Thoughts to ponder

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson

It wouldn't matter if we didn't test a single soul in this country, or if we were testing every man, woman and child daily. The fact is that this virus is spreading like wildfire via community transmission and hospitalizations are increasing which means deaths will continue to increase. The death rate is decreasing? I'm sure that's a comfort to the families of the 135,000+ Americans who've already died of this disease this year, and the possibly 100,000 more who will die before the end of the year. We're way past normal for the number of flu deaths in a given year and we're only 7 months into 2020 and through this pandemic.

covidtracking.com/data

U.S. reports 66,000 more deaths than expected so far this year
By Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post | April 29, 2020
*Note: this story is from April - that number is far higher now

Florida shatters largest single-day record of coronavirus infections in US while world sees cases spike
By Stephen Sorace | Fox News

Two days of record counts: Florida adds 12,624 COVID cases Monday, one day after US record-shattering 15,300 cases
By David Fleshler, South Florida Sun Sentinel | Jul 13, 2020

Florida announced another 12,624 cases of COVID-19 Monday, the second-highest daily total for a state now known as one of the world centers for the disease.

The number of people hospitalized continued to rise, going from 7,511 Sunday to 8,072 on Monday, according to the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration. Broward County reported a 30% increase in hospitalizations since Sunday.

The new case total fell short of the record-shattering 15,300 cases announced Sunday, a figure that generated headlines across the United States and maintained Florida’s status as one of the states driving the disease’s resurgence.

Gov. Greg Abbott discusses State's continued response to surge in COVID-19 cases across Texas
The governor said it's too early to know if his mask mandate is making a major difference, but that it's important for local leaders to enforce it.
Author: Britny Eubank, KVUE | Published: 7:07 PM CDT July 13, 2020

Earlier in the day, Abbott announced that the U.S. Department of Defense is sending Army medical task forces to Texas.

"We're seeing more people hospitalized," Abbott said. "In fact, for an entire month, there were more people hospitalized each day until today, where it was the first decline in over a month. But because of the increase in hospitalizations, there is more need for staffing of hospital beds. There remain adequate hospital beds as well as ICU beds, however, we need staff for those beds. And so, in certain regions of the state that are burdened the most, there are these medical teams that are coming in to provide the staffing needed to treat anybody who has COVID-19."

Remind me again, Rick, who's president? Doesn't the buck stop with him? Yes, he inherited a broken healthcare system (which he and Republicans are trying to further ruin), and a country filled with people that don't give a flying rats ass about investing in and preparing for future disasters, but this pandemic started completely on his watch (despite his bizarre, non-reality-based comments that Obama stopped testing) and he was given a blueprint for how to deal with this very scenario and warnings that it was likely to happen. He made a few good decisions (closing the borders, albeit completely ineffectively as infected Americans were allowed back in without quarantining them), forming a task force, and pushing vaccine development, but he called this a hoax to harm his re-election, his press conferences were a disaster in providing credible information and calming a worried and frightened public, he held a rally in a state that was already on the upswing of cases, he's threatened governors for doing their jobs after he provided little support to them, his team mismanaged the Emergency Stockpile distribution, he's dismissed the science, railed about testing, made ridiculous claims about purported remedies, and not led by example. In short, he's an utter failure as a leader and it shows in how our country has floundered in the worst way possible in handling this pandemic. By far and away, we have the most cases and deaths as compared to any other country - you can't ignore or hide that truth. Biden may not be the best candidate there is, but at least he'll hire competent people to handle this crisis like it should've been from the start.