Bacon's Rebellion

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COVID-19 Update: Blastoff!

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by

James A. Bacon
in

According to data published by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) this morning, the number of new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Virginia Friday shot up to 395, up from 306 the previous day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,407. To emphasize the change in the number of new cases, I have changed the graph I update daily from displaying total cases to new cases.

Here’s the daily data roundup:

Total COVID-19 cases: 2,407, up 395 from the previous day.
Total hospitalizations: 390, up 68.
Total deaths: 52, up six.
Total tests: 21,547, up 2,547.
Percentage tests positive: 15.5%

And here, straight from the spreadsheet of John Butcher, are the current “doubling” rates for key metrics:

Case count: 3.4 days
Hospitalizations: 3.7 days
Deaths: 3.1 days

— JAB

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22 responses to “COVID-19 Update: Blastoff!”

  1. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    So I forgot to take my scarf to the grocery store. Don’t have a mask. Seemed like about half of the people were masked. Not all employees are masked. Luckily it was as empty as I’ve seen in three weeks.

    In the check out line, a store employee comes up and directs me to group my items like with like, I guess to make it easier to bag them. I start doing so, but not quickly enough for her. She comes to the front of the cart with me, starts putting her un-gloved hands on my grocery items, breathing on them with her un-masked face. She got a nasty “back the hell off” from me that I regret, but which I hope she will remember.

    Lots of folks just not getting this yet.

    One of the “green” consequences of all this is the stores say, don’t bring your own bags. They won’t touch them. All the people who said, uh, plastic bags are sanitary, were Green Shamed and ridiculed. Well guess who was right. Add the stupid bag tax to the veto list, Governor.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      God an X-ray this morning and DID wear a mask and was queried about 5 things before they registered me – like: temperature, fever, had been tested, had, had contact with someone who was tested or someone who had it, etc.

      Everyone was wearing masks – employees and patients.

      then went to ye old Walmart where I sprayed the cart with alcohol and had my mask on. There were others with masks but a lot more without and none of the employees had them nor the check out folks.

      They had limited supplies of TP and paper towes, one pure cust. They had no bleach or alcohol. I do self-check out and though was asked if I was ok, did not get any intervention help. People have thrown discarded gloves in the park lot… what is wrong with people?

      I got gas but neglected to spray the pump or wear gloves, next time.
      VDOT probably will take a hit even though they are more diversified now – a good chunk comes from sales tax now but that’s whacked also. I expect the
      Feds to do some more Keynesian stuff – big deficit-financed infrastructure bill… by the time this is over, I expect the Fed debt to be 30 trillion or more but HEY – they’re paying almost no interest and talk that they might do like Europe and actually CHARGE people to “park” their money.

    2. TBill Avatar
      TBill

      I also said “bag” the plastic bag tax a few weeks back here, or same sentiment anyways

    3. idiocracy Avatar
      idiocracy

      This is one reason I use the self checkout whenever it is available.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        I do too – but I worry the guy before me or the gal before him was infected and spread it all over the checkout station. In that regard, it may actually be better to bring your own bag… scan and drop into your bag – don’t mess without anything else at that station.

  2. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    “She comes to the front of the cart with me, starts putting her un-gloved hands on my grocery items, breathing on them with her un-masked face. ”

    “All the people who said, uh, plastic bags are sanitary, were Green Shamed and ridiculed. Well guess who was right. ”

    Who?

    Whoever is bagging for you is touching all the same items AND the bags (plastic or paper). How is this more sanitary than the manager’s activity at the cart?

    And before answering with “gloves”, are the baggers changing gloves between customers?

    Oct 2001, I was “selected” for “additional screening” at the gate. Remember that? The TSA agent opens my shaving kit, pulls out all of the items one-by-one, and then thumbs the bristles of my toothbrush.
    “Hey!”
    “I’m wearing gloves.”
    “Yeah, that you put on 5 passengers ago. Don’t put it back in the bag.”

    Truth be known, the COVID-19 won’t destroy the world. No, that will happen with a fatal foot fungus traced back to a TSA check point, “Remove your shoes and put them on the x-ray then step into the scanner…”

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      The check out guy had mask and gloves. The baggers had masks and gloves. Not her. But mainly she was one foot away, crowding my space. That set me off. But in truth, the point is reduce the number of “touches” knowing they can’t all be eliminated.

      You are missing (or ignoring) the point on the plastic bags. The “movement” has made them a target. The industry was correct and now it would clearly be a huge mistake to move totally to reusable bags. They are NOT sanitary and never were.

      Hmm, when will I see the folks at TSA again? May have to drive to Texas to see that grandchild….

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I think Nancy is right about the gloves. Unless they are taken off after every use – they’re just transferring whatever was on the first item – to the next.

      The gloves can actually give a false sense of safety if they are not changed.

      1. Steve Haner Avatar
        Steve Haner

        Don’t disagree. A box of gloves I have, but so far haven’t pulled them out. The best defense is minimal contact at all. I haven’t gone to on line ordering and curb pickup at Kroger yet, but I guess that’s next. Like I said, the store was delightfully empty and keeping spaced was easy.

      2. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        EVEN THE MASK — A filter that is NOT changed becomes a concentrator. This goes for that filter in your refrigerator that’s been unchanged since you bought it in 2005. Don’t just push the button to make the red light go away.

        Unless the mask is treated to kill the virus then any virus will collect on the surface, only to be dislodged and re-aerosolized again, admittedly highly reduced quantities, but it will happen.

        That’s part of the problem faced by the medical staff reusing masks, or using a single mask for a prolonged period of time.

