Florida is OPEN!

Well, he did say that localities cannot restrict below 50% capacity, which helps a lot.

Hallelujah! indeed.

Wow. Kudos Gov. DeSantis. I"m gonna say it now. DeSantis for President in 2024.

Texas needs to follow suit

DeSantis is a stud.

I just looked at the 7-averages in Florida, average of about 100 deaths per day. A lot of people will die. Yeah Floridah!!

7-day averages

^What are your qualifications to make such an assertion?

#dipshit

Scroll down for the 7-day average deaths:

https://covidtracking.com/data/state/flo…

"We will NEVER do any of the lockdowns again... in the state of Florida everybody has an opportunity and the right to work. Every business has the right to operate."

What have I been saying? Maybe, Gov. DeSantis is a secret TUSCL lurker. Maybe I am Gov. DeSantis? (Here's a little hint: I'm not.)

Gov. DeSantis will reach his term limit in 2026, so I'll say Haley-Crenshaw 2024 and Haley-DeSantis 2028.

Florida also has 11% testing positivity rate, more than twice the national average:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/indi…

As I said, you're celebrating the death the a lot more people.

New York New Jersey has been more open than Florida for months now, weird to see people celebrating him taking longer to reopen than other governors.

New York, and New Jersey have far lower testing positivity rates. There's no comparison. Florida is NOT ready to open up.

New York and New Jersey also have about 1/20th the average death rate.

... per day

Different parts of FL had been open for a while, up to now it's been up to each county's discretion - I guess DeSantis is just trying to make it official from the state's perspective.

Up to recently it seemed NJ clubs were mostly opened just outdoors and not sure when NY clubs opened but it's not as if they've been open all along and there's barely any NY reviews.

Ran-dumb-member. I know it's difficult for you. But you need to put some more thought into this. Florida was bad back in July. There has been a very steep decline since then. We are getting about 20% of the daily cases that we were in July now. And the percentage positivities is more like 4% for the past few weeks. Deaths have not declined as much yet. But the reporting on deaths is delayed. A lot of those daily death numbers are people that actually died several weeks ago.

No your facts are wrong. The seven day average positivity rate is about 11%. I posted the Johns Hopkins data above.

It's the blue line if you know how to read

We need to open up, humans are made by inserting a penis into a vagina. Most of have 6 inches of penis and not 6 feet. if you dont all die from COVID we will eventually go extinct due to social distancing. I rather die having vagina, instead of dieing and still getting covid but no strange vagina.

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Having the people closest to the situation deciding for themselves sounds like a decent idea. Somebody mentioned Texas, and it's been left up to local ordinance for a while now.

There is no debate whether or not this state or that state should open or not. EVERY state is ready to open up, there NEVER should have been any shutdowns. We never should have let Chinese negligence cause a recession, put countless Americans out of work, and ruin hundreds and thousands of businesses small and large.

Shove your stats and studies up your stinky, BBC-loosened, herpes-scarred sphincter. Gov. DeSantis is doing the right thing, and the only two things you can do are get on board or go online and bitch.

I'm gonna get on board, and start making up for lost time with lappers and liquor.

Flori-duh

@Wallanon wrote: "So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Having the people closest to the situation deciding for themselves sounds like a decent idea."

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It's a very odd situation where acknowledging science, using masks, social distancing where possible, splits along party lines.

@GammaNu is not as annoying as some of the others here because, at least, he acknowledges that the virus threat is not overhyped compared to the flu. He just doesn't give a shit about anyone else if he doesn't get sick. It's the guys who deny the stats or who can't differentiate b/w an infection-fatality-RATE and a death toll who are especially annoying.

Hooray for Florida!

Any bets on when CA will reach this level?

California will open November 4th. The LA county medical chief is on video saying this.

They're only saying schools won't fully open til after the election at the soonest

Ran-dumb-Member, you don't know what they are reporting. There is a difference between positive % for every test since tests have been given and % positive on tests given on a certain day. Dumb-ass. The daily number hasn't been above 10% in almost 6 weeks. It's been below 5% for about 2 weeks. Ran-Dumb-Ass.

