Sunday School Extra Credit 7/5/20

In this week's Sunday School, we had two senators and a former UN Ambassador/National Security Advisor.

Today, we've got mayors galore, including two who spoke with Martha Raddatz on This Week with George - Miami's Francis Suarez, and Kate Gallego of Phoenix. 

Raddatz started by asking Suarez 'what more can be done' about the rapidly-spreading coronavirus, after a positive teste rate of 20% in the Miami-Dade area.  Suarez pointed to the new mask rule and increased penalties for businesses that don't follow the rules, as well as some beaches being closed for the July 4th holiday weekend.

But we're obviously very closely monitoring hospitalizations, and we're very, very closely monitoring the death rate, which are lagging indicators that give us the impression that we have to take much stricter -- much stricter measurements -- measures.

He said that while some residents are "a little bit upset" with the rules to some degree, they are seeing compliance, at least in Miami-Dade County; some other areas may not be faring as well.  The hope is that they won't need to "put in more dramatic measures" this week.

Suarez compared the mask law to the seatbelt laws; no one's going door-t0-door enforcing it, but there are some penalties with some teeth if needed: the first incident is just a warning, but then penalties increases from  to $50, then $150 and up to $500 for repeated violations.

He also admitted that after they reopened, people started "socializing as if the virus didn't exist" and

Right after we implemented the stay at home order, we started seeing that decline almost immediately. We got ahead of the curve and we're seeing a declining slope of 14 cases a day. Just before this weekend, the incline slope was 91 new cases per day. So it's almost three times a greater slope than it was prior to the stay at home order. So, you know, it's -- it's extremely worrisome.

Hard to argue with him on that...

Over in Phoenix, Mayor Gallego said that Arizona "opened way too early," after being one of the last to issue a stay at home order, and one of the first to lift it.

We had crowded nightclubs handing out free champagne, no masks. Our 20- to 44-year-olds, which is my own demographic, really led the explosion, and we’ve seen such growth in that area. We’re seeing a lot of people go to large family gatherings and infect their family members.

She also pointed to issues with testing - long waits, not enough providers - and how she's been "begging everyone" - including out of state companies to come in, and asking FEMA to come in and do community-based testing, but

We were told they’re moving away from that, which feels like they’re declaring victory while we’re still in crisis mode.

And, while the governor has "preempted us" from closing certain businesses or pushing restaurants to to-go ordering only, she wants more tools, not fewer.

We had to beg to be able to implement masking orders. We were originally preempted from doing that but I’m thankful the governor did allow cities to put masking orders in place, which I think will help. If you’ve seen some of the data from communities that had them, masks do slow the spread and can be important. Also, to indicate to us that we are still in a crisis and have to take this seriously.

And, she agreed that the "many mixed messages coming from all over the place" that Raddatz mentioned are a problem.

It is. President Trump was in my community, chose not to wear a mask, and he’s having large events while I am trying to push people that you need to stay at home and that events with more than 10 people are dangerous per the Centers for Disease Control.

Yeah, that would be the president for all of the people, making a mess of things.

In the Face the Nation, classroom, Margaret Brennan talked with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and she jumped right in with the president's comment that 99% of COVID-19 cases are totally harmless. Turner disagreed.

No, that's not the case. I will tell you, a month ago one in 10 people were testing positive. Today, it's one in four. The number of people who are getting sick and going to the hospitals has exponentially increased. The number of people in our ICU beds has exponentially increased. In fact, if we don't get our hands around this virus quickly, in about two weeks our hospital system could be in serious, serious trouble.

They have bed capacity, now, he said. But staffing is the major problem. We can always add beds, he said, but the critical point is "the people, the nurses and everybody else, the medical professionals to staff those beds."

Turner said that the virus is "an equal opportunity abuser" and it'll go after anyone getting in close proximity. To illustrate that point, he noted

Now it's having a disproportional impact on people of color. And right now, it's especially within the Hispanic community. But we are having young people being impacted as well. Just the other day, I now saw a young woman in her 20s with no underlying medical conditions that died as a result of COVID. So it's anyone from their 20s into their 90s being impacted. If you come together in close proximity, you will fuel this virus. And now one in four people are testing positive for this virus. It's a serious issue, and we need to control it.

And, as to what's driving it? He said back in the spring, towards the end of April and the beginning of May, the numbers were low. And then when they reopened (he said then "we are opening too quickly...) and then,

... if you look at the second week in May going forward, the numbers started to increase. I was never reporting more than to say 200, 250 cases a day in terms of people testing positive. And then towards the end of May into June, those numbers started increasing exponentially. Around mid-June, I started reporting six, seven, eight, nine hundred a day. And so from the beginning, when we started opening too quickly and when you layer that on top of everything else, all the other activities that were taking place and people starting to re socialize then you started to refuel the virus. And that's when the numbers started to increase.

Brennan asked him about testing and whether he needed help on that.

...this is all hands. We need everybody from the federal level, state level and local level. The demand for testing in this state, in this city has increased quite a bit. But we- and we are trying to ramp up. But the- the demand exceeds the capacity.

Two of the big sites, ones they partnered with FEMA on, are hitting capacity by noon, he said, and that they've opened test sites in "at-risk, vulnerable communities" but there's huge demand, a wait for the testing, and a wait to get results back.

So we are increasing the testing, but we are also finding and what's most disturbing is that the positivity rate has increased. So a month ago, one in 10 tested positive. Today, we're looking at almost like one in four.

Finally, Brennan mentioned Trump's 4th of July comments, including his taking on a fight with "radical left, Marxist, anarchists, agitators and the looters and the angry mob trying to tear down out statues and erase our history." She wondered "how those words landed with you and your decisions." He said he personally doesn't fit any of those categories, and he also talked about how in Houston, the Confederate statues have come down "very peacefully with the support, I would say, of most Houstonians in this city."

... I'm an African-American mayor. I'm a nonpartisan mayor. But I can't - but I was an African-American before I became mayor. I'll be an African-American after I'm mayor. And the history of slavery and people fighting against the Union, that history cannot be erased. And the fact is that those monuments were placed, for example, in Houston 80 to 100 years ago to glorify the bad things that were done to other people like those- those of my ancestors. It has been past due time for those statues to come down. We did it in a respectful way. We're not trying to erase history, but we are trying to take the power of placing these statues in public spaces away and to place them where they can be told, where the history can be told and placed in its context. The toxicity that is being bred now in our city and in our country has to come to an end.

I'm going to leave it there - and what a great thought to end on, don't you think? 

See you around the virtual campus.