https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2020-07-08/steve-ballmer-group-foundation-clippers-owner-billionaire?_amp=true&__twitter_impression=true

Interesting read:

Steve and Connie Ballmer and how they spend their time listening, learning, and giving away some of their $70 billion to improve systemic racism.

Nice story. Why this is good news for COVID 19 escapes me, but nice story nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nECouHrb6aQ&feature=emb_logo

I suppose I will put this here. In case anyone didn't know, Wimbledon Tennis has long had Pandemic Insurance.

Today it announced it will pay $12.5 million total to 620 tennis players. It had zero obligation to do so.

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/5415699002?__twitter_impression=true

Sprecher plans world's biggest free root beer float drive-thru

https://onmilwaukee.com/dining/articles/sprecher-root-beer-drive-thru.html


August 6 is National Root Beer Float Day.

Sprecher says it will have the supplies – 7,800 gallons of fire-brewed root beer, made with Milwaukee-area honey, and 4,000 containers of Cedar Crest ice cream – and people power to make up to 50,000 root beer floats.

Quote from: Frenns Liquor Depot on July 08, 2020, 10:54:36 AM
This is great news

https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1280889429100552192?s=21

This is a great unsourced quote.

This is a good opinion piece summarizing everything on its way. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/14/need-some-good-news-about-covid-19-here-are-six-reasons-optimism/

Lowest number of new cases reported yesterday (around 40,000) since June 29th.

Worldometers shows 54,000 today.

Florida reputed 2678 new cases yesterday - lowest number in two months, down more than 80% since the peak 35 days ago.

Quote from: Lennys Tap on August 18, 2020, 12:21:50 PM
Florida reputed 2678 new cases yesterday - lowest number in two months, down more than 80% since the peak 35 days ago.

This is misleading.

Florida has effectively ceased testing. They tested under 20k people yesterday for the first time in months. Taking the president's point to heart: If you stop testing, then the numbers will go down.

If you notice, Florida's % positive rate is still higher than 15%. They are in a world of hurt right now.

Source: JHU https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida

Quote from: Skatastrophy on August 18, 2020, 02:01:36 PM
This is misleading.

Florida has effectively ceased testing. They tested under 20k people yesterday for the first time in months. Taking the president's point to heart: If you stop testing, then the numbers will go down.

If you notice, Florida's % positive rate is still higher than 15%. They are in a world of hurt right now.

Source: JHU https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida

good info
The biggest thing to me with testing is how soon the results get back on those that are asymptomatic or been exposed.  common sense should come into play for those that are sick.  That is why the rapid saliva tests could be huge going forward.

Quote from: Skatastrophy on August 18, 2020, 02:01:36 PM
This is misleading.

Florida has effectively ceased testing. They tested under 20k people yesterday for the first time in months. Taking the president's point to heart: If you stop testing, then the numbers will go down.

If you notice, Florida's % positive rate is still higher than 15%. They are in a world of hurt right now.

Source: JHU https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida

This is misleading and the conclusions you are drawing from it are wrong.The reason less people are being tested in Florida isn't because testing is unavailable, it's because fewer people are sick/symptomatic. For example, free testing has been available at Century Link Field for quite some time. A month ago the lines were a mile long. Lately it's been a ghost town. The fact that the % of people tested who test positive remains constant is logical but meaningless.

If I'm right deaths will drop significantly over the next 6 weeks. If you're right they'll remain steady. We'll see.

Quote from: Lennys Tap on August 18, 2020, 05:45:44 PM
This is misleading and the conclusions you are drawing from it are wrong.The reason less people are being tested in Florida isn't because testing is unavailable, it's because fewer people are sick/symptomatic. For example, free testing has been available at Century Link Field for quite some time. A month ago the lines were a mile long. Lately it's been a ghost town. The fact that the % of people tested who test positive remains constant is logical but meaningless.

If I'm right deaths will drop significantly over the next 6 weeks. If you're right they'll remain steady. We'll see.

Lenny, in the superbar, with the dagger.

Quote from: Lennys Tap on August 18, 2020, 05:45:44 PM
This is misleading and the conclusions you are drawing from it are wrong.The reason less people are being tested in Florida isn't because testing is unavailable, it's because fewer people are sick/symptomatic. For example, free testing has been available at Century Link Field for quite some time. A month ago the lines were a mile long. Lately it's been a ghost town. The fact that the % of people tested who test positive remains constant is logical but meaningless.

