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Sunday, March 15, 2020

A Viewer Writes......Corona virus - stupidest idea yet

Colleges around the country (including SU) are closing classes and in some cases campuses and going online only for the remainder of the semester.

Why I think this is the STUPIDEST idea yet:

1) The students are apparently at little to no risk themselves from the virus, they either won't get it or will have mild to no symptoms (that is part of the problem) so there is no need to cancel classes to protect the students.

2) The students are not at risk BUT they pose a risk to others, however cancelling live classes does not mean the students go into hibernation or become hermits - NO - they go to the coffeehouses, libraries, public buildings and spaces. They pour out of the no-risk enclave of the college into the community. My niece reported that after live classes were cancelled at her NYC college there were huge parties on and off campus! So much for preventing gatherings where the virus could be spread!

3) Students are capable of spreading the virus to vulnerable folks -- old and/or ill folks. Those are the people who should be "cocooned", self-quarantined, in hibernation or otherwise protected.

What should happen: Folks who are not in a high-risk group should go about their normal business, wash their hands frequently, stop buying up all the toilet paper, behave rationally, and check in (by phone) on their neighbors, friends, and relatives in high-risk groups. They should send their high-risk neighbors supplies as needed and provide (by phone) moral support and comfort. They should help monitor their high- risk neighbors' health and alert medical authorities if those folks seem to become ill. They should re-assure their high-risk neighbors that they can self-quarantine safely because they will not be forgotten or abandoned.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

College and universities are cancelling classes/moving to online-instruction in order to protect aged professors, not students.

Anonymous said...

They are doing exactly what they have been asked to do. It is obviously coordinated from the National level. It may be a Psyop on the people

Anonymous said...

This writer is a moron. Having the students not coming back to campus is NOT about the STUDENTS' health/safety, it is about maintaining the good health of the COMMUNITY that the university is in. Why are people incapable of understanding this fact. Do you want the Eastern Shore to die. PRMC will not be able to handle an outbreak of several hundred sick cases. Just because you live on the Eastern Shore does not mean you have to be a bumbling, mumbling idiot.

Anonymous said...

TO OP: I am glad you are thinking about this but I dont agree with you. The reason that classes were canceled is due to spring break. If there were no spring break.
What do students do on spring break? THEY ALL LEAVE SCHOOL and then come back.

What do they do in that time? MANY TRAVEL that include to foreign destinations.

Why are they not closing schools effective immediately? THE RISK IS NOT FROM THE PEOPLE HERE RIGHT NOW. The risk is people being infected. Not knowing they are infected and then returning to school to infect others.

So the school decided that they would close down until 2 weeks after the spring break. To safely reassess the issue then.

Yes its a bit of an over reaction. Or is it? IDK because I simply dont trust any of the sources giving out info. That includes MSM as well as Govt agencies. And its not my own delusional thinking. We are lied to daily by our government. So is this a real problem being down played or is this a non issue brought up because its an election cycle? IDK but complaining about it on here will do no good.

Take simple common sense measures and you should be fine. Should does not equal Will be so plan accordingly.

Anonymous said...

The myopic views of being an Eastern Shorite. If this was a virus ONLY occurring in the US, then I would believe it is overhyped/election year/whatever outlandish conspiracy theory you want this to be. This is all over the world the WHO (not a US entity) has declared this a pandemic. We are lucky to be insulated by two oceans. We had time to see how quickly this spread and the measures other countries had to take to minimize casualties. There is a good chance much of the Eastern Shore will be spared any major problems with the virus BECAUSE Dr. Wight is not allowing students to return to the shore immediately after the break. To be honest, I would not be opposed to a 3-4 week ban after Spring Break.

Anonymous said...

Well said 1:41....writer must be a Dumbocrat....everything will be free.....so don’t do anything, we can just blame the President!!! Thanks 1:41 for sitting this idiot straight!

Anonymous said...

Don't worry poster: These people right here in SBY will show you true pride in the realm of stupidity, they will not let you don'w when it comes to being the most stupid people ever!!!!! This I can put anything on...

Anonymous said...

ITS A GREAT IDEA! NO BS RACISM STUNTS WHEN PEOPLE AREN'T IN THE BUILDINGS! KEEP ALL EDUCATION ONLINE! AT LEAST UNTIL THE REAL PERP IS CHARGED!!!!!!!

lmclain said...

Quit freaking out.

That SHOULD be the plan.

ANYONE with any knowledge of viruses absolutely knows that this will spread all over the planet.

FEAR will lead the way, however.

Send supplies to your neighbors??? SERIOUSLY??
Provide moral support?? To who? Pansy-ace kids in their safe rooms??

Anonymous said...

These are the people that supposedly have a superior education and intellect that are teaching your children to walk in their footsteps. Their plan to immobilize your kids in quarantine makes putting swim fins on a cat look plausible. This should show parents just how effective these "Universities" really are. If this pestilence were in another form (nuclear blast) or an insurgence... realize there are NO viable solutions brewing within SU's walls. This is why you pay the tuition which is ridiculously high parents.

Anonymous said...

@ 1:07 - All the professors can't be aged. And the aged ones could lecture remotely to a class sitting in a classroom.

Anonymous said...

