[quote=“Nhatrang, post:1955, topic:2096313”]
@suteiki77 do you have a Costco near by? Ours has it. Not Clorox brand but i used it last night and it’s the same as Clorox wipes.
Hand sanitizers are plentiful in every store now.
Thank you! I don’t have a Costco nearby but I will be looking for wipes. It is hopeful if you are seeing them there. they must be coming other places, too. We do have hand sanitizer. thank you!
I felt like that was different - for a vaccine trial, as opposed to randomly on your own. In particular, it means that there’s greater good (data) and also I believe you have access to guaranteed medical care if you do get very sick.
I was told our district’s response to anyone who does not want their child to wear a mask will be something regarding homeschooling their students. I’m not sure what will be the case with those who have medical issues that prevent them from wearing a mask but assume that must be accommodated (shield wearing as an alternative??) some way. But for those simply refusing to wear them, I don’t think that will be an option as it puts others’ lives in danger. I’m hopeful that nearly total or total compliance with wearing masks at school will result in no fatalities in our school but I’m concerned with in person school’s safety.
We are probably going to have students in one room and teachers rotating and other methods such as staggered entrance to minimize the people in the hallway. also, they will have one direction signs in the halls meaning you walk in one direction but not sure how that will actually work.
As for 4 kids in a room in their own corner and teacher in the middle, the virus gets airborne and can stay airborne for hours (yesterday I read up to 16 hours!!) and masks are not fully protective. As you have pointed out, kids are not going to perfect keeping them on (or teachers), and a single sneeze or cough can send virus all over the whole classroom. There is nothing magical about 6 feet. Opening windows helps. Masks help. Other things help. But they don’t make the risk zero.
Maryland’s numbers for today. Despite opening some over a month ago and opening more in the last few weeks we continue to see a nice downward trend. Our positivity rate is down another 0.38% today to 5.43%, well off of our high of 26.92% in mid-April. Our total currently hospitalizations are at 660, a drop of 42 in the last 24 hours and down sharply from just over 1,700 in late April/early May. Our covid-19 ICU usage is at 269, a nber not seen since the beginning of April. Just 260 new covid-19 cases confirmed today.
I’m glad to see we are still coming far down off our peak even after easing many restrictions and allowing many businesses to open up more. So far no blip back up. Hopefully these things continue so we can get more things open.
Denmark has announced that they will lift restrictions to most countries in Europe by the end of June. Currently, they are only permitted to travel to Germany, Norway, and Iceland.
It’s always intrigued me how Germany has done so well. In the beginning, they had more cases than the US and a far lower death rate. Some people said it was because the first cases were in athletic young people who had been skiing in Italy. Did it ever creep into nursing homes in Germany?
For today, the US has actually tested more people than Germany has. Germany has tested 6.0% of it’s population, the US has tested 7.95%, according to Worldometers. Of course, our testing is spotty across the country but I imagine that is true everywhere. I wonder what other differences there are.
Go Michigan! According to the group “Covid Act Now” (and yes, I know they are modelers!), Michigan is one of three states that is “on track to contain the coronavirus.”
According to these guys:
Of course, it’s too early to claim victory and anything can happen, but still…good news.
@Creekland thanks for clarifying on the matter of “variolation.” I was only sharing the definition of the word used by @ucbalumnus because I had never seen the word.
In NO WAY was I advocating that ANYONE try this approach with COVID. There is NO scientific advice to consider this. If anyone read my post with the jokes about OCD and took them seriously, please understand that variolation is not an approach for COVID that anyone has suggested.
I am equally fascinated by Germany. They also have a federal system - like ours - so the rules are not being enforced at the federal level, but I suspect the states are more amiable to implementing federal government ‘suggestions’ than ours are.
@greenwitch, I have tried stabs at an answer here, in the May thread:
The FT has tried a stab at the answer, too:
https://www.ft.com/content/cc1f650a-91c0-4e1f-b990-ee8ceb5339ea
Frankly, I’m still wondering and thinking it’s too good to be true. I do think we’ve been super lucky so far.
A British researcher has been fantasising about “immunological dark matter. “
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/covid-19-expert-karl-friston-germany-may-have-more-immunological-dark-matter
Which may exist or not, but why Germany is supposed to have much more of it than their neighbours, I can’t fathom.
The one thing I am telling you is not true: not all skiers returning from Italy were young and athletic, LOL! I wish! 
The US has ramped up testing significantly since the beginning of the pandemic, and it’s humbling to read that we need more, more more.