Lulz^

Keeping schools closed is a way to keep part of the economy shutdown. There are a large number of families that use schools as daycare that allows both parents to work. Without school, some will have to keep a parent home since the price of private daycare is prohibitive on one salary. If saying opening the day after the election isn't politically motivated, I don't know what would be.

California will open November 4th. The LA county medical chief is on video saying this.
-
I thought the China Virus wasn’t political. Why not open up on Election Day?

Look at the graph and the blue line:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/indi…

Do you understand English? The blue line is labeled as a seven-day average of the percentage of positive tests at 11%. That's number is twice the national average. That's the figure-of-merit that everyone cares about. That's why it's highlighted in blue.

We're talking about a percentage. DO you understand?

Percent positives can sky rocket, but as long as hopitalizations and deaths keep going down who cares. CoVid is real but you have to open.

You are so fucking stupid, I'm not wasting my time.

That was direct at Ran-Dumb.

@Warrior wrote: "The daily number hasn't been above 10% in almost 6 weeks. It's been below 5% for about 2 weeks"
______________________
A "daily number" is not a percentage. The graph has the absolute number on the left axis and the percentage on the right. You're not reading the graph correctly.

You're making an idiot out of yourself.

Doesn’t matter. The virus will mysteriously disappear after November 3rd.

For those of you who care, @Warrior doesn't know how to red the graph. Use the left axis to read the absolute number of daily total test and the Daily positive tests. Use the right axis to read the positivity rate as a percentage. That's what everyone cares.

What a dipshit, @Warrior.

read*

Warrior: You are so fucking stupid, I'm not wasting my time.

______________
Got it, you didn't see the graph has an axis on the left and the right and you're too fucking small to admit your error.

I would argue with you to show you how STUPID you are. But I have a date with a new sugar babe, SO .............. Bye !

No you're ditching the conversation because you didn't understand the presentation of the graph. And you made a complete idiot out of yourself.

Anyway, last post:

The graph presents "Daily Total tests" and "Daily positive tests" as bar graphs in orange. The left axis marked as an absolute number (eg. 20K, 40K, 60K). Dividing the "daily positive tests" by the "Daily total tests" and averaging gives the blue line, which is the positivity rate that everyone cares about. Use the right axis to read the percentage of positive tests. Florida is currently sitting at 11% positivity rate whereas the country as a whole is at 5%.

You can always tell when someone doesn't know what they're talking about because they spew some names and disappear.

Lol, look at the stream of anonymous downvotes and not one person will challenge me based on the actual presentation of theJohns Hopkins data.

Anyone? Lol

Randumb, your data is meaningless. Instead of looking for someone else's re-interpretation of the data, why don't you just go to the source itself?

The FL 7 day average positivity rate is currently below 5%.

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience…

Oh and another thing Randumb, if you had actually done some research on those death numbers you'd realize that it is a lagging stat. Those deaths are spread over many days and in some cases prior months. We won't know the actually daily number of deaths for today for some period of time, but it goes to figure that if positivity levels and hospitalizations are down, then so too will be the death rate when we look back weeks from now.

It is a great time to be a Floridian. The unemployment rate has declined to 7.4% vs. double digits a month earlier, kids are back in school, the state's sales tax revenues are exceeding expectations, the state budget is under control and, oh yes, strip clubs are open.

All of this is happening within a backdrop of a fraction of the per capita deaths that NY and NJ experienced. Who wants to be in CA, NY or NJ right now, with lockdown measures still in effect, state budgets that show downright insolvency, lots of kids who are still not back in school and Governors who are determined to continue this shit show for as long as possible?

Anyone can put up graphs, spreadsheets or Dr. Fauci videos to support their claim we should stay shut down.

This video tells you that it is nothing but political.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nDgy-Vj…

We can shut down for the next year, kill many businesses and lives of individuals but this virus is going to be around.

Scientists have a way of making numbers seem convincing to people who are easily manipulated.

I've worked around doctors pretty much all my life. I respect them but won't let them tell me how I should live my personal life. To be honest, I've met some doctors that are more crackpot than some of the people on this board.

