Dr. Deborah Birx on Friday announced a “dramatic decline” in coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations across the country, particularly in the New York City metro area.
"A dramatic decline across the states" has also been seen in the positivity rate, as testing capabilities are expanded, said Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, during a briefing with reporters.
Birx called out three metro areas where the positivity rate has either stalled or increased: Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Minneapolis.
She said D.C. has the "number one" highest positivity rate of any metro area in the country, adding that "went through their logarithmic phase and are now at a high plateau with an unchanging number of cases day over day."
Some states have had little viral spread or "crushed the curve" to a great degree and have some wiggle room to reopen their economies without generating a new epidemic-level surge in cases. Others are nowhere near containing the virus
The coronavirus invades Trump country Caitlin Owens Caitlin Owens Featured image Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Republicans are still less worried about the coronavirus than Democrats or independents, even as it spreads out from primarily urban areas into suburban and rural Republican-leaning areas.
Why it matters: The virus doesn't care about politics or geography. High-risk behavior in places where the virus is spreading is the recipe for an outbreak.
Map courtesy of the Brookings Institute. Note: High-risk counties are counties with at least 100 cases per 100,000 residents, as of May 17. The big picture: For the last four weeks, counties newly designated as having a high prevalence of coronavirus cases — meaning at least 100 cases per 100,000 people — were more likely to have voted for President Trump than Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution.
The most recently identified counties tend to be in the South and the Midwest. Between March 29 and May 17, the portion of Americans living in high-prevalence counties rose from 8% to 79%. What they're saying: "This suggests that rhetoric from some of the president’s supporters against maintaining public health measures may become more muted, as the nation continues to grapple with the many unknowns about COVID-19’s continued spread," writes William Frey, the author of the analysis.
Yes, but: That's not happening.
Republicans are more willing than Democrats or independents to partake in activities that involve interacting with other people, per new polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Two-thirds of Republicans said either that the pandemic isn't a major problem or that the "worst is behind us." On the other hand, 70% of Democrats and half of independents said that the "the worst is yet to come."
Data: KFF; Chart: Axios Visuals The bottom line: How people feel about the coronavirus will undoubtedly impact the kinds of risks they are willing to take, which will in turn impact the extent of future outbreaks.
Although it may have been true in February and March that people living in red areas were unlikely to catch the coronavirus while going about their normal lives, it's not true anymore
Dire Situation In Alabama Capital: ICUs Full, Coronavirus Cases Double In May
TOPLINE The mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, says the city’s health care system has been “maxed out” as cases of coronavirus have more than doubled in May—a sharp contrast to the slowing coronavirus spread that’s taken place across much of the U.S.—while city businesses were allowed to reopen May 11, even as it appeared that Alabama hadn’t hit White House reopening guidelines.
KEY FACTS Major hospitals in the Montgomery area have run out of ICU beds, Mayor Steven Reed said at a news conference Wednesday, while others only one or two beds left.
Patients in need of care are now instead being sent 90 miles away to Birmingham, Alabama, the mayor said, a step the city hasn’t had to take until now.
Over 470 people have tested positive in Montgomery over the past two weeks, the Alabama Political Reporter notes, while the city only had a cumulative total of 355 cases going into May.
With cases quickly rising, the city was placed on an unreleased White House hotspot watch list on May 7, according to NBC News, which obtained a copy of the report.
But despite the rapid spread, businesses in the city were allowed to reopen starting May 11, after Governor Kay Ivey officially moved Alabama into Phase 1 of its reopening.
CRITICAL QUOTE
“Right now, if you are from Montgomery and you need an ICU bed, you are in trouble,” Reed said, adding “we are at a very critical point in our health care system’s capacity to manage this crisis. They are at a capacity that is not sustainable.”
KEY BACKGROUND
While the coronavirus pandemic seems to have peaked across much of the U.S. sometime in early-to-mid-April, the spread has actually accelerated in many areas of Alabama.
The state appeared to hit a plateau in hospitalizations in April, with numbers dropping during the middle of the month compared with the start of April. But things started to swing in the other direction by the start of May, with the 706 reported hospitalizations on Monday the highest single day total since the coronavirus pandemic spread to Alabama. Though the confirmed number of coronavirus cases has spiked in several areas of the nation — perhaps most notably in Texas — that can largely be attributed to an increase in testing.
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
It’s not clear exactly what’s driven the rapid spread in Montgomery recently.
