Upstate NY Banter and General Discussion..

[TugHillMatt]

3 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

First off, there's way too much politics/election talk in here.  Really not supposed to be discussing that, whether or not it's civil.

Regarding covid, there's a real, growing problem in the hospitals right now just about everywhere outside of the coastal states.  You see it in the news stories and I hear it from my cousin here in Indiana who has a high ranking position at an area hospital.  Because of the typical lag time between a confirmed case and needing to go to the hospital, a lot of areas are in trouble even if the spread stopped right now (which it won't, of course).

Thank you.

[lakeeffectkid383]

4 minutes ago, BuffaloWeather said:

Do you have link to New York Covid tracking website that tracks that again? I deleted my bookmark.

https://forward.ny.gov/percentage-positive-results-region-dashboard
 

Thats to view the percentages by “region” and if you click view by county at the top you can see specifics by county. 

[lakeeffectkid383]

What is pretty crazy is WNY region now has 220 hospitalizations which is up from 30 hospitalizations just last month and already nearing the peak of the “first wave” in May which was near 260 hospitalizations. Good news is there’s only about 50 in ICU compared to almost 150 during the peak of the “first wave”. 

[Thinksnow18]

10 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

I know schools make up a small portion of those being tested in NY, but those of us in schools in the "higher risk" zones are getting the free rapid-tests done. Most of these individuals are not infected.

Does anyone have the statistics of school kids with positive results? 

[OSUmetstud]

1 minute ago, lakeeffectkid383 said:

What is pretty crazy is WNY region now has 220 hospitalizations which is up from 30 hospitalizations just last month and already nearing the peak of the “first wave” in May which was near 260 hospitalizations. Good news is there’s only about 50 in ICU compared to almost 150 during the peak of the “first wave”. 

Poloncarz's graphs have been pretty crazy, in terms of the rate of increase. I know the hospitals are not overwhelmed there, but the trends are not great. 

 

[BuffaloWeather]

Whose ready for winter outdoor dining? 

[MJO812]

22 hours ago, BuffaloWeather said:

Crazy that 2,700 missing votes were found in Georgia because someone "forgot" to upload the votes. They heavily favored Trump, but still 12k behind still.

Also something about Michigan not certifying its votes at the deadline today?

They are still finding more votes everywhere 2 weeks after the election.  I'm still baffled how I went to sleep on election night thinking Trump has this in the bag and then waking up and seeing Biden winning. Biden gained about 100k+ votes in Wisconsin in one batch with Trump getting 0.

[the ghost of leroy]

Lol

[MJO812]

1 hour ago, wxtrix said:

politics aren’t allowed on the wx-side. the only people who do so are too afraid to defend their opinions with facts in the correct forum.

This is false

We all left there because that forum is full of misfits. 

[MJO812]

2 minutes ago, the ghost of leroy said:

Lol

Nice post

Anything to add?

[the ghost of leroy]

Just now, MJO812 said:

Nice post

Anything to add?

No

[SouthBuffaloSteve]

27 minutes ago, Thinksnow18 said:

Does anyone have the statistics of school kids with positive results? 

I saw this for Rochester schools doing the 20% weekly testing to opt staying open.  Out of 3500 tests at random only 5 positives.  
 

 

[TugHillMatt]

30 minutes ago, Thinksnow18 said:

Does anyone have the statistics of school kids with positive results? 

Great question. I'm sure there are. Surprisingly school results, as far as I am aware of, have been pretty private. I'm sure if many were testing positive, we'd be hearing about it. As has been discussed on here recently, schools have not been one of the main sites of spread.

[OSUmetstud]

5 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

Great question. I'm sure there are. Surprisingly school results, as far as I am aware of, have been pretty private. I'm sure if many were testing positive, we'd be hearing about it. As has been discussed on here recently, schools have not been one of the main sites of spread.

Dr. Daniel Griffin during his Sunday TWiV update generally says that kids are catching it in the tangential behavior related to being back in school (birthday parties/after school socialization) as opposed to getting the infection within the school itself. 

