Coronavirus and the USA

Bozza · Jun 26, 2020

Probably worthy of its own thread given the escalating situation over there, which doesn't even seem to be a second wave, more an extension of the first one.

Florida has just announced nearly 9,000 new infections today, a new record. The previous record was c5,000 from earlier this week, so things seem to be escalating fast, as is also the case in the likes of Texas.

In Florida they have immediately moved to stop bars selling alcohol for on-premises consumption, since it is believed that people returning to bars has been a catalyst for the virus spreading quickly again.

Driver8 · Jun 26, 2020

I’m not sure what they expected. Trump will probably start to take action when he realises it’s mainly his voters that are dying.

Bozza · Jun 26, 2020

As Arizona deals with a surge in Covid-19 cases, Tucson has only 10 beds in intensive care units available with a population of about 560,000 people, Mayor Regina Romero said.

“Arizona is in a state of crisis right now. One in five tests come back positive. It's 20% positivity in tests taken in Arizona,” she said. “It's very scary.”
Gov. Doug Ducey has put a pause on further reopening the state as the cases spike but Romero criticized his decision through this pandemic, starting with lifting the stay-at-home orders “way too early.”

“I don't know what he wants to pause on. He really went from lifting the stay-at-home [order,] and it went from zero to 60 in no time. So unless he wants to start pushing back the restrictions that he lifted, I don't see what else he needs to pause,” she said. "Thank God that Gov. Ducey untied the hands of mayors throughout Arizona so that we can do our own mandatory mask ordinances. I did that last Thursday.”
Romero added that experts say people from the ages of 20 to 44 are most being affected by Covid-19 in Arizona and Pima county, where Tucson is located.

“Those are the people that are actually out, working. Opening back up the state has really affected those workers that have a need to go back to work. And those are, you know, bartenders, waitresses, the people that have to work at their places of business,” she said.

Romero added that the longer it takes to flatten the curve, the lesser consumer confidence they have.

“It was a big mistake by Gov. Ducey to open up the state too soon, because it's still affecting our economy and consumer confidence is down and it's very unfortunate for our economy. It's very unfortunate for the lives of Arizonans," she said.

Green Cross Code Man · Jun 26, 2020

My friend in Florida has repeatedly been telling everyone on Facebook that there is nothing to worry about as it's not much different to flu etc. She is a New Yorker and I would have thought she may have learnt something from her family there. She has been strangely quiet the past couple of days for some reason though.

Weststander · Jun 26, 2020

The mouthy Trump disciple, Florida Governor Rob De Santis should hold his head in shame. By late April/the very beginning of May ending much of their ridiculously short lockdown, simultaneously sticking his nose into other states with proper lockdowns.

On the specific subject of travel to the US:

We recently had our July flights cancelled and refunded, I realised back in March that was inevitable. We hope to go as soon as.

For those still booked for US holidays, what are you doing about travel insurance? Imo existing (including annual) policies will definitely exclude anything covid related. No way will insurance companies risk the potential of financing a long ICU stay in an expensive US hospital.

Would you still go and take the risk?

AmexRuislip · Jun 26, 2020

On Thursday alone, Texas -- the poster child for Trump's reopening strategy -- paused its transition to restoring normal life, alarmed by rising hospital admissions and a surge in new infections. Apple closed stores across Texas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina to protect customers and workers from virus spikes. Dozens of Secret Service agents are now self-isolating after several of their colleagues were found to have the virus after traveling to the President's rally in Oklahoma over the weekend. Multiple Trump campaign staffers have taken the same step, after eight of their co-workers tested positive in the latest sign that Trump's plans for a full resumption of campaign rallies are not only reckless but may prove logistically impossible.

More......

Interesting read :thumbsup:

Weststander · Jun 26, 2020

AmexRuislip said:
On Thursday alone, Texas -- the poster child for Trump's reopening strategy -- paused its transition to restoring normal life, alarmed by rising hospital admissions and a surge in new infections. Apple closed stores across Texas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina to protect customers and workers from virus spikes. Dozens of Secret Service agents are now self-isolating after several of their colleagues were found to have the virus after traveling to the President's rally in Oklahoma over the weekend. Multiple Trump campaign staffers have taken the same step, after eight of their co-workers tested positive in the latest sign that Trump's plans for a full resumption of campaign rallies are not only reckless but may prove logistically impossible.

