Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Florida: records, homes, school)

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

Was also glad to read the documentation around how schools have not played a role in the spread, how kids are less likely to become infected, and that they may be less likely to infect others. Also, looks like they aren't recommending regular temperature checks.

It appears that they are suggesting temp checks be performed at home, vs having someone at school perform them.

I can this causing issues in the case where a parent needs to get to work and cannot take the day off (or cannot afford to) and simply saying the hell with the temp check and dropping the kid off at school. That happened pre-covid with kids going to Daycares/School with constant reminders from my kid's daycare to not bring kids there if they have a fever.

The exact wording

Screening upon entry:

Checking for symptoms each morning by families and caregivers is critical and will serve as the primary screening mechanism for COVID-19 symptoms.41 Schools should provide information to families in their primary language to support them in conducting this symptom check and families should not send their children to school if they exhibit COVID19 symptoms. We will be providing a checklist of symptoms and other guides to districts and schools to help families and students.
• Screening procedures are not required at the point of entry to the school. However, school staff (as well as bus drivers) should observe students throughout the day and refer students who may be symptomatic to the school healthcare point of contact.
• As noted in previous guidance, temperature checks are not recommended as screening for all students due to the high likelihood of potential false positive and false negative results.42

At my office, we have false positives all the time. We used to send people home for 72 hours paid, but that started to take it's toll on production and NONE of the send-homes ended up being covid, so they trimmed it back to 24hour. One worker here has been sent home on 7 different occasions with false positives.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

How are we on the way out of the pandemic if today was the highest rate of cases in the US?

Because we, along with NY and NJ, took it incredibly seriously. We waited until our cases were low enough that we had adequate testing, enough contact tracers, and limited community spread before reopening. And we have a near 100% mask adoption rate.



It really breaks my heart that if other states had taken this as seriously as the Northeast did, we could be so much further through this as a country.

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

It appears that they are suggesting temp checks be performed at home, vs having someone at school perform them.

I can this causing issues in the case where a parent needs to get to work and cannot take the day off (or cannot afford to) and simply saying the hell with the temp check and dropping the kid off at school. That happened pre-covid with kids going to Daycares/School with constant reminders from my kid's daycare to not bring kids there if they have a fever.

I've been thinking about this too, and my hope is that the new "normal" is that it's finally OK to call in sick when your child is sick. This has always been a disturbing aspect to employment in this country. That you cannot not show up to work. I won't get preachy with all my extended issues with it, but I would really hope that both employers and employees can now, because of COVID, see the light and move past this mindset. Taking precautions and staying home is the right thing to do for everyone.

[charolastra00]

Are hospitals able to take less severe covid patients now that they've cleared out a bit more?


At surge, they were only able to take the most severe cases, leaving thousands of people to manage really scary symptoms at home. If you could walk across a room without sitting down, you weren't getting hospitalized.


I'm hoping the increase in hospital intake is more for people to get supplemental oxygen and maybe some steroids, an Rx for an inhaler, and then get sent home.

[sawyer2]

I would watch CA, TX, FL, AZ very closely over the next few weeks as it will be indicative of how well we can deal with these apparent surges/spikes.

Medical knowledge, testing, public awareness etc has all dramatically improved over the last few months. Surges are to be expected, and if these are suppressed quickly it will give confidence to all.

MA is doing great - currently lowest transmission rate in the country. I expect that the school guidelines will be relaxed further if we continue down this path, and conversely if not.

[sawyer2]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Are hospitals able to take less severe covid patients now that they've cleared out a bit more?


At surge, they were only able to take the most severe cases, leaving thousands of people to manage really scary symptoms at home. If you could walk across a room without sitting down, you weren't getting hospitalized.


I'm hoping the increase in hospital intake is more for people to get supplemental oxygen and maybe some steroids, an Rx for an inhaler, and then get sent home.

Local hospitals are trying to work through the huge back log of elective procedures, but protocols are in place to enable a rapid shift to increasing capacity to deal with a COVID surge.

[Bridge781]

I think other states didn’t take it as seriously as MA because they initially were not hit as hard as we were with the exception of a few of course.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by Bridge781

I think other states didn’t take it as seriously as MA because they initially were not hit as hard as we were with the exception of a few of course.

Exactly. I keep hearing the phrase "second wave" thrown around for some states, but many never really had the 1st wave.

It does seem that as the virus travels around to various geographic regions, the extent of the infection is more severe than the previous region. It seemed to hop from Europe, to the coasts of the US (northeast more specifically) and is now creeping into the heartland, slowed down by the restrictions that were implemented in march and now mostly relaxed. In a couple months from now, there will likely be another hotspot forming.

[bjimmy24]

I don't understand the praise for MA here. Mass is 4th in deaths per capita, 3rd in total deaths. Even in the last week, MA is 7th in deaths nationwide. Mass is the 15th largest state. I do not think anything mass has done has been effective.

I see a virus dying out seasonally, as they are wont to do.

[porterhouse]

It’s not an easy problem to solve obviously, but I think masks and schools are going to be very challenging. The good news is that the kids will be accustom to wearing their masks and washing their hands by the fall, if they are not already. Most of us have probably made our kids neurotic messes about these things. However, I think communication is going to be very challenging. You can’t tell what kids are mumbling half the time in the first place. Now, with kids and teachers wearing masks? It should be interesting.


One thing this pandemic has made me realize is that my hearing is not great and I have been unknowingly relying on lip reading to supplement my hearing for some time. what? WHAT? I’m sorry, WHAT??