How is your state handling the pandemic?

Having lived my whole life in California, I didn't realize how different everything is from state to state. I have to say that my family is California is in a much better position to recover from this pandemic than Oregon, regardless of the fact that they are more exposed (Bay Area).

One of my sons has been put on a zero hour schedule, regardless of the fact that his job is medical (autistic occupational therapist), thankfully he is eligible for unemployment. Apparently, that is not true in all states.

Oregon doesn't even have state disability. Thankfully, my daughter in Oregon works for Costco and in states without state disability, Costco pays for private disability insurance. And, by personal experience, I can tell you that making the insurance people cry pushes things along (not that I enjoyed that, but they were torturing my daughter).

Thankfully, we are well positioned to weather this storm, and I'm mostly looking at how I can help my community in the upcoming months. I live in a small town, mostly retirees, mostly poor. So I'm planting more and am suspecting that I will preserve less and donate more, thankfully the Episcopal Church in town is very good at outreach.

Hope others are doing well.

Well, in 6 hours Illinois will go into lockdown mode.  That lockdown allows for several exceptions such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and of all things, hardware stores.

Eric

They have shutdown colleges, then K-12 school, then community/art/entertainment/library, they have advised companies to mske workers work from home and the state has sent home all non-essential government workers. I think public transit is free and folks load from the back of the bus. Airports and roads and public transit is still open. Hospital appointments have been cancelled, some public hospitals have been closed, not too sure if they are using it as staging areas the infected. Streets are empty. I hear less police siren, I am not too sure about the homeless population.

The SBA is giving out loans, I should apply. I hope the banks extends every mortgage by 90days and that tentants are not evicted for 90days too.

Eric Hanson wrote: and of all things, hardware stores.

Would you want to be stuck in a house with a burst pipe the whole time, and not be allowed to fix it?

I'm more interested in what benefits your state is going to provide given the upcoming economic crash. Just today, a friend in eastern Washington went to a medical facility with symptoms and was told that they wouldn't be tested if they didn't pay up front and was forced to just walk out of the facility exposing everyone.

I know that there are laws on the books, that require immediate medical care for emergencies. I don't believe that there is a greater emergency than a pandemic, but that's just me.

Oklahoma is a deep red state.  The governor tweeted out a picture of himself and his kids in a crowded public food court eight days ago, after schools had already started to close.  We have bans on large gatherings and we have closed schools, that's about it.  We got our very first testing capability about two weeks ago, and to date there have been less than 800 tests in a population of about four million.  About 100 of those were for two professional basketball teams.  

I think it's safe to say our state is not handling this well.  

Benefits?  This is a state that didn't expand Medicaid.  It's fairly good at passing federal money through state programs; if there are federal supplements to unemployment insurance and such, Oklahoma will implement them.  But actually spending state money for the benefit of citizens in difficulty?  We won't be seeing much of that.  

As of today we are under shelter-in-place status and companies are forced to close until April 7th (14days)
Marijuana medical facilities/stores are still open for biz but only medical marijuana users are still able to buy. We get a good amount of recreational weed tourist from our region, and we don't have enough supplies and want to discourage travel. Liquor stores are essential biz and still open.

I am hearing that Chinese Americans out in the streets are feeling fearful, due to the looks, comments and action of others.

Eric Hanson wrote:Well, in 6 hours Illinois will go into lockdown mode.  That lockdown allows for several exceptions such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and of all things, hardware stores.

Eric

Hardware stores I understand.  Like Ellendra said, some things need to be fixed NOW.  In WI, liquor stores are listed as an exception to the lockdown.  My thinking is, if you can't either stock up enough ahead of time, or go without for a few weeks, you maybe need to look into rehab instead of a liquor stores.

14 days self-quarantine immediately upon arrival has now been instituted for my state effective March 27, 2020 for anyone entering Mass.
http://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/gov-baker-to-provide-an-update-on-coronavirus-in-mass/2098195

Stores are now suppose to have a seniors-only hour. Not too sure if it is to protect the general population from seniors or if it is to protect seniors from the general population.

I went out to run an errand with my daughter.  Oddly, the local farm store we went to was fairly busy and I noticed many open business as I was traveling to and from.  Theoretically Illinois is supposed to be some sort of lockdown.  However, aside from restaurants I am not exactly certain what is locked down.

Eric

This morning Governor Gretchen Whitless banned the use of a pill that our best hospitals have been giving to COVID-19 patients for weeks -- apparently because Donald Trump mentioned it in a speech and some idiot in Arizona ate pool cleaner.

