Category: covid-19

Remote Classes

I saw some rumblings on thebookface that the University of Vermont had made a call on post-Spring Break classes. I just checked with Bellana and it is confirmed.

Spring break ends on Monday, but classes on Monday and Tuesday are cancelled outright. Starting on Wednesday they are switching to remote classes.

In other words… hey you crazy spring breaking kids… don’t come back.

I asked her if she left anything in her dorm that she needs going forward and she said she’s all set. She is prepared. She’s also planning to go back as soon as they let her, which is understandable. I guess the question now is will they lock the place down while the students are away or will they be able to get back into their rooms if they need something.

We will see.

Direct Effect

Well, we have now officially been effected by COVID-19… sort of.

My company sent out an email tonight saying that they are punting any decisions related to the Massachusetts state of emergency until tomorrow.  Jen’s company made the call tonight.  She is a telecommuter until April.

Is that an overreaction?  Sure.  Is it a bad thing?  No way.  Worst case scenario (for Jen’s company) is that nothing comes of the pandemic and they spent most of a month working remotely.  Also, maybe their network will be taxed a little too much and systems will run a touch slower than normal.  Their customer systems will be fine.  Best case scenario is that the virus runs rampant and they bought us all a little time so that health care facilities have a better chance of keeping up with the demands.

I had some plans for this coming weekend.  Nothing important, just stuff I’ve been wanting to do.  I’m thinking of doing them tomorrow after work on the off chance that the places I need to visit will not be open come Saturday.  I just want a haircut, and the Mazda needs an inspection sticker, and… well… I want to go to Guitar Center to look into maybe trading in my Strat for an amplifier.  Okay, so it’s silly.  I might try to get all of that done tomorrow evening.  We’ll see.

We’re still waiting for word from the University of Vermont.  So far they are pretty emphatically staying open once spring break ends on Monday.

Overreactions?  Sure.  Bad ideas?  No.

Am I worried?  Not even a little bit.

State of Emergency

I am going to copy the text of a wgbh.org story, written by Kaitlyn Locke and published (I think) within the last half hour or so.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in response to the spread of the coronavirus on Tuesday, after officials announced 51 new presumptive positive cases of the virus. The total number of confirmed and presumptive cases in the state is now 92.

The news comes the day after Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo declared a state of emergency, and amid several cancellations of events throughout the state. Many local colleges and universities are holding online-only classes, asking students to vacate on-campus dormitories and not to return to campus after spring break.

“This declaration will give our administration more flexibility to respond to this evolving outbreak,” Baker said. “In addition to the state of emergency, our administration is moving forward with enhanced guidance for employers and large organizations. Responding to this evolving health threat requires everyone to be vigilant and for everyone to be part of this effort.”

Person-to-person spread is beginning to occur in Massachusetts, officials said, meaning that the virus has spread beyond people who contracted the disease overseas.

Baker announced new guidance for all employers throughout the state, which includes discontinuing all work-related travel, both foreign and domestic, and encouraging telecommuting whenever possible. He emphasized that any person feeling sick should stay home from work.

“The purpose of moving forward with these measures now is to act before the numbers increase to a point where the virus spread is severely impacting the commonwealth,” Baker said. “The highly contagious nature of this disease means that if everyone plays their part in slowing the spread, the number of people who become infected and require medical attention doesn’t spike all at once, which would overwhelm many of our systems.”

Baker reiterated that “for the vast majority of people who contract this disease, it is not deadly. And the latest research shows that children and young people are at an especially low risk of health complications. But we must step up these mitigation efforts to avoid large numbers of people requiring medical care all at the same time.”

The T will increase disinfection and sanitation of all vehicles, he added.

Logan Airport will also increase the frequency and intensity of cleaning public surfaces, Lieutenant Gov. Karyn Polito said.

“The T has issued a new protocol requiring all high-contact surfaces at subway stations to be cleaned every four hours, including station handrails, fare gates and fare vending machines across the system,” Polito said. “The T has also added hand sanitizing dispensers in stations across the system.”

Monica Bharel, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said that state officials made a request for supplies from the strategic national stockpile. That request has been approved and state officials have been told that the supplies are on their way, she added.

Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders reiterated that vulnerable populations — the elderly, pregnant and immunosuppressed — should avoid large gatherings.

