US States Over 7M in population: Covid-19 Cases and Deaths as of June 04, 2020

Did Covid-19 reach a peak and start its decline? Did it run out of targets? Or is "re-opening" going to lead to a second wave now that states are in various phases of 'lockdown removals?' These are the cases and deaths from states with over 7 million in population as of June 04, 2020.  Data accessed with NCoVUtils @ https://github.com/epiforecasts/NCoVUtils . Click to enlarge the charts!

State Cumulative Death Data for 06.01.2020

Cumulative Death Totals for US, VA, WA as of 06.01.2020

Data from NCoVUtils @ https://github.com/epiforecasts/NCoVUtils
Click to enlarge the chart. More state data after the break. 

More thoughts on Masks for Infection Prevention for the General Public

I am no longer quite sure how I feel about mask use for the general public. I present some links below for your information. I definitely can not medically vouch for anything in my links or my advice. There is quite a lot of information pro and con about mask use.  I think the following four pieces of advice could be generic enough to be universally recognized as important:

Asthma and Covid-19

The research and comments on Asthma and Covid-19 seem confusing and somewhat contradictory. I was terrified when the Coronavirus and (allergic) Asthma season seemed to arrive simultaneously here in the United States. I figured I was going to get caught warding off upper respiratory infections all late spring, summer, and early fall. After reading the existing research, I have to wonder whether those of us who conscientiously treat our (allergic) Asthma with whatever techniques we have found useful are somehow doing more to prevent Covid-19 than others. My general thoughts on Covid-19 preventative treatment: Take care of your immunological and respiratory health.

Thoughts on Masks for the General Public

Masks for the general public possess a real danger to spread infection which is why so many smart minds and researchers are against them. In clinical/hospital uses they are indispensable but only if they are the correct equipment that is used and disposed of properly which is generally after one potentially infectious use! Otherwise it is absolutely dangerous and potentially an infection spreading practice to use a mask in the general public. Here are are some authoritative voices on the dangers of masks for general public use:

Mask Wars

Under Construction 10:40 AM 5/13/2020 -RMF

I think the use of PPE by the general American public will lead to a national infection disaster with increased morbidity thereof. I am hardly alone in my worry about this. I don't think most of the American general public is capable of mastering infection protocols for PPE (e.g. masks and gloves). I doubt that many will take the time to do so even if they can procure the appropriate PPE to help stop Covid-19. Most Americans will use PPE (masks and gloves) without care or thought to infection control and even those who would like to use PPE with infection control will need training and practice their communities probably won't provide for them. But if you are going to use cloth masks or gloves anyway, below the break are some possible links for PPE training. Your county, state, local hospital or  medical university may have specific instructions for your locality. Search and question them as needed. Keep in mind this is a subject of much debate and often reissued guidance since the CDC issued what are essentially novel guidelines on the use of PPE  (e.g. cloth masks) by the general American populace. Links may change or update.

We all mindlessly and uncritically do whatever the hell we want these days in America: Angry gun owners bring AR-15s to capitol steps to demonstrate for their rights and freedom. Hapless 'virtue signalers' fetishize their low efficiency homemade masks like their minds have been psy-oped. Please try to remember that a mask or gloves used to prevent infection *are simply inanimate tools*. They don't confer any virtue upon you, especially if you use your contaminated PPE to transmit infections to others. If you use PPE improperly and without careful infection protocols, you will kill many more people than the gun owners with AR-15s currently demonstrating without any PPE on our state capitol steps.

Posts on SARS-CoV-2, Predicting Coronaviruses and "Gain of Function" Viral Research

“We’d done a lot of research on coronaviruses, so we knew they were a clear and present danger,” he told me. “High mortality, no drugs or vaccines in the pipeline, with new variants that could still be emerging.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/magazine/pandemic-vaccine.html

“The intelligence community has warned about the threat from highly pathogenic influenza viruses for two decades, at least. They have warned about coronaviruses for at least five years,” Kaufman said in an interview. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-military-shortage-pandemic/

"It’s been EcoHealth Alliance’s position for the past 15 years that coronaviruses present a clear and immediate threat to our safety. That seems clearer now than ever before. The research that the National Institutes of Health terminated aimed to analyze the risk of coronavirus emergence and help in designing vaccines and drugs to protect us from COVID-19 and other coronavirus threats. This research was reviewed by independent scientists, considered extremely high priority, and funded in 2019. The goals of our work address all four strategic research priorities of the NIH/NIAID Strategic Plan for COVID-19 Research, released just this week. More importantly, international collaboration with countries where viruses emerge is absolutely vital to our own public health and national security here in the USA." https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/2020/04/regarding-nih-termination-of-coronavirus-research-funding