From today’s Politico Pulse newsletter:
FALL SURGE COULD CRUSH TRUMP’S TESTING GAINS — The Trump administration has made major strides of late in ramping up testing capacity. But as schools and businesses reopen, the U.S. is at risk of quickly finding itself overwhelmed once again, POLITICO’s David Lim and Alice Miranda Ollstein report.
Public health experts are already fretting about a possible fall surge that could require the nation to do as many as 30 million test per week — a level nearly impossible to meet based on the country’s current trajectory. That challenge could be compounded by ongoing difficulties speeding up the collection of tests and establishing effective contact tracing operations.
— The U.S. may be able to test up to 50 million people in September, if the Trump administration meets its goals. But while that’s a big number, that’s 50 million per month — at a time health experts say tens of millions of tests might be needed per week.
— The CDC has also yet to clarify national testing recommendations. Guidelines for who should get tested and under what conditions vary, and general demand for tests has slowed as public awareness about test availability has fallen. State and local officials say they’ll need to boost those numbers as flu season hits and more people develop coronavirus-like symptoms.
I think they might use rapid testing. Testing a lot of people but only testing sick or probably sick people rather than random testing the general population to catch spread are very different so lots of testing doesn’t mean it will help stop spread more than smart, targeted testing. Also, within an in place contact tracing and quarantine system, testing just to see who goes into the hospital (which is much of the testing we have done here) isn’t going to help come out of stay home. It sounds like Germany did well at those things, too. I also think that rapid testing (I heard that is what Germany uses but am not certain) means finding contacts sooner rather than starting 2 days later or longer.
I hope so. Where are all these rapid tests? How about the breath tests - where are they? How about the sewage tests? I am frustrated by the lack of movement on testing.
I’ve had 24 h turnarounds so far for myself and my family (all skiers returning from Italy with various cold symptoms, three of them young and one even vaguely athletic, LOL).
Just had my teenager tested this morning because he caught a chill being sweaty after exercising, and woke up with a sore throat and a bit of a temperature. He’s supposed to go back to school for the first time next Monday, and they only get three weeks before summer vacation altogether, so I don’t want our family to be the one to ruin it for everybody. If it works again and I get results tomorrow, I’ll let you know.
Health authorities have given out they want anyone tested now who has any kind of vaguely Covid related symptom, anywhere in the country, regardless of severity or exposure. I think they are back to wanting to contain this (as opposed to mitigate). We will see what happens when tourists start travelling all over Europe again for the summer.
I have heard stories that contact tracers took as long as 14 days to contact everyone in the beginning. But they just kept at it, doggedly. With social distancing, that must be much faster now. It’s what I now take as my guideline when I decide whether something that’s now legal but might still be in advised feels right to do or not - as long as I am able to completely satisfy a potential future contact tracers as to my relevant contacts during the last few days, I feel it’s probably okay.
Being able to have trust in the public health response is a wonderful boon.
I don’t see this working effectively in a high school where no student I know of has the exact same schedule, much less a whole classroom of them. Even if you were to say Alg II becomes English, is it 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade English? Both Alg II and Geometry have a wide range of students taking them. Pre-Calc and Calc have less of a range, but do the students from those classes get Spanish or French afterward? Or do they get Advanced Chem, Bio, Anatomy, or Physics? (Typical Jr/Sr class choices)
Ask venture capitalists who are still not investing where the money is clearly needed.
How can any state contain the virus? Maybe Alaska or Hawaii but for the rest of us with the interstate system I just do not know how it is possible or could even be a realistic target.
I think we keep an eye on hospitalizations and shut down when exceeding capacity is imminent. They do not advertise it in NC but they said we were at 77% occupancy of the ICU beds and might have to shut down which I understand. I am pretty sure we have not increased the ICU bed count which I do not understand.
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I think we keep an eye on hospitalizations and shut down when exceeding capacity is imminent.
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By that time the horses are out of the barn. If an area waits to shut down until they are about to exceed capacity, they will go catastrophically over capacity. By the time the patients are already filling up the ICUs, the pipeline to the ICU is jammed with more people who are destined for the iCU.
The people who are heading into ICUs today were infected two weeks ago. Look at the new cases per day in NC, two weeks ago and today. Two weeks ago: around 900. Today: 1200. Two weeks from now, some of today’s cases will be heading into the ICU. Will there be room?
I think testing people who have any possible symptoms is a big difference, too. You are lucky. I hope your son will be fine.