The purpose discouraging testing is to score political points for the governor. Reducing testing serves no purpose in the interest of public health.
DeSantis for the win
- Thread starter Tsing Tao
- Start date
The purpose discouraging testing is to score political points for the governor. Reducing testing serves no purpose in the interest of public health.
We can talk about the "long lines in the ER" in states that test like crazy and those like Florida who have gotten common sense. And we can see if there is a difference. Shall we?
Crazy NPC fear porn guy wants fear porn. Shock.
Be careful there. We have seen Camp Biden adopt some of the language of their opponents many times over as it is convenient for them.
This could be another area. Aside from the many issues related to the Biden testing- or lack thereof- there are some out there beginning to argue that -by sending out all these home tests- that it will artificially reduce the number of publicy reported cases. I am pretty sure Biden will still take those reporting reductions though.
First let me say that the Biden initiative to send out home test kits and masks is 'too little, to late" for the Omicron wave this should have been done much earlier --- but the Biden administration flubbed it. Just one of their many fiascoes over the past year.
Testing is changing with the availability of home tests kits -- many more people will test at home and not provide results to the state. This, of course, undermines the case count of the state -- leading to effective under-reporting and a loss of understanding the true positivity rate.
Looking forward this all comes down to where should the U.S. go in regards to direction for future policy -- as per CDC guidance, etc. Already we have every state doing their own thing --- with no common structure or guidance regarding restrictions, etc. We are also flushing a lot of federal 'pandemic" money down the toilet as many states misspend the money -- some even spending money in ways that effectively promote Covid (like giving money to schools only if they don't wear masks).
Either the U.S. needs to say that case count is meaningless moving forward -- hence giving up on contract tracing, knowing positivity rate in communities, etc. --- and merely track hospitalizations and deaths. Or the U.S. needs to have firm federal guidelines (and associated money) on what is expected with case counting, contact tracing, etc. (which we failed at for two years already).
The first option of not tracking cases is effectively throwing up your arms and admitting total failure and saying we don't care how many people are infected or die. Nor do we care to tell vulnerable people how much Covid is in their community or schools.
While some try to treat Omicron as a common cold simply because the severity level is only 30% that of Delta-- the sad reality is that the next variant may be much more deadly and just as infectious. Allowing Omicron to spread widely (especially among the unvaccinated) just increases the chances of a deadly variant in the upcoming months.
Long lines in the ERs.
Yes, the situation for Covid cases and hospitalizations in Florida appears to be improving. They may be over the peak -- which the university models projected only to occur on February 3rd. This is good news for Florida.
Florida COVID update: Fewer hospital patients, and the latest on new cases and deaths
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article257550123.html
Florida on Thursday reported 45,668 additional COVID-19 cases and 111 more deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
In the past seven days, the state has added 70 deaths and 44,124 cases per day on average, according to Herald calculations. In all, Florida has recorded at least 5,242,386 confirmed COVID cases and 63,569 deaths.
The CDC backlogs cases and deaths for Florida on Mondays and Thursdays, when multiple days in the past have their totals changed. In August, Florida began reporting cases and deaths by the “case date” and “death date” rather than the date they were logged into the system.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 11,839 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Thursday report. This data is reported from 254 Florida hospitals. The number of people hospitalized across the state is 264 fewer than the day prior, when 231 hospitals reported.
COVID-19 patients take up 19.74% of all inpatient beds in the latest report, compared to 21.29% among Wednesday’s reporting hospitals.
Omicron, so far, is not as deadly as delta’s surge last summer. Hospitalizations have not approached records set during delta’s wave from July through September.
At delta’s August peak, more than 15,000 patients were hospitalized in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,615 were in intensive care units, a decrease of 20 from Wednesday. That represents about 25.22% of the state’s ICU beds, compared to 25.09% the previous day.
Thank God DeSantis did this, right?
Or do we blame him only when bad things happen? Still trying to figure out the right procedure.
Note that the Omicron wave in Northeastern states ended earlier, had steeper declines, and fewer hospitalizations/deaths per capita. Because they follow proper public health practices. DeSantis managed to ensure Florida endured more misery and death than other states in a similar cycle.
Really? How do you calculate this? Please share how you quantify the "more misery and death" DeSantis ensured Florida suffer over other states?
The only reason I ask is that Florida is:
1. Third most popular state
2. Second highest concentration of elderly
3. The most lax of restrictions in the country
Given these three things, if you were correct, you'd expect to see Florida as the #1 worst state by any COVID reporting numbers that are widely accepted. But you don't.
So please, enlighten me on how your statement isn't just complete and total crap. And please use specific data so that I may follow along, not just subjectivity (we already know what you think about DeSantis personally and where your narrative lies).