Rep. Spencer Gosch being tested for Coronavirus

Pat Powers

From the Argus comes a report of the Speaker Pro Tempore of the House being tested for the coronavirus:

Rep. Spencer Gosch, R-Glenham, was tested on Thursday after falling sick on Wednesday and becoming more ill overnight, House Speaker Steven Haugaard announced at the start of the House’s floor session on Thursday. Legislators confirmed to the Argus Leader that it was for COVID-19.

Gosch can’t have contact with anyone for several days while waiting for his COVID-19 test result, Haugaard said.

Read it here.

Scary stuff. Please keep Rep. Gosch in your thoughts.

36 thoughts on “Rep. Spencer Gosch being tested for Coronavirus”

    1. Trump, Rush, and Hannity are just going to kill more supporters if they keep trying to downplay this as some conspiracy. What a bunch of clowns. They are predicting a 60% infection rate and projecting SD will lose around 10k people. This is from some of the leading experts at Sanford who are preparing. This isn’t a joke. Stay clean and protect yourself so we can protect the 2% who can’t risk getting this.

      1. 10k in SD? Right now the flu in SD has killed nearly 20.

        10k people haven’t died world wide. Currently it is under 5k.

        1,000 have died in Italy and that country has the 2nd highest mortality rate. Italy has a population of over 60 million. SD has 850k.

        1. You are at the front end of an exponential growth curve. I think 10k seems really high, though.

          1. That is what they are projecting as worst case even with the current precautions. We aren’t testing enough because tests are not readily available. I would bet there are hundreds infected in SD already. Massive testing is what is saving the countries who are seeing less impact. It’s already out of our control so slowing the impact is our best option.

            1. I agree, but infection rates are a logistic function. The only question I have is when we reach the inflection point and risk factors South Dakotans show versus other states (i.e. pre-existing health conditions, percentage of our population over the age of 60, etc.). I am extremely skeptical about the 10,000 deaths number given the limited population of our state already. I guess we will find out soon enough.

              1. I understand that. Currently, we are in exponential growth with an infection rate of about 1.15 – 1.25 Until we hit 1, where the inflection point is, we won’t know how long this will increase so rapidly. Even if this works to slow things down, people will claim it didn’t work. We won’t know how well it worked unless we have a similar event and do nothing. We don’t need a Seattle in every mass populated part of the country.

      2. Who is the “they” that is predicting a 60% infection rate and projecting 10,000 deaths in South Dakota.

        If you can provide a link to the source of that information, it would be appreciated.

        1. Bernie Sanders says 87 million people are going to die of it because they don’t have health insurance. B new

  2. I will bet anyone who wants to take the side of 10,000 in SD.

    The people predicting 60% infection rate (about 500,000 in SD) and a 10K death rate (2%) are nuts.

    I’ll bet the infection rate will be under 10% (about the half the swine flu) and a death rate of under .25%. Thus, total deaths will be less than 8,000 (12,000 died from the swine flu). Total expenditure per death for just the initial $8.5 billion is over $1mm. When we consider the direct expense, the government bailouts, and the lost economic activity, the coronavirus expenditure caused by the mob over-reaction will be closer to $100 million per death.

    P.S. Obama’s limited request for swine flu: $1.5 billion mostly spent to develop anti-virals and vaccinations for the next year, admonishment to wash hands and protect the vulnerable, and to otherwise live our normal lives. Trump and the CDC tried the same thing until the paranoid and irrational fears of the mob took over.

