Coronavirus Australia: Melbourne under strict lockdown as cases surge...
 

In Australia, a state of disaster has been declared in the state of Victoria after a surge of coronavirus infections. A range of new stricter lockdown measures have been imposed, including a nighttime curfew for the capital Melbourne. Melbourne has been in COVID-19 turmoil since being hit with a second wave in June. An initial lockdown failed to bring numbers down, forcing authorities to further tighten restrictions. Now, residents will only be allowed to leave home for work, medical care, or to shop for essentials. Outdoor recreation is also limited to one hour a day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ7qi-Gka4g

Australia's not joking around. Their death rate is 8 per million (208 total). As opposed to the U.S. (477 / 150K+).

As someone who works in health care, and someone who has a vulnerable child and vulnerable parents, the mishandling of the pandemic is extremely disappointing.

I live in a part of Canada that's doing relatively well... For now. Autumn and winter will not be kind to us.

To bring this back to DG: I'm the weirdo that wears a mask outside when playing in a group. If I've got it, you don't want it. And I won't know if I'm sick until it's too late.

robdeforge posted this in the Politics section, but it is not political and deserves wider viewing.

New Evidence Suggests Young Children Spread Covid-19 More Efficiently Than Adults | Forbes

Kids today have more time to spread Covid, because they don't have to walk to and from school uphill both ways, like we did.

The answer is still no

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eeiq3ZlU...g&name=900x900

Not to muddle the point, but those numbers aren't true.

Or, at least, I can't find any such numbers for Spain or France.

Well, MSNBC is the station that had a graph showing $350mil divided by 350mil people means everyone gets $1mil. So they have a track record of bad math.

For yesterday's numbers, Worldometer has:

Spain: 3,044
France: 556
Canada: 147
US: 48,622

It was an image of a tweet, not a graph, and Brian Williams corrected it in real time, but yes.

My wife just informed me that her hospital has reopened a Covid unit. During the peak months, they had 5 Covid units full. The past couple months they had no special units, just treating a few here and there in the regular ICUs. I'm scared they're going to pull her away from her unit and into Covid again. Those first 3 months were horrible. I can't even retell the stories that she told me. Watching more people die in a couple months than she saw in 18 prior years combined. And she's not at a major metro hospital.

To top it off, the next town over from us has their whole varsity football team in quarantine because one of the players tested positive after practicing with the team all week.

We're buggered. :(

Boy.....I am VERY concerned that this is where we are heading. I have said it here a few times....as a nurse, I am pretty well prepared for death, sadness, family heartbreak....we learn to compartmentalize and cope in our individual ways. But, my two months of COVID nursing was devastating.

My best to your wife and family. We are only as strong as our support system.

https://i.imgur.com/RPwoQsA_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium
Look at those young smiling faces, full of optimism for a fun and exciting school year. :thmbup:

I appreciate the 6mm social distancing.

Paulding county, Georgia

First day of school


Everything is fine



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EelVjogX...pg&name=medium

Predictable results will be predictable

Since when do schools start in early August? Is that a Southern thing? We never started until at least the last week of August when I was a kid, and after like 4th grade it changed to after Labor Day.

Same with my wife.

All the best to you and yours also.

And I assumed it was everywhere.

When I was a kid, we didn't start until September, but less than half the classrooms at the middle and high schools I attended had A/C. They were bad enough, in the South, in September and the first week of June; we'd have died in a southern August.

The change, now that air conditioning is universal, was to get the semester over before Christmas break. And with more holidays and teacher workdays, that's pushed the start date to mid-August, or earlier.

Which has nothing to do with Covid-19, so I'll bring it back by saying that the schools around here that are trying to open up in person, have pushed their start dates back to give themselves more time, some back into September like God intended.

What angers me most about schools reopening — the rationale is to get back to “normal” so parents can go back to work and the economy will rebound, thus giving Trump a chance in November. But we know what’s really going to happen — September & October are going to feel like the apocalypse. The strain on the healthcare system is not anything we can even comprehend right now. If hospitals are already struggling to keep up, what’s going to happen when the volume of patients doubles, triples, or worse? And every dead teacher is going to become a meme to illustrate the utter failure to listen to expertise and common sense. And face it, kids will die too. The vast majority will be fine, but given a big enough sample size, it’s inevitable. Dead kids, and many with serious ongoing heart & lung issues, perhaps permanent. Think of the narrative in the media then — “Tommy was a straight-A student with dreams of playing football at Ohio State. Until his school reopened and he got sick...”. So politically, it’s going to backfire spectacularly. We are on track for a million deaths and probably more, most of them avoidable, all for nothing. This is going to be remembered as something akin to genocide. A callous and stupid campaign of misinformation and hubris that killed a ridiculous number of people to save a failing economy and president.

