Sorry for the long gap in blogging service. Been super busy with Ian/disability parent work and career retooling — both of which are too boring to blog about. So just some links…
From Elaine Godfrey in The Atlantic — “About six months ago, a colleague asked me to guess what percentage of Americans were still working from home. I was still spending eight hours a day making calls just a few feet from my fridge. So were most of my friends. Maybe 40 percent? I guessed. I was off by half. Twenty-one percent of employed Americans were still teleworking as of March 2021; the other 79 percent were leaving their home like the old days.”
Will Prince Andrew finally get served with legal papers? The suspense is KILLING me. I have to say that I’m really glad that BritTwit has taught me the word, “NONCE,” as in Andrew is a big, fat NONCE.
Picture: How cute is my dad with his cheap oysters and beer? When he stayed with us at the rental beach house last week, we walked down the block for Happy Hour.
Apt. 11d 
Your dad is adorable.
I thought the Godfrey article was a fascinating reminder not to imagine that everyone is in the same bubble. I did feel like she described the stats a bit impricsely. For example, the 13.4% statistic is the following:
“In August, 13.4 percent of employed persons teleworked because of the coronavirus
pandemic, little changed from the prior month. These data refer to employed persons who
teleworked or worked at home for pay at some point in the last 4 weeks specifically
because of the pandemic. ” (from the labor statistic link)
(not 13.$% worked from home; some may have worked from home for other reasons)
The conditional guess based on whether the respondent worked from home is interesting, but I don’t really understand the data completely.
Of the extended family members (to set a bound) I can list of the top of my head, I think 5 are working from home because of the pandemic (maybe 4, since one of those works from home a lot anyway), 2 worked from home before the pandemic, 3 work in person. 5 do not work, and 5 are in school (in person, now).
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I don’t like the sound effects, but the visuals for the MacBeth trailer are really good. I think the black-and-white is going to be a good choice. Coen Brother + MacBeth is such a good fit. I believe they filmed on sound stages (which could be cheesy), but it looks fine. I also think that Denzel Washington is a natural for the part, given his work in Training Day.
“what percentage of Americans were still working from home. I was still spending eight hours a day making calls just a few feet from my fridge. So were most of my friends. Maybe 40 percent?”
That was bonkers, in terms of lack of understanding of the composition of the workforce.
No wonder there are so many people who think everybody could just “stay home,” no matter how many times they were told that it’s not feasible for most jobs.
“How cute is my dad with his cheap oysters and beer?”
Adorable!
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I haven’t read the Atlantic article, but I have to mention that people may be doing occasional work from home that they wouldn’t have done were it not for the pandemic–they haven’t necessarily gone 100% online.
For example, my college student’s in-person physics class was online twice this week, for somewhat unclear reasons. I have also noticed more use of the Zoom option in case of mild illness or illness that might be something serious, or might not be, or Zoom being used for school parent meetings.
(The Zoom school meeting is a really nice option.)
There’s also a lot more telemedicine happening. My family has worked with a big city specialist that it wouldn’t otherwise have been practical to see weekly. This works better for some ages and specialties than others. My 8-year-old has not really warmed up to the doctor that she thinks of as the-lady-in-the-computer, as opposed to a real person.
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Our private school COVID task force just updated our COVID rules, in view of suddenly improving local conditions. School has had several weeks of required masking, due to a big summer/early fall COVID surge here in Central Texas. Local cases have been plummeting and local positivity is half what it was when school started.
–Masking is now optional, except for indoor gatherings of 40+ people.
–In practice, this means that we’ll need to remember masks for chapel and assembly days, but we won’t have to do it every day, and I won’t have to be constantly washing our 3rd grader’s filthy masks. Our 3rd grader will also be pleased.
–School has no positive or quarantined teachers and low numbers of positive or quarantined kids (not sure what the numbers are).
–Close contacts of positive people have the option of either a) 10 day quarantine at home with no testing b) 7 day quarantine with a negative result on Day 5 or c) (my favorite) return to school immediately by having no symptoms, wearing a mask indoors for 7 days, and testing negative on rapid tests for 7 days. The last option is based on a Lancet study entitled, “Daily contact testing of school-based contacts was non-inferior to self-isolation for control of COVID-19 transmission.” Option c) should really cut down on missed school time.
–School is adding HEPA filters to classrooms.
I am very happy, both about the relaxation of masking and quarantine rules!
