A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead

LA Times via MSN ^ | March 29 2020 | Richard Read

[rintintin]

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal.

The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south.

But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and business remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.

On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.

“I’m planning on being there this Tuesday March 10, and hoping many of you will be, too,” he wrote.

Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes.

“It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” Burdick recalled. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.”

After 2 1/2 hours, the singers parted ways at 9 p.m.

Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.

[neverevergiveup]

Doubtful, primarily because we would have seen an uptick in ARDS and critically ill patients without a known cause, and there would have been transmission to health care workers. But yes, there are lots of asymptomatic cases, and cases with mild symptoms, which is why it’s so hard to get a good handle on crucial issues - like mortality rate, without widespread testing.

[Boogieman]

If you can say racist stuff in public and people just shake their head at you instead of punching you in the face, then you’re a geezer.

[dfwgator]

“You know when you’re really old? When your family talks about you in front of you. ‘What are we going to do about Pop? We’ve got company coming over.’” - Rodney Dangerfield

[Persevero]

I’m in my fifties!!!

I was thinking of a relative who is 80. Do I think of them as a geezer? No. I thought maybe in a couple years? So I went with 82.

[Bob434]

[[Don’t touch my face while I’m out.]]
\
Thqat’s a hard one- we subconsciously touch our faces many dozens of times a day- it’s hard to break that- wearing masks can help making us more conscious of touchign our faces- but yeah, that’s a pretty keyu way to get it- so if we coudl retrain ourselves to stop doing it we could cut way down on colds

[Bob434]

[[But some protection is better than none.]]

Absolutely- if someone walks through a ‘cloud of virus’ (from someone who sneezed an hour or more before we walked through the same area), and we’re not wearing a mask and glasses, ALL of the virus in the air lands directly on our faces, in our eyes, on our mouth, in our noses, and into our lungs- Wearing masks and glasses cut that amount way way down-

Of course it only takes a small amount of virus cells to infect- but it’s quite likely almost all will be blocked by mask and glasses as long as we don’t touch our faces- clean our glasses immediately after going soemwhere- change our clothes and wash them etc- wash hands- etc-

I suppose getting it will be inevitable after awhile, given how small the virus cells are, and how many there are- but hopefully by then there will be a vaccine- we just have to try to prevent it till then as best we can-

[Bob434]

[[If particles can stay in the air for 3 hours, what would be the point of being 6 feet apart?]]

Exactly- Right from the start i always thought the ‘social distancing’ was stupid- for that very reason-

[[If someone was walking towards me in the distance but moved away as we got closer, and I then walked where he was, does it matter that we were never closer than 6 feet?]]

Nope- if you walk through their path afterwards, you’ll be exposed to the virus lingering in the air- (That’s why masks and gloves shoudl be worn, along with glasses of soem kind- also wash all clothes immediately when you get home

What i do it when i go into store, i remove my hat, outer overshirt- leave them in car so you can ‘cover all the nasty virus cells with the shirt when you come back out so hopefully it will contain them and not get them on seat- put hat on etc- drive home- change all clothes, wash them- and wash my hair face, hands etc after handlign hte clothes-

likely none of this will prevent it for long, but hopeful long enough till a vaccine is created- if ya wanna be extra careful spray car with lysol, and pants with lysol before driving home from store- clean hands briefly with sanitizer, face too- heck, run some through hair too- (you;ll be washing it at home) but that is pretty extreem

[Bob434]

[[The one thing they all have in common is that they were all at choir practice.]]

Probably, but there could be other things in common- like shopping at same walmart supercenters in area- or other super centers- there could be hotspots i n tat particular area- just saying there is no way to tell for sure- correlation doesn’t always = causation

Liberty university unbelievably opened back up because they felt it was being over-hyped- and yep- now kids are testing positive now- I don’t know what’s wrong with some folks-

[tallyhoe]

I’m a young geezer?

[Elsie]

Maybe a geezerette!

[WASCWatch]

Mt. Vernon Washington is only about 50 miles from downtown Seattle. Many of the members likely have numerous children and grandchildren that live in the greater Seattle area. Areas in North Seattle and Everett are only 20-30 miles away.

[WASCWatch]

Mt. Vernon Washington is only about 50 miles from downtown Seattle. Many of the members likely have numerous children and grandchildren that live in the greater Seattle area. Areas in North Seattle and Everett are only 20-30 miles away.

[Shethink13]

50% of them didn’t think so and stayed home.

Do we know how many of them that stayed home tested positive?

[Spktyr]

Nope, either way. Not in the scope of the article, apparently.

[Osage Orange]

Entertainment?

Always kind of thought that church choirs..were worship leaders....

[alfa6]

What age does one become a geezer?

When you wake up in the morning and hurt worse than when you went to bed.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[webheart]

You forgot to say regards

[Dave W]

I sadly agree. Thanks.

[Dave W]

I challenge you to spend your time in groups and report back to us. Will you? We DO know that is how people are infected moron. You are a f’ing moron.

[Brown Deer]

'He was the best of Baltimore': Morgan State student and choir tenor is killed in shooting Wednesday

A 21-year-old student and member of the Morgan State University choir was shot to death after leaving a friend’s house in Northeast Baltimore where he was doing homework Wednesday night.



In the meantime, all Baltimore Public Schools are closed and Morgan State University is closed for both students and regular employees.