re: OT: Alabama Coronavirus Thread (see link in OP for case numbers and death totals in AL)

LINK ]13 things to know for today on coronavirus (thehill)

LINK ]Coronavirus update: US sketches out economy's reopen, but testing remains a big worry (yahoo)

LINK ]Trump demands states 'LIBERATE' after he issues new coronavirus guidelines and protests pop up (cnbc)

LINK ]Coronavirus antibody testing finds Bay Area infections may be 85 times higher than reported: researchers (foxnews)

LINK ]Heartland hotspots: A sudden rise in coronavirus cases is hitting rural states without stay-at-home orders (cnn)

Amazing how CNN politicizes everything. They publish a story today attacking conservative states without magic "stay at home orders" and use wording like "Oklahoma saw a 53% increase in cases over the past week."

Then you jump over to Oklahoma's health department page and their Daily situation report (ADPH should be embarrassed if they look at this one, it is great) and lo-and-behold we see that new cases are actually falling, they have a lot of ICU and hospital bed space available, and today they added more to the 'cured' list than they did the 'new cases' list.

It's like they think nobody will bother to look behind them.

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You also have Arkansas and Nebraska that never implemented stay at home orders yet have pretty low numbers. Every state didn’t need one

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Alabama is one of those states that didn't need one...or any precautions, really.

Our larger metros did. JeffCo and Mobile for sure. Shutting down spring break at the beach was also needed to keep all the kids from bringing it back home. For most of the state, the restrictions on capacity now being recommended would have put us in virtually the same place we are today.

Part of that is the benefit of hindsight, so while I did not like it I understand how state leaders were driven by fear. Now if they wait until May 1, I will be very pissed.

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No one is out of the woods yet but California so far looks to be among the few most effective areas in the entire world in combating this.

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Again when a state of almost 40 million people has only tested 230k(.005) no way to know if anything they have done is working.

Also that link provided a study that shows the numbers appear to be far greater then what has been reported.

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They have every element that supposedly enhanced the possibility of a disastrous wave (dense cities, tons of European/Asian travel, demographics like Oakland and LA... etc etc etc)

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Multiple sources are also reporting that testing has been very limited among non-white demographics who seem to be more prone to getting the virus.

Again CA may face one of the tougher logistical situation in combating the virus but I would wager when this is all said and done it may be worse across then state then NYC.

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Some say dead relatives are getting coronavirus stimulus checks © Getty Images Some Americans are saying that their dead relatives are receiving stimulus checks from the most recent coronavirus relief package.

Jeanne Siracuse told NBC News that a check had been deposited into the bank account of her mother, who died last August. "Obviously, she does not need stimulus right now," Siracuse said. "It's not something she would have wanted to happen. She was very conservative and would not want to see that kind of waste."

Peter Moreau also told the outlet that his mother received a direct deposit event though her death in January was reported to the Social Security Administration.

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August & January aren't really recently deceased. The Social Security records show they're deceased. Apparently, the computer program that reads the Social Security database and produced the deposits was poorly written, since it doesn't even verify that the SS recipients are not deceased and are still receiving SS benefits. Programming 101.

I agree that testing in general is where the US as a whole is way behind where we need to be, should be.


NY focused more on testing but it seems that the rate of false negatives has been extremely high. People around the country found it controversial that NY attributed a lot of untested deaths to Covid but those of us here weren't surprised since we have seen people that certainly have/had it test negative.

(My personal experience is knowing lots of people that were exposed at a concert in mid-March. I know numerous examples such as this: a couple where the wife is extremely sick with every symptom but tests negative whereas her husband with hardly any symptoms at all tests positive)


Anyway, my main point about California is simply that tons of untested positive cases should be showing up in increased hospitalizations and deaths (the way they have in NY, now Great Britain etc etc). California still has shockingly low numbers in those, the most important numbers.

If California has tons of untested cases that are not getting sick then that would seem to be even better for them --even if hard to explain why their populace is so much more resistant to it than anywhere else.

I just think hospitalization/deaths are a lot more reliable and telling statistics than the +/- tests.

To state the obvious, the reopening will be very interesting to watch.

TLDR: I do not see any possible way for schools to reopen this year. (I have heard it mentioned in other conversations)

Assuming the reopening in May others have already established child care will be the huge issue. Day care and/or schools.

If schools do reopen this will only be a glorified day care. I see zero possibility of schools requiring attendance.
I see the following groups of students staying home in large numbers:
1. Students old enough to supervise themselves
2. Students who have a parent working from home or a caregiver at home.
3. Students who themselves or a family member have any health issues.
4. Older students who lack proper home supervision, no one really cares where they are

Students who will be at school.
1. Younger students of parents without a good supervision alternative
2. Students who depend on school meals.


Other issues:
1. Many schools went to online and have a large number of students who have finished their coursework.
2. School attendance would have to be voluntary for common sense and liability issues
3. Staggered schedules of 1/2 days would double transportation costs and still would not eliminate the child care issue.
4. Staggered schedules of 2 or 3 days a week would not eliminate child care issues.
5. Once the state announced no physical presence at school the remainder of the year they pretty much locked that door. I would assume a reopening following that announcement could create liability issues for any child/staff becoming ill. Even if a court would rule in favor of the states, most schools are lawsuit averse to a fault due to the financial costs associated with even getting a favorable ruling in court.
5. Most schools would only have 3-4 weeks left on the calendar come May 1st. Asking parents to find suitable private or family supervision for this extra few weeks eliminates the states responsibility and liability. Even with the inconvenience to parents the state will protect itself.

I think the rush to reopen could become a bigger logistical cluster than the shutdown.

Um, it has already been announced by the governor that the 2019-2020 school year is over. That is a done deal.

The discussion here and nationally is what happens this fall.