Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: appointed, drywall, bill)

[blistex649]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

So tired of the deference to the medical staff. They have a job to do and they need to do it. Just like when I am busy at my job. I don't tell the world to slow down cause I need time to catch up. I deal with it. I have plans in place to deal with it. But no the precious geniuses at medical place want everything their way and if they don't get it... well, it is the "situation"

The situation is laughable. There are only 2000 cases in Massachusetts -- assume that 5% are serious that is a whopping 100 cases.

Please don't tell me they can't handle it. And, if they can't, they need to be fired because it absolutely NOT impossible that something much worse will come their way.

That is their job. Not mine. And i am not supporting this insanity one more minute.

As Spock once said, needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

If Boston didn't act pretty quick, it would have been alot worse. Let's say New York never acts, and interstate travel is allowed, tourist, etc. You'll see it really get out of control.

[Tey]

I think my biggest frustrations have been that the library is closed, and getting a sitter or tutor to come in is not an option. I could really use good STEAM curriculum ideas we can adapt for at-home learning. I’ll look into that but our challenge will be finding time to do everything. Maybe we should stop trying to replicate normal school days, I feel like it’s practically impossible.

I checked out Scholastic’s online store - they have a great selection of boxed sets & collections. I ordered two sets which I hope will arrive soon. Is it even safe to open packages without first sanitizing?

School is racing to put some content online which will hopefully be up in a week or so. Maybe that will restore a little sense of normalcy. We’ll have to find out.

[redplum33]

233 deaths in the US on Wednesday.

New Orleans emerges as next coronavirus epicenter, threatening rest of South

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by DaIceman

This stuff is real, and shouldn't be taken lightly. A friend of a friend in Lynnfield died today from COVID-19.

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/03/25/...AbYYUU5xepVCUQ

People keep bring up the one or two people who died from it who are allegedly under 50 or "it could happen to you" but the facts don't bear that out. The press won't do a story on the 95% that recovered successfully.

You can die from the flu -- you can be killed in a car accident. We do not put the world on hold.

If Boston didn't act pretty quick, it would have been alot worse.

You have no proof for that. Tons of people who have the virus are not being tested and they aren't being tested because their symptoms are mild. Thus they are not being counted. Then there are the people who already had it and recovered... which even now experts say is likely.

[sarahmccoy]

I have a 9 year old, 7 year old and a 3 year old. It’s really hard if you don’t tackle each day with a thought out plan. I use education.com, google classroom, Read Theory, Get Epic, Xtra Math and science videos from Mystery Doug. A lot of stuff is online now so that’s a good thing. I bought a bunch of craft supplies for coloring and painting etc. Legos, playing outside a ton, going for walks. Having them help cook and prep food, do chores inside and outside. All of those things usually get us to about noon time lol! This is hard, and I give teachers so much respect.

[jtolpin]

From another side.... we have 1 college sophmore at home now (and the senior in her apartment with room mates... another issue) and one junior high schooler.

Tough to have room for the college child to study/quiet area, while everyone is home, but we 'do what we have to do'.

When the other one comes home, itll get more complicated, but for now, we manage.

Walks outside are important.

FOr younger kids, dunno for sure, but just letting you know, we all feel it..

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by Arya Stark

People keep bring up the one or two people who died from it who are allegedly under 50 or "it could happen to you" but the facts don't bear that out. The press won't do a story on the 95% that recovered successfully.

You can die from the flu -- you can be killed in a car accident. We do not put the world on hold.



You have no proof for that. Tons of people who have the virus are not being tested and they aren't being tested because their symptoms are mild. Thus they are not being counted. Then there are the people who already had it and recovered... which even now experts say is likely.

They say "the dose makes the poison", which is a difficult concept for most people to internalize. People have a near zero tolerance for things they consider "dangerous" and willingly accept lots of smaller risks that are, in the end, far more dangerous. A good example is something like radiation. People are unreasonably terrified of radiation because it can be extremely dangerous and they have been conditioned that it is really scary. In reality, almost everything in nature is slightly radioactive, but at a low enough level to be safe. It's only highly concentrated radiation sources that can be dangerous (and the danger depends strongly on the type of radiation).