Numbers are good for looking at trends but they shouldn't dictate an individual's life. That decision is up to the individual. If someone feels threatened then they should stay home. Don't tell me I should live in a cave because that is your decision.

I was supportive of the lockdown *at first* in hopes it would have the desired effect - although I still take personal-precautions IMO lockdows don't and won't make the virus go away as it seems it pops back up unpredictably - no choice but to live-with/manage it and let our country/economy recover.

Dugan: "Randumb, your data is meaningless. Instead of looking for someone else's re-interpretation of the data,"
__________________
I took a look at your source. You can tell me if you agree: the Johns Hopkins data shows about 140K tests per week whereas your source shows about 400K tests per week. Why are the raw numbers so vastly different? Whatever the discrepancy, it has nothing to do with a "re-interpretation." As a guess, I wouldn't be surprised if your FL source is including serology antibody tests, which should not be included in the calculation.

Calling the data "meaningless" is your assessment of the finest teaching hospital and researches in the US (Johns Hopkins). Lol, "someone else's re-interpretation."

But I give you credit being able to read the graphs -- unlike @Warrior who, like a fifth-grader, can't seem to understand the different scales on the left- and right-hand side of the plot.

You found a FL source that does not agree with Johns Hopkins. That's the content of your post

All of this is happening within a backdrop of a fraction of the per capita deaths that NY and NJ experienced
__________
We'll see how ut plays out.. If Desantis is lucky the rise in deaths will occur after the election.

Randumb, what I provided are the numbers published directly by the FL Department of Health, which do not include antibody tests. It is simply the number of tests reported that day, including the number of negatives vs. positives.

John Hopkins admitted to making internal adjustments, which they have not made transparent. So you are relying upon bad data.

As far as the rest, I think we've all had enough of the panicky prognostications. One big takeaway from this whole experience is that, for folks under 50, this thing is not especially dangerous. Hence FL's leaders intend to press ahead the way that they have for some time now, which is to dedicate resources to protecting the most vulnerable while allowing others to continue to drive economic and academic activities.

As DeSantis rightly said, we cannot operate from a fetal position forever. NY and CA could draw a valuable lesson from that, at least if their populations were not so prone to panic that the politicians feel boxed in.

Regarding these Hopkins numbers they are nothing more than a simple percentage. Nobody is doubting the accuracy per se, but the data should not be used to compare state to state. Why? It’s not a regression analysis based model with variable weighted coefficients. What is the availability for testing? What age groups are getting tested? Are more asymptomatic people getting tested in FL because this is a state where people are hiring (pre employment Covid screening) compared to NY or CA? In other words to truly compare the rolling average between states, the baseline data set would need to be similar, so extrapolating the hypothesis from a simple average without more context like Randumb is doing is well, dumb.

Percentages of positive tests is not a very meaningful statistic. Covid hospitalizations is where we should focus are attention. The whole idea of restrictions was to "flatten the curve" so as to not overburden the system. Florida hospitals currently have adequate bed capacity. The next month after phase 3 opening will be telling to see if that changes.

*our, not are

^^^ *our, not are

Lmfao! That is a great Randumbmember impression.

@JustinTolook “Percentages of positive tests is not a very meaningful statistic.”


Of course it isn’t. It’s a stupid and easily manipulated data point to be using to make any kind of decision. If you want your infection rate to go down you increase the pool of those likely to test negative and if you want the percentage to go up you limit testing to only those exhibiting symptoms or suspected exposure.

And there’s the rub. Right now the misplaced emphasis on increased testing is a waste of time, money and resources which at the very least produces nothing of value. With the now known data it is easy to fairly accurately extrapolate the number of infections per a given population without having to test the wider population. In addition those testing negative are only known to be negative for that snap shot in time so again it is a hugely wasted effort.

And my personal bitch, right now international travel is back on the table as more and more countries are opening their borders. Most countries (but not all) have a requirement that travelers arrive with a negative PCR test usually no older than 48 – 72 hours. I have no problem with that and think it is a legitimate though hardly foolproof measure to screen travelers. The reality where I’m at is that the idiot Mussolini wanna be Governor keeps pushing for more and more meaningless testing so no one can guarantee (not for any amount of money) that I can get tested and have the results back in my hands in less than four days. Even places like Quest Diagnostics that normally do onsite testing and lab work have closed their doors for testing because they are overwhelmed in the lab processing tests from hospitals and clinics and Covid 19 testing sites.

