by Kerry Dougherty
Get ready, Virginia. Gov. Ralph Northam, the man who can’t stop the rioting in Richmond but thinks he can stop the spread of COVID-19, is holding a press conference.
No, he won’t be announcing strong measures to end the violence and lawlessness roiling the streets of the Capitol. Like most Democrats, the governor appears indifferent to anarchy.
Instead, he’s laser-focused on Tidewater, saying we’re a COVID-19 hot spot.
One thing you can count on: By this afternoon the Ruler of the Commonwealth will issue another decree restricting the rights of Virginians.
He’s been making little threats on Twitter about what’s coming:
He’s been making little threats on Twitter about what’s coming:
Cases are rising! Cases are rising!
Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. We have no baseline because – for reasons Northam has never explained – Virginia was one of the last states to begin testing in earnest. Who knows how many cases went undiagnosed back in April and May when we were testing just a handful of Virginians every day.
At an event in Hampton yesterday, where Northam announced a $70 million grant program for the small businesses he wrecked with his shutdowns this spring, the governor blamed coronavirus infections on people in our area who are defying his rules.
“We’re looking at options like decreasing the size of gatherings from 250 to 50. We’re looking at what’s going on when people are congregating in bars and restaurants … and really ignoring our guidelines.
“We have people coming from a lot of other states … and what we’re seeing is people gathering in these private parties and social gatherings, paying no attention to wearing masks, social distancing … between that and the bars and restaurants, that’s where the problem is, as we talk to our tracers. And that’s where we’re going to need to make some adjustments,” said Northam, according to The Virginian-Pilot.
Oh really? I’m not sure Northam’s crack contact tracers have any idea what’s going on, since test results are reportedly taking anywhere from seven to 15 days to come back. Many experts say that after 48 hours, contact tracing becomes unreliable.
I hesitate to point this out, but didn’t we know the virus would spread when people were able to resume some of their activities and go back to work? If I’m not mistaken “15 Days to Slow the Spread” was intended to give hospitals time to prepare for the influx.
Last time I checked – that would be yesterday – there were 821 hospital patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the commonwealth. There were 3,834 empty hospital beds and no Virginia hospitals were experiencing difficulty obtaining medical supplies or PPE. Oh, and 80 percent of the commonwealth’s ventilators were collecting dust and of the 20 percent in use, only 23% of those were being used by Covid patients.
Looks like mission accomplished to me.
But Northam and other COVID Doomers feast on bad news and shrug off encouraging signs. That’s why the governor has stopped talking about death rates.
I haven’t, though. For the seven days ending July 24th there were 51 COVID deaths in Virginia. In the seven days prior to that there were 55. Oh, and the week before THAT? There were 113 deaths.
So even if cases are spiking, deaths are not.
Don’t take my word for it, here is yesterday’s chart from the Virginia Department of Health website. That’s a consistent drop in deaths since a peak in early May. Will this come up at today’s presser? Of course not. Doesn’t fit the narrative.
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