Prepare yourself, a very depressing read. It makes me so angry to read some of these republican leaders continue to do nothing and people voicing reluctance to wear masks for selfish reasons. This is the single biggest failure of Trump and his poor leadership. All he had to do is lead and promote public health measure to create a unified response. Instead he again amplified the voice of the dumb and ignorant and now thousands of more people are going to die. It should be a crime.
Covid’s long, dark winter has already arrived in the Upper Midwest, as cases and deaths surge, snatching lives, overwhelming hospitals, exhausting health-care providers and raising fears that the region’s medical system will be completely overwhelmed in the coming days.
As coronavirus cases grow across the United States — up 70 percent on average in the past two weeks, with an average of 130,000 cases per day nationally — the situation is particularly acute now in the Upper Midwest and Plains states, with North and South Dakota leading the nation in new cases and deaths per capita over the past week, according to Washington Post data.
Experts say that cases are surging in the region as the weather has turned colder and more people are forced inside — into more poorly ventilated indoor spaces where transmission thrives — with the virus arriving even in remote areas in largely conservative states where Republican leaders have resisted mask mandates or business closures, asking their residents to rely instead on personal responsibility.
The region’s surge is a preview of what the rest of the United States can expect in the coming weeks as winter approaches, experts say.
The situation has become so acute that even some leaders who previously resisted restrictions have moved toward new strictures. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in Iowa, long an opponent of closures and mask-wearing as “feel-good” options, this week moved to prohibit maskless indoor gatherings of 25 or more and require those attending larger outdoor events to wear a mask.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz (D) has warned of more “nightmare” numbers to come, even as the state has instituted new restrictions on bars, restaurants and social gatherings in an attempt to stop the spread. On Friday, Minnesota will begin limiting social gatherings to 10 people or less and tightening restrictions on larger social receptions as the country heads into a holiday season when doctors fear multigenerational family gatherings could become superspreader events.
Lilly Stecklein looks out the window of her home in Prairie Village, Kan. (Christopher Smith/For the Washington Post)
In North Dakota, where cases have increased 60 percent in the past month, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said this week that the state’s hospitals are at capacity and are so strained that the state will allow its health care workers to continue working after they test positive for the coronavirus. His spokesman later qualified this is a potential short-term tool.
Even though he has continued to resist a statewide mask mandate, Burgum urged his fellow residents to take precautions as hospitals brimmed with patients.
“You don’t have to believe in covid, you don’t have to believe in a certain political party or not, you don’t have to believe whether masks work or not. You can just do it because you know that one thing is very real. And that’s that 100 percent of our capacity is now being used,” Burgum said.
Doctors and health-care providers across the Upper Midwest grappling with rising caseloads and staff shortages continue to urge leaders in their states to do more to stem the tide of the virus, as many in these hardy, wind-swept states where independence is prized still refuse to wear masks.
“We had months to prepare for this, we saw it happen in other states that were hit earlier. Why weren’t we prepared for what was coming?” said Sarah Newton, chief medical officer of the hospital in tiny Linton, N.D., population 997.
She said she saw coronavirus cases begin surging in late September and October, and on some days ill patients filled the hospital, a low-slung brick critical-access facility with 14 beds.
“I felt so emotionally overwhelmed by what I was seeing. I felt like I was screaming into a void. I was drowning in my own hospital,” Newton said.
The disconnect with what was going on inside the hospital and her community was extreme, Newton said. She would go outside and see no one wearing a mask or social distancing, “having giant weddings and going about their lives.”
This week, the unthinkable happened. She called several hospitals in the region and was unable to find an intensive-care bed in a bigger hospital to transfer a rapidly declining coronavirus patient who needed more help than her small facility could provide.
“We have people we are not able to get to a higher level of care, and honestly, it’s a horrible feeling,” Newton said. “We have failed to do the things that prevented us from being here.”
Andrew T. Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said on a press call organized by the Infectious Diseases Society of America on Wednesday that the “enormous surge” in the Upper Midwest and mountain states is concerning because health-care access in some rural areas is already limited and staff and facilities taxed.
“The situation really has to be described as dire,” Pavia said, saying that the “political climate” and “general distrust of the government” in these areas resulted in a reluctance of public officials to take more stringent measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19. Mass gatherings such as the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., also contributed, Pavia said, as well as university students attending classes that were largely in person.
More than 330 coronavirus cases and one death were directly linked to the Sturgis bike rally as of mid-September, according to a Washington Post survey of health departments in 23 states.
“There’s an awful lot of preventable deaths happening right now,” Pavia said.
Doctors at one of the region’s largest health-care systems, Avera Health in Sioux Falls, S.D., with facilities in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota, said that its modeling showed the virus surge was only going to get worse in the coming weeks. Already, some of its facilities are nearing capacity and between 200 and 400 of its staffers are either out sick or in quarantine, officials said.
In Minnesota, state officials presented grim new infection numbers Thursday — with 7,228 people testing positive — and warned that the state is on pace to see at least 100,000 new cases by Thanksgiving.
