Marion County and Oregon still seeing lots of new COVID-19 cases

This wasn't a cheery sight to see in my email inbox today, the latest Oregon Health Authority update about new COVID-19 cases.

Those 178 cases statewide are the most in a single day since the pandemic began.

Which means Marion County isn't going to enter Phase 2 of reopening tomorrow.

Like everybody else, I want things to get back to normal as quickly as possible. But this isn't going to happen so long as new infections keep occurring at a rapid rate. So please, people, wear a mask and maintain social distancing. Many people in Salem aren't doing this. 

Here's a letter to the editor in a recent issue of New Scientist about wearing masks that I liked a lot.

From Lloyd Timberlake,
Ridge, Maryland, US

Jessica Hamzelou's excellent piece on the science of the protective effects of face masks against the coronavirus inevitably didn't touch on unscientific, but important, aspects of masks, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends we wear in settings like grocery stores.

Masks are a form of theatre, saying, "I am playing the role of a responsible citizen." They are a uniform expressing serious solidarity in the war against the pandemic. 

They are also a polite way to say: "Stay away from me. You don't know whether I am wearing this mask to protect me from you or you from me."

Perhaps most importantly, President Trump won't wear one. So they must be an excellent idea.

Comments

[Skyline]

This is why I continue to resist going to the barber for now.
Gadds! My hair is the same color and approaching the same length as Brian"s!!!
All I have to do is wear the same mask as him and we can have a look alike contest!
Not to worry; look alike is a far cry from think alike......

[Rain Trueax]

I keep track of Oregon for our family living there. Arizona, where I am currently quarantining, has rising numbers. Some of that is due to the political bs that has been spread that masks aren't needed. We see way too many thinking it's not about them. well, it is as in new cases reported, the largest influx are those 20 to 44. That may not be true of deaths but this is not a fun disease. Social distance and wear masks. It's not rocket science.

[Rain Trueax]

And to add to it down here, we have a fire that is spreading smoke throughout at least our end of the valley. A fire that could have been stopped in the beginning but the powers that be thought it'd be good for the habitat with high temps coming of 108ºF. There's a name for that when you add in the other things going wrong-- but since this is someone else's blog, I won't add it. lol I wrote about the fire in my own blog for those with family near the area and concerned.