State’s numbers worsen though not as bad as much of the rest of the country
By Will Collette
Because Rhode Island COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise, Gov. Gina Raimondo is ramping up restrictions.
She has
frozen the state’s re-opening plan until we get a grip on the numbers and is
instituting new restrictions though she has vowed no renewal of lock-downs.
Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe reported in his daily e-mail
on Rhode Island news that our daily test positive rate is at 2.7% (not good).
Our death toll has risen to 1,147.
Looking at current case rates in South County, Narragansett is the highest with 482 cases per 100,000 and Westerly with 88 per 100,000.
Narragansett’s numbers are the worst in the state, more than double the next
worse, Central Falls, which has 217 per 100,000. You may recall that early in
the summer, Narragansett was the most aggressive town to resist the governor’s
order about masks and social distancing at the beach.
The current state
average is 120/100,000. The current infection rate needs to be less than
100 per 100,000 for schools to re-open for in-person learning.
Gina blames small gatherings for the dangerous turn in our
numbers, rather than her order to re-open schools or some of the outrageous
conduct of college students. She has ruled out closing schools, restaurants or businesses,
although she has ordered those businesses with “break rooms” to shut them down
for 90 days.
Meanwhile, we remain banned
from staying for more than 24 hours in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York
or New Jersey, probably for quite a while. I guess that’s OK for those of us
who plan to follow Dr.
Anthony Fauci’s advice to skip the big Thanksgiving family dinner.
Birx makes a useless
visit to Rhode Island
Birx was once a respected authority on infectious disease for her work on HIV/AIDS, but
that was before she
became Trump’s beard for the lack of any national strategy to deal with this
global pandemic.
Due largely to her failure to tell Trump things he didn’t want to hear, the US has the highest case rate and death toll in the world.
History will also mark her as the one who carried the biggest knife to castrate
the CDC.
But putting all that aside, Birx
had a nice chat with Governor Raimondo and complimented the hell out of her
for Rhode Island’s coronavirus response. I guess she learned from her service to the Dear Leader the best way to
deal with head-strong elected officials is to feed them large doses of
bullshit praise.
At URI, Birx seemed to overlook the awful behavior of
partying students, especially the frat boys, saying instead that she was more concerned
about small gatherings – I guess that’s where Gina
got her current priority (see above).
Birx was in Rhode Island rather than doing her job in
Washington because Trump has decided to give up on the coronavirus fight,
choosing instead to listen to his now favorite
quack Dr. Scott Atlas. Atlas believes we should allow the virus to infect
as many people as possible so we achieve a level of “herd immunity.”
However, to get Americans up to herd immunity for coronavisur – without a vaccine – would mean 75% or more Americans would need to catch COVID-19 and form natural anti-bodies.
But reach herd immunity levels, based on probable COVID death rates, anywhere from 2 to
6 MILLION Americans would die. Until we have a safe and effective vaccine being
given to the vast majority of Americans, following Trump and Scott Atlas is
like embracing a viral holocaust.
And Dr. Deborah Birx doesn’t say a peep and sticks to her
new role as traveling cheerleader.
It’s the economy,
stupid
Trump may believe we can either ignore COVID-19, or better,
let everybody get it, in order to begin to heal an economy in tatters, but it
actually works the other way around. We are not going to have a clear path to
economic recovery until we get this pandemic under control.
States that have followed the Trump doctrine have sickened
and killed their citizens by the thousands and still have trashed-out
economies.
This country may lose most of its restaurant, travel and
entertainment industries because the Trump Virus is still raging.
Approximately 8 million Americans fell into poverty after
the $600 pandemic unemployment benefit bump expired. Senate Majority Leader
Moscow Mitch McConnell refused to allow replacement legislation to come to a
vote even though House Democrats passed the HEROS Bill more than five months
ago.
In the current edition of the weekly South County Independent,
there are two pieces on struggling non-profits trying to cope. The Jonnycake
Center has just gotten their retail store for donated goods re-opened. The
Independent also reported how the Courthouse
Center for the Arts was saved from closure by a groundswell of individual
donations.
Mystic Aquarium was about to crash and sink on the rocks,
despite their aggressive efforts to stay somewhat operational. Even after
partially re-opening, attendance revenue hasn’t been enough to cover overhead
for the on-going care of over 5,000 sea creatures. Attendance provided 80% of
the Aquarium’s revenue.
On September 21, Connecticut
Governor Ned Lamont announced a $7 million state loan to help the Aquarium
re-structure its finances. The Aquarium is hopeful this will put the popular
institution back on track for the long-term.
Struggling RI oyster farmers
will get $1.7 million in help from the US Department of Agriculture,
according to Senator Jack Reed. They will use this funding to grow more oysters
and some of those critters will be dispersed into Narragansett Bay and the
south coast (including Charlestown) to aid in cleaning those waters.
In Charlestown, our latest unemployment rate is an historic
13.2%. Even though Charlestown has a budget surplus as well as options to put
Charlestown’s unemployed to work, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance which controls
the town is more focused on using town money for shady land deals with cronies.
And finally…
Rhode Island drivers continue to catch a break from the DMV
on their expiring documents – licenses, registrations, learner permits,
disabled parking tags, etc. The deadline to renew these documents has been
extended into November. CHECK
HERE for the status of DMV’s policy on those vital records. CLICK HERE for a list
of transactions you can do on-line or by mail.
DEM will end its weekly Mosquito advisories this week. For years, DEM has advised Rhode Islanders about the presence of
mosquito-borne diseases, especially West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis. Rhode
Island caught a major break this year and had only 1 finding of EEE and none of
West Nile. No human cases were reported.
The only infected mosquito they trapped was caught in
Chapman Swamp in Westerly. The mosquito population was greatly suppressed this
year because of our extreme drought. More people staying indoors due to
COVID-19 may also have been a factor
We usually have widespread findings of infected mosquitos
along with human illnesses and some deaths.