Gov. Wolf predicts COVID-19 resurgence in fall, offers hope it won’t force new round of school and business closings

Penn ^ | 24 June A.D. 2020 | David Wenner

[lightman]

Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday he expects COVID-19 to surge again in Pennsylvania this fall. But he said preparations and lessons learned during months when the state was shut down may enable us to weather it without a repeat of the shut down.

The advantages if faced with a second wave include increased hospital preparedness and capacity, expanded testing and expanding contact tracing to find and isolate people who have been exposed. Wolf said Pennsylvania now has capacity for 16,000 tests per day -- more than the total tested in March -- and has nearly 600 contact tracers, with plans to add more.

“I think we are in a much better place,” he said. Still, he noted he can’t predict the future.

Wolf also said people and businesses now fully understand how to social distance and the need for it, as well as the need for things including staying home and getting tested if sick, frequent hand-washing and wearing a mask in public.

Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine spoke during a visit to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Both repeatedly stressed the need to wear face masks in public, and said it makes no sense that it has become a political issue of Democrats largely complying with the recommendation and many supporters of President Donald Trump dismissing the need.

Levine said “study after study” prove that wearing a mask can block some of the droplets from people who are carrying COVID-19 but feeling no symptoms, or who are in the early stage and not yet feeling sick. Scientists believe both groups can spread the disease through droplets released during coughing, sneezing, talking and breathing.

She said wearing masks is essential to getting through a second wave with minimal harm.

Wolf likened wearing a mask in public to obeying stop signs.

“Imagine if only liberals or only conservatives stopped at stop signs,” he said.

Wolf and Levine visited the medical center to stress the COVID-19 preparations that are in place against a resurgence and to thank the medical center staff for their work in caring for the sick and preventing spread.

Wolf said that based on a seven day rolling average Pennsylvania has the longest streak of declining cases in the country.

“All of you are on the front lines and all of you are responsible for that statistic I talked about,” he said, referring to the streak.

[Pravious]

The old can just stay home.

—

Sure. Because none of them needs to go food shopping, or have their hair done, or see their friends and family or buy clothing. Old people can just stay at home until they die because, you know, it’s inconvenient for some people to wear masks.

/s

[TheBattman]

What an incredibly naive viewpoint. I don’t care if President Trump were to single-handeledly develop a perfect vaccine or true cure to COVID-19 - he will NEVER, EVER be given credit. NEVER>. The media is 100% anti-Trump.

We got a preview with the Hydroxychloroquine announcement. He proclaimed that it could be a “game-changer”, and it proved to be exactly that. Yet between Fauci refusing to acknowledge it (in favor of promoting a new, unproven drug that he has a significant financial stake in), and a joint effort with the media to downplay the old anti-malarial drug (and later, a WHO acceptance of a totally corrupt/fake “trial” that attacked the drug), every effort has been made to be absolutely certain Trump gets NO positive press or credit.

And that won’t change if he somehow ushers in an end to this virus. Period. And at the rate this all is going (particularly with the suggested/required “effective management” tools you are willing to endure - there won’t BE a revived economy. And people will STILL be getting sick (and a tiny portion dying).

You simply don’t understand - the Left WANTS the economy shut down. They WANT the American people to suffer - because it is in those positions of weakness, despare, fear, and uncertainty, that every Marxist revolution has been given fertile ground to grow in. You destroy the foundations, you take away the history, and you destroy people (via the economy or via health) and you get to change the game.

[TheBattman]

This has been the Democrat game plan since BEFORE the virus...

[2aProtectsTheRest]

President Trump understands that the vaccine is the endgame for all this. The left may want to tank to the economy to hurt President Trump, but if there’s a vaccine, they have zero reason to keep anything shut down. They won’t be able to take credit away for that. Nobody’s going to turn it down (besides the anti-vaxxers).

It’s like the stimulus checks; what I kept hearing everyone refer to as “my Trump bucks”. Jokingly or not, it’s giving President Trump some level of credit for it. Ultimately, people do want this to be over. You can see that in how lax we’ve become with social distancing and other precautions and it’s reflected in the case counts and hospitalizations spiking. Put a vaccine out there and all this mess stops real quick and we can get back to business.

[TheBattman]

I”m not sure where you are hearing “Trump bucks” - as even here in soundly Republican far NW Arkansas - literally nobody is saying that. As for the rest of the country - its “Wheres my stimulus check?”.

[CodeJockey]

It’ coming back this fall so we can’t vote in person. Only by mail. That’s the entire purpose of this scam.