I don't know about overrides ... Federal law always takes precedence over state or local laws. But, the guvenator has far-reaching authority to declare a health emergency, which would allow him to keep the SIP rules in place well after the Feds have dropped theirs. And of course, just because the Feds are saying that we're done at the end of April doesn't mean that as we approach the end of April that the Feds won't extend their order for another month. (and then another and another) Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
If it wasn't so tragic, it would be really funny: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/politics/trump-coronavirus-sunday-white-house/index.html
It's unfortunate that we're at the point that we'd consider 200,000 deaths some kind of victory, especially when it could have been kept to 0, as happened with ebola. But I expect much of the grim accounting won't occur until later. Our national edict is only for social distancing, not for SIP, as as noted above, many are not taking it seriously. I know people with health issues who are hiking the dish at Stanford. People try to keep their distance but some blow it off. My sister saw groups of kids playing soccer and basketball. As long as we have even 10% of the population with this mindset, we will all continue to bear the brunt of the disease. Re governors banning treatments: I did some research trying to find any evidence this had happened, and it appears to be right-wing fiction. A few governors (or agencies under them) have taken action to prevent stockpiling, so are keeping close tabs on the drugs in question to make sure they are only going to people who need them, like lupus patients. Drugs that cure 99% of people suffering with Covid? Also fiction. Fortunately, our governor has the authority to keep SIP for as long as necessary, whatever some idiots want to do for purposes of keeping their ratings up at Bachelor level.
It's great that people are using this to get into better physical fitness. There is no magic in a 6 foot distance, like an impenetrable sphere. It is a matter of probabilities. You can be farther away, and still get infected from someone else. You can be closer, and not get infected. There are two other dimensions that could or should be added to this that would make it more valuable, but both would be difficult to lay down a ground rule that is simple to understand. Those dimensions are time and the physical enclosure. If you are 2 feet away from someone for 1 sec in an open air setting, your chances are much lower than sitting 20 feet away from someone in a train for 6 hours. My personal risk assessment o'meter is that passing by someone on an open air trail without touching anything in common is a very, very low risk, approaching zero risk. Especially compared against going shopping in a store. If you want to lower the risk even further, then you can hold your breath and smile as you pass by . Just don't walk directly next or behind them for longer periods of time.
Also, for those saying the Covid-19 SIP actions should not be worse than the disease and we need to open things back up to ensure the economy doesn't die (mostly Trump and his followers, until yesterday)... here is a study by some MIT and Fed researchers on the 1918 Spanish Flu and the economic recover of US cities that enacted quick and early SIP and others that didn't. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3561560 </spoiler> The SIP cities had fewer deaths and higher average employment, manufacturing output, and stronger bank balance sheets in the following year.
Trying to imagine a world in which it could be funny, but Yamiche Alcindor and the other brave reporters are among the heroes of our time.
All fair, but it's getting packed enough to make that difficult. I just go at off times early in the morning and later at night.
I think you’re cutting him way too much slack. His concern for the economy is understandable, but wanting to lift the restrictions by Easter was always ridiculous. And for the record, I’ve been deeply critical of every president we’ve had since Carter. I think they’ve all been terrible, some more terrible than others. And right now, I’d give almost anything to have a president as terrible as Carter again. This Bud Light Virus is going to cause us pain for a long time to come. I sure as hell hope that the Hydroxychloroquine as treatment thing works out. That would be awesome! And, I give props to Pence and his team, seriously. But the guy in charge is weak. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
Not a chance in hell we could have kept this to 0. One of the big issues with this nasty virus is that people who have it can spread it long before they show symptoms. Thus is was never going to be contained. Again, plenty of blame to go around, and we can’t just say that had Trump done the right thing out of the gate that we wouldn’t be in this mess. We might be a couple of weeks behind where we are, which would be really good, but we’d still be in a mess. That’s the thing with Pandemics. They get everybody. And I get the anger. In the grocery store the other day, some dweeb stood right behind me in line, even with clearly marked “Wait Here” signs in the floor every six feet. And the Eastern side of our state are not taking this terribly seriously. Wait ‘til it bites them in the ass. Right now we need level heads, patience, and good whiskey. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
I was just looking at the NYT tracker and wanted to note something. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/coronavirus-deaths-by-country.html They currently have Italy at 10,779 deaths and turning a corner for several days, they are doubling every 7 days. I could see them getting to 30K deaths in the long run as an estimate. The US is currently at 2,486 and doubling every three days. The Experts in the US predict 100K to 200K deaths, if we do everything perfectly https://www.yahoo.com/news/dr-birx-predicts-200-000-115800421.html Looking at this deaths per capita is very sad. Italy's population is about 60M, the US is about 330M Italy - 60M/30K = 0.05% US - 330M/100K = 0.03% US - 330M/200K = 0.06% I believe Italy is older than the US and has better heath care but I do think they have a higher density than the US. I will say, they have been in true SIP for a long time, which the US still has barely managed to do social distancing. IMO, the President should not be congratulating himself on not allowing 2.2M to die. He should not even be bring it up, he should be concentrating every update on what efforts are needed by every American to hit 100K deaths.