There will probably be some sort of winter surge, but I expect at least a month of low cases. A lot of families in our school community will probably vaccinate 5-11s.
Coincidentally, it’s suddenly very nice outside–morning lows from about 60 to 70 degrees and highs in the 80s and low 90s.
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It sounds like they will be providing the rapid tests for close contacts onsite at school.
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And paying for them? I’m really interested in how much the testing is going to cost. I found a cite that approximated $4/test based on the large scale university testing programs. Are the private K-12’s getting similar rates?
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bj said, “And paying for them? I’m really interested in how much the testing is going to cost. I found a cite that approximated $4/test based on the large scale university testing programs. Are the private K-12’s getting similar rates?”
I do not know. Last year, I remember our private school was applying to get rapid tests from some sort of government program–I’m not sure how that turned out.
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/ny-gov-kathy-hochul-declares-state-of-emergency-for-looming-hospital-staffing-shortage-over-vaccines
“As tens of thousands of unvaccinated New York health-care workers are set to be fired on Monday once the state’s COVID-19 vaccination deadline kicks in, Gov. Kathy Hochul has a plan for a potential staffing shortage: a statewide state of emergency.”
“Hochul said preparations were underway Saturday to make an emergency declaration, clearing the way for health-care workers not licensed in New York to fill in the gaps of those terminated. The declaration will also allow workers from other countries, recent graduates, and retirees to practice in New York. In addition, the state may deploy “medically trained” National Guard troops, according to a statement from the governor’s office.”
NY is currently at 26 new COVID cases per 100k per day. I guess it’s better to test-drive the vaccine mandate when the state isn’t in severe COVID crisis, but man oh man.
“State data shows that 84 percent of the state’s 450,000 hospital workers are vaccinated, along with 83 percent of its 145,400 nursing home workers. Even still, that means as many as 94,000 workers are unvaccinated, leaving a potentially dire shortfall in workers from Monday.”
What’s the plan for dealing with shortfalls in nursing home workers?
“Some health-care facilities believe they can withstand the loss of those employees once the Sept. 27 deadline kicks in—the earliest of those deadlines, with California’s set to start Sept. 30 and Maine’s enforcement beginning Oct. 29.”
“Others, such as Erie County Medical Center President Tom Quatroche, said the looming staffing loss is an “unprecedented crisis.” The facility has been forced to pause ICU transfers from other hospitals and suspend elective in-patient surgeries because it expects to fire as many as 400 employees on Monday.”
“The vaccination deadline for healthcare workers coincides with one for educators in New York City, which was set to require all school employees to have received at least one shot by Monday. A federal judge temporarily blocked the move, sending it to a three-judge Appeals Court panel to decide on an expedited basis.”
If poorer, higher minority schools are more affected by loss of staff (and they will be), isn’t that kinda sorta a civil rights issue?
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Where does Hochul think medically trained NY National Guard troops currently work?
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They could potentially work in non-medical areas. I know a few examples. Being a floor nurse, for example, is grueling, and nurses burn out fast. That’s why my sister-the-nurse moved into chemo infusion.
My sister says one of her colleagues is going to be fired as of today for vax refusal. The colleague says of her vaccine refusal that she doesn’t know what’s in it. *eyeroll*
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Wendy, don’t play dumb. The vast majority of medically trained National Guard troops work in the medical field. If you think that pulling someone from a cancer clinic to work in a hospital helps New York state deal with fallout from the mandate, you’re lying to yourself. The cancer clinic being staffed is also important.
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I know an MD who is doing a two week stint in the ED of another state hospital to help with staffing issues. The people I know with some flex are largely, providing the service as a choice (i.e., letting administrative or research duties slide), and for limited periods of time. A college student I know spent the her pandemic year taking a gap and working in nursing homes (to acquire the hours she needs to apply to physicians assistance programs). Even if the vast majority of people with medical training are providing it now, there is some flex and the calling the bluff is going to test how much there is. I’m not someone who idolizes doctors, but I am finding a surprising number of the ones I know have a pretty strong core of a sense of obligation when it comes to a crisis.
Of course if planes started falling from the sky ( or there were significantly more deaths in over burdened hospitals) we couldn’t fire all the air traffic controllers or nurses. But, I think that we’re going to have to take some risks and see if hospitals can be sufficiently staffed even if vaccine refusers quit (or are fired).
