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Public Willing to Sacrifice Life, Liberty, Long-Term Prosperity for Turkey Dinner

Published 2020-12-04 by Cory Allen Heidelberger

We get the coronavirus we deserve:

Vehicle travel in early November was as much as 20% lower than a year earlier, but it surged around the holiday and peaked on Thanksgiving Day at only about 5% less than the pandemic-free period in 2019, according to StreetLight Data, which provided an analysis to The Associated Press.

…Airports also saw some of their busiest days of the pandemic, though air travel was much lower than last year. The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 1 million passengers on four separate days during the Thanksgiving travel period. Since the pandemic gutted travel in March, there has been only one other day when the number of travelers topped 1 million — Oct. 18.

“If only a small percentage of those travelers were asymptomatically infected, this can translate into hundreds of thousands of additional infections moving from one community to another,” Dr. Cindy Friedman, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, said this week during a briefing [“Americans Couldn’t Resist Thanksgiving Travel, Data Shows,” AP via KELO-TV, 2020.12.04].

Expect another surge in cases in a couple-three weeks.

Coronavirus is pretty simple: the more people take precautions, the fewer people will get sick and die. The less people take precautions, the less willing they are to change their habits and make small sacrifices, the more we will make larger, longer-term sacrifices in life, liberty, and prosperity.

The vaccines aren’t here yet; the pandemic is still boiling. Please, change your habits. Reset your gauge of needs versus wants, of essential versus non-essential. Stay home as much as you can.

Published in national

43 Comments

  1. mike from iowa

    We are here as of this morning…,

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    14,542,044
    Deaths:
    282,975

    Where will we be tomorrow?

    At least another 2800 bodies yesterday.

    2020-12-04
  2. Mark Anderson

    Hey, the trumpies are demonstrating their freedom of choice , just stay put and let them. It will all work out for rational, thinking people. You can’t fix stupid so why bother?

    2020-12-04
  3. SD is 20 per cent nonwhite

    Truth is Americans (half of them) don’t want to be as smart and dedicated as Taiwanese or New Zealanders.

    Go west, young men and women!

    That’s where the answers are.

    2020-12-04
  4. First mate smee

    Arizona’s governor said today that we can’t explain why the numbers are going up. No mask mandate. DAH

    2020-12-04
  5. Whitless

    Here is today’s COVID-19 summary report that compares South Dakota and Vermont:

    New Cases: 1,050 – SD; 73 – VT
    New Deaths: 31 – SD; 2 – VT
    Total Cases: 84,398 – SD; 4,763 – VT
    Total Deaths: 1,064 – SD; 75 – VT

    Why compare SD and VT? Both are low population states and have Republican governors.
    Only one state has a mask mandate: VT, effective August 1, 2020, and has implemented other
    preventative measures in response to the recent rise of cases.

    Source of Information: Each state’s DOH website.

    2020-12-04
  6. Tim

    Mark, you took the words right off my keyboard.

    2020-12-04
  7. DaveFN

    The Rapid City Municipal Council is yet trying to make up its mind on a mask mandate and taking some 3 weeks to do so, if not longer depending on the outcome of the next meeting. The most recent mandate reading was wishy-washy from the standpoint of a pandemic in progress: public places or businesses with an occupancy of 50 people or more would be required to have their patrons wear masks.

    But….Businesses also have the option to opt-out if they post a sign that says: “This business has opted out of the Rapid City ordinance requiring the wearing of masks or other face coverings. Masks or face coverings are recommended, but not required while in this building.”

    So much for undercutting the express purpose of a mask mandate. The problem at hand, namely, the compromise of public health by the unmasked public, is proposed as the very solution to the problem–more compromise, the latter in both the health and political sense.

    One councilman pontificated “We should mask by choice and not by force.”

    Sure we “should,” but the fact is that people aren’t.

    As Redfield of the CDC recent noted: “This nation was severely underprepared.” Locally, we can’t even decide what the problem is, let alone what to do about it. And a massive part of the problem is that people don’t even think there is a problem. A mandate is the ONLY way out of this.

    https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/salamun-we-should-mask-by-choice-not-by-force/article_e186e18a-fc87-584e-a00f-d1ef954c59e3.html

    2020-12-04
  8. jerry

    As our stupid continues to percolate, China is running circles around that stupid. This is amazing

    “A team in China claims to have made the first definitive demonstration of ‘quantum advantage’ — exploiting the counter-intuitive workings of quantum mechanics to perform computations that would be prohibitively slow on classical computers.

