DS got home 3 hours ago! ❤️❤️

Yup. Holding a bunch of coins, asking 'what is a nickel? Why don't they put the actual number of cents on the coin? Why is a dime smaller than a nickel?" Huge thread on the parents facebook page about quarantine of the students running from Boston. We are being very careful. I will NOT host the patient zero for Wellington out of my home! Also, still no confirmed cases at MIT.

The rumor is that Boston will be quarantined as a city on Monday, which includes closing down the airport to ALL travel. The MIT students are assuming the rumor is true and are all getting out of Boston ASAP -- most are not waiting for Sunday and have tried to get out Friday. We are waking up at 4am to make sure ds is up so he can catch his flight. We moved his flight forward 3 days about 5 hours ago, he has packed his room in the past 3 hours, and is ready for bed. There are parents still on the phone with the airlines trying to change the flights. Desperate times.

So, the rumors are that all of Boston will be in lockdown by Monday. All students at MIT are trying to at least get out of the city, even if they can't get to their final destination for a couple of days. MIT is now giving each student $500 to get out, and will take care of storage so just leave your boxes in your room. There is a LOT of stress on the campus. Harvard had already said Sunday as move out date, so it is only MIT that is scrambling as they initially said Tuesday. The NZ/Australia contingent is sorted, most exiting tomorrow and 1 kid on Sunday midday. When ds gets home, we will put him in self-isolation for 2 weeks.

There are apparently 2 cases found on campus this morning. I've contacted the other NZ/Aus parents. They didn't know as it just came out.

Ok. Flights booked for tomorrow. 11pm right now and he hasn't started packing. Holy cow. I *think* they said that he could leave his boxes in his room. But at this point, I figure MIT will figure it out. We were told he should leave 4 hours at the airport to get through.

MIT has just moved up the time line. Everyone to be out by Sunday. Rumor is the Boston airport is closing on Monday. Now it is time for me to panic!

Here is the response in NZ. We are still at the tracking close contacts phase, and checking daily the 252 people in self isolation. All 5 of our cases have been completed and released, so we are currently at zero for 6 days. I bolded the parts that I thought were most interesting. Ms Ardern expects to announce the new travel restrictions over the weekend. At the moment, foreign travellers arriving from mainland China and Iran are banned from entering the country. Travellers from South Korea and Italy are asked to self-isolate for two weeks on arrival. Ardern also said New Zealand had a responsibility as a gateway to the Pacific to do everything it could to stop the spread of Covid-19 there. Auckland's Pasifika Festival has been cancelled, amid concerns about the virus being transmitted to the Pacific Islands. Ardern said if Covid-19 was to spread in the Pacific, it would be hugely damaging to its health system. Ardern said a large number of people were travelling from the Islands for the event and letting it go ahead was a risk Cabinet was not willing to take. Officials are yet to decide if Polyfest, which is set to take place in the city next weekend, will still go ahead. Two patients who were in hospital - one confirmed case and one probable - have both been discharged and are recovering at home with daily checks. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said Healthline was busy but coping with twice the usual number of calls. He said all 252 close contacts of the confirmed cases in self-isolation were being monitored daily and planning was underway for scaling up New Zealand's ability to contact trace individuals exposed to others with the coronavirus. "Our key advice, which is fundamental to our response, is not putting yourself or others at risk if you are unwell. This means not going to work or going to places where there are other people if you are sick. All of us have a role to play in stopping further spread. I need to emphasise how critical this is as New Zealand responds to Covid-19," Dr Bloomfield said. "This is particularly important for concerts and other large gatherings we have coming up, including this weekend. Please stay home if you're unwell."

Good thinking. if the TP is being stolen out of restrooms, there may be no paper towels either for opening doors, which is what I think he usually uses.

Another good idea. I think he has some wipes. I assume that it would be friction with a wipe that removes virus, rather than a chemical kill. Wipes don't have alcohol in them, do they?

Wow! Hadn't thought of that. I will tell him!

