I acknowledge that some distrust could play a part, but it is highly unlikely the entire restaurant industry is not reopening to spite themselves because they don't trust the governor's administration while the majority of the country around them opens up. Only someone hell-bent on ignoring anything that runs contra-narrative would suggest something like that.
So Georgia and North Carolina have similar populations of 10 and a half million.... Let's take a look at their COVID-19 stats side-by-side. Georgia and North Carolina | How neighbors compare on COVID-19 We're digging into the numbers. https://www.11alive.com/article/new...stics/85-9cae38be-1dd8-4979-8dc9-9bea9d793c10
Be wary of data that made Georgia’s coronavirus reopening look safe https://bangordailynews.com/2020/05...ade-georgias-coronavirus-reopening-look-safe/ Nothing about the spread of the coronavirus or the nature of the disease suggests that it’s safe to get back to business as usual. And yet “reopen” is the word on almost every American’s lips, despite apocalyptic warnings from public health experts suggesting that, without an aggressive national public health strategy, the country could face its ” darkest winter.” In the absence of a coherent federal public health response, millions of Americans are trying to will the coronavirus away through the sheer force of their God-given exceptionalism. Mass delusion seems a dubious strategy for ending the coronavirus crisis. And yet if you look at the data coming out of Georgia over the past month — which had one of the earliest and most aggressive efforts to reopen its economy — you might be convinced that there is little danger in a broad economic reopening. According to state data models, which Gov. Brian Kemp used to justify Georgia’s aggressive reopening, the state’s infection curve has been rapidly heading in a direction that would be the envy of states like California, with its aggressive lockdown rules. The Wall Street Journal hailed the ” Georgia Model” as evidence that aggressive lockdowns were needlessly harming the economy. Georgia’s miraculous curve seemingly played an important role in the changing public sentiment around reopening nationally. If it’s working in Georgia, why can’t it work here? And yet Georgia’s flattening curve defied all scientific logic. Pandemics don’t end because the economy is suffering and we want them to. And yet data don’t lie. Or do they? Thanks to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, we now know things did indeed look too good to be true. Georgia’s coronavirus numbers looked so rosy because officials misrepresented the data in such a way it’s difficult to believe it wasn’t done on purpose. “I have a hard time understanding how this happens without it being deliberate,” microbiology and molecular genetics PhD and state Rep. Jasmine Clark told the Journal Constitution. “Literally nowhere ever in any type of statistics would that be acceptable.” Georgia isn’t the only state itching to reopen that has a penchant for dubious data. Florida actively tried suppressing county coroners from releasing COVID-19 death tallies. Time will tell if Georgians will pay the price for the irresponsibility and incompetence of their leaders, or if they’ll catch a break. Hot, humid summer weather could send coronavirus into a remission unearned by responsible public health strategies. One thing, however, is certain: Wishful thinking isn’t going to end this pandemic. If the numbers look too good to be true, they probably are.
Right now, GA is trending down in new cases, while NC is still trending up. In order to really compare the two, you need to know exactly how each state is counting cases. In my state, VA, they count every positive COVID test in the total. So if you are hospitalized and they test you 4 times before you are released, that counts as 4 postive cases. Another thing they were doing, was adding the postive antibody tests to the total of new COVID cases.
Here's an article on that... https://www.theatlantic.com/health/...-test-data-pennsylvania-georgia-texas/611935/
I am in Georgia and things are fine. I got a hair cut. Went out to eat. I am still alive and well as long as every other person I know. However, there is no return to normal. There is still social distancing and needing masks at some places and ... True - not every restaurant or business opened. 2 reasons - 1. Lots of restrictions - like limiting restaurants to 50 % of seating. 2. Lots of people make more money staying at home then working. Georgia is 32 % African American Had nothing to do with businesses not believing in the numbers. The primary people who have tried to make Georgia's opening look bad are people like the mayor of Atlanta and now Rep. Jasmine Clark. Both are African American. African Americans don't want to work and they are using the virus as an excuse so they can get more Federal Money.