The state reported 39 deaths Thursday. It set a record the day before, reporting that 59 people had died of covid.
In stressing the urgency of the situation, state health officials have pointed to a dramatic uptick in the positivity rate in diagnostic testing in recent weeks — rising from just 5 percent a month ago to 15 percent on Thursday.
Overall, nearly 202,000 people have tested positive in the state since the pandemic began, and nearly 2,800 people have died.
“This is going to be a long dark winter,” Walz told reporters Tuesday. “[You] can’t wish it away, can’t hope it, can’t think it’s not real. This is killing large numbers of people.”
What has worried state officials is that there is no hotspot in Minnesota — the entire state is described as a “red zone.” Cases and hospitalizations have risen dramatically in all regions, including rural areas that had been largely spared by the disease until recent weeks.
In Itasca County, a rural area of 45,000 residents northwest of Duluth, county health officials said there were 200 coronavirus cases and 13 deaths through September. Numbers have skyrocketed in the past few weeks — averaging about 200 to 300 new cases a week — with a positivity rate so high that the beleaguered county health department announced it would no longer do contact tracing and focus its efforts on protecting “high-risk settings” including schools and long-term-care facilities.
An underlying concern for state officials is the pressure on Minnesota hospitals.
State health officials have warned of dire capacity levels statewide in terms of the number of available intensive-care beds, saying this week that they were at 90 to 95 percent capacity. In the Twin Cities, just 22 ICU beds were available — statistics that Walz described as “catastrophic.” Hospitals and the state are trading information hour by hour on capacity restraints and how to move patients. Officials are beginning to enlist retired health-care workers to help in what could be a nightmarish scenario in coming weeks.
Case counts are skyrocketing throughout the Midwest, with Illinois reporting 12,702 cases Thursday, a record, and Kansas reporting two record-high case counts this week.
“Now even in rural America people are thinking maybe I should pay attention to this,” said Liz Stedry, 44, a property manager and mother of a blended family of eight in Prairie Village, Kan., including 16-year-old twins with cystic fibrosis.
Stedry’s mother is a county commissioner in Jefferson County, Kan., which approved a mask ordinance Monday; the county commissioner pushed for one for weeks.
Stedry and her family have been in quarantine since Wednesday, after her husband and two of the children came down with mild cases of covid-19.
“The numbers are crazy scary. You want them to be kids but you worry about it. I’m actually happy it’s a forced quarantine,” she said. “Now the others have to be at home, too, until the time is up.”
Last week, South Dakota’s new daily reported cases rose by roughly 9 percent; the state also reported an 18.2 percent increase in daily deaths and a 26.5 percent uptick in hospitalizations, according to Washington Post data. The South Dakota Department of Health reported 2,020 new coronavirus infections Thursday, a record for positive results in a 24-hour period.
Despite this, its largest city, Sioux Falls, rejected a mask mandate Tuesday, and many in the state just don’t seem to think masks are necessary. Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) has taken a laissez-faire attitude toward the virus and has refused to issue a statewide mask mandate or other controls.
Erin Blake, 42, a mother of five in Sioux Falls, said she believes masks negatively affect children and that adults should be free to choose whether to wear them.
Masks, she said, “impact socialization and education of children.”
Masks are one of the most effective tools at fighting the coronavirus, public health officials say, and help protect the wearer and others.
Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, said that Noem had no intention of changing her approach, noting that although the hospitalization rate has increased, 34 percent of the state’s hospital and ICU beds remain open.
But doctors have countered that just because a bed is open doesn’t mean there will be enough staff. Monument Health, a hospital system in South Dakota, issued a statement this week that it is experiencing “stressed capacity” across the state.
“Our limiting factor isn’t beds, it’s staff,” said John Pierce, president of Rapid City Hospital, noting that the facility has a “record high” number of coronavirus patients and is having to shift non-coronavirus patients to other hospitals and hiring contract caregivers.
Chris Bjorkman, of De Smet, S.D., lost her husband, John, 66, a retired schools superintendent, after both were sickened by the coronavirus in September. Bjorkman had to be flown to a hospital in Marshall, Minn., when his condition worsened and there was no room for him in South Dakota, she said.
He eventually ended up back in a hospital and died Oct. 20. The last time she was able to speak to him, she said, he told her the hospital food was awful, so she had a meat-lovers pizza delivered to his room.
Bjorkman said that since her husband’s death she has been disheartened that so few of her neighbors have been wearing masks. Even the clerks in her local supermarket didn’t wear them until one of her family members called them out on it last week.
“People are not taking it serious,” she said. “Some just don’t care.”
lot of people making noise in my neck of the woods about "why can kids go to school but the restaurants and bars have to close?". because, geniuses, the kids actually fucking listen to protocols and take direction seriously, where the adults don't. there's a reason there's very few cases in our schools and kids getting infected. it's all the stupid fucking adults that can't stay home and have a zoom happy hour.
Middle school kids definitely don’t here. The second they’re out for recess the mask is off, they’re wrestling, hugging, whatever. In class t he y follow the rules, but not in hallways and recess.
