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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I haven't been to @SLULAW's building ever! But my office is in the former law library... does that count? I really don't know. 🤷
Anyway. I'm not a lawyer, *but* let's think about this collectively for just a minute... does Webster Groves *have* to admit any group?
The most relevant case law here I'm aware of is Hurley v. Irish American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston. This allowed the *private* organizers of the Boston St. Patrick's Day parade to exclude groups based on their message because...
... the organizers themselves have a first amendment right to determine the content of the parade (the parade itself is speech). So, if they wanted to discriminate, even if they have been fairly loose with who participated in the past. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurley_v.…
Our statewide 7-day average is now the highest in the United States, and "outstate" is making up 69% of those new cases each day on average.
1/9
In Northern MO, things are slowly improving in the recently hard-hit trio of Putnam, Linn, and Livingston counties. Linn's 7-day average, however, remains in the top 10 nationwide for counties with more than 10,000 residents. 2/9
I'm concerned about cases shifting from these counties outward, though. Neighboring counties, like Grundy, Macon, and Mercer are worth watching. To the west near St. Jo, Worth County's rate has stopped growing, but there are four other counties showing newly upward trends. 3/9
First, emergency powers are common in all democracies for dealing with a range of threats, from wars to disasters, terrorist attacks, and pandemics. And there are legitimate critiques we can make of them (see Giorgio Agamben's work, for example). 2/ press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/0…
But public health emergency orders are established and accepted tools for managing collective crises where "the situation is exigent, the anticipated or potential harm would be calamitous, and the harm cannot be avoided through ordinary procedures." 3/ nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NE…
The growth you can see in the statewide 7-day average, placing us tied for no. 3 nationally, is almost entirely from “outstate” MO. 1/17
The two regions I am most concerned remain the same: Northern Missouri and Southwest Missouri. That said, the number of counties in those areas that I'm watching has grown considerably over the past week. 2/17
In Northern MO, Putnam and Livingston counties are seeing their rates fall, but Linn County remains no. 2 nationally (for jurisdictions with more than 10,000 people) because of its rate of new cases. Mercer is a new county to watch as well. 3/17
Our 7-day average statewide and in “outstate” Missouri continues to climb. Missouri is currently tied for third (with Utah) in terms of state-level rates of new cases.
1/4
I’ll give a full update tomorrow, but new counties in both Northern and SW MO are experiencing sharp increases - Chariton and Worth counties, for example, in Northern MO. 2/4
In #StLouis, rates remain quite low, but we’ve returned to relatively higher rates in North City and North County in particular. 3/4
The 7-day averages statewide and “outstate” crept up a bit again yesterday. 1/8
The general areas of concern remain the same - Northern MO and parts of Southwest MO, but the number of counties with concerning trends has grown over the past few days in SW MO in particular. 2/8
In Northern MO, Putnam County’s superlative rates have fallen sharply, as have rates in Linn and Livingston counties. Linn’s rate remains no. 2 nationwide for counties with more than 10,000 residents. 3/8