Covid-19 | Coronavirus August 2020

[MaeZe]

...

For those who are interested, online proctoring software many instructors are using during this massive move to online involves a system that requires students to take their exam with a web cam and microphone enabled, and they must scan their testing area and show a photo ID at the start of the exam. Instructors input what is allowed during the exam. The program monitors head and eye movement etc. and "flags" suspicious activity. The instructor then can view the video footage to see if it was just the student's cat jumping on the keyboard, or if they were checking their text or phone or something. It also stops them from navigating away from the test window during the exam or being in windowed mode, and the exam must be taken on a computer with the chrome browser. But there's no way to prevent students who have already taken their test online from telling a friend what was on it, which is an issue for asynchronous classes where the test is available over a longer time than a single class period.

...

To take the certification exam for infection control (CIC) I had to go to an H&R Block office where they set all that up, camera on, ID checks at the door. I could bring notes.

 

[waylander]

There was an issue with a similar exam set up here in the UK for a law exam. Lasted 3 hours and students were not allowed to be away from the computer otherwise they were disqualified i.e. no bathroom breaks. Led to students peeing in bottles in front of the computer.

 

[Alessandra Kelley]

There was an issue with a similar exam set up here in the UK for a law exam. Lasted 3 hours and students were not allowed to be away from the computer otherwise they were disqualified i.e. no bathroom breaks. Led to students peeing in bottles in front of the computer.

Sounds like it would have been extra rough on the women students.

 

[Alessandra Kelley]

The flu vaccine takes several months to develop so they have to take an educated guess on what to include. You can still get the flu, tho, happened to me the year I did multiple business trips in one month and it was rough. Did not have the strength to do anything for an entire week. The flu also still kills tens of thousands in the US every year and the people who get hospitalized fill up hospitals/ICUs. Minimizing the number of people who get the flu means more resources for people who get covid (and things that will happen no matter what, like heart attacks, strokes, diabetic emergencies, car crashes...).

And flu season can hit EARLY. My whole family caught influenza in August two years ago. We were traveling and when we got home we all came down with what we at first thought was a bad cold, but nope. We all caught the flu in August!

We got our flu shots later in the season anyway, in case it was a different strain, and we made sure to get our flu shots as early as possible last year.

 

[MaeZe]

Sounds like it would have been extra rough on the women students.

Peeing in a jar works.

 

[Lyv]

Trump administration bars FDA from regulating some laboratory tests, including for coronavirus

The Trump administration this week blocked the Food and Drug Administration from regulating a broad swath of laboratory tests, including for the coronavirus, in a move strongly opposed by the agency.

The new policy stunned many health experts and laboratories because of its timing, several months into a pandemic. Some public health experts warned the shift could result in unreliable coronavirus tests on the market, potentially worsening the testing crisis that has dogged the United States if more people get erroneous results. They argued the change is unlikely to solve current testing problems, which at this point are largely due to shortages of supplies such as swabs and chemical reagents.

Trump only acts out of self-interest so this is somehow good for him and bad for everyone else. Like everything else he's done it will make a bad situation worse.

 

[lizmonster]

Trump administration bars FDA from regulating some laboratory tests, including for coronavirus



Trump only acts out of self-interest so this is somehow good for him and bad for everyone else. Like everything else he's done it will make a bad situation worse.

He's hoping for hordes of false negatives. And/or a flood of tests on the market, so he can say how good our capacity is.

The man's a monster. There's no other interpretation at this point.

 

[cbenoi1]

The numbers makes him look bad so he found a way to hide those numbers - or at least make them so unreliable nobody would trust them.

*opens window*

*shoves out science*

*closes window*

-cb

 

[Lyv]

Oh, I think it's partly about fudging numbers but I also think it's about rushing out any crappy test, so his lie "we're doing the most testing" isn't so ridiculous. I also think he and his cronies will profit. He'll be pushing some ineffective test that he and/or his donors have a financial interest in.

 

[MaeZe]

Some right-wingers on the fringe have the ignorant idea the FDA is nothing but a bunch of red tape that makes getting cures (like hydroxychloroquine for COVID) impossible to sell. Trump is one of them. No doubt he would like to do away with the FDA altogether.

So this is no surprise.

