COVID-19 and impact on school

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Virginia Tech looks like it's transitioning to online now too

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So it seems like 1st and 2nd years are moving entirely online for the rest of semester. 3rd years are going on clinics in a week and will only be allowed to participate if they refrain from traveling over spring break.

Looks like a bunch of labs (including our spays) will be postponed. :(
 
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I was asking a serious question so that perhaps all of us who either don’t remember or weren’t in college during this could hear about it. And when I said “but not too much happened” I was asking a question based off of what I remembered going through and hearing on the news. But I seriously appreciate the snark.
I'm an e-mail hoarder and felt like doing a quick search. Found something:
April 2009 e-mail said:
Concern about swine flu is growing in the United States and internationally The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization are working closely with health officials throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as other countries reporting isolated cases of the swine flu, to provide guidance and technical support to address this emerging health threat. While there is no immediate cause for alarm on campus, [School Police] and University Health Center personnel are in direct contact with county and state health officials to ensure that the institution and the community are prepared to address issues related to the flu, particularly if there are signs that the influenza virus is spreading into the state.
May 2009 e-mail said:
The [University] is doing its part to help minimize the potential impact of the H1N1 virus while globally health care and public health professionals work to contain the virus. As a result, and solely as a precautionary measure, the commencement ceremony will include a cordial and congratulatory nod of the head from the university president instead of the traditional handshake.

To limit possible spread of any virus and safeguard the health of those in attendance, notices will be posted at all entrances to the [place] asking persons who exhibit any flu-like symptoms to please go home to minimize exposure to others. They are encouraged to view the event by following steps outlined at [website]
August 2009 e-mail said:
Dear [School] Students,

The nation is expecting a recurrence of H1N1, often referred to as swine
flu, during the fall and winter. As the flu season approaches, we want
to share information to help you stay healthy as much as possible and
also prevent the spread of illness. In cooperation with local, state and
national sources, our University Health Center staff continues to
monitor the flu situation, both seasonal and H1N1, and will share
updates as needed throughout the academic year. As an initial step this
fall, we appreciate you taking time to read this message.

Stay Informed:

The more you know about H1N1 and precautions that will help you avoid
infection the better. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and
Prevention has established a web site that provides details about H1N1,
how it is spread and tips for treatment and prevention,
CDC H1N1 Flu | H1N1 Flu and You. Another helpful site is
http://flu.gov. You can also go to the health center’s web site,
[website] for additional information and campus updates
regarding H1N1.

The symptoms of this flu virus are similar to seasonal flu symptoms.
Therefore, the University Health Center urges anyone experiencing
symptoms of fever, body aches and lethargy, and /or respiratory symptoms
of coughing, sneezing and eye irritation to STAY HOME, self-isolate and
avoid unnecessary contact with others. Treatment is the same as with any
flu-like illness: keep the fever down and stay well hydrated.

Have a Plan for Temporary Isolation in Case of Illness:

The CDC is strongly recommending self isolation for those who have flu
like illness for a period of at least 24 hours after they no longer have
fever symptoms without aid of fever-reducing medicine. Students should
consider a plan that allows them to isolate, either in their room or
family’s home, should they become ill.

Vaccine:

Students are urged to get the seasonal flu shot as well as the H1N1
vaccine, when it becomes available. The H1N1 vaccine will require two
separate vaccinations, given three weeks apart. Although the
availability and timeline of the H1N1 vaccine is uncertain at this time,
seasonal flu shots are expected to be available early this fall. The
University Health Center will keep the campus community informed of
vaccine availability. With a time lapse between the start of fall
semester and vaccine availability, it’s especially important to remember
to take proper precautions to help you stay healthy.

Best Practices:

Even healthy people need to remember that basic practices can help to
prevent the spread of illness:

Cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing
Cough/sneeze into a tissue (and throw it away) or cough into your sleeve
[YouTube video of proper coughing lol]
Avoid toughing your eyes, nose and mouth
Frequent hand washing with soap and water, or use alcohol based hand
cleaners
Important Contacts:

Should you become ill or have health concerns, please call the
University Health Center at [number].

Any questions or concerns can be directed to [Person] RN, BSN

We hope this information is helpful. By following these important steps,
you can help contribute to a healthy campus. Your assistance is greatly
appreciated.
September 2009 e-mail said:
[School] Students:

In response to the H1N1 flu situation:

1) [School]'s Class Attendance Policy has been modified for Academic Year
2009-10. Please click here [link to PDF]) to read it.

2) If you have questions about the revised class attendance policy in
effect for AY 2009-10, please discuss with your individual class
instructor

I had a ton of e-mails from a summer camp I worked at that had disruption, but I can't find them.

Overall bad but not nearly as severe as SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 that's going on right now.
 
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If you were sincerely asking a question, I don't really think saying "this is what happened (not much), right?" is the best way to go about doing so. Because it sorta just looks like you were looking for people to agree with you, and now it looks like you're not even appreciative for the information I DID provide you (probably because I disagreed). If you ask sincere questions, expect to not always be correct ;)
Maybe I could have asked it a little more straightforward, but my question was posed in a way that was insinuating that that was my experience, but I was wondering if that was everyone’s experience. There was no need for you to come at me like that, and the fact that you see nothing wrong with how you handled yourself in what has up to now been a perfectly normal and professional discussion is concerning.
 
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I'm an e-mail hoarder and felt like doing a quick search. Found something:





I had a ton of e-mails from a summer camp I worked at that had disruption, but I can't find them.

Overall bad but not nearly as severe as SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 that's going on right now.
Thank you for the detailed response. I really appreciate it. It seemed like there wasn’t a ton being done at the time as far as cancelling classes and shutting down schools went, but I was only in middle school at the time so I was way less perceptive to it than I am now.
 
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Thank you for the detailed response. I really appreciate it. It seemed like there wasn’t a ton being done at the time as far as cancelling classes and shutting down schools went, but I was only in middle school at the time so I was way less perceptive to it than I am now.
I don't remember being particularly worried or freaked out about morbidity or mortality at all. I think I was too busy freaking out about paying rent and servicing my $45k credit card debt on $0 income and studying for school than some silly pig flu. To be honest I don't remember my state of mind so I could probably look at my SDN posts to jog my memory. :laugh: (I'm not downplaying the people who did get sick or die.)

This is a bit more severe of a pandemic, and it sadly wouldn't surprise me if the end numbers are worse than 2009's numbers re: morbidity and mortality. :( Especially with many screw-ups by leaders, by Just-In-Time supply chain, by relying on foreign manufacturing, by not learning from 2009 H1N1 or 2002/03? SARS-CoV-1 or 2014 Ebola. It's soooooo tragic that health care professionals are dying and rationing care and don't even have their own PPE due to poor preparation to stock up on masks. Not to mention the possibility of this being used as the scapegoat to blame for irresponsible debt/credit bubbles since 2008 (i.e. this could lead to a financial depression maybe and central bankers will blame this virus instead of themselves). It's just inexcusable for so many government leaders (in both Western and Eastern countries) to either downplay "Oh the risk is low, nbd" to downright lies and misinformation. This could've been an opportunity for real public health leadership and a strong, honest, comprehensive public health message being delivered, and most countries blew it. We even got a 2+ month head start watching China and didn't think it'd leave their border.

I hope hope hope (in one hand and wish in the other!) that later this year or in 2021 when the dust has settled that some real changes are made, because the next pandemic always has the potential to be much worse.
 
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Here at Illinois we haven’t heard much besides that they are preparing for a potential disruption to face to face instruction.
They didn’t mention any plans for anatomy labs or junior surgery, but they did state that as of now there is no plan to disrupt clinicals.
JR Sx is done for the year so they won’t have to do anything with that
 
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I still haven't decided if I'm going to go to florida like 3 days from now because I don't know if they'll let me back on campus for clinics afterwards :bag:

I want someone to decide for me. Right now we're banned from campus for 14 days after international travel, but for domestic travel, they basically said "we'll need to think about it," which is the most nebulous guidance they could possibly give.
 
I still haven't decided if I'm going to go to florida like 3 days from now because I don't know if they'll let me back on campus for clinics afterwards :bag:

I want someone to decide for me. Right now we're banned from campus for 14 days after international travel, but for domestic travel, they basically said "we'll need to think about it," which is the most nebulous guidance they could possibly give.
I say go because can they really keep almost everyone off campus for 2 weeks for domestic travel :thinking:
 
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Serious question - what was the 2009 swine flu outbreak like for those of you who experienced it? Did it feel similar to this? Were people as freaked out? Were as many public events and schools canceled?

I was living on an isolated Caribbean island in 2009 and it didn’t affect us so not many people talked about it at the time.
 
Serious question - what was the 2009 swine flu outbreak like for those of you who experienced it? Did it feel similar to this? Were people as freaked out? Were as many public events and schools canceled?

I was living on an isolated Caribbean island in 2009 and it didn’t affect us so not many people talked about it at the time.
I was a college senior in Southern California at a very large university. No school events were cancelled, bleach and Lysol weren’t sold out, and while it was talked about on the news, it didn’t seem to be as big of a deal as this. Much less hype from what I recall.
 
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Just got the email. CSU is online until at least April 10th.
 
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I had to get the H1N1 flu shot back in 2009 when swine flu was big. They weren’t letting people outside of healthcare fields and their families get the vaccine because it was so limited. My dad works in healthcare and sees a ton of patients a day (majority are children) and is fully booked daily, so if anyone in my family got the swine flu he couldn’t go to work for at least 2 weeks, which would have been an absolute cluster to reschedule that many patients when they book 6-8 weeks out.
 
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Serious question - what was the 2009 swine flu outbreak like for those of you who experienced it? Did it feel similar to this? Were people as freaked out? Were as many public events and schools canceled?

I was living on an isolated Caribbean island in 2009 and it didn’t affect us so not many people talked about it at the time.
I posted my experience in posts 53 and 56 above. First post had several emails from my school over most of 2009. It wasn't tragic really. No handshake at commencement, big whoop, yanno?

To add more to your question though:

  • I don't remember crematoriums being run 24/7 like in Wuhan or literal mass graves (Iran) to bury bodies if they're not cremated.
  • don't remember 60 Million people (all of Italy) being on mandatory lockdown for a month or a big city like Wuhan being on lockdown for multiple months.
  • I don't remember seeing videos of people falling over dead on the street or people being welded into their apartment complexes by government workers for the residents to quarantine/die.
  • Door-to-door temperature checks by agents of the State. Fever? You get forcibly kidnapped (1 person per limb) and thrown into a van kicking and screaming to be sent to a mass dormitory where hundreds of infected can all try to not die.
  • I don't remember 2009 being attached to literally trillions of dollars in global catastrophe -- like this could legitimately turn into something really bad economically with insane amounts of currency printing and hyperinflation.
  • I don't remember 2009 being surrounded by such misinformation. With this? We're seeing misinformation from both incompetence and with deliberate lying to people.
  • In 2009, no cities turned into ghost towns (Seattle). No National Guard (NY). No civil unrest and violence. No hoarding on PPE, TP, and water.
  • No reports in 2009 of renal failure in patients in their 20s or 30s within 2-3 days of the onset of symptoms.
  • In 2009 hospital beds and ICU beds weren't maxed out (at least to this extent) like we're seeing all over the world right now with MCI-level triage happening and cancer patients and chronically ill being kicked out or left to die.
  • This is a 100% novel virus in a naive population. There's not even a little bit of herd immunity at all.
  • I don't remember 2009 being a cluster with regard to testing and diagnosis. Here many countries are behind the 8-ball on testing and accurate diagnosis. USA is officially at the 1000 case club overnight last night but the reality is we could already be in the 10k club infected.

Could probably go on. I'm quite concerned. This is night-and-day difference compared to 2009.
 
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^I think this was what I was trying to get at.

Pippy did words better :p
I mean I am still confused because H1N1 affected people globally, in over 200 countries per WHO's definition. Last I saw coronavirus was a bit over 100 (though it's still early)

We can totally agree to disagree on this because it's beating a dead horse at this point. I'll just leave it that I disagree that we have never seen something similar in the last century.
 
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I'll just leave it that I disagree that we have never seen something similar in the last century.

I think another difference this time around is the amount of media sensationalization. As in, I think there may be more of it with COVID-19 as opposed to in the past, which makes it seem worse than what it is.
 
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Serious question - what was the 2009 swine flu outbreak like for those of you who experienced it? Did it feel similar to this? Were people as freaked out? Were as many public events and schools canceled?

I was living on an isolated Caribbean island in 2009 and it didn’t affect us so not many people talked about it at the time.
I was a senior in high school at the time, I don't remember people being nearly as freaked out or any significant closures/cancellations happening. I'm pretty sure I got H1N1, I don't think I was officially tested but I was pretty sick for a week. But even then my biggest concern was whether I'd still be able to perform in the school play the following week (don't worry, I recovered in time!).
 
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I was a senior in high school at the time, I don't remember people being nearly as freaked out or any significant closures/cancellations happening. I'm pretty sure I got H1N1, I don't think I was officially tested but I was pretty sick for a week.
I also think I had H1N1 in high school. Was a ****ty week with a fever and a cough that wouldn’t go away, but otherwise, my experience was similar.
 
Right, but this has officially been classified by the WHO as a pandemic now and it’s one of the more contagious viruses.
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I love this infographic to give us perspective.... my only nitpick is I think the chart is being too conservative by saying R0 = 1.5 to 3.5. I've seen R0 twice that, easily, especially for the S-type strain of this virus. We'll see. Edit: And if asymptomatic transmission is indeed possible and there's no social distancing, it's no wonder one oblivious person can spread it to 7+ people at work or at a conference or public transportation. Or a cruise ship. Or a doctor/nurse without PPE who is asymptomatically spreading it to others.
 
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Serious question - what was the 2009 swine flu outbreak like for those of you who experienced it? Did it feel similar to this? Were people as freaked out? Were as many public events and schools canceled?

I was living on an isolated Caribbean island in 2009 and it didn’t affect us so not many people talked about it at the time.

My sister got H1N1 and was under some type of quarantine. She definitely wasn't allowed to go to work (in human healthcare) but I don't think she was home quarantined for two weeks like people are currently undergoing.

I was in the military and headed out for deployment. We got temperature checked before we left for international travel and were all required to get the H1N1 vaccine in addition to the seasonal flu vaccine. We landed in three countries on the way to our final destination. We weren't allowed to leave the plane in country #1. We were temp checked before leaving the plane in country #2 and were not allowed to leave the hangar where we landed. We stayed in country #3 for a few weeks before heading to country #4, and got temp checked again on our way in to/out of country #3 and upon landing in country #4. If anyone had had a fever, they would have been required to undergo a quarantine.

Some people were freaking out, and it was definitely on the news a lot in the US before we left and in the country where we deployed. But it definitely was not to the same scale as what is happening right now - I don't remember any stores selling out of supplies, hoarding of PPE, etc. (My sister, for the record, was just very annoyed and wanted to go back to work.)
 
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Our classes haven’t been cancelled yet. But curious how schools are going about when to schedule makeup labs and surgery time? We are quarters so we also just started spring quarter and have an entire 11 weeks of surgery ahead of us. Open house was cancelled the other day for us though too.

Also, I was 12 when H1N1 was a thing and really remember none of it. So I definitely feel like I don’t have anything to compare this to.
 
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I've heard rumors of hospitals at other schools going to emergency only, which I feel like they'd have to do here if students weren't allowed to come in.

I'm a pre-vet living near a vet school. Is it worth it for me to contact them and see if they could use the help (if they cancel for students)? Or are they also closing hospitals to get everyone out of them? I have vet assistant experience and will have to leave my research job (at my undergrad that's too far to commute from home) if my region gets to that point anyway.
 
I'm a pre-vet living near a vet school. Is it worth it for me to contact them and see if they could use the help (if they cancel for students)? Or are they also closing hospitals to get everyone out of them? I have vet assistant experience and will have to leave my research job (at my undergrad that's too far to commute from home) if my region gets to that point anyway.
If it got to the point that they weren't allowing 4th years to come in, it would be to limit the number of people in the hospital to essential personnel in order to reduce spread of the virus. I'm just saying that I don't think our hospital would be able to function at a normal capacity without students, but if they were only allowing true emergency cases it would probably be okay. It's a nice thought, but I feel like bringing in new people would just make things more difficult, at least here. Even though you have experience, every hospital works somewhat differently.
 
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Oregon State just announced online only classes starting next term, for the first ~10 days then they'll reevaluate. Finals next week are supposedly online only as well. The dean of the vet school just sent an email though saying that all finals will take place as scheduled, so not really sure what that means.

Edit: they're allowing in person finals as long as the room has capacity for 3x the number of students, so it seems like we'll take our finals in smaller groups throughout the day.
 
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Oregon State just announced online only classes starting next term, for the first ~10 days then they'll reevaluate. Finals next week are supposedly online only as well. The dean of the vet school just sent an email though saying that all finals will take place as scheduled, so not really sure what that means.

Edit: they're allowing in person finals as long as the room has capacity for 3x the number of students, so it seems like we'll take our finals in smaller groups throughout the day.
Re-read the email. Not all finals will be online it just says "whenever possible". Honestly their email is so wishy-washy it's hard to even make sense of it lol. Doesn't seem like a firm stance really.
edit in response to your edit: I didnt see the 3x thing, kinda interesting lol
 

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Oof, Oregon State is using Zoom. Zoom had a really egregiously nasty security flaw like 2 years ago. I think maybe on macOS but memory's fuzzy. Like terrible backdoor.

I think some online tests I might take this year might require Zoom for the webcam part. Ugh.
 
I think another difference this time around is the amount of media sensationalization. As in, I think there may be more of it with COVID-19 as opposed to in the past, which makes it seem worse than what it is.
Yeah 100% this
Oof, Oregon State is using Zoom. Zoom had a really egregiously nasty security flaw like 2 years ago. I think maybe on macOS but memory's fuzzy. Like terrible backdoor.

I think some online tests I might take this year might require Zoom for the webcam part. Ugh.
Eh that’s a campus wide email. I have never used zoom with the exception of zooming main campus OSU to get ONID passwords when I had no phone. So nothing at the vet school.
Everything I’ve ever used through the vet school has been using canvas. It’s how all of our lecture captures are done currently.
 
Oof, Oregon State is using Zoom. Zoom had a really egregiously nasty security flaw like 2 years ago. I think maybe on macOS but memory's fuzzy. Like terrible backdoor.

I think some online tests I might take this year might require Zoom for the webcam part. Ugh.
:cyclops: our anatomy professors use zoom
 
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Hmmm I guess I should have been posting about my school here :p

Basic rundown
- Classes moved online for pre-clinical peeps effective March 23rd (right after spring break)-April 3rd
- Clinics will continue
- Externships outside of basically Knoxville a couple neighboring townships have to be cancelled or postponed, and people may not be allowed to take days off clinics for out of state interviews
- Perhaps exceptions will be made for the previous point, they have to be approved by the dean, I don't know if anyone has tried yet
- Those of us returning from externships have to follow self-quarantine protocols as necessary...so hoping no cases pop up here before I leave
 
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I still haven't decided if I'm going to go to florida like 3 days from now because I don't know if they'll let me back on campus for clinics afterwards :bag:

I want someone to decide for me. Right now we're banned from campus for 14 days after international travel, but for domestic travel, they basically said "we'll need to think about it," which is the most nebulous guidance they could possibly give.
Tbh I wouldn't go unless you are ok with the possibility of having to self-quarantine when you get back, because cases could pop up while you're there
I actually need to go read over the guidelines myself. I'm driving everywhere at least, so less exposure,
 
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I logged back in finally (lost my password lol) and I wanted to see how all the other schools were handling Covid-19.

I'm also here to let you know WesternU has also suspended in-class courses for most of the programs on campus. They're proceeding with online activities for us. They trouble-shooted on how we're going to be doing PBL curriculum today. We shall see what happens.
 
Still no plans to make any changes here as far as I know, but KU is moving to online classes starting the 23rd, and I'm wondering if K-State will follow suit.
 
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I guess I can put what A&M is doing. So far, only the first two days following spring break are cancelled for us. Faculty still have to come in, and it is supposed to be so they can prepare and do what they need to do in order to prep for potential for us going completely online for two weeks. We'll see how it progresses over the next few days.
 
Tbh I wouldn't go unless you are ok with the possibility of having to self-quarantine when you get back, because cases could pop up while you're there
I actually need to go read over the guidelines myself. I'm driving everywhere at least, so less exposure,
meh problem solved: they just sent out additional guidelines saying we need to fill out a risk assessment form every time we go more than 50 miles from campus. It asks us to justify our reason for going and we need to cite resources at the county level, so... I am not gonna make more homework for myself on top of feeling guilty
 
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Serious question - what was the 2009 swine flu outbreak like for those of you who experienced it? Did it feel similar to this? Were people as freaked out? Were as many public events and schools canceled?
I had to get the H1N1 flu shot back in 2009 when swine flu was big. They weren’t letting people outside of healthcare fields and their families get the vaccine because it was so limited. My dad works in healthcare and sees a ton of patients a day (majority are children) and is fully booked daily, so if anyone in my family got the swine flu he couldn’t go to work for at least 2 weeks, which would have been an absolute cluster to reschedule that many patients when they book 6-8 weeks out.
I was about to say, the main thing I remember is I was one of the first groups to get the H1N1 shot because I was a high-risk group (asthma). I was ~14 at the time.
 
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I was about to say, the main thing I remember is I was one of the first groups to get the H1N1 shot because I was a high-risk group (asthma). I was ~14 at the time.
I apparently also have asthma but just never was diagnosed with it until this year :laugh:
I never thought my chronic cough was anything but allergies to my sisters cat :rofl:
Apparently I was doubly risky hahaha
 
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UC Davis is not cancelling anything at the vet school, at least at this point. The most we got was a very vague email about handwashing and to stay home if sick. The undergraduates are "encouraged" to transition to online instruction and they've cancelled their finals, but that doesn't extend to the vet school. Personally, I think it's really irresponsible of the administration to have us coming in for didactics considering there active cases in the Bay Area and the counties surrounding Davis, and UC Berkeley, San Jose State, and Stanford have all moved online. And I know of many classmates who are still planning on going on recreational travel over spring break, which starts in a few days (including at least one going abroad to Japan, which is bananas) so I think things are only going to get worse after the break. And there have been no directives to self-quarantine after travel. I really love my school but I think they are making the wrong call right now.
 
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UC Davis is not cancelling anything at the vet school, at least at this point. The most we got was a very vague email about handwashing and to stay home if sick. The undergraduates are "encouraged" to transition to online instruction and they've cancelled their finals, but that doesn't extend to the vet school. Personally, I think it's really irresponsible of the administration to have us coming in for didactics considering there active cases in the Bay Area and the counties surrounding Davis, and UC Berkeley, San Jose State, and Stanford have all moved online. And I know of many classmates who are still planning on going on recreational travel over spring break, which starts in a few days (including at least one going abroad to Japan, which is bananas) so I think things are only going to get worse after the break. And there have been no directives to self-quarantine after travel. I really love my school but I think they are making the wrong call right now.
Why is it crazy to go to Japan over other places? They have has as many cases and deaths as the US does. Although, much smaller country and closer to China. I have a couple friends that were planning to do research in Japan this summer but now they aren't sure if they will be allowed to :(
I currently have spring break plans and no real intention to cancel, but I guess we'll see how the next couple days go :/ if nothing else I'm not going more than a day's drive from here
 
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Cross-posting in this thread as well from the long-running thread in SPF. I've been watching about ~4 different channels' daily updates for the past several weeks now, and this one in particular has been high yield for me since he aggregates news articles, journal articles, good Tweets, and personal accounts from boots on the ground (e.g. Italy right now, China, Switzerland, UK, laypeople and physicians/nurses from all over the world) so clicking and reading his links have been a quick starting point for my own further reading.



But even just this video is very high yield in itself. Give it a watch, even at 2x speed. We are not taking necessary urgent action and our exponential growth curve is starting to accelerate its slope. Like shooting off like a rocket bad. I thought we (USA, Canada) wouldn't turn into Italy until mid-May based on 6-day doubling rate of cases, but -- unless I'm reading his message wrong and the charts and projections -- that's been moved up to April then potentially 1-3 weeks before our hospital system starts getting maxed out. (Dude's not an MD/DO but PhD path from Dook and MBA Cornell then pharma experience. Plus lots of other personal finance/econ nuggets.)

Also even monitoring this thread's 2 pages and seeing vet schools switch to online-only like popcorn? That could still accelerate fast to the point of basically total school cancellation in the coming weeks and more Italy-style lockdowns with teeth. Or Taiwan-style lockdowns with jailtime for violation. (vs. the St. Louis dude who was told to self-isolate who still attended a father-daughter dance and got the school shut down.)

DJT's announcement to the nation March 11 was a good partial measure and a breath of fresh air from my impression of his and Pence's leadership, but his travel bans should have gone into effect 4-6 weeks ago and had more teeth instead of all these dang exceptions. Or people arriving at airports and not even being screened whatsoever but released into population to exacerbate community transmission.

Edit: Also, in case people still think elderly and those with risk factors like obesity, Type 2 DM, htn, heart dz, pulm issues, immunocompromised, and I forget the others are the only ones who circle the drain quickly and require ICU... there's some legitimately scary [anecdotes] about people in their 20s, 30s, 40s who are pretty healthy going from "I'm fine" to renal failure and multi-organ system failure and sometimes death pretty fast, so I worry that people have a false sense of security that only the elderly are struggling and in need of a ventilator or O2 [Anecdotes only of course, lots of fluid data and studies coming out, also potentially different strains e.g. S-type and L-type, but my point is there's legit young healthy people who become critically ill out of nowhere and need more than a bed, and Italy's unable to support almost anyone, and they're currently turning into Wuhan hospitals with ICU beds in hallways and people collapsing in various places in and around hospitals!]
 
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Copy-pasta from the other thread on some useful links I have open 24/7 in their own tabs (well not WHO or CDC at this point lol). The two links I use most are the JHU one (it's pretty plus it's ArcGIS overlay for a high level world view... it used to be more granular by city/county but they switched to just US state or CA province last week) followed by Worldometers, which has a nice table I like on the +798 numbers for cases and other data.

Another link has logarithmic scale on the y-axis which are useful for exponential curves, and another one has a cool animation of the outbreak. Lost track which links those are.


Updating some Links:

1. Johns Hopkins CSSE tracker:

2. Worldometers has linear and logarithmic graphs:

3. City/county detailed map, at least for USA:




Cool animations on the outbreak spreading:


News
South China Morning Post:

WHO:

CDC:


I got a late start in tracking all this stuff (Valentine's Day) but even in the past month I've seen the numbers, charts, and everything go gangbusters. And that's largely with a lack of good testing, so we really don't know actual # cases, especially in USA.
 
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Why is it crazy to go to Japan over other places? They have has as many cases and deaths as the US does. Although, much smaller country and closer to China. I have a couple friends that were planning to do research in Japan this summer but now they aren't sure if they will be allowed to :(
I currently have spring break plans and no real intention to cancel, but I guess we'll see how the next couple days go :/ if nothing else I'm not going more than a day's drive from here
It's one of the few countries that has a CDC travel warning. Currently there are 4 counties with a level 3 warning, Japan alone has a level 2 warning, and a handful of places have level 1 warnings. So, Japan essentially looks like the 5th riskiest country to be in right now.

If you travel to a Level 2 or Level 3 warning country, Virginia Tech requires that you not step foot on campus unless you can prove 14 days without symptoms.


I also don't think it's fair to compare a country's travel risk based on number of cases alone. If the numbers are about the same, the US would have a lower percentage of the population affected because our population is larger. Our population density is also much lower because our country size is much larger. Their demographics are also older, their infrastructure is different (more public transit use), etc which may impact spread. I don't think other countries are currently banning travel to the US based on our situation, but happy to be proven wrong if you feel like Googling more thoroughly than I did. I feel like some cities in the US would certainly be as risky as other parts of the world. We're also the only country banning travel to Japan as far as I know though so ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile
 
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Was talking with my friend who’s at SGU. SGU is recommending that all their students fly home for at least the next four weeks (they’re even providing free chartered flights for students) and will be transitioning to online classes. The school is concerned that in the event of an outbreak that the hospital in Grenada would be overwhelmed/unable to handle the load. They’re keeping their facilities open for students who are unable to stay or don’t want to leave.

Nothing here at Ross so far. I have three pets and it would be extremely hard to leave the island even if I wanted to, so I stocked up on some stuff at the grocery store yesterday and am just trying to be somewhat prepared for whatever might happen. A lot of people are wondering if we will be able to travel back home over break in a few weeks and if we do, if we’ll be able to get back. Too early to tell now. I decided to cancel my trip home because I don’t see it slowing down by then and again, I have three pets and don’t want to risk getting possibly separated from them if some sort of travel ban goes into place.
 
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