D&D and the rising pandemic

[Umbran]

Add Utah County (Utah) to the list.

There's a major hole in this guy's argument...

"Smith went on to say that wearing facial masks is a health issue, a community issue, and should be addressed as such. He said, "It should not be criminalized.""

So, the Sheriff has missed a point - we have laws concerning health issues. If a restaurant does not keep to minimum health or safety standards it gets closed down, and fines are assessed. This can be up to and including law enforcement officers coming in and ejecting people from the premises and chaining the doors shut and even taking people to jail.

On top of this, this isn't just a "health issue", it is a health crisis. The departments that normally handle community health issues are not staffed to handle full-population crises, because such crises are not common. Would the sheriff be so kind as to hand over much of his budget and personnel so that those areas can be staffed, and his people out enforcing codes, orders, and regulations without guns? I'll be happy to have those staff shifted on a temporary basis!

 

[Cadence]

Gasp - the Sheriff wants the Public Health Authorities to address a contagious disease! Who'd'a thunk?

If only the health authorities had the power and budget to enforce things against individuals? (In most states, do they even have the manpower to inspect restaurants and the like as often as they're supposed to?).

He did sound pretty reasonable in an interview a few months ago: Utah County Sheriff's Office outlines policy changes during civil unrest | Local News | heraldextra.com

Reading the article does have me wondering how bike safety training fits in to budgets and the like.

 

[Eltab]

If only the health authorities had the power and budget to enforce things against individuals?

More like, if only they had the motivation and a plan - even a generic skeleton of a plan - and the decision to follow it. We've been getting policies that have not been used in living memory, which are not working as expected (which may be why nobody has used them in a century).

After all the spending due to Corona and the unpleasant side-effects of our mis-aimed response, I cannot take seriously "but no budget!" - what DID you spend all that money on?

Six months and counting of grandstanding and berating the public but doing nothing to separate out the sick from the healthy, I don't have any more sympathy for the usual bureaucratic excuses for nonperformance. If the public health authorities haven't figured it out by now, they can quit (or be fired) and be replaced with somebody who comes to their job interview equipped with a plan.

 

[Cadence]

More like, if only they had the motivation and a plan - even a generic skeleton of a plan - and the decision to follow it. We've been getting policies that have not been used in living memory, which are not working as expected (which may be why nobody has used them in a century).

After all the spending due to Corona and the unpleasant side-effects of our mis-aimed response, I cannot take seriously "but no budget!" - what DID you spend all that money on?

Six months and counting of grandstanding and berating the public but doing nothing to separate out the sick from the healthy, I don't have any more sympathy for the usual bureaucratic excuses for nonperformance. If the public health authorities haven't figured it out by now, they can quit (or be fired) and be replaced with somebody who comes to their job interview equipped with a plan.

It's almost like the local health agencies depend on the state and county councils for funding and have no mechanism to get money on their own?

Separate out? You mean like giving people 14 day quarantines and asking for testing and in many places having no one to force either to happen?

 

[Umbran]

We've been getting policies that have not been used in living memory, which are not working as expected (which may be why nobody has used them in a century).

With respect, the issue is not with the policies. If we actually wore masks*, and actually kept group gatherings down, and did so systematically, all evidence is that we'd already be well under control, and would probably have prevented 100,00+ deaths.

But, we didn't. Too many people could not bring themselves to do this, and so we still have issues.



*The post office even had a plan to make sure every household had masks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

With respect, the issue is not with the policies. If we actually wore masks*, and actually kept group gatherings down, and did so systematically, all evidence is that we'd already be well under control, and would probably have prevented 100,00+ deaths.

But, we didn't. Too many people could not bring themselves to do this, and so we still have issues.



*The post office even had a plan to make sure every household had masks!

Yep.

Japan has an older population, much higher population density, and no lockdown, just largely non-mandatory orders for closing businesses. Japan didn’t test like the WHO recommended. They didn’t close their borders like other success stories like NZ.

But Japan asked people to take care, stay away from crowded places, wear masks (90%+ compliance rate) and wash their hands - and by and large, that is exactly what most people have done.. Result? .8 deaths per 100k population. We’re sitting at 38.6 deaths per 100k population.

 

[Deset Gled]

Japan has an older population, much higher population density, and no lockdown, just largely non-mandatory orders for closing businesses. Japan didn’t test like the WHO recommended. They didn’t close their borders like other success stories like NZ.

But Japan asked people to take care, stay away from crowded places, wear masks (90%+ compliance rate) and wash their hands - and by and large, that is exactly what most people have done.. Result? .8 deaths per 100k population. We’re sitting at 38.6 deaths per 100k population.

Japan had experience from the bird flu and swine flu and learned how to social distance, wear masks, and promote infrastructure to minimize the problem (e.g. better ventilation, etc).

The USA had the ebola scare and learned how to politicize it.

 

[MoonSong]

But Japan asked people to take care, stay away from crowded places, wear masks (90%+ compliance rate) and wash their hands - and by and large, that is exactly what most people have done.. Result? .8 deaths per 100k population. We’re sitting at 38.6 deaths per 100k population.

I wish my country was that low (currently sitting at 60+ per 100k).

Edit: Seriously, I had expected we'd reach 75k deaths by Friday. However, after hearing today's report, it is likely we'll reach those tomorrow. T-T

 

[Cadence]

The weather really switched this past weekend (went from overnight lows from 63 to 76 to being in the 50s, and my sinuses rebelled on Monday. Headache, drainage, a bit of a cough... the usual, but also extra aches and being tired. I woke up Tuesday and still felt bleh, so I cancelled my in person class (teach Tuesday/Thursday). Felt better throughout Tuesday, but then in the evening meh. So, this AM go to schedule a COVID test through the University.

Web-page says to schedule a tele-health apt first.
Go to on-line page to do that, says I can't.
Find a tele-health consent form to sign.
Now it gives a message that says to call.
Call the appointment line, and apparently its set up for students who know what service group they're in.
Call the main health line, same thing.
Finally find a COVID hotline on a different page and call.
Talk to a nurse and need to wait for call back on appt.
Got call back, and getting ready to drive in for test. I assume its not, but what students want to be in class with a coughing/snorting instructor.

Anyway, cases at the University are down again (the high point was 1400 active cases at once and over 70% of quarantine space being used):

 

[Istbor]

Here the governor just extended the state mandate out to November.

We have been seeing an uptick in cases, that's for sure. However, I have 100% been to places in my state where the pandemic doesn't exist and you won't see a mask anywhere.

It is a decidedly creepy feeling. Especially when you have been living in a city where most are trying to follow mask wearing practices.