There have also been questions about whether the government is suppressing the data. There were originally reports that deaths that were not COVID related were being reported as being COVID related. I don't know. I have to rely on published data. And while they started out posting updates in a regular and timely fashion, they are getting a little bit relaxed about that. I don't know why. The data typically shows up, but not necessarily by 9 am the way it used to, and sometimes not until the following day. Our community is situated in two counties - Polk and Osceola. I've been tracking the number of new cases for both counties daily since they identified the first case in Polk County back on March 17th. What I see is that the number of cases is going up every day. The trend line for both counties is still headed up. Less than 5% of the people who get it die from it, so that's good news. And from what I can see from my data, only about 5% of the population has it. (Or has a severe enough case for it to be reported.) My guess is that if you have a mild case and you don't see a doctor or get a test, you are not included in the numbers. So far, I only know one person who actually has it. Unfortunately, I believe she'd attest to the wickedness of this disease since she's been in one hospital or another since March 30th (over 30 days on a ventilator) and still isn't completely recovered. Seriously not something I want to take a chance with.
Now, as businesses reopen and everybody gets back to "normal" life, I'm sitting here wondering what has changed. Why is everything reopening? Why are people allowed in stores without masks? There is no vaccine. There is not even a treatment protocol that works for everyone. The government has issued guidelines for reopening that almost no state is following - especially states with Republican governors, like Florida and Texas. I've seen pictures online of people I know sitting around in restaurants with strangers sitting a foot behind them and no one wearing a mask. It's a risk I'm not willing to take just yet.
There's been so much mixed messaging. Wear a mask. Don't wear a mask. Masks protect others, they don't protect you. Stay six feet apart. Stay 15 feet apart. Limit gatherings to 10 people or less. (All well and good until one of the 10 is infected. But it does make contact tracing easier.) Demands for everything to reopen. Demands for everything to remain closed. But here's my truth: Just because the government says it's okay to reopen beaches, churches and businesses does not mean I have to go. I need to make that decision for myself, and I will make it based on data and facts.
Meanwhile, everyone is relaxing. Including us. We started having gatherings in driveways or under trees to chat with friends. Then we started sharing snacks and now we've seen a few people socially in their homes but in very small groups. These are people we know who have taken this whole thing as seriously as we have. We've started going to the store to get some of our own groceries again instead of relying totally on home delivery, which we find very expensive and I'm not always happy with the fresh produce. We've also gone to Home Depot and Lowe's for things that we would have had delivered in April.
We also find that more and more people are not wearing masks in public. I don't think this is over. I do think masks help. I still prefer to err on the side of caution. And then last night when they finally got around to updating the data, it was the highest incidence of new cases reported in one day ever.
Clearly the POTUS has decided that he is no longer interested in doing daily, or even weekly updates and we no longer hear much from the medical people involved with this. And quite frankly, the non-stop 24/7 media coverage was tiresome. And as I mentioned, here locally, the data is not being updated as regularly as it was. But this is not over. Starting today, I'm going back to having my groceries and other purchases delivered.
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