Mid-August? By mid-August I wouldn’t be surprised if Texas+Florida+Arizona were at 100k a day plus the other 47 states’ tallies.
Those that aren’t currently seeing a problem are more likely to claim it’s a media hoax anyway. The only way people will change their mind about it is to be personally affected. That’s how all pretty much all of these anti-science stances tend to go.
I hope you’re right that that would change it. But I think there are far too many Americans who are willing to think that anything is an acceptable number of deaths, as long as they don’t think that they’re going to be one of them.
Oh, I don’t think it will cause everyone to suddenly wake up and stop acting like morons. But I do think people will start to squick up just a little, to feel slightly more anxious. Especially as the language from those who are mask-averse continues to so obviously conflict with the numbers. The accumulating tension, stress and anxiety will start to increase is what I’m saying. People may be a bit less strident about not wearing a mask, for instance.
11,382,890 total cases
533,474 dead
6,440,085 recovered
In the US:
2,935,770 total cases
132,318 dead
1,260,405 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
Indeed - and some have already been available for sale on Amazon for a long time - but not only do we need MAGA face masks, we need a few highly-publicized stories of Trumpers wearing their MAGA masks into a store and then being told that they must take off such offensive masks.
THAT will get the Trumpers wearing masks by the millions in a vengeance.
Huh…I have a friend who’s business is failing due to COVID. I have Amazon Prime. I could order a MAGA mask and get thrown out of her business while a friend takes videos of the whole thing.
This could work, I will call the business owner tomorrow morning and set it up. Look for me, I’ll be the one waving a flag around as they shove me out of the store.
Thank you, a grin this morning is a good thing.
Then set up a go-fund me for the business. This would probably work. Fleecing Trumpers is a solid business plan. It’s easy to do, as they are basically pre-selected suckers.
Today in Rhodes:
We arrived here from Vienna on 2 July, on what was probably the first or second flight after the border was more or less fully opened. We wavered a lot before committing to this holiday, having watched the horror stories on almost every nightly newscast about people irresponsibly packing the beaches in Florida and Britain. But unlike the USA and the UK, both Greece and Austria seem to have got the pandemic under control. People are largely complying with the control measures (masks, social distancing, etc.) and the health authorities in both countries are no longer advising people against holiday travel.
We’re told that tourism makes up 90 to 95% of Rhodes’s economy, but for now most of the city is effectively a ghost town. The taxi that brought us from the airport passed row upon row of closed hotels, including almost all the beachfront resorts on the west coast of the city. We’re staying at Best Western that’s more centrally located but still only a ten-minute walk to the beach. The day we arrived, it seemed like there were only two or three other guests in the hotel, and though more are arriving each day, we still usually have the entire vast dining hall to ourselves at breakfast and dinner. The hotel provides a buffet service, but due to the pandemic restrictions it’s not permitted to serve oneself; you need to instruct the wait staff what to put on your plate. The hotel is extremely fussy about hygiene, to the point of placing hand sanitizers pretty much everywhere (next to elevators, stairwells, the front door, the pool, the dining hall, the bar, etc.), wiping down surfaces in public areas every few hours, and putting signs everywhere reminding people about the regulations.
By our estimate, more than half the shops, restaurants, and hotels in the neighbourhood (i.e., everything between here and the beach) are closed. When we go out to eat for lunch, we’re often the only people in the restaurant. The waiters greet us in French or German, not expecting that there could presently be any tourists from English-speaking countries. Rhodes is famous for its nightlife, but last night (a Saturday) the streets were largely empty and quiet.
All the tourism offices and most of attractions (museums, water parks, casino, historical landmarks) are closed. The medieval old town, which is the city’s biggest draw besides the beach, is almost completely deserted. The main square had a few tourists sitting at the two or three restaurants that were open there, but on the other streets it was rare to encounter anyone.
Going to the beach is pretty much the only thing left to do here. And there’s no sign of the overcrowding and irresponsible behaviour that’s plagued some other famous seasides. We’ve never been to Rhodes before, but judging from the photos we’ve seen of a normal high season, the beaches here are at only about 5% of their normal capacity. Most of the visitors seem to be Greek, not foreign tourists. It’s no problem at all to pitch one’s towel at least ten metres from the next visitor. Everything here is do-it-yourself; all the umbrellas, chaises longues, tables, etc. that are normally available are piled up and locked down next to the road. Even the bathrooms, concession stands, and most of the changing rooms are closed. The only people we saw working at the beach were two Indian gentleman trudging up and down the shore trying (and failing) to sell tacky souvenir jewellery to uninterested Greeks.
The increasing number of cases in the US doesn’t seem to be intimidating most people. The number of deaths seems to at least be dropping (or at least staying below 1,000 a day). It was the eye-popping death rates in Europe, NYC, etc. that really changed behavior.
Without a unified and coordinated national response, we’re just playing a game of whack-a-mole.
While we should be thankful for the lower death rate, the bets the country seems to be making are on the medium- to long-term effects on individuals who recover (or at least don’t die), and on the collectIve health and productivity of the country. And it truly is a bet, as no one seems to have any idea.
Due to a rise in COVID cases in Victoria (200 in the last couple of days), the border between Victoria and New South Wales is due to be closed tomorrow night (11:59pm Tuesday). No travel except for a damned good reason. Border lockdowns remain in place internationally, and between Victoria and the rest of Australia. Most of the states and territories still had border controls in place.
11,562,873 total cases
536,841 dead
6,537,764 recovered
In the US:
2,982,928 total cases
132,569 dead
1,289,564 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
The U.S. hits 3 million total cases!
Hmm, doesn’t sound good.
11,740,147 total cases
540,680 dead
6,736,391 recovered
In the US:
3,040,833 total cases
132,979 dead
1,324,947 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
Went grocery shopping yesterday and it was nearly 100% compliance with people wearing masks. During the entire trip, only one woman and her child were spotted without them. Masks are required by governor’s orders in indoor public spaces, though, so maybe they had medical exemptions.
The Australian state of Victoria has just announced a 6 week lockdown starting tomorrow following the rapid increase in positive tests over the past week. Latest here.
Initially some specific high-rise blocks were locked down a few days ago, but there was enough general spread to make it clear they had to act much more decisively. I looked up the daily positive cases for the past month:
9 June - 0 new infections
16 June - 9 " "
23 June - 17 " "
30 June - 64 " "
7 July - 191 " "
To be more precise, the lockdown is on the Melbourne metro area and Hume Shire (just north of Melbourne).
There is more to Victoria than Melbourne, ya know… 
According to the tourism ads Melbourne consists entirely of half a dozen alleyways filled with cafes, a St Kilda cake shop window and the MCG, all connected by a tram. No wonder its a breeding ground for viruses.
I conflated that with a related but separate border closure between Victoria and NSW. This follows solid resistance by the NSW Premier for closures as had been done by other states. The last time this hppened was during the Spanish Flu a century ago.