Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Springfield, Hingham: permission, house, unemployment)

[BostonMike7]

I don't think they can pinpoint it. It's very likely that the people who are coming down with it know are not adhering to restrictions and such in general, and can not definitively point out where it is they contracted the virus? Lets just say in the course of a week, then went out to eat indoors twice, went over to a friends house for a party, rode the MBTA bus 4 times, went grocery shopping twice, did some outdoor yoga 2x without a mask, and socialized in general without a mask a number of times to various individuals. Where would you say they got it with 100% certainty?

If they did have solid data that pointed to particular businesses and practices, my guess is an announcement of that fact (in which they were unable to adjust their business model to counter the risk factor) would pretty much tank that business until next year if/when the virus is "gone".

I would almost say that the gov might just be looking the other way with regards to indoor dining. It doesn't make any sense given the amount of studies and such by experts who have stated that indoor spread is a common mode of transmission for covid.
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/ho...-common-places

[yesmaybe]

https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/f...accessible.pdf

MBTA staring to talk about big time permanent cuts to the system due to the ridership decline. Bus might be the one exception.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by id77

That's part of the problem. Covid has become a scarlet letter these days, and any mention that a case broke out at a specific business would tank future business, even after they did a deep cleaning and after they followed the rules. They'd likely also endure some ongoing social shaming from the more extreme coronaphobics.

yep. I think people are afraid to admit even having a cold.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/f...accessible.pdf

MBTA staring to talk about big time permanent cuts to the system due to the ridership decline. Bus might be the one exception.

Jeez! That sucks! I can see why they might pare things back to rebalance revenues and outlays better during the pandemic, but I don't see why they'd look to just eliminate services permanently.

[htfdcolt]

Just listened to Dr. Helen Boucher of Tufts on WBUR. She confirmed that most of the rising cases in MA are young people, and linked it to the student population increase since Labor Day. Also remarked that there is no issue with hospital or ICU capacity in MA. While she said it's too early to know IFR exactly, that treatment methods are definitely improving. This is all good news heading into the winter.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

Just listened to Dr. Helen Boucher of Tufts on WBUR. She confirmed that most of the rising cases in MA are young people, and linked it to the student population increase since Labor Day. Also remarked that there is no issue with hospital or ICU capacity in MA. While she said it's too early to know IFR exactly, that treatment methods are definitely improving. This is all good news heading into the winter.

A lot has been learned about the complicated pathology of Covid-19 and how to deal with it. Even some existing medications - the right ones, given at the right times to the right patients, have reduced mortality and morbidity - identification and sharing of best practices by clinicians as well as clinical trials have advanced that work. Two prime examples are steroidal anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants.

And, while you don't develop new drugs from scratch in a year, some new treatments like targeted monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs like Remdesivir are coming online. Remdesivir was already out there, but I think it hadn't found much successful application (some use on Ebola in Africa) until Covid-19 and it hadn't won domestic FDA approval. Monoclonal antibodies can be very effective and can be developed faster than small molecule drugs, but they are very expensive though (~ $100K for treatment), and these treatments won't scale well for this reason.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/f...accessible.pdf

MBTA staring to talk about big time permanent cuts to the system due to the ridership decline. Bus might be the one exception.

Those reductions don't seem so bad, mostly hits to the commuter rail and ferry. If WFH stays higher post pandemic as compared to pre-COVID, then cuts to those specific areas are viable.

[mdovell]

There goes the housing market in Hingham. No ferry. I don't know as nyokne in Hingham that wants to drive to Boston let alone take a train in.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by mdovell

There goes the housing market in Hingham. No ferry. I don't know as nyokne in Hingham that wants to drive to Boston let alone take a train in.

There's discussion of eliminating routes. If anything, I believe they would reduce service versus eliminating the route. That ferry runs every 15-60 minutes during the course of the day.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by mdovell

There goes the housing market in Hingham. No ferry. I don't know as nyokne in Hingham that wants to drive to Boston let alone take a train in.

not necessarily. If remote work continues past the pandemic (whenever it 'ends') then more people might want to move to a place like hingham because they won't have to commute into boston.