Coronavirus in DFW - News & Discussion (Dallas, Abbott: land, firms)

[zhappybird]

Today Texas reported about 4500 new cases, as well as Arizona, California, Tennessee... all these south and warm states saw significant new cases rebounding. While in the north such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, New York, dc....the new cases have significantly dropped down. Does that mean warm temperatures did not slow down the virus, on the contrary, it accelerated the spread?

[move4ward]

There are two things that stand out. First, the southern states are still early epidemic curve. If NY has s a few million more infected than Texas, they will have immunity.

As more people get hospitalized or infected, people tend to change their behavior. NY/NJ lost many cops, nurses, doctors, transit workers, etc. They have seen it first hand. In the Southern states, it's still something that's out there, but we have never seen up close.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

The whole "warm weather will slow it" thing was speculation. I'm not saying it wasn't true or that warm weather doesn't play some role in slowing it, but I think people were running a mile on an inch of evidence with that idea.

[Waytoodeep03]

So is it true Abott said school will be in session in the fall with no masks and no social distancing?

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Waytoodeep03

So is it true Abott said school will be in session in the fall with no masks and no social distancing?

No, he announced the state would not mandate those things but local districts can. And that the state would allow schools to open (since it was the state that closed schools in March.)

[Waytoodeep03]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

No, he announced the state would not mandate those things but local districts can. And that the state would allow schools to open (since it was the state that closed schools in March.)

Ok that sounds alot better

[Jcbocky]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

The left and the right want to have their cake and eat it too but they cant.

I HATE Trump, but saying this is awful:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/u...rus-rally.html

but this is great:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/n...-protests.html

Yeah, I get it. One is trying to fix a systemic problem and the other is cheering a racist. However, the virus doesnt give a flying you-know-what. So were either against people being out of their homes or we arent.

And yeah, its already here:

https://www.newsweek.com/houston-pro...-floyd-1511066

As someone who has participated in DFW protests, I can say that the vast majority of protestors take COVID seriously and practiced safety measures to the best of their ability (mask wearing, sanitizer, protesting outside where there is less of an opportunity for the virus to spread). When compared to people attending an indoor rally where very few wore masks and, in fact, jokes were made about the virus not being real, therein lies the difference.

To compare the two activities and come to the blanket conclusion that both are dangerous ignores significant aspects of each.

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Jcbocky

As someone who has participated in DFW protests, I can say that the vast majority of protestors take COVID seriously and practiced safety measures to the best of their ability (mask wearing, sanitizer, protesting outside where there is less of an opportunity for the virus to spread). When compared to people attending an indoor rally where very few wore masks and, in fact, jokes were made about the virus not being real, therein lies the difference.

To compare the two activities and come to the blanket conclusion that both are dangerous ignores significant aspects of each.

True, that.

[jiping]

True, that.

You cannot compare an one-hour rally to a month-long protest, where hundreds of thousands of people pack shoulder to shoulder and chant, sing, yell, cough, spit (because of pepper spray) for extended periods of time.

[Wittgenstein's Ghost]

Based on my interpretation of the national numbers, cases started to rise about ten days ago. Reporting is highly-cyclical during the week, so I'm looking at how a given day of the week compared to the same day the week prior. The spike started about ten days ago, but there has been no spike yet in national death numbers. In fact, death figures are still dropping at roughly the same rate they have been for the last months or so.

I would have expected to see a spike by now, but I think there are a few possibilities:

1. The "spike" isn't actually a spike -- it's solely attributable to increased testing. I think increased testing could play a role, but I don't think it is the sole explanation. Hospitalizations are also up.

2. Cases are being identified sooner, so people who are going to die from it take longer to do so since they are tested earlier in the process. If this is true, we will see a spike in death numbers nationally in the next few days. I have my doubts about this, though, because ten days should be enough time to see at least some spike in death numbers.

3. The new cases include a higher percentage of young people than normal, so while there is a spike in actual cases, fewer of those people are dying, even if they are hospitalized. This is possible, and I think it likely carries some explanatory power.

4. Treatment is more effective than it was, so even if the spike is for real and hospitalizations are up, people aren't dying at the same rate. This seems unlikely because there isn't a really effective treatment for Covid, and we would still expect deaths to be up some amount rather than being down.

5. Cases and deaths are dropping parts of the country but increasing in other parts. I think this is a big part of the explanation. Places like Texas are seeing an increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Within the new hot spots like Texas and Florida, the other factors could also be at play.

All of these could be true to some extent, but I think #'s 1, 3 and 5 are probably carrying the most weight.