COVID-19 Megathread 5: The Trumps catch COVID-19

[Progressive Pessimist]

Nope as long as tens of thousands of people are protesting in the streets, anyone has the right to go to church.

Churches and other buildings for worship are cramped, indoor environments though. It's not entirely comparable.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I gotta hand it to New York, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, Massachusetts, D.C., Michigan, Pennsylvania, and perhaps a few others for somehow bringing the case count so low.

So why are California and Arizona so bad now?

Someone is actually praising my state? I'm not used to this.

[Progressive Pessimist]

And would you look at that, Covid-19 cases per day have been increasing rapidly after the protests and reopenings. I warned that things would go bad sometime between June 12-17, looks like as usual, America failed.
Interestingly, my own State is doing surprisingly well considering the region, although I wouldn’t celebrate too quickly, we praised Louisiana weeks ago and now they are seeing rapid rises outside of NoLa.
We won’t defeat the virus until the vast majority of States take proper action for at least three weeks. This could have been avoided had we stayed the hell at home like most countries until it actually got significantly better, but getting a haircut is more important in a lot of States, I guess.
Now we will have a second wave which will destroy our economy far more than any lockdowns in the first wave, good work Del Tachi, ExtremeRep, and all the other “reopeners” on here.

Considering that the protests have been occurring in all fifty states and only states in the South and Mountain West seem to seeing the lion's share of increases, I don't think the increases can be so simply attributed to the protests. Really, the increases are happening overall because of impatience or premature re-openings. People just stopped caring as they continue to put other interests ahead of public safety and the re-openings for the sake of the economy have enabled that. And both of those things combined are a consequence of our country's poor social safety net.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Jeez, I wonder if the spike in cases we've seen had anything to do with the tens of thousands of people in the streets protesting and looting.

Its as if Trump's refusal to not wear a mask, hold rallies, and generally deny any wrongdoing has inspired the left to counter with their own levels of stupidity.

How many times does it need to be emphasized that the virus spreads the easiest in indoor environments where social distancing and mask-wearing is not practiced. I certainly haven't seen many protests in that vein.

Additionally, the protests have occurred across the country in all 50 states, yet not every state is seeing a spike in the amount of cases. There is no real correlation.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Well if this is not the 2nd wave, like people keep saying, then that means we didn't peak in April. We didn't peak until maybe just now. And we maybe haven't peaked yet either.

Really nothing has significantly changed, certain state governments just got impatient and arbitrarily decided that everything was fine when it clearly wasn't. Not all states of course, some are still being smart about it (like mine) at least for now.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1276233295722942464

Go Joe!

How long until Fox News or One America starts calling Biden "unpresidential" because of these comments?

[Progressive Pessimist]

They have a chip on their shoulder because they're "a grown-ass man/woman" and "someone is trying to tell me what to do." 

"It's a free country!  I have rights!!!"

I've made clear my opposition to mask mandates imposed by government, but have also emphasized my support for mask mandates imposed by businesses. As I've explained before, most of the employees at my job were not wearing masks before they were mandated to do so by the Governor's order back in April. One of my co-workers has constantly complained about it, says that he is "fine", and that he doesn't need to wear a mask. He goes maskless whenever he is not on the clock, and has it down much of the time even when he is on the clock. I saw another employee who had a scarf around his neck, but was maskless and interacting with customers. Many of these people are mental Neanderthals.

The whole macho complex surrounding these people is baffling. Attention seeking at its absolute worst.

I don't see it that way at all. I think it's that these people are literally stupid enough to think that they know better than the government and medical professionals, and they're also too simple-minded to question and challenge their own ideas and consider modifying them.

There is definitely some overlap there though.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/ericgeller/status/1277693321037611013

As if I needed another reason to be increasingly embarrassed for both of these countries.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1278084087585009665

When you care more about performative obedience to your party's president than you care about your own constituents.

My local Toyota dealership apparently cares more about how Americans are affected by the coronavirus than people like DeSuckass or the President do.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1278405761077477376

To be fair, he actually has a long-term strategy here with saying this over and over. Eventually he's going to be right if he keeps saying it. However, he may not even be in office anymore (ideally) when it happens.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1278729930264711170

https://mobile.twitter.com/THEHermanCain/status/1274489632886075398

I have no words.

