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July 16, 2020 08:54 AM UTC

Republicans Play Fiddle While COVID Battle Is Lost

  • 32 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: CPR reports that Gov. Jared Polis has finally issued a statewide mask order:

After pleading, prodding, cajoling, using both friendly and harsh language, and appealing to the better civic sensibilities of Coloradans everywhere, Gov. Jared Polis has finally done what he’s been resistant to do.

The governor has issued a statewide face mask order.

“Today, I’m signing an executive order that’s effective at midnight tonight that requires that every Coloradan, age 10 and up, wear a mask or face covering whenever they’re in public,” Polis said in a Thursday briefing on the pandemic.

Thank you, Governor.

—–

Colorado Public Radio reports:

Cases of COVID-19 continue to climb in Colorado, an upward trend that began in mid-June and persisted through the July 4 holiday.

While hospitalizations and case numbers have increased throughout July, public health experts expressed concern over the 3-day average positivity rate, which has risen from its lowest point at 2.34 percent in mid-June to 4.72 percent on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization considers a 5 percent test positivity rate — reflecting the percentage of tests administered that come up positive over a three-day period — a benchmark for how well a community is controlling viral spread.

Several counties that had low-transmission rates at the beginning of the pandemic are now seeing spikes. So far, no new restrictions have been placed on businesses or events since Gov. Jared Polis rolled back bar re-openings just before July 4, but the worrisome statistics have prompted many local officials to renew calls for social distancing and mask-wearing.

Meanwhile, Douglas County voted last night to pull out of the Tri-County Health Department over a mask order the county opted out of.

With cases on the increase throughout the nation, Colorado’s lagging but now undeniable increase in COVID-19 positives is an ominous sign for the season to come. More deep-red Republican states like Alabama are instituting mask orders and rolling back reopening plans to a greater degree than Colorado has, which is making Gov. Jared Polis’ reluctance to take stronger measures increasingly difficult to defend–but above all, the local Republican campaign of resistance against every kind of COVID preventative measure is looking more nonsensical–and life-threatening–by the day.

As the whole world looks on with pity and revulsion over America’s singularly incompetent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately in Colorado we see as many signs of the problem as we do any forthcoming solution. Gov. Polis has tried to lead in this crisis with appeals to reason, but his consensus-driven leadership style simply wasn’t prepared to deal with the unreasonableness of his unhinged political opposition.

As a result, Coloradans who did not have to die are going to die.

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32 thoughts on “Republicans Play Fiddle While COVID Battle Is Lost”

      1. Unfortunately this virus is going to persist a long time after it's originator is gone along with a lot of fine people who didn't have to die.  The Trumpers will go into grievance overdrive when they get blown out in November.

    2. Yes, they will be in Douglas County.  I just returned from Cabela's in Douglas County and there were several people not wearing masks.  It might get ugly there tomorrow.

      2. How dare you demand I protect myself and you from a pandemic by wearing a mask while I buy guns to protect myself from the coming Zombie Apocalypse?

  3. This is such state by state, city by city patchwork bullshit, but it is done earnestly in the absence of any sort of action by the United States as a whole.  There is no national strategy for the Coronavirus.  No national organized system of PPE or ventilator distribution.  No national system for contact tracing. No national mandate to stay at home, socially distance, or wear masks.  No national strategy for how shops, grocery stores, restaurants and bars are to handle this, whether it be to close for the time being or to manage the flow of customers in and out. These are all things Donald Trump could have done if he wasn’t such a lazy, ignorant, self-absorbed shithead. 

    Now, as Pols correctly points out, a lot more Americans and Coloradans are going to die, and the last few days do indicate Covid-19 is spinning out of control. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle, and the rest of the world is indeed watching us with shock and pity. Hell, according to the New York Times, there are only 28 countries in the world Americans can travel to right now; here they are:

    Albania, Lebanon, Antigua and Barbuda, Maldives, Aruba, Mexico, The Bahamas, North Macedonia, Barbados, St. Lucia, Belize, St. Maarten, Bermuda St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Croatia, Serbia, The Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Ecuador, Turkey, French Polynesia, Turks & Caicos, Ireland, Ukraine, Jamaica, Kosovo, UAE and the UK.

    So if you think about it, we have handled this pandemic so poorly that 165 countries in the world have pretty much closed their doors on us. That is unprecedented in a very, very bad way. I believe we are at the historical nadir of American leadership in the world. We have transformed ourselves from global world leader to pariah state in just a few years.

