Spouse tested negative. Glad we got the answer so quickly.
Good news. Hope your wife’s ailment clears up.
Thanks.
We got hay delivered this weekend and it went very safely/smoothly. The farmer backed up to our barn, then undid all the straps and climbed atop the load. He tossed each bale down to his helper, who then tossed the bale to me. I then either placed the bale or, once we had a pile started, tossed the bale up to my gf to place. We wore “masks” (bandanas to help with dust) as we usually would, and we were all at least 12 feet apart at all times.
Farming done safely during a pandemic, who would have have thought.
As long as the cows and horses wear their masks…and don’t hang out elbow to elbow in bars.
If I recall my days on the farm correctly, the only bars the cows hung around had the bull on the other side of them.
Cows? Eeeew, we just have horses.
I saw an article about the University of Texas reopening and they said:
They based that off of the infection rate of the counties where students will be coming from, so it may not necessarily be indicative of gatherings everywhere.
Even the 5% chance is huge. If there’s a 5% chance of being exposed every time 10 students gather (are masks and distancing required and enforced?) then it won’t take long for a lot of infections to happen.
Absolutely true.
And to go into a group where you have a ~40% chance of being exposed to a potentially life-threatening or disabling illness is nuts.
I just noticed that the study says that the number would change if those who tested positive didn’t go to any gatherings. I would assume they are testing people on arrival and telling them to quarantine if they do test positive, so maybe this full risk will only exist for a short time while people wait for test results?
Yeah, the school environment is going to have some unique characteristics. But I would think the 5% chance in 10 people would be the case among the general population as well. So anywhere there are 10 people–grocery store, park, restaurant, etc.–I’m assuming there’s a 5% chance that one person is infected. At least in the city of Austin where UT is located, anyway.
Well, no. It says that Austin’s prevalence is lower. (0.33%. So, very very roughly, 3.3% chance of an infected person in a group of 10.*) They are calculating the risk based on prevalence in the counties the students are coming from.
*I assume the calculations they do are much more complicated.
This is a bit hyperbolic. The overwhelming majority of college students have extremely low risk of serious health consequences if they are infected. The risk is that they go home and hug their 80-year old grandmother after becoming infected.
Sure, college students are immature and reckless, but they’re not completely stupid. They’ll notice that they aren’t dropping dead the week after attending a kegger. The message that COVID is dangerous to them is all bark and no bite. I don’t think framing the situation that way is very helpful in modifying behavior.
Not all teenagers have similar immune response, there are vulnerable individuals in there as well - most will know but not necassarily all of them - establishments will need to ensure that students are aware of all the major risk factors
1% may sound low, but I think it’s pretty high when you’re talking about a communicable disease and a large group of people. There is also the risk you mention, of spreading it more as well.
Also, I think we still don’t know enough about how it affects young people. I can have a very different course in younger people, and not much is known about how, why, or how to treat it.
This article is NOT TYPICAL, but scary, nonetheless. And it addresses the elusive concept of “odds.” The virus is unpredictable.
Matthew Graveson, 16: Everybody keeps saying that what happened to us is a miracle, and I know that’s true. But another part of me is like: Really? You think I’m lucky? Because I don’t always feel lucky. At every stage of what we went through, I look back and it’s like: How is this possible? What are the odds?
Timothy Graveson, 15: I didn’t even know what a ventilator was. I didn’t know about ECMO or life support. I never had any idea how bad this could get, which is probably what kept me from panicking.
George Graveson (father): I got the virus first. We were taking aggressive measures to social distance, but I must have picked it up at the grocery store or somewhere. I had a tiny cough, and then I had chills one afternoon. It wasn’t anything huge. It wasn’t super drastic, and if one person in the family was set up to get hit hard based on age or whatever, it was probably going to be me.
Sherry Graveson (mother): I tested positive and it was nothing. I barely had a sniffle. No fever. No cough. Why? Why was it nothing? My daughter was in the house with us all the time, and she never even got it. None of it makes any sense.
Matthew: We were so careful. I wasn’t allowed to see friends, even though I asked my parents like a thousand times a day. We wore masks. We quarantined more than any family I know. I remember texting one of my friends and saying: “Even if I get the virus, I’m not that worried. Maybe for my parents, but for us it will probably be like a cold.” I thought kids weren’t supposed to get the virus as bad. I thought it wasn’t common for kids to infect other people and pass it on.
Sherry: Matthew started complaining about a runny nose on Tuesday. Then it was pinkeye symptoms on Wednesday, and the fever came after that. We tried every possible way to manage it at home, but his temperature wouldn’t come down. He was lethargic and his whole body ached. We were calling the doctor and saying: “It wasn’t like this for us. This is different. Why isn’t he getting better?” They were perplexed. They just kept saying: “There’s a lot we don’t understand. We’re asking the same questions.”
…
The upshot is the parents had it with only minor symptoms, but the two sons, age 15 and 16, were hospitalized for about a month in very serious condition.
Erik Osborn (doctor): We used ECMO machines for both boys, and that’s the highest form of life support we can offer. Ninety-five percent of our ECMO patients would be dead without it. The machine essentially replaces your heart and your lungs by pumping blood out of your body, oxygenating it, and then sending it back. It’s last-resort. We’re pushing the boundaries of physiology and bringing a patient to places they would never have gone on their own. You’re suspending someone in the state right before death and keeping them in that place for days or weeks so their lungs have a chance to recover.
George: The boys were in rooms 618 and 620, and we were allowed to visit for one hour a day. They were connected to these big bags of medicine, with tubes and wires running everywhere.
…Dr. Osborn: You get into thinking about that nebulous line between life and death with these patients. For Matthew, I remember days when we would bring down his medication and try to wake him up to see how he was doing, and we got nothing. He wasn’t responding. You had no idea where his brain was, or if it was okay, or if he was still in there.
…
Eventually they both started to recover.
Matthew: I remember dreams. I was in some abandoned hospital, and I was chained to the bed. I kept fighting the chains and trying to escape. When I woke up, I couldn’t tell what was real. I saw a hospital room and a whiteboard on the wall, but the day and the month didn’t make sense. I was like: Where am I? What happened to all of May?.
Timothy: Me, too. There’s a whole month that I basically don’t remember. … Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. It’s a miracle to be alive, but it would have been luckier not to get it.
…
My bold.
The virus is unpredictable.
P.S. There’s no mention of insurance or the cost of any of this…
I did not notice the article was from March. Thanks for pointing that out and providing the updated number.
I think we need to know what kind of excess death numbers (are there excess hospitalization numbers?) there are for that age group. I’ve read multiple accounts of teenagers with severe illness where the parents had to push hard to get the kid tested. Not everyone will push hard, or be successful if they do. I’m not saying the numbers must be much higher, but I do think we don’t know yet.
ETA: Wait, that’s a rate per 100k population, not a % of confirmed cases. Those stats are not in comparable terms.
Hmmm. You’re right - good catch. Going to dig into this further.
Before COVID, my daughter and her fiancé had planned on attending a wedding in San Diego. They arranged their flights and booked an AirB&B for a week. The wedding was cancelled but the AirB&B was paid for and non refundable.
So, they (healthcare workers) decided to wear their N95s and go to San Diego!
The airports were pretty much deserted, and flying was different. Everyone was masked, and they were given a bag with water and some cookies as they boarded. Everyone on their flights was around their age (30s), there were no kids and no old folks. The flight from Pittsburgh to California was pretty much every other seat, but the flight home was packed (American Airlines).
They are home now, ready to return to work, where they’ll be tested again (they are routinely being tested).