This is a developing news story and will be updated.

The count yesterday was 41 and today it’s 92.  It’s coming.  It’s still not worth panicking over, but it’s coming.  My fellow Massholes are more than up to this challenge, I assure you.  Just remember:

Wash your damn hands.

More Repercussions

Yesterday I mentioned that the city of Boston cancelled their St Patrick’s Day parade because of COVID-19.  Today I heard of another repercussion, Harvard has asked students not to come back from Spring Break.  They will hold classes online post-break.  Apparently Amherst College made the same call yesterday.

Still no word on whether or not Vermont is going to do anything similar.  Bellana is home for spring break right now.  She took her laptop home with her just in case.  The numbers are low in Massachusetts, and as of yesterday they were lower in Vermont.  Still, they have students scattered to the winds right now and they are all supposed to come back next week.  It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the number of cases will spike after that.

There is still nothing that directly affects me or my family, other than Jen getting some telecommute time.  I’m sitting at my desk in Waltham, and in about 20 minutes I am going to head over to another one of our buildings in another town.  No problems.  Tomorrow I will be in two of our buildings too.  Again, no problems.

I heard a few personal stories on Facebook today.  Nothing from anywhere near New England though.  I belong to a bunch of guitar related Facebook groups and one has a thread where people are reporting having gigs cancelled.  Most of us in the group are like me, weekend warriors.  If I play three gigs in a year I consider it a big year.  A lot of people are hearing from bars where they have gigs booked over the next few months and being told not to show up.  It’s understandable.  Yes it’s annoying and yes it might be an overreaction, but it’s also the safe and smart move.  I did hear from one guy though who is a professional and has just had a five date UK tour cancelled.  Ouch.  That’s a lot of paychecks to miss in a short stretch of time.  He says he’ll have to make sacrifices, but his family should be okay.

Am I worried?  Nope.  Not at all.  Just paying attention.  Keeping an eye open and an ear to the ground.  It’s going to directly affect us one of these days, probably sooner rather than later.  We’ll be ready and we’ll deal with it and we’ll be fine.  No problems.

On the upside, traffic has been ridiculously light during my commutes.  It’s not as light as Christmas Eve, but it’s in the ball park.  It’s like the song said, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the facts of life.  I have no idea how that applies in this case, but I’m 100% sure you sang along in your head while you were reading.

COVID-19 Counts Update

The MA Department of Health updated their counts of COVID-19 cases in the state.  We went from 28 yesterday (one confirmed and 27 presumptive) to 41 (one confirmed and 40 presumptive).

The quarantine count stayed the same.

Boston cancelled the St Patrick’s Day parade today.  My company suspended travel outside of the US.  Jen’s company is testing work from home options.  Every day it gets closer and closer to affecting my day to day.

I’ll update again tomorrow after 4:00 PM.

Happy Birthday Dear COVID

Are you worried about COVID-19?

Am I worried about COVID-19?  Yes and no.  Do I want to get sick?  No.  Am I expecting to get sick?  No.  Will the world end if I do get sick?  No.  Am I worried about my family getting sick?  Yes.  No.  I mean, if it happens it happens.  We’ll take care of each other just like we would if one of us caught the flu.  At this point it’s spreading fast enough that it’s just a matter of time before someone you know gets it.  That is not the same as saying everyone you know will get it.  There are about 6.9 million of us here in Massachusetts.  We ain’t all getting it.

The CDC has a good website with lots of up to date information.  Unfortunately they are a Federal agency and that means they are subject to the fascist ball of orange goo.  Cheeto has actually put his lap dog Mike Pence in charge of the response so expect prayer groups to be the official US policy.

I’m going to get my information from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thank you very much.  Yes, I know that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is getting it’s information from the CDC but give me a break, okay?  We’ve had to suffer through almost four years of that fascist prick and I don’t think I can take anymore, so I am a full-on States Rights Masshole.  Deal with it.

Anyway, this is what my beloved state has to say as far as prevention:

Prevention

Many of the things you do to help prevent colds and the flu can help protect you against other respiratory viruses, including COVID-19:

  • Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.

  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

  • Clean things that are frequently touched (like doorknobs and countertops) with household cleaning spray or wipes.

  • Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Use a tissue or your inner elbow, not your hands.

  • Stay home if you are sick and avoid close contact with others.

