I have a feeling Cuomo’s opponents will remember this loudly in the future.
I wonder if those who scream, “Follow the science,” will now argue against JAMA?
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We’ll see. I think that Dr. Bedford’s analysis is a step in the right direction. He’s a big player, and this will help some people to look at things a different, way, I think.
It’s okay, we welcome all respectful ranters. 
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Well, as far as I know MT didn’t have a mask mandate until mid-July, at which point we had been wearing masks in the NE for about 4 months. The point is, if we had a consistent, nationwide lockdown then like other countries who are handling this well, we’d be discussing coming out of lockdown by now. Instead, the Federal messaging was “do what you want” when it wasn’t ranting about opening for political reasons.
And while it may be too early to tell about Europe, I think we’d swap places with them in a heartbeat. I am looking forward to a vaccine. Until then, there are things we can do that is not herd immunity to start moving toward normal.
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The entire state of MT was averaging less than 2 cases per day for the month of May…without mask mandates and with little to no restrictions in place…mobility was down, at most, 20% during that time period. What would a lockdown have done for MT other than increase deaths for other reasons and kill more small businesses?
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Yes. Our shutdown, such as it was, was very weak. The states around us didn’t have any and they’re doing fine. I was just commenting to DD26, who is visiting here from NY for a wedding, that life is pretty much back to normal now. We plan to go out for lunch to one of the nicer places in town, and I told her she will not notice anything different, except masks. I think the only thing still banned is large group gatherings if social distancing can’t be maintained. The wedding she’s going to has been trimmed just to be on the safe side- DH and I didn’t make the cut. 
The question of mask mandates is an interesting one. Looking at our stats, it may have helped turn the tide, as our cases have fallen off quite steeply since then. But, I think that it probably didn’t matter when we did that, as long as we did.
If there is going to be a certain amount of spread for a given level of restrictions, then starting the mask campaign sooner would have flattened our curve, but would not have changed the number of cases. One we hit the herd immunity required in the setting of masks and no large gatherings, the cases fall- as they are doing now.
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Right! I keep telling people masks dont vote!
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I kind of agree with them, though smaller schools may do all right. I feel the same way about DS22’s college, even though they’re giving it the good old college try.
Because I expect cases to rise with school re-opening, and it will probably happen no matter where one lives, whether it be NYC, London or Cheyenne. The reason being that it was an intervention that was put into place early, and which has persisted until now. I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I don’t really see any way around that.
Lift restrictions, get cases. I think that’s how this is going to play out, unfortunately. It will all depend on the tolerance of the local authorities regarding how many cases they will accept.
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I’m sorry, I still don’t understand why everyone keeps comparing the US to much smaller countries, including ones that are an island. We are a completely different beast than New Zealand and every European country. Do I think politicizing everything damaged the US’s reaction to the pandemic? Most definitely. But we will not know who did it best for years. Hindsight is 20/20.
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That is a lot like the original plan.
I hope we actually run with it this time.
We’ve learned a lot and that will help.
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Well, let’s compare ourselves to the European Union then, which has a greater population, and given that they are different countries mandates were probably much harder. How do we compare?
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I don’t know, prevented infections from rising so much that they need a mask mandate now? Wouldn’t prevention of the current number of illnesses been better?
And for the largest economy in the world, economic pain can be mitigated in ways other than opening up. For some reason, this is not the choice presented to us.
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There are several countries I wouldn’t have wanted to be in back in March/ April. Italy being one of them. At the time that was comparable to NY. So I wouldn’t say the EU did a slam dunk either.
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In other news, I booked a cruise today for next May.
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Many other countries have provided much more support to their people during shutdowns. In many countries in the EU, they have universal healthcare. They provided financial aid to families to stay home. In Asia they provided care packages and masks. In the US, we have no universal healthcare and we received $1200 per adult and $500 for each child in 5 months. For unemployed a supposed extra $600 per week until July 31st (which some didn’t even get) if they could manage to access unemployment. People need to work to keep a roof over their head. We are every man for himself in this country. That does not lend Itself to a national or statewide shutdown that lasts for a long period of time.
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Good for you. We have a Disney trip booked in May. Let’s hope it happens.
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No one did. But some places did things since then that were more successful than others. What matters is where we are now, and as far as I’ve seen, as a country the graph is pointing up.
Could you please post a link to that graph? The ones I have seen have us on a downward slope for both new cases and positivity rate. (I’d post them, but I’m mobile right now).
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You’re right! We’ve been doing well in the last two weeks. The point remains that other places have done better. Time will tell whether we can still get to where they are now.
You are correct. I see a downward trend.