COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (4 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

For undergraduates studying at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, college isn't what it used to be.

However, it costs just the same.

While a number of colleges and universities are offering refunds of fees and room and board, the reimbursement policies vary from school to school — and nearly all of them have drawn the line at tuition.

As students and their parents argue that remote learning doesn't have same value as an in-person education, a growing number of undergraduates are taking their cases to court...…….

Demand for refunds intensifies among college students

www.msn.com

 

[St. Widge]

I think data collection on buying patterns and purchase history, I can live with, but idea of real-time location tracking is problematic and i think really blurs the lines of privacy laws. I don't care what people do on the streets in in their bedrooms as long as it's not a threat to public or safety. I understand contract tracing can help, but I think we're well past that, and won't be truly effective until the number of active cases is quite small.

I'm a lot more concerned by apps that would allow the government to trace where you are at all times than having to write a name and phone number down on a list at a store. Writing your name on a list doesn't give real time data. It gives them data about where you were during on 24 hour time period many days after you were there. I'd have a big issue with it in normal times, but there aren't normal times.

As far as the issue of quite small, the number of cases in Orleans is quite small so it might actually be effective here. Moreover, one part of Phase One of the White House/CDC plan requires Contact Tracing. I'm not sure there is a better way to do it. And the simple process of writing your name and number down (and you could choose to lie) seems to be a pretty narrowly tailored way to do it without resorting to Apps that trace your location in real time on a daily basis.

I mean if people want to restart the economy and move into Phase One and then Phase Two as quickly as possible some sacrifices have to be made, not only in terms of lives, but also in terms of you individual privacy. And frankly, writing your name and number on a piece of paper at a store is a lot less of a sacrifice to make than those who will die because we decided that allowing people to make a living was worth an increase in deaths.

So, I guess take your pick. Keep the economy closed or be willing to live with very small intrusions into your privacy and inconveniences.

 

[efil4stnias]

One thing is for sure, unless you throw your neighbor down a flight of stairs after getting the groceries... the News outlets will not cover it.

It's almost like people have become cynical, distrusting, and disconnected from our neighbors based on the trillion or so news reports of the hadfull of idiots... well... being idiots... reports which include no context of how for every idiot doing something dumb reported on the news... there are a thousand people doing the right thing and wanting to genuinely be a good neighbor...

And if that's not what they see in their personal experience... it's probably because they have surrounded themselves with butt crevasse type human proxies.

Or at least that how I feel about it...

you dont need a news outlet.

simply log into Facebook for 10 min.

Its more than a handful. Guess you hadnt been by the river lately eh? or Pit Stop in Amite?

Again, i dont care if those folks want to put 12 on a pontoon and drink and swim the entire day. Good on them. But since you insist on celebrating your "freedom" here is a mask we are asking you to wear when standing in line to buy your beer.

Its more than a handful and while i have no issue with folks looking to get on the river to pass the time, i have issue when they refuse to abide by SIMPLE and non intrusive actions to protect those more vulnerable.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Will you be refusing to answer the Census? This is probably much less intrusive than Census questions.

I really didn't want to get into this because many seem to be so emotional about this but, I am more or less an insufferable libertarian butt crevasse, so I get the serious privacy concerns here, but it's not even clear that the U.S. Constitution actually protects privacy. It certainly doesn't explicitly protect it. Although it is certainly possible that it's a penumbra right as I know you know. But, I'm not really sure what rights this violates and even if it does violate one, you know that it's a balancing test. And you could probably make a good argument that this is narrowly tailored to achieve a specific goal during a state of emergency. It's not like NOPD is going to be at the door checking your papers. It's likely that the information you provide won't even be verified by anyone so you could just give a false name and number if you find it that big of a deal.

I was a lot more bothered by LaToya telling NOPD to set up pretext check points to check for seat belt violations and then having NOPD get in people's faces to remind them to stay home. I mean, that actually implicated the 4th Amendment since it probably counted as a search done by NOPD. You know they were looking for any excuse to search any car that they though met the profile of a drug user/dealer. On the other hand, this isn't a search and it isn't being done by NOPD or any government official. So, I don't think the 4th Amendment would apply.

And I'll add that it's no different from what Florida is doing at their border and nobody seemed to express outrage when buzd explained the process he went through when entering Florida.

Edit: Also, you would know more about this then me since I think you are a former Public Defender or DA, but couldn't NOPD just subpoena records from stores and then get information from credit card receipts, information provided for bonus reward programs, etc. if they wanted to? I mean, it would be much slower and likely not effective in contact tracing because it is so slow, but I think they could do it anyway. And, I get that at least you have the procedural protection of having a judge sign the Warrant, but this way is much faster and neither NOPD, the City, or anyone else, other than store employees, may ever see the information.

