Republican Governor of Mississippi does the math on herd immunity (in 7 tweets)
https://twitter.com/tatereeves/status/1282783825219682304

Starts with

QuoteI'm not a health care expert by any means, but I am a math guy.

Concludes with

Quote"Unless you're willing to go without hospitals after a car wreck or heart attack, we need a different approach. Right now, despite mixed messages at the beginning, it seems like masks are the best bet. They're a hell of a lot better than widespread shut downs. Please wear one!"

Oklahoma governor who rejected mask order tests positive for coronavirus
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/15/oklahoma-kevin-stitt-coronavirus-covid-19

Florida > UK

"when it comes to the coronavirus, we have met the enemy, and he is us."

Californians fight over second coronavirus shutdown
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-16/californians-cant-mask-their-anger-at-second-coronavirus-shutdown

Major US retailers -Walmart, Target, CVS, Kohls- are now requiring masks in their stores.

"Between January to June 30, Florida reported 8,671 excess deaths, that's more than double the 3,650 deaths the state attributed to COVID-19."

Excess deaths raise concerns about pandemic's death toll in Florida
https://www.fox4now.com/rebound/excess-deaths-raise-concerns-about-pandemics-death-toll-in-florida

A Detailed Map of Who Is Wearing Masks in the U.S.

UK: Councils given new local lockdown powers
https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2020/07/17/councils-given-new-local-lockdown-powers/

Walmart's masks-required policy goes into effect today, I believe.  Lowes and Home Depot have also announced masks to be required.  If you wanted to pick a venue almost guaranteed to out the no-mask opponents, you couldn't do much better than Walmart, Lowes, & Home Depot.

There have already been some gun-waving incidents in Wallyworld last week when customers were asked to put on a mask.  I'm expecting quite a few more as it becomes policy.  My news feeds say that the Walmart employees are scared to try and enforce it.

Home Depot says they are putting bouncers at the entrances.

^{Reality sucks.}

Nearly Two-Thirds of Texans Say that COVID-19 is "Out of Control" – Texas Monthly
https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/poll-texans-greg-abbott-coronavirus/

McDonald's Will Require Face Masks At Its More Than 14,000 U.S. Restaurants  : NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/24/895126897/mcdonalds-will-require-face-masks-at-its-more-than-14-000-u-s-restaurants

NC still teetering on the cusp but some signs are encouraging --positivity rate is approaching 5%.  New cases/deaths per day approx 2200/30.

Meanwhile (Note that this is from FL media) ....

Coronavirus Florida: 'Flori-duh,' DeSantis in national spotlight for bungling pandemic - Ocala.com
https://www.ocala.com/news/20200726/coronavirus-florida-lsquoflori-duhrsquo-desantis-in-national-spotlight-for-bungling-pandemic/1

>>De Santis

The simple fact is that every politician, almost regardless of the decisions they made, is at risk because of CV. You have De Santis on one side catching fire for stupidly opening the economy, but meanwhile in California you have Newsome catching fire for stupidly closing the economy.

https://pvtimes.com/news/third-recall-attempt-launched-against-newsom-87260/

I think that as a general rule, Covid hotspots are bad for incumbents.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/07/13/popularity-dives-of-governors-in-coronavirus-hotspots/#71f2697a430f

Looking at the gubernatorial candidates here in Washington nearly all the Republican candidates (30 candidates total on the ballot) are pushing to re-open everything ASAP. Overall I would be pretty right-leaning but for the most part I am pretty pleased with how our Democratic governor has handled things so far. Makes me think the elections this fall will be a lot uglier than normal no matter who wins.

Has anyone seen any numbers tied to the economy in states like Florida that have re-opened vs. others that are still mostly or at least partly closed? Is reopening really boosting those economies? Are unemployment claims down in those state?

>NC

Governors who took the virus seriously from the start get a boost
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/governors-who-took-virus-seriously-start-get-boost-n1234960