Confirmed Coronavirus Patient at the University of Michigan Health System
Per Michigan Medicine: https://twitter.com/umichmedicine/status/1237759433020710920
https://www.uofmhealth.org/coronavirus-covid-19-update
UofM, what are you waiting for? Cancel in-person classes already.
Yeah I'm down with heightened precautions, but I’m confused how canceling classes to have students go to their own part of the country (and beyond) and pick up the disease before moving around (or back) for summer jobs or other planned activities slows the spread. It’s not like the students are going to go home and stay inside for 3 months...
this seems very much like CYA “leadership”. Basically get in writing that the admin “did the right thing” and then break their own arms patting themselves on the back while not actually contributing to slowing down of the epidemic.
could be wrong, this is just my current opinion.
i would assume it based on the expectation that students will avoid or minimize social contact. offering online classes is a way to reduce a situation where it is semi forcing students to be in a large crowd.
If I were truly looking to maintain educational objectives (and honor the commitment to return on the students’ tuition investment), here is what I would do:
1) hire additional, temporary, janitorial staff to disinfect surfaces constantly within U buildings (especially dining halls and bathrooms). Including adding 5 min to passing time to treat each classroom between classes
2) require students to wear medical masks when entering buildings for classes
3) enact testing procedures to restrict attendance by those with positive tests (granted it’s probably already too late after a positive test)
I feel like semi-simple, temporary, methods like this could be more effective at limiting the spread and maintaining normalcy than canceling all class. Again, just an opinion, and I’m certainly not an expert.
1) how quickly can you hire required additional staff? how easily would it be to buy more disinfectants when there are shortages?
2) healthy people do not need medical masks. medical masks have not shown to be significantly effective in preventing non medical personal from being infected with airborne viruses. requiring healthy students to wear medical masks will lead to shortages and prevent healthcare providers and people who require them from obtaining them. ex china and SK.
3) logistically how fast can the University acquire the tests? the tests aren't like take home pregnancy tests. it requires trained technicians to run it on specific devices (see 1). also, being negative doesn't mean that person won't catch it another day. so test everyday?.
On 1. Possibly, it’s too late for this. This could have a been thought through two weeks ago though when it was obvious spread was inevitable. That said, my company (on a large multi thousand person site) started this just last week, so it should be feasible.
On 2, the point is that people are sick and carrying the virus before they know they’re sick.
i agree that 3 is a dream scenario.
do you think sending canceling classes and sending kids home is an effective way to slow the spread to older people? If so, how long should school be out?
March 11th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
U of M hospital has 32 beds in one section of the hospital so they are ready. As for U of M campus, keep it open but a matter of time before they follow MSU. Would be surprised if they don't announce closure before the end of the day or at least the end of the week.
March 11th, 2020 at 12:34 PM ^
My girlfriend works in the medical field (they all talk) and she heard UMHS has been preparing for this for months. As in as soon as they caught wind of it.
Michigan Medicine employees were getting at least weekly emails about it before there was even a confirmed case in the US. We get a basic run down every Tuesday, then additional information whenever new information arises. As you can imagine my email has been busy today.
preparing =/= sufficient to handle worse case scenario.
By that logic you should never prepare for anything and just wing it all the time. You plan to do everything you can within your control.
Every department at MMed is taking this very seriously. Even units that are "offsite" and not on hospital grounds are piloting what life will look like when we inevitably are all working from home for a month. Been asking employees to self-quarantine after international travel for about a month now. Domestic travel will be coming soon, I suspect.
This is why the public "outcry" for people to be as responsible as possible is important. No health system in the country will be able to handle the situation of all the Maga idiots running around intentionally spreading the disease because the president told them to go to work with a fever. We need it to spread as slowly as possible.
my point was that just because the hospital has been preparing doesn't mean they can deal with a full blown outbreak of the worst case magnitude. still need non-medical institutions to do their part in mitigating the outbreak.
Is that your girlfriend who lives in Canada that you met at summer camp?
32 beds. Wow, that's really impressive.
Also, you're a fucking idiot. Nothing more to add.
March 11th, 2020 at 12:35 PM ^
You are part of the problem.
March 11th, 2020 at 12:44 PM ^
China, where this originated, needed to communicate and act faster. Great lesson learned for future business and security models.
