Octopus Overlords

Alefroth wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:20 pm Can I Bam! on behalf of Smoove?

edit: D'oh!

BREAKING: Senate adjourns until after Labor Day despite not reaching a deal on a new coronavirus aid package.

More than one-in-five Texans who are tested for coronavirus are positive, the worst statewide rate in the country. But the number of people getting tests has plummeted in the last two weeks, which could understate how widespread the virus really is as schools reopen and hospitalizations and deaths remain near record highs.

That's left Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in a tough spot, forced to make decisions about reopening his state based on incomplete and possibly faulty data.

Abbott on Thursday said he's instructed his administration to figure out which numbers can be trusted, why positive tests have doubled this month and what the trends could signal as Labor Day approaches and students start filling classrooms.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday sought to reassure parents he is doing all he can to keep students safe as most schools in the state prepare to reopen next week.
...
Abbott defended his mandate giving local school boards the right to determine if and when schools reopen, curbing the power of local health officials to intervene and order schools closed if COVID-19 outbreaks occur.

The Texas governor said schools are ready and argued that in-person classes would not be a significant spreader of the virus if schools follow basic safety precautions.

“The ways that COVID-19 will most likely spread in the school setting is in gatherings after school is over,” Abbott told a press conference in Lubbock.

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 5:21 pm Eh, did we expect something else...during a pandemic...when Americans are in crisis.

I have just spent three hot and sweaty days in a gym doing professional development with several teachers who do not like to wear masks, and therefore don't. They also like to be shoulder to shoulder. And two of them got woozy today, one having to go home. The other had a runny nose. I pray it was just the heat.

Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:10 pm Politico

More than one-in-five Texans who are tested for coronavirus are positive, the worst statewide rate in the country. But the number of people getting tests has plummeted in the last two weeks, which could understate how widespread the virus really is as schools reopen and hospitalizations and deaths remain near record highs.

That's left Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in a tough spot, forced to make decisions about reopening his state based on incomplete and possibly faulty data.

Abbott on Thursday said he's instructed his administration to figure out which numbers can be trusted, why positive tests have doubled this month and what the trends could signal as Labor Day approaches and students start filling classrooms.

Reuters

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday sought to reassure parents he is doing all he can to keep students safe as most schools in the state prepare to reopen next week.
...
Abbott defended his mandate giving local school boards the right to determine if and when schools reopen, curbing the power of local health officials to intervene and order schools closed if COVID-19 outbreaks occur.

The Texas governor said schools are ready and argued that in-person classes would not be a significant spreader of the virus if schools follow basic safety precautions.

“The ways that COVID-19 will most likely spread in the school setting is in gatherings after school is over,” Abbott told a press conference in Lubbock.

COVID Risk Comfort Zone

Smoove_B wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 10:20 am Finally!

I'm like a vampire, except I'm not crossing that threshold even if you invite me.

Smoove_B wrote:Problem - parents, teachers and students are all panicking about the resumption of school activities

Solution - claim the CDC is on standby and ready to deploy teams to schools to help.

He has absolutely no idea how any of this works.

RunningMn9 wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:53 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Problem - parents, teachers and students are all panicking about the resumption of school activities

Solution - claim the CDC is on standby and ready to deploy teams to schools to help.

He has absolutely no idea how any of this works.

Someone must have watched Contagion and assumed that he has thousands of CDC teams to send out into the world to manage outbreaks.

Smoove_B wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:43 pm Problem - parents, teachers and students are all panicking about the resumption of school activities

Solution - claim the CDC is on standby and ready to deploy teams to schools to help.

Blackhawk wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:39 am

Smoove_B wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:43 pm Problem - parents, teachers and students are all panicking about the resumption of school activities

Solution - claim the CDC is on standby and ready to deploy teams to schools to help.

Ready to help... what, exactly? Pound the erasers? Set up quarantine tents in the gym?

“We have received inquiries about the status of the six teachers at South Fork and their status as essential workers. The teachers will continue to report to campus to livestream lessons as long as they are not experiencing any symptoms of illness. They will follow all CDC guidelines related to essential workers: temperature checks upon arrival, wearing a mask at all times and maintaining social distance from others at all times. They will livestream lessons alone in their classrooms to the students who have transitioned to remote learning, as well as the students on their other class rosters who were not part of the quarantine protocol and will still be attending school in person.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:11 am When does quarantine not really mean quarantine? When you're a teacher in Florida and declared an essential worker by the school.