More......

Interesting read

“CNN are disgusting, take my word my friends, fake news”.

AmexRuislip · Jun 26, 2020

Weststander said:
“CNN are disgusting, take my word my friends, fake news”.

I'll still take what comes from them, than that wood stained buffoon :lol:

Weststander · Jun 26, 2020

AmexRuislip said:
I'll still take what comes from them, than that wood stained buffoon

One of the shocking bits in that piece is that :wanker:

Pence hasn’t convened the Covid Task Force for two months, sidelining the honourable and highly intelligent Dr Fauci and Dr Birx. That was about when Trump ended the daily press briefings, the penny finally dropping that he was a laughing stock.

vegster · Jun 26, 2020

Genuinely scary stuff happening to the USA at the moment, I have been watching their new cases tick up over the last week or so and it does not make for good reading. This kind of explosion in case numbers is the sort of thing you would expect from the impoverished favela's of Brazil rather than from the world leading economy of the USA. They have released the lockdown too early, in a haphazard way, without contingency plans and without proper leadership.

Weststander · Jun 26, 2020

AmexRuislip said:
I'll still take what comes from them, than that wood stained buffoon

Delayed effect :lolol:

. What shade of Sadolin is used in his daily beauty regime?

Bozza · Jun 26, 2020

Weststander said:
The mouthy Trump disciple, Florida Governor Rob De Santis should hold his head in shame. By late April/the very beginning of May ending much of their ridiculously short lockdown, simultaneously sticking his nose into other states with proper lockdowns.

On the specific subject of travel to the US:

We recently had our July flights cancelled and refunded, I realised back in March that was inevitable. We hope to go as soon as.

For those still booked for US holidays, what are you doing about travel insurance? Imo existing (including annual) policies will definitely exclude anything covid related. No way will insurance companies risk the potential of financing a long ICU stay in an expensive US hospital.

Would you still go and take the risk?

We have flights booked for the October half-term. I'm not thinking about it really yet, but we won't book anything else such as accommodation and a car until much nearer the time and we think that travel is both possible and we wish to go.

I think we have coverage from travel insurance, and we booked these flights long before any of us had heard of Covid-19, but there's clearly far more to this than whether the flights go ahead or not....

The flights could go ahead but FCO advice is still not to travel.

The flights could go ahead, but Florida could be an utter mess with overwhelmed hospitals and not the sort of place you'd want to get sick in, Covid or otherwise.

The flights could go ahead, but there could be mandatory self-isolation upon return (due to the US being in a mess).

In short, there are a whole heap of scenarios where travel could go ahead, but we choose not to go and just lose the flight money.

vegster · Jun 26, 2020

Bozza said:
We have flights booked for the October half-term. I'm not thinking about it really yet, but we won't book anything else such as accommodation and a car until much nearer the time and we think that travel is both possible and we wish to go.

I think we have coverage from travel insurance, and we booked these flights long before any of us had heard of Covid-19, but there's clearly far more to this than whether the flights go ahead or not....

The flights could go ahead but FCO advice is still not to travel.

The flights could go ahead, but Florida could be an utter mess with overwhelmed hospitals and not the sort of place you'd want to get sick in, Covid or otherwise.

The flights could go ahead, but there could be mandatory self-isolation upon return (due to the US being in a mess).

In short, there are a whole heap of scenarios where travel could go ahead, but we choose not to go and just lose the flight money.

It seems a lifetime ago when Trump confidently stated " It's one person coming in from China " …. I won't repeat the other quotes. Suffice to say you may have to take a hit on this Bozza, It's not worth the risk to you or your family, you are probably all in the Low Risk category but the burden of possible quarantine at either end of the trip makes it probably unworkable.

Edit : Unless it has changed in the last 48 hours or so the FCO advises " Against international travel except in exceptional circumstances " .. This invalidates many travel insurance policies so be careful.

