There is some great news from Texas today: Covid cases and hospitalisations continue to fall more than two weeks after the state lifted its mask mandate and allowed businesses to reopen to full capacity. President Joe Biden dismissed this return to normality as “Neanderthal thinking”, but it appears as though it has not been the “big mistake” he claimed it would be. Let’s hope that it stays this way. The Mail has the story.
On Saturday, Texas’ seven-day Covid positivity rate reached an all-time low of 5.27%, while hospitalisations fell to their lowest level since October, according to the latest state data.
The state recorded 2,292 new coronavirus cases, about 500 fewer on average from last week, and 107 new deaths.
The number of people hospitalised with coronavirus, meanwhile, dipped to 3,308.
The latest figure marks a significant decline in hospitalisations in the state which had seen levels soar past 14,000 for a couple of days in January.
The drop comes 17 days after Republican Governor Greg Abbott ended the statewide mask mandate and other Covid safety measures.
Abbott took to Twitter on Saturday to celebrate the state’s progress, saying: “Today Texas hit an all-time recorded low for the seven-day Covid positivity rate: 5.27%. It’s been below 6% for 5 days & below 10% for an entire month.
“Covid hospitalisations declined again – now at the lowest level since October 3rd. Vaccinations continue to increase rapidly.”
Our leaders could certainly learn some lessons from what is happening on the other side of the pond.
Worth reading in full.
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Our leaders will pounce on the slightest chink in the armour. If anything, anything at all, can be spun as being a downside to this action it will be.
We have to watch closely and hope and pray there is nothing that can be used against them. God bless Texas & Greg Abbot and any other state or nation taking the sensible approach to this.
Well, you know what they say, the only things you can depend on are death and Texas!
Oh dear!
Don’t you know that having a sense of humour is a sure sign of infection.
Mostly what they will do is ignore it completely and pretend it’s not happening.
The DM may have published an article today, but by tomorrow there’ll be nothing more in the media.
The trouble is that banging on about test positives simply reinforces the narrative – even when it’s ostensibly ‘good’ news.
Wait until +’s start going up a bit, and see!
Modelling has failed over the last year – its not surprising really – its difficult
when the 2020 March peak dropped, no-one could tell how much was i) voluntary distancing ii) coercive distancing iii) immunity/natural progression iv) seasonal
its still not known – but its obvious not much/none was coercive distancing – hence sweden
now – we have modellers telling politicians that Texas is insane to open up. they do and nothing happens – modellers are wrong again
I am against all lockdowns, but if in the future we want to ‘manage’ a pandemic through health advice and non-coercive measures – its best to ignore the models. If you have a range of models and look at the worst case – we’d never be open.
Should have stuck to the original pandemic response plan
Modelling in this area is just guessing with a computer and more numbers.
Intelligent guessing tends to be a lot more accurate.
Off topic but this fresh from the Guardian who have discovered that Vaccine Passports are no more than National ID Cards by stealth.
‘Ministers have been telling us that there are no plans for vaccine Passports, while funding eight pilot schemes.’
our modellers still don’t think this is a seasonal virus –
Yes …. it probably is seasonal but the increases across Europe are a concern. Infections should be declining by now.
euromomo shows there is no increased mortality over ‘baseline’ anywhere in europe
its definitely seasonal!
That seasonality was key to how Australia and NZ were so successful, as it bought them extra time that northern hemisphere countries didn’t have.
can’t see how masks, vaccines, testing and lockdown helped
The Johnson government outlived its possible usefulness last Spring.
Never in the history of human disease has so much havoc and damage been wreaked on so many by so few……..
“Joe Biden dismissed this return to normality as “Neanderthal thinking”
Sadly, it appears that Mr Biden, at best, is now only capable of Neanderthal thinking – and that capacity is declining. The 25th Amendment beckons.
So when will Greg Abbot be having a “heart attack” like Tanzania’s “Covid-denying” president I wounder.