re: Alabama Board Coronavirus Thread

The person posting the "real" Florida numbers did have access to the actual stats because she was a top (maybe "the" top) Florida health official in charge of compiling and publishing them.

She very recently quit her job and claims it was due to her objections to continued pressure from the governor of Florida's office to "play" with and "cherry pick" numbers to keep them seeming as low as possible.


She claims that she no longer has access to current data but started the website to provide the actual counts up until the point she quit.


Since I would guess she could be sued, that it did not happen quickly makes one wonder if that's due to her being correct and legal action meaning the added publicity of actually providing the real data to prove she was wrong.


EDIT ADDED: To prevent this from being an us vs them political topic, I would say that all politicians have a vested interest in lower numbers. (For example, Cuomo brags daily about NY having the lowest Rate of Spread in the country as evidence that his policies have been successful and his calls to reopen hard hit areas not done to soon).

I’ve been told by a couple of different people that the reason for Escambia County’s high numbers was because they had numerous testing sites set up. They had a higher case rate to begin with but then they started testing with numerous entities are numerous sites and are just catching a higher number of cases. It’s only anecdotal so TIFWIW.

Dexamethasone (generic steroid) looks like an effective treatment option for hospitalized persons on oxygen or ventilators.

Trial conducted in the UK through Oxford. 6K patients, 2k in the treatment group and 4K in comparison.

Risk of death decreased from 48% to 28% for those on vents. Decrease of 25% to 20% for those just on oxygen.

No meaningful difference in other patient groups. Just a press release — no paper. But, this could help with inflammation for those on vents which would be a huge help.

BBC.com

Agreed....
Aside from simply having hospitals overrun -- the logic people seem to forget about the drastic measures to slow the spread was not as much hope for a super fast vaccine but discovering more effective treatments so that a high risk person being infected in July would stand a much better chance than the same person infected in April.

Good news about any medicine to treat this effectively has been frustratingly slow in coming but this is certainly promising news.

Montgomery's mayor issued an executive order requiring masks in public today after the city council failed to pass an ordinance requiring them last night.

Montgomery is really the only place in Alabama blowing up right now. This is an attempt to slow it, but it likely won't work.

The people that really need to take those extra precautions haven't done it in Montgomery the whole time. They aren't going to start now.

Montgomery mayor’s executive order requires face masks after council vote fails

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed watched Tuesday night as the city council deadlocked 4 to 4 on an ordinance to require the wearing of facial masks in public.

With the tie vote, the ordinance failed. But Reed, undeterred, said he’s been listening to health officials and has decided to issue an executive order that requires the masks be used.

“I’m doing this for one simple reason,” Reed said. “After listening to our health experts, and the warnings they continue to give us, we’re doing this today, because it’s the right thing to do.”

The order goes into effect at 5 p.m Friday and will remain in effect for three weeks as a carryover until the next city council meeting on July 7.

The failed ordinance called for masks in groups of 25 or more. The mayor’s order narrows that to 10 or more. There is a fine of $25 for failure to follow.

A COUNCILMAN’S APOLOGY

Reed, joined by area physicians and community leaders, made the announcement and then invited a councilman up to speak who then apologized for voting against the ordinance.

Councilman Glen Pruitt said he’d had a change of heart, saying he had been focused on the enforcement aspect of the ordinance and had not looked at the big picture.

Pruitt said he thought a long time about his vote after going home Tuesday night and spoke to his wife, asking her if he made a mistake with his vote.

“Listen, it’s a mask, that’s it,” the councilman explained. “If I could have had my daughter back for one more day, you better believe I would have voted for a mask.”

Pruitt’s daughter, Courtney, passed away in 2019 after battling cancer.

DOCTORS SPEAK OUT

Dr. Nina Nelson-Garrett, a gastroenterologist, spoke for private practice doctors. She said mask wearing is an ethical issue for her and that it’s about doing the most good for the most people. She added that hospitals are in need and the public can help.

Dr. Bill Saliski, a pulmonary and critical care doctor, spoke for doctors on the front lines, saying they are getting stretched and that looking at the number of cases every day is a worry.

“I will be here begging for a stay at home order if we’re not careful,” Saliski said.

“There are people out there that just don’t believe this is a problem... until it affects them,” Saliski said, adding that he saw a group of people come in to Jackson Hospital Wednesday morning that didn’t believe in heeding the warnings.

“That group’s in trouble,” he explained.

Saliski also noted some people don’t seek medical help “in a timely manner,” and added that “we have people come in eight to 10 days into the disease process. I can’t help them. I try. I hold their hand. I give them what we have. But I can’t help them.”

Dr. Mary McIntyre, Chief Medical Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said ADPH is working to make people understand how important wearing a mask is, telling those in attendance she has lost two friends in the last week to COVID-19.

Montgomery County is number one in the state for total number of COVID-19 cases, surpassing counties like Mobile and Jefferson that have more than double the population.

Reed listed off numbers for the county, explaining his decision by reminding residents that Montgomery now accounts for 11 percent of the state’s confirmed cases and nine percent of confirmed deaths.

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deaths do concern me and they are rising rapidly.

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Are they?

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Are they?

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I don't think they are.

Hospitalizations in the state are up since 5/1 (7 day average of ~450 to ~630 today), but deaths are comparatively way down (7 day average of 11.43 to 7.29).

I think it's a good theory because hospitalizations and death rates seem lower in the states with recent large surges in cases like Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona etc...

Just from personal experience, my mother and a lot of the older folks she knows in South Alabama have not been doing much more now than during the early weeks.

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6/10 Alabama COVID age group CFR update:

<25 years old: ~ 3,333 cases, 3 deaths = 0.09% CFR
25-49 years old: ~ 8,888 cases, 28 deaths = 0.32% CFR
50-64 years old: ~ 4,948 cases, 122 deaths = 2.47% CFR
65+ years old: ~ 4,453 cases, 586 deaths = 13.16% CFR

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6/18 Alabama COVID age group CFR update:

<25 years old: ~ 4,864 cases, 3 deaths = 0.06% CFR
25-49 years old: ~ 11,491 cases, 32 deaths = 0.28% CFR
50-64 years old: ~ 6,051 cases, 137 deaths = 2.26% CFR
65+ years old: ~ 5,379 cases, 629 deaths = 11.69% CFR

Rates are ALL down from last week. Not sure how to explain it given the recent spike unless we simply haven't had enough time elapse for the recent uptick in cases/hospitalizations to manifest itself in deaths.