Trump admin pulls funding for drive-through COVID-19 testing

Loss of testing comes as states expect to see peak hospitalizations in next two weeks.

Read the whole story

 

[whobeme]

Yet another "Stupid is as Stupid does" moment from the feckless Orange Twitterwauler, who is so fixated upon early-opening of society and boondogglish infrastructure dreams to boost his waning fortunes for a 2nd term. What an idiotic thing to do.

No it's not. The plan is to have the infection so pervasive as to justify postponement of the coming election... until pandemic is "brought under control." Don't underestimate the lust for power.

This has been gone through before. The November election is Constitutionally mandated, so moving it would take a literal Act of Congress. Furthermore, the President's term ends on January 20th. If there is no new President-Elect, they don't just get to sit there until there is. It goes down the line of succession to the Vice President (who gets sworn in shortly before the President).

Since there wouldn't be a Vice-President Elect either, it goes to the next person in line, the Speaker of the House. Members of Congress terms end on January 3rd. In the event that a seat is vacated, like, say, there wasn't an election, the Governor of a state has the power to appoint members of that delegation, usually until a special election can be called. I really don't see Governor Newsom replacing Pelosi as the Representative of her district. Hence, unless there was a huge push to not have her re-elected as Speaker, she would become President.

Technically correct. However there would be a civil war about 20 milliseconds later since 45% of the country are Fox news controlled zombies. If we were a civilized nation we would have a constitutional convention and replace the creaking mess we have now with something with better underpinnings. (Ironically when the US does engage in nation building it suggests parliamentary style government, in tacit recognition that our president + two legislative house system is poorly conceived and does not work well.) Since we aren't particularly civilized violence is the more likely result.

 

[snakys]

Testing is getting in the way of reopening the economy again. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with making money. A few thousand more deaths? Meh, it's good for the manufacturers of body bags, right?

Elections have consequences. Vote for a narcissistic, sociopathic conman and pathological liar, this is what you should expect.

and they'll do it again

The only way it will happen again is through outright cheating. Voter suppression, Russian help, the same old playbook.

You're putting gaff-prone Joe against an entertainer who knows how to work the crowd. Between that and the Bernie bros who have chosen the nuclear option, Trump's basically got a free ride this time.
edit: added a missed comma. Time to get the cat and dog hair out of the keyboard again.

Yep, those gaffes definitely make Biden unelectable.

Says the guy who apparently supports a man also known as Covfefe, thinks we need to build a wall between Colorado and New Mexico, can't spell as well as a first grader....the list goes on and on.

Sniffing little girls to a typo.... Real nice comparison /s

I'll remind you people vote for Trump for the wall, and the recent shootouts are a sign we need it as well as standing military on the border.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... -crew-sho/

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1280& ... gYeP97IbIo

Gaffes like Trump's hurricane sharpie and then attempted to bully the NOAA into make his disinformation true? And how about the Chloroquine as "the biggest game changers in the history of medicine"?

 

[Imbrium]

In a rational universe, a president as clearly incompetent in his job would have been removed long ago, and more likely, have never been elected in the first place.

But....this is America today. The rational universe hasn't just gone away, 40% of our population decided to torch it and claim it never existed.

 

[boxcanyon]

Testing is getting in the way of reopening the economy again. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with making money. A few thousand more deaths? Meh, it's good for the manufacturers of body bags, right?

Elections have consequences. Vote for a narcissistic, sociopathic conman and pathological liar, this is what you should expect.

and they'll do it again

The only way it will happen again is through outright cheating. Voter suppression, Russian help, the same old playbook.

You're putting gaff-prone Joe against an entertainer who knows how to work the crowd. Between that and the Bernie bros who have chosen the nuclear option, Trump's basically got a free ride this time.
edit: added a missed comma. Time to get the cat and dog hair out of the keyboard again.

Yep, those gaffes definitely make Biden unelectable.

Says the guy who apparently supports a man also known as Covfefe, thinks we need to build a wall between Colorado and New Mexico, can't spell as well as a first grader....the list goes on and on.