 

[mccardey]

Some right-wingers on the fringe have the ignorant idea the FDA is nothing but a bunch of red tape that makes getting cures (like hydroxychloroquine for COVID) impossible to sell. Trump is one of them. No doubt he would like to do away with the FDA altogether.

.

I read a fascinating book earlier this year (remember earlier this year?) called The Fifth Risk. It makes it quite clear that doing away with things is perhaps the biggest disaster of the whole Trump presidency. Terrifying book. Highly recommend it.

 

[MaeZe]

You want me to be terrified more than I already am?

 

[Roxxsmom]

There's an infuriating meme on FB that shows someone in full containment suit and the caption says, "Why masks don't work to prevent coronavirus. This is what medical workers wear to protect themselves from viruses. You think your bandana is going to do anything?"

Obviously, this is a badly informed and specious post on many levels. Instead of engaging people who post crap like that, I just want a link to a simple fact check or explanation about why it's fallacious. I figure it won't convince the originator of the posts, but it might prevent some uninformed bystanders from getting sucked in. I've seen the transformation of a few people from more accepting of the scientific information on the pandemic to being deniers, thanks to the steady diet of crap they are exposed to on their news feeds, which of course tend to go in a certain direction based on one's politics and the overall composition of one's friends list.

I know I saw a pretty good take down of this meme a while back, but heck if my google fu is finding it now. Does anyone know of such a link?

 

[BenPanced]

Minnesota becomes third state affected by coronavirus linked to Sturgis Bike Rally (South Dakota and Nebraska are first and second, respectively).

I'd go on a rampage but that'd mean I'd have to leave self-isolation.

 

[Introversion]

Florida order requiring all schools to reopen was illegal, judge rules

Florida's state government cannot force schools to reopen this month, a judge ruled yesterday. The state's order to reopen K-12 schools disregarded safety risks posed by COVID-19 and gave schools no meaningful alternative, according to the ruling issued by Judge Charles Dodson of the Second Judicial Circuit in Leon County.

On July 6, Florida Department of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued an emergency order stating, "Upon reopening in August, all school boards and charter school governing boards must open brick and mortar schools at least five days per week for all students." Schools that don't meet this requirement could lose state funding. Corcoran, Governor Ron DeSantis, and other state officials were then sued by the Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers' union; the NAACP; and several individual teachers and parents.

After summarizing the health risks of reopening schools during the pandemic, the judge wrote that the state's order to reopen schools "takes none of that into consideration. It fails to mention consideration of community transmission rates, varying ages of students, or proper precautions. What has been clearly established is there is no easy decision and opening schools will most likely increase COVID‐19 cases in Florida. Thus, Plaintiffs have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success in procuring a judgment declaring the Order is being applied arbitrarily across Florida."

Dodson concluded that the state's order violates the Florida state constitution "to the extent it arbitrarily disregards safety, denies local school boards decision making with respect to reopening brick and mortar schools, and conditions funding on an approved reopening plan with a start date in August." Having found that the plaintiffs are likely to win at trial, the judge issued a temporary injunction that strikes down the controversial portions of the state's school-reopening order.

"The districts have no meaningful alternative," the ruling said. "If an individual school district chooses safety, that is, delaying the start of schools until it individually determines it is safe to do so for its county, it risks losing state funding, even though every student is being taught."

Florida has so far recorded 600,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 10,000 deaths, the ruling said.

...

 

[cbenoi1]

I figure it won't convince the originator of the posts, but it might prevent some uninformed bystanders from getting sucked in. I've seen the transformation of a few people from more accepting of the scientific information on the pandemic to being deniers, thanks to the steady diet of crap they are exposed to on their news feeds, which of course tend to go in a certain direction based on one's politics and the overall composition of one's friends list.

Yeah. Hmmmm. Well... Good luck with that.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/politics/donald-trump-jr-masks-meme-facebook-fact-check/index.html

-cb

 

[MaeZe]

Yeah. Hmmmm. Well... Good luck with that.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/politics/donald-trump-jr-masks-meme-facebook-fact-check/index.html

-cb

They all just tune out 'wear a mask to protect others' . It doesn't fit their narrative so they simply ignore it, because you know they've been told repeatedly by now.


Not to mention the other side, why aren't they making sure healthcare workers have adequate PPE?

 

[mccardey]

Not to mention the other side, why aren't they making sure healthcare workers have adequate PPE?