The same page has a section on treatment but I’m not going to share that.  Suffice to say there is no specific treatment.  Stay home and do all the things you do when you have the flu.

There is a good page giving various statistics within the state so far.  It gets updated every day at 4:00 PM (next update is about two hours and fifteen minutes from now) so any numbers I share are from 4:00 PM yesterday.

Currently Massachusetts has one confirmed case (a UMass Boston student who went on a trip to Wuhan) and 27 presumptive positive cases.  I’m interested in checking back at 4:00 to see how much that has changed.

There have been 719 quarantines in Massachusetts.  249 people are currently under quarantine, and 470 have already completed it.  When I read the news earlier I was under the impression that there were 719 current instances in the state.  Again, I am curious to know how that grows today.

719 quarantines… sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?  What if I told you there were more than 6.9 million people in Massachusetts?  Does it still sound like a lot?  Nope.  Wuhan Province (is province the right word?) in China has about 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.  Sounds like a huge number.  There are more than 11 million people in Wuhan.  Does it still sound like a lot?

Note: In the 10 minutes or so since I pasted the prevention suggestions into this document I have come to realize that I CONSTANTLY touch my face.  My mouth, my nose, my eyes… CONSTANTLY.  Oh good.  I’ve also coughed a few times, but that’s mostly because I ate a piece of granola and it went down the wrong pipe.  The people sitting around me in the office don’t know that though.  Please don’t come at me with pitch forks or any shit like that.

The suggestion states that we should wash our hands for 20 seconds.  The memory mnemonic for that is to sing happy birthday twice.  Earlier today I was washing my hands and I was singing happy birthday and I used the following lyrics:

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear COVID,
Happy Birthday to you.

I guess what I am trying to say with all of this is that no, I’m not worried.  Even if I was worried, I wouldn’t panic.  It’s okay to be nervous, just keep your head and wash your hands.

Again, Wash Your Damn Hands.

Hang in their folks.  At it’s worst this isn’t going to end civilization.  It isn’t the Zombie Apocalypse.

Speaking of which, in last night’s The Walking Dead (no spoilers!) the Whisperers behaved in a way that felt, to me at least, to be wildly out of character.  They were using pretty complex tools, which seems like something a cult based on behaving like animals wouldn’t really be down with.  I can’t remember if they did anything like that in the comic.  I know they used blades when they fought, but I can’t recall anything more complicated than that.

In closing: Wash your hands.

 

Apple and Covid-19

Coronavirus panic, catch it.

No, but seriously.  Wash your damn hands.

Am I worried about this thing?  Nope.  Not even a tiny bit.  Am I paying attention to it on the off chance that it will become something to worry about even though I am not worried at all right now?  Yeah, something like that.

To all the trump nazis who are saying this is a hoax created by democrats to make the orange pile of fascist goo look bad (as if he needed any help in that department) there is this:

Apple sent out a letter to it’s shareholders saying that they would not be able to meet their sales projections for the quarter because the Covid-19 situation in China has slowed their production too much.  Also, they sent a message to their stores that they are going to have a shortage of replacement iPhones for customers who come in looking for major repairs.

So, my nazi neighbors, if it’s a hoax you should feel free to smash your iPhone with a hammer and bring it to your local Apple store for a replacement.  Go ahead.  I dare you.

The question isn’t, is this real. The question is, how far will it go.  Of course it’s real.  The whole world is reacting to it.  I’m just not going to worry about something that isn’t really anywhere near me yet.  If lots of people in Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire start getting sick then I’ll batten down the hatches and ride it out.  Until then, I’m going to keep going to work, and keep going to the store, and keep breathing the air.

Having said that… first sign of a fever and I’m locking myself inside.  Even if it’s not Covid-19, you won’t see me adding to any potential panic.  Unlike the trump nazi cult, I actually look out for my fellow humans when I can.

Although… a little self quarantine would give me lots of time to play the guitar and get caught up on all of my television shows.  It would also allow me to continue live blogging the new Cream album.  I didn’t plan on doing that, it just sort of happened.  I still have two discs to go.  Sorry my posts weren’t in real time.  I could have time stamped them and everything.  Oh well.  Maybe the next time a 60’s band releases a new box set.

In closing, here is a picture of my cat being adorable.
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