Sniffing little girls to a typo.... Real nice comparison /s

I'll remind you people vote for Trump for the wall, and the recent shootouts are a sign we need it as well as standing military on the border.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... -crew-sho/

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1280& ... gYeP97IbIo

You are clearly out of your mind. Seriously seek professional help.

 

[richten]

With almost 500k positive cases and 2M tests in the US, it means 1 in 4 tests are positive. That is being behind the curve.
Germany has 115k positive cases and 1.3M tests, so 1 in 10 tests is positive. That is how you get ahead of the curve and with the number of active cases going down they can start thinking about restarting the economy.

 

[hel1kx]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

 

[daveishereagain]

"The spokesperson framed the withdrawal of funding as allowing states to dictate their own priorities, telling NPR, 'The transition will ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and to prioritize resources where they are needed the most.'"

What remains unclear is why the federal funding for these drive-through tests inhibited states' flexibility and autonomy. Was it like, "You get funding for drive-through testing, but you have to give up your autonomy."?

I can't help but wonder if these tests are generating data that's somehow making Trump look bad.

The states where the growth curve has flattened are the ones where governors haven't taken action. You know--many of the red ones. It isn't a priority, so minimal testing and artificially depressed case counts.

The hardest hit states will continue to ramp up testing--as their priority. Red states look good; blue states look bad.

Until the deaths start to mount.

There's a reason rural states don't need to make any orders to keep people apart. There's little density. Even in full lockdown, it's not going to flatten for place like New York until either a vaccine is made or everyone is infected.

Really? Then why have mayors of the larger cities in red states signed an open letter to their governors warning that these small town folks from rural areas are still coming into the concentrated areas to shop?

You are being stunningly and dangerously short-sighted here. The rationale you espouse will extend this crisis well beyond where it could have been curtailed, as the sharp decline in news cases in Italy and Spain--who did NOT exempt their ample rural areas from their containment efforts.


edit: punctuation

The whole logic of rural places being safer is completely flawed. They're just a micro version of areas of a city. For example, very commonly small towns have only one big store where people buy certain stuff. Also very often this store is in the "central" town, and people living in the smaller towns all head there to shop. These people may be living with a false sense of security, thinking that because they live in low density, they're safe. Combine that with potentially low information getting to those areas. A city is denser, but generally you don't drive across town to go grocery shopping. You go to a store near you, which serves an area around it. This area is where the focus of infection is. The pattern is exactly the same in a packed city or a sparsely populated rural area. The only difference is the area that the store serves is smaller in the city because there's more people nearby.

It doesn't have to be a grocery store. It could be a church, a bar, hunting supplies shop, or anything else. Living in lower density isn't going to help when everyone still goes to a concentrated area for a given activity. Sometimes people even have to go to the city to get something they need. Then comes the problem of even more limited medical services than cities, and less attention to them in case shit starts getting serious. You could have a 20% mortality rate in the middle of rural America and no one would care because people are dying by the thousands in NY or other cities so good luck trying to "compete" with that.

Being rural is actually going to work against you when this virus manages to get there because your sheer death numbers in the community aren't going to be that high even if the death rate is. Whatever medical facilities you have won't be able to treat you anyway. Chances are you're going to have to get to the nearest city for treatment. This is known, and also means that even if your local clinic or small hospital could handle a few cases, they'll be in even worse lack of supplies than city hospitals. The math for distributing resources isn't going to look good. The logistics of 2,000 respirators distributed over 200 towns is definitely worse than 2,000 respirators for a single hospital in a city, and since we know the townsfolk will likely end up there anyway, why incur in this logistical nightmare when we already have one as it is.

All this is particularly exacerbated by the fact that rural America has been very likely receiving propagandistic information about the virus, which could lead to them not taking it seriously, spreading it around.

This is not really an accurate description of rural life in the US. It's not terribly wrong but that isn't how it is working today.