We’re still at >2000/deaths a day, with deaths still tracking upward. Some risks are necessary to see if we can turn things around.
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Well the out-of-state people better have a strong sense obligation given how NY treated them last year. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/21/fact-check-coronavirus-medical-volunteers-have-pay-ny-taxes/5184670002/
There is also a difference between someone coming from out of state, and expecting NY state National Guard to fill a gap. Hochul can’t order out of state guard to fill the gap. (She can request assistance from other states). So your anecdote about an out of state doctor does not negate my point.
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Tulip said,
“Where does Hochul think medically trained NY National Guard troops currently work?”
Oh my goodness–I didn’t even think of that aspect of it.
I’m really happy that NY is going first with regard to test-driving the mandates–the rest of us are going to learn a lot!
Why hasn’t there hasn’t been more effort yet on cash vaccine bonuses for low-wage frontline workers. Why go to the stick first without even trying the carrot?
Also, a lot of the reluctant have COVID already. There’s been no effort to frame policy around that rather large category of Americans, which is not at all an exceptional case. I believe Israel’s green passport gives credit for both vaccination and COVID recovery:
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-israels-green-passport-program-659437
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Anonymous said,
“I’m not someone who idolizes doctors, but I am finding a surprising number of the ones I know have a pretty strong core of a sense of obligation when it comes to a crisis.”
US doctors aren’t the problem–they are about 96% vaccinated for COVID. The problem is going to be the far more numerous nurses and various nursing home workers.
“We’re still at >2000/deaths a day, with deaths still tracking upward.”
I don’t think that that last bit is true. US deaths seem to have at least peaked out, and with a 15% drop in hospitalizations over the past two weeks, it should keep dropping for the near future.
There’s bound to be a winter surge of some sort, but things are improving right now.
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“I’m really happy that NY is going first with regard to test-driving the mandates–the rest of us are going to learn a lot!”
And, I’m feeling the same way about the schools testing mask optional with high case rates in the South (well, not really, because it’s always the vulnerable who suffer — that will be true with staffing shortages in NY, too).
But, really, I do think that we are going to have to test different options (vaccine mandates, masking mandates, rapid testing, monoclonal antibody out patient centers, . . . ).
As we are going to have to live and die with this virus fine tuning the response becomes more important. The initial option of just doing everything is going to be unfeasible in the long run.
I read the LA Times article about outbreaks of COVID among LAPD & LAFD staff and the LAPD/LAFD response was to talk about closing buildings and “deep cleaning, long after deep cleaning has understood to be theater. Interestingly, the deep cleaning option is still held with some fondness by those who oppose the mask & vaccine mandates, showing a significant attachment to the least evidence supported mitigation measure for the COVID virus.
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“Wendy, don’t play dumb.”
Less dumb and more being nitpicky about overgeneralization. I am currently in that kind of mood.
“The cancer clinic being staffed is also important.”
Yes and no. During NY’s surge a year ago, my sister’s chemo patients just didn’t come in because immunocompromised + the entire hospital being turned into a COVID ward (seriously, some 75%+ of beds had COVID patients) meant that these patients avoided the hospital. She ended up “in the tent” doing monoclonal antibody infusions.
I wish I could stop being angry about the unvaccinated. Fortunately, here in MA/RI we have a high rate of vaccination so I don’t have to hate myself for making nice with people I know because I don’t know any unvaxed people right now. Maybe my hairdresser, but I needed a haircut too badly to ask her, so I just wore a mask the whole time.
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OK, now I had to look stuff up. 😀 So, apparently Oregon has deployed the NG.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/oregon-national-guard-support-hospitals/283-6cf1600a-99be-46d2-91ff-56bb0f93400a
https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/college-students-among-oregon-army-national-guard-soldiers-helping-overwhelmed-hospitals.html
College students and med students are good options. These days, a lot of med students are expected to have some medical experience (a lot get EMT training or get a master’s degree before applying to med school). So there is a bunch of students between, say 20 and 25 who might be effective in less technically demanding nursing/hospital work. And hm, it might also be good for younger pre-med undergrads to volunteer. I have to talk with the pre-med advisor today anyway, so maybe I will ask.
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Anonymous who reported a college student I know working in nursing homes last year (at Stanford, no pre-physician’s assistant) is an example. College students who are willing to do the tough work definitely have a chance to contribute and gain some work experience/knowledge/compassion credits.
