Covid Your Mouth When You Sneeze (Corona Virus/Covid-19 # 2)

[DMC]

So according to Forbes, at least 130 colleges and universities have gone online (I gotta assume that's what they mean by "canceling" in-person classes).  Sounds like this is just a matter of time for my situation.  One professor noted my university is working on getting a license with Zoom so instructors can stream or record classes and hold remote office hours.  Oh joy.  

[Ormond]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Heh, fair enough.  I use powerpoint in a class with 32 registered students, and part of it is just cuz that's how I learned to lecture (plus students are pretty conditioned these days to study through the slides posted, at least in my experience -- even way back as an undergrad).  I understand that is probably not how you learned to lecture! 

I don't use powerpoints when I TA - unless the professor tells me to - because when I'm doing recitation they should still be basing their review on the professor's powerpoints, not mine.  I didn't use powerpoints when I taught community college either, but that was largely because the students were at such an introductory level I wanted to go slowly and write down definitions/concepts on the board to make sure they weren't distracted.  In both cases, my lecture notes are still structured essentially like a powerpoint (and would take like two minutes to copy/paste into one).

My colleague who is five years younger than I am frequently uses Powerpoint in her classes. I use it myself when doing conference presentations. Just never got around to making it a regular part of my classroom. 

I'm going to stop talking about Powerpoint on this thread now as it's getting way off topic. Though this does make me wonder if there are free downloadable Powerpoint slides out there about Covid-19 specifically that could be incorporated into presentations about our present crisis.

[Ran]

Sweden has had its first death today from the virus -- an elderly person with underlying illness, as unfortunately is going to be a common refrain in days to come -- and over 100 new cases have pushed the total to just shy of 500 (ETA: Now just over 500 cases after a few more reports trickled in). The government has now officially forbidden any gatherings of more than 500 people (although they are not stopping cruises, trains, public transport, etc.), and many hospitals and elder care facilities  are beginning to forbid visitors as a step to protect the vulnerable.

[Fragile Bird]

The Golden State Warriors are going to have to play their next game in their new arena without an audience.

Ohio has just announced the four March Madness games in their state will also be played without an audience.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Had my first experience with the panic today.  I'm tearing down an old brick wall and rebuilding and went to get a mask.  All sold out.  They said the distributor doesn't have any either.  Used a wet bandana instead.  Stay safe everyone 

[Fragile Bird]

Lol, I just read that the WH has ordered that all meetings dealing with corona virus are to be henceforth treated as classified, so now health professionals without security clearances won’t be able to attend.

[Erik of Hazelfield]

I don't know what to do with my planned skiing vacation in France next week. If you listen to Swedish and French authorities, they don't as of yet discourage anyone from going there. If you listen to some other sources, they tell you to avoid all non-necessary travels. It doesn't feel too good, but my girlfriend and I have been saving for that trip and looking forward to it. It's a big decision to just cancel it unless we get the money back, which as things look now we won't get.

It's not that I'm super scared of the virus but I don't want to spread it due to the risk of it killing off the elderly and sick people. Plus there's the risk we might get stuck in some quarantine and not get home.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

2 minutes ago, Erik of Hazelfield said:

I don't know what to do with my planned skiing vacation in France next week. If you listen to Swedish and French authorities, they don't as of yet discourage anyone from going there. If you listen to some other sources, they tell you to avoid all non-necessary travels. It doesn't feel too good, but my girlfriend and I have been saving for that trip and looking forward to it. It's a big decision to just cancel it unless we get the money back, which as things look now we won't get.

It's not that I'm super scared of the virus but I don't want to spread it due to the risk of it killing off the elderly and sick people. Plus there's the risk we might get stuck in some quarantine and not get home.

if it helps,  Mr Pebble was skiing in France in early feb this year, he said he has never seen so little snow and they where struggling to keep the main ski routes open.  So unless they have had more snow recently, the skiing itself is likely to be crap.

[Whitestripe]

Our campus so far is business as usual, but there are tons and tons of "COME TO THIS ZOOM WORKSHOP OVER SPRING BREAK!" emails. The senior staff has recommended that all students take with them anything they will need to finish the semester when they leave for spring break, just in case they can't return. And, we are all supposed to voluntarily register any personal or business travel locations. I'm in upstate NY and my elderly parents are across the country in Nevada. I was considering going to check on them during spring break, but now I am glad I didn't buy a ticket.  I'm not so much worried for me, I just don't want to pass anything on to them.  I'm in the music department and I am already hearing "How am I supposed to teach a piano lesson over Skype?!" as if  *I* personally have anything to do with it.

 

[Fez]

So at this point I think I'm pretty well set for anything short of total societal collapse; and even then, I've got enough ready-to-eat dry food to watch it all crumble from my windows for a few weeks. I had to run some last errands today, and now that I'm home I plan on avoiding basically all human contact for the feasible future. I'll check the mail and throw out the trash late at night, and everything else I need is in my apartment. Except food; hopefully Amazon Fresh stays in business. I've only got around a month of food stored (and more like 2 weeks if the power and water went out).

