Quote:Evidence continues to mount that the new infections throughout much of the country are extremely mild, with the exception of some serious cases coming over the border from Mexico. Those two facts continue to be obscured from our policy debate over containing the virus in the southern states. The governors of California, Arizona, and Texas refuse to recognize that the mild nature of these cases is good news going forward, and they continue to ignore the threat of serious cases from the border.

Distinguishing between the two phenomena has become difficult, because the cause of both of them appears to have begun in late May and continued into June, especially in border states, which weren’t hard hit to begin with and therefore had little herd immunity to combat a new round of spread. But the timing of these serious cases at the border combined with milder cases in the interior seems to make it clear that we are seeing two distinct waves: the second and mild American wave and the importation of Mexico’s first, more serious wave.

Quote:An emergency care executive from Texas explained to former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson that most cases he sees now in Texas are milder than a typical full-blown cold.

The managing partner and general counsel of the company that owns Complete Care, which operates 13 emergency care clinics in Texas, emailed Berenson with a statement illuminating the situation on the ground.

He noted that out of 2,231 tests the clinics have administered in June, although the positivity rate is at 20%, the “vast majority of the cases are mild to very mild symptoms.” He observed that most patients were in their 30s, most would not even have met the criteria for testing during the peak when kits were scarce, and that very few of them really need hospitalization. “Vast majority of the patients are better within 2-3 days of the visit and most would be described as having a cold (a mild one at that) or the symptoms related to allergies,” he said.

He further noted that half of them come in because they sneeze or cough and their employer makes them get tested.

Thus, ironically, the spike in hospitalizations now is because of the pervious lockdown, which they are now pushing again. As Dr. Robert Hancock of Texas College of Emergency Physicians said, “We saw just a rash of people that came in for relatively treatable conditions that had just waited to the point that it deteriorated. That’s kind of added to the ICU stress on top of just having the COVID-19 patients.”

Thus, what we are seeing in Texas and elsewhere is actually a fulfillment of what we all hoped for – a flattened curve of mild cases and hospitals that are able to handle severe cases, but ultimately few deaths. “Overall, based upon what we are seeing at our facilities, the above information is really more of a positive story,” wrote the emergency clinic executive to Berenson. “You have more people who are testing positive with minimal symptoms. This means that the fatality rate is less than commonly reported.”

This is perhaps why hospital officials in Texas, whose profession has typically led the charge in panic peddling since March, are actually warning the public that they are being misled with illusory data.

Houston Methodist CEO Marc Boom complained that the data is “being misinterpreted” “and, quite frankly, we’re concerned that there is a level of alarm in the community that is unwarranted right now.”