Coronavirus in Massachusetts (procedure, document, necessary)

[id77]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

We have a great at-home office setup including multiple monitors in a quiet area of the house that is tucked away from the areas our kids use most.

My husband is using it.

Meanwhile I'm set up with a makeshift desk and my tiny laptop in the guest room that is close to my kids' rooms and doesn't have a proper door. We have a dedicated office on the main floor. We bought our house before having kids and I thought having an office on the main floor would be perfect so I could still see the kids. Boy was that dumb. Turns out kids are loud. Now that room is a playroom and while we found space for my husband's at-home office upstairs, we didn't count on BOTH of us working from home full-time for an extended amount of time.

In terms of real-estate trends, I feel like some things started to become "must-haves". Like open floor plans, kitchen islands and master bathrooms (these are not my must-haves, but more like HGTV-determined must haves). I wonder if dedicated office space will be the next "must-have" if WFH becomes more ubiquitous after all of this.

I'd say a home office has been a pretty desirable thing (I would certainly love it) since well before the pandemic, but the thing that made it hard before was the cost. RE prices have not slowed, so as "must-have" as it may feel, I'm not sure all that many people will really be willing to pony over an additional $150k-200k just for a dedicated office space.

My budget allowed me to get either a third bedroom for an office or a second bathroom, and I took the second bathroom in a heartbeat.

[sawyer2]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

Yes, an attic office sounds amazing!! It sounds spacious and has a dedicated bathroom. I'm so jealous. We don't have an attic, but I wish we did. You timed that renovation perfectly!

Yes, fortuitous timing - a lot of hand wringing and wincing at the cost at the time but not now.

2 of our neighbors have started full basement renovations for similar reasons. One is going well over $100K all-in, but will add 1000+sq ft finished space so worth it for that.

[Bridge781]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bos...tputType%3Damp

[mdovell]

Double monitors can be a godsend. I've used programs that cannot be resized and minimizing back and forth gets old fast.

There were some shortages of av equipment but I think that's ebbed. Having quiet neighbors helps. I had one that should have realized that you can hear though the walls....

I've learned more on av in the past few years. Microphone with popfilter, head phones. I have a desklamp that's pretty good at three different color temperature ranges but there's a very nice (and large) ring lamp I have. It is worth it to put in more time and effort for professionalism. Just because something is easy to do does not mean the results are better. If everyone on the internet took a basic photography class it would improve everything.

[Shrewsburried]

According to IV Technicals, TX Covid hospitalizations have surged 11% in past 24 hours (as of this AM).

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

According to IV Technicals, TX Covid hospitalizations have surged 11% in past 24 hours (as of this AM).

When we see anomalies, it is worth looking into why they might be trending this direction. Are patients for any reason now being tested as part of procedure? Were closed communities like prisons and dorms just tested? Are employers mandating tests to go back to work? What does a "case" mean? Does it include antibodies? Asymptomatic? Is the fatality rate continuing to plunge as it has been for a long time now? Was there a delay in reporting/backlog? How many of these are repetitive tests on the same person? Why only these few places and not the country at large?

I know some of these answers, but just suggesting how it's good to think about supposedly objective statistics. Far from. Anyway, if you look into it, you will feel better.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

When we see anomalies, it is worth looking into why they might be trending this direction. Are patients for any reason now being tested as part of procedure? Were closed communities like prisons and dorms just tested? Are employers mandating tests to go back to work? What does a "case" mean? Does it include antibodies? Asymptomatic? Is the fatality rate continuing to plunge as it has been for a long time now? Was there a delay in reporting/backlog? How many of these are repetitive tests on the same person? Why only these few places and not the country at large?

I know some of these answers, but just suggesting how it's good to think about supposedly objective statistics. Far from. Anyway, if you look into it, you will feel better.

Hospitalizations are more solid data than cases, and wouldn't have anything to do with antibodies or testing of prison or dorms. An increase in hospitalizations means an increase in severely symptomatic cases.

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Hospitalizations are more solid data than cases, and wouldn't have anything to do with antibodies or testing of prison or dorms. An increase in hospitalizations means an increase in severely symptomatic cases.

Elective surgeries and on site diagnostics are reopening in a big way. In many cases patients coming into the hospital for these procedures are tested for COVID-19 as a precaution. If they test positive, they are counted as a new hospitalized COVID-19 case, even if they have no or mild symptoms. These statistics often don’t represent severely symptomatic cases.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Elective surgeries and on site diagnostics are reopening in a big way. In many cases patients coming into the hospital for these procedures are tested for COVID-19 as a precaution. If they test positive, they are counted as a new hospitalized COVID-19 case, even if they have no or mild symptoms. These statistics often don’t represent severely symptomatic cases.

The report I’m referencing seems to suggest these were virus-driven hospitalizations, not on-site discoveries. I’m interpreting language though, so I could be wrong.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Elective surgeries and on site diagnostics are reopening in a big way. In many cases patients coming into the hospital for these procedures are tested for COVID-19 as a precaution. If they test positive, they are counted as a new hospitalized COVID-19 case, even if they have no or mild symptoms. These statistics often don’t represent severely symptomatic cases.

So you really think that Texas hospitals in the middle of a COVID-19 surge are seeing a big influx of elective procedures? That isn’t what happened in the Northeast Corridor.