    2. What are you basing your bets on? Current estimates on the virus are: “15% are severe infection,
      requiring oxygen and 5% are critical infections, requiring ventilation. These fractions of severe and critical infection
      would be higher than what is observed for influenza infection.
      Those most at risk for severe influenza infection are children, pregnant women, elderly, those with underlying
      chronic medical conditions and those who are immunosuppressed.
      Mortality for COVID-19 appears higher than for influenza, especially seasonal influenza. While the true mortality of
      COVID-19 will take some time to fully understand, the data we have so far indicate that the crude mortality ratio (the
      number of reported deaths divided by the reported cases) is between 3-4%, the infection mortality rate (the number
      of reported deaths divided by the number of infections) will be lower. For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually
      well below 0.1%. However, mortality is to a large extent determined by access to and quality of health care.”
      While we have strong health care, if 15% of cases require hospitalization, and there are a large number of cases, beds will be full and people may pass who otherwise would not have.
      https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200306-sitrep-46-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=96b04adf_2

  4. It should be considered comparatively low given the number of current cases reported, but will increase as the outbreak expands. That’s why the CDC is recommending limiting ones risk of exposure the resulting cancellation of public events.

    From the CDC – “Risk of exposure:
    The immediate risk of being exposed to this virus is still low for most Americans, but as the outbreak expands, that risk will increase. Cases of COVID-19 and instances of community spread are being reported in a growing number of states.
    People in places where ongoing community spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported are at elevated risk of exposure, with the level of risk dependent on the location.
    Healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 are at elevated risk of exposure.
    Close contacts of persons with COVID-19 also are at elevated risk of exposure.
    Travelers returning from affected international locations where community spread is occurring also are at elevated risk of exposure, with level of risk dependent on where they traveled.
    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html#risk-assessment

  5. One more thing:

    If Representative Gosch has no underlying health concerns, he got tested to see if he might get a cold. Yes, if he is positive, he is a risk to the elderly.

    But, how would that be different if he was being tested for Influenza? If positive for influenza, he’d have a rougher bout while sick, a very slightly higher risk of complications or death, and pose the same risk to the elderly.

    In other words, we have over-reacted as a nation, we have permanently destroyed a certain amount of income and wealth that is gone for ever, we have closed businesses and cancelled events which will be devastating to millions of Americans whose families live paycheck to paycheck and have exposed the risk to our nation of what happens when the fears and stupidity of snowflakes becomes a mob.

    China doesn’t have to beat us in war. They just have to get us to panic.

    1. Troy, China forced 800 million people to stay home for a month. If you are insinuating that China played a trick on the USA, they sure went “all in” selling it.

      Additionally, we spend the money so we don’t have the deaths. Your math exercise isn’t fair. I agree that in the final analysis the US may see a relatively modest death toll, but you don’t declare time and money invested in working out and eating right a waste because you didn’t have a heart attack.

      1. I don’t think China developed this virus as a bio-weapon.

        That said, I do think they were intentional (to save face as opposed to trying to start a pandemic) in not disclosing this when they should have.

        And, I also think they are smart enough to see what happens when Americans become irrationally fearful.

        My math exercise is exactly fair. We don’t shut down entire industries and events with equally virulent flu strains which occur every year. But, because of fear and stupidity of the masses, we have inflicted significant financial harm on entire industries and the working poor of our nation.

        1. “The coronavirus outbreak in Italy has gotten so bad so quickly that some doctors are now forced to practice “catastrophe medicine” — determining which severely ill patients should, and should not, get care based on the resources available,” Axios reports.

          “The U.S. is not at that point — but a week ago, neither was Italy.”

          Troy, it’s because of the bold action being taken by our leaders that the US has a real chance to weather this storm better than Italy.

        2. “Equally virulent” is misleading as it stands. What makes the coronavirus unique is its combination of virulence and mortality. While I think many estimates are overblown, you are showing no small amount of intellectual dishonesty here.

          1. I apologize, I meant ease of spreading and mortality. Virulence just refers to severity generally, which doesn’t mean much alone.

          2. Where is my intellectual honesty?

            The longer this runs it is looking much more like Swine Flu on all counts which is making all the doomsday projections look stupid.

            And because it’s most severe symptoms are experienced in a narrower band of the populaiton than the flu, it looks like its worst outcomes can be avoided by concentrating efforts on segregating the old (which is easy to do) with little change by the rest of us (which has the benefit of the population getting herd immuminity.