Police is RI is "escorting" folks from New York to their house for 14 day quarantine.
It's only escorting, not arresting, folks are encourage to report any New Yorker they see.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ri-state-police-will-pull-over-drivers-from-new-york-to-enforce-self-quarantine/vi-BB11NDPT?ocid=spartanntp

S Bengi wrote:Police is RI is "escorting" folks from New York to their house for 14 day quarantine.
It's only escorting, not arresting, folks are encourage to report any New Yorker they see.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ri-state-police-will-pull-over-drivers-from-new-york-to-enforce-self-quarantine/vi-BB11NDPT?ocid=spartanntp

Well, as a semi driver, I can say that New York hasn't endeared itself to the New England states. I know what it costs to transport goods over the Hudson River. New York has been profiteering by geography at the expense of its northern neighbors for decades.

Trace Oswald wrote:Hardware stores I understand.  Like Ellendra said, some things need to be fixed NOW.  In WI, liquor stores are listed as an exception to the lockdown.  My thinking is, if you can't either stock up enough ahead of time, or go without for a few weeks, you maybe need to look into rehab instead of a liquor stores.

One big problem with this: alcohol detox can kill all on its own.  It's rare, but it does happen.  More likely, people in withdrawal will seek medical attention at already overcrowded and understaffed hospitals, which is the real problem.  And of course, every state's laws are different; it's only recently my state relaxed laws so beer and wine can be sold in a supermarket.  It's kind of a catch-22 in states with tight liquor laws--do you burden the system with patients you wouldn't otherwise see (or see slowly, not all at once), or do you risk a higher exposure for employees and the public to the virus?  I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions.

Folks are discriminating against Chinese/Asians/Immigrants. Mayors and officials are saying this is not the time to do this.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/not-a-time-for-scapegoating-walsh-says-boston-wont-stand-for-racism-during-coronavirus-pandemic/ar-BB11OhfM

And nurses are being given 24hrs to leave their house because folks are worried they are bringing home the virus.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-nurses-face-eviction-housing-discrimination-from-scared-landlords/ar-BB11Oa7k

I know that for the greater good its best if all healthcare workers and supermarket workers go out but what does that mean for their family/roommates?

Our Lt. Governor said old folks should die to save the economy for their grandkids and he wants everyone to get back to work.

Tyler - it's very sad to see how callous people can be. I'm very grateful that I don't work off of our property. My daughter will be going back to work on April 9. She works at Costco, as does one of my sons. Costco has actually ramped up their staffing to get people in and out quickly, as well as having someone wipe down the carts.

Illinois is on lock down, but that seems to be a relative term.  I see less activity.  That, however, is along way from no activity.  My county and the county north of me have had zero cases.  Other neighboring counties have had one case each.  Some stores are shut down. The John Deere dealer has the employees roped off from the customers.  But most stores seem to be operating normally ...judging from the parking lots.

Hi,  In the beginning no one knew what the virus would do and everyone was a little scared. Mostly everything not a big box store and grocery store was closed. Then the governor ordered people to stay at home and could not travel except for work and food. She had people put in prison for cutting the lawn. She put covid positive cases in nursing homes and retirement communities, knowing it goes after the elderly. Her husband tried to go boating when we couldn't. Later in 2021 she told the citizens not to travel to other states and then goes on a mask-less vacation to Florida. When the people complained of her arbitrary heavy handed edicts, the State House of Representatives started to do something and she said "You're not taking away my power." She followed New Yorks lead.

The people got sick and tired of everything masks and lockdowns. Recall petitions were circulated. Someone noticed her chances of reelection was tanking and wallah  everything opened up. You don't need masks to go shopping, schools had in person learning, you should get the shot and we are with Fauci and it might be ordered. A citizen initiative removed a law taking away her power to order an unending emergency. She still has emergency powers but the house must vote to extend them after 30 days.

So tell me, how did our state do?

Our province is apparently poised to launch a vaccine passport just weeks after saying that was not going to happen. Our Prime Minister has recently scolded anyone not vaccinated and said that "there will be consequences". I feel like the world has gone mad.

Here it is a year later from my original post and my county is in the national news because we have the worst Covid problems in the country at the moment. The governor brought back the mask mandate, thankfully, but the area has woefully low vaccination rates. The hospitals are at capacity. Hospital personnel are walking off their jobs at alarming rates. It's crazy. I'll be okay. I rarely leave the property. But others I fear will not be so lucky. I don't blame the governor, just the locals.

