Covid-19

Here in the US, if you tell someone to wear a mask you get shot. It's in the 2nd Amendment. Also, apparently the state of Georgia allows the hunting of humans now. But that might not be coronavirus related.
 
Here in the US, if you tell someone to wear a mask you get shot. It's in the 2nd Amendment. Also, apparently the state of Georgia allows the hunting of humans now. But that might not be coronavirus related.

Don't say "here in the US". That's not true everywhere. In Massachusetts, they'll shoot you if you *don't* wear a mask.
 
Yeah, I don't really understand the curfew that some countries have imposed. I guess it's supposed to cut down on late night carousing? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Well they have one of the lowest rates of infection, so maybe they're doing something right.
 
Don't say "here in the US". That's not true everywhere. In Massachusetts, they'll shoot you if you *don't* wear a mask.

And we're one of only 2 states out of 50 that has no plans to reopen this week or next! Strangely, PA is the other one. I know their rural areas have low rates of infection. And a lot of the state is conservative and low income. So I'm not sure what's going on there.
 
And we're one of only 2 states out of 50 that has no plans to reopen this week or next! Strangely, PA is the other one. I know their rural areas have low rates of infection. And a lot of the state is conservative and low income. So I'm not sure what's going on there.


Maybe it's the coal dust? Oh no wait, that's West Virginia. The fumes from the steel mills?
 
Well they have one of the lowest rates of infection, so maybe they're doing something right.

There's really no accurate way to compare actual infection rates right now due to the wild variations in testing rates. Greece's testing rate is 10,000 per million while the US and UK are testing 30,000 per million. Japan is reporting one of the lowest infection rates in the world, but its testing rate is 1700 per million. We can only accurately compare infection rates when we have accurate and similar testing rates, which we absolutely have not.
 
One can be a very good, serious and competent student of an interdisciplinary (or transdisciplinary) field of study without having published much in that field. That would be me. I've been preparing to publish … for years. I'm an "outsider" -- an independent scholar working in human ecology as it intersects with such fields of inquiry as ecological design, food production, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, etc. So I do wear a few hats. And I can make sense of stuff like this:

https://youtu.be/c1iAOK1aucY

Unemployment is off the charts, you see. And little is likely to change this trend in any near term scenario which does not involve pixies riding wing-flapping rainbow unicorns from the fifth dimension pooping magical sparkling skittles on our towns and cities, farms and fields.

Of course, the Fed can print a lot of monopoly money and fly over and drop it on us, but even that "solution" is likely to have less than perfectly desirable consequences.

I don't think you need to have published anything to be competent in understanding what I have just said. But you will need to have read a lot of stuff and paid a lot of attention to the sorts of things I keep my eyes on.

I'm also a community organizer, which is what I'm doing these days instead of writing and publishing books and articles. That's because organizing is at least as important as publishing might ever be.

Good thing for you that your partner Kevin has a steady job, speaking of pixies riding wing-flapping rainbow unicorns from the fifth dimension. :rolleyes:
 
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And we're one of only 2 states out of 50 that has no plans to reopen this week or next! Strangely, PA is the other one. I know their rural areas have low rates of infection. And a lot of the state is conservative and low income. So I'm not sure what's going on there.

PA is doing a degree of phased loosening of restrictions. the NorthWest and NorthCentral regions went "Yellow" already. And another group of more rural counties (including mine) is going "Yellow" on Friday. Most people seem to be content to hunker down and just grumble about when this is all going to be over. I think it helped that a lot of the restrictions were focused on businesses being closed or limited to curbside pick-up as opposed to restricting individuals (we have no curfew or travel restrictions). No one yells at you if you are out walking your dog at a park or in the gamelands. You can go to the outdoor gun range and stay socially distant...(I live next door to the sportsman's club :rolleyes:).