I will be refusing the census because it's a pain in the arse to do and I don't want to.

 

[efil4stnias]

For undergraduates studying at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, college isn't what it used to be.

However, it costs just the same.

While a number of colleges and universities are offering refunds of fees and room and board, the reimbursement policies vary from school to school — and nearly all of them have drawn the line at tuition.

As students and their parents argue that remote learning doesn't have same value as an in-person education, a growing number of undergraduates are taking their cases to court...…….

Demand for refunds intensifies among college students

www.msn.com

just had this discussion in this home last week as tuition was due for both my kids schools.

My oldest, goes from 845 to 215 daily on Zoom. Teachers are present and available for instruction, questions etc. Im not really disappointed there. She is missing out on the social interaction High School provides, but that really isnt why i pay tuition.

My youngest however....they are given assignments via a website, asked to complete and upload. For tests, a link and complete online. No structure, no time frame. Do at your leisure. Some kids turn in work at 11pm.
This i have a problem with. Teachers arent as available. ( email only and responses vary from 1 hr to 2 days ) Questions in the moment go unanswered and learning is seemingly getting lost on them. Yet tuition was either paid in full or tuition loan ( 10% fin charge i refuse to pay ).

If we go thru this again in the fall, i fully plan to reach out to the administrators to discuss options.

 

[St. Widge]

I would really, really love to have that option and would gladly do it if I could walk into a dispensary and buy it.

I think you might already be a butt crevasse libertarian.

 

[St. Widge]

I will be refusing the census because it's a pain in the arse to do and I don't want to.

That's cool. I mean it's always a good thing if Texas has less power in the House.

Not answering the Census is your right as a 'Merican and a Texan. And, refusing to give information to the gubment is just what I would expect from a guy with an above ground pool.

 

[Infoman]

you dont need a news outlet.

simply log into Facebook for 10 min.

Its more than a handful. Guess you hadnt been by the river lately eh? or Pit Stop in Amite?

Again, i dont care if those folks want to put 12 on a pontoon and drink and swim the entire day. Good on them. But since you insist on celebrating your "freedom" here is a mask we are asking you to wear when standing in line to buy your beer.

Its more than a handful and while i have no issue with folks looking to get on the river to pass the time, i have issue when they refuse to abide by SIMPLE and non intrusive actions to protect those more vulnerable.

Almost stopped reading at "Facebook".... That's a perfect example of "out of context" garbage... Literally everyone on that site that posts garbage... Is there looking for attention... Negative or Positive makes no difference... level of truth or context makes no difference.

Also, if you are here saying that that the few hundred idiots here and there not following the rules or displaying common decency / empathy while on their boats, in lines getting beer, or not wearing some type of PPE for one reason or another.... or even talking garbage on social media... make up the vast majority of the 260k+ people that reside in our Parish... then we are just going to have to disagree.

 

[sammymvpknight]

If

Yesterday I posted the Louisiana Comorbidity data. New York makes it a bit harder to grab the data, but here it is, by age. It's interesting to see where the shift happens in age. If I get time, I'll try to convert all of this into percentages.

Under the age of 20, they had 2 deaths. The youngest had hypertension, the one between 10-19 had diabetes.

Diabetes is the top comorbidity until you hit 40. Even from 30-40, hypertension becomes a big factor. Under 29, Diabetes is the primary one.

At 40 -49 Hypertension, followed by Diabetes are the top two, then Renal Disease pops up. Hyperlipidemia also pops up (probably just true for that age bracket as a whole)

50-59 those same four comorbidities are running with hypertension and diabetes being far and away the top comorbidities.

The higher age groups are similar, except you add in more significant hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease, Dimentia, COPD, and all the others.

I'm not a doctor, but I'd say, this makes sense. The 'crashing' we see is due to oxygen delivery suffering. So, I believe High blood pressure, and clearly hyperlipidemia/coronary artery disease, impact our oxygen delivery system in the body. I found this, which is about air pressure, but having high blood pressure limits the body's ability to adjust to being in low air pressure at high altitudes. Sounds like Exercise and diet could save a lot of lives. @sammymvpknight any thoughts to this? I'd also imaging doing anything to increase lung capacity would help. I remember doing a test on our lungs before and after playing our wind instruments in band.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180220212047.htm

The challenge is always parsing out the different variables. Common sense says that older, sicker individuals are more susceptible to just about every illness. And older folks tend to accumulate these chronic illnesses.

So are these variable really risk factors or is it just age...and old people tend to have these diseases.

