Coronavirus

[mythbuster]

Our city has a mask mandate but the state does not. Our city has a mask mandate because we have 5 major hospitals here that are the major medical centers for at least 100 miles in every direction. The heads of the 5 hospitals have been holding the mayor's feet to the fire since June to maintain the mask mandate. They each deserve a fruit basket for these efforts. The mandate is currently set to expire next week, but I bet it will then get extended through the end of the year.
   I only shop early am, and the grocery stores here are pretty good about mandating masks, so I have felt pretty safe. But I have talked with students who live in the town next door and it's a free for all, with lots of people in stores without a mask anywhere to be seen.

[the_geneticist]

I'm not really worried for our staff.  We're seldom in the Community Room ourselves, and nobody else is allowed to use it during the pandemic, so any virus in there will have plenty of opportunity to die out before we come into contact with it.  But wouldn't it be terrible if one of our Council meetings turned into a super-spreading event?  And if all of our city officials except the City Librarian ended up in quarantine?

My university is requiring faculty to attend fall graduation in person shortly after Thanksgiving. I have similar concerns about its role as a super-spreader event. No photo op is worth COVID.

AR.

I think it's time for a little faculty disobedience!  Offer to attend as a cardboard cutout or on a Zoom screen.  No way I'd go to an in-person event.

[mamselle]

At some point, chronologically, geographically, somewhere, sometime, there's been a shift of belief--from the belief that what you and others DO can affect a situation, toward a belief IN a physical agent--drug, shot, elixir, magic potion--that wil "make it all better."

That might be tied to some other shifts here or elsethen, but it's almost a...I dunno, sociological/anthropological kind of thing...in lines with the cultural differences raised above.

It puts me in mind of the shift Amory described between "fame" and "celebrity' that he pinpointed to, I think, sometime in the late 19th/early 20th c...a qualitative difference in focus or values or beliefs that created a new set of assumptions about both itself and other entities.

Maybe.

M.

[AvidReader]

I think it's time for a little faculty disobedience!  Offer to attend as a cardboard cutout or on a Zoom screen.  No way I'd go to an in-person event.

I have considered that. We have had in-person classes all semester, so I've been exposed pretty much every weekday to small clumps of students anyway. Spouse--a "front line" worker anyway--has also offered to attend in my stead, fully clad in HAZMAT gear. Who would know?

The most frustrating part is that it is my first year here and I teach only lower division courses, so my presence there will not benefit any graduand. No student walking across the stage will care that I am there. I will be there for useless show.

AR.

[apl68]

At some point, chronologically, geographically, somewhere, sometime, there's been a shift of belief--from the belief that what you and others DO can affect a situation, toward a belief IN a physical agent--drug, shot, elixir, magic potion--that wil "make it all better."

M.

That's part of our problem--a hundred years' worth of "magic bullet" treatments for disease caused us to get lax.

I can remember reading triumphalist mid-century accounts of how Pasteur and Fleming and others conquered disease.  Turns out it wasn't quite that simple.

[hmaria1609]

From WTOP Radio:Contact tracing will be done as a major regional project among 4 states
https://wtop.com/local/2020/11/dc-maryland-virginia-and-west-virginia-join-in-covid-fight/

[spork]

An ancient coronavirus-like epidemic drove adaptation in East Asians from 25,000 to 5,000 years ago, claim researchers.

[AvidReader]

My university is requiring faculty to attend fall graduation in person shortly after Thanksgiving. I have similar concerns about its role as a super-spreader event. No photo op is worth COVID.

Update: email from university today encouraged everyone at the school to "continue to practice measures to minimize the opportunities for infection."

In apparently unrelated news, graduation is still proceeding in person as scheduled.

Spouse and I have determined that "faculty disobedience" (Mamselle's words upthread) is forthcoming, regardless of the penalties, but I'm secretly hoping that someone will realize the foolhardiness of this event and decide to move it online. Surely "10% of Graduating Class Stricken with Covid after Super-Spreader Commencement" would not be a desirable headline. What are these people thinking?

AR.

[Cheerful]

My university is requiring faculty to attend fall graduation in person shortly after Thanksgiving. I have similar concerns about its role as a super-spreader event. No photo op is worth COVID.

Update: email from university today encouraged everyone at the school to "continue to practice measures to minimize the opportunities for infection."

In apparently unrelated news, graduation is still proceeding in person as scheduled.

Spouse and I have determined that "faculty disobedience" (Mamselle's words upthread) is forthcoming, regardless of the penalties, but I'm secretly hoping that someone will realize the foolhardiness of this event and decide to move it online. Surely "10% of Graduating Class Stricken with Covid after Super-Spreader Commencement" would not be a desirable headline. What are these people thinking?

AR.

Bizarre.  Is this in the United States where the virus is a seriously big problem nearly everywhere?

[OneMoreYear]

My university is requiring faculty to attend fall graduation in person shortly after Thanksgiving. I have similar concerns about its role as a super-spreader event. No photo op is worth COVID.

Update: email from university today encouraged everyone at the school to "continue to practice measures to minimize the opportunities for infection."

In apparently unrelated news, graduation is still proceeding in person as scheduled.

Spouse and I have determined that "faculty disobedience" (Mamselle's words upthread) is forthcoming, regardless of the penalties, but I'm secretly hoping that someone will realize the foolhardiness of this event and decide to move it online. Surely "10% of Graduating Class Stricken with Covid after Super-Spreader Commencement" would not be a desirable headline. What are these people thinking?

AR.

Bizarre.  Is this in the United States where the virus is a seriously big problem nearly everywhere?

Maybe your Uni is trying to avoid the barrage of emails & social media posts berating them for holding a virtual graduation because students are paying customers and no one asked what they wanted and they deserve to walk across the stage after all the time, effort, and money they've spent and how dare the University deny them this rite of passage. 
But, I agree that some faculty disobedience is definitely in order.

[AvidReader]

Bizarre.  Is this in the United States where the virus is a seriously big problem nearly everywhere?

Yes. However, I'm now in a state where lots of people don't think COVID is real [despite the numbers], or else they think it's "no big deal." Classes have been in person all semester, and I have (as far as I know) not caught it from any students--but 10 people spaced out in a large room for an hour is very different from hundreds (thousands?) of people sitting in a stadium. Even outdoors, this still seems like a poor choice.

A bigger school in our state with a much higher percentage of on-campus cases is also scheduled for an in-person graduation, so I guess this is just a thing here.

AR.

[Anselm]

Go to the graduation in a hazmat suit.  Imagine the negative publicity when those pictures get onto social media.

[fleabite]

Go to the graduation in a hazmat suit.  Imagine the negative publicity when those pictures get onto social media.

AvidReader is a first-year faculty member. I think the hazmat suit idea, however attractive, should be reserved for faculty with tenure.

[AvidReader]

Go to the graduation in a hazmat suit.  Imagine the negative publicity when those pictures get onto social media.

AvidReader is a first-year faculty member. I think the hazmat suit idea, however attractive, should be reserved for faculty with tenure.

Spouse and I actually discussed a hazmat suit (or similarly extensive PPE) at some length. Given that I am indeed new, and haven't interacted with many colleagues, I'm not actually sure which option (hazmat or absence) would be more frowned upon. I have indirect access to a range of PPE if necessary, but I'm also leery of using it on something so (in my estimation) frivolous, especially as it seems possible that we could have shortages again soon.

AR.

[hmaria1609]

The capacity restrictions are back in Maryland:
https://wtop.com/maryland/2020/11/maryland-re-imposing-coronavirus-restrictions-at-5pm/
From WTOP Radio online.