On April 30, 2020, people in California flocked to beaches because of 80 deg. temperatures ...

[aggiesal]

https://www.independent.com/2020/04/30/report-governor-newsom-to-order-statewide-beach-closure/

Followed by a Maga Mayday Protest Rally in Santa Barbara on May 1st.

What were the consequences?

On May 5th, Santa Barbara County had 544 CV cases.
By May 11th, only 6 days later, Santa Barbara had 1,362 CV cases.
An increase of 818 cases in 6 days, an increase of 150% in CV cases.

Covidiots!

[DFW]

1. And I suppose.....

Don't tell me--the ones who got infected at the beaches or at the rallies while wearing no masks and maintaining no distance think they have just as much a right to get treated as those who tried their best NOT to get infected, or got infected while treating idiots like the ones who took no precautions at all.

Does the "freedom to jump out a second-story window" mean you have the right to get treated for "free" when you end up with a broken leg?

[Eppydoodle]

2. Risk

I see your point in that they may be careless in other regards, but the articles on studies so far indicate that outdoor transmission is quite a low risk especially with distancing. As we gain more knowledge of the virus we will probably see what works and what doesn't to reduce transmission.

[aggiesal]

3. Being careless in other regards was not my point ...

Can you link to articles, on the studies that indicate that outdoor transmission is quite low risk?

Thanks.

[Blues Heron]

4. 70 people got it at that idiotic protest

All it takes is one super spreader in the crowd. Do us all a favor and wear a mask. Thank you.

[nitpicker]

5. Actually, the key factor in the Santa Barbara spike was the Lompoc federal prison outbreak

On 11 May, the following was published:

https://keyt.com/health/coronavirus/2020/05/11/lompoc-federal-prison-responsible-for-65-of-covid-19-cases-in-santa-barbara-county/

LOMPOC, Calif. -- Lompoc Federal Prison is the only outbreak of COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County. The federal prison is currently testing inmates and the numbers keep rising each day.

“There are conditions there that are very troubling," said Santa Barbara criminal defense attorney Bob Sanger, who has clients in that prison. "People should not be subjected to that, no matter what they’re sentenced for.”

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Lompoc Federal Prison has about 2,704 inmates. Of those inmates 1,027 have tested positive for COVID-19. At one of the two facilities, Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc, nearly 80 percent of inmates have the virus, that is 911 confirmed cases out of 1,162 inmates.
(snip)


It COULD be that the person(s) (presumably staff) that brought the COVID-19 into Lompoc got exposed during the events mentioned above, but the time seems a bit short for it to have then raced through prison population. My own guess would be that there was exposure to CV before then.

[Hekate]

8. Thank you for the fact based reply

[maxsolomon]

6. Correlation is not Causation

Sorry, it just isn't.

[gristy]

7. Big spike for Santa Barbara County starting around 5/5 and ending a week later

data below pulled from https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data
Lompoc prison may explain it, with 574 cases reported on 5/8: https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/574-inmates-test-positive-for-coronavirus-at-15255843.php

date #cases %daily case count increase
4/26 471 1.1%
4/27 471 0.0%
4/28 477 1.3%
4/29 485 1.7%
4/30 496 2.3%
5/1 506 2.0%
5/2 508 0.4%
5/3 514 1.2%
5/4 526 2.3%
5/5 544 3.4%
5/6 613 12.7%
5/7 722 17.8%
5/8 1032 42.9%
5/9 1250 21.1%
5/10 1308 4.6%
5/11 1362 4.1%
5/12 1372 0.7%
5/13 1377 0.4%

[GulfCoast66]

9. I don't find the beach photo that troubling.

With a few exceptions everyone seems to be in family groups separated by over 6 feet.

Realize when you take a photo looking down a beach it makes everyone look on top of each other.

I feel safe at the beach. We can not lock ourselves in our houses for a year and the lockdown was to slow the curve. Now we need to vigilantly practice distancing. Unfortunately there are idiots as seen in the bars in Wisconsin that don’t even try.

[DrToast]

10. Me neither

I doubt that beach would have caused any significant increases in cases.

[GulfCoast66]

11. Beginning to wonder...

Some of these post criticizing going to the beach even when there appears to be social distancing. Perhaps by people that don’t have a beach to enjoy...

Just wondering.