“We have received inquiries about the status of the six teachers at South Fork and their status as essential workers. The teachers will continue to report to campus to livestream lessons as long as they are not experiencing any symptoms of illness. They will follow all CDC guidelines related to essential workers: temperature checks upon arrival, wearing a mask at all times and maintaining social distance from others at all times. They will livestream lessons alone in their classrooms to the students who have transitioned to remote learning, as well as the students on their other class rosters who were not part of the quarantine protocol and will still be attending school in person.

Also, this is now how quarantine works (in case anyone wasn't clear).

The Daily Tar Heel isn’t holding back this morning.

Zaxxon wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:25 am

While most of the U.S. waits 7 to 14 days for coronavirus test results, at some parties hosted by the wealthy in the Hamptons, expensive rapid tests that take less than 30 minutes are the price of admission

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:22 pm I'm telling you, future generations are going to wonder why we didn't guillotine our way out of this.

malchior wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:34 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:22 pm I'm telling you, future generations are going to wonder why we didn't guillotine our way out of this.

Tell me about it. I'm in the middle of reading a book that'll hopefully give me a theoretical framework on this because I'm fascinated. You can't help but wonder how the plutocrats have brainwashed an entire culture to not notice that they are imprisoning, impoverishing, and killing people so they can party.

Defiant wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:16 pm I don't mind people willing to spend more money getting faster testing or better healthcare.

I do mind that our testing is incompetently long, to where it becomes a lot less useful, but that I blame on the administration, not on these particular rich people.

For those who don’t want to be in America (and let’s be frank, who really wants to be in America right now?), there’s an easy solution. A report last week found that the superrich are paying as much as $2.6 million for international citizenships, then zipping out to said country on their private jets. Not everyone owns their own jet, or “P.J.,” as they’re called. As a result, jet rentals are skyrocketing. A spokeswoman for NetJets, a private-jet rental company, told me that inquiries for flights shot up from the previous year, and have only continued to grow as the pandemic has stretched on. In April, for example, calls to NetJets was up 60% for the year prior, as of June, it was 195%, the spokeswoman said.

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:39 pm So today,

1. The Wonder Twins were invited to an impromptu "end of summer" pool party at a neighbor's house.
2. Both the twins and Little B 11.4 were invited separately to friend's birthday parties...at an indoor trampoline facility.

There's no way in hell I'm letting them do either of those things right now, but it still absolutely sucks being the bad guy to tell them "no".

LawBeefaroni wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:43 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:39 pm So today,

1. The Wonder Twins were invited to an impromptu "end of summer" pool party at a neighbor's house.
2. Both the twins and Little B 11.4 were invited separately to friend's birthday parties...at an indoor trampoline facility.

There's no way in hell I'm letting them do either of those things right now, but it still absolutely sucks being the bad guy to tell them "no".

The kiddo got invited to an overnight with her friend. At a hotel deep in the suburbs. For a beauty pageant the next day with a few hundred in attendance. I really like the family that invited her but no way.

Call it hopscotch or hybrid or blended learning, but some infectious disease experts call it a potential public health disaster. Alternating schedules could cause children to ebb and flow within an expanded network, transitioning from home to school to child-care centers and thus having a greater risk of exposure or transmission.

“You can see how these got off the ground because it sounds initially like a good idea, but like all things with this virus, you have to think really critically about it,” said Dr. William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “When you start to do that, you realize that hybrid schooling actually produces more networks by which the virus can spread.”

...

At face value, hybrid plans provide students with some much-desired in-person instruction while lessening the burden on parents who are either working from home themselves or are essential employees who cannot work remotely. Meanwhile, hybrid plans limit class size and, seemingly, the risk to teachers of exposure.

But epidemiologists note that parents who cannot do their jobs remotely and those too busy to oversee at-home learning will still rely on external child-care solutions two to three days a week, further widening the child’s circle of exposure. With fully remote or all in-person learning, children are spending the majority of their time in one or two places with a consistent group. With a hybrid plan, that number balloons to three or more.

Infectious disease experts agree: returning to school as virus cases continue to surge around the country makes it an especially thorny conundrum.

“There is no perfect solution, there are just some solutions that are less bad than others,” Hanage said.

And to him, the hybrid model is among the worst in the bunch.