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Oops, anonymous is me, bj
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bj said, “I read the LA Times article about outbreaks of COVID among LAPD & LAFD staff and the LAPD/LAFD response was to talk about closing buildings and “deep cleaning, long after deep cleaning has understood to be theater. Interestingly, the deep cleaning option is still held with some fondness by those who oppose the mask & vaccine mandates, showing a significant attachment to the least evidence supported mitigation measure for the COVID virus.”
Yeah, deep cleaning. It never seems to go away.
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It doesn’t matter whether we agree with the health care workers’ refusal to be vaccinated.
The problem is that the national health care system has a shortage of nurses in normal times. Mandating that health care providers fire unvaccinated workers will close hospitals. It is already unleashing a bidding war among the states to grab nursing personnel. I have heard that California is offering $10K per week.
Hospitals were already closing, pre-Covid, due to financial difficulties, especially if they have large numbers of Medicare/Medicaid patients. The federal government has been cutting reimbursement rates for those programs. So it isn’t as if the hospitals, particularly in the poorest areas, are sitting on piles of cash to outbid each other for staff.
So, at one stroke a significant proportion of the nation’s health care providers have been legally sidelined. Let’s just assume it’s 15%, nationally. There is no extra pool of nurses just waiting to jump in. Many nurses apparently postponed retirement in the aftermath of 2008.
International nurses are not a realistic source of substitutes, because–get this!–the processing of their visa applications is a “lower priority.” https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/94202
So, on an individual level, stay healthy. Just hope you don’t need any elective procedure.
This is INSANE.
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Yes, those are real worries. But, I think those visa priorities can be rearranged (if it is in the control of the administration)
I don’t think it’s going to be 15%, especially if money is on the table.
A friend needed emergency medical care recently and ended up in a orthopedic recovery ward (after abdominal surgery) after a half day wait and transport to a hospital some distance away. So, there are already costs, to all of us.
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Cranberry said,
“The problem is that the national health care system has a shortage of nurses in normal times.Mandating that health care providers fire unvaccinated workers will close hospitals.”
Especially in rural areas.
“It is already unleashing a bidding war among the states to grab nursing personnel. I have heard that California is offering $10K per week.”
Oh my goodness.
“Let’s just assume it’s 15%, nationally.”
I was just reading a September article that said that nursing home workers are about 60% vaccinated.
https://whyy.org/articles/could-a-vaccine-mandate-lead-to-a-mass-exodus-of-nursing-home-staff/
“Nursing homes in Pennsylvania rely on state Medicaid funding for most of their care, but the reimbursement rates have not increased since 2014, said Zach Shamberg, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, an industry group, citing the association’s statistics.”
So those Medicaid-funding nursing homes don’t have the resources to bid for workers the way hospitals can.
“Pennsylvania has said at least 80% of a nursing home’s staff must be vaccinated by October; Delaware and New Jersey announced requirements that would cover all health care workers, with deadlines of late and early September respectively. All three states would allow unvaccinated staff to get regular COVID-19 testing instead.”
That’s a lot more doable.
Cranberry wrote, “International nurses are not a realistic source of substitutes, because–get this!–the processing of their visa applications is a “lower priority.””
Wow. That’s unfortunate.
It’s like nobody in the government has been reading all of those 2020-2021 articles about hospital staffing problems.
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I’m certainly not arguing that there won’t be any shortages with a vaccine mandate. Nursing homes are in serious trouble now. Hospitals in rural areas are going to be in particular trouble; urban have more ability to share load (and are required to serve those who are in life threatening emergencies). The rural hospitals won’t be able to share and have limited capacity already.
I remember a Thanksgiving in my 1 year old had been sick and I asked his doctor if it was OK for us to travel to the Olympic peninsula where we were gathering, off handedly, and was shocked when he said no, we shouldn’t, ’cause he didn’t trust the health care there. I remember getting that answer when I was pregnant and thinking of traveling to Africa, but certainly didn’t expect it for traveling in my state. All of the fractures in our health care system are becoming visible.
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bj said, “I remember a Thanksgiving in my 1 year old had been sick and I asked his doctor if it was OK for us to travel to the Olympic peninsula where we were gathering, off handedly, and was shocked when he said no, we shouldn’t, ’cause he didn’t trust the health care there.”
Port Angeles is more than fine.
