Is it really the law that if the governor decrees an emergency at any point, she can then extend her enhanced power indefinitely into the future in 30-day increments, even when her moves become entirely precautionary?

The math of recent COVID hospitalization trends has flipped the projection from exponential increase back to gradual decline. Just like that.

The reason RI COVID-19 numbers have been doing things that make a simplistic model inapplicable are instructive as a lesson on the more-sophisticated models of the experts.

If we see an increase in hospitalizations, it may very well be an indication that fewer people are dying, which is good, and that people are in the hospital for other reasons, which isn’t an indication that COVID is overwhelming our resources.

Today’s data release from the state brings more non-dramatic continuation of trends.

As nationwide deaths move COVID-19 toward loss of its “epidemic” status, Rhode Island continues to see improvement.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in RI was higher today than it’s been, but the number of tests was up, and we’re still under 100.

We’ll see where this goes, but it remains entirely plausible to expect that cases will continue on the increase while serious cases and deaths continue to decline in Texas, while Rhode Island continues on its positive trends.

There is a lot of talk about how facts and science are not matters of opinion, but with a large gap between what the facts show and the claims being made on that basis.

Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo claims that she makes her decisions based on facts and science, but her restrained move to Phase 3 COVID-19 reopening shows that to be a false pretense.

As the world of COVID-19 news focuses on increased positive tests in Florida and Texas, Rhode Islanders should take not of other interesting (and telling) results.

The story of today’s COVID-19 data release for RI is one of revision. Numbers came in above my projections, but that’s largely because earlier data was revised up.

Rhode Island’s COVID-19 data is coming up to some milestones, and the conversation should start to transition to following economic recovery.

Generally, the trends toward COVID-19 improvement continue in Rhode Island… despite people out and about, following the governor’s rules or following her demonstrated practices.

It has now been two weeks since the large rally in Providence, including the governor’s naked-faced prayer session in the midst of the crowd.

Today’s data report is the first since early April that shows fewer than 1,000 “active”cases, defined with the assumption that the average case lasts 14 days.

The chart of hospitalization projections for this post is extended out to the end of July, by which time the model shows essentially none.

If Rhode Island had taken an approach of masks, hygiene, and social distancing, it isn’t absurd to think the toll of the disease could have been reduced, while also limiting the amount of collateral damage to our economy and to our lives.

At this point, Rhode Island’s COVID-19 situation is improving so rapidly that adherence to minimum space between each stage of reopening is coming to seem obstinate.