Texas to open 100%

[mrs. magoo]

It's also a great example of the problems with it. We don't have rigid state borders but the regulations vary state to state. Regulations in Illinois don't mean much if you border Wisconsin as a portion of the population is jumping over there to dine/party/etc. In the middle of last year you could actually see cases increase county by county in states around Wisconsin due to their reopening. It was fascinating.

Out of the 50 states, Hawaii has had the lowest numbers and I would argue it's because they actually have a bubble without the influence of surrounding states.

I'll concede in advance that this could also be viewed as "no reason to have stricter rules because one of your neighbors is going to screw it up" and it would be a completely logical argument.

This has always been the argument against Federalism but when the Constitution was written the states were very wary of the Federal government having too much power. Federalism allowed the states to give up some power but keep most of it for themselves since states should have a better idea of what the people within their states need and want. Border issues are always going to pop up. Take dry counties it is not like everyone who lives in the county is against drinking so they just leave the county to drink. Federalism is what makes our Constitution and government unique. I know that in the current climate everyone wants to change everything but the Constitution has worked and adapted for over 230 years. As an individual you can make choices that you feel protect you and your family. You have a choice to dine in or take out. You have a choice to shop or use a delivery service. In today's world there are so many more choices than in the past. Make a decision based on what is best for you and your family.

 

[Dan Murphy]

haha I admit I haven't checked in a while

I saw it on the news right after reading your earlier post. I went back on the TiVo to see the numbers again.

Those number are off. In checking it is now:
Vaccine doses overview

From Our World in Data · Updated less than 2 days ago
View attachment 560370United States

Doses given	Fully vaccinated	% of population fully vaccinated
80.5M

27M

8.21%

80 million does given but about 27 of those are second doses, making for about 53 million individuals dosed with either one or both. Numbers are all correct, including the ones you posted.

 

[snappy]

I noticed that the CDC site added percentages vaccinated based on total population and the population 18 years of age and above in the last week or two.

 

[China Expat]

Terrible terrible idea.

 

[Sandiz08]

Texas education agency is saying that they will allow covid protocol to continue, but school districts will be given the opportunity to vote on wether or not they keep the mask mandate in their own respective district.

 

[MillauFr]

This has always been the argument against Federalism but when the Constitution was written the states were very wary of the Federal government having too much power.

The indoctrination starts at a young age in Texas. They make Kindergartners pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day at school.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

This has always been the argument against Federalism but when the Constitution was written the states were very wary of the Federal government having too much power. Federalism allowed the states to give up some power but keep most of it for themselves since states should have a better idea of what the people within their states need and want. Border issues are always going to pop up. Take dry counties it is not like everyone who lives in the county is against drinking so they just leave the county to drink. Federalism is what makes our Constitution and government unique. I know that in the current climate everyone wants to change everything but the Constitution has worked and adapted for over 230 years. As an individual you can make choices that you feel protect you and your family. You have a choice to dine in or take out. You have a choice to shop or use a delivery service. In today's world there are so many more choices than in the past. Make a decision based on what is best for you and your family.

As noted, the Constitution has constantly adapted to progressions in culture/technology. We now live in a country where I can cross multiple state lines in a couple hours via car or the entire country in a couple hours via plane so individual states having very different regulations doesn't make as much sense as it did 230 years ago.

When we face a nationwide threat, I very much feel it's within the Federal Government's jurisdiction to put regulations in place to mitigate it.

 

[Minnesota!]

The indoctrination starts at a young age in Texas. They make Kindergartners pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day at school.

Well, that's gross!

 

[mom2rb]

The indoctrination starts at a young age in Texas. They make Kindergartners pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day at school.

This is recent. I don’t even know the Texas pledge. My boys were home schooled and then went to a small private school, they don’t know it either. I am 5th generation Texan and I think that this is ridiculous.

 

[Elle23]

The indoctrination starts at a young age in Texas. They make Kindergartners pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day at school.

How in the world is that indoctrination? We are, in fact, citizens of Texas. We also pledge allegiance to the US flag.

