The Rapid Spread of Covid-19

In Texas there is an unnamed wedding photographer who was hired to "shoot" a wedding.  According to an article in Texas Monthly, the groom tested positive for Covid-19 and did not disclose the test results to that photographer. She is in a high-risk group and wouldn't have done the job had the groom disclosed his positive test.  She has now tested positive for Covid-19.

An unidentified man filled out a Covid-19 disclosure form claiming he did not have symptoms prior to boarding a United Airlines flight.  CNN reports that he suffered what appears to have been a heart attack mid-flight and died.  Some of the passengers performed CPR on the man in a desperate attempt to save his life.  Now they are all at risk.

Dr. Deborah Birx of the Trump Administration's Covid-19 task force became the latest member of the "do as I say, not as I do" club.  She advised people to restrict gatherings to their immediate households and then hosted a multi-generational Thanksgiving for more than just her own household.

An 18 year old pre-med student named Skylar Mack went to the Cayman Islands to watch her boyfriend compete in a Jet Ski race. She was ordered to quarantine for 14 days.  She complained that the wristband was too tight and it was loosened. That enabled her to slip it off and go to the race. Four families had to go into isolation because they came in contact with her at the event.

Kirk Cameron organized a mask-free singalong that he labeled as a "peaceful protest."  Medical experts warn against this type of event citing the risk of it becoming a "super-spreader" event.

Meanwhile, the rich and famous are allowed to flout the ban on outdoor dining at Mastro's Ocean Club in Malibu.  But the eating is done inside tents, so it really isn't outdoor dining with the extra ventilation not found in an indoor dining room.

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We hear reports of how ICU bed capacity is less than 5% here in CA in some regions.  Last night's local news reported that ambulances are waiting as long as 7 hours to offload patients.  We are in a crisis.

In 2019 the leading causes of death in the U.S. were heart disease and cancer.  Average number of deaths per day in 2019 for these two causes of death were 1,796 and 1,642 respectively.  Here is the number of Covid-19 deaths per day in the U.S. recently from OurworldinData:

December 22 - 2,714

December 21 - 2,655

December 20 - 2,625

December 19 - 2,607

December 18 - 2,580

December 17 - 2,646

December 16 - 2,585

Johns Hopkins Covid-19 tracking claims there were 3,611 deaths on December 16, so death tracking is not perfect.  But the numbers prove that at the moment Covid-19 deaths on a daily basis are higher than what were the leading causes of death last year.

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How did we get to this point?  It began with one man.  Donald J. Trump downplayed the seriousness of this pandemic from the start.  Here are just some of the stupid things he spewed forth as "fact"

If he hadn't downplayed the seriousness of the crisis, if he had endorsed social distancing and mask-wearing, we would not be where we are now.  Instead he chose to make mask-wearing a political issue. His followers latched on to this idea and continue to deny the science involved in wearing masks and maintaining social distance.

What will happen when January 20th comes and Joe Biden is sworn in?  Will people do as he is asking and wear masks for 100 days?