California's overall medical system appears to be working...

[Hekate]

Yesterday the clock radio woke me up with NPR reporting the grim news that in a state (one of the Deep South ones, and I'm sure someone will post which) with 30% of the population being African American, 70% of the coronavirus death toll was AA. That appalling disparity (as we all probably can figure out without being told) is a measure of overall health associated with poverty and lack of access to medical care: diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity. I spent the rest of the day grieving for the terrible waste of it all.

Oh, but the GOP so badly wants Obamacare to be obliterated, because *reasons.*

I caught Gov Newsom's presser at noon today and among much else, he said his people were constantly crunching the numbers on everything to do with the pandemic, including who gets sick and who dies. As he rattled off the ethnicities in the death toll, I realized something: the percentages come very close to matching the actual population in California. As far as I can tell. I almost cried, because it is horrible -- but I realized what this means: the public health system in my state may be struggling, but it looks like it's working for most so far.

Hang in there my friends. We'll be together again in better times.

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. In spite of our Federal Government's best efforts to inflict max damage. nt

[kimbutgar]

2. I live in San Francisco

the mayor was the first to do shelter in place and close schools. She has press conferences everyday and was today was talking about the number of ICU beds they have available. They now have over 500 beds of which 230 something were in use now. They have set up shelters for the homeless and are going around installing porta potties for those who refuse to go into a shelter.

We took our son for a drive around the city this weekend. He has been in quarantine in his group home and needed to get out. The streets were empty except for a few homeless people. One guy was standing in the middle of the street with a blanket. Obviously mentally ill caked in dirt and just walking near cars passing by in a daze. This guy is not going into a shelter. But the city is making an effort to reach out to them.

I am thankful I live in California with leaders who actually care about its citizen.

[Hekate]

5. Me too. I may actually live through this by hunkering down.

Hah. I finally managed to even scare my husband into avoiding the supermarkets. We are both in our early 70s, both with underlying health conditions.

My SIL called this morning to ask if she could get me anything from Trader Joe's and I asked for only 2 items (small bag potatoes, quart of half-and-half). I really don't have to go out again for at least a week, maybe even two. Would love to have a couple of Costco's rotisserie chickens -- but not that much, if you know what I mean.

Best wishes for you and your family.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Access to healthcare and income replacement is key to keeping infected people home. . . . nt

[Igel]

4. You mean this NPR piece?

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/07/828827346/louisiana-sen-cassidy-addresses-racial-disparities-in-coronavirus-deaths

(See, you were right. Somebody told you.)

Part of the disparity is also city/urban.

You look at https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en (Louisiana) for hotspots, you compare it with https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Percent-population-identified-as-black-or-African-American-alone-for-Louisiana_fig26_294873901 for racial demographics and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Louisiana#/media/File:Louisiana_population_map.png for population density and there's a pretty good overlap.

Looking at the whole state skews the picture even more than it probably should be. Cities are having a rougher time, on average, than rural areas. AA population's having a rougher time independently of that split. You overlap the factors and leave out one, you wind up exaggerating the one that's left.

Lots of variables here, and the truth needs justice done to all of them in order to be made clear.