“I don’t have a specific indicator as to why that county did go up, but we do know that some of the cases were [epidemiologically] linked,” Dr. Karen Landers of the Alabama Department of Public Health told AL.com.
I saw something regarding this yesterday..... how few ICU beds do they have in Montgomery that this is an issue? Or, is it simply that almost all of the state's cases are in that one city?
I ask because the number of cases in Alabama is actually pretty low, comparatively. That city is a clear outlier.
They have only 5,178 total active cases in the entire state. They are testing on a far larger scale (per capita) than Ohio, so they are presumably uncovering more cases that might otherwise not show up as compared to a place like Ohio.... so, what's the deal???
Last edited by PrplPplEater; 05/23/2009:33 AM.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
I would say it also depends on the amount of testing and the accuracy of reporting as to whether or not the city is an outlier. The only numbers you can believe IMHO is verified deaths and that should be considered skewed to be lower because policy seems to be keep the official numbers low at all costs.
Some states have had little viral spread or "crushed the curve" to a great degree and have some wiggle room to reopen their economies without generating a new epidemic-level surge in cases. Others are nowhere near containing the virus
The problem with this is the same as having a peeing area in a public pool. You can’t contain a properly run state’s virus load when a neighboring state is acting a fool. All it takes is a few asymptomatic yokels from Alabama crossing into Texas for a good time weekend at the bars, or a ball game, or whatnot, to start a new death wave in Texas.
He also said he was voted "Man of the Year" in Michigan. Oh wait there is no Man of the Year in Michigan.
He also said they should explore injecting disinfectant.
mmmm hydroxychloroquine is so good for you. "hey, what do you have to lose." You wear a mask 40. How about your guru? So, mask = protection from you and for you.
hydroxychloroquine has zero scientific evidence to support taking it for covid 19.
The Orange brat says many things of which very little is true.
Missouri hair stylist with coronavirus worked while symptomatic, exposed dozens of clients
Health officials were tracking down 91 people who were potentially exposed to determine if they've developed COVID-19.
A hair stylist in Springfield, Missouri, exposed as many as 91 people to coronavirus after working at a salon for eight days while symptomatic, health officials said Friday.
The exposed include 84 Great Clips customers and, potentially, seven coworkers, said Clay Goddard, director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. The condition of the stylist, who was not identified, was not revealed.
So far, no other positive case connected to the stylist has been confirmed, but the county is nonetheless facing "a glut of cases," Goddard said. Those exposed at the salon would be offered tests.
"The good news is both the clients and the hairstylists were masked" at the time of exposure, he said.
Goddard said at a news conference Friday that more cases like this would quickly strain Springfield's ability to care for patients.
"The hair stylist worked while sick," he said. "I’m going to be honest with you: We can’t have many more of these."
Under Missouri's pandemic reopening, hair salons are allowed to operate.
He warned residents who recently visited the same locations as the stylist, including a Dairy Queen, a Walmart and a CVS pharmacy, to look for COVID-19 symptoms and isolate themselves if they develop. The stylist worked May 12 through Wednesday and tested positive, health officials said.
The co-owners of the Great Clips location told NBC affiliate KYTV that the employee "is following medical advice and taking appropriate actions." The salon was closed for sanitizing and deep cleaning, they said. Goddard said he was pleased with the location's response and that it's "safe to go there" now.
The patient is believed to have contracted the virus while traveling in another part of the state, Goddard said.
Fauci says extended stay-home orders could cause ‘irreparable damage’
Stay-home orders that extend too long could cause the U.S. “irreparable damage,” Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Friday.
Strict crackdowns on large gatherings and other orders, such as for home quarantines, were needed when the coronavirus first hit the nation, but those rules can now begin to be lifted in many parts of the country, Fauci said during an interview on CNBC.
“I don’t want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for a prolonged period of time is the way to go,” the member of the White House coronavirus task force said.
“But now is the time, depending upon where you are and what your situation is, to begin to seriously look at reopening the economy, reopening the country to try to get back to some degree of normal.”
He warned, however, against reckless reopenings and called for the use of “very significant precautions” as restrictions are lifted.
I spent a few minutes while grilling looking at webcams of Daytona, myrtle beach and one or two other and they were very busy. There was also 6 shot in that area of Daytona and several shot in myrtle just after midnight
Yes but come November all these people will vote and adhere to guidelines about not voting when sick and wearing personal protective gear etc. What could go wrong..... Oh I bet because they are young and irresponsible they won't vote, it'll be okay. Right?
