COVID a dozen days into June

Peru is ascending in the Race to the Bottom, and Chile overtook Kuwait sometime in the last 2 days, but still the US holds steady. Still gaining somewhere around 20,000 cases per day, but unable to compete anymore, we hold on to 10th place. Our percentage increases every day, but not as fast as the small countries we compete with. We may be able to overtake Luxembourg in a few days, but I wouldn't place bets on it yet. By the time we catch them, Belarus or Maldives may catch up to US.

Gunnison and Colorado are still doing fine... though I had a visitor today who helped a friend move without a mask 2 weeks ago, and he feels justified in traveling around the country. This is why we can't seem to drop our caseload like all of Europe managed to do. In most metrics, the US instead competes with Belarus and Kuwait and Bahrain.

June 10 COVID situation

Stumbled upon Arizona today, their case load has bumped up noticeably since the beginning of June. Checked out a few other states: Florida is trending upward, slightly, as is California. New Jersey is not, New York is not, and my own state of Colorado is not... though my own Tourism-based place in Gunnison is. Over the last 4 days, we gained 3 cases. Which is huge for us: we held pretty damn steady for about 2 weeks.

Among the highest case load states (not the highest rate states), the trends are mixed, which might be why the nation as a whole is holding steady at about 20k cases per day, even now, a few weeks after the Memorial Day Revelries. We have broken past the 2 million mark (though not everyone agrees we're quite there yet) and have joined the 0.6% club, but still we have dropped out of the top 10 countries in the Great Race to the Bottom, being displaced by Peru. Though Brazil is hiding data in their bid, trying to grow cases as fast as they apparently can, they are still around a measly 0.3%

Among the top contenders, Luxemborg and Singapore traded places again. While Chile jumped up to just behind Kuwait. Bahrain jumped into the 1% club and Qatar is more than half way to being the first and only country in the 3% club and being virtually untouchable in the race to the Bottom. Though, thankfully, they have shown a recent trend to be heading back down on the curve. Good luck Qatar! I hope you're able to turn this around soon.

As morbid as this has been, it is my hope no one need top these charts.

As compared to last post, June 5, the data then:

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June 5 COVID dispatch

In this last update for the next few days, things hold steady. Qatar continues to pull away from the pack, now at 2.4%. Bahrain and Mayotte trade places. The US nears the 2 million cases mark, as the number of cases per day flattens so much it's almost growing a little. To those nay-sayers who think this is mostly a cold weather disease, recognize that Qatar is not that much of a "cold weather of a country", and neither is Bahrain or Kuwait in the middle east. Neither is Singapore, close to the equator. 

However, according to the NY Times, the US may be improving more than I predicted. We are seeing a steady level of cases, but we are also testing far better than we used to, and we are getting more negative tests as a proportion. Perhaps even the arrogant US of A is improving the outlook against all the odds of the leadership we choose. Most people are behaving well and compassionately, wearing masks and maintaining distance, and washing hands.

June 4 COVID situation

Chile beats the US to the 0.6% mark, even as we climb one more hundredth of a percent. The US does seem to be slowly rallying, but it is as slow to ramp back up as it is to ramp down. Remember again that other countries hit hard and early have dropped in new incidence, even the UK, but the US has held remarkably steady at about 20,000 new cases a day since early May. As we continue into June, keep an eye on this competitor. They may be planning to make their move in October....

Thanks to Diane Mitch Bush

In March this year, along with all my co-workers, I was rapidly laid off due to a global pandemic that was affecting Ski Areas early and heavily. Since that time, 6 people in my small local community have died from that same disease. I think the decision to close was appropriate and even necessary, and I don't argue with that. But all of a sudden, I had no income. When applying for unemployment, in this emergency, I was asked by the State of Colorado to please wait to apply. There was some federal aid coming, and they were getting thousands of new applications and they could not keep up. So, kindly, I acquiesced to their request. I checked in regularly, and once I was allowed to apply, I tried.

And I didn't succeed for a month.

By then, I had nearly begun to work again. By the time I was able to request my unemployment, I was working more than 32 hours a week, and not allowed to request my payments.

Frustrated, I tried to contact the department of Labor and Unemployment, but no phone numbers could contact anyone. Even in good times, they are hard to contact, and now they were more over-worked and low on resources than ever.

So I harassed my elected officials, and they tried to help. But when Diane Mitch Bush reached back out, who is not yet my representative, she got me in contact with someone who helped me out almost immediately. Within three days of Ms. Mitch-Bush offering a hand up, I had solved my troubles with the Unemployment system.

This is just one reason I will be voting for her in the primary, and the general, elections. Thank you, Diane, you are one of a kind!