America’s Attention Span.

We have a very short attention spans as a nation we get bored easily.

COVID-19… that was yesterday’s news, now everyone is talking about Trump walking down the ramp at West Point or the way he drank a glass of water.

America Is Done With COVID-19. COVID-19 Isn’t Done With America

Time

By Jeffey Kluger and Chris Wilson

June 12, 2020

It’s been months now since U.S. President Donald Trump predicted his miracle. That was back in February, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the president announced that come April, when the weather got warmer, the coronavirus would “miraculously [go] away.”

[…]

Instead, the U.S. is very much on fire, well into a second phase of the crisis, with the COVID-19 caseload steadily rising to more than 2 million confirmed cases and more than 113,000 deaths. According to a TIME analysis, 25 states are continuing to see case counts grow day by day. Four of those states—Arizona, California, Mississippi and North Carolina—have yet to decline for any extended window even temporarily; the rest appear to have initially bent the curve downward and are now experiencing a second wave of infections. And in many of those cases, the second phase is worse than the first, or on track to erase any encouraging declines in the past month. In Oregon, for example, the state appeared to flatten the curve very early, peaking at 1.76 cases per 100,000 people on April 2 and declining to 0.8 by May 24. In the intervening two weeks, a resurgent wave has pushed that figure past its previous peak to 2.3 as of June 8—and still likely to grow.

Arizona Family reported that Gov. Doug Ducey said,

"The virus is not going away," said Ducey. "There's no cure for this virus and no vaccines. We need to learn to live with it and make sure we are protecting the most vulnerable in our society." 

Some reporters in the crowd came back with questions for the governor. One asked if Ducey was "tone deaf" when it comes to recent ride in positive cases in Arizona.

We are sick and tried on being cooped up… we want our freedom!

The Miami Herald reported that,

Coronavirus death toll in US to reach 200,000 by fall, model says. What changed?

By Don Sweeney

June 16, 2020

An influential University of Washington model used by the White House now forecasts a national coronavirus death toll of more than 200,000 by Oct. 1, The Washington Post reports.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model predicts 201,129 deaths in the United States from coronavirus by Oct. 1.

It had earlier forecast 169,890 U.S. deaths by that date, McClatchy News previously reported.

[…]

The model projects that Florida will be one of the worst-hit states, with its projected death toll rising from 6,559 to 18,675 by Oct. 1, The Washington Post reports.

California and Arizona also will see sharp increases in projected deaths, according to the publication.

“We’re going to get another 100,000 deaths by September,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, which also predicts 200,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths by September, CNN reports.

The COVID Act Now has some interesting graphs.

The states with the most active COVID policies have the lowest number of cases, while the state with lax policies have medium to high number of reported cases.

But have you noticed that the people don’t care about the virus anymore… it is yesterday’s news.

South Carolina was the first state to begin lifting restrictions, on April 20. Others went much later, especially New York, which remains the epicenter of the crisis, and did not begin opening back up in some regions of the state until May 15—pointedly excluding hard-hit New York City. Only on June 8 was the city permitted to resume non-essential construction and manufacturing and reopen non-essential stores. Museums, theaters, restaurants, bars and other high-traffic venues remain shuttered.

The apparent result of this disparate approach: South Carolina is back in crisis mode, while New York is seeing its lowest infection levels since March 1.

“You can make a mistake today that wipes out everything we’ve done so far, so we have to stay smart,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, at a June 11 briefing.

[…]

As of June 10, that sequence has reversed. The Northeast is now the region with the lowest daily case rate, at 3.7. The Midwest, at 4.4., isn’t too far behind. Both have flattened the curve significantly in the last month or so. Meanwhile, daily case rates in the West and South have been on the rise, and are both now at about 6.5 per 100,000 residents.

Even in states like New York where they had taken early steps to control they are now ignoring the warning about social gatherings.

Gov. Cuomo Could ‘Reverse’ Reopening In Regions Breaking Social Distancing Rules, Restaurants And Bars Could Lose Liquor Licenses

CBS News

June 14, 2020

“We have gotten 25,000 complaints, to the state, of businesses that are in violation of the reopening plan,” said Cuomo. “We have never received more complaints in a shorter period of time.”

He added the complaints have come mostly from Manhattan and The Hamptons.

Cuomo said he would “reverse” course in regions where the state’s reopening plan is not being followed.

The governor said inspectors from the state Liquor Authority are out, along with a task force of state investigators.

I seen state parks with “Full” signs up and the parking lot is closed, but the people are parking down the road and going through the woods to get to the beaches, and they are not wearing any masks.

WE WANT TO PARTY!

People want to get back to normal and as the Time article said, “America Is Done With COVID-19. COVID-19 Isn’t Done With America”

We are ripe for a second and third wave of the virus.

Me... I am going to keep my social distance until I feel safe, limiting my contact to friends and necessary store visits. 

---

We just traveled back in time to the beginning of the year.

There is no virus threat.

Only a few cases.

It will go away in a couple of weeks.

One big media hoax.

Now the same people are saying that there is no second wave.

Who are we to believe?

Mike Pence’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal takes aim at two enemies: coronavirus and ‘the media’

Poynter

By Tom Jones

June 17, 2020

A new forecast is out: 200,000 people will die in the U.S. from the coronavirus by Oct. 1.

CBS News reports that 20 states are seeing increases in the average number of new infections each day. In nearly half of those states, there are more patients being treated in hospitals than there were at the start of June. The New York Times wrote, “… as of Saturday, the daily number of new coronavirus cases was climbing in 22 states, shifting course from what had been downward trajectories in many of those places.”

Texas has seen hospitalizations rise more than 50% since Memorial Day. Florida is setting records with daily cases. A spokesperson at Jackson Health, one of Florida’s largest health systems, said it is seeing a “spike” in COVID-19 cases.

These are real numbers based on official data.

Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said Tuesday, “We may be done with the pandemic, but the pandemic is not done with us.

But our great Vice President said that is not true…

Pence wrote, “In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a ‘second wave’ of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown. 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.”

Pence mentioned “cable news coverage,” though he never named a specific network. He touted the Trump administration’s work against the coronavirus, pointing out where he feels they have had success, as well as praising the “resilience of the American people.”

“...praising the “resilience of the American people.” as the American people are dying off.

From the New York Times,

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s explanation that a rise in testing was a reason behind new coronavirus outbreaks, even though testing data has shown that such a claim is misleading.

Lets stop and think for a while.

What we know;

• Yes, there is an increase in testing.
• Yes, there have been more positive cases found.

So is it because we doing more testing and the results are misleading as Pence maintains or is it because there are more cases out there then we knew about and we are just finding them? It almost sounds like what Pence is saying is the testing causes the virus.

So who are you going to believe because your life may depend upon your answer.