But I still think that’s a dumb argument, comparing schools to bars are 2 different animals.
I don't have kids or truly understand how they're behaving but my gut reaction would be that kids might be worse than adults. Or, rather that kids would be better than petulant/obstinate adults but not as good as responsible adults. In any case, I agree that "what about schools?" is a lame deflection. They can talk about whether or not in-person school is a good idea but it's neither here nor there for validating hanging out in bars.
everything i've seen over the course of the last several months, now admittedly, this is limited to my daughters and their classmates/friends, the kids are doing amazingly well and are being way better about it than the adults i've encountered.
Yeah god forbid that you might have to make your own drink or cook & serve your own food!
But as Americans I think what we really need to know is this, Jose: how can we cook at home and get as much fat into the food as McDonalds puts in? What do I do without my 6 donuts every day that I get when I stop for my extra large cafe frappe butlickmochachino?
lot of people making noise in my neck of the woods about "why can kids go to school but the restaurants and bars have to close?". because, geniuses, the kids actually fucking listen to protocols and take direction seriously, where the adults don't. there's a reason there's very few cases in our schools and kids getting infected. it's all the stupid fucking adults that can't stay home and have a zoom happy hour.
Middle school kids definitely don’t here. The second they’re out for recess the mask is off, they’re wrestling, hugging, whatever. In class t he y follow the rules, but not in hallways and recess.
But I still think that’s a dumb argument, comparing schools to bars are 2 different animals.
I don't have kids or truly understand how they're behaving but my gut reaction would be that kids might be worse than adults. Or, rather that kids would be better than petulant/obstinate adults but not as good as responsible adults. In any case, I agree that "what about schools?" is a lame deflection. They can talk about whether or not in-person school is a good idea but it's neither here nor there for validating hanging out in bars.
everything i've seen over the course of the last several months, now admittedly, this is limited to my daughters and their classmates/friends, the kids are doing amazingly well and are being way better about it than the adults i've encountered.
maybe it's a canadian thing.
It could be a Canadian thing. Or maybe it's been going on so long that certain elements have just become embedded into their nature. Eight months is a long time for kids, whereas I feel like this just started. They might be used to the way of life. That said, I'd be curious whether there's any way to measure how kids act vs. how adults act.
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why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
lot of people making noise in my neck of the woods about "why can kids go to school but the restaurants and bars have to close?". because, geniuses, the kids actually fucking listen to protocols and take direction seriously, where the adults don't. there's a reason there's very few cases in our schools and kids getting infected. it's all the stupid fucking adults that can't stay home and have a zoom happy hour.
Middle school kids definitely don’t here. The second they’re out for recess the mask is off, they’re wrestling, hugging, whatever. In class t he y follow the rules, but not in hallways and recess.
But I still think that’s a dumb argument, comparing schools to bars are 2 different animals.
I don't have kids or truly understand how they're behaving but my gut reaction would be that kids might be worse than adults. Or, rather that kids would be better than petulant/obstinate adults but not as good as responsible adults. In any case, I agree that "what about schools?" is a lame deflection. They can talk about whether or not in-person school is a good idea but it's neither here nor there for validating hanging out in bars.
everything i've seen over the course of the last several months, now admittedly, this is limited to my daughters and their classmates/friends, the kids are doing amazingly well and are being way better about it than the adults i've encountered.
maybe it's a canadian thing.
It could be a Canadian thing. Or maybe it's been going on so long that certain elements have just become embedded into their nature. Eight months is a long time for kids, whereas I feel like this just started. They might be used to the way of life. That said, I'd be curious whether there's any way to measure how kids act vs. how adults act.
I have a hard time believing many middle school aged kids are following rules the majority of the time when unsupervised anywhere, can’t see it being a Canadian thing. Get a group of 13 year olds and they’re going to be not social distanced and horse playing.
Not all kids, maybe HFD kid is the exception. Nothing against kids, it’s just the nature of being that age, they aren’t going to not socialize and not hang out in groups for the most part. I just can’t picture lunch/recess time in the 6th grade and seeing hundreds of kids spaced out and not physically interacting.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
i saw that interview. You're wildly mischaracterizing what cuomo said. he doesn't want trump administering it because he thinks the roll out will get bungled from the get go, just like the covid response as a whole. he wants team biden to be able to do it since then it will be done properly, and if it starts with trump at the helm, it could be fucked up from the beginning and make it much more difficult for biden to correct that. never did he suggest it would be better that biden get to do it just so trump doesn't get a win.
lot of people making noise in my neck of the woods about "why can kids go to school but the restaurants and bars have to close?". because, geniuses, the kids actually fucking listen to protocols and take direction seriously, where the adults don't. there's a reason there's very few cases in our schools and kids getting infected. it's all the stupid fucking adults that can't stay home and have a zoom happy hour.
Middle school kids definitely don’t here. The second they’re out for recess the mask is off, they’re wrestling, hugging, whatever. In class t he y follow the rules, but not in hallways and recess.
But I still think that’s a dumb argument, comparing schools to bars are 2 different animals.