GA is not trending down in new cases... the data published by the state is fake. The data published by the state's largest paper, ACJ, is real. 'I'm looking for the truth': States face criticism for COVID-19 data cover-ups https://news.yahoo.com/im-looking-truth-states-face-100035918.html As states ramp up their reopenings, some are coming under criticism for making public misleading statistics or concealing information related to the coronavirus outbreak. While the U.S. has reported more cases and deaths than any other country, the method for counting COVID-19 deaths varies by state. In testimony before the Senate earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said the actual number of people who've died as a result of the pandemic is "almost certainly" higher than what's been counted. Such data has been the basis for how quickly states are beginning to open up and return to a sense of normalcy. But government officials in a number of states are facing questions about how open and honest they're being about how the virus is impacting their state. "Accurate, complete and timely information is the best way to understand, respond to and limit the impact of the virus on both health and the economy," Dr. Tom Frieden, who ran the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under former President Barack Obama, told NBC News. "This helps to set realistic expectations on how the pandemic will affect people's lives and to inform required changes in behavior to prevent the spread of the virus," he added. (More at above url)
Here is some news from Alabama : Alabama mayor sounds alarm about crisis level COVID-19 cases even as state reopens businesses Montgomery, Alabama Mayor Steven Reed told NPR on Tuesday that his city is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases even as the state’s government is pushing businesses to reopen. In his interview, Reed outlined the dire conditions in his city’s hospitals and made a plea for people to maintain social distancing and to wear masks outside. “They’re looking for us to sound the alarm and let people know that we’re still in the middle of a pandemic,” Reed said. “They’re running short on PPEs, they’re running short, obviously, on beds. The staffs are physically and emotionally spent. So we have to do our part as leaders in the community to make sure we make the public understands that this is not over.”
Looks like Russia is just like the state of Georgia. ‘People will think bad things’: Russian governor appears to tell staff to change 'faked' coronavirus figures in leaked audio https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...rate-covid-19-moscow-audio-leak-a9531461.html A leaked audio file purporting to show a regional governor instructing staff to alter data has cast doubt on the reliability of Russia’s Covid-19 statistics. The recording, released on anonymous social media channels on Monday morning, is muffled and somewhat difficult to decipher. But the request to “change figures” — by a man whose voice appears to be that of Lipetsk governor Igor Artamonov — is clear enough. It is unclear from the recording what data this refers to, but their publication, the voice says, would make “people ... think bad things about [the] region." The two-minute conversation contains such phrases as: “We need to correct this, to convince Moscow that we don’t have 72 [unclear]”, “don’t put the region’s neck on the line”, “we are at a critical stage, someone’s head needs to to be chopped off”, and “don’t tell me you are soft. Is it really so hard to change the data?” At one point, the unidentified interlocutor pushes back and says changing the data would not be straightforward. “It’s not a matter of one click and we are done,” he says. “It’s complicated.” “Then train yourself to do it!” says the first voice. “We’re already trained,” comes the reply. n a comment to Russian media, Mr Artamonov confirmed the authenticity of the recording but insisted it had been unfairly interpreted. The conversation was not, he said, an attempt to underreport figures. On the contrary, it was an attempt to correct double reporting on testing figures. “We have three services,” Mr Artamonov told the Znak publication. “Some give data to one place, and others to another [...] You get a situation where the figures are not entirely factual if you don’t keep a handle on them.” According to the latest official data, Lipetsk region has recorded just five fatalities from 1696 diagnosed cases of Covid-19. This corresponds to a case fatality rate of 0.29 per cent. In other words, like the rest of Russia, well below the 6.42 per cent current rolling world average. Whatever the truth behind the leaks, doubts about Russia’s Covid-19 data have persisted for several weeks. At a minimum, problems in diagnostics have produced a de facto underreporting. Anecdotally, local tests are no more than 10 per cent accurate, and Russia doesn’t report suspected coronavirus deaths. If you aren’t diagnosed with Covid-19 you can’t die from it. But there is also evidence of misreporting of figures, with coronavirus deaths in some cases deliberately assigned to other illnesses. n Dagestan, for example, hospitals have been overwhelmed since the end of April, in scenes akin to the crisis in Italy’s Lombardy region. Pharmacies across Dagestan ran out of basic medicine like antibiotics, and yet despite the medical collapse, official figures were until last Sunday reporting just 29 deaths. (More at above url)
This is current COVID-19 hospitalizations in GA. Lower highs= trending down. Hard to manipulate those #'s