so sentinel surveillance testing is not something the local officials are considering?

sounds like they have some work to do if they want to operate in good faith

Don't know how you do that when it takes 2 weeks to turn around tests or have follow up ability w/ contact tracing.

Fitch said:

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Talked to a technician last night as it were.

Week before last was apparently very busy. This past week not as much. Still, testing labs are taking 9-14 days to turn around just given volume.

Can't make people go get a test, or at least we haven't been.

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Crazed parents have begun locking the gates to their neighborhoods so people without symptoms can't get tested and find that they have the virus. Kids have to go back to school.

i thought % positive in the community was a metric tied into reopening

if you depress the volume of tests, that % positive is less meaningful regardless of contact tracing

but i guess a big old shrug emoji is the best we can expect from these people

cone said:

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question

why has the testing volume completely collapsed?

why isn't the health department maintaining late june levels of testing by whatever means necessary?

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Remember last week had a lot of ****ty weather as well so sites were closing on and off

cone said:

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question

why has the testing volume completely collapsed?

why isn't the health department maintaining late june levels of testing by whatever means necessary?

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My wife and I passed a couple of local testing sites (urgent care centers) around our house last Friday.

2 weeks ago, there were cars lined up for blocks. Last Friday...maybe 1 or 2 cars in line.

third coast.. said:

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I honestly cant believe we are still having lock down vs no lockdown conversations. It truly blows my mind.

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On top of being velociraptor smart, the COVID is physically straight but mentally gay because it will blow your mind.

weird because it really didn't rain on Friday

cone said:

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weird because it really didn't rain on Friday

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Correct - it was nice and sunny and during the middle of the afternoon. We both commented out loud that it was the first time in a long time that there wasn't a line extending into the street. Don't know what to tell you but less people are getting tested.

WTF

HPD to issue $250 fines for mask order violations as mayor gets aggressive with virus

cone said:

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i thought % positive in the community was a metric tied into reopening

if you depress the volume of tests, that % positive is less meaningful regardless of contact tracing

but i guess a big old shrug emoji is the best we can expect from these people

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Since when did meaningfulness matter to a guy that will give interns six figure jobs and a translator that ended up on the ballot by mistake?

and yet he's given us a task for % positive with no daily minimum denominator of tests

fitch tell your people at city hall they are acting like clowns

jetch17 said:

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WTF

HPD to issue $250 fines for mask order violations as mayor gets aggressive with virus

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Where are people not wearing masks in this city? This is Just another pointless order that is not going to accomplish anything.

SirLurksALot said:

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jetch17 said:

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WTF

HPD to issue $250 fines for mask order violations as mayor gets aggressive with virus

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Where are people not wearing masks in this city? This is Just another pointless order that is not going to accomplish anything.

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I wonder if there are certain parts of town that you and I don't spend a lot of time in that may not be following the mask mandate.

Like, HEB Bunker Hill? 100% masks, and 80%+ masks before the mandate.

Are poorer areas of town? I have no idea.

Might be waiting a while. Last time we were down there was right after the "criminals, just stay home" comment. Turner took it all in stride, though.

One thing that's interesting is the wide spectrum of tolerance in response between different areas. The Australian state of Victoria, pop. 6.4MM, declared a state of disaster, curfew and lockdown for 671 new cases in a day. Depending what counties you grab greater Houston's got 2-5x that daily. Could be worse, I guess.

jetch17 said:

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WTF

HPD to issue $250 fines for mask order violations as mayor gets aggressive with virus

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Doesn't Abbott's EO trump this? Thought Abbott's EO explicitly said you can't fine people for not wearing a mask

jetch17 said:

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WTF

HPD to issue $250 fines for mask order violations as mayor gets aggressive with virus

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Didn't we already try this and HPD said they wouldn't enforce it? Feel like we're going in circles.

I'm curious why Lina wouldn't want to come up with a system to insure the local testing volume doesn't get below some supportable minimum as surveillance

I mean that would be a relatively cheap responsible use of resource

they could use the $250 per mask infraction they're taking out of the pockets of poor folk to fund the surveillance

What level of surveillance do you envision as being effective? I'm legitimately curious as to what you think should be done. I've seen you post about "sentinel testing" or something like that. Are you advocating forcing people to get tested? What happens if people test positive? How do we scale this in a MSA ~7,000,000 people?

lunchbox said:

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cone said:

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weird because it really didn't rain on Friday

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Correct - it was nice and sunny and during the middle of the afternoon. We both commented out loud that it was the first time in a long time that there wasn't a line extending into the street. Don't know what to tell you but less people are getting tested.

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My wife drove to the library today and passed two testing sites. No lines. One of them had 1 car with someone being tested and the other one had zero.

Two weeks ago, both of these had cars around the block.

let's start with a level of surveillance at least approximate to the elective testing demand at the height of the outbreak.

so a tests per day similar to what we had between June 20 and July 20

if people test positive then they're asked to stay home, same as always

if schools are going to be effectively closed based on % positive, the least we can ask for is a meaningful denominator

and if that's no longer going to be used as a metric of overall progress due to lack of testing demand, well what's the rely upon? what's the plan?

lunchbox said:

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I think two things are happening.

1 - less people are being infected so there is less testing going on.

2 - people that do get sick are just not getting tested. Call it COVID fatigue. People also now know others who had it and are being informed how to get through it without freaking out and thinking they have to be tested.

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This. I got tested a while back and it was negative. No symptoms but was exposed to a positive case. I sure as hell won't be doing it again unless I have symptoms that feel like more than allergies.

lunchbox said:

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I think two things are happening.

1 - less people are being infected so there is less testing going on.

2 - people that do get sick are just not getting tested. Call it COVID fatigue. People also now know others who had it and are being informed how to get through it without freaking out and thinking they have to be tested.

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My wife's boss at the corporate office out in Scottsdale had surgery on a herniated disc in her neck and tested negative before the surgery. Then she went home and got sick- fever over 102 for a week, cough, and shortness of breath. She refused to go to the doctor for a test until the surgical follow up and tested hot. She's recovering nicely though- late 40's woman in decent shape and no other health issues. Her husband is 65 and is negative thus far.

cone said:

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let's start with a level of surveillance at least approximate to the elective testing demand at the height of the outbreak.

so a tests per day similar to what we had between June 20 and July 20

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How do you accomplish this if the demand for tests just isn't there? Force people to take a test even if they have no symptoms? I don't think you'll reach the demand for tests that we had at the height of the outbreak unless there's another equal or larger outbreak since that seems to be fear-driven.