I don't have kids or truly understand how they're behaving but my gut reaction would be that kids might be worse than adults. Or, rather that kids would be better than petulant/obstinate adults but not as good as responsible adults. In any case, I agree that "what about schools?" is a lame deflection. They can talk about whether or not in-person school is a good idea but it's neither here nor there for validating hanging out in bars.
everything i've seen over the course of the last several months, now admittedly, this is limited to my daughters and their classmates/friends, the kids are doing amazingly well and are being way better about it than the adults i've encountered.
maybe it's a canadian thing.
It could be a Canadian thing. Or maybe it's been going on so long that certain elements have just become embedded into their nature. Eight months is a long time for kids, whereas I feel like this just started. They might be used to the way of life. That said, I'd be curious whether there's any way to measure how kids act vs. how adults act.
I have a hard time believing many middle school aged kids are following rules the majority of the time when unsupervised anywhere, can’t see it being a Canadian thing. Get a group of 13 year olds and they’re going to be not social distanced and horse playing.
Not all kids, maybe HFD kid is the exception. Nothing against kids, it’s just the nature of being that age, they aren’t going to not socialize and not hang out in groups for the most part. I just can’t picture lunch/recess time in the 6th grade and seeing hundreds of kids spaced out and not physically interacting.
That's my gut reaction, too....though I acknowledge that I don't actually know anything.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
Well I don’t think anyone is saying or thinking that way we all want it to be here like yesterday! He’s the only one who’s making it about himself never even acknowledge the rising number of infection, just keeps touting the same bullshit, we have more cases because we test more...
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
i saw that interview. You're wildly mischaracterizing what cuomo said. he doesn't want trump administering it because he thinks the roll out will get bungled from the get go, just like the covid response as a whole. he wants team biden to be able to do it since then it will be done properly, and if it starts with trump at the helm, it could be fucked up from the beginning and make it much more difficult for biden to correct that. never did he suggest it would be better that biden get to do it just so trump doesn't get a win.
I would think a poor roll out plan for a vaccine now would be far better than a good plan 3 months from now. Not like Biden couldn’t administer changes when he’s in charge.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
I didn’t say it was about Trump getting a win, but about Trump being the one to administer it. Again, a poor plan now is better than a good plan 3 months from now.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
Based on everything we know about Cuomo it is silly to think he wanted more to die just to be anti trump. Ridiculous.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
I didn’t say it was about Trump getting a win, but about Trump being the one to administer it. Again, a poor plan now is better than a good plan 3 months from now.
You are correct I read that wrong.
We are talking roughly 20 days that Trump will be president and rolling this out since estimates now are that it will be available after Christmas. He will set the standard out of the gate and he will fuck it up. He is already holding the vaccine as bait for Cuomo to come begging for it.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
Based on everything we know about Cuomo it is silly to think he wanted more to die just to be anti trump. Ridiculous.
So why not celebrate a vaccine instead of saying it came too early? We’re at ground zero today. If Trump’s plan is a total disaster and Biden starts over February 1, we’re no worse off than if it was just approved and move forward starting February 1 are we? But at least we’ve already been producing the vaccine for months, learned how to store and transport it better. So how is that unfortunate?
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
i saw that interview. You're wildly mischaracterizing what cuomo said. he doesn't want trump administering it because he thinks the roll out will get bungled from the get go, just like the covid response as a whole. he wants team biden to be able to do it since then it will be done properly, and if it starts with trump at the helm, it could be fucked up from the beginning and make it much more difficult for biden to correct that. never did he suggest it would be better that biden get to do it just so trump doesn't get a win.
I would think a poor roll out plan for a vaccine now would be far better than a good plan 3 months from now. Not like Biden couldn’t administer changes when he’s in charge.
Still seems dumb to say it came out too early.
a poor roll out of 600 million doses could end up taking significantly longer than the 3 month gap if it's not done properly.
if he said those words exactly, which I don't think he did, then it was poor wording, but we all know exactly what he meant, simply that he'd prefer a biden roll out over a trump roll out.
you just know trump is going to send 300 million to florida and 300 thousand to california.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
Based on everything we know about Cuomo it is silly to think he wanted more to die just to be anti trump. Ridiculous.
So why not celebrate a vaccine instead of saying it came too early? We’re at ground zero today. If Trump’s plan is a total disaster and Biden starts over February 1, we’re no worse off than if it was just approved and move forward starting February 1 are we? But at least we’ve already been producing the vaccine for months, learned how to store and transport it better. So how is that unfortunate?
Correct me if I am wrong but in the interview I did not see him ever say to delay it. I read it as have Biden involved now and be part of the roll out now.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
Based on everything we know about Cuomo it is silly to think he wanted more to die just to be anti trump. Ridiculous.
So why not celebrate a vaccine instead of saying it came too early? We’re at ground zero today. If Trump’s plan is a total disaster and Biden starts over February 1, we’re no worse off than if it was just approved and move forward starting February 1 are we? But at least we’ve already been producing the vaccine for months, learned how to store and transport it better. So how is that unfortunate?
here's the full text of the interview so you can stop pretending he said stuff he didn't say (did you just read the headlines?):
"Well it's it's good news-bad news, George," Cuomo said. "The good news is, the Pfizer tests look good and we'll have a vaccine shortly. The bad news is that it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over. And that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."
