Senate Pandemics in the Age of Globalization: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion: See OP Warning

Currently the Republican Party line is that COVID-19 is in the rear view mirror. If Biden wins how quickly will Republicans turn around and say, “COVID is a real threat and Biden isn’t doing anything about it”? Following that will be complaints that Biden is only helping blue states.

 

After the way Trump treated New York, I kind feel like a President Biden *should* only help the blue states. Let the red states have their freedom. At this point, they can choke on it. Their choices have harmed us all. The Sturgis Bike Rally is likely responsible for the entire current outbreak in the Midwest (and Lord knows how many deaths, both current and to come).

 

As a left-leaning resident of a red state who's following the advice of scientists instead of politicians, I'm not too sure how I feel about you throwing us all collectively under the bus like that.

 

Where I and @Rylo Ken live aka the Chicago suburbs, indoor dining is being suspended effective Wednesday. Schools are still allowed to hybrid but we are being privately told (my wife and I) that do not be surprised it comes to a halt within the next week or two which is ironic since the school I work at just went to hybrid today. We spent FOUR WEEKS nonstop planning what it look like and now it's mostly likely going to being shelved until at least perhaps February or longer. A lot of my fellow teachers are peeved we are even trying but our principal told myself and a few others that the feeling he gets from the superintendent that in order to satisfy the school board, there had to be an attempt to do hybrid even if was just for a week or two and then went back to remote which again it looks like it will happen. I understand but honestly we had found a rhythm with remote learning and now have to complete switch gears every way possible including our off period duties which be okay if it stayed that way to semester's end but again feeling is by mid November (or earlier) we are going to back in all remote anyway. Just a mess!

 

Got my mandated test today for work - i believe this is the third one and one more is required after that. And had a scare yesterday with a student thinking they might have it. They are feeling better now and also got one of the rapid tests. But this is going to keep happening and I really don't love the pressure my area is under to make things happen....in a pandemic. It will take only one thing to shut all of this down and we keep coming closer and closer to that one thing. I can't tell you how often I've had to go and remind students to pull their mask up because they had it around their chin or hanging from their ear. They are the ones that want to be in person, but so often they are simply not wearing the mask and doing so in smaller areas around other people. Not good...

That is not Joe Biden. Trump may do that, but Biden never would. He'll help them and they will take it and stab him in the back at the same time. My only hope is that Joe doesn't turn the other cheek and instead attaches some serious stipulations to any aid he gives the red states.

 

The issue is.... we need to stop interstate travel if a bunch of states want to act like idiots.

 

Interstate travel was stopped here in Australia months ago. It is still impossible for me to travel to other states, and very hard for people to get exceptions (official business, emergencies, and other exceptional circumstances are pretty much the only way I can go to another state or territory right now).

It's frustrating, but it's effective. The UK has had more cases some days over the last week than Australia has had in the entirely of the pandemic. It got bad in Victoria over the winter, but now things are finally opening up again there. If there had been no travel restrictions between states, then Victorians would have brought Covid-19 back to Cairns (a tourist city) during what has been the height of our tourist season as people in Southern states look to escape the cold. I consider myself incredibly lucky right now that we are currently Covid-free up here and can live completely normal lives.

EDIT: there is a cross border travel zone with NSW right now, but it doesn't apply to me, as I don't live near the borer. To get permission to cross the border, I'd need a really good reason.

 

If Biden does win, what he may have to do is work with the states that are serious about the pandemic (whether "Red" or "Blue") and help them enforce travel bans from states that are spiking because they don't give a ****.
It's not about 'punishing' states, it's about not punishing states that are taking it seriously and having to deal with those who won't.

 

Similar question about my niece's high school, which stayed open illegally after a cluster of cases was identified there... My niece was in the third of pupils that ended up testing positive before the holidays.

 

I don’t think that’s allowed. If it was states like New York would have already done it

 

It was touch and go about hospitalization for a couple of nights, but she got through with a fortnight of being basically stuck in bed. She's recovered now, and did not contaminate anybody else in her household.

Thanks for asking

 

I don't know how it is in Sweden, but the impression I get talking to colleagues in the US is that there are pretty real concerns distance learning won't seem "legitimate" and thus could cause students to drop out or otherwise not pay as much tuition, which could seriously impact the budget, so they won't budge unless state governments force the matter. Which they don't.

 

As a current university student I think I can attest to this many students don’t like zoom learning. Recently cases have exploded at my school. The school still hasn’t gone online completely

 

At my university there has been a chorus of students demanding lower tuition because of distance learning. I don't think they realize what they're actually paying for; the costs don't go down just because they don't go to campus. Most things that involve being on campus directly (e.g., parking, housing, food) are paid separately from tuition. I sympathize with the students because tuition was already ridiculous. I thought this was more of a problem in the United States than in countries where most or all of the costs are covered by the state.

 

I am doing zoom classes as I chose to not go back this year, so long as they don’t include the room and board price I am happy. The University still needs to operate.

 

There's also the issue of potentially losing residential fees, which a lot of private colleges/universities in the US heavily depend upon and which would also take a significant chunk out of the budget even for some public institutions (depending on their size and their normal ratio of residential to commuter students).

In theory of course, you could have students living on campus but attending classes entirely online, but there are probably many students/their families that wouldn't feel it was worth it to pay to live on campus if all classes were online. And of course the students would still be spreading it to each other in their residential spaces (as well as potentially to school staff needed to support residential occupancy).

All that doesn't make keeping everything in person and putting people at risk morally justifiable, though.

 

So, in contrast, in the Czech Republic those costs are covered, and we had originally planned to do in-person lessons. In late September with the second wave rapidly becoming an issue they switched to Zoom literal days before the first classes began. The policy on residence halls for Charles University (and I assume for other institutions) is that students are allowed to continue living there if necessary, but are allowed or even encouraged to not do so if that option is feasible.

 

A blast from the past, May 1st:

'President Donald Trump on Friday seemingly increased his estimate of possible deaths in the United States from the coronavirus, telling a White House event he hopes for less than 100,000 fatalities, a higher upper limit than the 60,000 to 70,000 deaths he discussed on Monday.

"Hopefully we're going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost, which is a horrible number nevertheless," Trump said.'

 

What are the projected amount now? 300k? 400k?

 

Yes...

In terms of the last time the situation was this bad, here in France, we're on the figures we had on the 25th of March in terms of daily deaths by COVID and ICU occupancy.

On March 25th, it had already been 8 days since we'd entered a national lockdown.

 

I'm not sure if it can be done. Though I think it would have a better chance if it were 1. supported at a federal level and 2. applied to anyone trying to cross said border. So in the NY example, if it applied to NY residents trying to return as well.

It's more that it's necessary for states to act like morons because it helps contain their recklessness. As @CairnsTony mentioned, it's been done in Australia fairly effectively. A federal response could probably get it to work for regions as well, for example I could see treating Washington and Oregon as one region, both because they're both doing alight and because there's a lot of cross travel stuff with Vancouver/Portland.