I'm not convinced his AirNZ flight is empty, some seats left but my flight agent said not many. I'm thinking more about not touching door nobs. If you need to eat, go to the bathroom on an airplane to wash your hands, you would be touching a lot of stuff. You get back to your seat and use some hand sanitizer. Trying to think what else you could do. Perhaps gloves? Maybe winter gloves if he can't find disposable. I also suggested he ask some friends who aren't travelling far, if he can have their hand sanitizer, but he is not so keen to ask.

DS has very little hand sanitizer left. Any suggestions for alternatives for when he flies for 23 hours? Maybe a soapy washcloth in a plastic bag?

One of ds's courses last year had a course with 5 take home exams. They were very very hard, took about 10 hours, and were open book. You were allowed to work with anyone you wanted, but you had to write your answers on your own. You had to name who you worked with at the top of each question's answer. The answers included both calculations and essay type explanations. So the prof could see if you were copying someone else's answers. The idea was that they would learn together, but then each student had to understand the content well enough to write the answers individually. With the requirement of the answer being *explained* not just calculated, it required more nuanced understanding. This was actually not a physics class, but a math class with page-long proofs, but I think the concept could be transferable. The main problem would be the time it takes to mark all the papers. You could perhaps select one random question from each student exam to mark the essay carefully, and then for the other 5 to 10 questions, just give credit for the correct answer.

We are just so glad that ds's MIT tuition for next year is not in the stock market.

Thanks, but tomorrow might be too late to make any changes to his flight. I've warned him that if we don't change it now, there is a chance he will be stuck in the US for many months. But please still let me know what your DH finds out.

In good news, day 6 of no new cases in NZ. Gotta love Jacinda!

What about the airport? My son is flying to NZ by way of Houston on Monday.

My MIL is going into isolation. She is 90, has respiratory issues, and lives in Ohio. Luckily, she lives alone!

It will be interesting when all this is over to see the impact of different government policies on the spread. Seems like right now it is individuals companies, universities, schools, etc who are choosing to close, but there is no coordinated government response at the local, state, or national level. The article that someone posted a few pages back was very very good at explaining the data science and the impact of policy. https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

Yes, he is at MIT and has been told to leave by Tuesday. Thanks for the offer! Actually, 2 other boardies in Boston have also been in touch too. DS is finishing classes tomorrow, then packing on Saturday, boxes picked up on Sunday, flight on Monday.

It seemed so reasonable 2 days ago to pick a Monday flight. But things are moving fast. NZ has no current cases -- the 5 we had have recovered. So I don't think Trump with ban flights to NZ, and NZ would not ban the flights, just require self-quarantine. I am more worried that United and AirNZ will cancel flights for lack of travellers.

I feel your stress. I just want to get my boy home. I need to quit reading this thread, but I also feel like I need to be informed. But there's nothing I can do, either his plane flies on Monday or it doesn't. I think the stress is having a child in a foreign country. I am overwhelmed with FUD. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Now that we have decided to bring ds home, I just want him home NOW. NZ is planning on more restrictions starting tomorrow. I don't think they will impact NZ citizens, but I just need the flight to run! He leaves in 5 days.

I'm not mad, but very sad. We pay a fortune in NZ$ for a US school, and online is really not worth the money at all. But I'm hopeful that it is just for half a term and that they will be back by September. crossing fingers. But what I was trying to say above, is that there are some parents where the money IS a really really big deal. As in their kids have to take donations to eat at MIT (my son donates his unused meals to this charity). There are parents that are actually thinking about paying for food for their kids who will now be at home, paying with money they really don't have. They were discussing needing a refund, and others were getting hacked off at the insensitivity of focusing on money at a time like this. Luckily, calmer voices appeared on the MIT facebook page talking about the need for each of us to understand where the others were coming from. There are simply a LOT of students at MIT who are really poor. My heart breaks to think that they are living in cook-yourself dorms because they can't afford a meal plan, but then they can't afford food to cook either. Students at MIT should not be begging for food. 😞