In the updated data released yesterday, the Minnesota authorities attributed 24 new deaths to COVID-19, bringing the total to 558. If my arithmetic is right, 15 of the 24 new deaths occurred among residents of long-term care facilities, bringing the total of LTC deaths attributed to the virus to 449 and slightly lowering the share to slightly in excess of 80 percent. The median age of all decedents remains 83. To the extent that we have a crisis, it is a nursing home crisis. Why the statewide lockdown?
We had no briefing to add color to the numbers yesterday. Had Governor Walz and his gang held a briefing, this is what we would have heard. In his linked take on the daily briefings, Kevin Roche makes a point I have meant to make but dropped amid observations that seemed more important at the time: “[Governor Walz] has brought up several times and did it again [on Friday] that we can’t rush to open businesses because people won’t go anyway, as they are afraid. They are afraid because he is peddling fear where none should exist.”
Bingo!
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