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Florida coronavirus cases near 50,000 as state adds 46 deaths
Researchers are warning southern states — Florida in particular — about the dangers of reopening too quickly and the potential for a second wave of the virus.
Cases have been going up, not down in Florida. They already fired the woman who was reporting accurate numbers because she wouldn't lie about it. Many states that have reopened couldn't wait just a little bit longer to follow CDC guidelines.
This is going to be an even bigger mess very soon and people still seem to promote massive death counts as the responsible way to move forward.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
US was more prepared for pandemic than any other country, Johns Hopkins study found
The United States was ranked the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic in late 2019 by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS) -- an assessment seemingly at odds with claims by Democrats that the Trump administration left the country vulnerable to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
The Global Health Security Index was was "developed with guidance from an international panel of experts from 13 countries, with research by the Economist Intelligence Unit" from 2018 to 2019, The Washington Post reported last year. "More than 100 researchers spent a year collecting and validating publicly available data.”
At the same time, the paper noted that the U.S. score was still not perfect, and that "factors driving down the U.S. score include the risks of social unrest and terrorism, and low public confidence in government."
President Trump's campaign has argued in recent days that misinformation may be one of the leading causes of that lack of confidence. For example, Trump's team has pointed to claims by presidential contender Joe Biden that "no one on the National Security Council staff was put in charge" of pandemic preparedness, based on a report that in May 2018, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton eliminated the NSC’s Office of Global Health Security and Biodefense in a reorganization effort.
Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer reportedly was ousted as senior director, and no replacement was named. But, FactCheck.org has determined that the matter amounted to a reorganization, and that “some team members [of the NSC pandemic office] were shifted to other groups, and others took over some of [the top official’s] duties.”
The White House says the NSC remains involved in responding to the coronavirus pandemic. A senior administration official said earlier this month that the NSC’s global health security directorate was absorbed into another division where similar responsibilities still exist, but under different titles. The work of coordinating policy and making sure that decisions made by Trump’s coronavirus task force are implemented is still the job of the NSC.
Separately, the Biden team has repeatedly argued that the president once referred to coronavirus as a "hoax." That claim has been refuted by numerous fact-checkers, including the Post's, which found that Trump was clearly referring to Democrats' efforts to blame him for the pandemic, not the virus itself.
Additionally, numerous Democrats, including Biden, have falsely claimed that the president cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget. The Associated Press has noted that those claims "distort" the facts.
Trump’s budgets have proposed cuts to public health, only to be overruled by Congress, where there’s strong bipartisan support for agencies such as the CDC and NIH. Instead, financing has increased. Indeed, the money that government disease detectives first tapped to fight the latest outbreak was a congressional fund created for health emergencies.
Some public health experts say a bigger concern than White House budgets is the steady erosion of a CDC grant program for state and local public health emergency preparedness — the front lines in detecting and battling new disease. But that decline was set in motion by a congressional budget measure that predates Trump.
“The CDC’s response has been excellent, as it has been in the past,” said John Auerbach, president of the nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health, which works with government at all levels to improve the nation’s response to high-risk health crises. Some Democrats have charged that Trump decimated the nation’s public health leadership, but Auerbach said CDC’s top scientific ranks have remained stable during the past three years.
Nevertheless, misleading reports about the Trump campaign's pandemic response efforts have continued to spread. A recent report by Reuters that the U.S. had recently terminated a CDC position in China was widely cited by Democrats and reporters as evidence of a lack of preparedness, and formed the basis for a reporter's question at a recent White House coronavirus briefing.
But, the article itself made clear that experts didn't think the move had anything to do with the spread of coronavirus in the United States.
"One disease expert told Reuters he was skeptical that the U.S. resident adviser would have been able to get earlier or better information to the Trump administration, given the Chinese government’s suppression of information," the outlet noted.
“In the end, based on circumstances in China, it probably wouldn’t have made a big difference,” former CDC epidemiologist and Emory University professor Scott McNabb told Reuters.
“The problem was how the Chinese handled it," McNabb continued. "What should have changed was the Chinese should have acknowledged it earlier and didn’t.”
Regardless, some lawmakers are pushing for more action out of an abundance of caution. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., and Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, have introduced a bill that would require future administrations to have experts always in place to prepare for new pandemics.
