Sweden in Texas
Jun. 22nd, 2020 15:18![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
While calling the rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations “unacceptable,” Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said he has no plans to shut down the state again.
“We must find ways to return to our daily routines as well as finding ways to coexist with COVID-19,” Abbott said in a news conference. “Closing down Texas again will always be the last option.”
His remarks come one day after Texas set its tenth consecutive record for COVID-19 hospitalizations, with state health officials reporting 3,409 patients in Texas hospitals Sunday.
The Texas Department of State Health Services is expected to release Monday’s totals later in the afternoon.
New COVID-19 cases also set a record Saturday, with 4,430 cases reported that day. State health officials attributed that jump in part to a data entry backlog in Harris County. On Sunday, the health agency reported 3,866 new cases.
Texas is going to do the Sweden experiment. The LT Gov long ago said he was willing to sacrifice a few old people while building up to herd immunity so they are carrying that out (along with the bodies).
My resolve to out live the LT Gov is hardened. Dana and I just had a discussion about hunkering down. I do it more than she does and have not really had a social interaction with anyone other than hi to the neighbors IRL since March and it appears that will be our norm now.
Senior hours at Whole Foods and Costco, walks with the dogs and bike rides with me are going to be the norm. Otherwise, find out how to keep myself intact and inside and far from the madding crowd.
Herd immunity is 60% infection of the community. At the moment the population percentage that has contracted Covid in Texas is .0038 so we have a ways to go. The number is probably higher than that since Texas early on took the Trump approach and minimized testing. But, still, we are going to have a vaccine before herd immunity.
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Date: 2020-06-22 22:30 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-23 14:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-24 14:52 (UTC)I just imagined the "Texas is too big and diverse" argument being used for seatbelts. Yeah, you're right.
I'm old enough, though, to remember that there WERE arguments about seatbelt laws, and accusations of those restricting freedoms, etc....they went away over time. And people buckled up. And now it's so normal we can't even remember when it wasn't. So maybe masks will be the same thing, eventually...though I hope to god we don't need them long enough for that to happen. But I presume that after this, there will be other viruses too, so...maybe.
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Date: 2020-06-23 03:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-23 14:02 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-24 01:18 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-24 13:48 (UTC)One truism of any war (and this is another kind of world war) is that medicine makes great leaps forward. It is a weirdly positive outcome of combat (think artificial limbs and penicillin). Epidemiology will make vast leaps of knowledge now which, in the long run, will probably save many millions more people over the next century. long after the bunker baby is gone and is only the purview of comedy.
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Date: 2020-06-25 00:46 (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2020-06-24 16:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-24 17:31 (UTC)