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In reply to the discussion: All K-12 schools in Pennsylvania shut down for 2 weeks amid coronavirus outbreak [View all]DeminPennswoods
(15,286 posts)In fact UPMC, part of the University of Pittsburgh, has been doing yeoman work on developing tests and potential vaccines although it gets little national or even statewide attention. They were emininently prepared for an epidemic and have had no shortage of beds, PPE, ventilators or anything else. That is true in the adjoining county where I live, too. Wolf is basing his decisions on predictive models created by CMU, not the one from Washington state.
I've read many posts predicting an big outbreak of virus here, but it's just not happening despite this being an area with an older population and one where many residents grew up in the shadows of the mills spewing who knows what into the air and water for decades. Fewer than half the population I see wears masks routinely and plenty others only grudgingly wear them because they can't shop otherwise. Once outside, off they come. Only around half the population even stays home on any given day. So why aren't we seeing a dramatic rise in cases?
Here's a story from the NYT via Yahoo! on the increasing belief that the virus was here much earlier than thought: https://www.yahoo.com/news/amid-signs-virus-came-earlier-122540809.html. I am more than halfway convinced now that some variant of cv19 swept through here in Feb and was just swept up in the flu stats. I belive that's at least part of the reason there hasn't been a rash of cases.