WOW on University of Washington!!
@bristlecone Thank you for the excellent post! I was weighing the benefits of gloves and harm it does to the environment with many disposed gloves.
Where are the million tests we were promised would be available today? A federal government that keeps making promises it canât keep is a federal government we canât trust for accurate information in a crisis.
On that big cruise ship off San Francisco, theyâre only testing the people who are symptomatic (because they donât have enough tests? I donât know) so weâre going to have a repeat. Either theyâll keep everyone on the ship and more and more people will get sick, or theyâll send disease vectors out into our community. Or both, like what happened before.
@homerdog the three in MD had very minor symptoms according to the press conference this morning.
Students will still be living on campus and dining halls open, soâŠthe virus can still spread. The students have been circulating a petition all week, asking the administration to close.
My sonâs two week spring break starts today and I am going to pick him up instead of having him take the train so that he can bring home more than he would for a typical break. The school plans to reopen in two weeks, but a lot can happen in that timeframe. They were still cancelling a glee club or band concert as of this morning, and those students had been scheduled to depart today.
Total agreement. Many, many tweets from medical staff about shortages on testing today. It seems to be a farce.
Only 43 people out of over 3,500+ from the Grand Princess were tested.
@4kids4us see? That makes me nuts. Why would a college even consider having kids learn remotely then? Guess Iâll cross that bridge if it happens but Iâm really still feeling like this is a big overreaction.
@âCardinal Fangâ
I know this will be an unpopular position, but I think cruises should be cancelled. We are wasting resources flying test kits out in an attempt to ID those who are infected. By the time the results return, more people have been infected. How can the testing be managed to ensure all infected travelers have been diagnosed?
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/06/us-considering-discouraging-some-travelers-from-cruises.html
Might make things worse having them leave campus then come back from all over.
If kids are still in dorms and eating together I do not get why classes are cancelled. I would be furious as a parent and looking for a refund.
Last I heard, they were still testing for Covid-19 and the info quoted above applies to research on older coronaviruses.
Because they are still trying to contain it? Symptoms are mild on some people but could be deadly on others, elderly and people with other health conditions. It is also so very highly contagious. Could easily jump from people with a mild symptom to someone to whom it could prove deadly.
Classes are NOT being cancelled; they are changing from in person to online.
Many, especially younger, have little to no symptoms. Common symptoms are fever, cough, headache.
They can still spread the disease for one.
Travelers provide much needed support to businesses affected by the slowdown.
@homerdog I suppose they arenât just thinking about the healthy kids, but also the people on campus who might have underlying health conditions. I didnât read much news about it, but think I noticed mention that the university is on a quarter system and they are closing through 3/20 to help prevent the spread on campus. Sounds like the quarter was almost over so it might not have been too disruptive to close early and have the remainder of the term/finals done online.
Edited to add I thought you were referencing the UW campus closure. Iâve been reading several message boards this morning and perhaps got my signals crossed (lots of mention on other college social media about the UW closure).
The Fred Hutchinson in Seattle has stopped work related travel to meetings and conferences for the time being. The scientists and physicians that work there have a great deal of influence on how the Hutch is run so they likely called for this. Note, Keith Jerome, mentioned in this thread or another for his efforts in coordinating some of the SARS-CoV-2 testing in Seattle area, is faculty there. He has a dual appointment at the UW.
This disease is not like a bad flu season. The Life Care nursing home in Washington has 190 beds. Already, in the space of less than a month, 11 residents have died. Weâve got to figure that not all residents have contracted the disease, and of the residents that are already infected, some will still die.
Flu doesnât wipe out 5% (and counting!) of a nursing home in a month.
"Demand for hand sanitiser has reached fever pitch in the UK, with one hospital reporting that and sanitising gel is being stolen by visitors on a daily basis.
A Northampton General Hospital spokeswoman told the BBC: âNothing like this has ever happened in all the years weâve had the gel.â
It comes as retailers reported a surge in demand for hand sanitiser, which has has left some shelves empty of the productâŠ
Sally-Anne Watts, the hospitalâs associate communications director, told the BBC: âOver the past week weâve seen stocks on wards disappear from the end of beds every single day.
âThree wall-mounted dispensers have been ripped off and weâve even seen people coming in and topping up their own dispensers with our product.â" (Guardian)