MoCo isn’t moving forward, despite MD going to Phase 2

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:He is trying to keep everyone safe and well. It makes complete sense. I fully respect him for doing it.

I agree, we are unfortunately just not ready.

I agree too. I hope he remains cautious despite the vocal minority of openers.

Serious question: what would make you feel safe to open? If we had a clearer understanding of what we are waiting for, we would find it easier to wait.

Exactly. Elrich and Gayles have given zero sense of the benchmarks needed to go to Phase 2, despite the fact that the dashboard looks quite good.

Good lord. Bunch of whiners. If you don't like how they are performing, run for the office. Until then, it's their call.

Umm ... their decisions are impacting people’s lives! Businesses can’t reopen, except for anemic curbside pickup (and in some cases not at all). This is about people’s livelihoods.

You really don’t get it.

I get it he is doing it for the safety of people. I am okay with that.

Please support your viewpoint with data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is trying to keep everyone safe and well. It makes complete sense. I fully respect him for doing it.

We’ve met nearly all the reopening metrics. It’s insane at this point.

6/10 is not nearly all, it's barely more than half, but I thought we needed to meet all of them, not nearly all.

[Anonymous]

Safe enough to gather for mass protests, should be safe enough to open businesses. Oh but I forgot this is all politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Safe enough to gather for mass protests, should be safe enough to open businesses. Oh but I forgot this is all politics.

DC, PG, MoCo and NoVA were all behind the rest of Md in opening. That makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Safe enough to gather for mass protests, should be safe enough to open businesses. Oh but I forgot this is all politics.

It isn't safe enough to gather for mass protests. But people are doing it anyway, because the mass protests are even more important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Erlich can say all he wants about trying to do good. In the end tons of businesses will shutter. Tax returns will implode after tons of businesses go under. To plug budget holes they'll try to raise taxes in residents, but by then it is too late because MoCo will be undesirable to live since all of the swanky amenities are now out of business. The budget situation will get worse as people leave to flee taxes and no longer desirable living. The situation then gets thrust into a downward spiral......all because you have idiots like Elrich who are do gooders over stepping with their govt reach because they are high on power. Elrich and the county council are your typical far left liberals who must control every aspect of your life. They think they're doing good but are building us the road to hell, personally laying it brick by brick.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you've never set foot in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Erlich can say all he wants about trying to do good. In the end tons of businesses will shutter. Tax returns will implode after tons of businesses go under. To plug budget holes they'll try to raise taxes in residents, but by then it is too late because MoCo will be undesirable to live since all of the swanky amenities are now out of business. The budget situation will get worse as people leave to flee taxes and no longer desirable living. The situation then gets thrust into a downward spiral......all because you have idiots like Elrich who are do gooders over stepping with their govt reach because they are high on power. Elrich and the county council are your typical far left liberals who must control every aspect of your life. They think they're doing good but are building us the road to hell, personally laying it brick by brick.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you've never set foot in Montgomery County.

MoCo was recently warned about its credit rating, and the amount of money MoCo has to spend on servicing its debt keeps going up. But continue to stick your head in the clouds and keep electing insane liberals like Elrich who'll continue to increase taxes, drive businesses under, and gut the county. MoCo has had anemic economic growth for almost a decade now and has lost out on all sorts of big employers moving in because it is so bad doing business in MoCo. Stop with the excuses. MoCo is in steep decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is trying to keep everyone safe and well. It makes complete sense. I fully respect him for doing it.

We’ve met nearly all the reopening metrics. It’s insane at this point.

6/10 is not nearly all, it's barely more than half, but I thought we needed to meet all of them, not nearly all.

First of all, we went into Phase 1 without meeting even 6.

But let’s take a look at the others:

- Cases are at 8 of 14 days, but positivity rate is going down, so we know the new cases are due to increased testing, not because the virus is spreading more quickly

- number of new deaths is at 12/14. Nearly there and, also, we are averaging a low number of deaths (7 per day).

- Acute care bed utilization is at 2/14 but the 3-day average is at 71%, which nearly at the benchmark of under 70%.

The last one isn’t a declining metric; it’s testing capacity. Right now it’s at 3.2% of the population, above the CDC’s benchmark of 2%. Gayles wants it at 5%, but hasn’t said why.

[Anonymous]

I'll add to the previous poster that the acute bed utilization metric is rather strange. The state health commission expects a 71% average utilization rate during normal times, so why are they looking to get below 70%? And it is somewhat controllable. You can slightly decrease utilization rates by pushing back elective procedures. Or, at least, pushing back procedures let's hospitals free us some more beds for overflow space.

It seems sensible to look at the utilization rate, but the 70% target doesn't make much sense to me.

[Anonymous]

MoCo wasn’t moving forward even before the pandemic...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll add to the previous poster that the acute bed utilization metric is rather strange. The state health commission expects a 71% average utilization rate during normal times, so why are they looking to get below 70%? And it is somewhat controllable. You can slightly decrease utilization rates by pushing back elective procedures. Or, at least, pushing back procedures let's hospitals free us some more beds for overflow space.

It seems sensible to look at the utilization rate, but the 70% target doesn't make much sense to me.

PP here. Agreed; I should’ve added that for context around that number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safe enough to gather for mass protests, should be safe enough to open businesses. Oh but I forgot this is all politics.

It isn't safe enough to gather for mass protests. But people are doing it anyway, because the mass protests are even more important.

The men lost his life in a brutal senseless way, there are millions in pain. Could you please respect this. Yes, COVID is important but so are other issues that we have to address accordingly and respectfully. Have some empathy to those who suffer for ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safe enough to gather for mass protests, should be safe enough to open businesses. Oh but I forgot this is all politics.

It isn't safe enough to gather for mass protests. But people are doing it anyway, because the mass protests are even more important.

But but but

[Anonymous]

Do you want businesses open now or schools open in the fall? Which one is more aligned with the long term social and economic health of our community? You can't have both.

Opening businesses now will lead to higher community transmission in the fall, meaning schools will not be able to open or will rapidly close. Or, we could take advantage of the weather effect and drive community transmission down far enough that we can actually do testing and contact tracing to contain the inevitable increases in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you want businesses open now or schools open in the fall? Which one is more aligned with the long term social and economic health of our community? You can't have both.

Opening businesses now will lead to higher community transmission in the fall, meaning schools will not be able to open or will rapidly close. Or, we could take advantage of the weather effect and drive community transmission down far enough that we can actually do testing and contact tracing to contain the inevitable increases in the fall.

Eh I don’t know about that. None of the states that have reopened businesses have seen cases and deaths increase. Some have had cases increase, but not deaths, and they’ve been open long enough that you’d see a death increase by this point.