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Coronavirus

Started by bacardiandlime, January 30, 2020, 03:20:28 PM

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Larimar

Quote from: mythbuster on July 23, 2020, 01:39:57 PM
I'm so glad all my classes are online. I'll just sit here in my home office until 2021.

Me too!

zyzzx

Quote from: Anselm on July 23, 2020, 11:13:08 AM
Can anyone fill us in on how other nations are handling school and the pandemic?

In properly managed countries it's not nearly so fraught. With the numbers beat down via lockdown, good contact tracing, plenty of testing, and a population willing to obey the rules, a whole new world opens up. Schools where I live started opening incrementally a few months ago, and it went ok. They are planned to be open in the fall (assuming no changes in the numbers). Masks, distancing, and handwashing, of course. Daycares have also been open for months. Universities are just finishing a fully online semester and I think the general plan for many is for a mix of online and in-person classes for the next semester, aiming for in-person for the courses where that is most beneficial. Of course, the financial picture for universities here is completely different, as they are publicly funded, charge no tuition, and there are no dorms to make money off of. Life here in general is actually pretty much back to normal (at least for me), aside from the masks. My institute is open, as well as restaurants, bars, stores, and pretty much everything except clubs and really big gatherings. The only thing I'm missing now is travelling outside the EU.

And the thing is, this return to near normalcy actually appears pretty safe. Our state has been sitting at single digit numbers of cases per day for months, so the opening up has been going well. We also have testing, contact tracing, quarantines with a lot of followup for contacts, and a government ready and willing to ramp up restrictions if certain limits are hit. I'm sure that this will happen at some point, but with good surveillance, I'm confident that flare-ups will be caught before they're out of control.

So sure, schools can reopen safely, but not in the US. Without good general pandemic management, I think that everything else is just a band-aid. It's really depressing (and infuriating) to see how screwed up things are over there. 
 

writingprof

Quote from: Larimar on July 23, 2020, 02:23:12 PM
Quote from: mythbuster on July 23, 2020, 01:39:57 PM
I'm so glad all my classes are online. I'll just sit here in my home office until 2021.

Me too!

Me, too, but only if it's sustainable.  Problem: It isn't.  If I'm sitting at home, watching Netflix, writing, and teaching my six classes a year, it's not clear why I'm being paid literally five times more than adjuncts with the same workload.  Presumably, my administrators will eventually rectify this disparity.  They will not do so by bumping up the adjuncts' pay.

evil_physics_witchcraft

Quote from: Larimar on July 23, 2020, 02:23:12 PM
Quote from: mythbuster on July 23, 2020, 01:39:57 PM
I'm so glad all my classes are online. I'll just sit here in my home office until 2021.

Me too!

I have been trying to get permission to do this for the last three weeks. but haven't heard back from HR despite numerous emails. I have underlying health conditions and I'm trying to not panic about this.

kaysixteen

Depressing and infuriating it obviously must be, but I am wondering just exactly how pathetic the US must appear over there now, and I can probably think of a few more adjectives as well.   Indeed, just exactly how much worse an image does the US have now, than it did before Trump came to power?

mamselle

Well, the UK has Boris, so there's that...

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

AmLitHist

Quote from: mamselle on July 24, 2020, 06:01:06 AM
Well, the UK has Boris, so there's that...

M.

Competing to be the best-looking horse in the glue factory isn't much consolation.

mamselle

Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

hmaria1609

Starting Monday (7/27), non-essential travelers from high risk areas to DC will need to self-quarantine as ordered by Mayor Bowser today:
https://wtop.com/coronavirus/2020/07/dc-coronavirus-update-july-24/
Maryland and Virginia are exempted.

zyzzx

Quote from: AmLitHist on July 24, 2020, 07:27:03 AM
Quote from: mamselle on July 24, 2020, 06:01:06 AM
Well, the UK has Boris, so there's that...

M.

Competing to be the best-looking horse in the glue factory isn't much consolation.

Yeah, I know some UK folks who admitted to being relieved that they were no longer the ugliest horse at the glue factory after the 2016 election. Because of course Boris is just the follow-on to Brexit.
In general, people over here seem confused, horrified, and a little bit amused by what's going on in the US. There is certainly some schadenfreude, but as the effects increasingly hit ordinary people, some compassion as well. I think everyone is really just waiting for this nightmare to be over.

jimbogumbo

Quote from: zyzzx on July 24, 2020, 02:08:32 PM
Quote from: AmLitHist on July 24, 2020, 07:27:03 AM
Quote from: mamselle on July 24, 2020, 06:01:06 AM
Well, the UK has Boris, so there's that...

M.

Competing to be the best-looking horse in the glue factory isn't much consolation.

I'm going out on a limb and say if I were a horse I'd prefer to be the ugliest one not IN the glue factory.

Yeah, I know some UK folks who admitted to being relieved that they were no longer the ugliest horse at the glue factory after the 2016 election. Because of course Boris is just the follow-on to Brexit.
In general, people over here seem confused, horrified, and a little bit amused by what's going on in the US. There is certainly some schadenfreude, but as the effects increasingly hit ordinary people, some compassion as well. I think everyone is really just waiting for this nightmare to be over.

apl68

Quote from: apl68 on July 21, 2020, 01:28:41 PM
Our cowboy-loving staff member dodged COVID-19 after the rodeo a while back.  But now she and her daughter are both sick with something.  Daughter has tested negative.  Mother admitted to feeling feverish and work and has been sent home and instructed to get tested.  We're really hoping she tests negative and that whatever she has is only a coincidence.

She just couldn't resist crossing the state line into one of the nation's most notorious hot-zone states to do some more shopping....

So, early Saturday afternoon I learned that the staff member above had indeed tested positive for COVID-19.  I spent much of the afternoon on the phone with other staff members, our Board of Trustees vice-president, and somebody from the state Department of Health trying to determine whether any of the rest of us had come into close contact with her in the days leading up to her getting sick.  She had been mostly staying her office, managing our library social media and such from there. 

I had been urging staff members to do a better job of practicing social distancing among ourselves.  Looks like the message was getting through.  We determined that none of us had been in close contact.  So, as of this morning, we're still open for business.  Our potential Typhoid Mary is still recuperating at home.  Looks like she has not had a very bad case of it.
See, your King is coming to you, just and bringing salvation, gentle and lowly, and riding upon a donkey.

spork

It's terrible writing, used to obfuscate the fact that the authors actually have nothing to say.

Parasaurolophus

There's a ton of tourists around, and almost nobody is masking. Especially in the whiter areas (which, admittedly, are fewer in number than the non-white areas). Sigh.
I know it's a genus.

spork

It's terrible writing, used to obfuscate the fact that the authors actually have nothing to say.