Activity is NOT purpose. Fucking ignorant assholes are not being helpful. They are in the way. Good on Florida’s Governor for no longer allowing ignorant “journalists” and uneducated office boys to drive the train.

Another rant on spelling & grammar etiquette on a site without an edit feature. From @Meathead, our very own semi-literate clod.

@Justin: "Percentages of positive tests is not a very meaningful statistic."
________________________________

Yes, it's a meaningful statistic. The CDC and WHO use the positivity rate as a crude rule-of-thumb to decide when it's safe to end lockdowns. Usually 5%. Johns Hopkins has the FL positive rate at 11% whereas Dugan's site lists under 5%.

The huge difference is, of course, suspicious and there's no way to get into the weeds to see how Hopkins filters and scrubs the data. I know from personal experience (a family member) that Hopkins has some of the most competent researchers on the planet.

It's very @Dugan-esque for him to state that his site is more reliable than Hopkins without any justification. Reminds me of Dugan's March post from the WSJ that the death toll would be no worse than a bad flu season. Then he trashed the very same study after we more than tripled that death rate.

FL is opening too soon with daily deaths averaging about 100 and the positivity rate at 11% The spike in deaths will come, maybe after the election -- and that's what you get with a Trump sycophant like Desantis.

Random, I actually was being honest last night. I did have a date I was seeing. Fantastic first time with a Vietnamese girl. We are going to see each other again.
But to your John Hopkins website. I have to admit, I didn't even look at that graph last night. I was totally familiar with the website that rickdugan posted so I was confident in my numbers. But now after looking at their website, their numbers are not accurate. Not even close. What Dugan posted was the State of Florida reporting. That is what the state actually reports every day to the CDC. Those numbers are accurate. The number of tests given each day on the John Hopkins data is not correct. Their graph is showing that 20-25,000 tests are being givene each day. There are actually 50-70,000 tests given each day in Florida. So you are correct in reading their charts. But their charts are not accurate. The % positive in Florida has been below 5% for a couple of weeks now. There 11% number is not accurate because they are not reporting the correct number of tests given. Not even close.

I haven't looked at the new infection and mortality statistics in months. I don't care about them. It became apparent very early on that while highly contagious, much more so than the flu, the severity of COVID-19 was basically the same as the flu, except for high risk groups--the elderly and those with co-morbidities. The clubs in Georgia have been open for months and I've been going a regular basis. Once inside the door, little has changed. In some clubs, the girls wear masks on the floor. Seeing a customer with a mask is a rarity. In VIP, nothing has changed at all. And certainly, nothing has changed with OTCs, which I've also continued on a regular basis. If this stuff was as deadly as the Chicken Littles would have you believe, I should have been dead months ago--knock on wood. Who knows? I could get it tomorrow and be dead in a week, but I think the probability of that is extraordinarily low. I don't shelter at home because I might be struck by lightning if I go out, either. If you are in a high risk group, by all means, you should take appropriate precautions.

Below are links to two fluff pieces which give some sense of what it is like to live in the time of Covid 19. Same “pandemic” but different approaches in two very different places.

The first are the observations of a man living in Sweden:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/joy-freedom-w…

The second is a woman traveling to South Korea to visit her parents:

https://news.yahoo.com/trip-south-korea-…


I’m in agreement with @doctorevil. Life is for living and I’ll take “freedom” and happiness over “big brother”, slavery and misery especially when the risk is so incredibly low.

Is it so hard to appreciate being fortunate without coming off like an ultra prick? It's not personal with any of you, being that you're strangers and all. If you're doing well, be well. But go back a few months and look at where all the tough talk was. Go back six months. Courage shows itself when the outcome is in doubt. Think about it.

Is it so hard to make a post without coming off like an ultra prick?

"But go back a few months and look at where all the tough talk was. Go back six months. Courage shows itself when the outcome is in doubt. Think about it."

OK. I thought about it. I still don't know what the hell you are talking about.

