Texas, Florida and NY. A closer look at 3 states for COVID

[JaxRed]

7 Day Average

Texas (Population 29M)
Mar 10th - 4,889
Mar 11th - 4,709
Mar 12th - 4,652
Mar 13th - 4,547
Mar 14th - 4,456
Mar 15th - 4,604
Mar 16th - 4,593

Florida (Population 21M)
Mar 10th - 4,853
Mar 11th - 4,632
Mar 12th - 4,522
Mar 13th - 4,602
Mar 14th - 4,545
Mar 15th - 4,475
Mar 16th - 4,527

New York (Population 19M)
Mar 10th - 7,307
Mar 11th - 7,190
Mar 12th - 7,198
Mar 13th - 7,044
Mar 14th - 6,944
Mar 15th - 7,033
Mar 15th - 6,933

[Todd Gack]

My wife had a question about this with regard to Florida, and perhaps you can shed light on it:

A childhood friend of hers lives in Tampa. Her and her mother moved there in the 90s. She spoke to her recently and she was very frustrated because her mother is at risk, and she feels like she can never leave her home because of how lax the restrictions are in Florida. My wife asked if a lot of elderly in Florida feel the same way and she said every older Floridian she knows basically never leaves their home because they are terrified to do so. Not just because of the virus, but because of the lack of restrictions. So my wife’s question is: Is Florida’s numbers really that much better or are the older Floridians just not leaving their homes while the younger Floridians are running around without a care in the world, old people be damned? Are the younger people spreading it around and just not getting tested? I find it hard to believe florida is just naturally more immune to a highly contagious virus. Only thing that would make sense if everyone has already had it.

Anecdotal, but I was just in St. Pete for 4 days. Lots of elderly walking around in restaurants, etc. in fact, I’d say a bigger percentage of younger people wearing masks than elderly.

[Todd Gack]

When I was at Disney World amusement parks last week, it was about at 35% capacity as advertised. I will say that the Orlando, FL airport was packed though when I arrived and departed. The plane was full both times.

Same. My flight was packed both times, to and from Florida. Airport in general looked like things were back to normal.

[Todd Gack]

I was in Orlando last weekend. For a wedding (bride, groom, priest, deacon and us...all with masks). When we left and drove past Gatorland on the way home, we saw bedlam. Lines and lines of people waiting get in. Most with masks but No social distancing at all.
Down in Miami Beach...lots of concern. It's out of control, not only with the lack of compliance with restrictions (DeSantis doesn't allow fines to be enforced), but crime. Mayor wants to shut down the whole entertainment district...permanently.

I remember the outrage of people going to the beach last year at this time. And apparently, the only state in the country with beaches! Lol

[JaxRed]

Anecdotal, but I was just in St. Pete for 4 days. Lots of elderly walking around in restaurants, etc. in fact, I’d say a bigger percentage of younger people wearing masks than elderly.

I'm almost 70 in Florida and vaccinated. I now wear a mask when required and never when not required. I was super careful before the vaccines. I don't go crazy. I wouldn't go to a mosh pit. But we dine inside without masks.

[JaxRed]

7 Day Average

Texas (Population 29M)
Mar 10th - 4,889
Mar 11th - 4,709
Mar 12th - 4,652
Mar 13th - 4,547
Mar 14th - 4,456
Mar 15th - 4,604
Mar 16th - 4,593
Mar 17th - 4,550

Florida (Population 21M)
Mar 10th - 4,853
Mar 11th - 4,632
Mar 12th - 4,522
Mar 13th - 4,602
Mar 14th - 4,545
Mar 15th - 4,475
Mar 16th - 4,527
Mar 17th - 4,492

New York (Population 19M)
Mar 10th - 7,307
Mar 11th - 7,190
Mar 12th - 7,198
Mar 13th - 7,044
Mar 14th - 6,944
Mar 15th - 7,033
Mar 16th - 6,933
Mar 17th - 7,300

So far NY is the only problem

[Todd Gack]

I'm almost 70 in Florida and vaccinated. I now wear a mask when required and never when not required. I was super careful before the vaccines. I don't go crazy. I wouldn't go to a mosh pit. But we dine inside without masks.

Yeah, Florida wasn't any different than Ohio and Indiana in terms of mask usage. There is more outside dining, but I didn't really feel any different.

[Boston Red]

NY and NJ are currently struggling. They've put us into a case plateau as a nation. Hopefully we're pumping out vaccinations quick enough to keep the NE's issues from spreading.

[BuckeyeRed27]

NY and NJ are currently struggling. They've put us into a case plateau as a nation. Hopefully we're pumping out vaccinations quick enough to keep the NE's issues from spreading.

