Heroes - and Zeroes - of the C-19 Crisis

Tops on the Heroes List has to be Ron DeSantis of FL - the Republican Governor whose data-driven actions may have saved the citizens of the most vulnerable state.

His actions were sensible (heck, I even suggested most of them here, in the early days):

• Forbid return of positive patients to nursing homes, unless they could be completely isolated.
• Get PPE to the nursing homes that needed it, BEFORE the hospitals. As the nursing homes were protected, they would be less likely to have their residents clog up the hospitals (as happened in NY).
• Follow the actual data, not the models.
• Sunshine is a great disinfectant. Don't limit access.
• Don't just shut down all counties. Let the people closest to the infections decide. Had SC and NC followed this, economic damage would have been limited to the hot spots - the major cities. That would have left more money to manage the crisis, without plunging into unpayable debt.

Just a short quote about actually looking at the data:

“We kind of lost confidence very early on in models,” a Florida health official says. “We look at them closely, but how can you rely on something when it says you’re peaking in a week and then the next day you’ve already peaked?” Instead, “we started really focusing on just what we saw.”

Florida was better able to do that than many states because of its routine experience dealing with natural disasters. “Many states simply did not have the data infrastructure that Florida has,” says Mary Mayhew, secretary of Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration. “We have an emergency status system that gets stood up, as I mentioned, in the case of a hurricane. Hospitals and nursing homes and other long-term-care providers are required to submit data on a daily basis, twice-daily basis, regarding their bed availability.”

The Florida Department of Health produces a report that DeSantis sees every morning: new cases, number of tests, positivity rates, etc. He also gets a rundown of the people who have gone into hospitals and of ICU usage. He can follow the key indicators down to the county level. This allows granular visibility into what’s happening. He cites the example of rural Hamilton County. It had 67 cases the other day. DeSantis was able to call the surgeon general of the state to find out what was going on, and learn it was an outbreak in a prison rather than a wider community spread.

His focus has been on “clinically significant cases,” or serious cases that might require hospitalizations, and that pointed to the nursing homes.

That's why it was so critical to fire that woman who claimed to be the architect of the COVID-19 dashboard. She was not trustworthy to stay in a position where confidence in the data was critical to decision-making.

Among the Top Choices for Zero:

• Gov. Gretchen Witmer - "You Vill Obey My Orders!" Man, if ever Hollywood wants to gender-bend a remake of WWII, she is the model for Der Fuhrer. Can't believe that she has people lobbying Biden for the VP slot.
• DeBiasio/Cuomo - it's a tossup on who is more dictatorial and clueless. Together, they have managed to screw up one of the largest economies in the USA. And, in a city known for too many people on welfare/barely hanging on, the numbers have exploded. While the summer may end the C-bug, it will also bring hungry people to the streets. Can we say Peasant Revolt?
• MN Governor Walz - apparently is taking this opportunity to crush the institution of Christian churches.
• "The churches are asking for equal treatment not special treatment, and the decision to reopen came only after efforts to work out an arrangement with the Governor were ignored. As a result, starting June 1, while a restaurant or bar can serve up to 50 people outdoors, churches remain restricted to gatherings of 10 or fewer—indoors or out. As the Becket Fund notes, these Minnesota churches plan to reopen with only 33% capacity, rigorous social distancing and hygiene protocols."

• Gov. Kate Brown of OR - has been using her temporary emergency opportunity to impose Full Left on the state. She's apparently forgotten that, however dependably Left Portland and the coast are, the rest of the state is fiercely anti-authoritarian. The recent weaponizing of Child Protective Services and licensing authority against an anti-lockdown activist is an odious example of her vile overreach.

Gov. Cuomo is NOT helped by his FREDO brother, Chris, who manages to make Billy Carter, former holder of the Most Dumbass Politician's Dumbass Brother Lifetime Lack of Achievement Award, look like a Rhodes scholar.

I'm not gonna beat the Dead Horse With a Name - Cuomo - except to say that, once the hysteria has diminished, it's going to be hard for his backers to justify the financial meltdown he caused NY state. The Big Apple is Leftover Applesauce, and it's likely to change the automatic donations to Dem politicians. The Money Tree has lost its Leaves, and this is likely to make this November very interesting.

The Dems will fight back with the only things they have left. Once you take away the money for media buys, and paying the broke-ass ground troops, you have:

• Calling in the markers of the media. Anyone who'd ever been so stupid as to give them ammunition for blackmail (most of the Left) is gonna be squeezed like your boys in an exam for testicular cancer. HARD.
• Further efforts to deny social media participants from clarifying the Lies of the Left. Expect a Virtual Killing Fields - de-platforming, denial of service targeted at disfavored sites, de-monetizing, doxxing, and all the other methods they've honed over the last few years. All who plan to hang in there should have offline sources of income, preferably something cash-based.
• Nothing to lose. ALL restraints (whatever remain) are off. 
• So, get to know your local sheriff's department, volunteer and donate to the police. You want to be someone who is known, so when the SWAT calls come in, at least a few of them will hesitate to blow your head off.
• Have that 'bug-out bag' packed and ready, keep your car gassed up, buy those burner phones now, and - generally - follow the Boy/Girl Scout motto.
• Have money stashed in an accessible place. Some cash, some debit cards not tied to you, some foreign currency (maybe Canadian). Make sure you have access to any virtual money. If all else fails, have a couple of bottles of booze - generally a good trading source.
• Start getting to know your neighbors, assuming you're not the outgoing type. They might give you the critical warning before the Left brings the hammer down. A steadfast friend is probably more valuable that any other resource. When choosing those friends, though, you might put more emphasis on loyalty than other virtues. A guy with somewhat loose morals might be preferred to a former Boy Scout type. Solid citizens are more likely to comply with State directives.

Everything may end smoothly, and with no violence. The prudent person wouldn't put all their eggs in that basket, however.