    The point is that it doesn’t matter at all if Coloradans wear their masks, socially distance, wash their hands and generally be responsible individuals if a bunch of idiots from say, Arizona or Texas come here on vacation, refuse to distance and wear masks, and infect the rest of us.

    That is why we need a national effort, but we won’t get one, because we are an undisciplined, arrogant, and spoiled nation with a completely poisonous leader who is psychologically incapable to empathize with those he is supposed to lead. He can only lie, blame others, or worse, pretend the pandemic doesn’t exist or pretend it is simply going to go away…

    We’re pretty fucked.

    1. The only approaches to dealing with the epidemic in sight are

       * increasing the inadequate levels of non-pharma solutions.  The US population demonstrates its unwillingness to cooperatively address the disease, so all that happens with this approach is some safety for those willing to be diligent about taking ALL available precautions. 

       * continuing to learn about possible treatments to mitigate harms, and rapidly transferring that knowledge into widespread use. 

       * hoping for a highly effective vaccine and a public service effort to vaccinate as many as possible.  Even here, the famous US anti-vax movement will keep the approach at a less than optimum level for the population as a whole. So there will be a background level of disease to remain.

       * waiting for a change to a more competent, less reactive, more strategic administration. 

      110 days to the conclusion of voting.  188 days to the Inauguration of a bound-to-be better administration or the continuation and expansion of the epidemic disaster.

    1. David – pushing the nut cases to be sensible turns him into anti-freedom Dictator Polis, which I am sure he knows. I am guessing that is why he is so reluctant.

      1. If it isn't this, they will complain about something else representing the tyranny of the Deep State (i.e., mandatory seat belts, big government keeping free lead out of people's drinking water, or some other such nonsense).

        As Rosanne Rosanna Danna used to say, "It's always something."

      2. I actually think it's he's following the "home rule" idea. Take care of your own county and we won't have to take draconian measures. Clearly that didn't work. El Paso County is pretty much not doing shit along with many other counties. At this point he really doesn't have a choice. As far as the nut cases…over on Recall Polis 2020 on FB (yes, they're going to try again) they are losing their minds. Admittedly it's fun to watch but those people are downright crazy. Just as an aside, King Soopers will require masks starting next Weds and one of the suggestion from the Recall proponents  is "We need to get 50 of us together, arm up and just go cruise the parking lots". On that same vein there is one batch of looneys who want to just get 50 (seems to be a consistent number) and march into KS maskless. "What are they gonna do…throw us all out?"  

        1. So, they don't want limitations from the state, from medical associations, or from private enterprise.  Apparently, it is "do whatever I've done and whatever I want to do" free-dum.

          And if I remember the Recall Polis group, gathering 50 might be a bit of a stretch.

          1. In all fairness, when someone posts something they average about 23 responses out of 13k members. Most of which are sexual slurs or "damn right".

        2. My son-in- law-cop sometimes works security at King Soopers.  He’s expert with that Glock 44 and can get a lot of backup very quickly.

          So before you plan on attacking the law-abiding employees and customers at King Soopers, boys, you better consider the difference between Rambo wannabees and the men and women who guard the public order for a living.

           

          1. They actually believe that they're going to walk in and no one is going to do anything. They're just posturing. If they put 1/100th the energy in getting their shit together as they do blowing smoke up each others asses, Polis would have been out of office last summer. 

    2. FWIW, Polis is expected to issue a statewide mask order soon, if it hasn't happened already. Of course the dorks will protest, but guessing the order will increase Colorado's mask wearing percentage somewhat.

        1. "of course, the dorks will protest……."

          My simple answer ……  Dude, you're violating my freedom of not wanting to catch Trump Disease by your refusal to wear a mask.

    3. I think Gov. Polis takes the resurgence seriously … but resists government mandates and any one approach.  He continues to be advised by a group of specialists — perhaps there is a threshold in their minds for more obvious governmental activity. 

      Should anyone be interested, a part of that process, according to the Dean, Colorado School of Public Health, has been developing a model that allows us to consider the impacts of varying actions. 

      Last week, the COVID-19 Modeling Group posted an app version of the SEIR model that has been used and refined over the last several months. The tool, a “shiny app,” allows users to set scenarios for controlling Colorado’s COVID-19 epidemic and project the consequences for the epidemic’s course. One message is clear: we need to use all tools available to control the pandemic.

    4. Yeah, I'm afraid Polis is too afraid of pissing off the nutjobs (who seem to be perpetually pissed anyway).  He reopened too soon, he was too slow to mandate masks, etc.  I gave him good marks early on, but now . . . 

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