You’ve been saying this for 9 months now. It will soon be a year. Clearly none of these measures are working. In fact it’s getting worse. Places with mask mandates and the most draconian lockdowns are among the hardest hit. What is the end game? When do we figure out we can’t stop covid anymore than we can stop an earthquake or a hurricane - things that also kill and harm. This fear mongering and blaming is ridiculous. It’s again like when we blamed people for getting HIV or for being gay and spreading HIV. ITS RIDICULOUS. Our inky chance is a working vaccination or it running its course. Meanwhile shooting deaths are at record highs in many cities, suicides is starting to hit records, drug and alcohol abuse and overdose are climbing. But by all means blame a 12 year old.
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
Actually you’re wrong - places with mask mandates like California slowed it down considerably, states with Republican governors who refused to take any measures have it worst now despite being decidedly rural like North Dakota. If you would bother to look at reputable sources of statistics (IHME or the Wash Post is free to look at Covid numbers) you would see that the states with the highest rates per 100,000 right now are mostly the ones that ignored it. Yes, it’s rising here - but we are still near the bottom of the states as far as rates per 100,000 because we have followed the science. It will increase in the winter because dry cold air keeps aerosols suspended longer, people are indoors in tighter quarters , and people travel and congregate for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is also why flu season hits when it does. I suggest you look into ICU beds available in your area and Covid hospitalization rates. And wear a mask to save someone else’s life if you don’t care about your own. This is nothing to f around with.
I know denial is a more comfortable way to live. But it risks the lives of everyone around you.
And it’s not just lives at stake. So far, in my small cohort of Covid patients (none ill enough to require hospitalization) I have one with hearing loss due to it, one with diabetes due to it, one young man at risk of infertility due to it, and three patients unable to work nine months on due to Long Covid Syndrome (as well as one 30 year old healthy man still working but struggling with the fatigue of Long Covid 9 months out). This is out of maybe 20-30 mild-moderate outpatient cases.
You said cold weather makes it worse--which might explain why there are high numbers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, etc. We've had a really cold start to late fall and early winter here. You didn't mention Minnesota--which has had much harsher rules than neighboring states--yet is experiencing the same rise in positive tests. The virus seems to make it's way through the country, hitting certain regions, before moving on. It hit the northeast early, then the Sun Belt states, etc.
Also, North Dakota may be rural, but almost half of the state's residents live in the two largest metro areas in the state (Bismarck and Fargo). No state is all that rural anymore--especially since there aren't nearly as many small family farms as there used to be. The state may be desolate, but the people that live here are concentrated--just like most states--so I think that argument is mostly overrated.
Is there proof cold weather makes it worse? I live in Australia, our peak was April, leading into our Winter. We were out of lockdown within 6 weeks in a city of 5 million people. My state, the largest in the country, has just recorded is 15th day of no community transmission, in fact there has been days in Australia where there have been no new community transmitted cases, a country of 24 million. Just accept that the US refused to do what was necessary. We have had less than 1,000 deaths.
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"What happened happened, and couldn't have happened any other way...because it didn't"
It's just like the flu and colds in some ways. Gather together people in a closed environment with poor ventilation and you get infections. People gather together in closed environments in cold weather. That's why any family with young kids in school gets everything going around.
I don't know if this has any scientific basis, but more ultra-violet light from sunshine and heat that dries things out in the warmer weather also helps.
I'm in Canada and while by comparison we're doing not too bad, even in my rural area things are being locked down again. People are grumbling but are generally accepting it as necessary. Those who were the more vocal deniers in the spring and summer are more or less converted to know this is real or are keeping their mouths shut.
From what I understand those places that are taking precautions are also experiencing a lower incidence of seasonal influenza. The same things that help prevent covid or cooties also works there. I'm actually hoping that mask wearing will get normalized here in the winter. My cotton one actually makes a dandy scarf to keep my face warm.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
Humidity goes down in winter - air is drier outside because of the cold and inside because people are using their heaters. Aerosols and small droplets remain suspended in the air much longer when the humidity is low. And people cluster inside more in winter. You could reduce risk of transmission within your home by using a humidifier.
As for mask mandates there’s a good study out of Kansas showing significant differences between counties that implemented mask mandates and counties that didn’t. Masks DO work but the seeding effect of Sturgis in its neighboring states and the recalcitrance of Covid deniers within states also plays a role. Mask mandates would have been far more effective if they were universal and came with fines attached.
We are looking at impending disaster with all the Thanksgiving flying/congregating still happening this week. And if you’re flying please realize that tests aren’t foolproof - they just reported on a flight where a guy tested negative before boarding the flight but was found to be positive after the flight and he infected four people in the flight. Wear your mask, wear eye protection in the plane, wipe down your seat and surfaces, don’t forget to keep your mask on in the bathroom.
Son's roommate has now been vomiting for 24 hours - but the roommate still doesn't think he has Covid because "it's not associated with GI symptoms". Uh - people???? Are you not reading anything about this virus??? It most definitely CAN present with GI symptoms - sometimes that's the only symptom.
Well the roommate got his test this morning, hope it comes back in a timely manner. So far my son is fine - we are praying that his suspected Covid case in the end of February was really Covid and that he still retains enough immunity to protect him.
Btw anyone who is interested should read this great article in the Atlantic about the hospital in Omaha that was used to treat Ebola patients. One of the best prepared places in the country and it's completely overrun with Covid patients right now. A brief excerpt:
"When the hospital first faced the pandemic in the spring, “I was buoyed by the realization that everyone in America was doing their part to slow down the spread,” Johnson says. “Now I know friends of mine are going about their normal lives, having parties and dinners, and playing sports indoors. It’s very difficult to do this work when we know so many people are not doing their part.” The drive home from the packed hospital takes him past rows of packed restaurants, sporting venues, and parking lots.
To a degree, Johnson sympathizes. “I don’t think people in Omaha thought we could ever have something that resembles New York,” he told me. “To be honest, in the spring, I would have thought it extremely unlikely.” But he adds that the Midwest has taken entirely the wrong lesson from the Northeast’s ordeal. Instead of learning that the pandemic is controllable, and that physical distancing works, people instead internalized “a mistaken belief that every curve that goes up must come down,” he said. “What they don’t realize is that if we don’t change anything about how we’re conducting ourselves, the curve can go up and up.”"
