The all-new "US Politics and coronavirus" thread

[acbytesla]

It seems to me that almost all the politicians both Democrat and Republican are blowing this. Everyone should be focused on how we can open as many businesses as we can and still be as safe. Not this lets just reopen on this date.

 

[acbytesla]

The White House Tweets

@WhiteHouse
President @realDonaldTrump has launched Operation Warp Speed: an historic push to bring Coronavirus vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to the American people in record time.

Trump talks a lot but delivers little. I'm still waiting for serious proposals to address the crumbling infrastructure from the "Infrastructure President".

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Yeah, this is normal:

Lou Dobbs poll asks if Trump’s response to coronavirus has been “superb,” “great” or “very good”
https://www.mediamatters.org/lou-do...oronavirus-has-been-superb-great-or-very-good

Remember back in the days when we needed outlets like The Onion for news like this ?

 

[Dr.Sid]

Remember back in the days when we needed outlets like The Onion for news like this ?

Onion still exists. But their jokes are kinda bland. The simply can't compete anymore.

 

[Darat]

The White House Tweets

@WhiteHouse
President @realDonaldTrump has launched Operation Warp Speed: an historic push to bring Coronavirus vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to the American people in record time.

As ever so quick off the mark. Which other country has even thought of operation warp!

 

[Darat]

Considering that Trump is in charge, it is probably more like 'Operation Ludicrous Speed'.

Give it a week and it will be Operation Transwarp speed!

 

[Darat]

I'm on calendar day 6 of waiting for test results.

I've just been told it may take 7-9 because *reasons*.

Business days.

7-9 business days.

People could theoretically be well into rigor mortis by the time their results come back.

See now you know why that nice lady that is the new press person for Trump said tests are pointless!

 

[Matthew Best]

Give it a week and it will be Operation Transwarp speed!

I've got to say I'm leaning towards "Operation Colossal Velocity". As long as it's pronounced the same way as Alan Partridge pronounces it:

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Give it a week and it will be Operation Transwarp speed!

 

[slyjoe]

Here are the White House guidelines.

It doesn't say either or. Possibly this is what some state leaders have criticized as "vagueness."

CDC guidelines for opening states seem hard to find. I wish someone would link them. I keep finding news articles like this one from AP:

The pdf does say "OR".

The CDC Guidelines are in your link;; admittedly, these are labeled as draft guidelines.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6883734-CDC-Business-Plans.html

 

[newyorkguy]

The pdf does say "OR".

Yes you're right, sorry about that. But both requirements are for fourteen consecutive days.

The CDC Guidelines are in your link;; admittedly, these are labeled as draft guidelines. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6883734-CDC-Business-Plans.html

Those are the guidelines the White House reportedly scuttled. It's been reported they did so because the guidelines recommend churches not hold full services and trump is getting a lot of pushback about that.

As you can see, Arizona has really ramped up the testing but the graph below (from the AZCentral news site) shows results by the week and AZ is still on an upward curve for cases.

 

[slyjoe]

Yes you're right, sorry about that. But both requirements are for fourteen consecutive days.

No problemo.

Those are the guidelines the White House reportedly scuttled. It's been reported they did so because the guidelines recommend churches not hold full services and trump is getting a lot of pushback about that.

As you can see, Arizona has really ramped up the testing but the graph below (from the AZCentral news site) shows results by the week and AZ is still on an upward curve for cases.

I didn't catch the part about churches, but it sounds like something Trump would do.

They've ramped testing up, but it wasn't very good before. The initial "testing blitz" goal was 10K-20K on a weekend. I think they hit 5K, and I don't think they have hit the goal on any weekend..

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

It seems to me that almost all the politicians both Democrat and Republican are blowing this. Everyone should be focused on how we can open as many businesses as we can and still be as safe. Not this lets just reopen on this date.

What if they're mutually exclusive? Safe, and opening businesses to allow people together. Most businesses are focused on getting as many people as possible through every day---and they're not going to be able to either allow for social distancing and disinfecting, and still be profitable.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Fauci says don't underestimate the risk to kids, Trump immediately does.

Trump says Fauci's warnings about reopening amid coronavirus crisis are not 'acceptable'

Trump did not single out which specific answer from Fauci that he found unacceptable, but referenced Fauci's testimony about reopening schools in the fall.

The Hill: Trump says he was 'surprised' by Fauci's warnings on reopening

"Look, he wants to play all sides of the equation," Trump told reporters in the Cabinet Room when asked about Fauci's comments to a Senate committee, adding he was particularly bothered by Fauci's cautious tone on reopening schools.

"I was surprised by his answer actually," Trump said. "It’s just, to me it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools."

The president separately said in an interview with Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo that “we have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country."

"Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible, we can't keep going on like this … You're having bedlam already in the streets, you can't do this. We have to get it open. I totally disagree with him [Fauci] on schools,” the president added.

 

[newyorkguy]

The worst part of all this is, trump himself is fueling the desire to end the shutdowns and get back to normal despite public health officials' warnings. Drs. Anthony Fauci and Robert Redfield testified to the Senate yesterday.

Two of the federal government’s top health officials painted a grim picture of the months ahead on Tuesday, warning a Senate committee that the coronavirus pandemic was far from contained, just a day after President Trump declared that “we have met the moment and we have prevailed.” If economic interests were allowed to override public health concerns, Dr. Fauci warned, “there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control.” That could result not only in “some suffering and death that could be avoided,” he said, “but could even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery.”