Probably a little extreme; but honestly, maybe not. When I look at Italy, I sorta think I'm just slightly ahead of the curve of this becoming the new normal for a lot of people for a while (and for the folks that can't do this; it's still safer for them the more that other people are staying in and not potentially infecting them).

At this point I'm more worried about my parents. They don't live in as dense an area as I do, so that hopefully buys them some more time. But if this goes widespread, it'll get there eventually, and they're both in their mid 60s. I don't think they have any of the underlying conditions that really increase risk, but even so.

 

[argonak]

21 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lol, I just read that the WH has ordered that all meetings dealing with corona virus are to be henceforth treated as classified, so now health professionals without security clearances won’t be able to attend.

The WH is handling things with their typical malicious incompetence.  Its hilarious to me that things would be going much better if they just did nothing, than what happens when they do what they do.

Trump could have just let the CDC handle everything, and then blamed then when they screwed up.  Instead he has stuck his nose into it every step of the way and is now worried that its going to make him look bad when he lets his primary voting bloc (dumb old people) die from a disease.

[Whitestripe]

Just now, Fez said:

At this point I'm more worried about my parents. They don't live in as dense an area as I do, so that hopefully buys them some more time. But if this goes widespread, it'll get there eventually, and they're both in their mid 60s. I don't think they have any of the underlying conditions that really increase risk, but even so.

 

Dude, my dad is 85 and my mom is a 78-year-old dementia patient. They live alone. I am very concerned about them

[Guest]

NYU has canceled all international travel for the semester and students are remote-learning for at least the next 3 weeks, per my brother.

I should probably kiss my June business trip to NYC goodbye too.

[Ormond]

1 minute ago, Whitestripe said:

Dude, my dad is 85 and my mom is a 78-year-old dementia patient. They live alone. I am very concerned about them

My mother is 98, stage 2 Alzheimer's, and in a nursing home in Tennessee. I worry a lot more about her than my 68 year old self. 

[Fez]

2 minutes ago, Whitestripe said:

Dude, my dad is 85 and my mom is a 78-year-old dementia patient. They live alone. I am very concerned about them

I'm not trying to claim any monopoly on worry. I hope for the best for everyone's parents.

[Maithanet]

5 minutes ago, Fez said:

(if the power and water went out).

As bad as this is, power and water going out (on a large scale) still seems like a fairly remote possibility.  The people in those jobs know how important it is to keep water and power running in a crisis, and they take that pretty seriously. 

[Isis]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

I've found when I post them beforehand many more students simply check out and look at social media during the lecture (and I don't like banning laptops/tablets).  But that's just me.  If you're that committed of a student, you should do fine in my courses, the exams are right off the powerpoints (which aren't that lengthy) and I'm a generous grader on the research paper.

Absolutely agree. And not to derail, but I have experienced years of 'will it be in it exam?' so I'm familiar with how needy students are now. 

However, our School MAKES us post the lecture on the intranet before it takes place. When I did my undergrad (2002-2006) lecturers posted the handout AFTER they did the lecture. And I think that's ok. 

ETA: I just got asked to do a Zoom test for my online postgrad course (which I teach for another uni, not the one I work at full time). Not that excited by the proposition. But better than doing a F2F intro meet in a month. 

[Fez]

1 minute ago, Maithanet said:

As bad as this is, power and water going out (on a large scale) still seems like a fairly remote possibility.  The people in those jobs know how important it is to keep water and power running in a crisis, and they take that pretty seriously. 

Agreed. And the fact that there is a large chunk of people who do do get mild-to-no symptoms, means that there will almost certainly continue to be people who know how to do those jobs and are capable of doing them at all times.

But it turns out, now that it's activated for the first time, I have quite a strong prepper-instinct. I didn't load up on hand sanitizer or masks, but when buying food, in addition to stuff I wanted to eat; I got a whole lot of shelf-stable dry food that doesn't need water. Now granted, if it all falls apart, I don't really know what those extra couple of weeks would get me. But, since I could afford it, it seemed like the smarter move was just to get it all. And it's not like I was getting MREs, it's all food I'd still (slowly) eat before it expired once this is over.

[DMC]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

So according to Forbes, at least 130 colleges and universities have gone online (I gotta assume that's what they mean by "canceling" in-person classes).  Sounds like this is just a matter of time for my situation.  One professor noted my university is working on getting a license with Zoom so instructors can stream or record classes and hold remote office hours.  Oh joy.  

Heh, so like 10 minutes after I posted this the Dean sent out the email that all in-person classes are going online.  It's already spring break, but they cancelled "classes" for next week as well so we can inform students of our plans and get prepared.  I'm wondering if they're gonna require me to record a lecture, which would just be me going over the powerpoint anyway in my apartment, or if they'll just let me post the powerpoint then integrate a discussion board/threads for participation (this is literally how I've taught online courses in the past).

Anyway my only issue is the final exam.  Might have to make it all short answer/essay if we're still doing this by April 20.  The multiple choice component would be too easy to just look up.

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lol, I just read that the WH has ordered that all meetings dealing with corona virus are to be henceforth treated as classified, so now health professionals without security clearances won’t be able to attend.

For fuck's sake.

I sincerely thought you were joking.