93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Missouri officials spoke with the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator in Jefferson City on Tuesday about how the state deals with COVID-19.
Dr. Deborah Birx says a couple key benchmarks are a test positivity rate under 5%, and less than five new cases per 100,000 people.
“I think we all know that is the goal and we’re going to make progress together by this clear pathway forward of these common-sense interventions.”
Both Boone County as of last week and the state of Missouri as of Monday have positivity rates above 11%.
Birx says the feds are focusing on testing more and providing more PPE at nursing homes. But she adds there are vulnerable people in the community who are not in those facilities, and everyone needs to help protect them by slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
“You need to wear a mask and socially distance. You need to not have parties in your backyard and in your living room. And we need to stop the spread of this virus because we can and we will together, while we work on developing a vaccine together.”
This morning, my staff and I sat down with Dr. Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the @WhiteHouse Coronavirus Task Force, for an informal meeting on Missouri’s COVID-19 response & recovery.
Dr. Brix will join us LIVE on Facebook at 11am for a COVID-19 briefing. pic.twitter.com/qXTTgindmf
— Governor Mike Parson (@GovParsonMO) August 18, 2020
I am appalled at the cruelty to everyone in the name of fear. The damage the mask mandates do to our social structure is horrid. To our economy due to the loss of business. Cloth masks LEAK. Frightening the healthy people into wearing masks which can cause and exacerbate breathing problems. Frightening the healthy elders into doing themselves more damage than the virus would. Not being in the open air in a backyard? That is not sane nor reasonable, nor scientific, and I’m frankly ashamed of you, Dr. Birx. You have zero scientific credit from me.
Laurie, your comments are so wrong. Taking your point of view will just let this virus continue to spread and kill people. Wake up and realize what is happening.