            1. You aren’t being honest about why the disease is unique in its threat: it spreads quickly, with scientists saying it is more contagious than influenza (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/health-officials-coronavirus-covid19-flu-health-outbreak) and is more lethal than most types of flu, as well being completely asymptomatic during its incubation period, where it is still transmittable.

              Again, I also think people are blowing the total risk out of proportion, but you are clearly trying to minimize here for what I suspect are political reasons.

              1. First, with the rapidity of the decline in rate of spread, every day that goes by indicates it is more likely to be less or comparably contagious.

                Second, the 2% death rate assumes the 132,000 cases world-wide are the full extent of the infections. Since 80% of the actual cases are asymptomatic or mistaken for a cold, the death rate is increasingly looking lower than the influenza and comparable to the swine flu.

                If you think I’m being political, I think Obama’s limited and proportionate response to the swine flu was great (only asked for $1.5 billion of extra spending, no shutdowns of entire industries and events, etc.). I think this reaction (and to the extent Trump acquiesced to the hysteria) has been grossly excessive.

                Third, I hear the Governor is calling for schools to close next week. (this virus is extremely mild and of virtual no risk to healthy kids). This will be easy for the stay at home mom’s. But the removal of kids from a place they are safe to a place they are unsupervised if the parents can’t leave work OR risking grandparents to have them care for kids is flat out asinine.

                2. Decline in the rate of spread? Nope. We are still at 1.15 – 1.25 infection rate from the day before. This hasn’t slowed since it began. We are still waiting for the surge here.

                  1. I’m sure you’re aware of the rate of recovery? People are recovering right? Is everyone who has been diagnosed dying?

                    1. That has nothing to do with tracking the spread of the disease for epidemiological purposes, but thanks?

                    2. It’s always fun watching people who know nothing of what they talk about trying to grasp straws to remain in their state of denial. Mr Lederman, is that you?

  6. Well said Troy and my thoughts exactly.
    So good reading common sense backed up by intelligence.
    Let’s hope and pray and pray some more Spencer does not have CVD19.

    2. Amen – Overreaction to the fullest extent. Americans have gone soft are scared of basically the Flu. What happens when we have a REAL crisis on our hands and we can’t band together for the common good to fight it because most will remember the overblown reaction by the media, government, and everyday Americans who bought all the toilet paper, baby wipes, and Lysol from the stores? This is all really too bad and the only ones who will benefit from this are the Rich and Powerful who will reap the financial rewards (buying up cheap stocks) and enact more Inane laws to curtail our freedoms but, hey at least I won’t get a cold.

  7. I suspect people are going to be really, really, and I mean really pissed off when this madness ends.

    This is pure insanity.

  8. Odin, I’m hoping they’ll realize aggressive action now contained the problem from becoming more widespread later. We will get through this. Ignore the noise. Listen to Dr. Fauci.and not to the noise. Some of the “madness” is evidenced in some of the comments. As a nation, we all need to take a deep breath and come together – for the moment, with appropriate social distancing, meticulously wash our hands, and stay home if you’re sick. The interim economic and social pain are real, but the costs of indifference are worse.

    1. This is what people will rest on is “thank goodness we reacted” as the only defense to the complete and udder overreaction that will Financially ruin lives. I am saddened for the individuals getting ready to retire who have lost a good chunk of their retirement and now will not have time to recoup it when the madness ends. The poor small business owners who will go under due to this overreaction.

      Its apparent Americans are not made of ANYTHING Grandpa and Grandma were made of. We are scared of the Flu, they said F#ck you to Polio and Hitler so yeah I wish I had been born a few generations back because this Purell Soccer Mom and Soy Boy generation is going to doom us.

      1. Grandma and grandpa’s generation also had jim crow laws, drinking themselves blind on bathtub gin, etc. Stop romanticizing the past, bud.

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