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

The professors at ours want to stay online. The administration are trying to reopen for a variety of reasons- but most likely in a hybrid form that basically means only commuter students and those with no where else to go move in and the rest have the option for online. I guarantee the professors will win out.

 

You have one professor for the entire university?

(I kid, of course-- just took advantage of the original post)

 

Sorry. Annoying typo. To rephrase: The faculty want to stay online. The administration wants to be back in some form. And the thing is, the students really want to be back too so it's a bit awkward. But I am willing to bet the faculty win this battle given the age ranges. The most likely scenario involves students going into classroom while a projector has their professor on screen. That or we have a heck of a lot of plexiglass installed in classrooms to separate them from the students.

 

This is the kind of ridiculous planning that is going to go by the wayside by the end of the semester, if it ever happens at all. Stay online-- period. Make that work better for everyone.

 

According to an AP story, 80% of all local health directors in Ohio have faced some kind of anonymous threat either to their life or property just for trying to do their jobs in the middle of the pandemic. This is America at its most self-destructive, and Ohio isn't even considered one of the solidly red states.
My friend from Florida who just got diagnosed had been completely dismissive every time I urged her to get herself tested - if she had, it might have helped get treatment before the virus spread too much. She was also very much not concerned about any risks when getting a pedi/mani a few weeks ago. I don't even know why I keep expecting adults to act as such, it is a hopeless cause, and the medical professionals are going to just keep getting piles of new cases.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.

 

Sorry about your friend @Princess_Tina - I hope she remains okay.

Good news: my former supervisor is now Covid free, and yes, she has antibodies. So grateful to hear that.

Locally:

Thankfully, the cabs and Best Buy insisted upon masks. Best Buy does not let you into the store unless you make a scheduled appointment. Returns are largely handled outside unless you know you want an exchange/replacement.

Sadly, in my neighborhood: lots of folks not wearing masks and people are gathering here.

So yeah, the same stupid ‘pandemic is over mindset’ is everywhere.

 

To all of those around the world still coping with the pandemic.

and @Pensivia ...

 

Thank you, @Master_Lok - I don't think it's too serious but keeping my fingers crossed

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/health/coronavirus-mutations-scripps-gene/index.html

This hasn’t been validated yet, but the basic science methods they used were sound and from a molecular-biological standpoint it makes perfect sense. It’s going to explode this summer if people don’t distance.

On another note, my hospital has decided to combine Covid-positive patients on the same unit with those who are under suspicion but have a negative test. Previously, they were being cohorted on separate floors with separate nurses. Due to a backlog in telemetry beds, this is no longer the case.

We’re also almost out of rapid tests, and will not be getting any more. Apparently, the federal government has taken control of the entire supply of the rapid test we were using and is no longer giving us any. We still have a 24 hour essay, but given that someone who turns positive has to be moved to the Covid unit, this has raised serious questions as to where we will put a potential surge of “persons under investigation” as things open up and more potential cases arise. The county my hospital is in has already seen a 20% increase in cases over the past week, and things are only going to get worse.

Even more awesome is the fact that this decision was handed down from on-high at the administrative level in a meeting from which the hospitalist physicians and ICU team were purposefully excluded. It’s very shortsighted.

I’m concerned.

 

In "You can't make this **** up" News: GOP Convention held in Jacksonville, is considering cruise ships as hotels.

[State Sen. Joe Gruters, the chairman of the Florida GOP] Gruters acknowledged a shortage of hotel space remains an issue for Jacksonville and the convention, which normally could attract 50,000 people. He said anchoring cruise ships at the city’s port could be an option, although visitors may remain skittish since cruise ships hosted many cases of coronavirus when they were at sea early in the pandemic’s arrival in the U.S.

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/2...o-host-part-of-republican-national-convention

 

I'm sure all the people staying in the cruise ships will be asked to sign some kind of liability waiver just like at the rallies.
And I really feel sorry for anyone who gets stuck working at the cruise ships, because it ain't gonna be pretty.