 

[BrianL]

The indoctrination starts at a young age in Texas. They make Kindergartners pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day at school.

That sounds shocking, but that's actually pretty "Texas" - they are always about this close to being their own country. They are like the Quebec of the US.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

This has always been the argument against Federalism but when the Constitution was written the states were very wary of the Federal government having too much power. Federalism allowed the states to give up some power but keep most of it for themselves since states should have a better idea of what the people within their states need and want. Border issues are always going to pop up. Take dry counties it is not like everyone who lives in the county is against drinking so they just leave the county to drink. Federalism is what makes our Constitution and government unique. I know that in the current climate everyone wants to change everything but the Constitution has worked and adapted for over 230 years. As an individual you can make choices that you feel protect you and your family. You have a choice to dine in or take out. You have a choice to shop or use a delivery service. In today's world there are so many more choices than in the past. Make a decision based on what is best for you and your family.

I have been continually stunned by the number of people who seem perfectly happy to just throw the Constitution out the window and have been shouting for the Fed (really the President) to just seize control and make mandates the office has no authority to make.

That actually makes me deeply uncomfortable. I’ve been very careful and haven’t gone out much so I’m not some anti-mask or anti-science or anti-vaccine spokesperson. But I am terribly appreciative of the freedom of movements Americans are afforded by the Constitution.

Virus is going to virus. Do mitigation efforts have some effect? I think so. But like with everything in life, I think we over estimate the control we truly have over things. This was never a “everybody do what’s asked and this will be gone in two weeks” viruses just don’t go away unless the virus is ineffective (slow infection or too virulent etc). SARS-Cov-2 is a great virus and as pretty much everywhere worldwide has shown, it crops back up as soon as the strictest lockdowns are eased. By the time we realized what we were dealing with, this thing already had a foothold. We’ve only ever eradicated one disease and that was after centuries and a worldwide vaccine effort.

I personally think we would have been much better served by a more harm reductionist approach than the lockdown approach after March of last year. Unfortunately, until recently any discussion about such policies was typically meant with a cry of you’re selfish and the reason this isn’t over yet plus you’re killing grandma.

 

[Sanchez]

As noted, the Constitution has constantly adapted to progressions in culture/technology. We now live in a country where I can cross multiple state lines in a couple hours via car or the entire country in a couple hours via plane so individual states having very different regulations doesn't make as much sense as it did 230 years ago.

When we face a nationwide threat, I very much feel it's within the Federal Government's jurisdiction to put regulations in place to mitigate it.

So why isn't that happening? Why isn't there a national mask mandate as well as implementation of safety standards? Certainly six weeks is enough time to issue the order.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

So why isn't that happening? Why isn't there a national mask mandate as well as implementation of safety standards? Certainly six weeks is enough time to issue the order.

That was a personal opinion on the role of federal government, not a statement of current powers available to an administration. I personally don't see much of a difference between restricting travel from certain nations and putting a nationwide mask mandate in place.

From what I have read, the Federal government can only put those requirements in place on Federal property though.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I've asked multiple times in this thread and gotten nothing but crickets. Maybe you will be willing to answer. Looking at the "new case" charts for Florida (who has had no state mask mandate and to my knowledge no other state mandated precautions) and California (who is "lock down central" according to previous poster), the graph is very similar if not virtually identical. Here you go to refresh your memory...
California
View attachment 560265

Florida:
View attachment 560266

In fact, California has MORE cases. So, how do you determine that mask mandates and lock downs work? Yes, Florida had a larger "1st wave", but shouldn't Florida have seen a much steeper rise (and less of a fall) if opening things up was that dangerous?

ETA: Before anyone brings up population, according to Worldometer, CA has had just over 90k cases/million and FL 89k/million. CA does slightly better on deaths, 1.3k/million vs Florida's 1.4k/million.

Just for grins, Texas has 92k cases/million and 1.5k deaths/million.

