DoraBora
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Posts posted by DoraBora
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27 minutes ago, EmseB said:
You know, I have seen a lot of tweets like this in various forms (crowded parks, crosswalks with a lot of people, protest crowds, whatever) come across my feed in the last six weeks and the threads are filled with people saying that in two weeks hospitals are going to be full, these people will be sick, there will be a spike. And yet, I never see anyone come back around with the reporting that it there was a spike. I feel like in the sun and chlorine and in the open air, transmission would be very low.
I think there are people out there who are very afraid when they see scenes like this that there will be a spike in cases, and others out there who sort-of hope there will. (See? See what happens?)
I wouldn't have enjoyed being in that crowd pre-Covid.
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26 minutes ago, square_25 said:
And why is that a good thing?
I take it you don't think wearing masks is a good idea (let me know if I'm wrong.) Why is that?
Everyone in my family wears a mask in public, just in case it helps slow the spread. I sure it hope it does, because I'm not looking forward to masking in August!
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4 minutes ago, square_25 said:
And why is that a good thing?
Well, isn't the science still out on whether masks add any benefit to enhanced hygiene and distancing? The masking message has been mixed from the beginning, and people living in places that aren't terribly hard-hit don't feel the same urgency to mask as those where you live.
In Texas, as things stand now, there's no reason for county or city officials to have the power to lock everyone down or force them to mask.
Me? I think people should mask, just in case they help slow the spread. I think we should keep our distance from those who don't live with us and that we should avoid crowds, but I don't agree that these things should be required under penalty of fines or jail time. We've been open for a while and our cases are not out of control.
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5 hours ago, MissLemon said:
Y'all need to come to my little town in Texas. People here are no longer wearing masks. No one is sanitizing anything anymore. My store stopped handing out wipes at the door for carts. Half of the clerks aren't wearing masks. The town is planning a 4th of July parade and fireworks show and "recommends" that people wear masks and socially distance, but will not be enforcing it.
If anyone questions why people aren't wearing masks, you get yelled at that if you are too scared, then maybe you should stay home, or better yet, get out of Texas.
People in your town are yelling at you about wearing a mask? Where do you live? I'm a native Texan, and though every person in our state is imperfect, it's been my experience that we're a pretty friendly bunch. That is very sad and I'm sorry you're experiencing such hostility!
You probably know this, but masks and distancing cannot legally be enforced by any city or county in Texas, per Gov. Abbott's order. I think that's a good thing, though you probably disagree. I wouldn't yell at you about our differences of opinion, nor would I suggest you leave. 🙂
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8 minutes ago, Where's Toto? said:
Unfortunately, it's become clear lately that MOST people are not willing to take precautions at all. They want life back to "normal" immediately with no masks and no restrictions.
Nobody is asking for a full lockdown. Even the most hard hit areas never had a complete lockdown like was seen in some other countries. Most of us are just arguing against opening up too fast.
I"m fairly happy with how things are going here in NJ. They open things up, give it a week or two to see how that goes, then open up something else. The Jersey Shore is open, state parks are open, beaches and lakes are open. If numbers continue to go down, we will continue to open up.
My observations here in the land of the free (TX) would indicate otherwise, though I'm sure we'd all love to go back to the relatively carefree pre-Covid days.
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11 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:
I read a really good article ages ago on science about it and now I can’t find it. Basically it was saying there are some percentage of people that have problems from it. If you are only using it on sick people who are likely to die anyway it’s no big deal, but if it has serious side effects for 1 person in 1000 and you start everyone taking it then you really want to prove that there’s enough benefit to make it worth that risk. Given that serology is showing only 5pc infected in most areas and of those infected maybe only 1pc (Or less) die you are giving a drug to a lot of people as a preventative. Not good if it starts causing health issues. That’s why if it’s being used it should be part of a study where data is collected.
that said I think it’s a pity that it’s become a political football in the US. Thankfully it hasn’t elsewhere so hopefully we will still get more studies done. It’s being trialled here with health workers although we may not have enough cases to prove anything.
The remdesivir thing seems suspicious to me. It seems to be being pushed heavily on the basis of one study that shows no improvement in mortality and only a shortening of symptoms by four days. And people stand to make a lot of money out of it because it’s a new drug. Unlike hydroxychloroquine.
Nearly everything is a political football if our president mentions it, but a few studies are being conducted in the US... even randomized, controlled studies with sick patients, and preventative studies for healthcare workers.
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2 hours ago, kand said:
I expect it’s not what you meant, but this reply to Stella’s post above it makes it sound like you mean those with the most to lose should indeed be the ones having to risk the most, because someone needs to pay for these expenditures. This is what seems to be happening in much of the country. Someone shared this article today about an agricultural town in Washington state that now has the highest rate of coronavirus infections on the entire west coast and the workers there don’t feel safe, but are literally being told to get back to work.