"The vaccine plan is very important and it's probably the most ambitious undertaking since COVID began. Just to put it in focus: We did 120 million COVID tests in this nation over seven months, scrambling, doing everything we can. We now have to do 330 million vaccinations, maybe twice," he also said, in reference to the fact that the vaccine is expected to be given in two doses.
"And the Trump administration is rolling out the vaccination plan and I believe it's flawed, I believe it learns nothing from the past. They're basically going to have the private providers do it and that's going to leave out all sorts of communities that were left out the first time, when COVID ravaged them."
Stephanopoulos asked: "So what needs to be done, that the Trump administration won't do that President Biden could do?"
Cuomo responded: "When you deny a problem the way Trump did, you can never solve it. And that's true in life. The Trump administration denied COVID so they were never ready for it. There was no mobilization of the government, and they're still doing the same thing. They're going to take this vaccine and they're going to go through the private mechanism, through hospitals through drug market chains, etc.
"That's going to be slow and that's going to bypass the communities that we call healthcare deserts. If you don't have a Rite Aid or CVS then you're in trouble. And that's what happened the first time with COVID. Why do we have such a disparity in the infection rate and mortality rate in COVID? Because some communities don't have the same access to health care.
I'm sure the Biden administration is going to address, I think his first step saying let's focus on the science, let's depoliticize testing data, listen to the scientists – the exact opposite of Trump."
"But you have two months and we can't let this vaccination plan go forward the way the Trump administration is designing it because Biden can't undo it two months later, we'll be in the midst of it," he said. "I've been talking to governors across the nation about that. How can we shape the Trump administration vaccine plan to fix it or stop it before it does damage."
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
His comments are much deeper than just Trump getting a win and you know it. He said it was good news its coming out earlier than expected and bad news the current administration will be the ones in control of administering it. He would prefer that President Elect Biden be able to do the roll out since Trump will fuck it up.
Based on everything we know about Cuomo it is silly to think he wanted more to die just to be anti trump. Ridiculous.
So why not celebrate a vaccine instead of saying it came too early? We’re at ground zero today. If Trump’s plan is a total disaster and Biden starts over February 1, we’re no worse off than if it was just approved and move forward starting February 1 are we? But at least we’ve already been producing the vaccine for months, learned how to store and transport it better. So how is that unfortunate?
Correct me if I am wrong but in the interview I did not see him ever say to delay it. I read it as have Biden involved now and be part of the roll out now.
No, he didn’t say to delay it. But, I’m paraphrasing, said too bad it didn’t come out under Biden because Trump will screw up the administration of it. Which would be in late January. I don’t recall his exact words, but remember thinking he basically just meant too bad this didn’t come out January 20.
why would i hope that this idiot would be an adult when announcing the vaccine? he has to attack governor cuomo instead. what a fucking loser.
I haven’t heard his attack on Cuomo, but Cuomo’s attack on Trump when the vaccine came out was pretty ridiculous.
He’s at the rose garden patting himself on the back for the vaccine and he stated that he would not give N.Y. the vaccine lol the Covidiot is a total disgraceful disgusting loser man/baby! So happy to see him just keep humiliating himself to the end..
But why are you not willing to look at it from Trump's perspective? Poor, poor, Donald! That mean old Cuomo!
Why in the world would anyone care if someone is a dick to Trump? He is the most reprehensible piece of garbage human being ever to hold his office. He says horrid shit, nonstop.
I don’t care about Cuomo being a dick to trump. But he basically said it’s a shame the vaccine came out so fast because Trump will get to administer it and not Biden. I don’t know, i think a few extra months of having a vaccine is worth it. I’d never say “aww shucks, too bad Obama cures cancer and not the next president after thousands more die.”
i saw that interview. You're wildly mischaracterizing what cuomo said. he doesn't want trump administering it because he thinks the roll out will get bungled from the get go, just like the covid response as a whole. he wants team biden to be able to do it since then it will be done properly, and if it starts with trump at the helm, it could be fucked up from the beginning and make it much more difficult for biden to correct that. never did he suggest it would be better that biden get to do it just so trump doesn't get a win.
I would think a poor roll out plan for a vaccine now would be far better than a good plan 3 months from now. Not like Biden couldn’t administer changes when he’s in charge.
Still seems dumb to say it came out too early.
a poor roll out of 600 million doses could end up taking significantly longer than the 3 month gap if it's not done properly.
if he said those words exactly, which I don't think he did, then it was poor wording, but we all know exactly what he meant, simply that he'd prefer a biden roll out over a trump roll out.
you just know trump is going to send 300 million to florida and 300 thousand to california.
Maybe. How is that worse than come January 20 having 0 sent to Florida and 0 sent to California?
People still think the Team Trump Treason Tax Cheat administration has a plan? For anything? Who’s left in that administration who has the knowledge and expertise to implement said plan? Good fucking lord.