Courage is exactly what Gov Desantis is showing. The virus has decreased but not totally gone away. He is opening up the economy so that people can earn a living. He is risking his political career for the good of the people he governs.

@Warrior: "I have to admit, I didn't even look at that graph last night. I was totally familiar with the website that rickdugan posted"

____________
Lol, got it @warrior and I'm in favor of anything that allows you to save face avoid humiliation in front of the rest of the group.

^ Umm, Randumb, did you read his entire post?

It is good to be a Floridian.
- Positivity rates are trending down well under 5%;
- Hospitals are wide open with very few COVID cases;
- Mortality rates are trending down and are limited primarily to people on death's doorstep anyway;
- Kids have been back in school for over a month now;
- Unemployment is back down to 7.4% and should go down even more with the Phase 3 re-opening;
- Localities cannot fine people for mask issues, which inevitably hurts the poorest people anyway;
- OUR STRIP CLUBS ARE OPEN AND FULLY RUNNING IN MOST PARTS OF THE STATE.

And for those sissies who make panicky prognostications about about what the future may hold, our Governor has made it clear that we are not going back to lockdowns again - Hallelujah. Here in FL we rely upon grown adults to make their own choices about what risks they are willing to take and if infection rates rise again, we will weather it with more sanity than existed the first time. We know enough about this thing now to know that it is not especially deadly for a large bulk of the population and we also know how to protect those who are at higher risk.

Lol, story about how Florida has been putting a positive spin on the calculated positivity rates. One of the Florida covid data scientists was fired in May for insubordination, claiming the state had encouraged her to fudge statistics. The article goes into the way FL, Johns Hopkins, and the WHO calculate the positivity rate. If read the article, FL's method is obvious horseshit.

_____________________


"Florida puts a positive spin on COVID-19 data, misleading the public on pandemic"
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus…

"The result: As coronavirus cases again threaten to rise in Florida, with schools and businesses fully open, it is becoming increasingly difficult to answer a simple question: What percentage of people tested positive for COVID-19 on any given day — and are we justified in going about our business without worry? Or did Gov. Ron DeSantis put people at risk when he allowed businesses to return to normal?

“Doing what we’re doing now, I think positivity numbers are just about useless, because it’s completely opaque who is getting tested and why,” said Thomas Hladish, a scientist at the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute who has done pandemic modeling for the Florida Department of Health.

“It absolutely does lull people into a false sense of security,” said Rebekah Jones, a former Florida coronavirus data scientist who was fired in early May for alleged insubordination, after claiming the state had encouraged her to fudge statistics. Jones now publishes her own coronavirus statistics."

Hey Randumb, the basic problem with someone who has your personality deficiency is that you've somehow convinced yourself that you are among the enlightened, able to see things more clearly than the everyday public. I am sorry to have to break the news to you, but you're really not that bright. In fact, as you've proven time and time again over the years, your ability to scrutinize data with an analytical eye is about on par with someone who has a degree in Philosophy - meaning non-existent. ;)

The reality is that FL residents, on the whole, are far more educated about the numbers than the more panicky types in places like NY and CA. That includes CDC rates, local hospital capacity stats and, yes, how the positivity rate is calculated in FL. In part that is a credit to a Governor that routinely communicates to the public in long press conferences where these numbers are discussed in detail, but it is also because of the Sunshine Act, which makes virtually every record collected or tabulated by any government entity in FL available to the public. Heck even our voter registration records are public.

I can't read past the paywall, but I'm guessing that somewhere in there is a reference to the seriously flawed methodology used by Johns Hopkins, which ignores the passage of time and treats a repeat tester as if he/she is no longer part of the general population. It's crap science and bad math.

Since our state has been open for months, we have seen COVID circulate and the fear levels simply aren't there anymore. Knowledge is power and the more we understand something, the more we can take a rational approach to managing it.

Dugan there's no paywall. Just look for a button that says "read more."

You've been wrong, consistently, every step of the way.

There is a paywall once you've passed a certain number of articles read. It pops up every time now.

You could clear cookies.

In fairness, hopkins is switching to a model suggested by the WHO. That will reduce the positivity rate somewhat