Seems like the way we’re headed, as the curves go down in each state, the stay-at-home orders will be relaxed (not eliminated). So more people (but not all people) will be out and about. The curve will increase again — more hospitalizations, more deaths. Either it will be manageable or things will be tightened up again. Gradually, over time, more people will be exposed until eventually there is herd immunity. But it can’t happen all at once; it has to be a gradual loosening so that the loads on the medical system are manageable.
With respect to schools, I think it has to be gradual there, too. Seems really risky to just bring everyone back to campus all at once. Instead, students could be brought back in phases. With hybrid classes (in-person + online), students could be brought back in waves throughout the fall. There will need to be plans for social distancing, isolation and quarantine, etc, of course. But even then, just seems like it needs to be a gradual phase-in, rather than all-at-once.
The bottom line is that we ALL need to do our part in alleviating the spread of viruses. If that means practicing social distancing for a awhile, wearing masks, wiping surfaces with disinfectants, or not sharing a lot of things with other people right now, than so be it.
I know it’s a pain in the arse to do these things. Heck my D20 lost senior year of HS (prom, graduation, senior grad night, trip to Europe, etc) and will likely lose on campus freshman semester or year but she realizes that it’s better for society as a whole and it’s the individual sacrifices that we all have to make that will combat this disease.
I think most colleges are going to have to open in the Fall because there will be too much pushback about paying full tuition for an on-line experience. I know I’ve been asking my kid to take a gap semester or gap year if she can’t go back, as we feel that her in-class experiences are only half of what she is getting from the school.
I think statistics are on our side for her health. My concern is, who will take care of her if she gets sick, and where will that care be given? My spouse is high risk, so we can’t bring her home.
It’s not really a question of not being heard. And for some of us just standing at a podium would be impossible. I lecture using the boards, so I typically use the complete width of the classroom, as well as often the doc cam and/or other tech options. long or back-to-back classes can be a workout. Sometimes the classrooms are sweltering (old hvac systems). Throw in a face mask where It’s hard to breathe and I can’t even see my feet to walk and the degree of physical discomfort could be really prohibitive.
As a mother, I’d taste test it to protect my children. I’d eat them and if I didn’t die in 24 hours, they could have one too.
Really, don’t take the cupcake if you think it is poison. I’d have no trouble eating the cupcake.
My sister, on the other hand, is a 4th grade teacher. She doesn’t eat any of the homemade things her kids bring her as she knows that many of the kitchens where they are made are not clean.
@twoinanddone given the prevalence and severity of food allergies I’m surprised that elementary students are still allowed to bring in treats from home. I know in my school board they are not.
@AlmostThere2018 That was such an interesting piece in the N.Y. Times by the President of Brown. I feel more hopeful than I have been in weeks about a return to campus for students (on the East Coast anyway) because I think her opinion and ultimately her decision about when and how to reopen will be influential.
A letter from MIT President reg. on-campus summer programming cancellation until June 28 also included the promise to provide community a seat at the virtual table and visibility into the decision-making process:
A large percentage of American adults do have pre-existing risk factors and are considerably more risk averse than you appear to be. While they may do things like return to work (because they need the money), they are still likely to curtail other activities, like going to restaurants, traveling, etc… Also note that many events that attract crowds have been cancelled, so they are unlikely to be uncancelled due to the needed planning lead time, even if reduction or elimination of government health orders do not prevent them.
There still is insufficient information for colleges and individuals to make well informed decisions. Imagine playing a lottery with unknown odds (for the population subgroup that you belong to), but where life and death (and perhaps long term injury or disability) are at stake. While you may be a risk-seeker and play the lottery anyway, others may not, at least until they get better information that gives them a better idea of the odds. Colleges also have to consider the risk levels of all individuals participating in the college (students, faculty, staff) and the variation in risk seeking versus risk averse preferences among them.
We all need to acknowledge that life is going to be dramatically different from anything we have ever known. It will be so for at least for the next 5-10 years. Maybe 20 years. Possibly for the rest of our lives, for those of us over 50.
Pandemics change the world forever. They change things interpersonally, creatively, politically, geographically. Social norms will be forever changed. Work and school and civic life will be forever changed. We cannot even fathom yet what all the changes will be.
We all are psychologically predisposed to “end-of-history” thinking, wherein we think that the way things have been in our lifetimes is the end of history in a good way, that we are “set,” that the social and economic norms are what they are, that the world has reached its stride, that things could only get better. We think that the past, with it’s messy wars, pandemics, natural disasters, global disasters of any kind, is a grainy tape reel or a book written in old-timey language, or a museum exhibit, and that those situations do not apply to us in the 21st century, that we are somehow better.
We’d all be better off if we could acknowledge that we in the 21st century are indeed subject to global disasters and major setbacks. Our modernity does not protect us.
We are no more entitled to a “good economy” than was the human race in the middle ages, during the black plague. Bad stuff can and will happen. Whether for natural or human error reasons. It’s the way of the world and the rhythm of history.
@SCgirl1 – I think it’s safe to assume colleges are talking with their peers. So my question is whether this op ed is floating for reaction the ‘current thinking’ of both Brown and its peers – or whether she’s thinking differently than her peers and has put this out there to try to ‘push’ the conversation her way. No way to know of course, but I hope it’s the former.
None of these colleges are making their decisions in vacuum. They’re actively discussing their options with their peer institutions, even though different colleges may ultimately make their own separate decisions.
@brantly I don’t know about that; people are pretty quick to forget. The impact of 9/11 was unimaginable when it happened, but now its only impact on daily life is that you have to take off your shoes in the airport. I suspect the only major life change COVID-19 will ensure years down the road is everyone will wash their hands.
Socaildad2002 Flat out wrong. An infected person can transfer the virus to a surface that is subsequently touched by another person who than touches their mouth, nose or eyes.
Which is why you wash your hands before and after you eat. Hot water. Soap.
Things are very different since 9/11, @ChemAM. REAL ID requirements, security is a lot tighter at all government building, before getting a job, a passport. You grew up after 9/11 so don’t know what it was like before. We all adjusted and we will to this too.
My parents grew up when there were measles epidemics, polio, deadly flu years. Only my youngest brother was born after measles vaccination, the rest of us just got measles and chickenpox and mumps. Sure, we were fine but those who weren’t fine aren’t here to tell use. The man next door got chickenpox when he was in his 40’s and was sick for more than a month and almost died. I went to the funeral of a 3 year old who died from chickenpox in 1997. She obviously wasn’t okay with just getting the chickenpox.