Minus a week or two at the start, China as done 100x better than our government at communicating and acting fast. I'm not sure what you expected from China.
"China, where this originated, needed to communicate and act faster. Great lesson learned for future business and security models."
So you're saying that communication is important?
"The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive-idUSKBN20Y2LM
Does Ctools still exist? Use that maybe?
Not to hijack the thread, but I just received a text from my son (A Soph at CMU), they are currently on Spring Break and were informed that CMU will suspend F2F classes for next week and re-evaluate on a weekly basis.....
No surprise that MSU and OSU just said fuck it, make all the classes online. They know there is a lot of close body contact on those campuses.
Wow. Students having sex in college. What a major revelation that is.
Transmit the message, to the receiver,
Hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
You don't even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
Everything's ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, i work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home
Heard about Houston? heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter,
To last a couple of days
But i ain't got no speakers, ain't got no
Headphones, ain't got no records to play
Why stay in college? why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
We blended with the crowd
We got computer, we're tapping phone lines,
I know that ain't allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don't know what i look like!
You make me shiver, i feel so tender,
We make a pretty good team
Don't get exhausted, i'll do some driving,
You ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
Then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
Whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
Notebooks? they won't help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
The burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
Don't want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don't take no chances,
You better watch what you say
OMG we are all dead
I booked multiple flights this weekend and working on a cruise due to the great deals. You pussies are stupid for panicking about this thing.
Hope you have a job that is ok with you missing 2 weeks of work be cause of your choices.
As long as I can get connectivity, I'm good. I'm not traveling to Wuhan or Iran so I'm not taking unnecessary risks.
more than 2 weeks if there is an outbreak on that cruise
I think most flights will be cancelled relatively soon. I would make sure those are either refundable in the case of cancellation or purchasing "for any reason" trip insurance. A pandemic is not going to be covered by the inexpensive trip insurance that people typically purchase for trips. The cat is out of the bag. Things will probably return to normal at some point but we are going to go full looney-toons for a while first.
Delta is waving all changes fees for flights booked in March. You guys don't think things through very well. You let emotions rule you.
Tell me more about what Delta is doing, please. I am booked to Orlando on March 28.
All flights booked in March 2020 have no change fees. It's a smart move to encourage people to book travel. If it was booked prior to March, there may still be a change fee but recognize that fares have dropped a lot so it may not cost much to change. Flight deals are really good right now.
Why the fuck would no-change fees apply to people buying tickets now after a known pandemic has started but not to tickets bought well in advance of when the outbreak occurred? Thanks, Delta.
There was a story back in mid-January --- before COVID19 really hit the news --- that Delta was considering doing away with change fees.
Delta makes a decent amount of $$$ on their change fees. But they know they aren't popular, and one of their main competitors (Southwest) doesn't have them at all, of course.
Anyway, point being --- Delta had already run the numbers on this. They're not being that generous here.
I eagerly await the day those get canceled and you don't get a refund.
So you are part of the DC panic crowd I guess and I will not lose a penny. No change fees!
Yeah, there were also a lot of macho assholes like you sitting in the bars on Bourbon Street, right before Hurricane Katrina hit, saying “Oh, this is NBD. I’m just going to ride this one out and not evacuate like all these other pussies.”
They felt quite differently a few days later
“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship”
Can I be like you when I grow stupid?
If anything, booking a cruise as a grown man makes you the pussy.
I hope your ship gets quarantined and then hits an iceberg and sinks.
It’s to the point now where I don’t want to travel. Not because I might get it, but because I may get involuntarily quarantined for 2 weeks and lose my job.
False... Trump has actually been working on passing legislation to make it VERY difficult for an employer to 'fire' you due to this situation, even if you aren't exposed, because of the threat.
Furthermore, scrubbers on airplanes these days are pretty good, its the airports themselves that you have to worry about.
If he manages to do that, good for Trump. I'll believe it when I see it though. I've seen a lot of "Trump administration considers..." in the news recently, and fuck all has happened since.
Pretty sure with how we're blowing this out of proportion if your work fired you right now, and it got out that you were sick after traveling, or before you traveled, the court of public opinion would keep you employed; pretty sure your HR director would tell you the same.
I understand office politics but NOBODY is fucking around with this right now.
Until what you’re saying actually exists, what I’m saying is absolutely possible.