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30 Oct, 13 tweets, 5 min read
While I sincerely hope you have been following the Governor’s weekly press conferences, today I will share a couple threads on the seriousness of the coronavirus spread and the Unified Command’s response. 1/
Unfortunately, most states are seeing record numbers of cases and Utah is no exception. Today will be another very bad day. 2/
6 weeks ago I shared a thread about the way that hospitalizations—and death—will always lag behind case numbers. And that warning about overwhelming out healthcare system? We are now seeing 50-70 new daily hospitalizations and it is a reality. 3/
You have probably seen several articles (and the press conference yesterday) about crisis standards of care. While we still have lots of beds, it’s the people that take care of us—who are exhausted—that are in short supply. 4/ fox13now.com/news/coronavir…
And I know there are some of you that will accuse us (and even doctors and hospitals) of fear-mongering. So maybe this post from a friend will be more convincing (she just lost her mom and grandpa to Covid and her dad spent 40+ days in the hospital). This is real. 5/
And even if you think that you are young and healthy and this virus won’t hurt you...what happens if you have a car accident or your child has an appendicitis or your dad has a stroke? Full ICU’s can affect everyone. 6/
The good news is that our doctors and nurses and treatments are better at saving lives than ever before. But only if we don’t overwhelm them. We have to slow the spread of this virus and we know how to do it! With colder weather upon us, the next 2 months are critical. 7/
This article is one of the best I’ve seen at explaining in practical terms and situations how to stop the spread. Masks + distance + ventilation is the closest we have to a magic formula. 8/ english.elpais.com/society/2020-1…
The good news is that we are getting better at those things in work, church, retail, healthcare and school settings. The bad news is that we are getting worse in family and social gatherings. 9/
That’s why the state health department recently made changes to the way we measure and respond to this pandemic. Right now almost the entire state is under a mask mandate and social gatherings are limited to 10 or less. 10/ coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-gu…
I know this is an incredibly difficult time and ask. Especially with the holiday season upon us. Some families are having Thanksgiving outside this weekend while the weather is warm and they can stay distanced. Ours will keep it small. Others will wait. We can do this! 11/
In another thread I will share some of the things our remarkable teams are doing to protect the most vulnerable, slow the virus and build the economy. But in the end, only each of us doing our part can stop this thing and save lives. 12/
I love you. And I love this state. I believe in us. We are stronger and more resilient than we know. Testing breakthroughs are close. Therapeutics and vaccines are just a couple months away. Right now is crunch time. #LetsGo! /end

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More from @SpencerJCox

Spencer Cox Profile picture
30 Oct
Ok, here is part 2 of my earlier thread. I want to share what our incredible team has been working on over the past few months. They don’t get near enough credit. And while I’m only sharing a fraction of what they do...buckle up. It’s a lot. (Sorry for the length of this one).
We call this a whole-of-government response. Every single department in state government has supported our pandemic response.

The State of Utah has more than 200 people working under a Unified Command structure. @UtahDepofHealth is the primary agency, but they are supported by:
@UtahDPS
@UtahEmergency
@UtNationalGuard
@HeritageAndArts
@UtahDOT
@UtHumanServices
@UtHighwayPatrol
@UtDABC
@Utah_DVMA
And more...
Read 44 tweets
Spencer Cox Profile picture
17 Aug
Hey friends, this week many of our kids will be heading back to school—including my own kids—and I want to share a few thoughts about what to expect. Like everything pandemic related, school reponenings have become controversial. But we will always be better working together. 1/
Please know that we have been working closely with administrators, teachers, boards, parents, kids and medical experts since March on how to make the best of a bunch of bad options. Experts agree that there is risk in going back to school and risk in NOT going back to school. 2/
We agree w the American Academy of Pediatrics, which “strongly advocates that all policy for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school,” w the goal of mitigating, not eliminating risks of contagion. 3/aappublications.org/news/2020/06/2…
Read 24 tweets
Spencer Cox Profile picture
23 Jul
Ok friends, we need to have a discussion about how to avoid spreading Covid this holiday weekend. We had surges after Memorial Day and July 4th and we have to do better this time. But first some good news. Utah had the lowest transmission rate in the country this week! 1/
So let’s discuss a little science and then a couple stories. You’re probably familiar with the R0 values by now—or the number of infections stemming from a single case. An R0 below one is good and means infections are declining. 2/ google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…
Conversely, if every infected person infects 2 or 3 or 4 people, then things get bad. The biggest challenge with this virus is that you are incredibly contagious a day or 2 before you get symptoms—which is why mask wearing is so much more important. But you know this already. 3/
Read 11 tweets
Spencer Cox Profile picture
25 Jun
[Thread] Hey friends, over the past few weeks I've been a little less visible in our state’s coronavirus response. That was deliberate. With daily criticism coming from other campaigns, I worried that my public involvement might hurt our team’s response in this critical time.
However, because of the recent increase in cases and hospitalizations, I feel that I need to be more vocal. Over the first few months of this awful virus, we worked closely together and sacrificed to buy time. 2/
This helped us increase testing, stand up a robust contact tracing operation and obtain critical supplies to protect our doctors and health care workers. Utah’s response was as good as any in the nation. 3/
Read 17 tweets
Spencer Cox Profile picture
14 May
This is a very good bill and fits perfectly with our telework initiative. Dan deserves a ton of credit and support for this. I’ve said before that we should treat red air days like snow days, but this is better. (The private sector should adopt this too).
Last year we started a telework initiative w 130 employees working from home 3-5 days/week. We measured everything they did for 6 months and the results exceeded our expectations. Of course we took cars off the road and pollution out of the air, but productivity also went up 20%!
Oh, and the employees were happier too. Our plan is to have 2,000+ employees teleworking by the end of this year. We have already cancelled building leases. Over time we will build fewer building and save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Read 5 tweets
Spencer Cox Profile picture
4 May
1/ Hey friends, I want to share a few things about our coronavirus response that haven't gotten much attention. As we cautiously open things up we tend to obsess over case counts (which matter!) and miss the testing and tracing infrastructure that we have been furiously building.
2/ Remember, there were multiple reasons for extreme social distancing. The one we talk about most is to flatten the curve and not overwhelm our healthcare systems. But equally important is buying time to build out our testing and tracing capacity.
3/From the beginning, you've heard me obsess about ramping up testing/tracing as the only way out of this "sledgehammer" approach of everyone staying home and into a "surgical" approach of testing people and then testing/isolating everyone they contacted:
Read 11 tweets

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