Why do we still have a pandemic? 150 000 have died!

We can blame the president, states, various people that had the power to sop travel and arrange proper quarantine (Hong Kong, despite little land, does that).

But jut thinking about regular people, we have some 3 million cases now. The recovered have some immunity. Some people never knew they had it. Let us say there are 10-15 million that were affected. That is not enough for herd immunity. Even with vaccinations, we have 25-30 million flu cases every year. (Another roughly equal number was vaccinated.) That gives us herd immunity, and also, flu is seasonal. Coronavirus is not.

We could look at 10 infected people. In them we have 2 older people. They are very careful and alert. They will go and get tested at the slightest symptom. The old person will likely infect their spouse, as most of them live daily under one roof. They could infect one other person, as there is some chance that one of them had contact with some close by person. They wore the mask, but other people around them did not. It probably takes two masks on TWO people to prevent infection at some 90% level.

Some 5 people of various ages are in the group. They are working people, attempting to go about their jobs. Those 5 infected 10 people before they figured out to stay home. Then there are 3 young people. They are not worried. There are less than 300 people dead in the country in the under 24 group. They did infect some 20 people, but mostly young people. If they contacted friends, they had a chance to stop most of the spread to a third person in line. So some 20 people got sick, recovered from it.

How many total got sick from our 10 people? More than 10. Also those passed it on. Otherwise the pandemic would count fewer and fewer new cases day by day.

Our Failure At Social Distancing

Back in April, most of us understood the rules: stay home, avoid crowds, wear a mask if you have one.

Since a lot of businesses closed for several weeks, people stayed home, did outdoor recreation, watched TV and followed the Internet. With the few choices of activity, that worked very well. We all understood and followed the rules quite well for a month. We all did, Biden and Trump supporters all in the same boat then.

It's now failing, because people are interacting normally. They have started group activities, and this may include a number of groups for you, not just the family or close friends. People also started wearing the masks and then believing they are safe. They are not. If a senior walks into a grocery store, and if there is an infected person inside, you are still at risk. If that person is wearing a mask and you are wearing a mask, and you start talking to them, the mask offers some protection, but you are still at risk. The mask also prevents you from playing with your mouth and nose while you are in the store. BUT, you still want to shop as fast as you can. Don't read product labels, you can read them at home and make a note on that product for later shopping.

I wear a mask outdoors when I expect to run into a few more people. It's not because I feel at risk, it is more due to the fact that I am discouraging strangers from talking to me. I avoid eye contact.

People with teenagers have gotten them out of the house. They are doing a lot of sports and similar activities. The risk is low. We have less than 160 deaths so far among people 15-24 in the USA. The documented cases in that group are about 14 000. However, they will still get sick and bring the disease home to you.

There is not a lot of politics involved, but the Trump supporters that deny science, hate rules etc. are obviously the worst violators of the rules. The Black Lives activities produced some crowds outdoors as well. But even in that group (blacks in cities), you are more likely to get sick at church than outdoors.

Some ethnic groups are more touchy feely. It will be difficult to adjust to not doing all that for a full year.

The masks are of use, but the people are having a hard time incorporating social distancing to their lives. As long as they do this, and the great majority goes to work (work indoors), we are not going to get past this pandemic. My prediction is that is will flatten slightly from the strange July peak, but we will be in the much the  situation a year from now.

New election theme for Trump voters: No masks

Even though it's been shown that masks help stop the spread coronavirus, especially if the infected person wears it, the people are mad. These people will not believe the virus is anything serious, until they themselves are sick.

You can find the video under that name in Youtube, but the school board meeting had to be postponed due to them.

All this is very consistent with Trump voters: deny science, deny global warming, do not get vaccinated. Why? Because the Federal Government is behind it, and somewhere in there is buried a conspiracy, the real purpose being the manipulation of MAGA-hat wearing Americans.

This cannot end well, and my prediction is that large numbers of people in red states, smaller towns and the South will insist on ignoring the pandemic and a good many will survive to vote for Trump. It will be a very divided election, red states going very red, blue states very blue. The other issues in the election will be buried under all this.

With people evicted from rental housing, others losing the exta 600 dollars per month income and those working with the sick making a strong statement (watch MSNBC, CNN) nightly, the fate of battleground states likely will go slightly blue. I predict Trump will not win any rust belt states.

The election will be close, states will have to do recounts, and Trump will not give up. He will only leave kicking and screaming.