Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

[glatt]

I was on a family zoom call last night, and my sister, who is a teacher at MIT had a little interesting information. I wish I remembered the exact numbers she told me. Take every number I relay here with a grain of salt.

She said that MIT is currently repeatedly testing all staff and students on a two week cycle, and that the entire MIT community is on a fairly strict quarantine regiment, so case number are very low. Nothing surprising in any of that.

Was is noteworthy, is that MIT's testing accounts for something like a quarter of all testing in Massachusetts, because they are doing something like 60,000 tests a week. This has the effect of artificially making Massachusetts look like it is a much healthier state than it actually is.

[Undertoad]

60k per week actually shows up on the testing volume section of the MA page here (in grey at the bottom of the positive tests section, the numbers rise in mid August)

https://rt.live/us/MA

[SteveDallas]

I am in the aerosol/air filtration camp myself. If anybody had caught it because some business didn't clorox down a doorknob or an elevator button or a credit card kiosk we would be seeing it. Meanwhile there's nothing to explain some of the superspreader events like that choir rehearsal except air transmission. I've started developing a list of professors who are researching this stuff and following their cue.

And that level of testing at MIT is what EVERYBODY ought to be getting. If we could make that universal we could more or less be open. The problem (OK, one problem) is that absent testing nobody knows if they're carrying it. I personally donated blood 10 days ago and, courtesy of the Red Cross, learned that my blood sample came back negative for the antibody test. But have I picked it up in the last 10 days? Who knows?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

60k per week actually shows up on the testing volume section of the MA page here (in grey at the bottom of the positive tests section, the numbers rise in mid August)

https://rt.live/us/MA

My numbers as relayed by her are fairly unreliable, but the chart you link shows an almost doubling of daily testing in Mass starting in mid August. I wonder if that's all the colleges, not just MIT?

[Luce]

Out of the 21 employees of mine that were out, I have 3 back and 2 that will unfortunately not be back.

We seem to be over-represented in this plague.

[Clodfobble]

Friend of ours has a kid at a smallish, relatively rural college--I'm not sure what their testing regimen looks like, but one interesting thing they're doing is every student has been issued a Bluetooth thermometer paired to a custom app with a login on their phone. They have to take their own temperature every morning, and if they're over 99.5 or whatever their door card won't let them into any campus buildings.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Friend of ours has a kid at a smallish, relatively rural college--I'm not sure what their testing regimen looks like, but one interesting thing they're doing is every student has been issued a Bluetooth thermometer paired to a custom app with a login on their phone. They have to take their own temperature every morning, and if they're over 99.5 or whatever their door card won't let them into any campus buildings.

so they won't be taking their temps with a regular thermometer beforehand and using a cup of water or getting a friend to do their official one if they're over?

[Clodfobble]

They certainly could, but at that point you're letting at least one person in on the fact that you're sick, and I suppose eventually someone will narc on you.

[Ibby]

i spent the summer subletting a place right across the street from the admissions building at the 10,000 student college here in town, right on basically frat row. I watched big crowds of maskless students walking back and forth to parties constantly. classes started for the semester this week and i'm real worried now that everybody is back in town.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by monster

so they won't be taking their temps with a regular thermometer beforehand and using a cup of water or getting a friend to do their official one if they're over?

The point is to devise a system that is effective if it's used. There will never be a system that can't be abused.

[Griff]

NY locked down SUNY Oneonta this week when testing revealed a spike. I believe a couple kids were expelled for a big off campus party.

I see they're doing wastewater testing at some colleges, it seems pretty reliable so far and tells them which dorm is in trouble.

My results came to my phone Tuesday afternoon for a Monday afternoon test, that's damn good. Little Griff says the lines are horrific for the quick turnaround tests in MA.

[Griff]

More than 250 cases at Oneonta...

[footfootfoot]

Hey nineteen
(no we got nothing in common) We can't dance together
(no we can't talk at all)
Please leave me alone when you slide on down

[Griff]

17 year old me would have been a real problem for any campus.

[xoxoxoBruce]

In Germany 200 people mostly in their 20s held a secret rave in a big cave. Something like 60 hospitalized and 12 dead.
Coronavirus? Nope, carbon dioxide from generators for the sound and lights.
That's what happens to rebels.