Lots of the suburbanites are working from home and the hospital system I work for is one of the largest employers in the county (so a lot of people are "essential"). Local banks are encouraging people to use the ATMs instead of coming in to the bank (limits have been increased) but if you need to come in they ask you to call ahead so they can space customers out. Dollar General and the convenience stores have Plexiglass barriers at the cash registers, etc. (The stock price of duct tape manufacturers must be keeping the stock market going!)

Out in the country, where I live, people just seem kinda prepared for contingencies in general. We tend to stock up on essentials when they are on sale. And we have alternative sources for many items. No eggs at Giant Eagle?...no problem, everyone knows someone who has chickens! Find three friends and you can each get a 1/4 cow or split a pig from a local farmer.

For the most part - people are wearing masks and keeping their distance. I was at the post office in town the other day and everyone had a mask on and was respecting the tape marks on the floor appropriately - a few people came in, grumbled, and left but it actually felt pretty civil!

Trump seems to be trying to stir things up:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/us/politics/pennsylvania-tom-wolf-coronavirus.html
but most people seem to think that Gov. Wolf is doing a fair job dealing with a terrible situation.
 
Trump came a'calling because you're a swing state. You'll see his efforts to re-open economies will be more and more focused on states in which he needs to bolster Republican voter support. Let's all remember that this president lost the popular vote by 3 million and only won because of a few swing states, Pennsylvania being one. The glorious economy is Trump's silver bullet to win in November, so he'll be increasingly whipping up his base and encouraging the calls to get back to business as usual.
 
Thanks to our Republican governor we have no reliable data for our state. Broward and Dade counties will start opening on Monday. We'll see how it goes.
 
Checking numbers: 1462 total deaths in my county (Middlesex), 5938 in the state (Massachusetts). 1045 new confirmed cases in MA just yesterday. :eek:

There were 4946 new cases on April 24. Numbers have gone down a lot, but...

I'm still staying home. :(
 
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Yesterday, Florida had it's highest number of new cases thus far. And that's just the ones that were counted. But hey, Disney is open now :rolleyes:
 
Yesterday, Florida had it's highest number of new cases thus far. And that's just the ones that were counted. But hey, Disney is open now :rolleyes:

Yay, Disney! And that means tourists bringing their FL Covid back to every state in the US.

What were your numbers yesterday?

In MA, yesterday we had 420 newly reported cases and 35 deaths, and we just entered Phase 2 of reopening. Total numbers of cases- 102,000+. Deaths- 7,200+.
 
N.C. numbers continue slowly sliding upwards. At this rate I am going to have Artist living with me part time by fall. 🙃
 
Yay, Disney! And that means tourists bringing their FL Covid back to every state in the US.

What were your numbers yesterday?

In MA, yesterday we had 420 newly reported cases and 35 deaths, and we just entered Phase 2 of reopening. Total numbers of cases- 102,000+. Deaths- 7,200+.

FL had 1305 new cases and 53 deaths reported Friday, June 5.

Cases have been spiking. 4041 new cases in the past 72 hours.

61,488 total cases.
2,660 total deaths.

My "stepfather" went to the hospital a couple days ago. He has congestive heart disease and was having trouble breathing. He says they tested him four times for Covid. He was negative.
 
FL had 1305 new cases and 53 deaths reported Friday, June 5.

Cases have been spiking. 4041 new cases in the past 72 hours.

61,488 total cases.
2,660 total deaths.

My "stepfather" went to the hospital a couple days ago. He has congestive heart disease and was having trouble breathing. He says they tested him four times for Covid. He was negative.

Those numbers are frightening, vin.

I'm glad your relative seems to not have Covid, but I wish him well otherwise.
 
Our "go hard, go early" policy worked, along with our border closure that's easy to enforce. No new cases for 15 days now. Still testing 3-4 thousand per day. Deaths remain at 22. Total positive cases were 1504, many of which were people returning from abroad. Our battle has changed, we now have to focus on the national economy sans most of our key "export" industries such as tourism and education, while we wait for a vaccine, because we will be incredibly vulnerable to a second wave since almost all of us haven't had it.
 
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