Coronavirus in Massachusetts (homes, high school, universities)

[CaseyB]

I received my 1st dose yesterday, the 2nd is at the end of March.

[msRB311]

Interesting Return to work article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/b...ronavirus.html

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

I received my 1st dose yesterday, the 2nd is at the end of March.

Hey congratulations, those elusive doses do exist! Did you have any side-effects worth talking about in the first couple of days?

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Interesting Return to work article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/b...ronavirus.html

^^^You wrote return to work. Is that a Freudian slip?

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

^^^You wrote return to work. Is that a Freudian slip?

ha. well the article is about companies making return to work plans. It's interesting reading the comments. Most don't want to go back.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

But I'm also frustrated for my higher ed colleagues. We were encouraged to open by the state (since so many local businesses rely on our students) but have been cut out of vaccinations. The university I work for has frequent testing and quarantines students who have both tested positive and students in close contact with them. That means that I have colleagues who are forced to go into rooms with students who have covid in order to care for them. They won't get the vaccine until general population because that's not considered communal living by the state. A few friends in the res life field are considered higher risk even though they're young, but they have had to work throughout the pandemic because their housing is attached to their employment. College professors and other student-facing staff who are in-person don't get to be vaccinated with K-12 teachers, despite working with a populations that has particularly high spread rates.

Higher Ed isn't going to be prioritized since the school year ends soon.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Interesting Return to work article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/b...ronavirus.html

That is interesting. I can understand the viewpoint of upper management in terms of a business that operates as 100% corporate office. I wonder how much of this insistence is really due to financials over "increased collaborative efforts"? They've been paying for empty office space that they really can't do much with. Short of a major plan to downsize their offices (which will cost money upfront) they really need to insist people come back to justify that square footage.


In our case, where we operate lab/manufacturing alongside corporate operations, our office space is MUCH more valuable to us as lab space, therefore the willingness to put forth a permanent remote/hybrid plan for workers. All that unused office space is (currently being) converted to lab/manufacturing space, which in terms makes the business money.

It's going to be very interesting how different companies roll out different plans over the next year, and what the big picture looks like when the dust settles. I imagine businesses ,such as restaurants, that located in the midst of a large corporate office area are also waiting nervously to see what the future holds.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by msRB311

ha. well the article is about companies making return to work plans. It's interesting reading the comments. Most don't want to go back.

The article is about returning to office. Being from the NYT I found it heavily slanted towards propping up the pre-COVID status quo rather than embracing efficiencies and environmental improvements that could come from permanent large scale remote work.

[msRB311]

Yeah i definitely am not a fan of that Rapid7 company already saying, ''But if you’re the odd person out when everybody else is back together, that may be challenging for you.”

Kind of crappy.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Higher Ed isn't going to be prioritized since the school year ends soon.

Mid to late May. I wouldn't call that soon, though sooner than K-12.


If student-facing staff and faculty got their first vaccines in the next month, they'd be fully vaccinated before many students leave for the summer. But then again, we had a significant portion of students stay even last summer because they didn't have anywhere safe to go and I imagine we'll have a larger percentage of students on campus this summer for summer classes and research.


At the very least, residence life staff who live and work in proximity to isolation housing should have been able to get vaccinated along with staff at homeless shelters, nursing and other residential homes.