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COVID-19 detected in United States

Jacob

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Flew in and out of LAX last week, it was quite a bit different driving around the LA area at rush hour with everybody going 80MPH on the interstates. Despite most things remaining closed out there, the people there said there's been a noticable uptick in traffic the past couple weeks.
 

ghost

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Flew in and out of LAX last week, it was quite a bit different driving around the LA area at rush hour with everybody going 80MPH on the interstates. Despite most things remaining closed out there, the people there said there's been a noticable uptick in traffic the past couple weeks.
What was the flight like? Did they take people's temp before boarding? Were people shoulder to shoulder or one person per row? Plenty of hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes?
 

Jacob

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What was the flight like? Did they take people's temp before boarding? Were people shoulder to shoulder or one person per row? Plenty of hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes?

There was no screening of any kind at BHM or LAX other than the normal security screening. I don't recall seeing any hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes, but they were supposedly cleaning the planes more thoroughly between flights.

I flew Southwest, so it was BHM-LAS, LAS-LAX, and then the opposite on the way back. They are limiting the number of seats they sell (which isn't an issue for most of their flights anyhow right now). Nobody can sit in the front 3 or back 3 rows, and no middle seats unless it is family/your group. SW is also "requiring" masks on their flights now, but once onboard it didn't seem to be enforced at all.

The only other thing significantly different was their boarding procedure. If you've flown SW, you know they line you up by boarding group, 60 at a time. They were only doing 5 or 10 at a time, spaced 6 feet apart. That won't work when flights are full again, but it wasn't an issue when there was only 30-40 people on the flights (BHM-LAS, might've been 80 on the LAS-LAX leg)
 

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Outbreak among the construction crews and contractors working on Bryant Denny's latest remodel. Additionally, we're at 323 cases for today -- and that number was as of 12:30pm. We might break 500 new cases today. We have definitely not peaked in Alabama, and we better all pray we don't end up with a suddenly accelerating outbreak that becomes very difficult to control.
 

skelly

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Outbreak among the construction crews and contractors working on Bryant Denny's latest remodel. Additionally, we're at 323 cases for today -- and that number was as of 12:30pm. We might break 500 new cases today. We have definitely not peaked in Alabama, and we better all pray we don't end up with a suddenly accelerating outbreak that becomes very difficult to control.
It’s not over by a long shot. But whole scale lockdown is not going to be the answer going forward. It can’t be. Certain individuals and families will need to quarantine temporarily for 7-21 day periods. Certain locales and businesses on a targeted basis. Some activities might not get back to normal for a while. Concerts, sporting events, worship and political and business conventions. But I believe the widespread one size fits all lockdown strategy should be behind us. It has to be.
 

Evan

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It’s not over by a long shot. But whole scale lockdown is not going to be the answer going forward. It can’t be. Certain individuals and families will need to quarantine temporarily for 7-21 day periods. Certain locales and businesses on a targeted basis. Some activities might not get back to normal for a while. Concerts, sporting events, worship and political and business conventions. But I believe the widespread one size fits all lockdown strategy should be behind us. It has to be.

Oh, I totally agree. I think we have to have a much more nuanced approach as I've advocated for previously in this thread. My concern is that a significant number of Alabamans disagree with you and me, and believe we should be going full speed ahead as they think the danger has largely passed.

Latest update just posted...we're thankfully only at 368 new cases. We may avoid hitting 500 cases today as I had feared. However, the 401 new case record we set a week ago seems to be in danger.
 

Mike S

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A friend who runs a COVID 19 Facebook site and reports Alabama's numbers every evening is reporting 676 new cases today. Yikes.
 

Evan

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A friend who runs a COVID 19 Facebook site and reports Alabama's numbers every evening is reporting 676 new cases today. Yikes.

Yes. 676 as of 8pm. Wow. I had really hoped that the update around 5:30 meant that we'd avoid reaching 500. Didn't expect that we'd absolutely shatter it.
 

Jacob

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Yes. 676 as of 8pm. Wow. I had really hoped that the update around 5:30 meant that we'd avoid reaching 500. Didn't expect that we'd absolutely shatter it.

