If states continue to roll back the mandates in place, U.S. deaths by Feb. 28 could top one million

[ffr]

NEW: Universal mask use could prevent nearly 130,000 deaths from Covid-19 by next spring.

If states continue to roll back the mandates in place, the number of deaths by Feb. 28 could top one million.

One. Million.

Link to tweet

If many states continue to roll back the mandates in place, the team found, the number of deaths by Feb. 28 could top one million, with one-third occurring in California, Florida and Pennsylvania. - NYT

In other words, this is your last chance to change the future for the better before republicans allow the deaths of one million Americans in the next four months alone.

[iemitsu]

1. And the stupid county I live in just voted to

incentivize indoor restaurant eating by subsidizing the cost by 30%.
Can you believe that?

[ffr]

3. Whats shocking is knowing nothing is going to change for the better until at least Feb 28th.

It'll take that long for measures to be put in place by a new administration. Until then, the body bags will just keep piling up.

[iemitsu]

4. Yep. You can bet I'm not planning to go eat in a restaurant.

Just paying the bill for a dumb (and deadly) idea.

[RainCaster]

2. We're going to be dealing with CV-19 for another full year

My reason for saying this
* All of Big Pharma is saying the soonest we will have a vaccine is June 2021.
* Realistically, that means the end of '21. Call it November to be optimistic.
* Add three more months to get it distributed and for positivity rates to drop sufficiently.
* Add another full year for people to trust it if Trump remains in office.
* Yep, that brings us to Feb-March '22. Or Summer 23 if Trump stays in office

This is not even taking into account any GOP ratfuckery, backroom deals or other malarkey.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Another full year at a minimum.

More like many years to come.

Getting enough doses safely manufactured will take a long time. And if any of the countries screw up the formula, it will put things back in a big way. Then, getting 330 million Americans vaccinated will be a challenge even if there were no anti-vaxxers.

One of the companies licensed to manufacture the Salk vaccine screwed up and released a vaccine with the live virus, infecting any number of kids and temporarily halting vaccination program. And back then, they were only vaccinating kids, not everyone.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Illinois Is Clamping Down

Region 1 has gone to closing bars where the main business is not food service. Curfews are set for 10pm for all businesses.
Chicago is placing tight restrictions, too. Not even state driven. Lightfoot made her own call on this, I'm sure with complete agreement with Pritzker.
Study here suggests that schools going back are not the cause in the surge. Bars & restaurants are seen as the biggest cause, followed by complacency. (Simple resistance wasn't mentioned, but region 1 is full of the kind that refuses to mask up. It doesn't take that many, really.)
The schools around here are doing backflips through flaming hoops to meet state standards, so I'm inclined to buy that study.