Coronavirus (general - personal, gov’t response, etc. - not sports-specific)

Sorry to hear that Jeff. It is an extra layer of fear to have any critical medical need during this time, just with the strain on resources alone.

So two months later we are at 85,000 cases, staring into the teeth of the winter months. The restaurants that survived without door dining won’t be able to serve much, it will be back to takeout. We did a lot of outdoor dining this summer as most of our local restaurants had or created outdoor dining with tables and chairs or party tents. Most of our economy has been okay, with construction and landscaping going on and yesterday we were out canvassing in the afternoon and there were cars and people out and about. The real hit to the economy has been bars, restaurants and entertainment.

Meanwhile, basketball and hockey finished their seasons, the World Series is on so professional sports survived, we all have had to make changes to our lives. Trump and a chunk of the White House have had the virus and Pence is out campaigning to big crowds even though he’s been seriously exposed with a major outbreak in his office.What are people’s predictions for the winter ahead? Will we have a vaccine for limited numbers by the end of the year? Will the daily case numbers exceed $100,00 new cases a day once everything is moved indoors? Will the media’s coverage of the vaccine go away after November 3 as some have suggested?

The Covid numbers going nuts in both Dakotas. Probably Sturgis to blame for both. 109 per 100,000 is a serious problem.

Graham Mertz, the red shirt freshman QB at the University of Wisconsin, completed twenty of twenty-one passes I his first game Friday night in the Badgers victory over Illinois. Today he was diagnosed with Covid. The disease is ravaging the upper Midwest yet Trump and Pence are having rallies in the area. Last night Trump held a rally in Waukesha, WI, at a rarely used regional airport, after Milwaukee would not allow him to do that at Mitchell Field. There were billboards outside of the Waukesha airport warning rally attendees that they were going to be attending a super spreader event if they entered the event.

Neither the virus nor the news coverage is going to go away after the election! And the holidays could be rough. Every minor holiday (Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day) has led to spikes in most places, and indoor/small gatherings seem to be more risky than even restaurants to some extent (indoor or out). I'm sure the NHL, NBA and even to some extent MLB is quite worried about how they will actually start things up again.

I get a fair amount of takeout but have yet to actually sit down and take my mask off to eat in a restaurant, indoor or out. My wife seems especially uninterested in doing so or I think we would have by now. I had one drink on the patio of a restaurant when things first reopened, but I was the only customer. I see people crowding bars and restaurants (both inside and out, or in line to get in) but of course it's still not nearly enough business for them. The place I got takeout from last night would normally serve 200 customers (between seated and bar) over the course of a Saturday night and now they do 30, and the bar is entirely plexiglasses, with no seating (not legally allowed in Oregon). The bars here are pushing to be allowed to stay open until midnight instead of 10 and I'm not sure that would really hurt anything but in some states things are moving in the opposite direction so if I were them I'd be more worried about that.

So Trump is coming to Northeastern Pennsylvania Monday night. I had hoped that we could avoid these a COVID spreading disasters. Our area is teetering right now as the schools are going back to virtual classes. Pennsylvania’s rate has doubled, ours has risen at least five fold.

In a note of black humor, aI would mention that I live less than a mile for The Airport and the flight landing path goes right over our house. Of course I don’t want the secret service suspecting of anything as Inwould not want t harm innocent people also on the plane. 🤫🤭

Trump will leave everyone else out in the cold like he did in Omaha.

Not surprising, really, given the almost complete disregard for precautions by Trump and his close supporters. And, according to the New York Times, . . .

At least 1,223 new coronavirus deaths and 132,797 new cases were reported in the United States on Nov. 6. Over the past week, there has been an average of 100,991 cases per day, an increase of 57 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

It looks to me that COVID was the downfall of Trump. Without the virus, he heads into the election with a pretty strong economy and very low unemployment. . He had stood up to a special prosecutor investigation on Russian influence and survived the impeachment. Things were pretty good for Donald Trump. I think he sails to a big win in spite of his serious charter flaws.

COVID provided Trump the opportunity to really expose his character. Defiant in a very arrogant way, he continued to push himself into the COVID response, and not in a positive way. Failure to lead by example. Continued resistance to wearing a mask and taking reasonable care. His constant bickering with his medical and scientific experts. It became hard to not see him for what he really is, even though it appears millions still wanted him to stay as president. Even so, I think the COVID response pushed a few million votes to Biden and ultimately gave the presidency to Biden.

Calling vets “suckers” and “losers” was a deep stab into the heart of many voters. It’s hard to point to one thing as the one that cost Trump the election but ripping vets was despicable and resonated with just about everyone that I know.

Winter is here! The immuisation program can't be implemented quickly enough to prevent a catastrophe.

There was a story floating around some places yesterday, that people who received the first vaccine shot would be given an app on their phone that would later alert them to when they needed to come in for their second injection. Additionally, that when they received that shot, they would have the app indicate that they had been fully vaccinated. This story went on to indicate that people with that certification could then be allowed into public places since they were considered to be “safe”.
If such a program were instituted, bars, restaurants, arenas, ball parks, etc. could be open for business. Would this create an incentive for more people to be vaccinated or would it cause law suits based upon discrimination by those who refused the inoculations and were excluded from entry?

One key problem with that sort of approach is that vaccines may not be available to everyone at first. Ireland and the UK have made preliminary announcements about the roll out of the virus and it will obviously be made available to those in high risk groups first. It could take several months before it gets past frontline workers, the elderly and those with high risk conditions.
It will by necessity be provided to younger people very late on and that could open up discrimination cases.
I'm 36 and I'm listed in the second last group here, only ahead of pregnant women and children who there have as of yet been no tests for.