I'll mark you down as voting Republican for polling purposes

Here on the ground, it's not that simple. Parents and local officials are in turmoil, trying to figure out what's best to do---or, what's least worst. Online schooling is a poor substitute, and no schooling at all is horrible. But going back to school is horrible, too. Schools in my county are offering an option (1) complete online learning or (2) a hybrid, 2 days in person, 3 days online (which allows the school to be half-full, or less). And parents are anguishing over the choice.

On the local level, there aren't a lot of people saying "We have to start schools to open the economy" or "because Trump". Nor are there any people saying "let's keep schools closed to defeat Trump." The politics really is local.

My wager is that we won't have that October apocalypse, only because we won't get that far. That it'll look something like major league baseball---a start, a positive test, a group quarantined, another, another, and a surrender to online learning, as best it can be done.

https://www.dgpt.com/announcements/d...lation-system/

My son starts kindergarten on September 1st. They are offering full time 5 day schedules, and some sort of tele/hybrid thing. As much as it terrifies me to send him, as a working adult, it's my only real choice. My wife and I both work long hours during the week, and we have a toddler at home as well. By the time they are picked up from daycare, I have time to make supper, get the kids cleaned up, and it's basically bedtime. We might have 30 minutes a night? What kind of education can I provide him at home in that time? Are we supposed to spend all weekend doing school work? And his stuff is easy. It's kindergarten. But it is stuff he needs.

If they choose to shut down the schools, his education will suffer greatly. Don't get me wrong. I love my son. I'd move mountains for that kid. I'd make it work one way or another. But there just isn't enough hours in the week to get the job done right.

I feel like we are all caught between a rock and a hard place. It just sucks.


So. People. Be freaking responsible. Quit @#$&ing and wear a mask. It's the LEAST you can try to do to help. Even if you don't agree, suck it up. Do your part.

I live alone and have no kids...I can't even imagine what some of you are going through as schools start opening for the year.

I don't have kids, either, but my brother and sister have homes on the same land, and 4 kids between them. So I get to watch the anguish. And worry what the kids might bring home to their 61-year-old uncle.

Interestingly, our governor decreed that schools offer 5-day schooling as an option, and was completely ignored by most school districts in the state.

In our area the debate looks pretty well defined along political lines, which is typical of every aspect of the pandemic. One side looks to science and expertise for guidance, the other side spouts nonsense like “faith not fear”.

Completely agree that online learning is less than ideal. The alternative is to pretend that in-person learning can be made safe whatsoever when we all understand kids are not going to practice social distancing or keep a mask on all day. Parents and schools can try to concoct all kinds of screwball policies to create an appearance of safety, but tests are going to keep coming back positive. Everyone knows it, so let’s just stop the charade.

A second grader in a neighboring county just tested positive, so that class is closed for two weeks. It’s day two for that school.

Also that kid tested positive last Thursday. Parents sent the kid to school anyway.

I am by no means a child development expert, but I don't think most kids education would suffer greatly if they missed of year of school as long as they could make it up later. Especially if they have a dedicated parent like you seem to be.

I guess I can only speak for myself, but I don't feel like my brain would have developed much differently if I graduated at 19 instead of 18.

Obviously there is still the issue of how to manage a job while having your kid home all day, but I'm only talking about the education piece. And every kid/situation is different, so clearly this wouldn't work for everyone.

Pretty much how I expect it to go, most places.

Suddenly, our decision to homeschool for the last 11 years and into the future seems like a fantastic decision. I'd recommend parents with the ability look into it, because you'll provide a much better education in the midst of this mess than they'll get otherwise.

Are you suggesting that they just basically skip this year and start next? If so, I see one major problem....what do you do with the incoming kids? Have one mega class next year, that has to maintained throughout the next 11? Or just make every one from here on out start a year later, making the new graduation age 19?

Great questions. I'm trying to talk on a case by case level, and I have no answer for what to do with all children.

From an education standpoint, I don't see a big deal (for most kids) if they were to graduate at 19 instead of 18. Over time you can filter kids back in to their respective grade level without creating a mega class or permanently upping the graduation age to 19.

I bet admission requirements for university/ colleges next year will be increasing.. More people means a higher grade point average required. My daughter is a Grad 2020, I kinda feel like they got a free pass for the last semester and now there's a few kids taking a year off to think.

My brother got nailed back in 2000 ish when they cancelled grade 13 in Ontario, the avg for ubc went from a C+ to a solid B.

One thing I'm thinking of is all the kids I see in the grocery stores now without masks (Colorado only mandates 11 and older). What happens when they're all in school together and then stopping by the grocery store on the way home with the parents? (not blaming you parents btw).

I need to start visiting the store at very off-peak hours.

Once you start shopping at 7am, you'll NEVER go back to shopping at any other time.

what was your favorite part of that video?

YGTBFKM...
 

The parents should be arrested for sending their Covid+ child to school! :mad: