At what point did you / will you take the coronavirus epidemic seriously?

[Bo Diddley]

COVID-19 can now be detected by listening to your cough.

In tests, it achieved a 98.5% success rate among people who had received an official positive coronavirus test result, rising to 100% in those who had no other symptoms.

[Omaha 680]

First week over week reduction in daily new cases in two months in Utah!

Its only down four cases but flat is better than skyrocketing.

[Northwestcoug]

COVID-19 can now be detected by listening to your cough.

Hey, that's kind of interesting.

I wonder how specific it is to COVID-19 though.

[Bo Diddley]

Hey, that's kind of interesting.

I wonder how specific it is to COVID-19 though.

Right I was thinking along the same lines.

[Paperback Writer]

I predict that the number of students going to college will drastically decrease. The kid down the street who should have been a senior this year, attending prom and starting on the basketball team, is graduating earlier in January and already has a full time job. He is bunking with 4 other seniors, all of whom are forgoing their second senior year and are working full time - they are all renting an appt together. When your school experience is nothing but online zoom, I dont blame them for getting on with their lives. And if college is more of the same, I'm thinking these high schoolers will all do vocational work and dispense with Studies in Feminism in Post Modern Century and other such college degrees.

College enrollment is already down and probably will continue that trend until the pandemic is under control. I would then expect an increase in college enrollment after young people who have deferred college begin experiencing the realities of working for vocational wages. However, if those same vocational workers would be studying what you've described rather than STEM areas, then that is a very different value proposition. My college aged kids have adapted to university life with COVID in their own ways. One has stayed on campus and little has changed outside of Zoom replacing classroom lectures - she masks up, socially distances, and gets tested regularly courtesy of the university. Another kid has started his career as a software developer before finishing his degree when he received a job offer that would be no better than had he graduated. He's finishing his degree on-line and his daily routine is not that different than his sibling who is on campus except he's only taking a class a semester instead of a full schedule.

I think the real changes to the university experience will be the continuing adaptation and acceleration of online learning into the curriculum. Before COVID struck I was somewhat surprised during a conversation with a nephew in Med school at the U. I was asking about how he was managing med school and being a new parent, etc., and he mentioned the flexibility he had with some courses where the lecture was streamed and recorded so he could work the material in as his schedule permitted. And this was med school.

[Uncle Ted]

College enrollment is already down and probably will continue that trend until the pandemic is under control. I would then expect an increase in college enrollment after young people who have deferred college begin experiencing the realities of working for vocational wages. However, if those same vocational workers would be studying what you've described rather than STEM areas, then that is a very different value proposition. My college aged kids have adapted to university life with COVID in their own ways. One has stayed on campus and little has changed outside of Zoom replacing classroom lectures - she masks up, socially distances, and gets tested regularly courtesy of the university. Another kid has started his career as a software developer before finishing his degree when he received a job offer that would be no better than had he graduated. He's finishing his degree on-line and his daily routine is not that different than his sibling who is on campus except he's only taking a class a semester instead of a full schedule.

I think the real changes to the university experience will be the continuing adaptation and acceleration of online learning into the curriculum. Before COVID struck I was somewhat surprised during a conversation with a nephew in Med school at the U. I was asking about how he was managing med school and being a new parent, etc., and he mentioned the flexibility he had with some courses where the lecture was streamed and recorded so he could work the material in as his schedule permitted. And this was med school.

Yeah, I wonder how many will pass their medical boards.

[Omaha 680]

Perhaps? But it seems to be crushing all latitudes in europe. Italy and spain are on fire. Worst countries are 2-3 times daily new infections the us is experiencing in our current spike. And some of the hardest hit countries are ones that went through the most stringent lockdowns to beat the first wave and have very high compliance with mask wearing. Its all very discouraging.

I looked at this more closely today because I was curious. Based on 7 day rolling average of daily new infections per million population, there are at least 23 European countries with worse current outbreaks than the US as of yesterday. 16 of those are at least 50% higher than the US and eight are at least double. France is 2.5x. Switzerland is 3.5x. Belgium is over 5x.

[Clark Addison]

One of my ongoing streaks was broken today, so I was wondering if anyone else has some interesting ones going on.

The broken one, unfortunately, I don't have an exact date on. I believe, but am not certain, that it has been 223 days since I have worn long pants. After 222 days of nothing but shorts, I woke up today to 34 degrees, and left the shorts in the drawer for the first time since late March.

It has been 237 days since I have set an alarm to wake me up. A couple of weeks ago I was tempted to be sure I would be ready for an important 8:00 meeting, but I didn't want to break my streak, and everything worked out well. This one may have a bit of an asterisk now, as my wife went back to work for the first time since March last week, and has been setting her alarm at 6:15. While I have no obligation to wake up then, I have a hard time falling asleep afterward, so I usually get up within the next 10-20 minutes.

Lastly, it has been 121 days since I cut my hair. On July 4, I shaved my head before vacationing, and when I got home decided to let it go for a while (I look like I aged 10 years and became homeless).

[beefytee]

I looked at this more closely today because I was curious. Based on 7 day rolling average of daily new infections per million population, there are at least 23 European countries with worse current outbreaks than the US as of yesterday. 16 of those are at least 50% higher than the US and eight are at least double. France is 2.5x. Switzerland is 3.5x. Belgium is over 5x.

Seems like we did actually get a summer lull, even though it didn't seem like it because we opened things up and the count went up. Hopefully the new treatments and eventual vaccine make a big difference so things don't get really ugly.

[Omaha 680]

Seems like we did actually get a summer lull, even though it didn't seem like it because we opened things up and the count went up. Hopefully the new treatments and eventual vaccine make a big difference so things don't get really ugly.

That is my hope as well. Maybe in the end European lockdowns will look wise because they will have delayed a lot of their infections to this second wave when better treatments are available and the end result will be less overall death. I am certainly not saying we did or are doing great. I just don't know what the new administration is going to do drastically differently to beat down the outbreak. Maybe with better messaging they can get higher compliance with voluntary measures and we will do better on the margins.

[Jarid in Cedar]

I looked at this more closely today because I was curious. Based on 7 day rolling average of daily new infections per million population, there are at least 23 European countries with worse current outbreaks than the US as of yesterday. 16 of those are at least 50% higher than the US and eight are at least double. France is 2.5x. Switzerland is 3.5x. Belgium is over 5x.

Europe is definitely the current epicenter of the pandemic. I have some thoughts and observations about the current state of things in the US and the world, but haven't had a chance to galvanize them into a coherent post. Hopefully later today.

[Applejack]

Voluntary measures don’t just affect the margins, they (masks, social distancing) are our best bets right now. Compare Utah too a lot of the major cities in the us; San Francisco, dc, nyc, Seattle, etc. those cities are doing MUCH better at controlling the virus, even with built in disadvantages like population density, high initial rates of infection when the crisis started, etc. why? Because these cities generally have high rates of people wearing masks and social distancing.

[Omaha 680]

Europe is definitely the current epicenter of the pandemic. I have some thoughts and observations about the current state of things in the US and the world, but haven't had a chance to galvanize them into a coherent post. Hopefully later today.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to it.

Voluntary measures don’t just affect the margins, they (masks, social distancing) are our best bets right now. Compare Utah too a lot of the major cities in the us; San Francisco, dc, nyc, Seattle, etc. those cities are doing MUCH better at controlling the virus, even with built in disadvantages like population density, high initial rates of infection when the crisis started, etc. why? Because these cities generally have high rates of people wearing masks and social distancing.

Thats what I thought as well but the current European outbreak has me wondering if masks really are the silver bullet for controlling outbreaks. There are some very high compliant mask wearing countries in Europe that are on fire right now. Maybe its just compliance fatigue like moliere says and they are not masking/distancing as they were a few months ago. Im not suggesting we shouldn't do these things. I mask in public and when I am not in my office with the door closed and I see a >95% compliance with masking in sl County.

[Uncle Ted]

LOL...

[Northwestcoug]

Well, this is interesting. Denmark is going to cull all of their farmed mink because they've documented a novel coronavirus in them. And I guess it has infected humans. They are concerned that if a novel outbreak occurs in the mink population and it significantly affects humans, that could possibly interfere with the efficacy of future vaccines. There are millions of them, millions!

In case you were wondering Denmark is one of the world's biggest exporters of minks for fur.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/h...mid=tw-nytimes