AmexRuislip · Jun 26, 2020

Bozza said:
We have flights booked for the October half-term. I'm not thinking about it really yet, but we won't book anything else such as accommodation and a car until much nearer the time and we think that travel is both possible and we wish to go.

I think we have coverage from travel insurance, and we booked these flights long before any of us had heard of Covid-19, but there's clearly far more to this than whether the flights go ahead or not....

The flights could go ahead but FCO advice is still not to travel.

The flights could go ahead, but Florida could be an utter mess with overwhelmed hospitals and not the sort of place you'd want to get sick in, Covid or otherwise.

The flights could go ahead, but there could be mandatory self-isolation upon return (due to the US being in a mess).

In short, there are a whole heap of scenarios where travel could go ahead, but we choose not to go and just lose the flight money.

And I thought we had problems worrying about a week away in a NT cottage in Norfolk in Sept.
Is the cottage going to be cleaned to a Covid 19 standard.
Do we take our own bedding and towels etc........

Raphael Meade · Jun 26, 2020

Bozza said:
We have flights booked for the October half-term. I'm not thinking about it really yet, but we won't book anything else such as accommodation and a car until much nearer the time and we think that travel is both possible and we wish to go.

I think we have coverage from travel insurance, and we booked these flights long before any of us had heard of Covid-19, but there's clearly far more to this than whether the flights go ahead or not....

The flights could go ahead but FCO advice is still not to travel.

The flights could go ahead, but Florida could be an utter mess with overwhelmed hospitals and not the sort of place you'd want to get sick in, Covid or otherwise.

The flights could go ahead, but there could be mandatory self-isolation upon return (due to the US being in a mess).

In short, there are a whole heap of scenarios where travel could go ahead, but we choose not to go and just lose the flight money.

Could be touch and go there - its a total mess unfortunately. We've barely left the house since early March, aside from solo dog walking/driving I've been to the supermarket twice and that's about it. The republican governors are just too scared to go against Trump - there's a White House briefing on right now (first one in TWO MONTHS which is insane) and they're just touting what a great job they've done and how it's all under control. Classic gaslighting as people die.

We have Hawaii booked for October but all fully cancelable at no charge and think there's about a 2% chance of wanting to go through the airport etc so I'm sure that will go away.

Arizona, Florida, Texas and much of the south is totally ****ed and still refusing to act - Arizona 'suggested' people start wearing masks THIS WEEK after previously instituting a state wide ban against towns implementing stay at home orders, for example. Trump also held a rally there this week at a packed out indoor church for thousands of people.

Honestly don't see anything changing in a huge way until Trump is (hopefully) gone which seems wild to say as it's so far off, but he's just pretending it's ended and is moving on with life.

Motogull · Jun 26, 2020

vegster said:
Genuinely scary stuff happening to the USA at the moment, I have been watching their new cases tick up over the last week or so and it does not make for good reading. This kind of explosion in case numbers is the sort of thing you would expect from the impoverished favela's of Brazil rather than from the world leading economy of the USA. They have released the lockdown too early, in a haphazard way, without contingency plans and without proper leadership.

No need for the word 'proper' there.

Fingers crossed it wont be too bad though. As you say it looks pretty scary.

Kinky Gerbil · Jun 26, 2020

Raphael Meade said:
Could be touch and go there - its a total mess unfortunately. We've barely left the house since early March, aside from solo dog walking/driving I've been to the supermarket twice and that's about it. The republican governors are just too scared to go against Trump - there's a White House briefing on right now (first one in TWO MONTHS which is insane) and they're just touting what a great job they've done and how it's all under control. Classic gaslighting as people die.

We have Hawaii booked for October but all fully cancelable at no charge and think there's about a 2% chance of wanting to go through the airport etc so I'm sure that will go away.

Arizona, Florida, Texas and much of the south is totally ****ed and still refusing to act - Arizona 'suggested' people start wearing masks THIS WEEK after previously instituting a state wide ban against towns implementing stay at home orders, for example. Trump also held a rally there this week at a packed out indoor church for thousands of people.