    They have used beams of laser light to perform a computation which had been mathematically proven to be practically impossible on normal computers. The team achieved within a few minutes what would take half the age of Earth on the best existing supercomputers. Contrary to Google’s first demonstration of a quantum advantage, performed last year, their version is virtually unassailable by any classical computer. The results appeared in Science on 3 December.”
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03434-7

    Wow, this is so cool. We will need to work together with China to work to solve our climate issues for one.

    2020-12-04
  9. o

    I disagree with the premise of the headline and argument. I think Americans are unwilling to sacrifice; unwilling to go without the even smallest conveniences. At the same time, much of the nation is unable to look at any consequences beyond the momentary gratification of want (not even need). “Freedom” has become a trivialized concept for childish want.

    Nobody is making a hard sacrifice for Thanksgiving, or spring break, or uninhibited, mask-free breathing, they are choosing the easiest path (short term), and turning a blind eye to the real consequences. This has brought out the weakest in and of our politicians to cater to that juvenile selfishness.

    2020-12-04
  10. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    O, that’s a reasonable response. Most of those folks traveling haven’t fully analyzed the situation. They haven’t reached the point of accepting that their actions will result in the sacrifice of health and lives. As you say, they are blind to the consequences of their actions… and because those consequences do not present themselves in a direct, immediate, tangible fashion (one reckless traveler will not know whom he and his family infected, and illnesses and deaths won’t show up for a week or two or more), they’re likely never to realize the consequences of their actions.

    2020-12-04
  11. mike from iowa

    drumpf/noem body count last call….

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    14,761,062
    Deaths:
    285,480

    Day started at 282,975 bodies.

    2020-12-04
  12. John

    O & Corey, thanks for the thoughtful words. Here’s a couple perspectives adding to and emphasizing those.

    The same fools’ malpractice of “personal responsibility” in this pandemic would have been first in line tossing the 5,000 WWII draft dodgers in prison. In some settings one’s personal responsibility IS supporting the community. The selfishness and greed in this era from too many persons in government and business will not end well if unchecked.

    “Pandemic Profiteers
    The two largest asset classes in America are residential real estate and stocks. 10% of the population controls 70% of the value of these assets. Both are trading at all-time highs as we bury 2,800 Americans a day, Tesla is up 590% YTD, and 1 in 4 households have experienced food insecurity this year. Jeff Bezos is worth more than every citizen in Vermont, Alaska, and Wyoming combined, while a fourth of Americans can’t pay their rent.

    Compare this with the nation we were before we started dispersing into our bubbles. Within weeks of the outbreak of WWll, Chrysler built a factory in the Detroit suburbs that manufactured more tanks than the entire Third Reich. Today, Amazon and Walmart enjoy record sales and stock gains from stimulus. When young men refused the draft in WWII, we imprisoned five thousand of them. Today, we tolerate people who refuse to wear a mask to Walmart and give audience and platforms to cries of “tyranny.”

    When a member of the armed services dies on active duty, their family immediately receives $100,000 to ease their grief and burden. When an immigrant head of a food-insecure family takes his diabetes medication, piles Diet Cokes into an cooler, turns on his Uber driver app, contracts Covid, and dies, his family is denied death benefits, as Proposition 22 — supported by $205 million from sharing economy firms (Uber, Lyft, DoorDash) — has made it legal to deny his family death benefits.” https://www.profgalloway.com/the-great-dispersion?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NMNM20201204

    The Premier of Manitoba tells his constituents to stay home, not gather over the holidays. He tells them if they don’t believe COVID is real, then they are idiots. Refreshing.
    https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/12/04/manitoba-canada-brian-pallister-christmas-coronavirus-sot-vpx.cnn

    2020-12-04
  13. Wade Brandis

    I spent Thanksgiving at my apartment in Madison, choosing not to go home to Winner to see my family so I can protect my own health. Yes, FaceTime can’t replace seeing your loved ones in person, but when there is a risk of giving them a deadly virus or contracting it yourself, I felt the need to sacrifice that in-person family time for just one year. And I will do the same for Christmas and New Years.

    2020-12-04
  14. Gordon Richard

    Corey: how does one respond without revealing too much personal idenity? Real first and last name.

