Monday, September 21, 2020

CoViD-19 Stats | What News Channels Keep Getting Wrong | Small Biz Defiance | Colds Are Back With A Vengeance

A Year Ago Today I Was Working at the Loft for a show with Phum Viphurit (9.21.2019)

I have a rant today, but I'll leave it after the jump because I'm actually in a pretty great mood tonight, despite over 400 new emails today. Seriously, it feels really tone-deaf for the moment, but maybe that's just because I'm the recipient of so much garbage. I slept so solidly (thanks, Bulleit) after a super fun night in the speakeasy. We kinda have fun rearranging things little by little and a good buzz certainly helps. 
What I'm really enjoying at the moment is watching all of Pea Hix's found footage videos on his YouTube channel, particularly this one with old footage of Balboa Park from the 70s. I'm also feeling a little mischievous because while Nova was at an open derby practice, Darren and I sneakily had Tacos el Panson. Seriously, they are the best. So things are bad in the world and also good. I hope everyone out there is coping as best they can with the world as it is. Though it may be time for a rewatch of Man In The High Castle

Rant:
After this weekend, there's so much to unravel. But one of the things that is driving me crazy, is how wrong news stations are reporting the data for the county to move to a new tier. The number 7 represents cases per 100,000 people of the population. It is not a percentage. If we had a 7% spread in San Diego we would have over 220,000 cases. Thankfully we're nowhere near that (yet) but the number of 7 per 100,000 people in the population still represents widespread infections within the county, and that is still very serious and very dangerous. Meanwhile, local small businesses held a rally to re-open and defy the tiers. I'm keeping a list of those businesses: if they defy public health orders, why would I trust them to serve me food or thoughtfully provide me services and not cheat me? 
I don't know the solution to our problems, but when this pandemic really started hitting a head in March and April, we were told it could be around for two years. Why are we expecting that to be different only 6-7 months later, especially with the piss-poor leadership across the country? And now the CDC has, yet again, changed their position on aerosol transmission? PBS Newshour had a great segment tonight, which I decided to embed at the end of this email. 
I was watching NBC7 News at 6:30 and realized it was the first time I watched network TV in ages. The proposition ads are so out of control. I saw the No on 15 ad about the poor restaurant owner who had to close twice from the pandemic and eventually had to shutter forever after 57 years because of the burden of the proposed property tax adjustment to actually pay what they should've been for the past 50 years. Poor guy. 
Small problem, though. 
Claudio's Italian Cuisine just doesn't exist. 
There's one in New York, and one in Pennsylvania. It's a reminder that the only thing you should care about while watching a political ad is the last 3 seconds when it shows, by law, who paid for the ad. That poor old lady who needs dialysis? Paid for by the clinics exploiting kidney patients. Those prop 22 ads to defy the state supreme court and AB5? Paid for by Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Postmates, and Instacart: all companies who viciously exploit their workers. It's really gross that there are no standards for straight up lies in ads. If only the populace cared enough to research before voting. 
And my final rant of the night is that the County was trying to carve out SDSU numbers from the county's case count for moving tiers. Meanwhile UCSD and USD students are moving on campus. If you look at today's numbers, only 31 of the 348 new cases are SDSU students, of which they still claim are 75% students living off-campus. How does the county account for those numbers and still consider fighting the governor on potentially moving tiers?   
  • State of California Governor Newsom Briefing
    • Wildfires
      • 2019: 5.316 Fires/157 acres
      • 2020: 7,982 /3.6million acres
      • 26 known fatalities
      • 6,400+ known structures destroyed (doesn't include damaged)
      • 27 major fires/complexes still burning
      • 23,154 evacuess
      • 19000 firefighters/2,400 engines
      • Incident reports/Current Fire Status 
    • California COVID-19 Stats:
      • 3,294 New Cases/3,417 7-day average/781,694 Total Cases (0.4% increase)
      • 31 New Deaths/15,018 Total Deaths (0.2% increase)
      • 3.1% 14-day test positivity rate/2.8% 7-day positivity rate
      • Testing backlog has declined
      • California will continue to increase testing with 24-48 hour turnaround
      • 23% decline in hospitalizations over 14-days
      • 25% decline in ICU admissions over 14-days
    • Project Homekey 
      • State announces second round of awards
        • $236 million
        • 1,810 units;20 projects
        • 12 jurisdictions, including one tribe
        • San Diego funded for 2 projects with 336 new units
    • EDD Strike Team Report
      • Looked at short, medium, and long-term recommendations and solutions
      • On Saturday, EDD began a 2-week reset period to:
        • Implement new automatic ID Verification software
        • Redeploy experienced staff to process claims, working through oldest and most complex claims
        • New staff will focus on mail, email, and an outbound call effort
        • Minimize delays in processing for first time applicants
        • Reduce and prevent backlog growth
        • Make online access to UI benefits easier and simpler
        • Strike team report made over 70 recommendations
  • San Diego County Stats
    • State Data:
      • 284 New Cases/44,579 Total Cases
      • 0 Deaths/760 Total Deaths
      • 8.1 cases/100k population (Based on week ending 9/5, Assessed on 9/15. State uses Adjusted Case Rate Using Linear Adjustment)
      • 4.5% Test Positivity (Based on week ending 9/5, Assessed on 9/15)
    • County Data:
      • 348 New Cases/44,925 Total Cases 
      • 0 New Daily Deaths/760 Total Deaths
      • 5% Daily Test Positivity/3.8% (7-day avg after 7-day lag)/3.7% Test Positivity (14-day average)
      • 7.9 cases/100k population (Based on week ending 9/5, As assessed on 9/15. County is reporting unadjusted case rate per 100,000 excluding prisons)
      • Case Investigation is 97%
      • 1 New/22 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
  • SDSU COVID-19:
    • As of Sept. 20 at 6 p.m., 845 confirmed cases and 37 probable cases have been reported for a total of 882 cases. This is 31 more (confirmed and probable) cases than yesterday.
  • COVID-19:


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