        So if that checkout person wears the same gloves and mask all day…

        1. Steve Haner Avatar
          Steve Haner

          You really want me ordering on line, don’t you. 🙂 I’ve been trying to leave that option for those worse off than me….

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            No, DJ does if you are an “old” person.. stay off the streets and let the young and dumb trade the virus back and forth – and you just lay low… until the “herd” reaches infectious uniformity 😉

            Of course if the grocery guys are part of that “herd”, not sure if I’d trust the stuff they handled and packed..

            Look. A certain number of geezers need to die anyhow, right? You know.. the part about cutting the weak and old out of the herd? 😉

          2. Nancy_Naive Avatar
            Nancy_Naive

            No, I want people to understand the confusion on the mask/non-mask issue. It’s a tough one. Someone infected should wear the mask, it traps the virus inside the mask. Someone not infected will be protected, it keeps the virus outside… BUT if they don’t change or clean often then it spreads it.
            I sympathize. Now the scientists tell us the virus has been found, alive and happy, thriving in the oceans and in the air at the surf line.
            There are scientists and there are science-deniers, then there is me, “Geez man, don’t tell me that!”

        2. idiocracy Avatar
          idiocracy

          The water filter change reminder in my 3-year-old refrigerator is quite idiotic.

          All it does is remind you to change the filter at some interval of X number of days, without regard for usage (or lack thereof).

          What’s more, a power failure will reset it.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            ain’t technology grand? 😉 We had our well tested – it has coliforms which as long as they are not ecoli – not terrible but the actual filter needed changing like once a week and the “good” taste of the water went away. Now we’re back to no filter… nothing is ever simple……

          2. idiocracy Avatar
            idiocracy

            I would have thought it would be smart enough to keep track of water usage. A little better programming and/or a little better CPU and:
            (1)It could keep track of how much water comes out of the dispenser by measuring how long the button is pressed down and accumulating that time in a variable
            (2)It could keep track of how many icemaker cycles there are
            (3)Since the amount of water dispensed per unit of time is dependent upon the water pressure, it could determine this by measuring how long it takes to fill the icemaker, and use this to determine how many seconds of dispenser operation is enough to exhaust the capacity of the filter.

            All I have on my well, besides the filter on the fridge, is a 100 micron sediment filter. I only have to clean that out maybe once a year. They did the required health dept. test for e-coli when it was drilled 3 years ago, that passed, none found.

            I have been thinking about getting a water softener because the water is quite hard, 250ppm hardness.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    early morn – for the “morning people” has many advantages… I was always a bit suspicious of those who were not “morning people” myself.

  4. TBill Avatar
    TBill

    Wash DC is saying they have adopted a certain named COVID model, and the peak will be end June to early July. If that’s true, to me that implies summer activity plans – concerts in the park , July 4 etc – are in serious question. There is more and more talk about this dragging on for months and months with possible several flare ups in Fall and Winter. That implies even if some activities resume, some people will want to opt out (of community activities etc). Best case scenario is some kind of treatment found by Fall. Bottom line is there is no immediate prospect of normal. There will have to be a new normal, which may include less carbon emissions but many other implications. less companies, less community activities, less travel etc

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    The virus wants to infect as many as it can. That’s what it does. If we try to impede it – we basically push it downstream instead of a peak then steep drop.

    What that means is that anyone who did not get infected is still vulnerable to infection if we do not have a vaccine. That means literally what goes around, comes around.

    It will come back as long as there are still uninfected available.

    Some of the scientists are saying 18 months, plus once we get past the “moderated peak”.

  6. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Just FYI – MedicAID .. IS “insurance’. IT works just like insurance in that it has a long list of what it pays for and what it does not – and it is means-tested which means some people have to pay.

    In terms of “working hard” for your insurance, If the private sector was not required to cover you and operated the way they wanted, they would not offer insurance to those with pre-existing conditions or if they did, it would cost 10 times what a healthy or young person would.

    IN fact, it is the Govt that forces insurance companies to offer “guaranteed issue” for all employer-provided and on top of that – everyone , regardless of age or health status pays the same premium. No insurance company would do insurance that way if not forced to

    @TMT – Many retired Federal employees have BOTH Medicare Part B AND their FEHB insurance. Medicare is the primary and the FEHB insurance pays for what Medicare will not pay for.

    For Medicare Advantage – which is a “network” of providers (you cannot choose), you cannot have both Medicare Advantage AND the FEHB. If you sign up for Medicare Advantage, you must give up your FEHB.

  7. Top-GUN Avatar
    Top-GUN

    Just FYI Larry… Medicaid Is Not Insurance..
    Car insurance does not cover pretty existing dents, dings, scratches and other damage.
    Fire insurance does not cover houses that are on fire or already burned down…
    You can’t get life insurance on folk that are already dead….
    I know you libs like to pretend that your welfare entitlement health programs are insurance.. but they’re not and never will be. ..
    And as long as we keep subsidizing irresponsible folk we’ll just get more of them…

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Right and as long as folks run for office with that as their message, they lose.

      Many of those who have Medicaid do work – but their employer does not offer insurance or even if they do, these folks do not earn enough to afford it.

      Another big chunk are Women and their kids… about 1/2 of births are Medicaid and 1/2 of kids are Medicaid.

      People have kids even though they cannot even afford insurance for themselves… not good…

      But they do get sick and hurt and they do go to the hospital and you pay for them there. So how would we pay?

      Real world , gonna advocate repealing EMALA? gonna run for office promising to get rid of EMTALA? bzzzztt… that’s another loss – and those irresponsible “libs” get put in charge.

      kind of a vicious cycle, eh? Not sure how you fix it if the
      libs keep getting into office, eh?

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