outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

I haven't gotten the test myself, but I have heard from reliable friends and family that it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences they've had. So I guess ymmv. Maybe it depends on the person administering?

and how many uncomfortable nostril-related experiences you've had

it's really not bad folks if you are in a position to get a test that will give u results in a reasonable time just do it

it's not bad enough that it will dissuade me from doing it, no, but it's definitely mega-uncomfortable and leaves my nose feeling messed up for an hour or two after (not painful, just, discomfort).

but it's not like...OMG I CAN'T DO IT AGAIN, I JUST CAN'T, naw. I've done it 6 times now.

I've gotten the regular flu test and that was surprisingly uncomfortable, though in my defense I had no idea that was getting jammed all the way up the nose

amusingly that was back in February when my wife and I mysteriously got sick

that article you just posted is so sad

my state is fuckin' sad.

god why couldn't we have elected Gillum.

Um, how are things in the state of Gillum?

NY schools authorized to open

Every region is well below our COVID infection limit, therefore all school districts are authorized to open.

If the infection rate spikes, the guidance will change accordingly.

School districts are required to submit plans to NYS for review.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 7, 2020

Every region is well below our COVID infection limit, therefore we will do everything in our power to ensure that every region exceeds their COVID infection limit as soon as humanly possible.

Y'know, I'll be the first to admit I was a schmuck if my doomsaying is all for naught, but atm I can't help but ask: HOW DO PEOPLE LOOK DIRECTLY AT AN OBVIOUS AND IMPENDING DISASTER AND FAIL TO SEE IT FOR WHAT IT IS

I’m with you

Sorry, not just fail to see it for what it is but, like, almost eagerly rush towards it.

yeah that shit is so mindblowingly dumb

like even here in Wisconsin (where our governor has actually been pretty good about this) there was still a lot of talk about how "if the cases drop for 14 days then we'll reopen" and it seems to me you're just saying "let's open things up when we get to the number of cases we had right before this thing exploded and we had to close everything down"

Got negative test results after waiting 16 days!

congrats i think

guys there is a real problem with kids staying at home for months and i get what you’re saying but we can’t just wait until there’s a vaccine to send kids back to school

would be cool if we thought of that before we decided that we had to reopen the bars because cases went down 10% one day

We could perhaps hold off in person classes a little while longer until clusters are contained, though.

Or actually mandate distance/masks.

Otherwise, the kids are going to be infected and then they're back home for two weeks anyway, only now with COVID.

Which actually has happened already in GA, apparently

Or, worse, the parents will tell their kid to hide that they have COVID, which will mean mass spread now with hundreds of kids home.

I agree we can't just wait for a vaccine because that could be 4 months (or longer, or never), but the solution shouldn't be stubbornly rushing headfirst into the flames, as FL and GA are.

that's the shit that worries me, if I was 15 I'd be terrified of being known as the kid who got sick and ruined everything

Other than vaccine or zero cases, what's the standard for anything opening, then?

Personally, I have no idea. I think things should be totally, strictly locked down for two weeks. Like, prioritize the illness and treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

I agree, I think if we went into full lockdown in March and stuck to it for 5-6 weeks we'd be in a far, far better position now

like I get that there are no good options right now when it comes to school but that is all because of how poorly we handled this from the start

I agree we can't just wait for a vaccine because that could be 4 months (or longer, or never), but the solution shouldn't be stubbornly rushing headfirst into the flames, as FL and GA are.

― popeye's arse (Neanderthal), Friday, August 7, 2020 12:45 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

right but that isn't what's happening in NYS, which is what people seemed to be responding to.

re nyc in person reopening--
seems to me like the teacher's union will not go along with this...
then cuomo gets to demonize the teacher's union, is that the game plan here?

probably. neither cuomo or deblasio are on speaking terms with the union following the school shut down and all the advice and reopening info is a quagmire of impossible answer trees and "we'll let you know about that".
Try to parse this: https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-public-schools-reopening-plan-heres-what-we-know-so-far

Schools, as they normally exist, cram about 28 to 40 humans together into one room for six or more hours a day, alongside dozens of similarly crammed rooms connected by hallways. Periodically all those hundreds of humans leave those rooms and mix freely together in the hallways, just to be sure that everyone is exposed to the maximum numbers of other participants every school day.

