President Trump declared
he had total authority to order governors to reopen their states for business.
That drew Constitutional rights not granted to the federal government reserved
to states objections from Republicans and Democrats alike. President Trump then
pronounced he had given state governors authority to decide when to reopen
their states.
I thought last night of my home state Alabama Governor George Wallace chanting states rights and running on a states right ticket and doing pretty well until he was shot in the belly. Today, Alabama's Republican Governor Kay Ivey seems to take direct orders from President Trump. My hometown Birmingham was closed down, not by the city mayor, not by the county mayor, not by Kay Ivey, but by the county health department.
Facebook thread started yesterday by Peggy Butler, a retired nurse I knew in Key West, who eventually moved to the south Florida east coast where she could afford to live.
"The FDA is walking back its decision to loosen restrictions on coronavirus antibody tests after the market was flooded with faulty, low-quality versions. Antibody tests can tell if a person has been infected with coronavirus, recovered and is now ostensibly immune. According to leading doctors like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, knowing who's been infected across the population is critical to understanding how quickly and safely society can reopen. Unfortunately, after the FDA loosened restrictions on the tests, scientists realized new tests on the market were not all reliable. Seeing as how an inaccurate result could endanger people with a false sense of immunity, the FDA has now tightened enforcement again." CNN
https://thebluepaper.com/doh-no-easing-restrictions-until-weve-gone-two-weeks-with-no-cases/
Bob Eadie, Administrator of the Monroe County
Department of Health, told the Board of County Commissioners today that it was
too soon to start having a discussion about easing social distancing
restrictions in the Keys. He recommended that the Board wait until Monroe
County has gone two weeks without seeing a new cases before moving in that
direction.
Here are some highlights from Mr. Eadie’s
presentation this afternoon [see full 35 minute video above]:
It’s not time to start thinking
about modifying what we are doing:
Bob Eadie: “My main message of the day: We are
still continuing to have new cases reported everyday and I think our contact
tracing is going well. There’s always a possibility of missing someone and also
there is a probability of someone who is able to pass on the disease but not
having any symptoms out there. So it’s not time to start thinking in any way
about modifying what we are doing.
I think that we’re showing that we’ve been
successful, if you look at other places in the State of Florida and the amount
of spread that they’re having. We have a lot of cases but they’re not
overwhelming. We don’t have a lot of hospitalizations at all – which is good.
So, we just need to continue what we are doing.
People with lots of money and
lots of time on their hands advocating for reopening the Keys:
Eadie: There’s a great deal of – I’m not sure
exactly what word I would use – that people have been cooped up and in certain
parts of the County there are people with lots of money and lots of time on
their hands that are now trying to advocate that it is time for us to start
modifying the stay-at-home orders that we’ve got and I don’t even think that we
should be giving that any thought.
New antibody tests are limited;
No infrastructure right now for mass testing:
Eadie: Before we would want to do anything along
those lines we would need to do, I think, some really community-wide testing –
probably using some kind of antibody test. But right now the Surgeon General,
who is directing my actions in any way, is very reluctant to start pursuing
that for a variety of reasons but there are also issues with what that test
will really tell us other than the antibodies for the coronavirus will be
present. But it doesn’t tell you when, it doesn’t tell you really how long ago,
whether somebody is still infected or not.
So it a limited use for diagnosing someone and
it is essentially limited use right now because we don’t have the
infrastructure in the state to be able to do statewide or in our case Monroe
County wide testing right now. The mass testing that is going on in Broward,
Dade and Palm Beach County is really overloading all of the laboratory systems.
And also a point you’ll notice with that is either those tests were done with
support from the federal government for personnel along with the national
guard. Those tests are now being – the point being the national guard and also
contract employees are the ones that are actually doing the testing. I keep
asking for more support and they are – the question that we’ve got is that the
areas that are much more of a priority right now given the amount of the spread
of the disease that they are having right now – which makes sense. All those
counties are big counties geographically. They are also very populated and so
you would indeed have very large areas with a good number of people that still
have a great deal of transmission of the disease. So, we really need to get a
handle on where we are.
Dade County visitors are a
danger to the Keys until Dade gets COVID-19 spread under control:
Eadie: And then the other thing that I think has
really got to be given a lot of thought before we do anything is when we do
relax what our directives would be and we allow people back into the Keys.
Right now we see so much Dade county traffic. Until Dade is really under
control, that’s one consideration as far as opening up the County.
National and International
destination:
Eadie: And the other thing is that we are such a
national and international destination that there really needs to be a real –
the disease needs to be controlled both nationally and internationally before
we go back to having no restrictions on movement in the Keys because everything
we’ve done could be undone very easily and then I’m not sure where we’ll be. I
think it would be a total disaster at that point that would make recovery
extremely difficult.
