CDC Outlines What Closing Schools, Businesses Would Look Like in Pandemic

nbcboston.com ^ | 2/25/2020 | nbcboston.com

[bitt]

“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined Tuesday what schools and businesses will likely need to do if the COVID-19 virus becomes a pandemic.

Schools should consider dividing students into smaller groups or close and use “internet-based teleschooling,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a conference call.

“For adults, businesses can replace in-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options,” Messonnier said.

[ozarkgirl]

We have a major flu sweep over the world every couple of years, this is no different.

I hope you are right but why do you suppose they are quarantining when that was never done with the flu?

[Elsie]

Have you been there?

I live merely 30 miles from Muncie, IN and have visited the tower twice.

[Wonder Warthog]

It would be nice to know what the “dangerous chemical gas” actually was. Megatons of “dangerous chemical gases” traverse the railroads every day. My dad got badly gassed in a train derailment in Morganza, La when a tank car of liquid chlorine was ruptured. MANY other industrial liquids and gases are routine rail cargo. Stand beside the tracks sometime, and read the labels on the tank cars as they pass...

[Elsie]

Well; since it WAS a movie and no gases really escaped; if they were trying this real time I’d assume something quite stinky and a wee bit eye burning would suffice to convince most who contacted it to flee!

[Svartalfiar]

Can we get rid of brick and mortar schools?

Of course we can.

And where, exactly, are all these kids gonna go while Mom n Dad are at work? Even if one or both are work-from-home, they don't have time to watch the kids. Is every family gonna have to have one parent quit their job just to homeschool the kids? Or is almost every single household gonna hire a nanny to watch the kids and force them to do their teleschool all day?

Hm. Well a couple parents have a good idea, why don't they get their kids together and share the babysitter? Much cheaper to have one person watch a bunch of kids!

Hm. Does anyone wanna volunteer their house for this? No? Well why don't we rent a space where this nanny can watch the kids together. Hey, there's a bunch of old abandoned schools. I bet we could clean/refurbish them and then we'd have a room (a whole bunch!) where one babysitter can watch several kids.

And where are we gonna find all the people to fill these babysitter roles? You know, there's a whole bunch of teachers that just got fired. I bet they could do it, seeing as how they need a job. And bonus!! They used to be a teacher, so when the kids have a question over the teleschool stuff, I bet the babysitter could help answer/explain it!

[moehoward]

Word came out today schools in wester Washington state starting to close.

[Svartalfiar]

Italy so far 11 deaths out of 322 cases

About 3%

I've read 2-3 % mortality rate so far.

Have y'all not been reading any of the COVID-19 threads posted here? The mortality rate is currently way higher than those numbers - as of yesterday, the world total was 6.3%. And, if we ignore the Chinese numbers since they're nowhere close to accurate, and only look at non-Chinese numbers, the current CFR is at 17.6%, WAY higher than 2-3%, which is already way higher than the general flu fatality rate of ~0.5%

[GulfMan]

Ok, but those are the sickest of the sick, the true numbers of an outbreak aren’t known until the end, we they can more accurately estimate how many actually got sick in total. I think yes, it’s certainly higher than the flu, but to say (let’s round your 17% number to 20%) that nearly 1 in 5 are going to die from this is nowhere near the number, way way too high.

[redcatcherb412]

With tens of thousands infected, how come everyone is trying to buy breathing masks and the CDC is telling them not to cause they don't work, but the medical folks need them ?

BUT

The AIDS epidemic which has 30 million infected, the CDC tried to get everyone to buy and use condoms ?

Hmmmmm?

[Black Agnes]

Proper prepping prevents panic.

It’s never a bad thing to have 4-6 weeks of food you eat (or would eat) stored at home. Store what you eat, eat what you store. If nothing else and you’re a ‘eat out most of the time’ kind of family, keep your stored food/supplies rotated and a cpl months before things expire, donate them to a food pantry or church.

Panic is what happens when something bad occurs and you have no food in the house, or just a half full styrofoam container of what you ordered in for supper last night.

[Black Agnes]

Because the masks ARE part of a bunnysuit getup that will protect the medical workers. This involves mask, eye protection, face shield, gloves and ‘bunnysuit’ to protect their clothes/hair. They will also need a decon process when they remove the suits at the end of their shifts.

If you don’t have the full getup and some process in place to safely remove the suit all you’re doing is wasting the masks. Seriously. They don’t help prevent YOUR getting it if that’s all you’re wearing (with no goggles, bunnysuit and decon process), but they might prevent your SPREADING it. Quarantine also prevents your spreading it.

If all you wear is the mask you’ve left your eyes unprotected and if you’re exposed you’ve also brought it back on your hair, your clothes, your shoes, your purse, etc.

[Svartalfiar]

Ok, but those are the sickest of the sick, the true numbers of an outbreak aren’t known until the end, we they can more accurately estimate how many actually got sick in total. I think yes, it’s certainly higher than the flu, but to say (let’s round your 17% number to 20%) that nearly 1 in 5 are going to die from this is nowhere near the number, way way too high.

Not at all. Those numbers are everyone confirmed with the virus, not just the sickest ones. Sure, there's plenty of people that are immune/resistant who don't end up seeing the doc, but there's not many diseases that have a significant amount of the populace that are immune to it. At best that probably accounts for a 1-2% difference. There's lots of other factors that affect the accuracy of the CFR during an outbreak, which is why the number fluctuates as the disease carries on.

I also expect the number to drop (ignoring China), likely to 5-10% ultimately. And that is still a HUGE number for a virus as infectious as this one appears to be. 17% is close to 1 in 6 - which is what many countries are currently seeing with their cases. But since recoveries lag deaths, as more cases resolve, the number should drop. I don't see it dropping to 1-2% like WHO or many here think. The unconfirmed reports out of China sound much worse, and there's no way China's actions correlate to a virus with a 2% death rate. Sure, their people are likely more susceptible based on other conditions, but still.

[GulfMan]

I’ve already accepted I’m going to die from it, that’s how I’m dealing with it, so I get sick and die, that’s it. I would like to live much longer but frankly I’m not sure I will, it is what it is. Bummer

[GulfMan]

I’ve already accepted I’m going to die from it, that’s how I’m dealing with it, so I get sick and die, that’s it. I would like to live much longer but frankly I’m not sure I will, it is what it is. Bummer

[lastchance]

I agree with the need to prepare for any event that may cut off regular supply of essentials. However there are plenty of people who assume being told to be prepared means there will be (not could be or might be)a worse case scenario and instead of going about things sensibly they panic buy. Stores may want to start putting limits on per person purchases of certain items. To make sure hoarding of essentials is avoided.

[lastchance]

Where do you get 17.6% CFR from?

[Black Agnes]

So, wouldn’t it be better to tell people early rather than later to buy essentials?

It’s the last minute ‘oh yeah, you should do something’ that sparks panic buying.

[lastchance]

I think we are in agreement here. My concern is on how people react to such announcements.