By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The horrible surge in coronavirus cases being experienced in South Carolina has one root cause: a liberal impatience by conservatives who reopened the state too early. As a result, too many people have the disease. Too many will die as exhausted medical workers are at their breaking point.
If there’s ever a textbook example that policy matters, it’s in South Carolina’s immature response to dealing with the silent terror of the pandemic. And now, officials trying to play catch up with mask ordinances and other measures that should have been in place long ago.
Just compare what happened in South Carolina, where Gov. Henry McMaster lightly shut down businesses for a few short weeks to states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, where governors locked things down tightly for much longer. Those places have flattened the curve — albeit with big economic hits. But the virus there is now manageable — as long as people are careful. Here, it’s out of control.
Let’s go to the play-by-play for South Carolina:
April 6: McMaster issued a mandatory “home-or-work” order and established capacity limitations on retail businesses still operating. Cumulative cases: 2,232. S.C. deaths: 48.
April 21: McMaster created accelerateSC to coordinate the state’s revitalization plan. He also lifted restrictions on public access points to beaches, piers, docks and wharfs. And he allowed reopening of some retail outlets. Cumulative cases: 4,601. S.C. deaths: 135.
May 1: McMaster announced the statewide work-or-home order would be lifted on May 4 and said restaurants could start outside dining service in addition to takeout, curbside and delivery services. Cumulative cases: 6,258. S.C. deaths: 256.
May 8: The governor announced restaurants would be able to open with limited dine-in services starting May 11. Cumulative cases: 7,367. S.C. deaths: 320.
May 20: More facilities are allowed to reopen, including zoos, museums and waterparks, as of May 22. Cumulative cases: 9,175. S.C. deaths: 407.
June 12: McMaster issues an order saying bowling alleys can open immediately and lifts restrictions on retail establishments. Cumulative cases: 17,170. S.C. deaths: 593.
July 2: South Carolina experienced 1,629 new cases and incurred an additional 19 deaths as health officials worried about effects on the pandemic from a holiday weekend. Cumulative cases: 39,587. S.C. deaths: 777.
Look at a chart of new confirmed cases and it’s obvious a surge started in late May soon after Memorial Day as people flocked to beaches, reopened restaurants and other attractions. A relatively weak home-or-work order that lasted just four weeks seemed to keep down big increases in the virus. But once that was gone, numbers started creeping up, and then started to soar.
What’s sad about the whole situation is that the people who did what they should have by staying away from others, washing hands, wearing masks and being smart had lots of their time wasted by the impolite and impatient who ignored safety protocols and had a good time, oblivious and unconcerned about the toxic virus swirling in the air. Now they’re getting increasingly sick.
As a state, we have to start all over — except that we have a governor and too many state officials who won’t show the leadership to do what needs to happen to shut down the virus. Thank goodness some mayors and local councils are smart enough to mandate mask use, finally.
Unfortunately, we now need to stay at home again, limit shopping and cut out social activity. Who knows the coming economic impact? Our new normal needs to be filled with doorknob wipedowns, wearing of protective masks in public, obsessive washing of hands, refraining from touching your face, avoiding groups and even more social distancing.
Through the years, we’ve talked a lot about the common good and the need to work together to achieve societal goals. Now, more than ever, let’s keep the Palmetto State’s common good in mind to beat this viral terrorist instead of putting individual desires at the forefront. If we do the former, we’ll eventually flatten the upward curve of infections. If we don’t, it’s going to go from bad to worse.
- Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
This travesty inflicted upon the people of South Carolina is compounded by AccelerateSC that is a public relations initiative masquerading as a safety protocol sponsored by our governor. Epidemiologists were backgrounders to AccelerateSC. The implementation is not subject to any review/inspection. What is said is not necessarily what is done. It is PR b.s. to make us feel safe. We need to be safe. DHEC does not inspect the installation of the safety features or test the recirculated air. The HVAC system is not subject to modification, installation of HEPA or operating room filtration to capture the recirculating virus. We evidently don’t want to go there. Instead, we shine the tabletops. Not only restaurants are involved. So are classrooms, arenas, churches, meatpacking plants- any indoor room or transfer point where people gather to work, eat or play. We can look at the new case growth and across the states. Restaurant and bar openings lead to infection rises. They are empirically unsafe. Order the wearing of masks indoors and out to drive the infection rates down and keep it low. We need to get the state humming with policies that work on the coronavirus instead of expressing political theory 101. DHEC needs to develop temporary standards to stop virus transmission within our buildings and inspect the installation and continuance of those fixes testing the recirculated air for the virus. This the governor can also order.
AIRBORNE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/su5g9xv0vzjwehb/AIRBORNE.pdf?dl=0 .
Every time I see these numbers I shake my head since they are not and can’t tell the truth. And the truth is:
We can’t test everyone in South Carolina at the same time at regular intervals. As of July 3, 2020, there have been 463,201 test conducted. Assuming all of those tests are unique (same person not repeating which I highly doubt), we’ve tested 9% of the population (South Carolina has a population of 5.149 million). At that rate, we will have everyone tested in a little over 3 years. Yes, 3 years. And much can happen in 3 years.
Since the tests aren’t mandatory, 3 years can become 6 years or 9 years or whatever. The fact is that these counts make are essentially news filler since can’t test everyone! And you know what? We don’t test everyone for other diseases as well. So we are trying to do something extremely new that isn’t nearly as accurate as it needs to be. Those states that are “flattening” still don’t know how many people have COVID-19. And at any moment, a flare up can appear using this limited testing capability numbers.
Andy Brack calling this a policy failure is not going to fly. This is bigger than policy. This is a wholesale failure of our country’s healthcare views that had us treat medical care like just in time inventory. As a result, medical capacity was stripped to the bare bones with the hope that nothing like this would happen. Well, it did.
So keep publishing these minimum testing numbers that will never go away. We’ll never know how many have COVID-19 and will continue roll on 3 donuts and a rusty rim.
The best you can do is wear a mask and just live.
239 Experts With One Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/health/239-experts-with-one-big-claim-the-coronavirus-is-airborne.html
Scientists urge WHO to address airborne spread of coronavirus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/coronavirus-airborne-spread-world-health-organization/2020/07/05/9de19c38-bed8-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html
Openness to what the data saying is important for all leaders so they learn. What is amazing is WHO is unwilling to entertain the possibility of airborne transfer of the coronavirus when the inferential results point in the same way. We are not going to put people in chambers and start spraying COVID-19 laced aerosols of different diameters to see if and when they infect.
The direct test is to sample the air for COVID-19 RNA.
That is what DHEC needs to do especially in the school buildings now before they open. SC DHEC can start now. Set the dampers to the maximum outside air (as CDC recommends), set up the sampling equipment, train the technicians and inspectors to establish the control data values or baseline level for the subsequent post-opening observations, once the buildings open up for the fall semester and get populated with people, some of whom will be COVID-19 carriers.
Then repeat this protocol for the bars and restaurants. Open the safe ones. Repeatedly sample the air to ensure they remain safe. Better yet ask for outdoor seating. Wear your mask. Carry a clean extra one. Hey, you never know.
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