But he was also talking about K-12 schools, correct? Way more of an impact to society than online college.
Taken out of context. The full quote was:
In other words, if schools are depending on treatment/vaccine prior to fall opening, that is the bridge too far.
And since this is obviously accurate and well known, he won’t get fired for it.
True… maybe he’s worried about the children falling ill in NY… I don’t know… I agree it’s an impact to society… I’ve got no answers other than I tend to trust scientists more than politicians and “business leaders” who have their own agendas…
Thank you for posting the clarification.
We do know what we need for schools (k-12 and college) to open in the fall…diagnostic testing and contact tracing at much higher levels than now, and the ability to quarantine those exposed and isolate those infected.
Yeah, that quotation makes a lot more sense in context.
School is one good example of what I was saying before about liveable vs. not liveable precautions.
Online instruction, if not ideal, is a reasonable option for older students with internet and computer access. It is not even close to a universally valid solution.
Apart from any of the other obvious problems associated with not giving children an adequate education, the government is obligated to provide public education. A limited-term hiatus under emergency circumstances is justifiable. I don’t see how extending it into the next school year would be. Contact tracing or not.
Again, it isn’t as simple as people’s lives vs. a haircut.
Are the baseball teams going to give each player their own dugout!
How will the catcher, umpire and batter stay 6 feet or more apart?
The Boston Pops concert is outdoors…and surely runs about the same “risk” as a baseball game.
But sports always seem to get the lead over the arts. I’m sick of it.
Because our society values sports more than the arts. Like I said…I’m sick of it.
My son’s flights from Boston to Barcelona to Beirut, scheduled for June 12, were just canceled. Thank goodness. He couldn’t get through to Iberia to find out the exact reason. I told him the secret is to pretend you’re purchasing tickets, and then you will always get through to a person. So that’s what I did. The agent wasn’t sure of the reason, but helpfully said he would recommend waiting until May 20 to rebook because governments are going to be coming out with new guidelines by then.
Our church has started doing this for our Sunday services. It works pretty well! 
I think it’s fantastic!
@MaineLonghorn I don’t know what restrictions Iberia Air will have but take a look at this re Ryanair. If this is the new normal I don’t envision flying again anytime soon (which I imagine should make Greta happy).
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/12/ryanair-flights-resume-coronavirus-rules-july
Being over 65 is also on the CDC list.
I’m trying to find any information that the LA Public Health Officer said that the co-morbidities the victims had were on this list, rather than including other co-morbidities like any obesity (BMI over 30), or high blood pressure. On the reporting certificate Santa Clara County uses, there’s a checkbox for list for co-morbidities. Obesity of any kind is not listed, but there are several Other checkboxes.
I hope you can help me out with this. If indeed people were rarely killed unless they were on your list above, I’d like to know it. “People are at risk if they have one of the conditions listed in the quote above,” is very very different from “People are at enhanced risk if they have high blood pressure, moderate or worse asthma, diabetes or obesity.” I’d very much like to know which one of these statements is the truth.
I concur that we can’t stay completely locked down for months. However, we already know that even with things reopening the risks could be cut down significantly if everybody wears masks inside and cuts down on large gatherings and entertainment for a while. It baffles me how many people refuse to make even these relatively easy steps to both save lives and help the economy. And why some people who want to “only” shut down seniors and sick people think that their right to have large parties should trample my parents’ right to leave their house?
@gwnorth, I’m with you, but my son would walk to Lebanon if it were possible, in order to be with his girlfriend. He is already trying to rebook on Qatar Airways.
On the comorbidities, here is something interesting, in spite of the CDC’s statement (which appears to be a logical guess rather than based on data): generally, asthma does not seem to be a significant risk factor. See e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/health/coronavirus-asthma-risk.html, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7152876/ (there are more news articles, not a lot of studies)
A cartoon in today’s paper had two characters at a baseball game. One said he never saw so many stolen bases. The other said, yeah, it’s hard to tag someone out when you have to stay six feet apart.
If I though there was a snowball’s chance in Hades of the federal government actually doing that, I’d be 100% supportive.
But you and I have apparently drawn different conclusions based on what we’ve seen so far.
We agree that the federal government has either ignored or bungled every part of addressing the pandemic. The CDC (and FDA) bungled rolling out testing, the administration wants to avoid being the leader/scapegoat, and so the federal government has made it quite clear it has zero interest in promoting a nationalized testing or tracing program.
What exactly about this situation leads you to believe that if we just wait, the federal government will change it’s mind and step up to the plate?
My conclusion - it’s up to the states and individuals to figure out how best to manage this situation locally and personally. Federal help is not coming and it’s silly to wait for it any longer. BTW, this is exactly how we handle it in hurricane country where federal help is erratic. It’s great when outside help parachutes in to lend a hand, but we don’t sit in our houses waiting for that to happen; we get outside and start clearing the downed trees, helping the neighbors, digging in to get back to normal. Same thing here. The feds aren’t coming, no matter how nice that would be. Stop waiting for that. Support your local and state efforts, make your own personal decisions and move on.
@yucca10 that is what angers me the most. It’s like it’s a country of morons honestly.
People are just so incredibly selfish. Just because something opens in another state it doesn’t mean you should jump in your car and drive there. The news coverage of the partial reopening of the Smokey Mountains had me fuming!
My parents had their beach in Florida open for a week, but had to close because of people coming from all over and not obeying the rules.
Cocoa Beach cleared 12000 pounds of trash off the beach last weekend - people from hours away came, bought beach chairs , umbrellas etc and left them behind with all their chip bags and soda cans.
Some days I just don’t think we’ll get through this because people just can’t accept that their wants can’t always take priority.
I’d be somewhat surprised if it turned out that high blood pressure was not a co-morbidity that substantially increased one’s risk of dying of coronavirus. That’s one reason I’m interested in exactly what the Los Angeles Public Health Officer said about co-morbidities.
In my state, hypertension is the most common (by far) comorbidity in people who have died of coronavirus - 53.4%. Asthma is only found in 3.7% of the deaths.
My county of Santa Clara (which had ZERO deaths yesterday, yay!) has expanded infection testing availability. They now recommend testing for various groups, including, hmm, people over 60. Should I get tested? Hmm.