Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Dom]

Surprised to just read that San Francisco has only had 15 Covid-19 deaths to date.
California has had only about 700-800 deaths so far. Also surprising since our population is 40 million.

I was so happy to hear California Governor Gavin Newsom announce plans today for potentially lifting the stay-at-home orders in the near future and that he's working on these plans with the governors of Oregon and Washington. They're calling it the Western States Pact.

Apparently the plans will include possible recommendations to businesses to maintain social distancing practices even after people return to work. This is somewhat of a relief to me as I normally work in an office with many cubicles crammed together and poor air circulation with no windows that can be opened. A number of my coworkers are politically conservative and called the science on Covid-19 and social distancing guidelines "fake news". I don't want to be sharing a work space 40 hours a week with smirky disease vectors. I expect I'll be having some conversations with my managers if they insist that we all return to work at the office like it was pre-pandemic.

-Teresa

(my emphasis)

When I saw this, it truly brought home to me the depth of the ineptitude of the federal response. It also makes me wonder, considering the ineptitude of the federal response, if President Chuckle-Fuck is re-elected, if we'll see any movements for succession by some states. If I remember correctly, California alone, were it not part of the US, would have the second or third largest GDP in the world. I hope I'm over reacting, but I can easily see a second Trump term fracturing the nation literally as well as figuratively.

California, Oregon and Washington would secede together, it's been considered before and those 3 together are a force, the entire West Coast, with huge economic powers. They are also progressive and one would do much better being a citizen of such a union.