 

oops wrong thread

 

Cruise ships? My heart goes out to the good people in FL. The bad decisions there keeping mounting. I hope everyone stays healthy and safe.

 

I don't know the general type and size of your institution, how much of its operating budget comes from room and board fees from residential students, and what the pre-existing financial health of your school is, but if yours is a smaller, majority-residential school, it may be that the admins have determined that there is a significant danger that the school will go under and have to close if they don't have a significant portion of in-person classes which would draw students to return to campus.

But of course they also will also want to appeal to students/parents who are concerned about the risks of returning to campus--hence also offering a significant number of courses online. A sort of "try to be all things to all people" approach so as to get as many students as possible to start as freshman and as many as possible sophomores through seniors to continue to enroll. And if they are highly tuition-driven in terms of their operating budget (especially if the school is a private institution with only a relatively small endowment), they fear that too many students will not be willing to pay regular tuition fees for online-only instruction, and if they don't get enough enrollments, they will be in danger of closing.

It also could be that enough faculty at your school are considered "at risk" in terms of age and/or underlying health conditions, that when they were given permission to teach online-only as a workplace accommodation, it amounted to 1/2 the classes. Or it could be that all faculty were given the choice as to whether to stay online-only or not, and enough of them chose the online option that it equates to 1/2 the classes being online. Or it could be that by moving 1/2 the classes online, they are freeing up classroom space so that the classes that are remaining in-person can be moved into larger spaces so as to allow for physical distancing.

Or it could be some combination of the above (this is likely).

I guess now I'm finally "outing" myself around here by noting that I have first-hand experience as to these "behind the scenes" decisions going on in higher ed. More to come about that in a later post as I don't have time at the moment. Suffice it to say that I am very concerned about the reopening plans currently being announced by many colleges these days.

 

Did they have plexiglass partitions at the registers to protect the checkout folks?

 

This is a major issue. I just went shopping and while I bought a little more now than 2 weeks ago, I spent $70 for basically the same groceries compared to $53 the last time I was there. It’s insane.

 

One of the more asinine complaints I was dealing with locals that were upset about the shut down here was they didn't want the supply chain for food being disrupted with shortages. Even though those are essential businesses and so the disruptions being reported were not things being forced to shut by the government, it was too many people getting sick for places to keep functioning (either quite literally, or because other employees didn't think it was worth risking getting infected). What that also means is that I suspect they will continue to blame the shutdowns for any disruptions in food supply no matter what because they're already committed to "the only reason things are closing is the government making them".

The issues with the supply chain not being able to change quickly and so there's a huge amount of waste that normally goes to large buyers still is its own matter, though not sure if that could be fixed even under the best of conditions. Instead we seem to be the worst of both cases..... severe supply disruptions due to drops in demand from the larger buyers like restaurants, while also having the disease spreading enough that it is causing shut downs directly at points in the supply chain.

 

If not having in-person classes means that the institution goes under, it should go under. It's not worth risking people's lives over, particularly not to the degree that would be at risk with going back to campus.

 

Forgive my ignorance as an outsider, but why do I keep reading stories of how the federal government are seizing supplies that were heading for medical facilities? What on Earth are they doing with it?

 

Maybe they are stocking up in Trump's bunker.

 

A better question would be why Democrats haven't demanded an investigation - it is without precedent and certainly looks pretty shady.

 

Wouldn't be surprised.

They have been, it just hasn't been as widely reported as such.

 

Divide and Conquer has been Trump's main modus operandi since 2015. A common tactic in the toxic hedge fund CEO world is to have your underlings fight each other, pit department against department, and whomever wins, does so because they helped the Boss the most. You know...instead of everyone working together, everyone fights for dominance under the Boss. Here, Trump is willing to punish the Dem Blue states and not the Red States, because they didn't vote for him, and he doesn't care if they die in greater numbers. He wants the Blue Dem States to look bad because of that disloyalty, so that they'll come groveling to him for PPE support, so that he can then negotiate something he wants in return.

It's all pretty sick.