That first paragraph of the interview is essentially what I’ve been saying ” "Well it's it's good news-bad news, George," Cuomo said. "The good news is, the Pfizer tests look good and we'll have a vaccine shortly. The bad news is that it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over. And that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."”
To me it sounds like he’s saying we’d be better off if it just didn’t come out for 2 months, that Trump will screw it up that badly. Maybe I’m reading into it incorrectly, but that’s what it sounds like to me. And they are going to be nowhere near 300 million vaccines in 2 months. They said it could be something like a year before it’s rolled out in that number. So we’re talking a small fraction of what is needed being rolled out before Biden takes over. Biden’s still going to roll out 90+% of this.
I just don’t see that would really impact Biden in a large way. Even if Trump sends them all to San Dimas (Bill and Teds anyone?) that’s not going to make it worse than starting from ground zero in 2 months.
That first paragraph of the interview is essentially what I’ve been saying ” "Well it's it's good news-bad news, George," Cuomo said. "The good news is, the Pfizer tests look good and we'll have a vaccine shortly. The bad news is that it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over. And that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."”
To me it sounds like he’s saying we’d be better off if it just didn’t come out for 2 months, that Trump will screw it up that badly. Maybe I’m reading into it incorrectly, but that’s what it sounds like to me. And they are going to be nowhere near 300 million vaccines in 2 months. They said it could be something like a year before it’s rolled out in that number. So we’re talking a small fraction of what is needed being rolled out before Biden takes over. Biden’s still going to roll out 90+% of this.
I just don’t see that would really impact Biden in a large way. Even if Trump sends them all to San Dimas (Bill and Teds anyone?) that’s not going to make it worse than starting from ground zero in 2 months.
Comments
Prepare yourself, a very depressing read. It makes me so angry to read some of these republican leaders continue to do nothing and people voicing reluctance to wear masks for selfish reasons. This is the single biggest failure of Trump and his poor leadership. All he had to do is lead and promote public health measure to create a unified response. Instead he again amplified the voice of the dumb and ignorant and now thousands of more people are going to die. It should be a crime.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-midwest/2020/11/12/90508b72-250f-11eb-952e-0c475972cfc0_story.html
Covid’s long, dark winter has already arrived in the Upper Midwest, as cases and deaths surge, snatching lives, overwhelming hospitals, exhausting health-care providers and raising fears that the region’s medical system will be completely overwhelmed in the coming days.
As coronavirus cases grow across the United States — up 70 percent on average in the past two weeks, with an average of 130,000 cases per day nationally — the situation is particularly acute now in the Upper Midwest and Plains states, with North and South Dakota leading the nation in new cases and deaths per capita over the past week, according to Washington Post data.
Experts say that cases are surging in the region as the weather has turned colder and more people are forced inside — into more poorly ventilated indoor spaces where transmission thrives — with the virus arriving even in remote areas in largely conservative states where Republican leaders have resisted mask mandates or business closures, asking their residents to rely instead on personal responsibility.
The region’s surge is a preview of what the rest of the United States can expect in the coming weeks as winter approaches, experts say.
The situation has become so acute that even some leaders who previously resisted restrictions have moved toward new strictures. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in Iowa, long an opponent of closures and mask-wearing as “feel-good” options, this week moved to prohibit maskless indoor gatherings of 25 or more and require those attending larger outdoor events to wear a mask.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz (D) has warned of more “nightmare” numbers to come, even as the state has instituted new restrictions on bars, restaurants and social gatherings in an attempt to stop the spread. On Friday, Minnesota will begin limiting social gatherings to 10 people or less and tightening restrictions on larger social receptions as the country heads into a holiday season when doctors fear multigenerational family gatherings could become superspreader events.
In North Dakota, where cases have increased 60 percent in the past month, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said this week that the state’s hospitals are at capacity and are so strained that the state will allow its health care workers to continue working after they test positive for the coronavirus. His spokesman later qualified this is a potential short-term tool.
Even though he has continued to resist a statewide mask mandate, Burgum urged his fellow residents to take precautions as hospitals brimmed with patients.
“You don’t have to believe in covid, you don’t have to believe in a certain political party or not, you don’t have to believe whether masks work or not. You can just do it because you know that one thing is very real. And that’s that 100 percent of our capacity is now being used,” Burgum said.
Doctors and health-care providers across the Upper Midwest grappling with rising caseloads and staff shortages continue to urge leaders in their states to do more to stem the tide of the virus, as many in these hardy, wind-swept states where independence is prized still refuse to wear masks.
“We had months to prepare for this, we saw it happen in other states that were hit earlier. Why weren’t we prepared for what was coming?” said Sarah Newton, chief medical officer of the hospital in tiny Linton, N.D., population 997.
She said she saw coronavirus cases begin surging in late September and October, and on some days ill patients filled the hospital, a low-slung brick critical-access facility with 14 beds.
“I felt so emotionally overwhelmed by what I was seeing. I felt like I was screaming into a void. I was drowning in my own hospital,” Newton said.
