a word. When it comes to thousands of Covid-19. patients in hospitals around the country fighting for their lives, he doesn't utter a word.
Wearing a mask should be the least of what we do. If we want to get over the hump like other countries have done we need a 95% shelter-in-place that isn't interrupted way before it's done its work so that our president can have a short-term boost to his reelection chances.
As a part of his messaging about the importance of wearing masks, Abbott has said that he doesn't want to, but if things don't get better, we may have to shut it down. IMO, that was a necessary statement and precursor to him pulling the trigger and shutting things down. He can then say, I warned you, I told you so, this was a last resort, blah blah blah, cover ass cover ass cover ass. I don't care how he does it, just freaking pull the trigger and shut it down this week. if we're expecting schools with literally THOUSANDS of students to operate by mid august, shutting it down is the only answer.
Japan quashed it with mandatory masks and not shutting down their economy - it can be done if masks are required and fines and penalties are levied for asshats that refuse. DD
Japan is an extreme and mysterious outlier and nobody's quite sure why they've had the success they've had, but we certainly know enough to know it can't be replicated here, especially at this late date. And really, it never could have, especially in today's political climate. (See below.) Most theories as to why Japan has been successful where most have failed have to do with cultural differences and (possibly) biological ones related to stronger immune systems. None of those theories are proven though. They're just theories. And, in responding to the greatest health crisis of the last century, following the path of a country that has been successful through mysterious means, ones that haven't worked anywhere else, isn't exactly a solid strategy. Rather, it's just more magical thinking. Especially when community spread is the key metric to success or failure and we're 4 months behind in community spread. Japan has had around 20K cases and 1K deaths. We've had around 3.6 million cases and 135K deaths. One cannot compare the two situations. We can't put out a raging wildfire with the tools they used to treat a relative sunburn. But, even in Japan, it was never just a mask mandate. Here's a recent BBC article speculating on why Japan has been such an outlier, since absolutely nobody knows why they've had success, least of all any of us posting here. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53188847 From the article, here are a few other more than significant things they did that exceeded a mask mandate: The Japanese government, one that speaks with one trusted voice, strongly suggested its citizens to act early in avoiding these "three C's" and they listened and acted accordingly. 1. Enclosed spaces with poor ventilation 2. Crowded places with many people 3. Close contact settings with face-to-face conversations (Did we do any of those things? Of course not. In most parts of our country, 135K deaths later, we still aren't. The Texas Supreme Court had to shut down the TX GOP Convention today because we're not doing any of those things. And Texas is one of the worst current hot-spots.) Like the "three C's," Japan's lockdown was a suggestion, not a mandate, but Japan didn't need a mandate because its citizens listened. That the Japanese observed government warnings is a massive cultural distinction that has made every difference. In fact, for 100 years or so, whenever there's been a serious threat to health and safety, the Japanese have worn masks as a rule, no questions asked. Not only did Americans refuse to listen; we didn't know who to listen to. And nearly half of us blindly worship at the altar of the worst possible authority, one who spent daily press briefings contradicting what he'd said the day before, promising it wasn't a problem, calling it a politically motivated hoax, telling us it was less serious than the flu, promising it would go away any day now, encouraging Americans to disregard the facts as "fake news," and demonizing scientists who were trying to solve the problem and journalists that were trying to get timely and reliable information to the American people, calling them liars and worse, and turning a public health crisis into a culture war. In America, for over 4 months, the president actively discouraged the use of masks and social distancing, tweeted to his supporters that people only wore masks to "spite" him, and aggressively pushed states to "get back to normal," when no state had met even half of his own CDC's guidelines for a safe reopening. In other words, the opposite of "the three C's." We cannot get those 4 months back and it's a laughable idea that the simple act of wearing masks now, after all the damage and all the spread, will solve everything (or anything) for us. Studies cited in the BBC article indicate that Japan was ahead of the curve with regard to responding to their crisis on time and we were not. The studies suggest that, if a lockdown had been in place in New York only two weeks earlier than it was, tens of thousands of lives could have been saved. Why so many? Timing. They were out in front of it. We couldn't be less so. So, whatever the reason(s) for Japan's largely mysterious success, any chance we might have had to replicate what's happened there are long since gone. That bird has flown. And America is not Japan, for all the reasons listed above. Your suggestion that all we need is to mandate masks would have made a little more sense in January or even February. But good lord, not now.
Asian cultures are far better equipped to deal with covid. Their near universal wearing of masks without mandate exemplifies the difference between asian culture and Murcia. hell, we can’t even get half of our population to believe that covid is real or to believe in science.
I would just point out that most haven't failed. Every industrialized country in the world has largely gotten this virus under control except one. The US has about 60,000 cases per day. The next 25 countries on the list are all developing nations. Spain is the first industrialized country at #26 with about 600 daily cases. So Japan isn't really the outlier here - the US is. They have fewer cases than nations with land borders with other countries, but they have similar results to other island nations.
