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Massachusetts hits new high in coronavirus numbers in the fall
By adamg on Fri, 11/13/2020 - 8:41pm
The state today reported 2,674 new Covid-19 cases - compared to 354 on Sept. 1.
The state reported 687 people hospitalized with Covid-19, up from 169 on Sept. 1
The state's official rate of tests that come back positive is 3.12%, compared to 0.95% on Sept. 1. However, if you subtract tests done on college campuses - most of which require students and staffers to take two or more tests a week - the statewide rate now is 5.2%.
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Cases.
Cases are increasing. Deaths are not. This is stoking doom. https://wmbriggs.com/post/33410/
Even putting aside the numbers, we can’t let this pandemic be a justification for our leaders to steal our freedom.
Tip
Google "long haulers." It's not just immediate death that's an issue, nor, in this case, is the fact that people, possibly even you, don't give a shit about whether they might spread the disease to people who will not be so lucky to just have mild symptoms.
i never understand this
“steal our freedom” to what end?
Odd that the biggest spike
took place after the mask mandate. The 7 days prior we saw 450,000 tests with 8800 positives or a 1.9% positivity rate. The 7 Days after the mask mandate, we saw 450,000 tests with 13,900 positives or a 3% positivity rate. Thats a 57% increase. Obviously many variables are at play like spending time indoors, but this was coincidentally the nicest week we have ever seen in November weather wise. I also find it odd, that in Scandinavia, where the epidemiologists of Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden agree that evidence does not support mask use, and where the populations wear masks the least, they are doing far better than anywhere else in Europe. There seems to still be a lot we don't understand about this.
Wow, so many figures and 0
Wow, so many figures and 0 common sense.
Except that an outdoor mask mandate
Will do fuck all to stop what is apparently the predominant mode of spread -- indoor gatherings. Those who haven't gotten that hanging out with friends isn't a good idea right now really aren't going to care that the state advises them to stay at home after 10. But ya know, casinos can still serve alcohol without food while bars/nightclubs have to stay closed because reasons.
Oh..
You must mean like wearing a mask outside when walking alone in the woods...or when driving alone in your car....or wearing one made out of cloth that filters nothing but gets wet and gets touched a lot..or getting close to people indoors because you have a mask and think that it actually is preventative at stopping microscopic viruses..because common sense, and now statistics show that it is laughably stupid.
“statistics”
*citations needed*
There are some in original post..here are sone more
This a bit more thorough..there are some great links in this article as well, including a very good study showing improper mask usage(taking on and off) and cloth masks can actually make it worse.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/29/these-12-graphs-show-mask-mandates-...
Here is study I mentioned just so its easier to find.
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/65/11/1934/4068747
Before you mention Sweden
You might want to do some research on what is actually going on over there. If you are too busy to click on the link, the short is that they did bad in the spring and they are doing bad now, worse them a bunch of European countries.
Also, masks have been encouraged in Finland (since April, hence they are doing better than Sweden,) Norway, and Denmark, so I guess you meant to write that they agree that evidence suggests that wearing masks is a good thing.
Not sure where you are getting your information
Just to give the stats a little color for you..
.this was taken a couple weeks ago in Stockholm. This is the place that has been hammered all Spring and Summer by widely distributed syndicated B.S. stories in the Associated Press for being reckless, for not shutting down schools, and businesses, and not wearing masks. They've been open the whole time with no masks. They had 5 Covid deaths yesterday in a population of 10million, and MA has a 2.5x higher death rate over the course of the pandemic. Their yearly all cause mortality rate is only 4% above average. MA is 11% above average.
https://mobile.twitter.com/svitlananosul/status/1315697055331950592
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland all report less than 20% mask usage among their populations. These countries are doing the best in Europe. France, Spain, Italy, and UK have highest mask usage and strict lockdowns and are doing the worst. The US has some of the highest mask usage in the western hemisphere at about 85% overall.
Sweden is not Norway
You can't lump Sweden in with its neighbors, which have had much more restrictive policies and much lower infection and death rates.
Cases/1M
Sweden 17,520
Denmark 10,531
Norway 5,230
Finland 3,446
Deaths/1M
Sweden 609
Denmark 131
Norway 54
Finland 67
For Denmark, the disparity was even larger, but it began loosening its restrictions fairly early, and things began to get worse. They are now tightening them up again.
Denmark has a mask mandate
My Danish ex mentioned it to me a couple weeks ago when it started.
The WBUR article is right on the money
The MWRA viral level is about where it was last spring.
http://www.mwra.com/biobot/biobotdata.htm
My conjecture is that the measurements last spring were 'new' cases, people getting sick, as well as asymptomatics. I'm wondering if part of this surge in positive tests is brought about by more asymptomatic spread among the younger population cohorts.
https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-dashboard-novemb...
(The State's link, cited by AG above)
There appears to be relatively few new cases in the older age brackets (70 and 80+) but the average age of hospitalizations is 67 and the average death age is still 80, where it was 82 or 86 in the spring.
The number of confirmed cases is almost where it was last spring.
The amount of hospitalizations is going up, but nothing like it was in the spring.
Same with the death rate.
Hospital capacity is about where it was last spring, ICU beds are about 50% available.
Better than last spring.
So, where does this leave us? I dunno. Protect the vulnerable and treat the rest of society like the common cold is going through it? It's as contagious as anything out there. Stop it?
Forget it. The cat is out of the bag on this one. We flattened the curve, just look at the state's data.
Shut down society again? Fine, except for 'essential personnel'. I guess that means Star Market, the local packie, mechanics, take out restaurants, cops, firefighters, EMS, etc.
What good will that do? The asymptomatic spread is the final blow. The masks? Do they work? Yup, they stifle the spread of droplets. If it's truly aerosol, and there's every indication that it might be, then masks, like snot rags or basic surgical, are at best a stopgap measure and only relatively effective.
Now, here's another WBUR article to think about...how much damage are we doing to the younger segments of our population? "United In Pandemic Misery: National Survey Finds At Least Moderate Depression In Nearly Half Of Young Adults"
https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/11/11/young...
Perhaps we should open it up, get on with our lives, get things back to semi-normal, wear masks, ya, do whatever we can to shelter the vulnerable and try to salvage what we can for the younger generations that are bearing the brunt of this.
I drove by the skate park in Hyde Park the other day and it was full of kids and not a damn one of them was wearing a mask.
This "get on with our lives"
This "get on with our lives" thing is eternally strange to me. Even in states that have never had real restrictions, like the Dakotas, economic activity has taken a nosedive this year. We all know it in our guts and the evidence is clear: many, if not most, Americans will not choose to "get on with" anything until the pandemic is brought under significantly more control than we ever managed to achieved this year, and no amount of shouting at them will make people do things they're not comfortable with. This isn't about the government. It's about the choices of free individuals.
Even if we did it, opening things up would not be the end of the story. It would not prevent us from needing to continuously make difficult decisions and major personal sacrifices in the interests of public health. That doesn't mean we should or shouldn't do it, but the top line here is the virus and how the population feels about it and we should try not to confuse ourselves about that.