Add in one deadly, highly contagious disease that none of the participants are immune to and repeat over and over again until the desired results are achieved.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I'm actually not that concerned about the NYC schools reopening, even as someone married to a teacher. Under current likely plans, schools are opening at like 25-50% capacity, with students given the option of full remote, and at most coming in 1-2 days per week. I think that pictures of insane death cult georgia schools and statistics from the worst parts of the country have created a bit of hysteria and obscured the fact that NY has a very low rate of spread and low rate of disease now. Obviously if that changes I would change my view, but I think we are currently on track for a partial reopen.

yup

right but that isn't what's happening in NYS, which is what people seemed to be responding to.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, August 7, 2020 1:32 PM bookmarkflaglink

ahh, well in my case I'm not referring to NYS. NYS seems to have gotten on the upside of this thing moreso than other states.

The problem they ran into with our specific high school where I am is that there is literally not enough room to spread out. They have 3500 kids, so even at a fraction of capacity there's just no place to put them.

I should say, I'm not particularly hopeful about things even when there is a vaccine. We have vaccines for the flu every year that at most 50% of people take advantage of. We have vaccines for whooping cough, among other highly communicable illnesses, that far too many people blow off for no good reason. Which means that when there is a covid vaccine, assuming we get one, then it will be impossible to make everyone get it it, and if everyone doesn't get it then we're still going to have spreading and outbreaks, possibly/probably on par with what schools might have if they even partially opened today. It's all about how schools and whatnot respond to outbreaks, because if we can't eradicate whooping cough then there is no way we're going to eradicate this.

I feel like people are way more likely to get the COVID vaccine though there are for sure gonna be a lot of right wingers who don't and honestly I can't really bring myself to feel too much concern for them

herd immunity or anything in the neighborhood requires a high adoption rate though

which tbh I don't think we're achieving the former with a vaccine anyway but.....it does hurt the rest of us if those people don't get one too.

it hurts people who actually can't take the vaccine. same thing applies here. https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/flu-shot/

However he is careful to note that during the H1N1 outbreak, they saw "young, healthy people dying all over the place from the flu.” So everyone should get immunized, unless they have a severe chicken or egg allergy, have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccine, or a history of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or are under six months of age. These unlucky folks can’t get immunized and will just have to hope that everyone else gets a flu shot, giving them a chance to cash in on some community immunity.

exactly who can't get it will differ, and figuring it out is one of the reasons these trials take a while. but we want everyone who isn't medically prevented from receiving the vaccination otherwise other people will die.

thanks, you said that better than I did

My dad got Guillain-Barre syndrome when I was ten, at the same time that my mom was battling stage iv ovarian cancer.

None of us have gotten a flu shot ever again...I think I've gotten flu once since then.

(They're both still alive, btw).

Worth sitting through, if only for the sheer absurdity. Imagine someone waking up from a 5-month coma and having to explain this:

Yakko Warner sings the nations you can currently travel to from the US without restrictions. pic.twitter.com/3of64izHrO

— Matt Gardner (@wogoat) August 7, 2020

Is this "4'33" or "You Suffer"?

wow Ed. Australia not fuckin around. That’s some April-level lockdown.

Just Victoria at this stage but cases were stubbornly not going down from 300-750 a day. Deaths starting to creep up, especially in private aged care facilities with lots of contract workers and terrible management.

NSW is having sporadic outbreaks, but seemingly containing them through testing, contact tracing and isolation. Schools are open there although several have shut down as cases have been uncovered - sending very family associated with those school into isolation for 2 weeks.

Similarly restaurants and pubs are open under restrictions (table service, limited numbers social distancing and all names taken). A few outbreaks around individual premises but contact tracing and setting up pop up testing in the specific venues seems to be working.

Every other state is more or less returning to normal with travel bans on anyone coming or going to VIC and NSW.

it does feel like a couple more week in lockdown in May could have avoided that. (And if that bored returning traveller in quarantine and the equally bored security guard hadn’t rooted as has been widely alleged)

The lesson from this seems to be that if it gets to a level more than the NSW sporadic outbreaks situation contact tracing becomes really hard and you end up having to lock down

xp re: Yakko - hah, good one. appreciate the dumb amount of effort required to make that happen

looking at how the us handles the situation i ask myself the question. why does a life count so little there? is it still the wild west? does america learn? 2000 deaths per day are 2000 deaths too much. that makes 700,000 per year! i have the feeling that most countries in the world have the crisis better under control than the us. so unbelievably sad.

excuse me, we're in the middle of a battle royale fever dream over here, and you're working against our suspension of disbelief

looking at how the us handles the situation i ask myself the question. why does a life count so little there? is it still the wild west? does america learn? 2000 deaths per day are 2000 deaths too much. that makes 700,000 per year! i have the feeling that most countries in the world have the crisis better under control than the us. so unbelievably sad.

― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Friday, August 7, 2020 3:55 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You clearly hate freedom

the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of random victims