Oh my

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The hoax is on a rampage

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

148,000+

Wow.  That was the mark they were expecting by November.

Leaving Trump behind

Some Republican leaders know they have to take the matter into their own hands.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R ) signed an executive order Friday allowing mayors in 89 of the state's 95 counties to issue local mask requirements if they experience a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The remaining six counties in the state already had the authority to issue mask mandates as needed. Several of the state’s largest counties have imposed a mask requirement.

“While our densely populated urban areas continue to have the highest COVID-19 case rates, our local governments expressed a need for greater flexibility in addressing a rise in cases and that includes setting stronger expectations around masks,” Lee said on Twitter.

[...]

Last month, Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto tried to impose a mask requirement in his jurisdiction but was forced to downgrade the requirement to "strongly encourage" after concerns were raised over his authority.

  The Hill

As Trump weakens, others find they still have a little spine

And...oh my...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We're reaching for the stars

Fauci is going to get canned

Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, has said the country could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases daily unless action is taken to reverse the epidemic.

Appearing before the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee on Tuesday, Fauci warned that the US is “going in the wrong direction” over handling the coronavirus, and said the death toll “is going to be very disturbing”.

He appeared a day after the White House insisted the outbreak had been reduced to “embers” but the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Anne Schuchat, insisted: “This is really the beginning.”

  Guardian

She's going to get her own set of nasty tweets.

Speaking on Capitol Hill, Fauci was asked about the increase in new cases of coronavirus – the US last week reported 40,000 in one day – and whether the pandemic was under control.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” he said. “I’m very concerned, I’m not satisfied with what’s going on, because we’re going in the wrong direction.

“Clearly we’re not in total control.”

We're not in ANY kind of control.

“I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around,” he said.

Fauci said he could not provide an estimated death toll, but said: “It is going to be very disturbing, I guarantee you that.”

It's already disturbing.

[Deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Anne Schuchat,] added that there was “a lot of wishful thinking around the country” that the pandemic would be over by the summer.

Gee, I wonder where anybody got that idea.

“We are not even beginning to be over this,” Schuchat said. “There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so.

“We’re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea, where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced, and people are isolated who are sick, and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control.”

[...]

The US represents 4% of the world’s population, but accounts for 25% of all cases and deaths from Covid-19. The US has recorded more than 2.5m cases, with some states seeing record rises.

[...]

Responding to widely shared images of people not following guidelines – including not wearing a mask and gathering in large groups – and especially young people, Fauci said better messaging was required.

Fauci said: “We’ve got to get that message out that we are all in this together and if we’re going to contain this, we’ve gotta contain it together.”

Speak to your president.

The Senate committee chair, the Republican Lamar Alexander, urged Trump to wear a mask and to depoliticize the topic. He said: “This small, life-saving practice has become part of the political debate that says, if you are for Trump you don’t wear a mask and if you are against Trump you do.”

Wow. Lamar Alexander! I'm impressed.

Alexander continued: “That’s why I’ve suggested that the president occasionally wear a mask. The president has plenty of admirers, they would follow his lead and it would help in this political debate; the stakes are too high for this to continue.”

I'll believe it when I see it. And he would only do it if he were convinced he can't win reelection if he doesn't.

New daily cases are rising in 38 states, according to NPR’s pandemic tracker, but the White House continues its attempts to downplay the severity of Covid-19. At a briefing on Monday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany ignored the surge.

[...]

Fauci said on Sunday the US was unlikely to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus even with a vaccine, given a third of Americans say they would not receive it.

They will when their whole families start dying.

“There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country – an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking,” Fauci said, adding that the government has “a lot of work to do” to educate people about vaccines.

As I said, speak to your president.

Even states where the rate of new infections has decreased are rethinking plans to allow businesses to reopen. New Jersey has postponed plans to allow indoor dining, while the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, said he may reverse plans to allow restaurants and bars to reopen.

Can it get any worse?

You know it can.

The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.

  CNBC

Thanks, Mr. President!

The U.S. has set records for daily new infections in recent days as outbreaks surge mostly across the South and West. The recent spike in new cases has outpaced daily infections in April when the virus rocked Washington state and the northeast.

[...]

