CoViD-19: California Governor Appoints New Public Health Director | Data Backlog (Mostly) Rectified | "To Each His Own" Doesn't Apply During a Pandemic |

Sea Lion Yoga (Taken 8.10.2020)

It was a long day and I hoped to get this post published before soccer, but the County is pretty slow with their daily updates sometimes. This morning's Governor's media briefing was pretty average, though I wish Gav would really drive home that people showing ANY symptoms that could be thought to be COVID-19 should STAY HOME until tested or obvious that they're not. I mean, I get that allergies, a hangover, or any number of actual colds or ailments have basic symptoms, but people just aren't getting it, and he did speak to the fact that even people testing positive are still working for fear of losing their jobs. That has got to stop. 
Besides that, we took Nova to soccer and if you saw my Instagram, I got nailed by a wave while trying to have a nice, quiet, distant walk on the beach and then Darren stood up into a rock and got a small fleshwound on top of his head. He's totally fine, but saltwater and blood made it look like he was Carrie for a minute, especially because his wet yellow mask soaked up the blood. I assure you we're both fine and we not in any real danger. My camera survived, too, though my phone won't charge because "moisture is detected" but I'm sure that will be fine, too. We still went to Costco (totally wet pants) and resupplied our beer stash (because clearly we need it,) but we also bought some nice cod and had a lovely dinner until Nova had a meltdown because I had the audacity to tell her she needs to clean her room tomorrow. Yikes. Teenagers, amirite? Anyhow, some reading and stats after the jump.

• State of California Governor Newsom Briefing
• Public Health Director Stepped Down. Appointing Dr. Erica Pan (Infectious Disease/Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at UCSF) as Acting Health Director.
• Will California participate in president's 'executive actions' from the weekend with regard to unemployment and evictions
• California has already allocated 75% of CARES dollars
• 25% Unemployment contribution would cost state $700million/week. We do not have it.
• $2.8Billion/weekly when federal funds expired. We definitely do not have that.
• Unemployment & Underemployment is beyond federally recorded numbers. 
• Federal Government is supposed to front the money in an emergency, including unemployment.
• Evictions: State has extended local government authorities through 9/30
• What Gavin should be reciting OVER AND OVER: The Federal Government can run at a deficit. States, Counties, and Cities cannot constitutionally do so, ever.  
• Essential workers & general public continue to go in public and even work if they've been exposed or even test positive because they don't have the support to properly quarantine.*THEY ALSO DON'T KNOW BETTER. Messaging on this has sucked.
• California is committed to ensuring accurate COVID-19 data. State IT sucks but still working on it.
• Added system capacity to better handle record volume
• Augmented supports and oversidght to ensure data is timely and high quality
• Initiated effort to create a new laboratory reporting system
• 295,999 backlogged records processed over the weekend in CalReadie
• Cases are ready & available for counties to be processed into local stats and contact tracing programs
• Cases will be reported by State when final, backdating and adjusting numbers and trendlines 
• California COVID-19 Stats:
• 7,751 New Cases/561,911 Total Cases (1.4% increase)
• 66 New Deaths/10,359 Total Deaths (.6% increase)
• 6% 14-day test positivity rate (This will be updated when backlogged data is adequately filtered into past information)
• Hospitalization down 19% in the state aggregate (14-day)
• ICU admissions down 13% in the state aggregate (14-day) 
• Media Questions:
• Won't say if Dr. Angel was asked to step down. "We don't discuss personnel issues publicly. It serves no purpose."
• Backlogged data will still reflect reported trendlines. "Hospitalizations and ICU data don't lie."
• Guidelines for childcare facilities are different than schools because childcares are different than schools.
• Monitor list most likely won't be affected by new backlogged data but will be backdated as necessary.
• School districts within counties can ask for waivers for elementary schools. They submit to county, county submits to state, state approval goes back to counties.
• Testing has been prioritized. (1) Symptomatic/hospitalized patients (2) Asymptomatic but contact traced to positive cases (3) Vulerable populations (4) general population
• Can't move CARES money for T3 Strategies to unemployment or we will lose testing capacity.
• COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO COVID-19 STATS:
• State Data:
• 5,763 New Cases (Last 14 Days)/32,749 Total Cases
• 61 Deaths (Last 14 Days)/594 Total Deaths
• 171 cases/100k population 
• 10.7% Test Positivity (Last 14 Days)
• County Data:
• 228 New Cases/32,975 Total Cases
• 0 New Daily Deaths/594 Total Deaths
• 105.4 cases (101.6 State Reporting)/100k population 
• 3% Daily Test Positivity/5.3% Test Positivity (7-day average with 7-day lag)
• Case Investigation is 97%
• 7 New/24 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
• City of San Diego Updates:
• "San Diego is #BetterbyBike! We just launched a new blog to help riders of all levels access bike routes and maps, find bicycle repair tips and connect with fun (virtual!) events. You can also see bike infrastructure projects in our neighborhoods and read profiles about some cool San Diegans who commute by bike. Better By Bike
• 'To Each His Own'
• I'm still the Karen (haha), yet 3 days later, I keep getting comments angry about my comment that was specifically addressing San Diego Zoo Safari Park about their eating/drinking policy. 
  did you know all you have to do is tell them you have an exemption and they let you go in no one forcing anyone to wear a mask . To each their own stay home if your scared
  Naturally I can't stop stewing on this really ignorant attitude (and don't even bother with the grammar,) specifically "to each his own." A quick search on Twitter showed me hundreds of instances in just the last 24 hours that got "to each his own" in response to discussions about COVID and wearing masks (as expected), watching the Kardashians, incest, Christianity, 'stanning', supporting Trump, and tons more. So it's just a lame argument, either "I'm not intellectually blessed enough to carry out this argument" or "I don't think you're worth my time to carry out this argument any further." For me, I was commenting to an organization with a suggestion and now get to hear from every maskhole defending people refusing to wear masks and/or coughing within a private facility, namely, San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The messaging on the SARS-COV-2 (the novel coronavirus) has been so screwed up since the beginning. As it was, we should've believed China in January, not waited until March, and we certainly should have a president who all the way through July refused to wear a mask or endorse their widespread use. It's all a disaster. So again, I'll retreat and keep my comments to this site rather than jumping on other entity's walls, because I really just can't deal with covidiots any more. I'll continue to risk-assess and partake in things I believe to be the lowest risk, and I'll continue to skip the things that I won't trust, likely for a very long time. Considering the US has passed 5 million cases and the rest of the world is feeling sorry for us, I'll continue to read and believe the science. To each his own.
• COVID-19 In Other News:
• In case you were wondering why I wasn't celebrating the president's executive orders over the weekend, this is why. It's all fake and costs Americans more. Don't fall for this bullshit, and get this trash out of the white house in November. 
• Trump dupes the press - Popular.Info (8.10.2020)
• In Pandemic, Green Doesn't Mean 'Go.' How Did Public Health Guidance Get So Muddled? - NPR (8.4.2020)
  "Now, we are seeing what might sound like a contradictory message...Yes, we are reopening, but, no, we don't want you to stop behaving as though there is virus in our community."
• Covid-19 Drug Research Is a Big Huge Mess: Scientists have been studying treatments for the disease for half a year. Lack of coordination and a broken system mean they still don’t know very much. - Wired (8.10.2020)