Of course that's not at all what I meant. I'm sorry it came across that way.
I meant that we can't afford to wait until the virus peters out or for a vaccine that we may never have. Stimulus and rescue expenditures have to be covered (by taxpayers, who work, often at "non-essential" jobs).
I'm very sorry for people who don't feel safe at work. They have difficult choices to make, but I don't think they are expendable or that they should die so that I can get back to my pre-Covid lifestyle.
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1 hour ago, StellaM said:
Haha, this is almost word for word what my Principal said to me, just without the economy bit.
And I thought the same thing now as I did when she told me - that this kind of exhortation sort of glides over the fact that risk is not evenly distributed, and that quite often, those who are being exhorted to take the most risks have the most to lose.
It's also notable to me that 'flexibility' in a workplace setting, is nearly always code for 'do more, with less, less safely'.
So what is the answer? We must all stay home until the spread is down to almost nothing, or until we have a vaccine?
Someone has to pay for these stimulus expenditures.
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3 hours ago, StellaM said:
Up to the point of overwhelm is a heck of a lot of people being hospitalized.
I have to say, I don't understand the claim of confusion. It isn't difficult to understand that, given a novel virus, information will change, sometimes daily, and that you have to be flexible in your understanding as well.
I also don't understand the fretting about goals changing. I mean, initially, here, the goal was 'stop hospitals getting overwhelmed'. That's now changed to 'suppress the virus as much as possible', not 'let's use up all that lovely capacity for really sick people because we have it!', and I'm not sure why that should be a problem?
No one is advocating using up our hospital capacity. Even people who rank money before lives wouldn't think that way because treating patients is expensive -- in the US, the federal government has promised to cover any Covid treatment costs not paid by insurance. Most people have a least a modicum of compassion and don't really want anyone to be sick. Most people hope the virus will go away.
But if it's here to stay, at least for a long while, some of us think we must adapt -- we must be flexible in our understanding -- and realize that if we wait until Covid-19 is no longer spreading to get back to work, our economy will never recover. We've averted the crisis of overwhelming our hospitals and healthcare workers, and it's time to begin opening up.
Of course you understand what's behind the fretting. It's simple. People need to earn a living. Governors and mayors ordering "non-essential" businesses "indefinitely" closed is fret-worthy imo.
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1 hour ago, Matryoshka said:
The numbers that don't lie are hospitalizations. They have a lag, unfortunately, but number of hospitalizations should be fairly consistent related to the true number of cases regardless of how many people get tested, can't be double-counted. And it really is that number we have to keep under control so as not to overwhelm the medical system. The problem with the 2-3 week lag is that once you know there's a problem, it's a bit late. So testing and contact tracing are still really important in keeping this under control.
That's true. Here in Texas, the governor is watching both the positive test rates and hospitalizations.
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21 hours ago, Where's Toto? said:
I think the percentage of positives as a percentage of total tests is probably the most useful number to see if there's actually an increase or not.
But reporting an increase in positive tests doesn't seem like an artificial inflation. Those people were still positive even if we didn't know it. That's what's been driving me crazy all along - reports of positive tests but no information on what that's likely to mean to the population at large - how many people are actually getting tested so how many more are likely to be positive. All along the practical information that we can actually get from the current test reporting has been crap.You're right. It isn't an artificial inflation -- it's just a number.
I'm right there with you. It drives me up the wall that news agencies run headlines and stories about a state's decision to begin opening up as the cause of record increases in positive cases, without bothering to mention a significant increase in the number of tests administered. It's alarmist and unhelpful.
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16 minutes ago, RootAnn said:
It isn't in that specific tweet-- although people responding point to Texas as being one of the state's that does so. Here is a news article I got from a quick query. Relevant quote below:
https://www.texasobserver.org/covid-19-tests-combine-texas/amp/
The point is that some states are including them without clearly delineating how many are antibody & how many are not.
Yeah, people saying stuff on Twitter isn't particularly meaningful to me. I had read the article you linked earlier today. It was the only one I could find on this subject at the time. The quote from a DHSH official indicating that some antibody test results are included in official statistics doesn't necessarily mean those results are mixed with diagnostic testing data -- the spokesperson didn't actually *say* that. The Texas DHSH releases TONS of statistics every day. Likely, the antibody test results are included in their overall data. Is it possible that the (left-leaning, anti-Gov Abbott) Observer meant to imply that his people are mixing that info? If it's true, that is troubling, but I'd like to see something more in the way of actual evidence.