Looks to me like a backlog of positive tests must've come in (or some other type of reporting error). Those stats follow pretty closely to the ADPH numbers, but from 5/15 through 5/19, ADPH reported 400 more cases. Throw in an additional 400 cases to yesterday's numbers...and you get a big scary 676 number.

Here's the ADPH dashboard. It shows no spike for yesterday https://alpublichealth.maps.arcgis..../index.html#/6d2771faa9da4a2786a509d82c8cf0f7
 
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warneagle

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Oh, I totally agree. I think we have to have a much more nuanced approach as I've advocated for previously in this thread. My concern is that a significant number of Alabamans disagree with you and me, and believe we should be going full speed ahead as they think the danger has largely passed.

Latest update just posted...we're thankfully only at 368 new cases. We may avoid hitting 500 cases today as I had feared. However, the 401 new case record we set a week ago seems to be in danger.
Don't confuse the loudest group with the one that has the most support. Polling data has consistently shown that the "reopen everything" group is a small minority and the majority of people across the political spectrum are supportive of key public health measures like maintaining shutdowns of most non-essential businesses, requiring masks, etc. Making a scene in front of the TV cameras is a great way to get attention but doesn't necessarily indicate that their ideas are actually popular.

I feel like we've done a pretty good job here in Virginia, especially in northern Virginia given the population density, etc. I don't think we're going to see a large-scale reopening anytime soon, but hopefully at least some restrictions can be safely relaxed. We've been able to follow our regular routine in terms of grocery shopping and things like that since most people are following the distancing guidelines and wearing their masks.
 

barcncpt44

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Florida is seeing a new spike in cases too.
 

Jacob

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Florida is seeing a new spike in cases too.


Florida has also seen a dramatic ramp up in test results the last few days. They were seeing results from 7-15k tests each day during April, with only one day hitting 20k results (not coincidentally, that's the April 23rd datapoint).

3 Days in May had 20k tests, with a peak of 22,109 on May 11th, until the past 5 days. Since then, they've had
  • May 16 - 21,210
  • May 17 - 21,745
  • May 18 - 24,620
  • May 19 - 39,443
  • May 20 - 55,493
 

Jacob

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Don't confuse the loudest group with the one that has the most support. Polling data has consistently shown that the "reopen everything" group is a small minority and the majority of people across the political spectrum are supportive of key public health measures like maintaining shutdowns of most non-essential businesses, requiring masks, etc. Making a scene in front of the TV cameras is a great way to get attention but doesn't necessarily indicate that their ideas are actually popular.

I have to say, I think a month ago I would've agreed with you. I think sentiment has changed pretty quickly over the last few weeks, at least in the somewhat small circles that I deal with.
 

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Northwest Alabama has definitely seen an increase in testing over the last few weeks.
 

KoD

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So what happened to the folks who said this was no big deal because in comparison influenza kills 60,000+ a year? I heard that a lot from people at work.
Do they feel the same but with different rationales now?
 

Lori

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People have had a misunderstanding concerning the shutdown, opening back up and projections.

The shutdown and opening up didn’t conquer or cure Covid-19, it got a few people away from each other and kept hospitals from being overwhelmed.
The projections were based on other countries then our country stats was factored.

Yes more testing makes the numbers go up, those numbers are why there was only one bed left in Montgomery.

I live in Shelby Co AL...in Alabaster all merchants worker wore masks, door signs asked customers to wear masks but only 70% customers had masks (including myself).
About 15-20 miles in Chelsea none of merchant workers wore masks and besides myself, I only saw one person wearing a mask.
Same county different towns completely different approaches!!

I felt safe at the funeral home than in Catos in Chelsea (I’d not gone if I’d not needed funeral clothes).

Why are people so opposed to masks when they’re saying they can help keep us and others safe!!
 

Jacob

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So what happened to the folks who said this was no big deal because in comparison influenza kills 60,000+ a year? I heard that a lot from people at work.
Do they feel the same but with different rationales now?

I always felt like the "it's just the flu" argument was in bad faith because, if nothing else (and there are other reasons why it is a bad argument), with this being a new virus we didn't really know enough about it yet to make that statement.

It is possible when this is all said and done that this disease ends up being roughly the equivalent of a "bad seasonal flu", but with no added help of a vaccine or immunity to slow it down. Only time and future studies (and obviously what happens during the next year(s)) will really be able to tell us.
 
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