When can we start talking about
opening things back up?
Mayor Heather Carruthers: As I’ve been looking
at this I think that there’s a number of stages – its not going to be tomorrow
you would take a key and unlock a door. There would be different things that we
would do. Just as we rolled things out scaling them up, we would scale them
back. To me the first thing – the things that we would be considering is what
kinds of relaxations could we allow for only our residents to perhaps enjoy
only a little more freedom than they are right now. My question to you is what
kind of markers are you looking for or would you want to see before we start
having that discussion?
Eadie: Well if I could have my ideal, I would
like to see two weeks of no cases period. Two weeks with no cases. Now that may
be unrealistic. I don’t know whether it would be or not. Two weeks with no
cases would be a real sign that we were on our way for no more transmission in
the Keys.
Mass testing for the Keys on
the horizon? Not really – due to lack of personnel:
Carruthers: What do you think the state is doing
in terms of issues with more testing and rapid testing. Are you hearing any
intelligence other than what we’re reading and hearing?
Eadie: It’s easier to say things are going to be
done than it is to get some things done at times. The infrastructure of what’s
needed is just not there. With luck it’s gonna be within a week – within 2
weeks maybe – you’ll have some of the rapid testing that’s online. Abbot has a
system that’s been approved. I’m told that it’s an expensive system and all of
the rapid testing that is available right now has to be done in conjunction
with a healthcare setting, either with a hospital or a large clinic. so there
its really not available for what we need and we don’t have the personnel to
really do the swabbing – the only way you find out if someone really has the
disease is to do the nasal swabbing to pick up whether there is the virus there
or not. and as you know we have got a plan set up but we don’t have the
resources to do it.. What we really need is dedicated personnel to do this
testing… But it’s just those things need to be in place before wee can move
forward. In the meantime dong what we are doing is still the best course of
action because there’s still a hell of lot of infection throughout the entire
country. it’s still going up in a lot of places. New York may be coming down
and in a lot of other places its still going up – especially in Florida it’s
still going up.
“I think a good indication right now is if we
could go 14 days without a new infections we really ought to start thinking
about what the next step is.
Is it realistic to think we
will see a a period of no infections for 2 weeks? Yes:
Commissioner Craig Cates: You are thinking 2
weeks with no new infections would be ideal. So Do yo feel that after that
there would be no more new cases down here or in other areas? Is that realistic
or is that maybe a goal that we’ll never be able to reach as some doctors are
saying that this virus will continue to be around for quite awhile. Do you
recommend that we wait that long to open up local businesses?
Eadie: I think that’s something that could be
achieved. I think that if we had that situation then we could look at what’s
really going on. The thing to still remember is that we live through influenza
every year. Influenza – there are more cases of influenza then there have been
of Covid-19 now. There are 30,000 influenza deaths in the country every
year. I think that if we go 14 days without infections here in Monroe
County – yes – That is something that could indeed happen. and that’s
what we really ought to be expecting. If we can’t get that far in – no I’m not
going to give us a date – but i think if we can’t get down near that number and
keep down near that number then that’s something that we need to revisit.
I understand how bad it is with the economics
and if people can’t eat they’re not gonna be healthy, but you’ve got to take
things a step at a time, Commissioner.
Cates: I totally understand your position…
especially being the head of the Health Department, but you know — I don’t have
the answers obviously. I’m just trying to figure this out and trying to come up
with, with the other commissioners, and get out there – how soon we can start
workin on trying to get some businesses open because a lot of people feel that
we’ll never be completely without this disease at all and we’ve got to wait on
vaccines and they’re talking about over a year. But I don’t want to scare the
residents because a lot of the residents are scared and rightfully so with
their health conditions they have . They’re worried about their family members
and all and rightfully so and when we’re talking about lives and health
its very important we make the right decisions and that’s why I want to try and
clarify everything we possibly can.
The disease is going to dictate
easing of restrictions, not any hopes that we have:
Eadie: And I agree with you – big time… It’s a
dynamic situation… As soon as I feel like we’ve got data that we can start
making decisions on, then I’ll be pushing for having those decisions made. I
understand what the economy is. You just look around and it’s kind of eerie
being in the Keys there’s nobody here and we’ve got to change that as soon as
we can. But the disease is gonna dictate that, not any hopes that we have. I
think a year is – I think that within a year we’ll have a vaccine. And once you
have a vaccine you can really get back to normal. But I don’t think you’ll have
to wait a full year. I don’t think anybody else really feels that it’s got to
be a full year before we’ll able to get back to some sort of normality.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
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