[TugHillMatt]

Just now, OSUmetstud said:

Dr. Daniel Griffin during his Sunday TWiV update generally says that kids are catching it in the tangential behavior related to being back in school (birthday parties/after school socialization) as opposed to getting the infection within the school itself. 

Thanks for mentioning that. I can definitely see that...which is maddening when we the teachers are being pressed so much to be the masking/social distancing police...we only have them for 6.5 hours! Based on current trends, kudos to educators!

[TugHillMatt]

56 minutes ago, Thinksnow18 said:

Does anyone have the statistics of school kids with positive results? 

Two of the schools in the district I live in (Baldwinsville) did asymptomatic testing of 261 school individuals on Monday and only 1 tested positive. There are several quarantined from tests earlier in the month. That would be .38% 

[skierinvermont]

3 hours ago, Luke_Mages said:

It has nothing to do with politics. I’ts everything to do with being objective. My fav paper written in college when I was a left leaning dem was that global warming isn’t the problem, overpopulation and where we chose to live is. That’s not being a crass republican, that’s being objective. 
You need to realize that we as humans overvalue our importance. 
You also need to remember what caused WW2. Germany was poor and starving and forced into expansion. What happens globally if the economy keeps shrinking?
 

Global warming can be drastically reduced with just modest investment in wind, solar, and EVs. Wind and solar are already tied with natural gas as the cheapest new source of electricity, which is why power companies and the free market choose wind and solar 50% of the time for new electricity sources (or replacing old ones like coal) with the other 50% being nat gas. And EVs are also already cost competitive when you consider the gas savings over the life of the vehicle. Amazon just ordered 100,000 EVs for its delivery fleet. All we need is modest government pressure to accelerate the adoption of these new technologies. A 5% tax on nat gas (and any coal power that's still left) and 5% subsidy of wind/solar would decisively shift the market with no effect on power prices.

That's a lot cheaper than dealing with global warming of 2C+. And reduces other kinds of pollution as well such as ozone and particulates which kill millions globally and 10s of thousands in the U.S, and exacerbates asthma in 10s of millions more.

20 years ago the argument that preventing/reducing global warming would cost a lot of money had some validity. Today, it's clearly the economic choice. The technologies needed are already developed and economically competitive and in some cases economically superior. Although this would have happened a lot faster with even just modest government support for the last 20 years.

[MJO812]

25 minutes ago, wxtrix said:

metfan doesn't know the word "baffled".

the rest of the stupidity in that post is pretty on brand for him, though.

You dont even know me so go **** yourself

No one likes you on here . Scram.

[MJO812]

1 hour ago, the ghost of leroy said:

No

Cool beans

Night 

[skierinvermont]

2 hours ago, Luke_Mages said:

Ya I forgot about testing rates. Prob a combo of the two factors. 

You forgot about the improvement in testing rates and how this obviously affects reported death rates? Going around saying that treatment has dramatically improved seems irresponsible and unethical to me.

[Buckeyes_Suck]

5 hours ago, skierinvermont said:

You forgot about the improvement in testing rates and how this obviously affects reported death rates? Going around saying that treatment has dramatically improved seems irresponsible and unethical to me.

Treatment has dramatically improved. Look at what we learned about how the virus causes hypoxia. You’re kind of late to the game on this Thread but we’ve previously talked about how intubation was a mistake for many of the early cases and caused unnecessary deaths. 

[Buckeyes_Suck]

5 hours ago, skierinvermont said:

Global warming can be drastically reduced with just modest investment in wind, solar, and EVs. Wind and solar are already tied with natural gas as the cheapest new source of electricity, which is why power companies and the free market choose wind and solar 50% of the time for new electricity sources (or replacing old ones like coal) with the other 50% being nat gas. And EVs are also already cost competitive when you consider the gas savings over the life of the vehicle. Amazon just ordered 100,000 EVs for its delivery fleet. All we need is modest government pressure to accelerate the adoption of these new technologies. A 5% tax on nat gas (and any coal power that's still left) and 5% subsidy of wind/solar would decisively shift the market with no effect on power prices.

That's a lot cheaper than dealing with global warming of 2C+. And reduces other kinds of pollution as well such as ozone and particulates which kill millions globally and 10s of thousands in the U.S, and exacerbates asthma in 10s of millions more.