In rural America, people live in houses spread out around a collection of very small towns where there is a restaurant, a post office, a church and a gas station. There will also be a school outside of town but close by. Some people go to the town itself but that isn't the big draw. The big draw is the Walmart 3 miles from town right off the main highway that everyone takes to go everywhere. It will have a Walmart, a Gas Station, and a Fast Food Restaurant. People drive from 20 miles around to shop there, eat there, and hang out there. They come in from all over and this place will spread the illness around. You need to shut that place down to stop the spread.

If a town has an actual mall in it its really moved into 'mid-sized town' and not really particularly rural any more.

The disease vector in rural America is the Walmart SuperCenter.

Whether it's a Wallmart or the local grocery store is irrelevant. The point is that where the rural people congregate, that will be the focal point. Such points can be made reasonably safe IF proper disinfection and distancing procedures are followed.

 

[austenite]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Rotting from within.

 

[s73v3r]

The GOP healthcare plan, as imagined by their party leaders and voting base:

While I agree with the sentiment the reality is actually quite different. The sick person never gets to see any medical professional at all, they are denied care at the reception desk.

The GOP wet dream is an automatic door which detects people with darker skin and refuses to open for them, in one fell swoop barring a minority from receiving health care while also taking a job away from one of the base, and so increasing profits for the health care "provider".

Right, Biden shares the same ideology last time I checked.

No he doesn't. Lying doesn't do anything but solidify the fact that you're a sore loser that no one should take seriously.

 

[numerobis]

Take a bow America, you're now number #1 across all categories; :facepalm:

It’ll be a few days to lead in total deaths, and a couple weeks to lead in total recovered.

 

[Aegrum]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

True, but it is hard for the states to handle their own situation when the states order supplies which are then seized by the federal government and put on auction.

Edited for clarity.

 

[Imbrium]

Trump and his cohorts are going to eliminate FEMA and replace it with the ARDA - the Ayn Rand Devolution Agency. CItizens too stupid or poor, (the same thing to Rand), will be left to suffer and die, while the rich and smart people will prosper, taking advantage of disasters to enrich themselves.

 

[Imbrium]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

 

[graylshaped]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

A coordinated response to a nationwide disaster is Socialism?

Man, you are full of irrelevant dog whistles today, aren't you.

 

[daveishereagain]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

A coordinated response to a nationwide disaster is Socialism?

Man, you are full of irrelevant dog whistles today, aren't you.

Typical of the Trumpettes to raise the specter of the scary "S" word. It's so fucking childish.

 

[daveishereagain]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

I have no idea what you are saying you are using a double negative.

FEMA is there to bail out states in an emergency, it's not designed to bail out all 50 states at the same time.

Last I checked insurance companies were responsible for individual care. Are you surprised that an insurance company doesn't want to step in and foot the bill?

Well, no surprise there, since that would be 'socialist'!

s/ if needed.

 

[Imbrium]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

A coordinated response to a nationwide disaster is Socialism?

Man, you are full of irrelevant dog whistles today, aren't you.

If you want to be a part of society, and enjoy its benefits, you also have to take the responsibility of contributing to it. These Randian Libetarian types see themselves as some kind of rugged individualist, ubermench who stand astride the world with their towering intellects, commanding the squalid, unwashed masses beneath them.

I wager not a single one of them could accomplish a thing without the benefits of a good education, funded by taxes; couldn't have a safe home without tax-supported police and fire departments; work at a good job without the highways and infrastructure that make commerce possible in the first place.

Their incessant whining is as tiresome as it is infantile.

 

[LeaveMeAlone]

Well you have to admit it's a genius way to lower the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths provided you're a total sociopath

Only if people getting sick enough to die from this don't end up being tested when being admitted to the ER.

 

[Imbrium]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

I have no idea what you are saying you are using a double negative.

FEMA is there to bail out states in an emergency, it's not designed to bail out all 50 states at the same time.

Last I checked insurance companies were responsible for individual care. Are you surprised that an insurance company doesn't want to step in and foot the bill?

edit: On top of that, not one iota of my taxes needs to go to a Red State. Let them deal with their own mess, including deaths.

So I guess the "Federal" should be removed from FEMA's title? That they should limit the number of states they assist at any one time? "Gee, Florida, sorry about that hurricane. We'd love to help, but California just had a major earthquake. Maybe we can catch you next year!"

