Covid-19: American Acceptionalism

I think, too, "streamlining the bureaucracy" is accurate, to a point, but only if by the term one includes those bureaucracies/governments (across the world) pre-emptively investing vast sums of money into unproven vaccine research and development.

I honestly don't know how much of the standard, step-by-step approach to vaccine development is governed by the bureaucracy, and by the market, but I'm sure both play a role. What we've seen over the past year, has been governments, NGOs and private industry investing/gambling a lot of money (tens, hundreds of billions of dollars?) on processes and initiatives that they never, ever would have under different circumstances. For example, I think the Gates Foundation has invested over $300M building factories for the production of vaccines that might never end up being used. So what we've seen, globally, are all of these entities investing in research, knowing a lot of it will fail, or just lose out to better vaccines or those that just get developed first; simultaneously developing scores of vaccines, knowing many won't be used; building production facilities for those vaccines, knowing some/many of them will sit empty. That's a lot more than just a streamlined bureaucracy.

On the bright side - and I assume this won't get discussed much until we're on the other side of this - that unprecedented investment is leading to the development of entirely new vaccine technologies with what's described as a "plug-and-play" capacity that could revolutionize the way a much wider set of diseases than just COVID-19 (just as influenza) might be able to be treated. Researchers have been working on developing mRNA vaccines for a long time. It took COVID to get them the resources (human, financial and policy) to get the job done.

 

Well, welcome to the new year numbers that are about to hit.

we felt fairly safe in our little town. I think we had one or two cases. Until summer. The hospital/clinic brought an office trailer in and two large tents, in prep for the masses that would catch it. Then after July 4 when Eugene got hot they all came over to the coast for relief. No mask mandate here. So our numbers jumped to 35. Just one death. So they took down the tents and moved the trailer. No problem, right. It’ll go away, just like a miracle. Since thanksgiving and Xmas we’ve jumped to 150. The clinic is overloaded so ambulances are shuttling 90 minutes each way to Eugene. The New year numbers should be coming in soon. The trailer is back for triage. Tents soon.

Meanwhile I’m a real target, I still have a bit of freedom and space to get out for long walks with Ringo the dog. But I shun people and the stores. As well as the antimaskers and antivaxers who still drive here to get away from their lockdown.

... and so it goes

 

I saw headlines in UK media today about large-chain grocery stores that are "now insisting on customers wearing masks" (or words to that effect). is this for real? they're just waking up to this? this has been standard practice in Canada for 6+ months!

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...ons-to-enforce-mask-wearing-in-shops-12185433

and this -- are you effing kidding me? they RELAXED the 2-meter rule??

Strengthened ‘two-metre rule’ could make comeback after being watered down by Boris Johnson
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...rule-two-plus-social-distancing-b1785852.html

 

FFS......PEOPLE..!!!

 

Could it be that this is mainly due to more people getting tested? Some people were required to do a test after their travel. Others may have wanted to get a test for peace-of-mind.

I ask because the # of positive cases in NY is still going up.

 

This is definitely not an excuse, but I think one thing England really struggles with versus North America is density and physical distance.

I think its tough for one to really comprehend this, unless you spent copious amounts of time in both places.

Just the buildings for example. Everything in NA is built to a super scale v England. The aisles wider, packages are bigger, roads wider, parking lots bigger, sidewalks.

Doing the 2m distance thing is a much much bigger challenge in England across most every town, not just City.

 

I'm gobsmacked that they haven't been promoting masks all along.

Sidewalks??? You have sidewalks???

Anyhow, you're right, it's not an excuse.

 

ROLL!
DAMN!
(300,000) DIED!

 

You'd think they'd be used to it by now.

 

Us being fat-asses had to eventually payoff in someway.

 

This plague is no joke. I hope she stays well!

 

The Dutch R calculated for december 25th was R=0.95 and higher than a week before at R=0.91.
Last week the positive covid tests dropped from 56440 to 49398 and the % positive tests dropped too from 13.7 to 12.8%.
The number of hospitalizations dropped too from 1838 to 1503. The ICU new patients dropped from 337 to 297.

 

Yeah, although not every part of the U.S. is like that. You look at the 5 US states with the highest death rates per population: New Jersey, NY, Connecticut, Mass and Rhode Island. All states where the people are generally adhering to recommendations relating to face coverings, social distancing and regular testing. But places where population density is comparable to the UK if not greater.
Clearly density has a lot to do with it.

And then there's Arizona and the Dakotas. You people are very special.

 

Interestingly masks in some circumstances have only just been mandated in my home state (about a week and a half ago). We are now required (at risk of $200 fine) to wear masks when using public transport and entering any retail stores. We are not required to wear masks at hospitality venues (pubs, clubs and restaurants) but are required to electronically sign in when at those using a Government App and QR code. Those venues are limited to 1 customer per 4 square metres of floor space. An interesting side effect is my weekend game of golf. I don't need to wear a mask on the course or in the clubhouse, but the pro shop is counted as retail so for the 2 minutes I enter the pro shop to register for my round and pick up my card I need to wear a mask. Our State Premier has for a long time insisted that thw wearing of masks shouldn't be mandated but people should use common sense and wear masks when social distancing (defined as 1.5 metres here) isn't possible. Naturally most people felt that is a good thing, other people should be wearing masks but that doesn't apply to me. She made it mandatory as described above then went on a holiday. Currently my state is regarded as a pariah that doesn't take things seriously enough by the all the other states and I can't currently travel to any other state jurisdiction. Our federal Government regards us as the "gold standard" in terms of virus control.

 

This isn't really fair because those death rates are screwed by the high number of deaths they got at the very beginning of the epidemic when we didn't have proper medical care for the sick or proper policies to prevent it's spread. Currently, New York state's death rate is middling compared to other states, and New York City's death rate is far lower. So density had a big part to play early on when we didn't know what we were doing, but proper behavior can mitigate death greatly regardless of density.

 

Good point. At the same time, the fact that NY state is middling compared to others also highlights how difficult it is to overcome the density handicap. We're being so much more careful yet not doing better than other states on the whole over the past couple of months.

 

Is New York more densily populated than the Netherlands?
How do the Dutch numbers compare with those 5 places?

 

https://ourworldindata.org/most-densely-populated-countries

Netherlands is 2x as densely pop'd as the UK.

Australia is basically empty.

 

True but most of us live in just a few cities so the empty space is just that. Population density in Sydney and Melbourne is similar to most cities of that size.

 

Good news for me!

Hospitalization growth rates have slowed. ICU & positivity rates are stabilizing.

Today, the Sacramento region is coming out of the Regional Stay-at-Home Order.

Hopeful signs—but we must approach them cautiously. Wear a mask. Be safe. Avoid gathering. pic.twitter.com/FfoRfvJct1

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 13, 2021

 

What's the infection rate like in the bush mate?

 

Virtually nil. There has been the occasional infection in rural areas (generally brought in by travelers from one of the capital cities) but I can't think of anywhere where it spread to any significant degree since the first wave last year.