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1 hour ago, RootAnn said:
Yes. A handful are. At least one does have a report that splits them out, but you have to drill down for it.
Just the other day, the Covid Tracking Project had a tweet asking that they not combine them:
ttps://mobile.twitter.com/COVID19Tracking
Possibly Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, New York,...
Could you point more clearly to the place in these tweets that report Texas Health officials as including antibody tests in the official Covid-test numbers? They are probably keeping track of antibody tests, but I'm interested in knowing whether they're mixing those with diagnostic tests.
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7 minutes ago, EmseB said:
A good Twitter thread, exactly as it pertains to Texas:
I think this is irresponsible reporting on CNN's part.
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On 5/14/2020 at 11:08 AM, Selkie said:
Here's one I just saw yesterday:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8317001/Reopened-Texas-sees-surge-new-COVID-19-cases.html
I'm still catching up on this thread so this may have already been posted. I see nothing in the article to indicate that the number of tests has increased as well. Texas has doubled its number of tests in the last two-ish weeks: 330k tests conducted in March and April and 330k from May 1-16. I'm not surprised that the raw number of new cases has increased, but I did expect it to be quite a bit higher.
The governor's task force is closely watching the number of positive test results and the hospitalization rates to decide upon the next steps in opening up.
Dallas County had a lower average number of new cases this week than last -- a hopeful trend.
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Ds handwrote his Calculus BC exam on Tuesday, scanned it using an app on his phone, and uploaded it as a pdf without incident (if that's helpful to anyone for next week).
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On 5/14/2020 at 1:27 PM, Moonhawk said:
Seems appropriate meme :
Excellent!
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Nothing much. It's rainy and cool in Dallas today. We had outdoor work-on-the-house plans and you'd think we'd just work on the inside. Nope. Lots of gaming and online browsing going on.
A barn-raising sounds interesting. I would love to watch that happen!
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Nvm. I found the "grrr" emoji that is just so appropriate here. I wish I could use it to respond to posts about this situation, but for now, I'll use the sad one for our students.
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12 minutes ago, sassenach said:
Can you link that form? Turns out ds hasn't filled it out 😡
Sorry, I'm not very fast at this. Thankfully, Arcadia is. 😁
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Yep. Ds ran into trouble with his first exam (Physics C) on Monday. He had written his responses in a Word document (per CB suggestion) and couldn't get his second batch of answers copied and pasted into the response fields on the website. The first batch worked perfectly, so this was unexpected. He tried as many methods/tricks as he could until the time expired with only half of his answers entered.
I've mostly stayed out of thie testing situation this year, but I did post a panicked message here that day. Someone kindly replied with a link to the retake request form (which I didn't know about), but ds was already on it. I'm not thrilled either that they must wait so long to learn whether they'll be allowed to retake tests, but there it is.
I'm sorry your ds had issues this week. Very stressful! My ds was so ready to be DONE!
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8 hours ago, Quill said:
I hope my post does nor read as a criticism. I think all the precautions are good (though taking temps might not be super-helpful). I’m actually a little surprised they are being *this* cautious. I’m glad they are.
I didn't read it that way at all! 🙂 Yeah, the temp thing won't work all of the time... nothing will.
Hopefully, they'll keep on being cautious.
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My hair salon is taking the temperatures of all "employees" as they come in each day. (It's one of those places in which independent contractors rent spaces. Each has his/her own little room.)
There's a phone number on the front door for people to call if they don't have an appointment. They can wait outside for someone to become available. No lobby furniture.
When you arrive for an appointment, you call or text to let your stylist know you're there. They meet you at the (locked) door to let you in.
You answer questions about any symptoms or exposure you've had. The sign said they will reschedule your appointment without penalty if you are unwell or have been around someone with Covid symptoms.
Everyone must be masked while in the salon. They will provide a mask if you don't have one. I didn't even think about tie-masks -- everyone I saw had the ear-loop type.
Stylists are supposed to sanitize sinks, chairs, door handles, etc. between clients.
I was pretty impressed. What more can they do, apart from staying closed?
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3 hours ago, happysmileylady said:
I don't know anyone who has been confirmed to have it, been hospitalized with it or died from it.
I know one person who has had it. He wasn't hospitalized and is long over it now.
Our shelter in place just got extended through May 30 and people are DONE
in The Chat Board
Posted
Most people wear them in grocery stores in my little corner of the world, though a lot of the (young) employees pull them down below their noses. (I get it. They're hot.) Most people seem to wear them in office buildings and banks. At Home Depot yesterday, about two-thirds(?) of the customers were wearing them, and that was in the garden center, outdoors.
Some people don't, but I have yet to hear anyone yell at anyone about wearing a mask or not wearing one.