Elrich shouted down by
protesters at press conference
What will be allowed starting Monday:
- Retail - curbside only
- Restaurants - outdoor seating/curbside pickup/takeout only
- State-approved emergency childcare programs for dependents of essential and Phase 1 workers only
- "Personal services," hair salons and barber shops "for hair only appointments"
- Car washes; exterior only
- Manufacturing with precautions and guidance
- Outdoor day camps & outdoor youth sports, following state guidelines
- horseback riding
- tennis courts
- golf courses
- archery ranges
- campgrounds
What is still NOT allowed to open:
- Movie theaters
- gyms
- swimming pools
- senior centers
- nail salons
- enclosed malls
- places of worship
12 comments:
Seemed like the "Re Open" folks just wanted to yell and weren't even listening to what was reopening.
OPEN US UP
Open us up
Open open open
Time to administer the ultimate IQ test. Racers, start your engines.
Seems to me like Elrich is taking a reasonable, intelligent, science-based approach AND one consistent with federal guidelines from the Trump Administration. The problem is Trump is undercutting and undermining those very guidelines and encouraging rude protesters, especially in Democratic states and municipalities. With some Presidential leadership, we wouldn't have this level of division, we'd have fewer, less obnoxious protesters, and we wouldn't have 100,000 people plus dead.
Once again Anonymous at 8:43 AM blames Trump for the idiocy of local and state officials. Science-based -- please explain the scientific basis for allowing hairdressers to style hair, but not cut hair. Does cutting the hair release the virus into the air? If so, please provide the relevant scientific studies. And we wouldn't have 100,000 plus dead if governors in NY, NJ, PA and MI hadn't forced nursing homes to take people who tested positive, exposing the most vulnerable segment of the population to the virus. Simply taking measures to protect the elderly living in nursing homes would have reduced the total number of deaths by as much as 40%. Instead, healthy people were forced to stay home and people in "non-essential' businesses were prevented from earning a living. And what about that study showing that lockdowns made no difference. Name one scientific study showing Elrich's policy is science-based. He is a clueless clown.
By the metrics the county, state, and health officials have set, Montgomery county is not ready. Still nothing in place, especially from a public service announcement about contact tracing, or the RO transmission rate of the county.
If you look at the numbers on the Maryland coronavirus website. The majority of deaths were from people living in nursing homes. Even with that, about 1 on a thousand MD residents test positive. If you take out the nursing homes, the rate of positive tests is even lower that that. Time to open the economy back up.
Learning
Matt Bryant thinks he can snow us yokels by tossing around scientific-sounding terminology like 'contact tracing' and the 'RO transmission rate.' BS alert. As experts have explained, contact tracing is feasible only in the early stages of a contagion, when the number of infected people is still small and the purpose and effect is to prevent the disease from spreading to large numbers of people. Taiwan and South Korea are the models here. It is way too late for contact tracing in the US. Estimates of the RO transmission rate vary widely due to the bad quality of the data. Waiting until contact tracing can be implemented or the county RO transmission rate is known is equivalent to keeping the county locked down indefinitely, a recipe for fiscal disaster. Who is going to pay for your public services, Matt? It won't be me -- I'll be gone.
Anonymous 4:08 falsely stated several things in his/her/they/it's response to Anonymous 8:43. Anonymous 8:43 never "blamed Trump for the idiocy of local and state officials" in his comment here or anywhere else. He does blame Trump for his own idiocy, his poor leadership on COVID and other issues, his failure to take responsibility for almost anything, and his multiple actions and in-actions that are responsible for the U.S. having the world's highest COVID incidence and mortality counts. Anonymous 8:43 never stated that there was a scientific basis for allowing hairdressers to style hair, but not cut hair, so there is no need to come up with one now. Nor is there a MoCo policy that allows hairdressers to style but not cut hair, 4:08 just made this policy up, made fun of it and then wanted a scientific basis for it. The Clueless Clown resides in the White House, not in Montgomery County. "We only have 15 cases, soon we'll have zero, it will soon just magically disappear." Elrich's policy is largely-based on the COVID task force's guidelines. Their reports detail a lot of scientific studies. You are free to look them up and research them, unless you don't trust info coming from this Administration which is certainly understandable. The large # of illnesses in the NY, NJ, PA, MI and several other hot spot states is most directly linked to these areas being primary hubs for international travel, especially European flights, which is where and how most of the East Coast states were infected.
To Anonymous 3:06 -- Posted below is the video link to Elrich announcing the loosening of restrictions. About 25 seconds into the video, Elrich explicitly says hairdressers and barber shops are open "for hair only, no haircuts." In other words, hairdressers are allowed to style hair, but they can't cut hair. If you have some other interpretation, let me know.
Here is the link: https://youtu.be/hH_PNjph14c
Having destroyed your credibility about policy in your own backyard, addressing your other points would be beating a dead horse, but I will nonetheless do so in my next comment.
In my previous message, I proved that I did not make up the policy that allows hairdressers to style but not cut hair by providing a link to a video of Elrich's announcement. In this message I will address other points raised by Anonymous 3:06. First, being primary hubs for international travel may explain how COVID-19 was introduced to NY, NJ, PA, and MI, but since nursing homes for the elderly are hardly major tourist attractions or places of international business, and since nursing homes were closed to visitors, including relatives of residents, that does not explain how COVID-19 spread to the elderly in nursing homes, who have accounted for as much as 40% of the deaths from COVID in these areas. Also, CA is also a major international travel hub, and the earliest cases were documented in CA, but nevertheless CA did not become a hot spot compared to these East Coast states. The reasons for this difference are speculative, but lower population density, relatively less use of enclosed public transportation systems (like NYC subway), and where travelers with the virus came from (Europe versus China, and possibly different strains of the virus as a result) may be part of the explanation. Policy is probably not the reason, since there were lockdowns in both areas.
More to follow in next message.
Last comment in response to Anonymous at 3:06. The US does not have the highest COVID incidence and mortality counts when the data are adjusted for population, as they obviously should be. The US has the highest number of cases and deaths because it has a much higher population than individual European or Asian countries (apart from China, where the data are dubious, and certain other countries like India), but when the number of cases and deaths are divided by some population metric (eg. number of deaths per 100, 1 million or 10 million population), many other countries have fared worse, including Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain and Sweden. A link from someone who has been tracking international comparisons on a daily basis is provided below; this fellow is anti-lockdown, but if you don't like his comparisons, provide another source that supports your assertion, with data and graphs like the link I have provided.
Here is link: https://wattsupwiththat.com/daily-coronavirus-covid-19-data-graph-page/
As the graphs in my link show, the virus has followed roughly the same trajectory in all countries, regardless of policy. The link below, to an article in the UK newspaper The Telegraph, cites studies arguing that the lockdown policy has not made much of a difference.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/28/lack-evidence-lockdowns-actually-worked-world-scandal/
And by the way, if one of your points is that Trump should have stopped flights coming in from Europe earlier, we agree, though I doubt you would have approved had he done so.
Finally, below is a link to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (a source I figure you would like) concluding that wearing masks outside health care facilities offers little protection from infection, and the main benefit is alleviating anxiety. I bet you are among those walking around outside wearing a mask and giving non-mask wearing people like me a wide berth. Elrich's policies are targeted at know-nothings like you, who account for the majority of the population.
here is the mask link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372
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