The disconnect with what was going on inside the hospital and her community was extreme, Newton said. She would go outside and see no one wearing a mask or social distancing, “having giant weddings and going about their lives.”
This week, the unthinkable happened. She called several hospitals in the region and was unable to find an intensive-care bed in a bigger hospital to transfer a rapidly declining coronavirus patient who needed more help than her small facility could provide.
“We have people we are not able to get to a higher level of care, and honestly, it’s a horrible feeling,” Newton said. “We have failed to do the things that prevented us from being here.”
Andrew T. Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said on a press call organized by the Infectious Diseases Society of America on Wednesday that the “enormous surge” in the Upper Midwest and mountain states is concerning because health-care access in some rural areas is already limited and staff and facilities taxed.
“The situation really has to be described as dire,” Pavia said, saying that the “political climate” and “general distrust of the government” in these areas resulted in a reluctance of public officials to take more stringent measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19. Mass gatherings such as the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., also contributed, Pavia said, as well as university students attending classes that were largely in person.
More than 330 coronavirus cases and one death were directly linked to the Sturgis bike rally as of mid-September, according to a Washington Post survey of health departments in 23 states.
“There’s an awful lot of preventable deaths happening right now,” Pavia said.
Doctors at one of the region’s largest health-care systems, Avera Health in Sioux Falls, S.D., with facilities in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota, said that its modeling showed the virus surge was only going to get worse in the coming weeks. Already, some of its facilities are nearing capacity and between 200 and 400 of its staffers are either out sick or in quarantine, officials said.
In Minnesota, state officials presented grim new infection numbers Thursday — with 7,228 people testing positive — and warned that the state is on pace to see at least 100,000 new cases by Thanksgiving.
The state reported 39 deaths Thursday. It set a record the day before, reporting that 59 people had died of covid.
In stressing the urgency of the situation, state health officials have pointed to a dramatic uptick in the positivity rate in diagnostic testing in recent weeks — rising from just 5 percent a month ago to 15 percent on Thursday.
Overall, nearly 202,000 people have tested positive in the state since the pandemic began, and nearly 2,800 people have died.
“This is going to be a long dark winter,” Walz told reporters Tuesday. “[You] can’t wish it away, can’t hope it, can’t think it’s not real. This is killing large numbers of people.”
What has worried state officials is that there is no hotspot in Minnesota — the entire state is described as a “red zone.” Cases and hospitalizations have risen dramatically in all regions, including rural areas that had been largely spared by the disease until recent weeks.
In Itasca County, a rural area of 45,000 residents northwest of Duluth, county health officials said there were 200 coronavirus cases and 13 deaths through September. Numbers have skyrocketed in the past few weeks — averaging about 200 to 300 new cases a week — with a positivity rate so high that the beleaguered county health department announced it would no longer do contact tracing and focus its efforts on protecting “high-risk settings” including schools and long-term-care facilities.
An underlying concern for state officials is the pressure on Minnesota hospitals.
State health officials have warned of dire capacity levels statewide in terms of the number of available intensive-care beds, saying this week that they were at 90 to 95 percent capacity. In the Twin Cities, just 22 ICU beds were available — statistics that Walz described as “catastrophic.” Hospitals and the state are trading information hour by hour on capacity restraints and how to move patients. Officials are beginning to enlist retired health-care workers to help in what could be a nightmarish scenario in coming weeks.
Case counts are skyrocketing throughout the Midwest, with Illinois reporting 12,702 cases Thursday, a record, and Kansas reporting two record-high case counts this week.
“Now even in rural America people are thinking maybe I should pay attention to this,” said Liz Stedry, 44, a property manager and mother of a blended family of eight in Prairie Village, Kan., including 16-year-old twins with cystic fibrosis.
Stedry’s mother is a county commissioner in Jefferson County, Kan., which approved a mask ordinance Monday; the county commissioner pushed for one for weeks.
Stedry and her family have been in quarantine since Wednesday, after her husband and two of the children came down with mild cases of covid-19.
“The numbers are crazy scary. You want them to be kids but you worry about it. I’m actually happy it’s a forced quarantine,” she said. “Now the others have to be at home, too, until the time is up.”
Last week, South Dakota’s new daily reported cases rose by roughly 9 percent; the state also reported an 18.2 percent increase in daily deaths and a 26.5 percent uptick in hospitalizations, according to Washington Post data. The South Dakota Department of Health reported 2,020 new coronavirus infections Thursday, a record for positive results in a 24-hour period.
Despite this, its largest city, Sioux Falls, rejected a mask mandate Tuesday, and many in the state just don’t seem to think masks are necessary. Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) has taken a laissez-faire attitude toward the virus and has refused to issue a statewide mask mandate or other controls.
Erin Blake, 42, a mother of five in Sioux Falls, said she believes masks negatively affect children and that adults should be free to choose whether to wear them.
Masks, she said, “impact socialization and education of children.”
Masks are one of the most effective tools at fighting the coronavirus, public health officials say, and help protect the wearer and others.
