As we all know, coronavirus impacts us because as type 1 diabetics, we’re immune-compromised. There is no logical reason for the White House to reroute this data. This news broke yesterday.
We need this data to be open. This pandemic impacts us all and the is no need for this.
Are there any moves currently that people know of to make some noise about this?
I wrote the JDRF this morning, and I’m going to reach out to local type 1 groups I’m in too. I’m definitely going to write to my representatives. If you don’t know how to contact your representatives, this site can help.
There’s a lot of gridlock at the legislative level (State and Federal).
You might not have time to deal with them. There’s no time - they are out of session, you can’t go into their office and bother them due to corona. You might be on your own.
Commit to staying home until December rolls around. Do whatever you can. A lot of this is in your own hands. Although, there is a lot of variation between different States in how they are handling this and certain States are putting certain people in very difficult situations.
If you have trouble with someone asking you to return to work, please state that directly because there are other people on this site with difficulty there. It might warrant some conversation and brainstorming. Some of that has been taking place, but I don’t believe things are resolved to a satisfactory conclusion.
I would be more concerned with getting accurate testing statistics etc. from your governor and or mayor. There are so many issues swirling around about reporting errors etc.
There is no gold standard to the numbers being reported. Actually our local government hasn’t been telling us the truth either, so …
I am so tired of us having to carry the burden of staying home. So because everyone else is tired of staying home, those of us at high risk just have to suck it up and sit at home for the next 6, 8, 12 months? Why can’t we as a nation come together here and fight this together? I am sick and tired of hearing the line well those people in high risk categories are going to die anyway. Yeah, we all are going to die at some point but even after having this damn disease for most of my life, I don’t plan on going anywhere for a long time. And I don’t think my family or friends would be ok with me not being around.
We need science to be handling this situation. We need public health officials to do their jobs without politics getting in the way.
So frustrating that public health funding is always the first thing to get cut. Well it has been cut during every administration and look at where we are now. Just don’t trust the Washington crowd to be able to handle this.
I like to think that I am a rational, calm person. Recently, however, I have started to feel personally attacked by these non-mask wearing, covid-denying…people. I have had T1D for 30 years and, for the most part, I have not let it hold me back in terms of achieving personal life goals/everyday life. Now, however, I feel at a real disadvantage. I work at a major university, and their fall plan is to bring students back for a “hybrid” model (some courses online, others in-person). Students come to this university from all over the country, and I really do not want to go back to the office. It’s going to be impossible to prevent outbreaks…
As of April 1 both the US and the EU had about 30,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day (with comparable populations). By July 1 the EU was down to 4,000 new cases per day. And we were at 40,000. Two weeks later, we are at 60,000 cases per day and still rising.
It is impossible for me to look at that and NOT conclude that we collectivity opened up too quickly in our rush to “get back to normal”. The EU is getting back to normal. We are not!
The science is pretty clear: in the absence of a widespread vaccine and effective treatment, the only thing that will turn this around is social distancing, conscientious mask wearing, and good hygiene.
If we can’t all begin to work together, we will soon be at 100,000 new cases per day.
We DON’T all have to stay home (unless, of course, we test positive) but we DO need to act in a scientifically smart manner when we are out in the real world.
To all. I would hope there are already threads discussing the US Federal government’s response or lack of it.
There are wonderful case studies worldwide on countries that are handling this pandemic much better. In fact, I lived for almost 9 years in one of them.
The issue is about this new hospital requirement, which seems suspect. There is also some wrong info in this thread.
The Federal government just reversed the requirement they were going to lay on international students. They can reverse course if the pressure is put on them. Also, Congress comes back next week. The lowest bar is to simply reach out to your representatives local, state, and Federal
Also, please don’t assume that I’m out. I’m not. I’ve limited my outings to errands, walking, and necessary medical appointments. Pandemics don’t disappear overnight or even in months. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t know history or science very well.
From the perspective of getting as much info as we can and for that info, most importantly, to be transparent, this hospitalization data shouldn’t be circumventing the CDC and going to the White House only.
I rely on the Covid Tracking Project (http://covidtracking.com) which is sponsored by The Atlantic for data on testing and hospitalizations for Covid-19. Their volunteers comb the state news releases on a daily basis to report positive new cases, number of negative tests, hospitalizations, and, as best they can, ICU census (not all states report that …). At this point, 48 of 50 states, the District if Columbia, and the territories publicly release hospitalization numbers. (The two states that don’t release hospitalizations are Kansas and Hawaii). So, while it is odd, if not suspicious, that hospitalization data is being sent directly to the White House instead of to the CDC, at this point, at least, the Covid Tracking Project is still a good, independent source of hospitalization data. Of course, their data is no better than the information that they receive from the states on testing and hospitalizations.
The plan now is not to change that graph, but to make it acceptable. “We just have to live with it, now get back to work” is the current line. I was just reading this, which sounds about right:
There is already a sort of “defeatist exceptionalism” around other issues where a large segment of US public opinion and media consensus accepts that nothing better is possible, even as the rest of the world demonstrates otherwise.
Healthcare, with massive per-capita spending that doesn’t even cover everyone. Gun control and mass shootings.
Will COVID be any different?
“Just get used to it, nothing can be done.” That’s where we’re headed right now.
I fear that you may be right. The only thing that gives me slight cause for hope is that we are FINALLY seeing some governors in hard-hit states that had done little for so long who are finally beginning to take action. While it may be a case of “too little, too late …”, they are at least not simply rolling over and pulling the covers more tightly over their head.
I expect that we will learn a lot in the next 2-3 weeks.
Thanks for this info, John. I’ve been following COVID-19 info closely since about January because I lived abroad in one of the countries it hit first and because I have type 1. I saw this coming at us in slow motion, and it was really scary. I’ll make sure to make the Covid Tracking Project a resource I use more often especially now as I don’t think the White House’s plan is for transparency.
I question the motives of this move because they could just have just mandated that hospitals send the data to both or have hospitals send the info to the CDC and require that the CDC forward the data to them too. It’s a weird power play. But very little surprises me now. It’s more like wave after wave of disappointment.
Sad but true. I’m in Northern California. We were the first to lock things down, but my fear that the summer months would have people getting too relaxed is playing out. Infections are rising here, and it’s scary.
You’d think that we’d try to, at least, mimic the successes other countries have made, but there is an infection point where it’s too late. If we’re not there already, we’re well on our way.
I don’t think anyone should be surprised by this. And we can be certain that data will be altered. Welcome to the new and improved trump administration
I suspect that by Northern California you likely mean the Bay Area. I spend about half my time in the Bay Area and about half in Santa Fe, NM. I try to keep tabs on both areas. As a result every few days, I download The NY Times County-by-County data from their github site. While the daily case load in the Bay Area has gone up significantly over the past 4 weeks, the increases have not been nearly as dramatic as they have been in Southern California. Last time I looked, based on 7-day moving average of new cases per 100,000 residents, the WORST county in the Bay Area was doing better than the BEST county in SoCal. On average, the daily per capita new cases in the Bay Area are 2-5 times lower than they are in LA and surrounding counties.
People are relaxing here too. Hang in there. It requires an even greater burden on us and that we be even more vigilant and cautious. Don’t rely on other people to protect you. Other people are jerks. If you can avoid going back to work on-site, do that. Do whatever you can to not return to work on-site.
Very few people are gonna work to protect us. There is not a single state, of 50, that met the Federal guidelines for re-opening, before actually reopening. Everything gets worse before it gets better. We are stuck without a vaccine.
