What's up with West Virginia??

17 March 2020, 11:33 AM

Does anyone else look at the NYT coronamap and think, WTF is up with West Virginia?

https://www.nytimes.com/intera...t&pgtype=Homepage#us

17 March 2020, 12:01 PM

AdagioM

Maybe just no testing yet? Behind the times?

17 March 2020, 12:05 PM

RealPlayer

Virus can’t find its way into those mountain “hollers.”

17 March 2020, 12:08 PM

Cindysphinx

Also . . . What's the deal with Africa?

Could it be that more of Africa is outdoors (e.g. markets) and spread out? Having never been there, I really have no idea.

17 March 2020, 12:16 PM

Mikhailoh

Coronas are shot on sight.

17 March 2020, 12:28 PM

ShiroKuro

Re W. Virginia, I have been assuming that they just aren't testing, but that's not based on any real info.

Re Africa, again, not based on any real info, but maybe it's a combination of not a lot of testing (i.e. there are more cases in the countries w/ cases, it's just more unknown/undetected cases) and also maybe not a lot of incoming travelers from certain parts of the world (i.e. there aren't any/as many cases in those countries, and the ones showing up as zero might actually be zero)? I don't know enough about specific African countries to speculate in any more meaningful way.

I also don't actually know enough about West Virginia but evidently that's not stopping me.

17 March 2020, 12:48 PM

pianojuggler

I've spent a bit of time in West Virginia. My first guess, and it's just a guess, is that they have not done much testing.

West Virginia is mostly rural, but the area around Sheperdstown has become the outermost suburbs of Washington DC -- and Senator Byrd was working on moving big chunks of the federal government there to make jobs for his people. I would imagine that the parts of West Virginia adjacent to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Columbus, Ohio are also suburbs of those cities.

So, West Virginia is not exactly homogeneous.

The coal country areas are pretty spread out and people aren't one on top of another like in big cities. The only time I ever saw people gather in any substantial group was in church. On the other hand, Charleston, which is in the heart of coal country is a substantial town of 200,000 or so (beautiful capitol building -- see it if you are there).

So, it wouldn't surprise me that there are few to no people testing positive throughout most of the state. But zero is a little hard to believe, especially in the northeast corner near Frederick or Hagerstown, Maryland.

17 March 2020, 12:56 PM

pianojuggler

There is a lot of travel between north Africa and China. The Chinese are building a lot of infrastructure in Africa -- roads, bridges, airports, hotels, and so forth. But access to health care and the quality of health care in most of Africa is not great.

17 March 2020, 01:06 PM

Daniel

There is no systemic testing in the US. It's kind of a joke.

17 March 2020, 01:14 PM

pianojuggler

WV Governor declares state of emergency.

They have tested 84 people. 80 were negative. 4 are awaiting confirmation.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/ed...ng-free-15133681.php

17 March 2020, 04:43 PM

ShiroKuro

quote:
WV Governor declares state of emergency.

Well, there ya go. They must have heard me talking about them.

17 March 2020, 08:04 PM

wtg

First case in West Virginia.

And why it took so long:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17...ronavirus/index.html

18 March 2020, 04:05 PM

CHAS

quote:
Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
quote:
WV Governor declares state of emergency.

Well, there ya go. They must have heard me talking about them.

West Virginians told me to tell you they thank you for your assistance.

18 March 2020, 05:21 PM

pianojuggler

I was just on the phone with a colleague who lives in WV. He said the one confirmed case is in the "eastern panhandle", that is, the part of WV closest to Maryland and Washington, DC.