We had a variation of this issue in Oz - our (medical-grade) PPE stockpile was totally inadequate for numbers required for hospital, health and emergency workers (to say nothing of vulnerable people and the frail elderly) but despite pleading from the government and medical workers, healthy people were stocking up regardless - in order to feel safely immune from the need to isolate.

Thankfully the stockpile has been grown since.

 

[Roxxsmom]

Yeah. Hmmmm. Well... Good luck with that.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/politics/donald-trump-jr-masks-meme-facebook-fact-check/index.html

-cb

This meme is one of my pet peeves. The vaccine deniers (who have interestingly enough become covid deniers, because vaccine denial seems to derive from people insisting that infectious diseases are less dangerous than everyone says) share it with regularity, and various permutations exist.

Sigh. I've tried reasoning with them, explaining the logical and scientific problems, linking articles, but I might as well be reasoning with my cat. At least the latter is cute.

And yeah, the idea that you wear masks to protect others, not simply to protect yourself, just has not sunk in with some people. They just lose it at the idea that they might have to make some sacrifices for the well-being of others. I mean, horrors, what's next? Laws telling you you shouldn't throw trash on the ground or be allowed to drive your car as fast as you want or go through red lights? Oh, wait.

You just know these are the same folks who don't pick up after their dogs either.

 

[Introversion]

CDC says people exposed to COVID-19 do not need testing

Original story: In a mindboggling and dangerous move, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week quietly reversed its recommendation on COVID-19 testing for those exposed to the virus. Now, the CDC says that exposed but symptomless people do not need to be tested.

The change immediately alarmed and outraged public health and infectious disease experts. It is well established that SARS-CoV-2—the pandemic coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19—can cause completely asymptomatic infections in some and spread from other infected people before they develop symptoms (so-called "pre-symptomatic transmission"). In fact, some modeling studies have suggested that pre-symptomatic transmission may account for nearly half, or even more, of SARS-CoV-2 spread.

That information previously spurred the CDC to recommend testing for anyone that was known to have—or even suspected to have—close contact with an infected person (that is, be within six feet for 15 or more minutes).

“Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the agency said on its website as recently as August 22. “Because of the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.”

...

First update 8/26/2020 1:15pm: An unnamed official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told CNN that the change to the agency's testing recommendations occurred under pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump Administration. "It's coming from the top down," the official said.

Second update 8/26/2020 3:00pm: In a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Admiral Brett Giroir—Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services and lead for COVID-19 diagnostic testing efforts—emphatically defended the changes to the CDC’s testing recommendation, saying that it came from public health experts at the CDC and was evidence based. There was “no direction” from the president, vice president, or other top Trump Administration officials, he said.

As for the changes themselves, Adm. Giroir said the decision to not recommend testing for COVID-19 exposed individuals without symptoms was intended to avoid testing too early after an exposure. This could provide a negative result before an infection has had enough time develop and register as positive on a test, thus giving an exposed person a false-assurance of being uninfected.

It’s still unclear why the CDC did not instead provide a recommended time-frame for asymptomatic testing after an exposure, particularly given that some infected people may never develop symptoms. A positive test result is necessary to ensure COVID-19 patients receive proper care, isolation instructions, and appropriate follow-up. Identifying patients through testing is also critical for contact tracing. After a person tests positive, contact tracers can inform people who may have been exposed to the COVID-19 positive person before they tested positive and/or went into quarantine.

"Still unclear why"? Please. It's perfectly clear: Those who directed them to make the policy change aren't exactly men of science.

 

[Roxxsmom]

CDC says people exposed to COVID-19 do not need testing



"Still unclear why"? Please. It's perfectly clear: Those who directed them to make the policy change aren't exactly men of science.

And apparently the one man of science they still are supposed to consult with was under anesthetic at the time of the meeting. And they lied about this too.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/poli...YutJ820EGs47RJf1chZYnjx3AiM24s4nXEqLIcgG75uT4

"I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations" at that meeting, Fauci told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

"I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is," said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci's comments undercut claims by Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration's coronavirus testing point person, who told reporters on Wednesday that the new guidelines had the White House Coronavirus Task Force's stamp of approval. Asked whether Fauci signed off on the guidelines, Giroir said, "Yes, all the docs signed off on this before it even got to the task force level."

Of course it's not like there's anyone who has a vested interest in the number of new positive cases appearing to decrease over the next couple of months or anything...