Holy shit. When today ends, the US is looking at at least 27,800 additional cases (50% increase) and at least 396 additional deaths (+49%).
(Comparing WHO daily data, ending with 3/25, with the latest WorldoMeter.info data.)
And yet I don't imagine there's a single thing Trump could do -- or would care to do -- to address this.
PS: Don't even try to fucking compare this to climate change. Now isn't the time.
8 comments:
101,000 tests today is an improvement, at least. It should have happened weeks ago, and given the number of cases we really need to be significantly above 100k per day now, but it's better than the abysmal 65k days earlier this week.
Dr. Birx said the total number of tests is now over 550,000. No doubt part of the jump from yesterday is bringing many smaller test sites into the data base. Dr. Birx sounded as if there were still some of these test sites not yet in the data base. Reporting test results to CDC will be mandatory as of this weekend. So, by next week we should have complete data on the number of tests each day.
Meanwhile the rate of growth in number of cases and number of deaths is appalling -- both for the US and worldwide.
Cheers
Since I posted that, the number of tests on the tracker jumped from 101K to 146K. That's very heartening.
I fear that we are repeating the mistake of January/February, when the federal government did nothing and it ended up wasting the time that was bought by travel restrictions.
Now we're trying to buy time with social distancing, but what are we using it for? The President is waving away the need for ventilators and forcing the 50 states to compete against each other for medical supplies.
Trump made a big deal about being a "wartime President" when he announced the adoption of emergency policies under the Defense Production Act. But like so much of what is announced during the WH press briefings, it turns out to have been vaporware -- the federal government is not actually implementing the Defense Production Act. It's not happening.
Trump Resists Using Wartime Law To Get, Distribute Coronavirus Supplies
The impression right now is that the Administration's strategy for dealing with this crisis is to tell the states they're on their own, and blame them when things predictably go to hell.
It's also especially concerning to see Trump sending signals that he'll only offer help to governors who say nice things about him. This has come up before on the blog - with David in Cal quoting people's flattery of Trump as proof that Trump is doing a good job. I'm afraid we're going to see a lot more of that dynamic here. Very typical of an authoritarian state.
“It’s a two-way street. They have to treat us well, too.”
That is the scariest thing I've ever seen.
David in Cal's examples of flattery were misrepresented though. This was really a case of the California governor calling out Trump for saying and doing one thing privately but something else entirely to the public. "Everything they said they would do (in our private conversation) they did (in spite of what he is saying publicly)". The very next line was "So I don't want to give light to his public comments."
Somehow David in Cal's article managed to spin "Trump is a liar" into "Trump is the best" by changing one word of the quote and dropping the context.
Yesterday I went to the local Hannafid’s. There were about half local, about half out-of-state plates, very much like the summer. I wore gloves and a mask, and took no bags.
As has been the case for the last three weeks, no TP (really?), no sanitizer, no dried beans, very limited pasta, very limited rice, no tofu (WTF?).
About half the shoppers wore masks and glove, as did I. Half did not. I said nothing. Clerks were friendly., helpful, and maintained distance.
I found 2 L of a ready-to-use disinfectant spray (a blend of 4 different quat NH4 compounds) at a hardware store. I also found some flour at a store that buys odd lots and re-sells them; I also bought their last 454g pack of dried lentils. So we are not yet in dire need, but that day might be coming.
We are in the middle of nowhere, with over 2000 geriatric patients/bed in our part of the world. The number of beds will quadruple in the next month, but even so....
I wiped down with disinfectant when I got back in the car, and when I got home, stripped, tossed my clothes into the wash, and took a quick shower. It was more or less a practice run for how things will be here in two or three weeks and it is useful to practice the discipline needed for adequate protection. There is little point in delaying relatively strict controls now - I am not the first to call it anti-social distancing, and there are plenty of those in the woods here who already are socially distant as a way of life.
It is strange shopping looking like you are in your own science fiction movie. We are in day 13 of stay-at-home isolation.
What is Hannafid’s?
Aka Hannaford’s.
Hannafid rhymes with Biddefid, the town in Maine near Kennebunkpawt.
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