I always check out Cilizza's deconstruct of Trump's press briefings. But, he missed one. When he went off on the reporter he made the comment, "we are all on the same team" in the battle against the virus, then shortly after when talking about the additional money for those filing for unemployment he takes a shot at the Dems, critcizing his "opponents" for insisting the individual states handle the distribution of this money rather than the federal government, (who he said could do it quicker). If we are all on the same team, and the relief bills were a bipartisan effort, why use the term "opponents"? And speaking of the massive $2.2 trillion bipartisan bill. When it came time for the team photo at the White House, he only invited Republicans to take part in it Yeah, he is really doing his part to unite the country,
I'm surprised your park is open. San Mateo County closed its county parks for the very reason that parking was over-crowded and people could not maintain social distance on trails. I live near a popular trail in Portola Valley called Windy Hill, and 2 weekends ago, it was jam-packed and people were illegally parked up and down Portola Rd, so the town took the initiative to block off all the street parking. And then SMC shut down Windy Hill a few days later anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if Portola Valley council members had something to do with the SMC order. I thought that was a tad excessive.
My wife is a mid peninsula docent and Windy Hill is her favorite... she was sad to see it closed. I hope they don't block off my street :\ It would be harder to host block parties
Did someone post this already? The SJMerc posted a great article about the decision process of the Santa Clara County public health officials to order everyone to shelter in place, and to pull in agreement from neighboring counties. https://www.mercurynews.com/she-shu...rus-none-of-us-really-believed-we-would-do-it
I don't think testing is useful in any hot spot but the President Trump says he had a quick test that can be used in the field. I wonder if there are plans for places that are not bad for the government to roll out this quick test to identify new clusters and isolate them
I don't know if I believe what Trump said, but testing is critical for knowing where this is spreading and stopping it before it gets bad. I would love to see the federal government pushing an Apollo Program level of developing tests and cures. I would have loved to see it start two months ago, or a month ago, but that train has already left the station, but the sooner we get massive testing in place nationwide, the sooner we can start bringing things back to normal.
Yeah, but then San Francisco was given all the credit in the national/world media for the Bay Area SIP orders...
So that plan has to include massive amounts of testing. (There’s a company here in Vancouver partnering with another company to develop a mail-in test kit.) Both because we need to know who has it, who doesn’t have it, and what our actual lethality rate is. (Probably around 1%, which is still freaking huge.) And then, we need domestic travel restrictions. Everyone needs to be on SIP for a few weeks. It stinks, but that’s the way to prevent the spread of this thing. Cases are exploding in Arizona right now, and other states that haven’t been hit hard yet are starting to see alarming increases. If we can slow the spread of this virus, six to eight weeks from now we’ll probably have more ventilators, and more PPE, and probably better treatment options (and who knows what that will be?). So the critical thing is to slow it down now, while we can. Absent SIP orders all across the country, we’re going to see a yuge increase in the number of cases everywhere, which will overwhelm medical facilities especially in those more rural parts of our great nation. Better to overreact than to underreact. Sorry. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
The following accurately represents the world view of people in the tiny suburb of Frisco, and the rendering of the Bay Area is in accordance with peoples' understanding all over. Friends back east, when they come out to LA or Di$$neyland ask all the time "Oh - if you're in Santa Clara/San Jose maybe we can meet for lunch"...
In Washington State, where the BudLight Virus first got a foothold in our nation, because we have draconian SIP orders for the Greater Seattle Area and the rest of the state is on SIP as well, our doubling rate of infections is now down to every six days. It’s a bit distressing, but it’s working. Go Humans!! (Even Shittle fans!) - Mark
I see the Michigan Governor has rescinded her order regarding chloroquine. And now asking for handouts from Trump. Embarrassing to her...and maybe much worse to the patients who could have been treated. "The Whitmer administration has since removed the language threatening doctors from the letter and is now asking the federal government to send shipments of the drugs" https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hit...g-feds-for-hydroxychloroquine-and-chloroquine