Wearing a mask isn’t just about protecting other people, the CDC says. It can help you — and might prevent lockdowns.
Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, said that Noem had no intention of changing her approach, noting that although the hospitalization rate has increased, 34 percent of the state’s hospital and ICU beds remain open.
But doctors have countered that just because a bed is open doesn’t mean there will be enough staff. Monument Health, a hospital system in South Dakota, issued a statement this week that it is experiencing “stressed capacity” across the state.
“Our limiting factor isn’t beds, it’s staff,” said John Pierce, president of Rapid City Hospital, noting that the facility has a “record high” number of coronavirus patients and is having to shift non-coronavirus patients to other hospitals and hiring contract caregivers.
Chris Bjorkman, of De Smet, S.D., lost her husband, John, 66, a retired schools superintendent, after both were sickened by the coronavirus in September. Bjorkman had to be flown to a hospital in Marshall, Minn., when his condition worsened and there was no room for him in South Dakota, she said.
He eventually ended up back in a hospital and died Oct. 20. The last time she was able to speak to him, she said, he told her the hospital food was awful, so she had a meat-lovers pizza delivered to his room.
Bjorkman said that since her husband’s death she has been disheartened that so few of her neighbors have been wearing masks. Even the clerks in her local supermarket didn’t wear them until one of her family members called them out on it last week.
“People are not taking it serious,” she said. “Some just don’t care.”
maybe it's a canadian thing.
www.headstonesband.com
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It could be a Canadian thing. Or maybe it's been going on so long that certain elements have just become embedded into their nature. Eight months is a long time for kids, whereas I feel like this just started. They might be used to the way of life. That said, I'd be curious whether there's any way to measure how kids act vs. how adults act.
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Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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www.headstonesband.com
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Not like Biden couldn’t administer changes when he’s in charge.
Ridiculous.
We are talking roughly 20 days that Trump will be president and rolling this out since estimates now are that it will be available after Christmas. He will set the standard out of the gate and he will fuck it up. He is already holding the vaccine as bait for Cuomo to come begging for it.
We’re at ground zero today. If Trump’s plan is a total disaster and Biden starts over February 1, we’re no worse off than if it was just approved and move forward starting February 1 are we? But at least we’ve already been producing the vaccine for months, learned how to store and transport it better. So how is that unfortunate?
if he said those words exactly, which I don't think he did, then it was poor wording, but we all know exactly what he meant, simply that he'd prefer a biden roll out over a trump roll out.
you just know trump is going to send 300 million to florida and 300 thousand to california.
www.headstonesband.com
www.headstonesband.com
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/cuomo-covid-19-vaccine-about-two-months-too-early
"Well it's it's good news-bad news, George," Cuomo said. "The good news is, the Pfizer tests look good and we'll have a vaccine shortly. The bad news is that it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over. And that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."
"The vaccine plan is very important and it's probably the most ambitious undertaking since COVID began. Just to put it in focus: We did 120 million COVID tests in this nation over seven months, scrambling, doing everything we can. We now have to do 330 million vaccinations, maybe twice," he also said, in reference to the fact that the vaccine is expected to be given in two doses.
"And the Trump administration is rolling out the vaccination plan and I believe it's flawed, I believe it learns nothing from the past. They're basically going to have the private providers do it and that's going to leave out all sorts of communities that were left out the first time, when COVID ravaged them."
Stephanopoulos asked: "So what needs to be done, that the Trump administration won't do that President Biden could do?"
Cuomo responded: "When you deny a problem the way Trump did, you can never solve it. And that's true in life. The Trump administration denied COVID so they were never ready for it. There was no mobilization of the government, and they're still doing the same thing. They're going to take this vaccine and they're going to go through the private mechanism, through hospitals through drug market chains, etc.
"That's going to be slow and that's going to bypass the communities that we call healthcare deserts. If you don't have a Rite Aid or CVS then you're in trouble. And that's what happened the first time with COVID. Why do we have such a disparity in the infection rate and mortality rate in COVID? Because some communities don't have the same access to health care.
I'm sure the Biden administration is going to address, I think his first step saying let's focus on the science, let's depoliticize testing data, listen to the scientists – the exact opposite of Trump."
"But you have two months and we can't let this vaccination plan go forward the way the Trump administration is designing it because Biden can't undo it two months later, we'll be in the midst of it," he said. "I've been talking to governors across the nation about that. How can we shape the Trump administration vaccine plan to fix it or stop it before it does damage."
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” "Well it's it's good news-bad news, George," Cuomo said. "The good news is, the Pfizer tests look good and we'll have a vaccine shortly. The bad news is that it's about two months before Joe Biden takes over. And that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan."”
To me it sounds like he’s saying we’d be better off if it just didn’t come out for 2 months, that Trump will screw it up that badly. Maybe I’m reading into it incorrectly, but that’s what it sounds like to me.
And they are going to be nowhere near 300 million vaccines in 2 months. They said it could be something like a year before it’s rolled out in that number. So we’re talking a small fraction of what is needed being rolled out before Biden takes over. Biden’s still going to roll out 90+% of this.
@The Juggler
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