20 years ago the argument that preventing/reducing global warming would cost a lot of money had some validity. Today, it's clearly the economic choice. The technologies needed are already developed and economically competitive and in some cases economically superior. Although this would have happened a lot faster with even just modest government support for the last 20 years.

You’re wrong on this point. Without heavy subsidies it’s not cheaper yet. (Won’t be for some time) And countries like the US and can afford that, but what happens in India? Or how about when Africa starts industrializing? What we do here in the US and Europe (China is a joke) won’t do anything to slow the warming that will be caused by that. I’m not saying to be irresponsible with the environment, I’m saying the money being subsidized would be best spent relocating people, infrastructure improvements like flood control for NYC harbor, and investments in fission and fusion power. 

[Thinksnow18]

8 hours ago, TugHillMatt said:

Two of the schools in the district I live in (Baldwinsville) did asymptomatic testing of 261 school individuals on Monday and only 1 tested positive. There are several quarantined from tests earlier in the month. That would be .38% 

So is it safe to say with those statistics that schools should be left alone at this point? The were back, then remotely, then back again is getting old. If the schools themselves are NOT part of the issue then why close them? Why not just put the moratorium on social gatherings afterwards? Sorry for using logic...

[Buckeyes_Suck]

1 hour ago, Thinksnow18 said:

So is it safe to say with those statistics that schools should be left alone at this point? The were back, then remotely, then back again is getting old. If the schools themselves are NOT part of the issue then why close them? Why not just put the moratorium on social gatherings afterwards? Sorry for using logic...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/opinion/coronavirus-school-closures.html

[TugHillMatt]

1 hour ago, Thinksnow18 said:

So is it safe to say with those statistics that schools should be left alone at this point? The were back, then remotely, then back again is getting old. If the schools themselves are NOT part of the issue then why close them? Why not just put the moratorium on social gatherings afterwards? Sorry for using logic...

I don't think they need to be closed. The numbers are sooo sooo low.

I'm not sure if you're just asking rhetorically, or if you were under the impression I was saying schools should be closed. I don't think they need to be. (Although sometimes I wish they were because I am exhausted!  )

[BuffaloWeather]

13 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

I don't think they need to be closed. The numbers are sooo sooo low.

I'm not sure if you're just asking rhetorically, or if you were under the impression I was saying schools should be closed. I don't think they need to be. (Although sometimes I wish they were because I am exhausted!  )

I think the infection rate in the schools was .19%. Schools have been doing fantastic, I do not understand the reasoning in shutting schools down again. Especially when parents need a break after earlier this year and parents all nearly all back to work. 

[wolfie09]

I'm in favor of a national masks mandate not a national lockdown, just my 2 pennies lol

Some of the people in these rural states are probably not listening to their governors lol

[BuffaloWeather]

9 minutes ago, wolfie09 said:

I'm in favor of a national masks mandate not a national lockdown, just my 2 pennies lol

Some of the people in these rural states are probably not listening to their governors lol

The first wave hit the Northeast. The second wave in summer hit the southeast and west. The third wave is hitting the midwest. I kind of wonder if it's just the natural progression of the virus throughout the country and just massive testing being done compared to earlier this year leading to a mirage of increased numbers. 

[TugHillMatt]

53 minutes ago, BuffaloWeather said:

I think the infection rate in the schools was .19%. Schools have been doing fantastic, I do not understand the reasoning in shutting schools down again. Especially when parents need a break after earlier this year and parents all nearly all back to work. 

Schools have been working so very hard to stay open. My school has been open all year with the option of students doing virtual. Almost all have chosen in-person and are so thankful. As I sit here during transition time, I think sometimes the students don't realize how fortunate they are to be in person...but I think deep inside they are SO happy to be here.

[DeltaT13]

53 minutes ago, BuffaloWeather said:

The first wave hit the Northeast. The second wave in summer hit the southeast and west. The third wave is hitting the midwest. I kind of wonder if it's just the natural progression of the virus throughout the country and just massive testing being done compared to earlier this year leading to a mirage of increased numbers. 

So if we stop testing this goes away immediately?  Fascinating stuff here.