It looks as if we have never quite come down from that first COVID19 wave, and this time, it has spread well beyond the densely populated urban areas.
Deborah Birx, the physician overseeing the White House coronavirus response, warned Sunday that the United States had entered a “new phase” of the pandemic and urged people to take extreme health precautions as infections and deaths rise sharply nationwide.
“I want to be very clear: What we’re seeing today is different from March and April,” Birx told CNN’s “State of the Union,” noting that cases are increasing in rural and urban areas. “It is extraordinarily widespread.”
Birx did not rule out an estimate from former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb that virus deaths could top 300,000 by the end of the year, saying “anything is possible.” Such an outcome would be far less likely, Birx said, if people practiced social distancing and avoided large gatherings.
So why won’t more people do that?
Well, in the US, we darned well know that the “elite” are a “do as we say, not as we do” sort:
Purdue faculty leaders this week were questioning the head of the Protect Purdue implementation team – the one trying to safely reopen the West Lafayette campus during the pandemic for the fall semester – saying he sent the wrong message to students about staying safe off-campus.
Specifically, they called out David Broecker, who heads the Protect Purdue Implementation Team, after he took time during a campuswide forum to detail his self-isolation after dancing and mingling at his daughter’s wedding reception last week.
Also, science is not widely understood..at least at how it works. For example: when the pandemic first hit, I mentioned that much of what we were doing would prove to be unnecessary ..but the trouble is that we did not know AT THAT TIME what was the unnecessary part. I got criticized. But this is new to us and very much unlike, say, Elboa, which is has a much higher mortality rate but is not airborne.
That is just how it is..but when the new protocols get announced, the mood is “well, will THEY make up their minds?”
And science is reported by “the media” who, while well intentioned, aren’t exactly bastions of scientific knowledge either. And sometimes science knowledge is lumped together with the postmodernist nonsense that comes from academia.
Add to that with the “you don’t get tell me what to do” attitude and the person we have as President of the United States and, well, our values.
The values: skepticism of those in power (which has its place; people DO abuse their power..all of the time)
Tribalism
And this work ethic: even when it makes sense for the government to pay people to stay home…OMG, the government is encouraging you to sit on your butt..and for many, THAT MAKES SENSE to stop the pandemic from spreading.
Add to that the inability to really grasp an abstract threat that most of us do not see directly: mortality is only 1-2 percent (high for a contagious disease, but sounds low), but the hospitalization rate is 20 percent and of the 80 percent that do not need to go to the hospital, about 1/3 of those will suffer at least 3 weeks; many much longer. So about 46 percent will suffer some reasonably serious health problems; this is NOT just “the flu”. This is one reason athletes are wary.
Not dying does not mean “just fine.” And yes, over 50 percent WILL be just fine.
In a way, COVID 19 is the perfect storm to really beat up the USA.
Workout notes: I intended to go 10 miles; I made half of that and gave up. I never felt great and I got the old ache (glute) at mile 3.5 or so…I just never got into it and wasn’t mentally ready to work through it.
But I had a great set of weight workouts and my reservoir was empty. I have 3-4 quality of workouts to use in a week; the rest have to be easy. W. Peoria course.
Life of an old goat 