If we had adequate protective gear, nursing home staff would not be as dangerous to residents. Grocery store workers would be at much less risk. And meat factory workers.
I really don’t understand why the effort to create more protective gear isn’t on the news every day. Vaccines and treatments may be possible. Protective gear is already possible. We just need to figure out how to make it as quickly as possible and distribute it as widely as possible.
Maybe there are efforts I’m unaware of,
Do people work uniquely close together in meatpacking plants, or are there other businesses where biggish groups of people work together, where we are not seeing outbreaks because those other businesses are currently closed? Call centers, maybe?
I guess we’ll find out.
Midwestmom mentioned back of house restaurant workers.
I think my frustration is with the lack of accurate rapid testing.
On TWIV, Dr Griffen mentioned a 20-30% false negative rate on some of the tests.
There is a need for non-C19 surgeries and medical care, and we need accurate rapid testing.
If we cannot manage that in a hospital or other medical setting, how can we manage in other parts of the country?
AbstractThis phenomenological study assesses the impactsof full lockdown strategies applied in Italy, France,Spain and United Kingdom, on the slowdown of the2020 COVID-19 outbreak. Comparing the trajectoryof the epidemic before and after the lockdown, wefind no evidence of any discontinuity in the growthrate, doubling time, and reproduction number trends.Extrapolating pre-lockdown growth rate trends, weprovide estimates of the death toll in the absence ofany lockdown policies, and show that these strategiesmight not have saved any life in western Europe. Wealso show that neighboring countries applying lessrestrictive social distancing measures (as opposed topolice-enforced home containment) experience a verysimilar time evolution of the epidemic.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20078717v1.full.pdf
Not peer reviewed. Likely junk science.
I am far from being an expert on meat-processing plants. But the other day, I did hear one detail in a story on the radio that seemed very significant. To process meat at the desired speed (i.e., for the desired amounts of product and profit), the workers are almost on top of each other. That is, there might be two or three (or more?) individuals working on the same animal or piece of an animal at the same time. The image I formed was of two to four people chopping off limbs at the same time.
In California, the bars are closed, but the beaches vary by area.
Some call centers were already remote work.
WA Governor extended our lockdown until through least May 31st. There is a leaflet with 4 phases of reopening; phase 1 starts on May 4th. Nowhere in the leaflets it mentions research labs (both U and private) and many others that have been shut down. Our scientific progress (not directed at Covid) will suffer a big blow.
We know that prisons, nursing homes and meatpacking plants are seeing huge outbreaks. They’re all essential so they’re open. What other currently closed businesses, if opened without substantial mitigations, would also be risks for outbreaks?
Summer camps, if we think that children are asymptomatic spreaders. Dorms. Cruise ships, obviously. Hostels, I imagine. Gyms and exercise studios, let’s be honest about it. What can you think of?
Yes. They work elbow to elbow in rooms that recirculate the air. And many of them are undocumented or rural poor, so live in tiny, cramped living spaces with many other people. Recipe for mass infection.
Edited to add- also they often work facing other people as well due to line setup so they’re breathing on the opposite person directly.
Not being a statistician, I don’t know that reading the study would personally benefit me. But the fact that is has not been peer reviewed makes it pretty important to withhold judgment. I’ll let the experts have at it in peer review.
Other places and events where there is a possibility of outbreaks because of crowding (if changes aren’t made to require or allow for social distancing): casinos, courthouses, fairs and festivals.
Meatpacking is frequently done by immigrants who live in close quarters with each other, close to a company town situation.
I’m not hearing (m)any on this thread anyway advocate back-to-normal, but rather easing of the lockdowns. Open parks, allow more hospital procedures, back to work for many who are young and low risk and can distance at work. The studies I’ve seen indicate the lockdowns don’t improve results over the other social distance measures.
And that the density of elevators and subways is the highest risk for transmission.
Houghton is not Dearborn, Lake Placid is not Brooklyn. Start relaxing things where we can.
We’ll be home tomorrow afternoon wearing fancy hats and drinking mint juleps, since the mint looks pretty vigorous already. Don’t know what we’ll watch, maybe Animal Planet.
But do other people work elbow to elbow? (The tiny cramped living spaces are also bad, but you’re not spreading a disease to your coworkers because you live with a bunch of relatives; you’re spreading a disease to your coworkers at work.)
Are there other workplaces that recirculate the air?
For meatpackers? You live with your coworkers and work with your family.
H reports the line cooks cannot help but be very close to one another.
The expeditor is directly across from the line cooks, facing them, and talking about the orders.
Close together, large crowd, no masks. What could go wrong?
PA governor just announced 24 counties (including mine) can move from “red”–where we are now–to yellow next Friday May 8. Yellow means still no large gatherings over 25 people, no nail/hair/tattoos, no school, no dine-in for restaurants.
But in person retail is allowed (though curbside pickup preferred) and the stay at home order is lifted “for aggressive mitigation.” Construction is also allowed to resume, which means my heavy equipment mechanic S who has been furloughed the past 3 weeks may get back work sooner rather than later.
It would be good if nursing-home and meatpacking-plant owners raised wages so that employees would have more money to spend on housing (and other things), but I’m not holding my breath for this development. It is understandable that nursing homes and meatpacking plants are considered essential, but it is unfortunate that the health and well-being of their residents (nursing homes) and employees (both) are considered less than essential.