Denmark is smaller than most states we have a pop of 5.5 million but we are fairly tightly packed compared to the US

I wonder what the difference is, in 12 days ALL of our covid restrictions are gone EVERY SINGLE ONE. We only had masks for a few winter months, and only in specific places, we never had a limit on how many can be in your house, or how far you can travel (inside the country) Right at the beginning non essential shops were shut but they soon reopened, for a few months over winter restaurants were takeaway only and things like cinemas were shut about the only thing that has stayed shut is nightlife.
We do have covid passports they are also ending in 12 days. it's really not a problem as even if you are one of the very few that is not vaccinated every little place with about 1k pop or over has a test center where you just turn up and get a quick test, if you want a pcr test just turn up at the center in your local town, all tests are free and you don't need to book or have any reason to have one.

Yes there were some fails, all mink were killed over a bogie-man variant that by the time they shut down the north of the country in a panic had already died out a month prior.  There were some illogical rules and weird ideas but it's the first time the country has ever had to deal with anything like it so that is to be expected. overall I think they did pretty well, we kept almost all our freedom but didn't die so I call that a win.

Hospitals are not at all pressed. (137 in hospital with covid 7 in a respirator) Vaccination rate is 75% started (70% done) looking further into the statistics all age groups are over 75% vaccinated except for the under 16's 80-89 year olds are at 99.3%! The press conference today said if you are not vaccinated it's about to get more dangerous we're not keeping the country shut for a minority.

It will be interesting to see how long the vaccination lasts, when boosters will be required, who they will be given to and if any rules return.

For statistic nuts it's been a great pandemic everything is published here right down to how many cases there are in each parish, what % of tests that is and how many people live in that parish, it also makes it hard to scaremonger when deaths are published by age group.

In retrospect, every good move was made at the Federal level. The Premier of Ontario's track record throughout all of this is pretty abysmal. He's been really busy using Ministerial Zoning Orders to allow demolition of Heritage buildings and development of conservation and farmlands to build more freeways, and otherwise to offer handouts to his party's financial supporters.

He was basically caught red-handed altering the numbers on guidelines that his science advisory panel approved last November, just as our second wave was starting out, inflating the threshold numbers at which we'd switch to more severe lockdown measures.

He's delayed every time there's a decision to be made that he saw as politically troublesome, and as a result, we're currently at the beginning of our fourth wave. The data shows it's primarily being driven by patients with only partial or unknown vaccination status, but of the approximately 700 new patients we're seeing per day, approximately 200 of them are fully vaccinated (my numbers are rounded to illustrate the rough breakdowns).

My personal feeling is that our premier was probably the worst candidate for the job, and that's before the pandemic hit. During this crisis, he's just proven what I felt to be true.

-CK

Michael Helmersson wrote:I feel like the world has gone mad.

Yes I feel the same.

Here in Tennessee where I live, Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order(1) back on August 6 that garnered little attention or fanfare. Contained within is some rather frightening legal poetry that has the potential for draconian abuse. Examples are 8. The discretion to utilize National and State Guard members for “certain” health care and emergency services “operations”, 14. Telephone assessment for involuntary commitment cases, 18. The construction of “isolation facilities”. Following these parts of the order, they have conveniently suspended 20. Health care licensing inspections and investigations, along with 21. The suspension of inspections of health care facilities. It appears they want to act beyond the law and also remove accountability.

I had heard rumors about those in control wanting to build “isolation” camps and imprison innocent people who have made a sovereign medical decision. Along with seeing the heartless tyranny gripping humanity across the globe, it’s easy for me to interpret what the agenda appears to be here. I don’t care what medical choices people choose to make for their own body, all people have inalienable rights and all people deserve freedom.

1) https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-lee83.pdf

In my post just above I was a little concerned about how the governor of Tennessee where I live was handling things, but now things appear much brighter.

I just saw some really good news for Tennesseans. Now, or rather yesterday Nov 12, Tennessee governor Bill Lee signed into action a new law, House Bill 9077 and Senate Bill 9014, squashing vaccine passports and unrestricted mask mandates.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a sweeping measure into law on Friday that will largely ban COVID-19 vaccine passports and restrict the enforcement of mask mandates across the state.

The measure, HB 9077/SB 9014, was passed by the state legislature last month in a three-day special legislative session.

The new law (pdf) will take effect immediately, banning government entities, public schools, and many private businesses from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of entry, or mandating vaccines among their staff.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/tennessee-governor-signs-law-to-ban-covid-19-vaccine-passports_4102176.html