“Two years ago, the administration dismantled the apparatus that had been put in place five years before in the face of the Ebola crisis,” Connolly said. “I think, in retrospect, that was an unwise move. This bill would restore that and institutionalize it.”
Connolly said the bill is not meant to be critical of the Trump administration. He said it’s a recognition that Trump had to name a coronavirus responder just like Obama had to name one for Ebola in 2014. “We can’t go from pandemic to pandemic,” Connolly said.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4 passed the measure, which is co-sponsored by 37 Democrats and five Republicans.
GC, I don't do well posting links, would like someone to post this link of tampa bay 13, to this story because it is so telling, First. Florida Man, oh Florida man, you seem to be at it again, (world's worst superhero)
BUT! This story is so telling, of the unseen victims of Shutdowns of Covid, Especially if you read it, They were just trying to get home.
Story title, " Florida Man Kidnaps Girl 17 to get through Covid Checkpoint"
The Shady couple, couldn't prove they were from the Keys, so they got turned away, because the keys are shutdown, So they resort to this, (Bad ideas all around, imo) OH! and though a woman was involved, She hasn't even been charged, another case of Men's rights failing to be equal. But. He's a pos, (pile of stupidity) probably, allegedly, I don know, oft arrested though, but they both were, the couple, so, Ya equal rights
So many angles from an all around bad situation, that thankfully didn't end up with a dead innocent girl, this time. But the Role the checkpoint had in setting off this situation. So much to discuss.
Florida coronavirus cases near 50,000 as state adds 46 deaths
Researchers are warning southern states — Florida in particular — about the dangers of reopening too quickly and the potential for a second wave of the virus.
Cases have been going up, not down in Florida. They already fired the woman who was reporting accurate numbers because she wouldn't lie about it. Many states that have reopened couldn't wait just a little bit longer to follow CDC guidelines.
This is going to be an even bigger mess very soon and people still seem to promote massive death counts as the responsible way to move forward.
The media has been saying Florida was going to be a hot spot since mid march. The libs cannot stand that Gov DeSantis is doing an outstanding job balancing economic and health concerns. You will be disappointed but Florida will be fine.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." Margarat Thatcher
GC, I don't do well posting links, would like someone to post this link of tampa bay 13, to this story because it is so telling, First. Florida Man, oh Florida man, you seem to be at it again, (world's worst superhero)
BUT! This story is so telling, of the unseen victims of Shutdowns of Covid, Especially if you read it, They were just trying to get home.
Story title, " Florida Man Kidnaps Girl 17 to get through Covid Checkpoint"
The Shady couple, couldn't prove they were from the Keys, so they got turned away, because the keys are shutdown, So they resort to this, (Bad ideas all around, imo) OH! and though a woman was involved, She hasn't even been charged, another case of Men's rights failing to be equal. But. He's a pos, (pile of stupidity) probably, allegedly, I don know, oft arrested though, but they both were, the couple, so, Ya equal rights
So many angles from an all around bad situation, that thankfully didn't end up with a dead innocent girl, this time. But the Role the checkpoint had in setting off this situation. So much to discuss.
Pentagon charts its own course on COVID-19, risking Trump's ire
The Pentagon is actively planning on living with the coronavirus well into 2021, putting it at risk of angering President Trump as he expresses confidence that the disease is on the wane.
Defense officials have extended a freeze on troop movement, held ships in port and laid the framework for what the military will look like in an extended pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, a leaked Pentagon memo revealed that top Defense Department (DOD) officials are planning for the possibility that the military could be dealing with the virus beyond this year.
The extended preparation cuts against White House messaging that the virus will recede in the coming months and that a vaccine could be available by the end of the year.
“There is a disconnect,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a former congressional adviser on defense now with the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “At the same time, if anyone can take safe cover behind ‘We’re the department of planning for all contingencies,’ they can because that is what they’re supposed to do, over-plan and over-prepare.”
The situation is emblematic of the tough position the Pentagon has often been in during Trump’s presidency. Defense officials have frequently had to ensure they outwardly appear in line with the president’s wishes, while quietly navigate realities that might draw the president’s ire. It’s a phenomenon that has played out in everything from determining how to carry out Trump’s directive to remove troops from Syria, to implementing the president’s sudden edict to ban transgender service members, to offering options to respond to Iranian provocation.
With the coronavirus, the Pentagon has been charting its own course for months.