I guess the question is: do we close down the entire society, have EVERYONE cower in their homes, no work, no school, no commerce, no events of any kind OR should just the folks at risk of getting really sick or dying sequester?

Anonymous said...

@1:54 - The point about Spring Break is important but couldn't the University ban just the kids coming back from foreign travel? There is no reason to assume that because the students aren't in class they are self-quarantining. Quite the opposite. At least when they are on campus they are with a largely low risk population. When they are back home and out in the community, it is a different story.

Anonymous said...

SO TRUE. Go by SSU! They are like ants all over the place.

Anonymous said...

TRUMP 2020 NOW MORE THEN EVER!!!

Anonymous said...

The U.S. has had 15,000 get the FLU & 1,100 get the C-virus so far this year. Good grief, why are they hyping this everyday???

Anonymous said...

18,000 deaths with the yearly flu with no mention.The media and democrats said they would hope for a recession to get rid of the president and promoting this virus to do so.

Anonymous said...

I guess the question is: do we close down the entire society, have EVERYONE cower in their homes, no work, no school, no commerce, no events of any kind OR should just the folks at risk of getting really sick or dying sequester?
March 11, 2020 at 7:09 PM

Germany has summer vacation and they shut down everything for a month. No school, no work. etc. They seem to survive just fine.

With modifications it could be done and it would not be the end of existence. Many could easily work from home. I could easily avoid the work crowd and go in after hours and on weekends, etc.

I primarily grocery shop very early to avoid the crowds and cows that can not cover their mouths when they yawn, cough and sneeze.



Anonymous said...

Summer vacation is not cowering in one’s home - it is massive groups of people going to resort areas, spending time and money enjoying themselves.

Anonymous said...

Whomever wrote this is an idiot. Not every student lives, eats and breathes on campus. Students come from out of state genius and coming back from spring break means bringing back every germ with them. Coronavirus does not exclusively infect the elderly or immunocompromised and unfortunately there are dozens of idiots like you in charge of the response to this virus which is exactly why it will continue to spread in the US.

Anonymous said...

This is very poor of me to say - but maybe just maybe getting rid of these liberal professors - well you know. I really didn't mean anything evil.

Anonymous said...

Just like a hurricane party. The anticipation of fear celebrated.

Anonymous said...

I am happy to see that Americans are finally being made aware of how viruses are spread. Washing your hands and being aware of unhealthy surroundings are now at the forefront. These precautions should always be in affect. Testing for fevers before getting on a plane or ship should be standard routine. Maybe even testing before entering any large social gathering. I'm not Democrat not socialist - but seems to me a good idea. Proactive🤔

Anonymous said...

I think it is a good idea to check on your elderly neighbors. I live in Florida where we all know old people flock live too. My neighbor is a widower and is very active but up in years. If I don't see that person for a week I begin to wonder if he is okay. Nothing wrong with that. It could be that when I lived in Fruitland a neighbor was found 3 weeks after he died. No one checked on him - very sad.

Anonymous said...

March 12, 2020 at 5:25 AM:

I want to be stinking to high heaven when they find me.

Anonymous said...

March 11, 2020 at 2:53 PM:

And yet, you're one of "them."

Anonymous said...

This article, by a Harvard Medical professor, makes the same points as the original post:
COVID-19 is a relatively benign disease for most young people, and a potentially devastating one for the old and chronically ill, albeit not nearly as risky as reported. Given the low mortality rate among younger patients with coronavirus—zero in children 10 or younger among hundreds of cases in China, and 0.2-0.4 percent in most healthy nongeriatric adults (and this is still before accounting for what is likely to be a high number of undetected asymptomatic cases)—we need to divert our focus away from worrying about preventing systemic spread among healthy people—which is likely either inevitable, or out of our control—and commit most if not all of our resources toward protecting those truly at risk of developing critical illness and even death: everyone over 70, and people who are already at higher risk from this kind of virus.

This still largely comes down to hygiene and isolation. But in particular, we need to focus on the right people and the right places. Nursing homes, not schools. Hospitals, not planes. We need to up the hygienic and isolation ante primarily around the subset of people who can’t simply contract SARS-CoV-2 and ride it out the way healthy people should be able to.

Yes,this disease is real. And, yes, there truly do appear to be vulnerable patients among us, those far more likely to develop critical illness from it. And that relatively small subset, if infected in high numbers, could add up to a tragically high number of fatalities if we fail to adequately protect them.

The good news is that we have huge advantages to leverage: We already know all of this and have learned it remarkably quickly. We know how this virus spreads. We know how long people are contagious. We know who the most vulnerable patients are likely to be, and where they are.

Healthy people who are hoarding food, masks, and hand sanitizer may feel like they are doing the right thing. But, all good intentions aside, these actions probably represent misdirected anxieties. When such efforts are not directly in service of protecting the right people, not only do they miss the point of everything we have learned so far, they may actually unwittingly be squandering what have suddenly become precious and limited resources.



https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/coronavirus-mortality-rate-lower-than-we-think.html

Anonymous said...

One more time:

"We need to focus on the right people and the right places. Nursing homes, not schools. Hospitals, not planes. We need to up the hygienic and isolation ante primarily around the subset of people who can’t simply contract SARS-CoV-2 and ride it out the way healthy people should be able to."