 

[daveishereagain]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

A coordinated response to a nationwide disaster is Socialism?

Man, you are full of irrelevant dog whistles today, aren't you.

If you want to be a part of society, and enjoy its benefits, you also have to take the responsibility of contributing to it. These Randian Libetarian types see themselves as some kind of rugged individualist, ubermench who stand astride the world with their towering intellects, commanding the squalid, unwashed masses beneath them.

I wager not a single one of them could accomplish a thing without the benefits of a good education, funded by taxes; couldn't have a safe home without tax-supported police and fire departments; work at a good job without the highways and infrastructure that make commerce possible in the first place.

Their incessant whining is as tiresome as it is infantile.

They're even worse in person with that smarmy tone of voice that makes you want to take a shovel to their face.

 

[Silverback]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

I have no idea what you are saying you are using a double negative.

FEMA is there to bail out states in an emergency, it's not designed to bail out all 50 states at the same time.

Last I checked insurance companies were responsible for individual care. Are you surprised that an insurance company doesn't want to step in and foot the bill?

edit: On top of that, not one iota of my taxes needs to go to a Red State. Let them deal with their own mess, including deaths.

You're just as much of a sociopathic prick as Trump. Just without any power. Federal > State. If FEMA can't deal with this shit, *especially* given how its been repeatedly wargamed by your .gov, it isn't fit for purpose. If that's the case, neither is your .gov.

I don't think anyone rational is going to dispute that.

 

[tomwh2010]

See, I told you virus infections will decline after Easter.

Said some ginger fake tan obvious toupee muppet

Or as I’m calling him these days: Cheez Doodle

 

[PandemicResponse]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Fall of Rome 2.0

panem et circenses while people die, starve, etc. It has been happening for years, COVID just lit the fire for our Nero.

completely off topic: How does panem become "bread" in english, but retains that "pan" root in every other latin derived language? Even in Japanese of all things, which loves to borrow from english!

Pan is from the Portuguese, who landed in significant (enough) numbers to affect the Japanese language and breadmaking long before the English or Americans. For example, melon pan. Yum.

 

[boxcanyon]

The states where the growth curve has flattened are the ones where governors haven't taken action. You know--many of the red ones. It isn't a priority, so minimal testing and artificially depressed case counts.

The hardest hit states will continue to ramp up testing--as their priority. Red states look good; blue states look bad.

Until the deaths start to mount.

There's a reason rural states don't need to make any orders to keep people apart. There's little density. Even in full lockdown, it's not going to flatten for place like New York until either a vaccine is made or everyone is infected.

Really? Then why have mayors of the larger cities in red states signed an open letter to their governors warning that these small town folks from rural areas are still coming into the concentrated areas to shop?

You are being stunningly and dangerously short-sighted here. The rationale you espouse will extend this crisis well beyond where it could have been curtailed, as the sharp decline in news cases in Italy and Spain--who did NOT exempt their ample rural areas from their containment efforts.


edit: punctuation

The whole logic of rural places being safer is completely flawed. They're just a micro version of areas of a city. For example, very commonly small towns have only one big store where people buy certain stuff. Also very often this store is in the "central" town, and people living in the smaller towns all head there to shop. These people may be living with a false sense of security, thinking that because they live in low density, they're safe. Combine that with potentially low information getting to those areas. A city is denser, but generally you don't drive across town to go grocery shopping. You go to a store near you, which serves an area around it. This area is where the focus of infection is. The pattern is exactly the same in a packed city or a sparsely populated rural area. The only difference is the area that the store serves is smaller in the city because there's more people nearby.

It doesn't have to be a grocery store. It could be a church, a bar, hunting supplies shop, or anything else. Living in lower density isn't going to help when everyone still goes to a concentrated area for a given activity. Sometimes people even have to go to the city to get something they need. Then comes the problem of even more limited medical services than cities, and less attention to them in case shit starts getting serious. You could have a 20% mortality rate in the middle of rural America and no one would care because people are dying by the thousands in NY or other cities so good luck trying to "compete" with that.

