[QUOTE="As usual,
@10ofRods, a boatload of information. However, most the articles here are about a month old... one quite recent. Since you seem to track the trends so well.... i hope you will continue to share any updates on the "care homes" dilemma.... I "feel" it is getting much better, but have no real way of understanding...
Have they put holds on "staff travelling among care centers"? That bit was actually new info for me, just didn't know why there was so much of that. My own doctor was livid that they were putting hospitalized care home patients back in care homes.[/QUOTE]
The only reason I posted that was to speak about the early vectors of transmission. There's an article in yesterday's WSJ about super-spreaders (people who spread CV to many many people; care home workers in Washington and in UK are examples).
My point is that if we open schools, the parents of children will have silent CV. Those people will go to work in their usual jobs.
Many of my students work in care homes. Several are currently the only person in their family with work. They write of how hard it is on their fathers, who have had been the main providers for their families, but are now out of work as electricians, port workers, airport workers, warehouse workers, etc. So these young women have to go to work, 3 12-hour shifts a week plus 2 6 hour shifts and some of them pick up 6 hour shifts at other care homes.
Several of them are parents.
So my point is that silent transmission back into nursing homes will happen if we open the schools. Some of the young men in class work in care homes. In California, we have tons of half-way houses for schizophrenics, other mentally ill, people recovering from addiction just out of rehab, and of course, rehab centers. Both men and women work in these - most are in their 20's and 30's. The young men get the jobs readily because there are never enough people who want to be the only person in a residential care home over night. Between my husband (also a college instructor) and myself, we have 6 students (5 males, 1 female) who are TSA workers.
Many of them are parents.
So, allowing schools to open without some way of controlling spread inside is going to result in many more people being infected, even if all these workers wear masks during their shifts because people make mistakes with masks and so far, that hasn't been mandated and there's little supervision at night in these places. Presumably the TSA will be keen on masks when the person is working at the security point, but I am not optimistic that workers will wear the masks while on lunch breaks, behind the scenes or that adequate hand washing opportunities will provided - and masks are not 100% effective in any case.
I am not against reopening the schools, I'm just pointing out that some vectors will be opened up by this, and I for one am glad I do not have relatives in care homes, nor am I quite ready to travel.
Restaurants strike me as a bit different, if they have their a/c off and the doors open for air. That's because it takes more than just a few minutes of exposure to someone in a mask to get a viral load that would result in infection. But...again, employees in restaurants have to be given breaks, they often take their breaks together and let's hope they take those breaks outside. It will be the other patrons who mostly spread it.
When the weather gets gnarly again next year, we may see a huge second wave if there are all these silent carriers.
At any rate, I was trying to point out the ways in which CV-19 spreads and how it burst onto the scene in L.A. County, nursing homes in UK and throughout the US. and especially in Washington. So of course the articles are a few weeks old.
