Quote:
Originally Posted by 4 for Boating
Hard to argue taking more actions to slow the spread but if you look at the current cases in NH - the hot spots are close to/right on the MA border. Not sure this is from MA or other out-of-staters coming to visit NH and/or vacation (nothing against the Rockingham area) Looks more like NH people that live in those areas going into MA for essential work and bringing it back. I suppose another option (lower case in my mind) is MA people going up to get cheaper gas or liquor right over the line????
I'm sure there are many ways to read this chart but that's what it says to me...
Thoughts / idea's / other theory's?
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I've found that being a multi-disciplinary person has helped a GREAT deal in following this virus. One minute I need to think like a writer ("find common themes") and the next minute like a firefighter/weather forecaster (toxins, equipment, air-related matters) and apply medical knowledge from EMS.
Annnnd I see that NH hotspot map seems to follow the world map. There are never any absolutes in nature, and now's not the time to figure out details like exceptions to the rule (science is full of them) but it IS time to find the general rule.
The general rule for COVID-19 transmission and severe cases seems to be "anywhere people are all crowded in together in smaller spaces." Cities are full of multi-unit buildings that share air. Drafts between apartments are common. In cities you also get people crammed together in indoor spaces. Even in lockdown people still have to go food shopping. Our whole way of life involves cramming lots of people into smaller spaces and turning everyone into a number so we can do a group process all at once. This virus seems to be calling us back to individualizing and that's strategically and logistically a nightmare for modern western culture.
But look at the trends in severe infections, (fatal or not) and multiple cases (regardless of severity). Flight attendant: Small shared space. Bus driver: Small shared space. Cruise ship: Small space relative to size of occupancy. Navy ship: Super-small shared spaces. ER staff: Small space relative to volume of occupancy. City supermarket: Small space relative to volume of occupancy. Ambulance: Small shared space. European way of life: Smaller dwellings, tendency to crowd together. Every time I've seen pictures of Iran (another hotspot) before the virus, I always saw crowded cities in the middle of a mostly undeveloped desert.
Based on the trend, it appears a large (but not total) part of the problem is the ratio of "container air volume to container occupancy." Cities are FULL of places where people crowd together. Suddenly telling them to distance themselves can't change the fact that it takes about 66 days (according to psychologists) to fully form a new habit. I've heard therapists say there's almost no point to 10-day addiction programs.
This virus is attacking our crowded places and our tendency to crowd, in the same way lightning kills cows. Cows crowd together when the storm comes and one bolt takes them all out. They'd fare much better if they did the counter-intuative thing and spread out across the cow field. I have a gut feeling COVID-19 wants us to think and act counter-intuitively (and creatively.) In the Industrial Revolution we started drawing the box. The USA's Founding Fathers were no strangers to plague. They lived in a world that was really dark, the king ruled, and he could have you beheaded for treason if you spoke against him. They created this country under darker conditions than we're now in. Surviving a winter sometimes required a lot of creativity. Then the Industrial Revolution started the trend towards "everyone's a number."
Based on the general trend I've observed (and there are outlier situations to be investigated later) this virus is attacking the crowd mentality and system approach our culture has increasingly adopted since the mid-1800s. It might very well be pushing us back away from the cities -- back to the pre-1920s way of life before Americans started gravitating toward cities.