Some welcomed Good news from out West….
State leaders and doctors are cautiously optimistic that the Bay Area’s early moves to lock down residents two weeks ago have prevented surges of coronavirus patients from overwhelming the region’s health care capacity thus far.
Six Bay Area counties were first in the country to adopt aggressive tactics with an enforceable March 16 order requiring residents to stay at home. Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly followed with a statewide order three days later restricting the state’s 40 million residents from all but essential activities.
After 14 days — the outermost period at which symptoms are believed to emerge post-infection — doctors at area hospitals are now reporting fewer cases than they expected to see at this point, and officials credit the lockdown with stemming the tide of patients they feared would flood into emergency rooms.
Northern California offered a rare glimpse of optimism Monday as the U.S. recorded its most coronavirus deaths in one day and Washington, D.C.-area jurisdictions — Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia — issued their first enforceable stay-at-home orders. Health officials across the nation are eyeing the Bay Area as a bellwether to determine the effects of social distancing, since the region’s policies were replicated in various states and cities in subsequent days.
The Bay Area’s primary goal two weeks ago was to slow the growth of serious cases, buying public officials and hospitals enough time to increase the number of hospital beds, respirators and staff necessary to handle a coronavirus surge.
“We believe very strongly the stay-at-home order has helped advance our efforts in reducing the stress on the system that we believe would have already materialized in more acute ways had we not advanced those protocols when we did,” Newsom said Monday in his daily press conference….
And Nationally….
The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert said on Tuesday there were “glimmers” that social distancing efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus were having an impact, even though the nation was still in a very dangerous situation.
“We’re starting to see glimmers that that is actually having some dampening effect,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci told CNN in an interview. “But that does not take away from the seriousness … We clearly are seeing cases going up.”…
And this is how it’s done.
But here in SC our Governor ,Trump cultist Henry McMaster ,steadfastly refuses to issue a stay at home order even though such is being sought by Mayors of both political parties.
Why?Well McMaster says he “trusts” the “good sense” of South Carolinians.
I question that as those same people elected the likes of him..
Rather than silly, empty campaign rhetoric like the above,tough measures are called for.
It should be done now!
THAT IS FUCKED UP!
Places that DO have stay home policies WILL be ones to recover faster….
California and NY’s numbers are slowing due to at least 2 weeks of restrictions …
NY’s numbers still lead but Louisiana is more per capita…
It’s not slowing in NYC, it’s getting a lot worse each day. The question might be is if it would be worse now if not for these measures.
At least Cuomo is willing to say he was part of underestimating what might happen. At least he is willing to take some accountability. Everyone else from Trump to deBlasio, to the local officials in New Orleans want to pass the buck and take zero responsibility.
California and in particular the San Francisco Bay area are seeing an easing of new case thanks to early shelter in place orders.
Of course we have seen conservative evangelicals (who still meet at mega churches in the south) try to blame this on the gays–as usual. The lower numbers in SF seem to throw a monkey wrench in that “logic”. Not that a bunch of cultists who blindly follow a thrice married adulterer as the “choice of God” know logic from their own ass!
NYC numbers bumped up today again….
They had been slowing….Cuomo even said so ….
NYC has done MORE testing then ANYWHERE else ….
And they may decline tomorrow.
Day to day fluctuations are going to happen .Its when the trend is downward that there will be cause for optimism.
Agreed on the trend Jack…
Some West Coast places are moving there
It’s almost like something comes along from time top time and does a reminder that as big we think we are?
Other things ARE BIGGER….
I’m not in (in fact have never visited) the Palmetto State, but given the attitude of the current S.C. Governor, Attorney-General & senior U.S. Senator, there must be many South Carolinians who think that Nikki Haley could not have done worse, and maybe done better.
Does anyone remember learning about the Spanish Influenza in school?
I had heard of it before but really knew virtually no detail and I thought I basically knew most everything from U.S. history. The scope of it seems incredible by today’s standards and America had a lot less people then. It also seems like all the post war generations have taken “modern medicine” for granted and thought it could protect us from most anything beyond that which we did to ourselves or the most serious of conditions. It’s pretty sobering to learn that might not be the case.
No I didn’t learn about it in school.
However, both of my maternal Grandparents died from it so it was often a topic of discussion in my family on many occasions My mother who was a child then had only vague recollections but my my aunts and uncles who were teens remembered it vividly.
Yes. My high school history class covered it. I also taught a short lesson on it when I was teaching high school history.
The epidemic coincided with the end of a World War (then called the Great War) so it may not have been as front and center in the news at the time.
The flu and the war both helped to defeat the party in power in 1920. The slogan of the party that won was “Return to Normalcy”.
A fitting slogan indeed a century later.