US

[ClammedupClam]

Just wandered what's happening in the US at the moment? A couple of months ago it was all in the news about case numbers spiralling, deaths starting to increase etc. As far as I'm aware they didn't reintroduce proper lockdowns, although some restrictions may have been brought back in some states. I know it will vary state by state, but does anyone know is their healthcare system/other systems struggling or have they avoided that somehow? And are their cases still rising? I guess it's interesting because we could be following their lead to some extent. Seems strange there is nothing much about the US in the news recently, apart from Trump getting Covid.

The healthcare system wasn't overwhelmed on a statewide level. Thats a fact.

Depends who is stating the facts, I guess.

"Governor Ron DeSantis claims the situation is ‘stabilized’ but full ICU beds and overflowing emergency rooms tell a different story."

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/24/florida-hospitals-coronavirus-outbreak-ron-desantis

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/10/florida-coronavirus-cases-icu-beds-arizona-texas

I dont know. I think if it was truly overwhelmed, other than a few smaller hospitals, it would have been all over the news non stop with the way the coverage was over the summer. It definitely wasn't. Plenty of articles and reports about how it was going to happen any day now though.

Back in July some area of Texas were close to hospital capacity
www.google.com/amp/s/www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/health-science/2020/07/16/378108/texas-hospitals-head-towards-full-capacity-due-to-covid-19-uptick/amp/

I believe houston built a $60m pop up hospital that wasn’t used. We had stay at home orders early on for several months. The difficulty here is politics. Every damn thing is political. So the governor wants to look good and open bars. Then the county judges will say whoa, we’re not ready, let’s only open partially. Or the governor will just say he leaves it in the judges hands. Our 2 county judges are doing a great job. One an Indian immigrant and one a young Hispanic woman. They both get so much racist hate that I can’t quite believe what I’m reading half the time. It’s absolutely disgusting but they keep on doing what they know is right for the good of the community.

It varies massively by State, the Governor holds all the power and they can give local Mayors their own freedom to make decisions too. My Stare has had low steady numbers for a couple of months now.
We have very few restrictions anymore and pretty much all businesses are open as normal (but most with mask mandates). My DS has been back at school since August, his school do a lot of testing and have a partnership with a local lab to get results back within 12 hours. So far, they've only had 2 positive cases since August so I feel very comfortable with him being in the classroom and continuing with youth sports.
The hospitals in my City have aporox 20% of icu beds available today so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to carry on 'as normal' for a while longer although I am worried that traveling and family get-togethers around Thanksgiving might set us back

My State was one where the governor issued a “must admit” order to the nursing homes. So they had to take Covid patients from hospitals even if they didn’t have a way to quarantine them. The results were disastrous for our older population but you’d only know this if you had someone in a nursing home or some other connection in order to get the info directly. It’s not really widely reported from what I see.

Our bars are closed; you can only order a drink if you order a full meal. Our restaurants are allowed only 25% capacity inside, or can jump through major hoops to open to 50%. That’s a major risk to their liquor license so many will not bother trying to meet the requirements.

It’s most difficult financially on the working poor. Driving around during the day things seem somewhat normal except that so many small businesses have closed.

The kids at university in my state that I know are taking all online courses but living on campus. It’s weird and stressful but they are making the most of it and the schools are doing their best to keep everyone safe and sane.

I live by a big university city and cases have gone up since students returned, but the UK infection rate is 12 times higher than my county, even with its recent rise.

The UK excess death rates have been fairly consistently double or triple that of the US as a whole.

I'm a teacher and each school district is making its own decisions from fully online to fully in school with every variation of hybrid models you can imagine. We all wear masks and try to stay away from each other in stores etc but almost everything is open. I go to pubs if I can sit outside but winters here are cold, so it will be a quiet few months before spring means we can socialize outside again.

In my state, Georgia, it is starting a second wave through the schools. The public (state) schools are open for face-to-face learning. The private and religious schools have a choice of face-to-face or virtual.
My oldest daughter is a school nurse in a school that was opened for f2f learning. They have had to send home to quarantine 3 grade levels AND my daughter is now testing positive so she is quarantined. She has given it to her husband and he is staying in quarantine.

