I wish we weren’t.
This state has been moderately robust in its response to COVID-19 — not great, but at least we’re mostly not in denial — but I blame our high ranking on the fact that we’re surrounded by dumbass states, like Wisconsin and both Dakotas, that don’t even do that much. We ought to just close our borders, shut down the schools and churches, and get this damn thing under control.
I like the scale that goes from “fewer” to “more”.
Moderate robustness against COVID is like being mostly not pregnant.
Last couple of days Ive been so exited about the vaccine news. This post brings it home that there is a long way to go with a lot more death.
Australia has done hard lockdowns and border closures. We now have no local cases except at the quarentine hotels for the limited travellers we allow in. It can be done.
“We ought to just close our borders…”
You’d think that the GOP would be on board with this. Uh, no, wait. Now we’re talking white people. Never mind.
The USA as many have noted is failing the marshmallow test. This is a test usually done with small children. The Newyorker: “Paul Krugman, for instance, wrote in the Times, in June, that measures such as imposing social distancing were much like offering a young child a marshmallow, but telling her that if she can refrain from eating it for fifteen minutes she’ll get a second one. ”
Some children eat the first one right away, some wait and get two marshmallows.
It’s a test of rationality and self control.
The vaccines are almost done and starting to be deployed.
If we can wait and stay alive for 6 months, we can get vaccinated and avoid permanent disability or death.
So what does a lot of the USA do?
It’s the holidays!!! Fun, fun, fun.
They party, travel, get together with friends and relatives, go shopping a lot. And the numbers say, many get sick, some will end up long haulers, and some just die.
They could just wait until next year and do all that safely.
Instead of more marshmallows, we are looking at years of life.
Death is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
You, you, you got A Thousand new cases per million per day? Holy shit, and here I thought Germany was fucking it up (we are. We’re stagnating at about 20.000 cases (pop. 80 million) a day, keeping everything shut, except schools, of course, where we have a magical tool called “opening the windows”. Therefore, Covid neither exists nor spreads in schools. Nevermind that all external agencies like job counselling, youth services, school psychological services etc. have banned their people from entering schools because it’s too dangerous.
And of course it#s spreading in nursing homes as well. My aunt in law’s father died yesterday. Her mother will follow probably later this week. but for the Covidiots they were just two old suckers who were living past their due date anyway. For my aunt they were mum and dad.
Re: raven @ #5…
That’s why I’m worried about the likely surge in mid-January.
As it happens, I just read a news article yesterday about the problems Minnesota is having, especially near the borders, of people bringing in COVID from South Dakota and Iowa. Sorry about that.
They had a sad story too, about a 70-year-old Washington man who was taking great precautions against infection, but couldn’t resist going to one outdoor concert across the border in Idaho, the land of free-flowing virus. He caught it and died, poor guy.
How about a moat around the MN border, with a castle wall and archers at the turrets? That’s a time-honored solution.
Young people have relatively low rates of infection until puberty, then the rate of infection quickly goes up until adulthood.
Today, Sweden’s upper schools (after 9th grade, I do not know the exact terms in USA and Britain) have introduced stay-at-home digital teaching.
I am fortunate to live in one of the regions that appears close to the peak, the rate of new hospital cases is no longer accelerating.
Yet it sucks- today Sweden passed the “7000 dead” mark.
Could you provide a link to the source of the chart? Thanks.
@captainjack:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
A couple weeks ago they had to add new colors to the chart; the previous top end was around the middle of the current chart.
@garnetstar:
I suspect that all the people who commute from Wisconsin to the greater metro area for work didn’t help either, though at least Wisconsin isn’t deep red anymore.
@11, yes, the article didn’t mention WI, but I’m sure that’s the case too.
At least in WI they’re trying, sort of. In SD the governor, talking about no mask mandates, said that her people were “happy” because they were “free.”
No, honey, they’re “not complaining to you” because they’re “dead”.
Re the marshmallow test:
Unless you are Trump, in which case you will eat your marshmallow and then steal a couple more from the weaker kids. You will then use these to bribe a couple of the bigger kids to steal the rest of the marshmallows telling them you will split the take. After you have all the marshmallows you will yell for daddy to protect you from the big kids after you stiff them.
@NES
Thanks. Doesn’t appear to be paywalled.
Oral drug blocks SARS-CoV-2 transmission https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-oral-drug-blocks-sars-cov-transmission.html