In late January, when only six people in the United States had been diagnosed with the illness and Trump was insisting the virus was under control, the Pentagon was releasing its first coronavirus-related guidance to service members and personnel.
At the end of February, as the president claimed the coronavirus would “disappear,” the Pentagon had already canceled several military exercises, restricted movement overseas and ordered all ships that had visited Pacific countries to self-quarantine.
In April, as Trump mused about reopening the country’s economy by Easter, Defense Secretary Mark Esper extended a militarywide travel ban to June 30.
And even as the Pentagon chief earlier this month declared that the administration aimed to deliver millions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, the leaked draft DOD guidance warned of the “real possibility” that an effective vaccine won’t be available until “at least the summer of 2021.”
That outline, revealed last week, likely remained unpublished due to language that put it at odds with White House messaging, a former Pentagon official told The Hill.
“You’ll see the military prepare for the worse-case scenario,” the official said. “It’ll be Esper’s job to straddle that — let the commanders still, when they think it’s appropriate, prepare for the worse case, but not be out of sync with the White House politically.”
But toeing the line between White House messaging and DOD action has opened Esper up to critics who have accused him of acting slowly and punting decisions during the pandemic, putting service members at risk.
In late April, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Esper — signed by nine of her Democratic senate colleagues — in which they expressed “grave concern” about how the Pentagon has handled the crisis.
The eight-page letter cited several examples, including the outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and Esper pushing decisions on implementing social distancing and other guidance to local commanders.
“Civilian leadership of the department has failed to act sufficiently quickly, and has often prioritized readiness at the expense of the health of servicemembers and their families,” the senators wrote. “This failure has adversely affected morale, and, despite the department’s best intentions, undermined readiness.”
Esper and other officials have repeatedly defended their response, asserting their top priority is the health and safety of their personnel.
Asked about the leaked memo during a Friday appearance on the “Today” show, Esper said the department “is looking at a variety of futures.”
“A second wave is a possibility. I don’t think the coronavirus is going away anytime soon, at least not until we have a vaccine or a cure,” Esper said.
The document may still see the light of day, albeit with editing, Eaglen said.
“I do see the possibility that those words about the vaccine are probably going to be left out of the official guidance,” she said.
“Esper took a lot of flack for letting individual commanders decide for themselves the best coronavirus responses. I think this is an attempt to put out more uniform guidance for planning and avoid that the next time around,” she said.
This weekend I went to Lowes a couple times. I wear my mask, more out of courtesy for others. As I walked around different parts of the store getting my items, I started to notice a trend.
First probably 70-80% of the people had masks. Second, those without masks seemed to be the ones that those of us wearing them are doing it for.
They were the obese, the elderly, and in one case this women looked 2 steps short of her grave. She seemed to gasp for air every 5-6 steps, and had a smokers cough like you wouldn't believe.
If those that are most susceptible to contracting the disease, aren't interested in taking precautions, then the numbers will most likely rise for a while.
Society has a habit of making rules and regulations based on the actions of the few who don't care about any one else.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
They were the obese, the elderly, and in one case this women looked 2 steps short of her grave. She seemed to gasp for air every 5-6 steps, and had a smokers cough like you wouldn't believe.
You should quarantine for 14 days. Just saying.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
The media has been saying Florida was going to be a hot spot since mid march. The libs cannot stand that Gov DeSantis is doing an outstanding job balancing economic and health concerns. You will be disappointed but Florida will be fine.
Yes there has been a warning that it is going to come. Now it's happening. Facts actually matter to most of us.
You see, the media "reports what the experts are saying". They use sources and experts from the fields of expertise on the topic. Rather than listen to what those experts are saying, you just label it by "blaming the media".
It's why facts don't matter to some of you and many will pay the price for ignorance.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
The media has been saying Florida was going to be a hot spot since mid march. The libs cannot stand that Gov DeSantis is doing an outstanding job balancing economic and health concerns. You will be disappointed but Florida will be fine.
Yes there has been a warning that it is going to come. Now it's happening. Facts actually matter to most of us.
You see, the media "reports what the experts are saying". They use sources and experts from the fields of expertise on the topic. Rather than listen to what those experts are saying, you just label it by "blaming the media".
It's why facts don't matter to some of you and many will pay the price for ignorance.
The experts have not been right yet!!! None of the models have been correct. No prediction has been right. Keep rooting for it to happen though.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." Margarat Thatcher
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