“We’re not in the situation of New Zealand or Singapore or Korea where a new case is rapidly identified and all the contacts are traced and people are isolated who are sick and people who are exposed are quarantined and they can keep things under control,” she said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dr. Howard Bauchner.

Thanks, Mr. President!

“We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging.”

She'll be getting some nasty tweets.

The sheer size of the U.S. and the fact that the virus is hitting different parts of the country at different times complicates the public response here compared with other countries, Schuchat said.

[...]

The U.S. [...] continues to report over 30,000 new infections per day.

“This is really the beginning,” Schuchat said of the U.S.’s recent surge in new cases. “I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, hey it’s summer. Everything’s going to be fine. We’re over this and we are not even beginning to be over this. There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so.”

[...]

With the current level of spread, Schuchat said the U.S. public should “expect this virus to continue to circulate.” She added that people can help to curb the spread of infection by practicing social distancing, wearing a mask and washing their hands, but no one should count on any kind of relief to stop the virus until there’s a vaccine.

“We can affect it, but in terms of the weather or the season helping us, I don’t think we can count on that,” she said.

Here it comes

Reopened a bit too soon?

I don't a recommendation is going to cut it.  People will be coming from the closed counties.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

So you want to go have a good time at your local bar...

Eighty-five coronavirus cases have been linked to a popular bar that recently reopened in Michigan, health officials say.

News broke last week that at least 14 people had contracted the virus after visiting Harper’s Restaurant & Brew Pub in East Lansing, home to Michigan Sate University, between June 12 and 20. All who tested positive were said to be between the ages of 18 and 23.

[...]

“There are likely more people infected with COVID-19 not yet identified.”

Five of the cases are believed to be secondary infections, which means they were likely exposed to someone who went to the bar.

  McClatchy

Hang on. Where are the 80 "primary" infections coming from?

Last week, health officials advised anyone who visited the bar between June 12 and 20 to self-quarantine for at least 14 days.

Yeah, that's not likely.

Harper’s Restaurant & Brew Pub reopened at half capacity on June 8, per state guidelines, McClatchy News previously reported. The bar temporarily closed on June 22 after the outbreak was detected.

Videos shared on social media of Harper’s June 8 reopening showed the line to get in stretching down the street with a packed dance floor inside.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Shut 'er back down

I hope Miami-Dade is ready for an insurrection.

Because, also, too...

Florida is shutting down bars in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, after the state reported a single-day record of new infections.

The announcement did not come from the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), but from Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the agency that regulates Florida bars, who made the announcement via tweet.

Beshears said that on-premise alcohol consumption will stop immediately, effectively moving the state back to an earlier phase of reopening.

  The Hill

Protecting deSantis.

The move comes just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would not move backwards to impose more restrictions to stem the spread of the disease.

[...]

DeSantis has resisted a statewide mandate for people to wear masks, and has argued that the state has plenty of hospital capacity available to deal with the surging number of cases.

He has also sought to downplay the significance of rising infections because the virus is targeting younger people.

[...]

Florida shattered its single-day record of new coronavirus cases reported on Friday, adding an additional 8,942 confirmed infections, according to the Department of Health.

The state broke the previous record of 5,508, which was just set two days ago.

[...]

Florida is now the second state to reimpose restrictions, after Texas announced just a few hours earlier that it would close bars.

And what a shame....

The Republican National Committee relocated its convention to Jacksonville, after President Trump said North Carolina would have imposed too many restrictions.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Texas better stop testing, too

Harris County officials reported a shocking 1,994 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday alone, a new record. The county has reported more than 1,000 new cases on three of the last four days. Models show the number of cases rising over the next four weeks.

“We're approaching a precipice of disaster,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo (D) told reporters at a briefing this week. “We're looking at very, very concerning numbers in our hospital population that are getting worse by the day.”

[...]

Doctors are monitoring more than 15,400 active cases in the Houston area. Hospitalizations have tripled in the weeks since Memorial Day, worrying some health experts who fear repeating scenes from Italy, where at the height of the coronavirus's worst days in April doctors had to make heart-wrenching decisions about who would get care and who would not.

[...]

Houston is home to some of the largest medical campuses in the world, allaying at least some concerns about a health system that could become overwhelmed. But even with so many beds available and emergency plans activated, some hospitals are beginning to run out of space.