However, I have some really scary ER stories from my smaller home town on the Olympic Peninsula. Toward the end of my grandpa’s life, my grandparents were avoiding the small local hospital and heading to the big city (Port Angeles) whenever there was a serious health event. And that was pre-COVID. And, come to think of it, my mom made a point of having all of us kids in Port Angeles back in the 1970s/early 1980s, even though it had to be extremely inconvenient to get there.
Aside from quality, it also takes a long time to get from Point A to Point B.
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I suspect large numbers of those reluctant to get vaccinated are the ones least likely to be missed by their colleagues.
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I suspect large numbers of those reluctant to get vaccinated are the ones least likely to be missed by their colleagues.
Yes, this.
We are facing an impending mandate and the most performative antivaxxers are also, almost without exception, among the most useless. I suspect, unfortunately, that all the howling and threats are just grandstanding and a lot of the people who say they will resign actually won’t. Nonetheless, we would be much better off if they did.
Trumpy moronism in a nutshell. A lot of otherwise useless people making the lives of other people miserable but never actually following through on their convictions when push comes to shove.
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Jay said, ” I suspect, unfortunately, that all the howling and threats are just grandstanding and a lot of the people who say they will resign actually won’t. Nonetheless, we would be much better off if they did.Trumpy moronism in a nutshell. A lot of otherwise useless people making the lives of other people miserable but never actually following through on their convictions when push comes to shove.”
You think that all those unvaccinated nursing home workers are big Trump voters.
Ooookay.
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OMG, my sister just said this yesterday, I asked if anyone had been fired, and she said there is one holdout (pretty sure she means on her med-surg floor, not the whole hospital), and she said no one likes that person anyway.
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My sister works in a hospital too.
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MH said, “I suspect large numbers of those reluctant to get vaccinated are the ones least likely to be missed by their colleagues.”
Speaking of which, I see that LeBron James has finally gotten vaccinated.
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Another thing–a fair number of the vaccine-refusers are people who have had COVID or believe that they have had COVID.
Israel is currently offering green immunity passports to people who have had COVID within the past 6 months, as well as to anybody who has ever had COVID plus one shot.
https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/29082021-01
https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital
“The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study that some scientists wish came with a “Don’t try this at home” label. The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.”
“The researchers also found that people who had SARS-CoV-2 previously and received one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine were more highly protected against reinfection than those who once had the virus and were still unvaccinated.”
So, firing unvaccinated workers who have had COVID is pretty dumb. It might also be an effective olive branch to offer the compromise of a single dose of vaccine to workers who have had COVID.
Of course, a lot of people who think they’ve had COVID probably haven’t–but that scenario is less likely among healthcare and nursing home workers.
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It might also be an effective olive branch to offer the compromise of a single dose of vaccine to workers who have had COVID.
No. Never. You don’t negotiate with terrorists. I’m tired of being held hostage by antivaxxers. They can live their selfish conspiracy theory loving lives elsewhere as long as it doesn’t impact me.
I do wish that they would tell me how to link my microchip to my EZpass, though. I’m having a devil of a time getting that to work and they seem to know all about the chips in the vaccine.
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Jay said, “No. Never. You don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
COVID + 1 dose is now known to be more protective than 2 doses of mRNA. It’s not negotiating with terrorists to acknowledge that–it’s practicing evidence-based medicine. The Israelis are accepting it–why shouldn’t we?
Part of the reason that the US public health establishment has lost credibility and is struggling to reach the public that it has asserted a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense. When 25% of CDC announcements are like that, people lose faith in the other 75%–even if the 75% is correct. People know that COVID infection has to be generating some immunity, despite official reluctance to admit it–so refusing to acknowledge natural immunity undermines the CDC’s credibility.
Anecdotally, a large number of refusers believe that they have had COVID. I have two relatives like that in WA, who believe they got it in Jan. 2020. Some people may be mistaken about having had COVID–but it should be possible to prove in a lot of cases. Why not give them documentation that they can use for travel and other access–at least as generously as Israel does?
And why not do that–because we want to punish them? What is the public health gain in doing that?
In case you didn’t realize it, it took 7+ years of Salk vaccine availability before the US managed to crush polio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine
It took the better part of two centuries of vaccine availability to crush smallpox globally.
