Our statewide 7-day average is headed towards 1,000 new cases per day, with increases in all 3 meso regions. “Outstate” remains most concerning, though. 1/12
In that broad “outstate” swath, there are now three areas of greatest growth in new cases - NW MO around St. Jo, Mid-MO, and SW MO. Of these, SW MO is by far the most concerning. 2/12
In NW MO, what started in Worth County has spread, with steep increases in Adair, Buchanan, Gentry, and Holt counties. 3/12
In Mid-MO, rates are much lower, but Boone, Cole, and Cooper counties are showing the same beginnings to increases that we’ve seen elsewhere in Northern and SW Missouri. 4/12
To the south is the worst of the increases, however. I am skeptical of the recent slight downward shifts here. These are being influenced by limited reporting over the past few days, and we won’t know the full picture until later this week (starting Wednesday). 5/12
There are now upward trajectories in new cases in almost every Lake of the Ozarks and Ozark Mountains county that I track closely. Reynolds County is the only one without a jump. 6/12
Further south and west, all but one county (Dade) is continuing to show a general upward trend. I’m skeptical of the recent drops in most of these counties, and of Dade’s large drop. I wouldn’t draw any positive conclusions until Friday or Saturday. 7/12
I don't have updated hospitalization data from HHS yet, but @MercySGF's CEO @CAOMercySGF shared today that they had run out of vents 👇. His update today indicated that they had been able to find a few more. Waiting for an update from @SDECoxHealth. 8/12
Here in #StLouis, what we’re seeing are slight increases in quite a few counties. These are not nearly as severe as what we are seeing elsewhere, but it's worth seeing these as warning signs to watch closely. 9/12
Taken together, all of these regional increases are being reflected, to varying degrees, in every metro area except Cape Girardeau right now. 10/12
My standard caveats about uncertainty - infections (1) are historical data that reflect infections 2-3 weeks ago, (2) are biased by testing patterns, (3) may include probable but unconfirmed cases in some counties, and (4) rates are not individual probabilities of illness. 11/12
Updates are going to be off schedule this week due to some disrupted travel. Will do my best to keep folks posted. Thanks for your patience last week and this week! 12/12
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My #COVID19 site will not be updated until tomorrow, but I wanted to walk through some plots from St. Louis's hospitalization data release today. These are the most detailed, up-to-date in-patient data we get in MO. We're getting new patients at the fastest rate of the pandemic.
I lump confirmed/suspected cases together into one trend, whose one-day value from today is near its all-time high from our winter '20-'21 surge. Our confirmed COVID+ number, 964, is its highest ever. And the 7-day average is climbing steeply past its first and delta wave highs.
For critically ill patients, our trends have now surpassed the delta wave for both our number of ICU patients and patients who require ventilation.
We want a fire department officer to have the authority to order businesses or buildings evacuated if a nearby incident that threatens peoples’ lives. Should we insist that they go to the council first, too? “Sorry, there’s an ammonia leak, but I’ll have to get legislative OK…”
I feel like reasonable people can think that example through and identify a couple of salient points:
✳️ time is of the essence - waiting until the next council meeting is unreasonable
✳️ the council doesn’t have HAZMAT training - they have no way to judge the seriousness here
This is why civil servants need what sociologists call “discretion” - they regularly confront situations in the course of their jobs that they need to make decisions about, sometimes very quickly. They’re hired and trained to have the expertise needed to make that decision.
Schools going remote should literally be our last step because we’ve tried everything else. That means enforced community mask mandates, pausing high risk environments (clubs, bars, indoor dining, gyms), de-densifying classrooms, upgraded school HVAC, limiting extra curriculars…
The real problem in MO is that there is no appetite for sacrificing to keep kids in school. There is not a single place in MO that can justifiably say they’ve done the hard work to keep essential workers, hospital staff, first responders, and students safe.
Even St. Louis City, which has done a pretty good job and has one of the lowest rates of morbidity in the state, has a barely enforced mask mandate, has been slow to order first responders to mandate, (as of earlier this fall) wasn’t using surveillance testing in schools…
Editing a page and a half or so of demographic history on the O'Fallon neighborhood in North City - an early Black community in St. Louis until racist housing policies destroyed it twice during the 20th century. What a heartbreaking tale that encapsulates so much. 🧵 1/
In the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the blocks just west of what today is Fairground Park had a large number of Black renters. The 1916 exclusionary zoning ordinance (very short-lived) targeted a number of blocks here to be inhabited by Black families only. 2/
After the Buchanan v. Warley ruling in 1917, exclusionary zoning ended in St. Louis (basically a few months after it began). But white neighbors in O'Fallon had already started using deed restrictions in 1910 to prevent parcels from being sold to Black families in... 3/
We’ve now plowed past 2,000 new cases per day on average in the last week, a place we were last at this past winter. 68% of new cases are outstate. 1/19
Recall that comparisons across time are hard because of various testing shifts. What is striking, though, is we have achieved significant transmission without either of our two largest cities being major contributors. This has been a rural and smaller metro outbreak so far. 2/19
Rates around both Joplin and Springfield continue to hold at very high rates, with some counties (especially around Springfield) showing small upticks yesterday. There are also at least three counties around Springfield at all-time highs (with caveats again about comparisons). 3/
Breaking: Reposting the #StLouis Pandemic Task Force’s urgent appeal for a return to universal masking 👇. They’re very concerned about the numbers of deaths and ICU patients they’re seeing.
For some context and commentary, see the three follow-up tweets I posted to my original (now-deleted tweet) here 👇
I deleted the original post because I am now unsure of my interpretation of some awkward wording in their press release. I took the release to imply that ICU numbers had doubled overnight to 180, but I may be misreading what it says. The original post is here 👇 for reference.