So many people are being hospitalized that Texas Children's Hospital has begun admitting adult patients overflowing from the Texas Medical Center. Hidalgo said Tuesday that 86 percent of the county's intensive care beds are occupied.

[...]

Harris County is the hardest-hit region in a state where coronavirus cases are growing rapidly. Texas reported more new cases on Tuesday, 5,489, than all but four other states did over the entirety of last week.

  TThe Hill

Speaking to Wendy Zukerman, an Australian science journalist, on her podcast "Science Vs," [Anthony Fauci — director of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force] acknowledged his “considerable concern” at the start of the pandemic over how the crisis evolved through community spread. Fauci said he was struck by how transmissible and varying the coronavirus became. “I’ve never seen anything closely resemble the virus in the spectrum of what it can do,” he said, referring to the wide range of symptoms that vary between each individual infected.

He reiterated that young people — who are becoming more involved in the spread of the virus — are increasingly contracting more severe infections. The fact that it is also highly communicable contributes to it being “the perfect storm,” Fauci said.

[...]

But while some less populated areas of the country have not been hit with an outbreak seen in the country’s major cities, Fauci underscored the need for continued protection and vigilance.

“In those places, if they did not lock down, they may have seen an outbreak, and we’re seeing evidence of that right now,” he said.

Fauci was referring to some Sun Belt states like Arizona, Florida and Texas.

  TThe Hill

Flrida better stop testing

Florida recorded more than 5,500 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, an all-time high that shattered the previous record set just last week.

Cases of the virus in Florida have been surging, and more than 109,000 infections have been reported in the state since March 1.

According to the Florida Department of Health, the new daily total broke the previous record high of 4,049 new cases, set just four days ago.

[...]

The upward trend has continued since the state began reopening businesses last month.

Just two weeks ago, Florida’s record for newly confirmed virus cases in a day was 1,601, set in mid-May. That has been exceeded every day since June 12.

  The Hill

Way to go, Florida.

As cases spike and hospitals become increasingly full, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has also changed the metrics for reporting the number of people in intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

Under the new guidelines, hospitals will report only the COVID-19 patients who need the most intensive care.

The next best thing to stoping testing.

Previously, hospitals reported all COVID-19 patients in ICU beds, regardless of whether they needed critical care.

The new reporting guidelines will likely lower the number of occupied ICU beds — an important metric to ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed as the state pushes ahead with reopening.

How so? It will lower the number REPORTED, not the number in actual use.

The change likely will impact smaller hospitals, as they are more likely to use the ICU to isolate COVID-19 patients who are less sick, which means the ICU will appear emptier on paper.

[...]

During a press conference Tuesday, DeSantis said hospitals have been using their ICU wings as COVID-19 wings, so he wanted to verify reports that newer patients are not getting as sick as those who contracted the virus in the spring.

Jesus.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

America failing

Anthony Fauci, the administration’s top infectious disease doctor, told a House panel on Tuesday that rising U.S. cases of COVID-19 are “disturbing” as new signs emerged of the United States falling further behind other countries in containing the novel coronavirus.

The coronavirus is surging in more than half the country, and states like Florida, Texas and Arizona are setting records of new cases almost daily.

[...]

Fauci warned that without the ability to fully identify, isolate and trace the contacts of the infected individuals, the situation could worsen.

[...]

Fauci said time is running out to address the spikes in cases.

“Right now, the next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings that we’re seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and in other states,” Fauci told the House Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday.

[...]

It was the first time members of the White House coronavirus task force appeared before Congress in over a month. The White House has also ended public briefings by officials from the group.

[...]

Trump has drastically scaled back the work of the task force and has encouraged states to reopen as quickly as possible, even as most don’t meet the administration’s own guidelines.

During a Fox News interview last week, Trump told Sean Hannity that the virus will “fade away” even without a vaccine.

Both Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield rejected that idea and said the virus will continue well into the fall and winter.

Redfield warned that the outbreak will overlap with flu season in the fall, which “could place a tremendous burden on the health care system.”

The inability of the U.S. to contain the coronavirus outbreak is being felt internationally as well. As the European Union reopens its borders, the region is reportedly considering banning all U.S. travelers given the worsening COVID-19 situation in the United States.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

That was quick.

All this can't be right.  Junior says "corona is cancelled."

Also...

For people who can get a clue

Guardian