Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Lawrence, Revere, Chelsea: schools, closing, safety)

[rach5]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

Perhaps listen to well respected scientists rather than clickbait...

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/05/...-be-overblown/

Great article - thanks for linking! I am glad that Helen already put something out on this - she's a top notch journalist. Also note how carefully it is phrased - it "may be overblown" or "it isn’t likely to lead to a nightmare strain that is more effective at infecting people than the current human virus" (covid is already extremely effective at infecting people! The R0 is much much higher than the ones of the common flu strains). And the risk is "very very small" but, at the same time, culling all the mink is "prudent"... And Helen emphasizes all that is still unknown about this strain. I think the chances are very small this strain will become a major issue, but if it does, the results would be catastrophic. Very small probability of an outcome happening, multiplied by a catastrophic outcome --> it may be prudent to cull all the mink.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by redplum33

Guessing isn't science, wolfgang.

- Person who guesses "It's clearly the colleges"

When have you cared about science?

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

You really are a blind fool. Helen Branswell is a nearly universally respected infections disease journalist. They only criticism of her, is that her reporting can be overly political at times. Seems like that would resonate with you though.

Wait, I thought it was a "social media scare story". Why would such a respected infection disease journalist bother with it?

And, again, where is the "clickbait"?

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by wolfgang239

- Person who guesses "It's clearly the colleges"

When have you cared about science?

Unbelievably ignorant comment.

[rach5]

And some more reports from closer to home:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/02/healt...ion/index.html "It's hard to stop a runaway freight train" ""The next three months are going to be the darkest days of this pandemic." Dr. Osterholm
and https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/05/healt...day/index.html El Paso is opening up its fourth mobile morgue. Is bringing in mobile morgues fear mongering?
All this while MA is heading towards 2k/day, and RI toward 1k/day.

[redplum33]

“What we should not do to deal with these trends is shut down our economy, or close our schools to deal with this,” Baker said. “Schools are not spreaders here, or anywhere else. It’s been proven now – over and over and over again – by real life experience and longitudinal studies.”

^ Wolfgang, science or a blatant lie?

[redplum33]

Wheaton College going remote after 13 positive coronavirus tests in one day

12 students and 1 non-student.

[NewfieMama]

I don't think this will happen anytime soon with us heading into winter with cases rising, but seems like Baker is really prioritizing in-person learning:

https://www.masslive.com/politics/20...cials-say.html

[msRB311]

Welp over 2k cases today, 21 deaths.

But hockey is opening tomorrow....

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Welp over 2k cases today, 21 deaths.

But hockey is opening tomorrow....

Reported cases, not "cases today".

See the footnote: **Please Note: Today’s 2,038 new cases include 3 days of delayed data from tests performed in October by a national laboratory. Today, this lab reported almost 300
cases, and on average reports fewer than 50.

Still no sign of slowing down though, we only hit 1000 reported cases like 2 weeks back. Higher ed remains at an incredibly low and commendable 0.20% though.