Being rural is actually going to work against you when this virus manages to get there because your sheer death numbers in the community aren't going to be that high even if the death rate is. Whatever medical facilities you have won't be able to treat you anyway. Chances are you're going to have to get to the nearest city for treatment. This is known, and also means that even if your local clinic or small hospital could handle a few cases, they'll be in even worse lack of supplies than city hospitals. The math for distributing resources isn't going to look good. The logistics of 2,000 respirators distributed over 200 towns is definitely worse than 2,000 respirators for a single hospital in a city, and since we know the townsfolk will likely end up there anyway, why incur in this logistical nightmare when we already have one as it is.

All this is particularly exacerbated by the fact that rural America has been very likely receiving propagandistic information about the virus, which could lead to them not taking it seriously, spreading it around.

This is not really an accurate description of rural life in the US. It's not terribly wrong but that isn't how it is working today.

In rural America, people live in houses spread out around a collection of very small towns where there is a restaurant, a post office, a church and a gas station. There will also be a school outside of town but close by. Some people go to the town itself but that isn't the big draw. The big draw is the Walmart 3 miles from town right off the main highway that everyone takes to go everywhere. It will have a Walmart, a Gas Station, and a Fast Food Restaurant. People drive from 20 miles around to shop there, eat there, and hang out there. They come in from all over and this place will spread the illness around. You need to shut that place down to stop the spread.

If a town has an actual mall in it its really moved into 'mid-sized town' and not really particularly rural any more.

The disease vector in rural America is the Walmart SuperCenter.

Whether it's a Wallmart or the local grocery store is irrelevant. The point is that where the rural people congregate, that will be the focal point. Such points can be made reasonably safe IF proper disinfection and distancing procedures are followed.

I think it does make a difference. The fact that the vector point is not the actual town but a place 5 miles outside of town that people drive to from all over to get to makes a difference in planning, logistics, travel time, tracking, coordination.

The point is that using a term like 'local grocery store' is misleading. In large parts of rural areas there is not a 'local grocery store'. There is a Walmart Supercenter 20 minutes away that you have to drive to. If you don't like that one there will be another 40 minutes away that you could go to instead.

The Walmart Supercenter off the main highway exit will get 'local' shoppers where local is anyone within a 50 mile radius, Truckers on long haul travel, and just travelers taking a pit stop.
This impacts all aspects of logistics planning.


The nature of rural communities is not small towns that those people hang out in with other small towns nearby that each group goes to their own local store. It is people living across the countryside with 800 meters or more between them and their neighbors who hop in the car and do a 20 minute drive to whichever Walmart is nearby.

There is no municipal element at these Supercenters and they are all in unincorporated county land owned entirely by private interests. All of this makes the logistics more complicated.

Given the distributed nature and the physical distances involved its pretty easy for these places to quickly go back to highly infected right after the last cleaning.

 

[Owl Saver]

Clearly being done so that Trump can claim that the virus isn't spreading rapidly and the country can all get back to work. Soon he's going to try and cover up the death rate.

Soon? How do we know that it is not being done now? I have heard complaints that COVID-19 deaths are being over reported. That would be a great way to cover up attempts to lower the COVID-19 death count.

 

[LeaveMeAlone]

Clearly being done so that Trump can claim that the virus isn't spreading rapidly and the country can all get back to work.

That could only be true if the majority of positive tests were coming from these drive through sites and that States and hospitals wouldn't continue to run them without Federal funding.

Also, my State's rate of negative tests have increased from 72% negative to 84% negative over roughly the last 10 since these sites started coming online, suggesting to me as you make testing easier more people that don't really need to be tested are doing it.

https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/outbreaks/index.htm

https://www.wsaw.com/content/news/DHS-1 ... 57051.html

 

[numerobis]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Fall of Rome 2.0

panem et circenses while people die, starve, etc. It has been happening for years, COVID just lit the fire for our Nero.

completely off topic: How does panem become "bread" in english, but retains that "pan" root in every other latin derived language? Even in Japanese of all things, which loves to borrow from english!

