South Carolina Social Engineering Experiment

[idziak4ever1234]

South Carolina currently stands at 4,377 cases of Coronavirus and 120 deaths.

The Governor plans to reopen beaches and retail stores on Tuesday. I guess he is willing to use his state's citizens as participants in an experiment to see if it is safe to take such steps.

The next 14 days may show how smart he was.

[Alex4Martinez]

1. His and the adjacent states' citizens, as well. eom

[customerserviceguy]

2. I've opted out of the experiment

Only grocery shopping for me, and the drive-through at the pharmacy, that's it.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. This article fits right in with your OP.........

SC health department warned lawmakers for years: Budget cuts ‘jeopardized’ its pandemic plan
Charleston Post & Courier
By Thad Moore, Stephen Hobbs and Tony Bartelme
Apr 19, 2020

(requires free registration to read full article)

Link: https://www.postandcourier.com/health/covid19/sc-health-department-warned-lawmakers-for-years-budget-cuts-jeopardized-its-pandemic-plan/article_8e1df1fc-8008-11ea-9336-c3c5616b6d37.html

(snips)

Time and again, the state’s infectious disease experts said this would happen: a pandemic would strike South Carolinians and upend our lives. Year after year, they planned for it. They did drills, wrote guidelines, stockpiled supplies.

And over and over, they saw their budgets cut and ranks thinned, even as they warned that shortfalls jeopardized the state’s preparedness and severely limited its ability to contain an outbreak. Unable to win new funding to prepare for a pandemic, South Carolina’s public health system has become one of the most depleted in the nation, hampering the state’s capacity to manage the coronavirus outbreak and recovery, a Post and Courier investigation found.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control has lost 20 percent of its infectious disease staff since the Great Recession. Federal data show that its public health workforce has been cut deeper in the last two decades than counterparts in the South, including Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

Now, as COVID-19 cases grow and the state’s economy reels, this diminished workforce faces the biggest public health crisis in a century. Experts say investigating the virus’ spread here could require thousands of workers, far more than DHEC’s diminished ranks today.

Republicans cannot govern. Republican politicians kill people.

Elections have consequences.......

[SWBTATTReg]

5. And ironically enough, Lindsey Graham caught the CV (according to him of course), you would...

think that would temper the S. Carolina republicans against any further cuts to their state's efforts to battle outbreaks of disease, but I suspect not. I agree w/ you, KC_EnviroGuy, republicans seem more interested by far in party then people, regardless of consequences.

How many of these people (republicans) need to die before they see the light, and understand the rationale behind stay at home orders? And what gets me, is that who in their right minds would go out, if today's businesses are all opened up, when it is still not safe? I suspect that in reality, far fewer people would go out then who these protesters seem to be claiming they represent (they don't by the way). Don't let a loudmouth dictate what you should do, in order to protect you and yours.

So, while the rest of us are smart and stay at home, like me, an older/elderly guy, let the protesters go out, let them catch the CV, let them get sick and/or die (if they don't already have the CV). Let them suffer the consequences of their own actions, as they so proudly are demanding.

I won't shed a tear, unless it is a victim of their ignorance, and in this case, the protesters contributing to the murder of innocent victims by continuing to go out (while possibly sick w/ the CV and despite stay at home orders) still exposed innocent victims.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

6. It's saddening that someone in their family has to die....

before so many see the light. There was a case in Ohio discussed on DU elsewhere today where a 60YO man said the virus was a hoax and he just died from it. The obituary in their local newspaper said his memorial would be conducted on-line and asked everyone to observe safe distances. Sad, and this guy had a college education and ran a business.

I see Boris Johnson changed his tune and it will be interesting to see how that plays out with the UK's re-opening and if it affects Trump's attitudes at all (I doubt it).

Statement from a Dem politician in South Carolina from article I posted:

“The tragedy is that we have lost workers but the workload has increased. We have fewer workers doing the job of many,” said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the top Democrat on the House’s budget-writing committee. “These budget chickens have come home to roost and all of us will pay for it.”

I did some environmental work in SC years ago and the DHEC discussed extensively in the article also covers industrial air and water pollution. It's quite evident from the article the agency has be severely whacked since my days there, so that means air and water will take a far back seat for many years (if ever).

Sadly, their DHEA will remain toothless so long as the Federal EPA has been weakened, thanks to Trump. It's sickening to read how the Rethug DHEA heads speak so proudly of their budget cuts.

SC has a very large number of poor people and they will suffer the most, with many case not even reported. SC is also an extremely racist state. I witnessed it in detail.


KY.......

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Yes, I read about the 60 YO who denied that the CV was a threat, and now has paid the price.

It is sad that others around such people have to suffer the consequences of such unneeded death, when being careful would only hamper doing a few things differently or things that you can't do, on a temporary basis. Why are some people in such a hurry? What is the big hold up that they have? They're listening to the wrong people I suspect, who sprout off crap w/o evidence of course.

rump has weakened a lot of agencies, by putting in people w/o qualifications, with people who are haphazardly cutting things to the bone, weakening regulations put in place for very important reasons, etc. All to make rump look good who cites the 'number of regulations he's cut', regardless of what's he cut.

You're right, I suspect that it's going to take a long time to recover, many years.

By the way, I appreciate your work in the environmental field, a very important component I feel that is sorely lacking as a part of regular business practices employed by companies. My company I worked for, actually had a section in the 'request for proposal' requests we put out, relating to identifying environmental impacts and issues. Something that's always stood in my mind since I ran across. Most RFPs dealt strictly w/ economic numbers, and not the cost of environmental impacts.

Take care and be safe!

[central scrutinizer]

4. Is everyone getting an informed consent form?

Standard ethical procedure in an experiment.