It's time to end the consensual hallucination of fall in-person classes

[histchick]

The hospitals in my community (within 150 miles) are filled with COVID patients, and our local health officials/hospital administrators are literally begging us as residents to help stop the spread.  We are in danger here of not having the access to emergency services that we had pre-COVID.  The largest metro area in my state is having similar issues, and have begun canceling elective procedures again like they did early in the pandemic.  My state's Board of Regents makes the policy for the entire system, and have shown literally no acknowledgement of these changing conditions. 

[ciao_yall]

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, with an active mask mandate, and 87% of the eligible population having received one dose, schools opened.

And... no outbreaks.

[dr_codex]

We are two weeks in. One week of mandatory meetings (many hours long), one week of classes.

Last night, I got an alert from the contact tracing app that I signed up for a year ago. I've been flagged as "exposed", for a significant amount of time, to a person or persons who are confirmed COVID positive.

It's barely possible that this my workplace isn't to blame for this, but I'm 99% sure that that's exactly what happened. Various administrators are trying to calculate the safe level of cases, which certainly is suggestive.

Mask mandate and mandatory testing (even for the fully vaccinated) haven't done the job. I'm doubling down on my conviction that we aren't going to be teaching in person come November.

[Caracal]

We are two weeks in. One week of mandatory meetings (many hours long), one week of classes.

Last night, I got an alert from the contact tracing app that I signed up for a year ago. I've been flagged as "exposed", for a significant amount of time, to a person or persons who are confirmed COVID positive.

It's barely possible that this my workplace isn't to blame for this, but I'm 99% sure that that's exactly what happened. Various administrators are trying to calculate the safe level of cases, which certainly is suggestive.

Mask mandate and mandatory testing (even for the fully vaccinated) haven't done the job. I'm doubling down on my conviction that we aren't going to be teaching in person come November.

If you and the other person were masked it doesn't really count as a close contact.

Maybe you're right, and obviously some places might go to online classes for some period of time, but I rather doubt that we are going to see mass movement to online classes. I think that's a misreading of both the current covid situation, but also of mood and politics.

[Hegemony]

Two universities in my city. One has just gone online for the first four weeks. The other one is insisting it will not. Meanwhile the hospital is so full that people are dying in the emergency room waiting for a bed.

Not much margin for error there. The second university is making a big gamble. We'll see what happens.

[Caracal]

Two universities in my city. One has just gone online for the first four weeks. The other one is insisting it will not. Meanwhile the hospital is so full that people are dying in the emergency room waiting for a bed.

Not much margin for error there. The second university is making a big gamble. We'll see what happens.

Obviously a lot depends on local conditions...

[Mobius]

Did anyone know if the Texas A&M student who died was vaccinated? It's a shame since she majored in the sciences and was valedictorian of her high school class.

[Bbmaj7b5]

Did anyone know if the Texas A&M student who died was vaccinated? It's a shame since she majored in the sciences and was valedictorian of her high school class.

No one in a Texas state university is allowed to ask.

[ciao_yall]

Did anyone know if the Texas A&M student who died was vaccinated? It's a shame since she majored in the sciences and was valedictorian of her high school class.

Was this the same woman who was living in Trinidad and dumped her fiance when the vaccine caused him to get giant swollen testicles and become impotent? You know. Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend.

[mahagonny]

Masks don't work? there's more illness/absence now than ever before and mostly just URI's not covid.

My theory: you have germs in your throat and face all the time but they usually haven't reached a critical mass to cause infection. They can get trapped in the mask and the water vapor that you are exhaling; you inhale them repeatedly.

[marshwiggle]

Masks don't work? there's more illness/absence now than ever before and mostly just URI's not covid.

My theory: you have germs in your throat and face all the time but they usually haven't reached a critical mass to cause infection. They can get trapped in the mask and the water vapor that you are exhaling; you inhale them repeatedly.

Actually, since early on in the pandemic it was explained that the benefits to masks is that they lower transmission from the person. So yes, the point in me wearing a mask is mainly to reduce my chances of passing the germs on to others.

[mahagonny]

Masks don't work? there's more illness/absence now than ever before and mostly just URI's not covid.

My theory: you have germs in your throat and face all the time but they usually haven't reached a critical mass to cause infection. They can get trapped in the mask and the water vapor that you are exhaling; you inhale them repeatedly.

Actually, since early on in the pandemic it was explained that the benefits to masks is that they lower transmission from the person. So yes, the point in me wearing a mask is mainly to reduce my chances of passing the germs on to others.

Yes, we knew that; sure,  it bears repeating. Yet the quality of air you are breathing in is different with a mask on. And one would think that with everyone wearing masks the incidence of influenza & other varieties of URI would be low currently, but not so in our school.

[marshwiggle]

Masks don't work? there's more illness/absence now than ever before and mostly just URI's not covid.

My theory: you have germs in your throat and face all the time but they usually haven't reached a critical mass to cause infection. They can get trapped in the mask and the water vapor that you are exhaling; you inhale them repeatedly.

Actually, since early on in the pandemic it was explained that the benefits to masks is that they lower transmission from the person. So yes, the point in me wearing a mask is mainly to reduce my chances of passing the germs on to others.

Yes, we knew that; sure,  it bears repeating. Yet the quality of air you are breathing in is different with a mask on. And one would think that with everyone wearing masks the incidence of influenza & other varieties of URI would be low currently, but not so in our school.

Interesting. From November 2020 here in Canada:

At this point in last year's flu season, Canada had already recorded 711 positive cases of influenza.

So far this year, there have been just 17.

So 2020 had something like 2% of the number of cases in 2019. (And similar results seem to be from other countries including the US.) It would be interesting to find out how the influenza outbreak got started.

[ciao_yall]

Masks don't work? there's more illness/absence now than ever before and mostly just URI's not covid.

My theory: you have germs in your throat and face all the time but they usually haven't reached a critical mass to cause infection. They can get trapped in the mask and the water vapor that you are exhaling; you inhale them repeatedly.

Actually, since early on in the pandemic it was explained that the benefits to masks is that they lower transmission from the person. So yes, the point in me wearing a mask is mainly to reduce my chances of passing the germs on to others.

Alternatively, people are more sensitive to staying home when they aren't feeling well on the chance it might be COVID and not allergies, a minor cold, etc.

[jimbogumbo]

Masks don't work? there's more illness/absence now than ever before and mostly just URI's not covid.

My theory: you have germs in your throat and face all the time but they usually haven't reached a critical mass to cause infection. They can get trapped in the mask and the water vapor that you are exhaling; you inhale them repeatedly.

We have more absence now than pre-Covid in part because they can. Almost all our classes are now recorded in some way if you have to miss. Obviously there are pros and cons to that.

The data (which marshwiggle cited for Canada) re flu is also true for the US in 2020-2021. I'm predicting flu will be closer to a "normal" year in the US for 2021-2022 because far more people are unmasked than in 2020-2021.