With communicable disease, a good analog is that "the death rate make the danger". The flu is deadly, and kills enough healthy young people that you can easily find news articles about it:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...m-flu/2213988/

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/he...1-9fac073ca71c

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/17/healt...ise/index.html

The flu isn't considered dangerous because these events, compared to the entire population, are rare. People don't think of the flu as dangerous (even though it is). Not only do we go out in public with the flu around, lots of people willingly skip partially effective vaccinations for a variety of reasons.

The big issue, right now, with COVID-19 is that, unlike the flu, we don't have an accurate accounting of just how dangerous it is. Even the level-headed policy makers that occasionally have a say in government can't make a realistic assessment. We have a pretty good idea it's more dangerous than the flu, but how much so is still an open topic of research.

When you combine our lack of knowledge with the general lack of ability to accurately reflect on risk, you get the current situation. Public health experts, who are generally tasked with keeping people alive, naturally are inclined to be conservative in their risk tolerance. The worst-case scenarios are pretty dire. Economists and politicians and people with jobs that can't be done remotely are not tasked with keeping people alive, and so may choose less-than-worst-case health scenarios for better-than-worst-case economic outcomes.

Personally, I think the best choice right now is to treat the disease as potentially catastrophic and spend all our efforts getting more information. Testing should ramp up considerably (Massachusetts is already making headway here, if you look at the testing numbers in the last few days). An quick, cheap, antibody test should absolutely be developed ASAP. If, as you say, lots of people have already had this, we should figure that out.

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Personally, I think the best choice right now is to treat the disease as potentially catastrophic and spend all our efforts getting more information. Testing should ramp up considerably (Massachusetts is already making headway here, if you look at the testing numbers in the last few days). An quick, cheap, antibody test should absolutely be developed ASAP. If, as you say, lots of people have already had this, we should figure that out.

Great post. I do think the antibody test is very close to being perfected. I am desperate to get it as I have developed a condition that can be caused by a strong viral infection.

So if I had the coronavirus that would go a long way to determining how to treat it.

I am up for 30 days of social distancing. But I am getting tired of the hysteria. People sit home all day watching tv and tv is hysterical. I am currently working and co workers call me from home freaking out. I have to remind them of facts.

[OutdoorLover]

Regarding the comparison to the flu: the data indicates that Covid-19 is 2x more contagious than influenza and 10x more fatal for those that catch it than influenza. Lay people ranting about it may not recognize what the implications of that are, but they are very serious!

Having said that, the mandates for mitigation up until now have been pretty broad, blunt instruments. To mitigate the economic fallout, it makes sense to adjust them per the geographic region based on local severity, and to adjust them per the criticality of the industry. It doesn't need to be a single, nationwide policy.

[mdovell]

Sharon from the extremes I think would might end up happening isn't so much a normality but rather if monitoring can occur for the number of cases being tested and then I'll pull back if it get above a certain point. this is the basis of that British study that showed that you could answer say 2 months and No Malice see a spike and then a half lockdown until it gets down again and then reopened and then again and again this could go on for a year-and-a-half.

given the total amount of people in Massachusetts at about 6.9 million and the current testing velocity of 7800 day and assuming that a quarter of the population might have to be tested that comes out to 7 months.

students in Massachusetts are not going to go back in May and I might be a possibility that they might spend some of the next school year also online. I hear you on people being scared. Social media doesn't help. A friend of mine works in Connecticut and he was provided documentation showing that he is essential for the Governor's orders. She had a tail light out was pulled over by a police officer that may have asked to see those papers. This caused a significant argument online for a good half-hour over rumors of closing the roads and entirety. don't even get me started of the friend of a friend heard from somebody in the military that there's going to be some lockdown in some place and not ever going to leave your home so stock up on everything. if anything that logic is reversed those that are more apt to get sick or going to see more security around them such as nursing homes. then you've got these people arguing that you should bug out and go to some rural remote area ignoring the fact that there's very little herd immunity and less access to Healthcare.