EDITORIAL: Our Coronavirus Strategy Has Failed, Raimondo’s #1 in Testing Has Been a Failure
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Rhode Island is ranked by every measure as having the highest amount of infection per capita in America and, now in the world.
We have been on the front page of the New York Times every day this week for having the highest infection rate in the U.S.
Highly respected scientist Eric Topol ranks Rhode Island as having the highest rate in the world.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis is the data. This is the reality.
CNN now broadcasts from our capital city to highlight the endless out-of-control spread of the virus.
No matter how you cut the numbers, Rhode Island’s policies have simply not been effective. Our infection rate is more than 30% higher than Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The time to take action was in September or October to slow the spread of the virus and minimize the impact on the economy. "Pausing" or closing the economy during the holidays is a disaster for restaurants and retailers.
We are out of excuses. Too much hyperbole. Telling families that they can go door-to-door to strangers' houses for Halloween was bad policy and counter to the science.
In the past 7 days, 93 Rhode Islanders have died. Rhode Island Department of Health Director Nicole Alexander Scott no longer reads the age and the bio of each at the weekly press briefings. The list is simply too long. We are on pace for 400 to die this month. It is heartbreaking. Unless drastic action is taken 400 to 500 will die in January from the virus.
By the end of January we will cross over to 2,000 deaths.
Rhode Island has the 6th highest per capita death rate in the United States -- that is simply a fact.
False Claim #1 We are the most densely populated.
Fact: NJ is the most densely populated state. Moreover, if density of population was the only factor then cities like New York to Chicago would be the nation’s hottest spots. Actually, it is Rhode Island and Indiana that have the highest number of cases per capita. South Dakota, Alaska and Utah round out the top five state with the highest per capita cases. We are the hottest of hot spots.
False Claim #2: We Test More.
Fact: With no viable contact tracing program our testing is for testing sake, not public health. Our testing program is wildly inconsistent testing 7,000 one day and 16,000 the next. Secondly, the program’s data is fundamentally flawed because the Rhode Island Department of Health has lumped asymptomatic test results (low probability of infection) with symptomatic test results (high probability of infection), and then add in the college testing and you get garbage data -- one day this week the colleges, now on break, tested over 700 (remaining students, faculty and staff) and had zero cases. That increased the number of tests and lowered the infection rate to make the state look better. It is a failed data strategy and is now blowing up on the administration.
False Claim #3: Testing in the Key
Fact: In a small outbreak, testing and contact tracing can be very effective in identifying, isolating and limiting the spread of the virus. But, in mid-September, the number of cases in Rhode Island began to skyrocket and the trajectory of the increase has been non-stop. According to Covid ActNow, Rhode Island has 3% of the necessary contact tracers. Thus, testing now has very little value in limiting the spread of the virus.
False Claim #4: If We Follow the Rules of the “Pause” We Will Be Okay
Fact: The implementation of the “pause” was a month or more late and the idea that leaving many businesses partially opened, closing others and allowing events from Thanksgiving to Black Friday was simply not based on science.
How do we know it was a failed strategy? Because the virus does not comply with rules like "you can only eat with your family in a restaurant." If another family in the restaurant is sick and you are eating inside then there is a significant chance you can be infected. It is a harsh and cruel reality, but it is reality.
The virus does not care if the line at Walmart is 300 people or 200 people. It just loves all the people lined up together. It devours all the people working together in the factory.
The policies by the Raimondo administration over the last six weeks have hoped to minimize the impact on life, on business and on schools. That was laudable, but not based on science.
The disease has feasted on these policies. And, now we are #1.
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