Today’s update starts with some very troubling news.
Even though it is becoming apparent to anyone with necessary math skills, common sense, and basic knowledge of economics, several cities and regions throughout the nation are continuing to use voodoo modeling to prolong the pandemic stay-hat-home orders.
Take Los Angeles, for example. Last year, we covered stories of homelessness-caused typhus and typhoid outbreaks, that did little to inspire any significant public health action.
However, for the Wuhan Coronavirus, all the stops are being pulled out.
Los Angeles County’s top health director on Tuesday said that restrictions will likely be in place for at least another three months even as Gov. Gavin Newsom said that dine-in restaurants and some offices can reopen.The timetable for COVID-19 public health precautions was not an agenda item at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, but came as supervisors were discussing another coronavirus related issue.Barbara Ferrer, LA County’s leading voice on anti-COVID measures, has warned repeatedly that precautions in some form will be necessary well into the future, absent a major breakthrough.”While the Safer at Home orders will remain in place over the next few months, restrictions will be gradually relaxed under our 5-stage Roadmap to Recovery, while making sure we are keeping our communities as safe as possible during this pandemic,” Ferrer said in a statement released Tuesday evening. “We are being guided by science and data that will safely move us forward along the road to recovery in a measured way—one that allows us to ensure that effective distancing and infection control measures are in place.
I predict than many Californians will be using this summer to relocate to places with more reasonable public health policies for all diseases.
Live by the panic-reporting, die by the panic-response.
Big advertisers from General Motors Co. to PepsiCo Inc. to General Mills Inc.are seeking to walk back spending commitments they made to broadcast and cable networks, a dynamic that is testing the industry’s five-decade-old way of doing business.TV ad spending fell in the initial weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, but was insulated from an even bigger drop. That is because the majority of the roughly $42 billion spent on national TV ads in the U.S. is bound by contractual commitments that are made well in advance of a new TV season, which starts each September.Under those “upfront” deals, the first real opportunity since the pandemic struck for advertisers to cut back future spending commitments began May 1. Companies now have the option to cancel up to 50% of their third-quarter ad spending.
The experts seem intent upon waiting for a vaccine until schools offer more than virtual colleges. Hopefully, the tuition will reflect the new, limited approach to instruction.
The head of the California State University system announced virtual education will continue in the fallThe move was being made on the 23 CSU campuses to protect students and staff from the spread of COVID-19.Fresno State students made the switch to online classes on March 20th due to the pandemic.But Chancellor Timothy White said remote learning will continue in the 2020 fall semester.White said, “This virtual planning approach for the next academic year is necessary because of the evolving data surrounding the progression of COVID 19.”
Of all the policy decisions made in the wake of the pandemic, the prisoner releases are perhaps the most questionable.
More than 100 inmates cut loose from incarceration on Rikers Island over coronavirus concerns in late March have had run-ins with the law since being released, The Post has learned.The roughly 110 inmates have accounted for 190 arrests since the pandemic took hold of the Big Apple, according to police.Of those arrests, 45 — or roughly one-quarter — were for burglaries, helping drive the 43-percent spike in break-ins over the last month, according to NYPD data.Police sources believe the number of recidivists — which accounted for about 7 percent of the 1,500 released in March — doesn’t paint the whole picture, because hundreds more inmates have been released since.
An Australian study could have a significant impact on school reopenings in the fall.
A new report, cited by the chief medical officer as the federal government advocates the reopening of schools, says children are unlikely to transmit Covid-19 between each other or to adults.The study by NSW Health’s Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), released on Sunday, examined transmission of the virus in NSW schools and childcare centres between March and mid-April.Examining the spread 18 of coronavirus cases (nine students and nine staff) from 15 schools, the report’s preliminary findings were that only one primary school student and one high school student “may have contracted Covid-19 from the initial cases at their schools”.“No teacher or staff member contracted Covid-19 from any of the initial school cases,” the report added.The low transmission rate was despite 735 students and 128 staff being “close contacts” of the initial 18 cases.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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