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I want to use whatever strategy works to increase the vaccination rate. That persuasion ans strategy will be different for different populations and individuals. But, I am pretty convinced that mandates, for employment and access to services are both effective as a pubic health tool (places of employment and the service becomes safer) and more people get vaccinated.
A ESPN reporter recently got the vaccine because she said her employer mandated it (she complained, but she got the vaccine). I hope the pressure on NBA players will be effective even though they haven’t mandated the vaccine. And, as the numbers of unvaccinated people decrease, it becomes less tenable to remain unvaccinated. I expect a transportation mandate at some point.
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bj said, “And, as the numbers of unvaccinated people decrease, it becomes less tenable to remain unvaccinated. I expect a transportation mandate at some point.”
Forever? And perhaps with yearly booster shot requirements?
There are elections in 2022 and 2024–if there are still requirements to prove vaccination status to do basic life stuff at that point, it’s going to be a huge political issue in those elections.
A lot of the resistance against vaccination and other restrictions is fueled by the idea that there is no end in sight, and that the public health establishment has an insatiable appetite for restrictions, none of which ever get rolled back. And frankly, I find it increasingly difficult to argue with that view. The public health establishment has not been very good at signaling where the off-ramp is from COVID restrictions. In fact, Biden recently said that a return to normal in the US would require 96-98% vaccination rates–which is extremely improbable.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/27/remarks-by-president-biden-while-receiving-a-covid-19-booster-shot/
For years, we’ve been hearing that voter ID laws keep people from voting. I can’t even imagine the inequity generated by strict COVID mandates for public places–particularly since a lot of mandates require both proof of vaccination AND ID. Stefan Baral (MD MPH and Johns Hopkins faculty) has said that vaccine mandates for entry to public places are already making it hard for indigent people to access public restrooms. Vaccine mandates are going to fall very heavily on the poor and the children of the poor, in ways that will be very damaging for decades. It won’t even just be lack of vaccination, but the difficulty of proving vaccination–many indigent people will be vaccinated but unable to prove it.
In happier news, I’d note that even though UK (73% 1st doses) still has a lot of COVID cases (more than the US per capita), deaths have stopped edging up and have started edging down.
The bad news is that at 129 deaths per day, that translates to a US equivalent of 600+ a day, which is way higher than flu. (It’s still a lot lower than current US COVID mortality, of course.) So we may need to manage our expectations as to what is achievable in the near future.
Meanwhile, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have lifted almost all restrictions.
https://fox11online.com/news/nation-world/sweden-becomes-third-nordic-country-to-lift-covid-restrictions
That article says that Denmark is at 75% fully vaccinated (77% 1 dose), Norway is at 68% fully vaccinated (77% one dose) and Sweden is at 64% fully vaccinated (69% 1 dose). Of course, the US as a whole is not at that level–but many areas are, and in are now hurry to follow the Scandis.
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Our county in Texas has had a really bad time since August, with a lot of COVID mortality, although it looks like we’re heading into a good patch again.
Hometown U. has done much better than the surrounding community over the past month. The school year started with a surge of cases, but that dipped pretty quickly and positivity has been declining for a while. Hometown U. requires students and employees to either be vaccinated or to test twice a week. The students are now about 75% vaccinated, with employees in the mid-80s. If unvaccinated students skip a weekly testing, they get their campus wifi cut off, which is apparently a fate worse than death. Student vaccination rates have been edging up. Positivity has fallen to 0.6%, despite the fact that they are testing a very high risk pool–unvaccinated people and symptomatic people. (I’ve seen lower positivity numbers for other colleges, but they’re testing vaccinated people.)
Students and faculty have to mask in classrooms and labs, but don’t have to mask in dining halls. In fact, just about nobody does. Maybe 30-40% of students in the big science building were masking today. I’m not sure about residence halls.
Anyway, while I do have some concerns about how the late fall/winter is going to go, I’m really happy with how things are going right now at Hometown U., despite what has regionally been a very difficult situation. So far this year, Hometown U. has been able to get good results with a very light touch.
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Laura tweeted, “I have to make serious career decisions. Not sure I want to work at home anymore.”
The problem with work-from-home is that you’re always at work.
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Well, that’s interesting.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total
4 million Americans have gotten a COVID booster shot at this point.
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David Zweig says that Test and Stay (the alternative to quarantine for exposed kids) saved 6,677 school days in the course of a single week in Massachusetts.
Only 0.22% of exposed kids tested for Test and Stay in the program were positives.
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