NJ has seen cases come up in the last month, but on average its 1000 cases higher than it was on 2/23. Obviously we want to see cases go down, but it's not keeping the national cases on a plateau or anything.

NY never came down as fast as the rest of the nation even in January and February, but they are declining. Their average cases are about 1000 less than they were a month ago.

Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Delaware and West Virginia have all seen some increases in the last 3 weeks too, but nothing crazy.

[JaxRed]

The plateau is only in the last week or so though.

[Boston Red]

NY is putting up a nice looking number today (at least compared to yesterday). Much appreciated for 7 day average purposes.

[kaldaniels]

I'm gonna interject in this thread as we are comparing states.

ND and SD were the poster children for bad COVID behavior and for the longest time they were at the top of the charts as far as deaths per capita goes. But their cases and deaths have absolutely bottomed out like no other state...and they have dropped in the polls to around 10th in deaths per capita. It will be interesting to see where they end up when the dust settles.

They've both done great with vaccinations and couple that with how bad they were hit earlier...these are the states where we may first see almost complete herd immunity.

I'm certainly not saying "good job ND and SD"....but it's interesting.

[Sea Ray]

I'm gonna interject in this thread as we are comparing states.

ND and SD were the poster children for bad COVID behavior and for the longest time they were at the top of the charts as far as deaths per capita goes. But their cases and deaths have absolutely bottomed out like no other state...and they have dropped in the polls to around 10th in deaths per capita. It will be interesting to see where they end up when the dust settles.

They've both done great with vaccinations and couple that with how bad they were hit earlier...these are the states where we may first see almost complete herd immunity.

I'm certainly not saying "good job ND and SD"....but it's interesting.

Given what we know now, yeah, good job North/South Dakota. If facts come to light later to change that, then fine. Of course these states can't be compared to states like FL and Cal but it goes to show there's not a one size fits all strategy for this thing

[SteelSD]

I'm gonna interject in this thread as we are comparing states.

ND and SD were the poster children for bad COVID behavior and for the longest time they were at the top of the charts as far as deaths per capita goes. But their cases and deaths have absolutely bottomed out like no other state...and they have dropped in the polls to around 10th in deaths per capita. It will be interesting to see where they end up when the dust settles.

They've both done great with vaccinations and couple that with how bad they were hit earlier...these are the states where we may first see almost complete herd immunity.

I'm certainly not saying "good job ND and SD"....but it's interesting.

The Mayor and city council of the biggest city in SD (Sioux Falls) implemented a mask mandate (city ordinance actually) on November 20th. That supplemented mask mandates already in place at the largest retailers and shopping centers (Seriously, you should see what Hot Topic will do if someone doesn't wear a mask properly. It's great.). The vaccine distribution system, driven by the two largest health care providers, piled on top to produce a far more rapid decrease in cases than what we would have expected given the state government's backwards and dangerous handling/non-handling of the pandemic.

If there are "good jobs" to be handed out, they would go to the top health care providers, big box retailers/shopping centers, and smaller cities (like Brookings) who had the foresight to implement protection mandates sooner versus later.

But to be clear, there was no reason the death toll should have spiked as it did. It should never, ever have had to get that bad to terrify people into taking a pandemic seriously (which is what happened- along with a LOT of really bad national press). That was a Covid denialist nightmare scenario; a real-life example of how ignorance, denialism, and inaction costs lives.

[kaldaniels]

The Mayor and city council of the biggest city in SD (Sioux Falls) implemented a mask mandate (city ordinance actually) on November 20th. That supplemented mask mandates already in place at the largest retailers and shopping centers (Seriously, you should see what Hot Topic will do if someone doesn't wear a mask properly. It's great.). The vaccine distribution system, driven by the two largest health care providers, piled on top to produce a far more rapid decrease in cases than what we would have expected given the state government's backwards and dangerous handling/non-handling of the pandemic.

If there are "good jobs" to be handed out, they would go to the top health care providers, big box retailers/shopping centers, and smaller cities (like Brookings) who had the foresight to implement protection mandates sooner versus later.

But to be clear, there was no reason the death toll should have spiked as it did. It should never, ever have had to get that bad to terrify people into taking a pandemic seriously (which is what happened- along with a LOT of really bad national press). That was a Covid denialist nightmare scenario; a real-life example of how ignorance, denialism, and inaction costs lives.

Yeah. ND and SD botched this thing for the longest time.

I guess what I really find interesting to see it that cases and deaths CAN bottom out which gives tremendous me hope.

Again, this was a result of great vaccination strategy x horrible social distancing/no masks last year.

Low density rural states have no business being the 10th ranked state in per capita deaths. I’ll allow that their ranks are falling - I do wonder how far.