Have you heard about Florida's resurgence of Covid-19?

Over the last five days (Tuesday - Saturday) the number of new cases per day has gone back up to the same rate which existed prior to the flattening of the curve. Everyday has been listed as at least 1k and one day as 1.4k.

Our state death total is now 2700.

I wouldn't recommend acting as if a Florida vacation is safer than it was eight weeks ago.

Also my own rural county had its worst week from Sunday through Saturday. A week ago Saturday, the number of cases in my county was 12. Today, my county has 20 cases.

Hyper-focusing on one kind of atrocity can lead to ignoring other disasters. (This is not intended to diminish the horrific nature of the kind of atrocity that is in the forefront of the news, it is to say that we cannot ignore the other problems that are simultaneously occurring.)

It is funny, we were all so cautious a couple months ago, when the actual cases rates in most states were still fairly low as a percentage of the state's population - excluding New York and New Jersey and northern Washington.

But now as the Stay in Place orders are being relaxed and everyone is moving about a bit more, the risks of coming across an infected individual are actually significantly higher since the number of cases is significantly higher than several months ago. It is NOT safer out there now, it is only reasonably safe with appropriate precautions - like masks, social distancing, hygiene, etc.

I read a great article about an Italian researcher whe developed a radar belt he could wear that would measure the real time distances people around left him as he walked about in public in Italy. If he wore a mask, statistically everyone stayed almost twice as far away from him as when he did not wear a mask. He spent several weeks wandering all over Italy and with several other individuals wearing similar belts, and found the mask wearing vastly improves REAL social distancing and may be far more important than the mere filtration the mask offers. A fantastic finding if verified,

How do masks change human behavior? An Italian scientist who has studied cow sociability decided to find outMassimo Marchiori, an Italian computer scientist, once used sensors to determine how the widths of shopping mall walkways shaped buying decisions. Another time he used GPS technology to track the movements of cows to see what behaviors led to the...www.seattletimes.com

Another article evaluating unexpected consequences of social policy - inmates released early from prison due to risks of Corona virus infections in prison , seem not to be quite as reliable about mask wearing or social distancing as most of their non-convicted peers, and MAY be contributing to higher rates of Corona virus infections in their communities - two studies discussed in the link below

Opinion | Crime and the CoronavirusA new study finds that released criminals may be spreading the virus.www.wsj.com

The week since the original post has been MUCH worse.

Wednesday was ~1.7k new cases

Thursday was ~1.6k new cases

Friday was ~2.3k new cases (the worst day so far)

Saturday was ~2.2k new cases

The death toll increased by 231 new deaths

In the last two weeks my county has more than doubled its case count.

The risks of exposure to each of us, continue to rise. Its not over just yet.

A local park near my home in Indiana recently reopend for campers this last week end.

Two weeks ago when I would walk around the lake there I rarely saw anyone, or maybe just a couple folks with their dog. Yesterday it was almost full of campers, and children, running and biking about, or walking hand in hand - not a single mask to be seen.....

Apparently the pandemic is over here in central Indiana.....

Unfortunately, I know that is not true.

I just spoke ( by phone ) with another friend who has had an exposure to a + case and now, he and his family, are all quarantineed at home for 2 or 3 weeks.....

As an aside, I just listened to a song by Danny Schmidt that captures some of what many of us must be feeling - this was written back in April, a long time ago right now, and brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it, and I do, often.

2020 Vision, by Danny Schmidttrack by Danny Schmidtdannyschmidt.bandcamp.com

And a serious article from The Atlantic about who bears some of the responsibility for the handling of the pandemic in the USA - lots of folks are mentioned

The Virus Will WinAmericans are pretending that the pandemic is over. It certainly is not.www.theatlantic.com

The US unfortunately just doesn't have a good handle on containing an infectious outbreak. Would people still be as cautious as they were a month or so ago if BLM didn't happen? Maybe, but even before BLM many people were talking about reopening the economy, even though the disease wasn't fully contained yet.

In Malaysia we've seen a drastic decline in new cases over the past month with strict guidelines in place, and even now we're still living with guidelines and restrictions in place as more sectors begin reopening. Currently, our Recovery Movement Control Order is scheduled to go on for two months. Unfortunately, the sooner the US reopens the economy without fully containing the virus, the worse things could end up.

I find it interesting that Governor Cuomo is threatening to shut down parts of New York again after there were crowds of maskless people outside of New York City bars.

As maskless New Yorkers crowd outside bars, Cuomo threatens to shut the city back downThe crowds on some New York City sidewalks would suggest that many residents have forgotten about social distancing, even after the coronavirus has killed more than 20,000 people in the five boroughs.www.washingtonpost.com

Two days ago, I posted concerning Florida's Covid-19 situation last week.

In that post, I mentioned that last Friday's new case count of 2.3k was Florida's highest new case count in a single day since this pandemic started.

No longer.

Yesterday's (Monday) new case count not only set a new record, it shattered the previous record. Yesterday's new case count was 2.8k.

Apparently things aren't going so well in Texas either.

But Pence says it's all under control as 'only' 750 people died in the last 5 day

he pointed out that daily Covid-19 deaths in the US have declined to 750 over the last five days.
......
“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy,” he wrote.

Mike Pence accuses the media of 'fear mongering' over a second wave of Covid-19 in a misleading Wall Street Journal op-ed that praises TrumpVice President Mike Pence on Tuesday announced the federal government's "success" in containing the US's coronavirus epidemic and slammed the press for "sounding the alarm bells over a 'second wave'" of Covid-19 infections.www.businessinsider.com.au

Meanwhile, in the real world:

Texas announces record number of hospitalizations as its daily death toll risesNine states - Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas - reported either new single-day highs or set a record for seven-day new-case averages on Tuesday, according to a Washington Post analysis.www.washingtonpost.com

Eddie,

Regarding the second news story: There is no second wave because the USA is still in the first wave. We dampened its affect by isolating but it never went away.

Yes, I was more referring to 9 states setting new records while Pense is saying it's been beaten.

I wasn't suggesting that you had called it a "second wave." I was merely commenting on the headline.

It's like a recent NPR person trying to explain Jun 19, 1865 but misexplaining the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

I also didn't check the WP article to find out whether it was the VP or the WP that came up with the phrase "second wave."