I actually think this is one scenario (and there are others) where we (or those with insurance at least) actually benefit from a private health care system here in the US. The case fatality rate here is 2-3 %, but a quick google shows it's 6% in the U.K.? I can only assume more people are dying proportionally because the hospital resources cannot meet the need and they are not actively treating all the cases they might do? Happy to stand corrected though. In general, care I've received here has always been much more thorough (sometimes over the top) versus care in the U.K.
To answer your original question, at first I wished we'd done what U.K. did. But now I feel like you did a really extreme lockdown which undoubtedly saved lives, but it's not sustainable. and now you're out of it you're no better off than the US is who for the most part did not take such strict measures.

The US is a big place, 50 states, multiple different health systems. I believe quite a lot of poor people have no or inadequate health insurance. Therefore, the statistics available are very uncertain.

Data is available state-by-state on Worldometers, for instance, here is Florida www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/florida/

My state is doing very well. We locked down fairly early, reopened carefully from May onward. Had a tourist season that didn’t result in outbreaks. We tried to limit visitors from states classed as unsafe.

Most schools are doing a hybrid approach, meaning that half the students are in at any one time, all wearing masks and staying at least 3’ apart. Very few positive cases in schools. Our local system has 2,000 students and so far there have been 2 COVID cases, and 15 people have had to isolate.

Universities have been very careful - doing masses of testing, most classes online, again everyone wearing masks.

The goal is to keep infections low without having to go back into lockdown.

We have 7 people in hospital with COVID right now, out of a population of 1.3 million.

Healthcare was never overwhelmed, things like cancer care continued throughout, and while lots of other healthcare stopped for a couple of months, I think all health services are available again now. I’ve seen my GP, dentist, optician, and osteopath and had no difficulty getting face to face appointments.

We’re still being careful, wearing masks and not mixing much. That seems to be keeping infections down. I feel hopeful that we’ll do ok till there’s a vaccine.

Our economy has been one of the quickest to bounce back, ironically because we opened slowly and carefully.

Florida is a strange case as they seem to have managed to keep R at almost exactly 1 for a long time. About 100 people die every day of covid quite consistently once you average over the week.

I think it seems pretty clear from these different states and their set-ups that THIS system appears to be the most sensible.

HoldMyLobster ;
Most schools are doing a hybrid approach, meaning that half the students are in at any one time, all wearing masks and staying at least 3’ apart. Very few positive cases in schools. Our local system has 2,000 students and so far there have been 2 COVID cases, and 15 people have had to isolate.

Universities have been very careful - doing masses of testing, most classes online, again everyone wearing masks.

The goal is to keep infections low . My state is doing very well. We locked down fairly early, reopened carefully from May onward. Had a tourist season that didn’t result in outbreaks. We tried to limit visitors from states classed as unsafe.

We have 7 people in hospital with COVID right now, out of a population of 1.3 million.

.... this really isn't rocket science. The spread from school children and university students . Combined with the 'eat out to help out' program that encouraged people into pubs and restaurants was ALWAYS going to cause this virus to get a huge grip again.
The thing is - that here in the UK people want the impossible. They want to limit the spread without any curb on their economic or social activities.
It's absolute logic that a hybrid schooling system would be more effective at controlling the virus. If you have 50% of pupils in a school with one half being taught online . With a swap every two weeks.. then OF COURSE that would be effective. But Brits just won't go for it.
The same for University. Why on earth would you think moving millions of kids across the country and then put them all in halls of residence together.. with no parental influence for the first time- would ever end well ? There was NEVER any need for it.
Uni could have be done from home just like US - in the states with lower infection.

@Bailey0703 agree this is very sensible and I'm very happy my DD is in school at least part of the time. It's important to note though some major caveats - school districts that want to do this have to provide laptops to all their students who don't have one, and also have to find a way to make internet access reliable to those who don't have a reliable source (some students might only have a parent's mobile phone as a wifi hotspot, for example) - this can mean providing space in libraries or other community rooms where there is wifi, but relies on the child attending that space. Our district is doing all this, but some of the students in this situation simply haven't attended or made any contact with the school at all.

Second, in my state and several others, masks in school are mandatory, no exceptions. (obviously this is not the case in all states!) Those who don't want to wear one have to do 100% virtual learning. I get the feeling from MN that this wouldn't fly in the UK.

Unfortunately, I think the American addiction to the traditional Thanksgiving holiday (and the travel and mixing involved) is going to wreck the efforts we've made so far and lock schools back down again.