Many in the media and medical professions continue to push for restrictions on our liberties. They point out the rise in detected cases of the COVID-19 as the reason for their concerns. States, counties and communities are contemplating renew restrictions that were in place just weeks ago. They would have us shutdown the economy once more, go back into sheltering, and stay at home. Or at the very least force everyone who goes out into the public to wear a mask. Is this warranted based on the evidence?
The above graph shows how much testing has increased since May the 1st. The country as a whole has gone from 250,000 tests per day to 500,000 tests per day. Rarely do the media or medical professionals pushing for continued lockdowns point to this additional testing as a contributing factor in the new cases.
The above graph does show that in the last week the number of new cases as a percentage of tests has risen and this can be a cause for some concern. However, there are other impacts the media and medical professionals pushing for continued lockdown have completely ignored. Case in point can be found at haydenscorner.org. This is a tragic story and it is just one of many happening everyday across America. It is the story of a life being cut short because of COVID-19, not from the disease but from the imposed lockdown and the anxiety, stress and depression caused by social isolation.
Another tragic story is being played out everyday with the protests purported to be related to police brutality. I am convinced these protests would not be taking on the proportions they have if people had not been confined to their homes for the last three months. If people had not lost their livelihoods and found themselves under undue pressure not knowing how they are going to survive economically the fallout of the lockdowns.
Florida, the state I reside in, is now being called the new epicenter for COVID-19. We recently crossed the 100,000 case mark which puts us sixth in the United States behind New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas. We have experienced, as of today, 109,014 confirmed cases and 3,281 confirmed deaths. A CFR of 3%. The CFR for the United States is 5%, New York is 7.6%, California is 2.9%, New Jersey is 7.6%, Illinois is 4.9% and Texas is 1.8%. While these numbers are interesting they do not truly reflect the impact by state of the COVID-19 crisis. A better indicator is the number of deaths per million inhabitants. Using this measure, New York and New Jersey top the list and Florida comes in at number 28. I would say this is a far cry from being the new epicenter.
Do I believe people still need to observe social distancing requirements? Yes, especially when they might come into contact with the most vulnerable among us. Do I believe we need to revert to prior lockdown restrictions or force everyone to wear a mask while in the public? Most definitely not. We are all sensible and rational people, most of us anyway. We are not all blatantly disregarding the well being of others. Should their be consequences for business owners who allow patrons to disregard social distancing guidelines? I would hope it does not come to that but if business owners are not willing or able to insist their patrons respect the social distancing guidelines perhaps there should be consequences. After all, we are a nation of law and order.
Perhaps though, communities should start by enforcing the laws regarding peaceful demonstrations. Allowing violent protests, destruction of personal property to occur should have consequences as well. Mayors, city councils and commissioners should pay a price for their lack of commitment to the rule of law. They should be held responsible for restitution and be removed from office. Just my thoughts on the subject.
Please keep informed from reliable sources. The sources I have mentioned previously are ourworldindata.org, they have a treasure trove of data, numerous graphs and even the ability to create graphs of the data interactively, thus allowing you to see it just the way you would like. Another is worldometers.info. They have tables and graphs of data. Both sites keep their data set updated on a daily basis. Neither of the sites provides a lot of written interpretation of the data and leave the drawing of conclusions to you. If you are interested in written analysis visit justfacts.com. They have facts based on empirical studies on most any subject you could be interested in.