Honestly don't see anything changing in a huge way until Trump is (hopefully) gone which seems wild to say as it's so far off, but he's just pretending it's ended and is moving on with life.

Have they said anything about the border opening (not that it matters)

Weststander · Jun 26, 2020

Raphael Meade said:
Could be touch and go there - its a total mess unfortunately. We've barely left the house since early March, aside from solo dog walking/driving I've been to the supermarket twice and that's about it. The republican governors are just too scared to go against Trump - there's a White House briefing on right now (first one in TWO MONTHS which is insane) and they're just touting what a great job they've done and how it's all under control. Classic gaslighting as people die.

We have Hawaii booked for October but all fully cancelable at no charge and think there's about a 2% chance of wanting to go through the airport etc so I'm sure that will go away.

Arizona, Florida, Texas and much of the south is totally ****ed and still refusing to act - Arizona 'suggested' people start wearing masks THIS WEEK after previously instituting a state wide ban against towns implementing stay at home orders, for example. Trump also held a rally there this week at a packed out indoor church for thousands of people.

Honestly don't see anything changing in a huge way until Trump is (hopefully) gone which seems wild to say as it's so far off, but he's just pretending it's ended and is moving on with life.

What are the tens of millions of working age Californians doing for income, paying the bills, if people have stayed at home since March?

Bozza · Jun 26, 2020

vegster said:
It seems a lifetime ago when Trump confidently stated " It's one person coming in from China " …. I won't repeat the other quotes. Suffice to say you may have to take a hit on this Bozza, It's not worth the risk to you or your family, you are probably all in the Low Risk category but the burden of possible quarantine at either end of the trip makes it probably unworkable.

Edit : Unless it has changed in the last 48 hours or so the FCO advises " Against international travel except in exceptional circumstances " .. This invalidates many travel insurance policies so be careful.

I've been prepared to take a hit on this since about the end of February when I closely started monitoring Covid-19. By way of coincidence, that was immediately following another half-term week in Florida. How long ago the age of international travel for pleasure seems now!

The October flights were booked as they were too cheap to ignore. I'd rather not throw the money away, but as above I won't have any hesitation in doing so if it's the right thing to do at the time, if the choice isn't taken out of our hands

Raphael Meade said:
Could be touch and go there - its a total mess unfortunately. We've barely left the house since early March, aside from solo dog walking/driving I've been to the supermarket twice and that's about it. The republican governors are just too scared to go against Trump - there's a White House briefing on right now (first one in TWO MONTHS which is insane) and they're just touting what a great job they've done and how it's all under control. Classic gaslighting as people die.

We have Hawaii booked for October but all fully cancelable at no charge and think there's about a 2% chance of wanting to go through the airport etc so I'm sure that will go away.

Arizona, Florida, Texas and much of the south is totally ****ed and still refusing to act - Arizona 'suggested' people start wearing masks THIS WEEK after previously instituting a state wide ban against towns implementing stay at home orders, for example. Trump also held a rally there this week at a packed out indoor church for thousands of people.

Honestly don't see anything changing in a huge way until Trump is (hopefully) gone which seems wild to say as it's so far off, but he's just pretending it's ended and is moving on with life.

I've been following it very closely partly because, for all its many faults, I love the US and it's been our holiday destination of choice for many years, but also because for the last 3-4 weeks it's been plainly obvious what is unfolding and it's been like watching a slow-moving car crash. There is some morbid fascination about seeing how it all plays out.

I interact with a lot of people, mainly runners, on Instagram and I've been gobsmacked at the apparent disregard of many towards social distancing for many weeks now. A fair few are in California as it happens, and it's jaw-dropping given how careful we (my family that is) continue to be.

Sounds like you're being eminently sensible - keep staying safe.

pearl · Jun 27, 2020

vegster said:
Genuinely scary stuff happening to the USA at the moment, I have been watching their new cases tick up over the last week or so and it does not make for good reading. This kind of explosion in case numbers is the sort of thing you would expect from the impoverished favela's of Brazil rather than from the world leading economy of the USA. They have released the lockdown too early, in a haphazard way, without contingency plans and without proper leadership.

can't help feeling your last sentence sounds like England

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