Bread is from germanic languages. Brot, brød, bröd, broyt, ...

Other languages use entirely different roots; "aish", "lechem", "mkate" aren't very close to "pan" at all.

 

[Fatesrider]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Fall of Rome 2.0

panem et circenses while people die, starve, etc. It has been happening for years, COVID just lit the fire for our Nero.

completely off topic: How does panem become "bread" in english, but retains that "pan" root in every other latin derived language? Even in Japanese of all things, which loves to borrow from english!

It's complicated, but I looked it up.

Panem comes directly from a specific phrase used to describe the act of appeasement.

Bread is Germanic, not Latin, in origin, from which most English was derived. Germanic languages and phonotypes are prevalent in western and northern European languages, while Latin has less influence there, while it's very strong in Southern European languages.

Bread in Japanese is "pan" a derivation of pao, the Portuguese word for bread, and was likely introduced to Japan during the era when the Portuguese were the leaders in global exploration. So its derivation is from Latin, since its a southern European language with more Latin roots than Germanic.

Hope that helps.

No, back to the dogpile on the Trump administration deliberately nerfing our ability to get ahead of the virus so his administration can claim the millions of extra deaths we'll see in the U.S. this year were somehow the Democrats fault.

 

[naris48]

Take a bow America, you're now number #1 across all categories; :facepalm:

Not all categories, we are way behind in "Total Recovered"...

 

[markgo]

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

I have no idea what you are saying you are using a double negative.

FEMA is there to bail out states in an emergency, it's not designed to bail out all 50 states at the same time.

Last I checked insurance companies were responsible for individual care. Are you surprised that an insurance company doesn't want to step in and foot the bill?

edit: On top of that, not one iota of my taxes needs to go to a Red State. Let them deal with their own mess, including deaths.

So I guess the "Federal" should be removed from FEMA's title? That they should limit the number of states they assist at any one time? "Gee, Florida, sorry about that hurricane. We'd love to help, but California just had a major earthquake. Maybe we can catch you next year!"

Now, now. Don't be unkind. "The last time he checked" was probably immediately after the website was edited to agree with what the unelected son-in-law with no experience randomly said at a news conference.

 

[graylshaped]

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

I have no idea what you are saying you are using a double negative.

FEMA is there to bail out states in an emergency, it's not designed to bail out all 50 states at the same time.

Last I checked insurance companies were responsible for individual care. Are you surprised that an insurance company doesn't want to step in and foot the bill?

edit: On top of that, not one iota of my taxes needs to go to a Red State. Let them deal with their own mess, including deaths.

So I guess the "Federal" should be removed from FEMA's title? That they should limit the number of states they assist at any one time? "Gee, Florida, sorry about that hurricane. We'd love to help, but California just had a major earthquake. Maybe we can catch you next year!"

This administration would welcome a chance to tell California "too bad; so sad" while diverting funds to a swing state.

 

[Imbrium]

So I guess the "Federal" should be removed from FEMA's title? That they should limit the number of states they assist at any one time? "Gee, Florida, sorry about that hurricane. We'd love to help, but California just had a major earthquake. Maybe we can catch you next year!"

Right...and Health Insurance should have both the Health and Insurance taken out of it.

It's FEMAs job to setup these drive in testing sites. Not fund them.

So set up something the states can't financially support. I don't recall that happening for hurricane relief. "Here's all your FEMA trailers and food kitchens. Now you just have to stock them".

 

[numerobis]

Clearly being done so that Trump can claim that the virus isn't spreading rapidly and the country can all get back to work.

That could only be true if the majority of positive tests were coming from these drive through sites and that States and hospitals wouldn't continue to run them without Federal funding.

Also, my State's rate of negative tests have increased from 72% negative to 84% negative over roughly the last 10 since these sites started coming online, suggesting to me as you make testing easier more people that don't really need to be tested are doing it.

https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/outbreaks/index.htm

https://www.wsaw.com/content/news/DHS-1 ... 57051.html

Holy shit you're at 16% positive?

You need about 16x more testing!