Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: trip, tradition, labor)

[Bridge781]

So does anyone think numbers will go back up now that we’re opening things? I have no idea. I’d like to say we’re past the outbreak. I just wonder will this surge again this winter.

[charolastra00]

Part of the reason we're opening up so. slowly. is to try to prevent a spike. Unlike some of the other states that are opening up quickly, we still have a pretty wide spread of infection in the state because we had a large outbreak when we shut down (where they didn't).



The fall is worrisome, especially considering that we will likely still have an outbreak then and will (hopefully) have schools open. That could cause a spike. I know there's a lot of concern about the flu season coinciding, but I have to hope that we will all still be wearing masks, washing our hands religiously, and limiting big superspreader events. Many of us who can will still be working from home, also limiting spread. Those behaviors, along with the flu vaccine, will help prevent both a spike in covid and a spike in flu. The flu numbers will hopefully be reduced thanks to all the covid hygiene measures - and the flu is less contagious than covid anyway.



I worry a lot more about some other states who haven't experienced what we did having huge spikes in the fall. High school friends in Georgia have been posting photo after photo over the weekend at crowded restaurants (on the patio, but still) all seeing a different friend every day. Everyone's hugging and touching. One shared those photos all weekend and now are on vacation at a rental on the beach. Their spread is admittedly not as bad as here, but if they're already losing any sense of vigilance now, I worry about 6 months from now.

[Bridge781]

Yikes hugging and touching ? I haven’t done that with anyone other than my husband and kids in a long time. It’s sad I guess In a way. I Won’t be hugging anyone for a while. It’s weird to me that others think it’s no big deal.

[charolastra00]

Lots of people did Mother's Day with their older or elderly parents in Georgia because the state had already started opening up at that point. Meanwhile, I'm the shrew who is losing it every day on my parents (both VERY high risk - kidney disease/diabetes for one and high blood pressure for the other) to make sure they stay socially distant, wear masks, and walk out of any store where masks are not required. My dad, the one who is more at risk, wandered around Home Depot yesterday and kept swearing up and down that it was safe. Now, he's probably right - at least compared to my own - but these are habits we're going to have to stick with for awhile to temper a spike in the fall.


Meanwhile, I've had 0 physical contact in 70 days. My boyfriend typically splits his time between our apartment and his business in upstate NY, but he quarantined there to keep the business running. As things start to loosen up where he is, he planned on coming out on June 1. Now, he found out one of his employees may have been exposed and even if they all test negative, I don't know how I'm going to be comfortable with him in the apartment then. It sucks. I can't imagine hugging and touching a whole parade of people, often (based on the pictures) with my spouse and kids in tow.

[Bridge781]

Yeah no way to the hugging and kissing of fiends. My mother is 66 and has kind of been working the front lines of this as a nurse working for the dept of public health. I don’t feel worried about her. My dad is 73 and I’m a little more worried for him. Neither have underlying issues that we know of. My mother in law is the issue with diabetes and asthma. It will be a quiet summer. My husband is in a bit of denial about the severity of this at this point. There are no treatments. There needs to be something.

[Regina14]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

So does anyone think numbers will go back up now that we’re opening things? I have no idea. I’d like to say we’re past the outbreak. I just wonder will this surge again this winter.

My innate pessimism will not let me relax. I'm in two high-risk groups (almost 65 and temporarily immunocompromised), and I worry that we'll have a good summer, lots of optimism, and then get hit by a nasty second wave in the fall and/or winter. (especially with all the clustering/crowding going on in some other states)

So I'm going to keep buying hand sanitizer and masks, and won't go to the grocery store unless the numbers of cases and deaths really plummet. And make sure I'm well stocked with toilet paper and paper towel before the winter.

But I really hope I'm just being paranoid.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

So does anyone think numbers will go back up now that we’re opening things? I have no idea. I’d like to say we’re past the outbreak. I just wonder will this surge again this winter.

I've got no predictions. If you review the trajectory data in a lot of US states and a lot of countries, it (to me) defies any simple analysis, presumably there are many variables that are part of local conditions that are influencing the course of the pandemic.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Yes. I think one potential solution is to compensate nursing home workers handsomely to live on the campus or otherwise in quarantine, but I doubt that will actually happen, which is sad. Surely though, gov directions that nursing homes were mandated to take Covid patients really didn't help either. So at this point it's really trying to make the bets of a very bad situation. The nursing home situation was badly bungled on all sides, and that's a real shame.

65% of nursing home residents are Medicaid and another big chunk funded by their 90 day Medicare allotment. Medicaid nursing home payments in Massachusetts are 50% state, 50% Federal. Last I looked, Medicaid was almost 25% of the Massachusetts state budget and long term care was 1/3 of it. As Boomers age, the Boomers who run out of money and land in nursing homes are probably going to push that to closer to half of all Medicaid spending. It’s going to crush the state budget.

Your proposal probably doubles nursing home costs. That doubles the state and Federal costs. Are you willing to pay the big tax hike to fund it? Or shut down other state spending to fund it? It’s a tough choice.

[mdovell]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/...ill-stay-home/

Like I said before there's a difference between the state giving the OK and the actual business viability. The summer might be nice but quite a bit is still cancelled. That's going to create some pent up demand and I'm going to avoid any real crowd this summer.


"For some, the idea of the office will be reshaped radically. Ian Campbell, chief executive at Nucleus Research in Boston, said he told his dozen employees they have the option to work wherever they want. One has already moved out of state, and others may follow. He calls COVID-19 a watershed moment for office life.

“I don’t think an office will be as valuable if we put up partitions and hand-washing stations everywhere,” Campbell said. “That takes the vibe out of it . . . Will we ever ramp back up to 100 percent? I don’t think that happens again.”

Again like I mentioned before if you reduce a job to data and can just do it online then it will go online. Sure I get the old corporate mantra that there is "synergy" between departments and somehow things are better face to face. But the costs of it add up. To get people into the office and to have them work safely just became much more expensive. If they still want to operate under Mass state laws and regs they could just pick a cheaper area in the state to operate if they need a central office.

Bakers plan is nice but I didn't really see that much guidance for restaurants. I'm all for take out but some do want to go back to sitting down and having a meal with someone. Are we going to have the wear a mask while eating? How does that work?

As for academia coming back it still isn't looking good.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus...ncentives.html

That's a week for staff (not professors) but this hasn't fully hit if it they don't come back in the fall. This week 11,000 students are leaving umass amherst. They have a two hour window to pick up their stuff and go.

So if the students aren't back in the fall, if office administrators aren't back until the fall at least and restaurants have no guidance what's left in Boston? Sports are done, conferences, conventions. Any political events are easily done even offices have closed. Speaking of sports another interesting piece is without college sports being open the source of new professional players is pretty low should it start up again. I have a neighbor that does work in college sports.We don't really talk much but I'd argue he has little to do now. I'd argue anything with coaching or sports med in academia is on hold indefinitely.

Anyone know how the courts are doing now? Gumming up the legal system is bound to make things harder to do.

[TheGoodTheBadTheUgly]

Great article on how our corrupt Governor and elite governing class is destroying the state!

Gov. Charlie Baker is destroying the state’s economy.

For nearly two months, his draconian shutdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc and abrogated basic civil liberties. In fact, the lockdown is the most sweeping restriction of personal liberties in U.S. history.

https://wrko.iheart.com/featured/kuh...ever-lockdown/