Dr. Fauci delivered his warning at a time that some countries that had tried to reopen are now imposing new shutdown orders after a spike in new infections. This is from a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer published this morning:

South Korea last week rescinded a go-ahead for bars and clubs to reopen after a spike in cases, hours after officials announced the lifting of previous social distancing restrictions and the start of a "new everyday life with the coronavirus." South Korean President Moon Jae-in warned his country Sunday to "brace for the pandemic's second wave," calling the battle against COVID-19 a "prolonged" war.

Germany, which is widely regarded as the model in Europe of a balanced coronavirus response, is warning that some areas may have to reinstate restrictions after localized outbreaks caused a rise in cases

Some countries are going ahead with plans to lift restrictions despite evidence that cases are on the rise and the disease is far from being contained. India and Russia eased their restrictions on Tuesday even as the number of infections in both countries continued to soar. France experienced a spike on Monday, the same day that the country eased its lockdowns, with 263 new cases reported, compared to 70 the previous day. Link

Reminds me of something Yogi Berra once said. The season was winding down and his team was in second place. Every time they lost a game the media would ask: Think it's over, Yogi? Berra would shake his head. "Nope. It ain't over til it's over."

 

[acbytesla]

What if they're mutually exclusive? Safe, and opening businesses to allow people together. Most businesses are focused on getting as many people as possible through every day---and they're not going to be able to either allow for social distancing and disinfecting, and still be profitable.

It can't be worse than no business at all.

I'm not saying we can open every business. But there has to be a lot of businesses closed at the moment that could find a way to reopen at least in a limited fashion. What bothers me about all this is how instead of seeking compromises and solutions at seems as if many are just seeking to divide.

I'm not a big fan of the stay at home orders. It seems as if some of these orders have no purpose at all and aren't well thought out. For example, they have closed all the State Parks in Oregon. I don't get it. How is it more dangerous or more infectious hiking a trail than walking around some housing development? I carry a refill cup in my car and fill it with soda at all the mini-marts. This practice has been banned. Even if the bottom of my cup has the virus on it, how is it possible that you can spread it this way?

There are some businesses that may not be able to reopen soon, but can't some of them?

 

[Meadmaker]

It can't be worse than no business at all.

I'm not saying we can open every business. But there has to be a lot of businesses closed at the moment that could find a way to reopen at least in a limited fashion. What bothers me about all this is how instead of seeking compromises and solutions at seems as if many are just seeking to divide.

I'm not a big fan of the stay at home orders. It seems as if some of these orders have no purpose at all and aren't well thought out. For example, they have closed all the State Parks in Oregon. I don't get it. How is it more dangerous or more infectious hiking a trail than walking around some housing development? I carry a refill cup in my car and fill it with soda at all the mini-marts. This practice has been banned. Even if the bottom of my cup has the virus on it, how is it possible that you can spread it this way?

There are some businesses that may not be able to reopen soon, but can't some of them?

The most dangerous part of the mini-mart visit is opening the door to go inside.

Here in Michigan, with famously tough stay at home orders courtesy of Governor Whitmer, the state parks never closed, for exactly the reason you mentioned. I don't think the mini-marts did either. Any place that sold food could stay open, although I'm not sure the drink dispensers were allowed. Certain types of ready-made food at grocery stores were banned. Basically a lot of serve yourself and deli counters were right out.

I think what intelligent governors are doing is revisiting the orders as they learn more, and opening up what they can, after consultation with experts.

So far it's working fairly well. There has been a couple of stages of lightening up on restrictions, although we have certainly not "opened up" in any meaningful fashion. Today we had the fewest new cases recorded since March 23.

 

[bruto]

It seems to me that almost all the politicians both Democrat and Republican are blowing this. Everyone should be focused on how we can open as many businesses as we can and still be as safe. Not this lets just reopen on this date.

I think at least some are trying, but almost everything in this crisis is untried, and the interdependency of businesses and services makes some things very difficult. For example, employees of a business that might operate safely may require day care that cannot. Day care has proved a big obstacle, because reasonably safe limits on interaction and number of children make it nearly impossible to restore to pre-crisis levels. We've read elsewhere of the debacle in England where, because so many people use public transit, they are ordered to go to work without any safe way to get to work.

Every move that's made to open things up has to be regarded as a reversible experiment.

 

[Delphic Oracle]

Give it a week and it will be Operation Transwarp speed!

https://youtu.be/mkJ3--2K7yo

From 4:50

 

[newyorkguy]

Apparently some of the parks in Oregon began reopening last week. Others are reopening this week.

Parks returning to limited daytime service:

• Tryon Creek in Portland
• Willamette Mission north of Keizer
• Mongold boat ramp at Detroit Lake
• State Capitol State Park in Salem
• The Cove Palisades boat ramp at Lake Billy Chinook near Culver
• Prineville Reservoir boat ramp near Prineville
• Joseph Stewart boat ramp on Lost Creek Lake near Shady Cove
• Pilot Butte to pedestrians (no vehicles) in Bend

Limited day-use will slowly return to other state parks starting the week of May 11 based on the readiness of the community around the park to welcome visitors, and how prepared the park is with staff, supplies, and equipment. Link

There's often issues involved that are not readily apparent. See the hilited part? It may be that local communities around some the parks urged the state to keep them shut down.

Some parks need to stay closed longer, especially areas with communities that are not ready for an influx of visitors. The Columbia River Gorge, the Coast, Smith Rock, and other parks are not ready to welcome visitors at this time.