Well, clearly the things that CA is doing are not working. School shutdowns, park shutdowns, amusement park closures - these things DO NOT work! In fact, it made it worse, and there have been plenty of studies that have proven this. In fact, the CA health officials even said so! Their reasoning; they closed outdoor dining to send a message, don't "mix". That's why DL is in yellow too (really dumb IMHO). It had the opposite affect; instead of meeting and "mixing" where the environment could be controlled, people went to each other's homes where it could not be controlled. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!!

The problem is, the government has no control over the things that are spreading the disease. We cannot regulate who goes in your house and what you do once you are inside your house. that is where the VAST majority of spread is occurring. We have very little control over the other major source; confined space work areas. Meat packing plants, call centers, even sports locker rooms. Some things have worked. My office is an "open" office; no partitions. We have been shut down from the start and sent to work at home - GOOD! I hope we never return (full time anyway) - that place was a germ factory. Bars should be shut down until the bitter end.

SO how does FL and TX data compare to CA? I've been watching FL and CA really closely. CA population is 1.8 x FL population in case you want to compare. FL numbers are currently higher than CA numbers, but I think that is preferable to the spike that CA had. Why the spike? One word, BORDOM. FL and TX have had schools open LOTS of businesses open, amusement parks open, there are things to do. CA has not. When kids are not in school, there is nothing keeping families from travelling - AND THEY HAVE! National parks have never been more crowded in the "off" season (i.e. not summer). Go visit relatives? why not? We have the time, Grandma has an internet connection, let's go! Woops.

The tail end of the spike can be explained too. Without major holidays, there is less reason to travel plus we've done that now...and Grandma got sick. Ouch. Re-opening things like outdoor dining also helped (what?). Now people are doing the sensible things; staying local, wearing masks, following the protocols. We should have done this all along.

OK, so what about the no-mask-mandate states? FL and TX are not saying "don't wear a mask", they are saying "we want to treat our citizens like adults and trust they will make the responsible decisions (and yes, masks are implied)". It's a fine line with mixed results. FL had BIG trouble in Miami where they shut down bars and the people took the parties into homes and boats (yes, boats). Disney KILLED IT! On property at WDW is the safest place you can be and has been from the start. Schools are open, people didn't travel so much.

But what really gets left out of the discussion is the aftermath; what damage was done and was it necessary? CA kids are A FULL YEAR behind their counterparts in FL and TX. There was no reason for that. Kids in CA are experiencing unprecedented depression from the isolation. There was no reason for that. Businesses in CA have closed in vast numbers. A lot of that could have been prevented. In FL? Revenue went up, school budgets went up, teachers got raises, businesses that needed support got it. Sorry, really not seeing a downside here. I guess you could compare the overall COVID numbers and maybe FL ends up being slightly higher. OK, but they didn't have a pointy spike, hospitals were not overwhelmed, those who needed ICU care got it, and the state didn't go into debt in the process (FL never even touched the revenue they had set aside to deal with the crisis). If you look back on the reason for the shutdowns a year ago that was the result we were hoping for - FLATTEN the curve, not reduce every possible case. FL got it right. CA - not so much.

 

[Verity_]

From the morning news, as of today, a little over 7% of Texans are vaccinated. So I guess we will see how the public health experiment goes.

 

[Lumpy1106]

From the morning news, as of today, a little over 7% of Texans are vaccinated. So I guess we will see how the public health experiment goes.

No question, that is low. If I was in TX I'd want answers. That's a separate issue from the mask mandate (or lack thereof).

 

[penn19]

The indoctrination starts at a young age in Texas. They make Kindergartners pledge allegiance to the Texas flag every day at school.

After the regular pledge.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

From the morning news, as of today, a little over 7% of Texans are vaccinated. So I guess we will see how the public health experiment goes.

Is that first dose OR percentage of people considered fully vaccinated which right now means they've received 2 doses.

 

[mrodgers]

So why isn't that happening? Why isn't there a national mask mandate as well as implementation of safety standards? Certainly six weeks is enough time to issue the order.

Because the important part of the quote you replied to was "feel". A certain candidate campaigned on it and when all said and done, he did what he was capable of doing under his jurisdiction, mandating federal property, instead of doing what he promised he was going to do.