The Protest

So today's protest in my state turned out to have hundreds or thousands of attendees, depending on your news source. Maybe I didn't see the full crowd, but I saw some photos and wouldn't say thousands, maybe a couple hundred.

Screenshot from WHTM news

I also watched a bit of a live video of one of the speakers asking the governor to allow all businesses to reopen because he trusts everyone to maintain appropriate hygiene and sanitizing practices. I don't! Look at these people already not following directions. The people at this event are saying they could take precautions and practice social distancing in their workplaces, but they can't do that for even one protest - nobody is distancing or wearing a mask! I don't trust anyone!

Following the protest, our governor had a scheduled press conference in which he said he planned to start reopening the state on May 8, slowly and by region, as our hospitals have not become overwhelmed. (See my previous post about removing your parachute before you've landed, but what do I know, I'm just someone who doesn't want to crash land.)

The governor last week proposed six standards for reopening the state:

• The approach will be data driven
• There needs to be enough protective gear and testing
• There will still be limitations on large gatherings
• Individuals, employers, and healthcare facilities will have guidance to follow
• Protections will remain for vulnerable people
• There must be monitoring so action can be taken quickly to contain the disease if needed.

So... I guess we suddenly have sufficient PPE, testing, and monitoring capabilities? That would be great, but it's news to me, and probably most others! Maybe we will have it in the next 2.5 weeks..?

Either way, my county is on track to run out of hospital capacity soon, despite the state as a whole remaining well under capacity, so I'm sure our "region" will remain under lockdown. Not that I was planning to go anywhere anyway!