CoViD-19 Stay Home Saturday | County Sets Weekly Records with 18,016 New Cases,129 COVID-19 Associated Deaths | Momentum Builds To Audit McConnell Election

Spreckels Organ Pavilion at Christmas (Taken 12.6.2019)

Obviously this whole restaurant thing has made me really mad. Local media uses words like "whiplash" and "yo-yo" to talk about the opening and closing of restaurants, but the stay at home order was never lifted. The county had already voted to appeal if the judge's ruling went against the order. When the state AG stepped in last week with a cease-and-desist, it should've been obvious that the state will continue the fight. Restaurants who thought it would be safe to open, when their headlines are back to back with nightly local and national records being set for deaths and positive cases and the lack of hospital beds and nurses and ventilators, you have to wonder what kind of business acumen some of these people even have. 

Meanwhile, my feed is full of friends who tested positive, or who are dealing with someone in their own lives who is sick, and in a couple cases, losing their own relatives to complications from COVID-19. And then I get mad all over again, because people are fighting for the right to go to a tasting room, and I'm just hoping that Darren stays safe and healthy when he has to unavoidably go to the laundromat to do our laundry. And I keep reading articles or posts from people who "took every precaution" and still got sick. One story was about a couple who "needed a break" so they took a weekend trip out of their home state and ended up sick. Hate to break it to you, but if you're traveling, you're not "taking every precaution." San Diego reported 129 deaths this week, breaking the last record of 96 set last week, and 58 the week before that, which surpassed the highest death weeks in July with 56 and 55 deaths. 

Besides all that, we've been home, besides Darren doing all of our laundry, hopefully enough to get us through for awhile. This evening I was experimenting with shooting Jupiter and Saturn in anticipation for the "Great Conjunction" on Monday. I don't have great gear, but the camera we got this spring has a wi-fi function with an app so I can use the tripod and change setting and snap the pic with my phone which is kinda fun. 

Be good out there. And make sure to look up to the sky every once in awhile. 

 

• Event: 
• Sunday, Dec. 20, at 2:00 pm PST
  Spreckels Organ Concert Webcast & Holiday Sing-Along with Marco Antonio Labastida!
  The Spreckels Organ Society presents San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez with featured guest celebrity vocalist, tenor Marco Antonio Labastida. Feast on your favorite Mexican Carols in the Castellano language, and be inspired by majestic classics and the powerful performance of Prieto Ramírez on the magnificent Spreckels Organ -- The largest outdoor musical instrument in the world! Tune in Sunday, Dec. 20 at 2 pm Pacific Time on sandiegoconcerts.org or balboaparkconcerts.org.
• COVID-19:
• I’m A Scientist. I Can’t Even Get My Own Family And Friends To Follow COVID-19 Rules. They know it's a real and highly contagious virus, and they know about the guidelines. They're just deciding not to follow them - HuffPost (12.19.2020)
• Early this morning some science/medical friends were talking about mutations of Sars-CoV-2 and I had read a couple things that I shared. By the time I woke up later, London was going under the strictest lockdown because the belief is that this mutation allows the virus to spread faster. So here are some of the articles about all of that. 
• New coronavirus strain spreading in UK has key mutations, scientists say - Reuters (12.15.2020) 
• UK nixes Christmas gatherings, shuts London shops over virus - AP News (12.18.2020)
• How a new Covid strain may have spread virus in south of England. While variant seems to spread more quickly, it does not appear to be more dangerous - The Guardian (12.19.202)
• Here’s what you need to know about the new coronavirus variant, now confirmed in SA - Business Insider (12.18.2020)
• Politics/News/Other Reading:
• BUSTED? Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up - RawStory (12.18.2020)
• Check Out These Awesome Objects in the Night Sky. Get your binoculars (or not) and let’s explore the reaches of our galaxy and the craters of the moon. - Wired (12.18.2020)
• ‘I failed’: Operation Warp Speed leader takes responsibility for Covid-19 vaccine distribution confusion - STAT News (12.19.2020)
• Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 12/19 9:27pm):
• 76,289,042 Known Cases
• 1,685,526 Known Deaths
• US COVID-19 Stats (COVID Tracking Project ):
• 201,841 New Cases/17,452,905 Known Cases (9.3%+ Change over 7 Days)
• 2,704 New Deaths/307,831 Known Deaths
• 113,929 Current Hospitalizations
• 21,688 Currently in ICU
• 7,790 Currently on ventilator
• California COVID-19 Stats:
• 43,608 New Cases/1,807,982 Total Cases (2.5% increase)
• 272 New Deaths/22,432 Total Deaths (1.2% increase)
• 11.8% 14-day test positivity rate
• 17,398 Hospitalizations (+433 COVID-19 patients, 2.5% increase from prior day)
• 3,620 ICU hospitalized in CA (+67 COVID-19 patients, 1.9% increase from prior day)
• 1,284 ICU beds available (50 increase from prior day)
• San Diego County Stats
• State Data:
• Southern California ICU Bed Availability: 0.0%
• 3,611 New Cases/120,463 Total Cases
• 14 Deaths/1,253 Total Deaths
• 52.7 cases/100k population (Based on week ending 12/8, Assessed on 12/15. Unadjusted Case Rate)
• 10.9% Test Positivity (Assessed on 12/15)
• 13.5% Health Equity Positivity (Assessed on 12/15)
• 1,253 hospitalized patients (+34 patients, +2.8% increase from prior day)
• 316 ICU hospitalized patients (+2 patients, +0.6% increase from prior day)
• 183 ICU beds available (11 increase from prior day)
• County Data:
• No San Diego County COVID Update on Weekends
• San Diego is hitting 8 triggers: High adjusted case rate (29.5), high community outbreaks (37), COVID-19 syndromic increasing (6%), influenza like illness increasing (4%), increasing day over day hospitalizations (12.1%), low ICU Capacity 19%, high testing positivity 10.6%, low case investigation 45% 
• 2,509 New Cases/122,972 Total Cases 
• 27 New Daily Deaths/129 Weekly Deaths/1,280 Total Deaths
• 7% Daily Test Positivity/10.6% (7-day avg after 7-day lag)/8.8% Test Positivity (14-day average)
• 29.5 cases/100k population (Assessed on 12/15. Unadjusted case rate per 100,000 excluding prisons.) 
• Case Investigation is 45% (under 70% goal)
• 12.1% Increasing Day Over Day Hospitalizations (1,223 COVID-19 confirmed patients, over 10% trigger. 216% increase over 30 days)
• 19% ICU Capacity (305 COVID-19 confirmed patients. under 20% Trigger. 158% increase over 30 days)
• 8 New/37 Community Outbreaks (7-day)
• Universities:
• SDSU COVID-19, UCSD COVID-19, USD COVID-19, CSU San Marcos, PLNU