# Following the second wave (or not) in the US as the States open up

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/following-the-second-wave-or-not-in-the-us-as-the-states-open-up/854191
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone
**Tags:** covid-quarantine
**Created:** [May 20, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/following-the-second-wave-or-not-in-the-us-as-the-states-open-up/854191 "2020-05-20T16:12:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 627

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### Author: ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/following-the-second-wave-or-not-in-the-us-as-the-states-open-up/854191/627 "2020-11-03T23:43:24Z")

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> [@SayTwo](#):
>
> That’s my claim, and those are the data. That’s what relevant. In as much as the report you offered would disprove that claim or those data, I would certainly give it full consideration. Trouble is that it doesn’t at all seem to. So I really don’t know what you are trying to accomplish with this line you are taking. I had already addressed the ‘increase in cases’

That’s what’s relevant. . . to you. Hospitalization rates are generally a lagging indicator while infection rates are a leading indicator. Most prudent people would look at the leading indicators to make their decisions. That’s what the White House coronavirus task force has done. It has made a recommendation for more mitigation efforts based on the leading indicators, not the lagging ones.

Your claim was this:

> [@SayTwo](#):
>
> Not that Florida is necessarily well out of the woods, of course, and I note that there seems to be no assessment of seropositivity rates, which might be a useful metric to also have. But if the question was ‘Can we open things up without it being a disaster?’, then the answer to that seems encouragingly clear.

The White House coronavirus task force disagrees with you. Opening things up leads to larger infection rates that they recommend should be mitigated against. The answer to them and to most scientists I’ve read is not “encouragingly clear” about opening up.

That you disagree with the White House coronavirus task force and most scientific reports and studies is probably not a discussion for this thread, so perhaps it’s better discussed in [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saytwo-is-an-ignorant-fuckstick-of-the-highest-order/924070/15) in the Pit instead so as not to hijack this thread.

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