So, apparently Governor Newsom of the West Coast Pact thinks schools here may be able to reopen in July. Really? Here in Sonoma County, the new and active case lines are flat or possibly trending slightly upward (though the county…
Protesting A Pandemic: Making The Case For The Nanny State
I really don’t want to have to talk about this every damn day. Really. But this is starting to get out of hand. Apparently the poor pandemic-awareness amongst the current crop of protesters is giving the CHP an excuse to…
Let’s Talk About It: There’s No Such Thing As “Too Soon”
There is no such thing as “too soon” when it comes to considering the causes of a problem, unless you’re personally one of the folks who’s responsible for dealing with a crisis directly. (In that case, maybe you deal with…
Peak Silliness: Please Stop With The Predictions
Please, oh please, stop publishing predictions for when this will “peak”. They’re not useful. Every time the local paper talks to the county health administrator, they cite the same prediction that the county will have “up to 1,500 patients” in…
Flatline: This Level Of Social Distancing Has Reached Its Floor
So, as I’ve pointed out a few times, our “social distancing” efforts are working. And they’re pretty much the only thing that will work in this situation. But it’s likely that we’re reaching the limit of how much they’ll work.…
Social Distancing: It’s Not Just Hunkering Down Anymore
Now that we’ve gotten settled in, and the febrile rate is down 20% from Kinsa’s trendline (at least it is here in Sonoma County, CA), it’s time to start thinking about what’s next. Months, probably years, of carrying on like…
Buckle Up: It’s Gonna Be Like This For A While
So, the U.S. is pretty much on the same trajectory Italy took with this thing. And that is bad. Italy’s health system was in better shape than ours is, and had more hospital beds per capita; lots more when you…
What’s The Problem: Math From The Back Of An Envelope
A lot of folks, including many of the public faces of government response, don’t seem to really understand what’s going on here. Pandemic. Scary word; very scary problem. So let’s look at what that problem is. I’ll use my local…
Disrupt The State: Monolithic Governments Need To Go Away
There are a lot of things that need doing, but that many of us just don’t trust the government to do. Fair enough. But that still leaves a bunch of stuff that needs doing: health care, identity management, election security,…
A New Normal: Business In A Time Of Pandemic
This is gonna take a while. A long, long while. So yesterday a new study came out that predicts abound 2 million deaths in the U.S., if everyone tries to just go about their business as usual. That’s … really…