"Data is misleading so here are my feelings to support my conclusion"

Quote from: Skatastrophy on August 19, 2020, 11:47:31 AM
"Data is misleading so here are my feelings to support my conclusion"

No, you drew conclusions from the data that are false. The fact that fewer people are choosing to be tested despite the fact that the availability of testing hasn't diminished means fewer people have symptoms or know they've been exposed, not your political BS that "Florida has stopped testing". Bottom line, we'll know soon enough. If hospitalizations and deaths drop, I'm right. If not, you're right. Time will tell, a'ina?

I'm no epidemiologist, but neither are you two. 

Personally I think you are both right.  Spread is down (less positives overall, same positivity rate). This has led to stabilization or declines in hospitalization rate (guess since FL data isn't as easy to find). Which means lower deaths coming. 

However the situation today still is a high base of spread since the positivity rates are so high.  So good job but if FL starts relaxing rules or create spread areas (like schools), the gains can be reversed quickly. 

Quote from: Lennys Tap on August 19, 2020, 12:05:48 PM
No, you drew conclusions from the data that are false. The fact that fewer people are choosing to be tested despite the fact that the availability of testing hasn't diminished means fewer people have symptoms or know they've been exposed, not your political BS that "Florida has stopped testing". Bottom line, we'll know soon enough. If hospitalizations and deaths drop, I'm right. If not, you're right. Time will tell, a'ina?

Every state has kept testing on at the same rate other than Florida, Texas, Arizona, and NC. There's something juking the numbers, which people should be concerned about. It's an ultra interesting story.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/accuracy-of-us-coronavirus-data-thrown-into-question-as-decline-in-testing-skews-drop-in-new-cases.html

Quote from: Skatastrophy on August 19, 2020, 12:23:01 PM
Every state has kept testing on at the same rate other than Florida, Texas, Arizona, and NC. There's something juking the numbers, which people should be concerned about. It's an ultra interesting story.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/accuracy-of-us-coronavirus-data-thrown-into-question-as-decline-in-testing-skews-drop-in-new-cases.html

I can't speak for Texas, Arizona and NC I suspect your conspiracy theory is also wrong about them but I'm not sure. Again if the same amount of people are getting sick and this is just a case of a halt in testing hospitalizations and deaths will remain constant. If not, they will drop. Stay tuned.

The positive thread has taken a decidedly negative turn.

Up to 13 positive cases, but 9 have been able to return to duty.

Getting better at treating folks that need to be hospitalized. 

https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1296595518941011968?s=21

This tweet has a chart with FL deaths plotted by death date instead of reported date.  While recent deaths will certainly increase, it shows they have come off the peak. 

https://twitter.com/jasonsalemi/status/1300975537238745090?s=21

Quote from: Lennys Tap on August 18, 2020, 05:45:44 PM
This is misleading and the conclusions you are drawing from it are wrong.The reason less people are being tested in Florida isn't because testing is unavailable, it's because fewer people are sick/symptomatic. For example, free testing has been available at Century Link Field for quite some time. A month ago the lines were a mile long. Lately it's been a ghost town. The fact that the % of people tested who test positive remains constant is logical but meaningless.

If I'm right deaths will drop significantly over the next 6 weeks. If you're right they'll remain steady. We'll see.

3.5 weeks since this post. Florida deaths are falling just as I (and the number of new cases being reported 3.5 weeks ago) predicted. Conspiracy theory ("cases not really declining, Florida just stopped testing") officially debunked. Good news.

Quote from: Frenns Liquor Depot on August 20, 2020, 07:35:34 PM
Getting better at treating folks that need to be hospitalized. 

https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1296595518941011968?s=21

While it is true we are getting better at treating patients, don't read too much into charts like that. The chart reports survival of ICU patients.

Early on, hospitals were only swamped, so only the most dire of cases were being sent to ICUs. Those had and still do have poor survival statistics. Now, healthier patients are being moved to ICUs, because of fewer cases and higher capacity. That means just by virtue of healthier patients occupying ICU beds, the statistics would improve.