Essentially, you need a multivariant analysis...which requires a significant sample size. I’ll read the studies when I get the chance and let you know what I think about the stats.

 

[AARPSaint]

I mean if people want to restart the economy and move into Phase One and then Phase Two as quickly as possible some sacrifices have to be made, not only in terms of lives, but also in terms of you individual privacy. And frankly, writing your name and number on a piece of paper at a store is a lot less of a sacrifice to make than those who will die because we decided that allowing people to make a living was worth an increase in deaths.

So, I guess take your pick. Keep the economy closed or be willing to live with very small intrusions into your privacy and inconveniences.

Sacrifices? Moi? I would have quoted your whole excellent post but wanted to focus on this portion. I am so disappointed that Americans were able to follow some rules until it became alledgedy inconvenient. Why is it so intrusive to put on a dust mask--and that's all you need--to protect others? Most of us would do that if we were sanding a board to protect ourselves. But, no, we can't make a nano-sacrifice to protect others and impede the spread of a disease for which there is barely a treatment, no cure, and no vaccine.

 

[Saint_Ward]

If


The challenge is always parsing out the different variables. Common sense says that older, sicker individuals are more susceptible to just about every illness. And older folks tend to accumulate these chronic illnesses.

So are these variable really risk factors or is it just age...and old people tend to have these diseases.

Essentially, you need a multivariant analysis...which requires a significant sample size. I’ll read the studies when I get the chance and let you know what I think about the stats.

Yeah, at a minimum, what percentage of folks those ages just have those things? But, I think the Louisiana data of 53% with hypertension, seems significant. Or damn Louisiana, back off the salt.

 

[efil4stnias]

Almost stopped reading at "Facebook".... That's a perfect example of "out of context" garbage... Literally everyone on that site that posts garbage... Is there looking for attention... Negative or Positive makes no difference... level of truth or context makes no difference.

Also, if you are here saying that that the few hundred idiots here and there not following the rules or displaying common decency / empathy while on their boats, in lines getting beer, or not wearing some type of PPE for one reason or another.... or even talking garbage on social media... make up the vast majority of the 260k+ people that reside in our Parish... then we are just going to have to disagree.

a cloth mask is not PPE. lets be clear about that. PPE denotes PERSONAL protective equip- aka protecting one self. P100 or N95 would be that.

You dont need context with Facebook. Thats what the pictures are for. Dont know why anyone would need context to a photo showing 30+ boats, bow to bow, with 100s of people milling about from boat to boat. The photo provides the context you need.

And not sure where you shop or where you go, but i have posted here several times about my trips to HD, Lowes, Winn Dixie, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Rouses etc etc and the number of people NOT wearing a simple mask. Shoot, Lowes stopped the "qeueing" of folks last Saturday and i arrived at 8 am to see a freakin shirt show of people, unmasked, all thru that store.

Sunday,...back in line. It was obvious that was a trial run to see what would happen. I bet they didnt even think it would be THAT bad.

So the 100s on the river are not the same 1000s running thru Lowes on a Sat am. When you start doing the math, its plain to see that it adds up quickly.

 

[efil4stnias]

Yeah, at a minimum, what percentage of folks those ages just have those things? But, I think the Louisiana data of 53% with hypertension, seems significant. Or damn Louisiana, back off the salt.

when was the last time you ate crawfish???? 3/4 of that bag of seasoning is salt.

My wife removes rings when we have/got to berls. lolol.

 

[Saint_Ward]

I think data collection on buying patterns and purchase history, I can live with, but idea of real-time location tracking is problematic and i think really blurs the lines of privacy laws. I don't care what people do on the streets in in their bedrooms as long as it's not a threat to public or safety. I understand contract tracing can help, but I think we're well past that, and won't be truly effective until the number of active cases is quite small.

Wait for this... Give it a look over. I've only glanced at it.

Apple and Google show what their contact tracing system could look like

Apple and Google just provided a first look at how public health apps could use the coronavirus contact tracing software they are jointly developing.

www.cnn.com

Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing - Apple and Google

Contact Tracing makes it possible to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

www.apple.com

 

[gboudx]

Hot Mess seems just too apropos to be coincidental.

I think she already knows who she is. To a tee.

She deserves her punishment. She was on the local news basically daring the city to do something about her opening. She was warned and then when she continued to openly violate the order, she was fined and then held in contempt. Now she's got a week in jail and $7k fine. I wouldn't care if they threw out the fine and just made her serve the time. I think everyone gets her point about needing to make money, but rules are rules and other businesses complied. Maybe she was hoping other businesses would follow her but none did.