Colorado Marching Band Cancelled

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

[1] There's no vaccine and yet Taiwan and New Zealand have both reopened, at least internally. I just saw footage from a baseball game in Taiwan with people in the stands. And sure, those are both island nations. But so what? Other non-island countries have come through this and are in a much better place than we are. It wouldn't be so hard if we just took the right steps. We'd have to effectively make ourselves an island for a while. We'd need to put in place serious travel restrictions, requiring any international visitors to quarantine for two weeks. Which, by the way, is something we didn't do when we "banned" flights from China (after which another 40,000 people entered this country from China, with no restrictions in most cases).

[2] I said that after reopening we'd need to have the capacity to test, trace, and isolate on a massive scale. By that I meant that if any flare up should occur, anywhere in the country, we would be ready to test everyone affected, trace their contacts and test them, and then quarantine them for two weeks. But apart from those hot spots, life could indeed go on more or less as normal. Mask wearing would need to be ubiquitous as part of this new normal. There would be some other adjustments. But it would be much closer to normal than where we are now.

[3] Many people have rightly pointed out that the CDC and others erred in their early guidance regarding masks. Authorities were worried about a shortage in N95 masks, so they were only advising mask wearing to people who were ill and not for the general public. But if you look back, you can see the consensus opinion was changing over the course of March, with pushback from all sides. I was wearing a mask when I went the grocery store by the last week of March, and by that time, about half of my fellow shoppers were doing the same. I think the very latest date that anyone can claim ignorance about the importance of masks is April 3, when the CDC recommended that everyone wear a simple cloth mask when interacting with others. Also, social distancing is at least as important as mask wearing. And a number of states had imposed their shutdown orders by mid-March. So it would have been possible for every state to put that in place even if it took another two weeks for masks to become regular.

[4] If the President urged a national shutdown (and mask wearing?) on March 15, then governors would have complied.

[5] I don't know who said that to you, but I have repeatedly said here that any Covid-19 policy that aims for herd immunity is a disaster. That was the U.K.'s policy in early March. Then they took a hard look at the numbers and realized how many people would have to die for herd immunity to be achieved. (Not to mention that their Prime Minister was hospitalized and his condition got so bad that they were close to putting him on a ventilator.) When I suggested that Sweden's policy was to achieve herd immunity, cixelsyd argued vociferously that neither Sweden nor any other country was pursuing that goal, and it was wrong of me to even suggest that a country was being so misguided as that.

(Speaking of Sweden: their top epidemiologist now says he was wrong and they should have locked down more, so that fewer lives would be lost. On a per capita basis, Sweden's Covid death rate, although not the worst in the world, is worse than that in the U.S.)

If anything, people were too skeptical about how effective lockdowns, social distancing, and masks could be. I count myself among this group. Like too few people, I didn't realize that it was possible to achieve what New Zealand and Taiwan managed. So what I argued for was that at the very least, we needed to "bend the curve" just to keep hospital capacity from being overwhelmed. Lots of people argued that what I was calling for was too much. It turns out it was too little.

And of course, some people just had their heads in the sand.

A DCP post (not by anyone posting in this thread, as far as I know), on March 9:

"I’ll predict this will have burned itself out by June and the shows will go on. Let’s revisit this in a couple months."

we are an island. no other country wants us in

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, Cappybara said:

I would be very surprised if the marching arts occurred at all this year. Unfortunate but a necessary sacrifice for the safety of the kids. I’m just afraid that with budget constraints, this is going to put even more strain on musical arts programs at schools. Band was such an integral part of my K-12 education, I can’t imagine going through all of that without it. 

VA cancelled footbal.

 

PIAA said full steam ahead, but thats basically throwing the ball to Wolf and making him be the bad guy

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, MikeD said:

Mod hat here....

Please refrain from making personal comments about other posters. People have differing points of view, and they are entitled to them. Discuss the topic, but do not demean other posters whose POV may differ from your own POV.

Also, please keep political references out of posts. Take a look at what you intend to post, and if it contains political commentary, please change/remove it.

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

well ####. i wanted to call you a woodwind lover, but haven't found the right opportunity

[N.E. Brigand]

1 minute ago, Jeff Ream said:

we are an island. no other country wants us in

A rock feels no pain. And an island never cries.

 

[Jeff Ream]

22 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

 
Seriously.... what has happened to this country? WWII we had meatless days, rationing, buying bonds, car pooling or not driving at all, etc all for the good of the country fighting a war. Now can’t even wear a piece of cloth over their face or social distance without people screaming “MAH RIGHTS!” and not a thought of others.

we got selfish

[Guitar1974]

Just now, N.E. Brigand said:

One of Israel's top health officials testified last week to their legislature that their recent spike (1000 cases per day now compared to 10 cases per day in May) is caused by reopening schools too quickly.

Yes but I would be interested in seeing how many of these cases are actually sick vs. asymptomatic.  And of those sick, the severity of their illness.  I would be willing to bet most these cases are asymptomatic or mildly ill at best.  In my region there is a large outbreak in young migrant workers and virtually none of them are sick.  They are all young and in decent health, they all are asymptomatic.

[N.E. Brigand]

4 hours ago, GUARDLING said:

I have homes in the NE as well as Florida. I'm stuck here for a while. ( Florida)

Speaking of Florida and Covid, in early May, the Orlando Sentinel printed a story about a model that showed Florida could have as many as 3,971 deaths by August 4.

In response, Helen Aguirre Ferré, a spokeswoman for the state, attacked the Sentinel for being "alarmist."

Today, July 15, Florida's official death toll is 4,521.

That would be three weeks earlier and 550 deaths more than the supposedly "alarmist" Sentinel story modeled.

- - - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, just to the north of Florida, Alabama doctors are getting alarmed by this trend:

Edited July 16, 2020 by N.E. Brigand

[Jeff Ream]

1 minute ago, N.E. Brigand said:

A rock feels no pain. And an island never cries.

 

a sinking rock

[N.E. Brigand]

Just now, Guitar1974 said:

Yes but I would be interested in seeing how many of these cases are actually sick vs. asymptomatic.  And of those sick, the severity of their illness.  I would be willing to bet most these cases are asymptomatic or mildly ill at best.  In my region there is a large outbreak in young migrant workers and virtually none of them are sick.  They are all young and in decent health, they all are asymptomatic.

The concern seems to be not so much that many kids will get seriously ill --even those who are subsequently getting Kawasaki syndrome as a result are quite few in number-- but that their parents and teachers will get sick.

[Guitar1974]

Just now, N.E. Brigand said:

The concern seems to be not so much that many kids will get seriously ill --even those who are subsequently getting Kawasaki syndrome as a result are quite few in number-- but that their parents and teachers will get sick.

Yes, good points indeed.  The Kawasaki syndrome is very debateable at this point, but kids bringing the virus home is a valid concern for sure.  Such a tough situation.