    2020-12-05
  16. mike from iowa

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    14,779,101
    Deaths:
    285,705

    Start today’s drumpf/noem body count here.

    2020-12-05
  17. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    Hap, our infection, test-positivity, and death rates compared to other states are an embarrassment. One would think that if everyone in the nation took the same precautions, South Dakota’s rates would be lower because of our lower population density (and there is now data from India supporting that correlation). Instead, we appear to have wasted our natural advantage by being more reckless.

    But the Thanksgiving travel data above is nationwide. There are reckless, selfish science-deniers everywhere in America.

    2020-12-05
  18. Caroline

    I have had hours of entertainment on the website Covidactnow.org. Part of this website gives the opportunity to make comparisons between states or counties in the form of line graphs. Amazing to see that Brown County’s rate of transmission is so much higher than LosAngeles County.

    2020-12-05
  19. jerry

    German researchers prove masks work. When stubborn German, square headed thinking, figure it out, we should be paying attention. *Disclaimer, Got some of that German heritage in my own bloodline, so yeah, I am part square head.

    “Face masks helped reduce the number of new Covid-19 infections in Germany by around 47 per cent 20 days after they became mandatory, according to a new study.
    The researchers said masks are a cost-effective means to combat the coronavirus because the “economic costs are close to zero compared to other public health measures,” including closures of restaurants and schools, gathering bans, social distancing rules and quarantine.” SCMP 12.5.20

    We will never be able to convince people to stop traveling for a turkey or whatever. The only thing is that they should be convinced to do is to wear a mask, at least that would cut the infection rate in half. Not good, but better than natta.

    2020-12-05
  20. mike from iowa

    Don’t forget, Oregon got in on the ground floor of the pandemic and didn’t have the readily available science to guide them, then. In view of how things snowballed since last winter, Oregon did a wonderful job. noem nothing hasn’t done a single positive step for her constituents. The results are obvious to all except magats.

    2020-12-05
  25. mike from iowa

    drumpf/noem body count so far sits at…

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    14,940,138
    Deaths:
    287,562

    There is still close to 3 hours left for today’s body count. Total cases should easily pass 15 million of a Sunday, if not sooner.

    2020-12-05
  26. DaveFN

    German study looking at data from over 400 municipal districts and found that some cities saw infections fall by up 75pc within 20 days and concludes that masks are one of the most cost-effective ways to fight the disease with a cost that is ‘close to zero’ compared with other measures.

    Face masks considerably reduce COVID-19 cases in Germany, published 3 Dec 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

    https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/12/02/2015954117

    2020-12-05
  27. Jenny

    South Dakotans just have to realize it’s every man for himself under the ruthless Republican regime during this Pandemic.

    Don’t expect a caring governor or a concerned republican party. It’s just not going to happen. The republican majority is actually kind of proud of their startlingly high covid rates. They believe that’s the price you pay for freedom.

    2020-12-05
  28. mike from iowa

    final drumpf/noem count call for today…

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    14,982,683
    Deaths:
    287,825

    Another 2000 + bpdies today. =

    2020-12-05
  31. mike from iowa

    drumpf/noem body count for today, a slow Sunday, is….

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    15,151,018
    Deaths:
    288,880

    Just a tik over 1k bodies.

    2020-12-06
  34. SD is 20 per cent nonwhite

    Dem Party has no plan at all to capture Governor and Legislature. Not in 24 months or 80 months or 12 years. Nada.

    Green Party maybe?

    2020-12-07
  35. mike from iowa

    drumpf/noem body count seeking 300k bodies, maybe late this week…

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    15,364,668
    Deaths:
    290,425

    2020-12-07
  37. jerry

    Pretty astounding Terry, but you do know that here in South Dakota, death and having to watch someone die without care, is just like carp fishing. Toss them up on the shoreline and let them suffocate in the sun. They are, after all, expendable… What time does the bar close? When will our favorite restaurant offer a new menu? When can we gather? When will the governor get off her widdle horsey and govern?

    2020-12-07
  39. mike from iowa

    Thanks for that link, Terry. Good read.

    2020-12-08
  41. jerry

    Truth is Terry, I think we are closer to that report than we want to believe. We are sending people out of the state now for treatment. When this Thanksgiving blowout starts, get ready to start stashing us in the barn on the back 40. Keep your distance, wash your mitts and wear a mask.

    2020-12-08

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