Wow! All nine of them!

[Progressive Pessimist]

At this point, what other choice do we have?

I don't like it either, but I've had to learn to accept it until it can be treated, and move on.

But there's a way to say it without being dismissive and sounding like we shouldn't even bother to try and prevent the virus' spread anymore.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I'd really like to see the partisan difference in COVID infections and deaths.  You can't figure out individual partisan leans, but maybe divide it up into counties/precincts and weight by Trump/Clinton vote %.

My guess?

The initial wave mostly hit Clinton voters, because it was spreading most quickly in big cities with very concentrated populations.

But this "second wave" (not really the second wave, we still have that to look forward to) is going to be 70-80% Trump voters.  Those are the people not wearing masks.  Those are the people not socially distancing.  Those are the people refusing to take this seriously.  And those are the people who are going to get infected and die.  And thanks to them, we won't be able to re-open.  Thanks to them, plenty of their friends and family will also get sick and die.  Ironically, thanks to them, Trump's odds of re-election will continue to dwindle as the crisis continues.

There is evidence that the new infectees are disproportionately young (in Hays County, Texas, over half are 20-29). The superspreader events were the protests/riots, followed by bar hopping to brag about their exploits. Those requiring hospitalization are likely to be heavier drug users.

Quite like leftist Democrats.

Some of us non-leftist-non-Democrats enjoy heavy drug use, thank you very much. 

You identify as a Democrat now? Your welcoming party will sadly have to be delayed though.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Sequel to ^^^

https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1279847406151106561

That's an insult to people with actual mental illnesses.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Sequel to ^^^

https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1279847406151106561

That's an insult to people with actual mental illnesses.

I do (seriously) wonder if there is some form of mental illness that can cause people to be more inclined to be susceptible to conspiracy theories, or outlandish beliefs in general.  But I don't know enough about it to have an informed opinion.

I was directing that more towards the tweet than at you, just so you know.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Anytime black people want freedom it's a "marxist plot". Those Southern racists and many in the government said the same thing about Dr. King. Such a tired old racist talking point.

There is also apparently no means of protesting for that freedom which is acceptable either.

[Progressive Pessimist]

We've exceeded 70,000 new cases today alone, and there's still one hour left before the day's reporting period ends.

How many more times will Fauci have to be vindicated for the Trumptards to start taking him seriously?

These are Trump supporters we're talking about, nobody is allowed to be vindicated except them and their Grand Wizard idol.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Trump is wearing a face mask, everyone! Today is the day he became President. Now he's going to take this crisis seriously and everything is going to be fine! His re-election is now imminent!

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/jonlemire/status/1282065843900252167?s=21
-Amazing that it’s taken this long.

Direct result of the Bolsonaro infection??

Maybe. It would make sense for Trump to only start caring when him in tropical flavor started to show vulnerability to the virus.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/1283859610491850752

Why do former game show hosts always tend to be so right wing? I guess it has to do with thinking like this where something only is only important when or if it finally affects them.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/AnaCabrera/status/1284203797934419968

I'm not going to wish the virus on anyone, but DeSantis (and Brian Kemp) is really pushing that resolve.

Adulterous corrupt meth-head or not, Andrew Gillum would not be f***ing up like this if he was Governor.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Please let this come true:

Fauci: 'We could start talking about real normality again' in 2021

It's sad that normalcy returning next year is something worth celebrating.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/tlrd/status/1286808820979834880

Karma seems to be a force just as powerful as the coronavirus.

[Progressive Pessimist]

So if this is happening with baseball why does anyone still think that it's a good idea for our schools to go through this too? I know that childrens' education is important, but there has to be a way to help them get it that accounts for these extenuating circumstances, but some states haven't even bothered considering them.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Active cases as of July 29th. This is a much better map to look at than the total number of confirmed cases by state, as many of these cases are months old and long resolved. This map also really highlights the outbreaks ongoing in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, where I expect the death count will increase in the new few weeks.

Maryland is a bit of a surprise there. We don't often hear about them.