I think we need projections of how much worse it will be at the end of January, when (I hope) the new management will start putting sensible policies in place. Unless an outbreak bad enough to put fear into the hearts of the foolish makes them change their behavior, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
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Rev. Robert Altier still insists the pandemic is a "lie.‘’
How shall I put this delicately? 
Is it entirely unreasonable that society might reconsider the privileged position of religion with the current, exceptionally blatant, markedly more lethal, negative effects that are arising from the intersection of “traditional beliefs” (some dating back as far as the 1960’s) with modern, pandemic reality?
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The Zombie Herman Cain is nowhere near the worst thing on twitter, but it sums up well the insanity of these times. Nobody would buy this in a novel, it’s too blatantly stupid and mendacious. And yet, here we are.
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That’s more like it. Forced quarantine for folks who defy the mandate. 
However, it’s a damn good place to catch the 'rona. 
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Thank you, UA administrators. Really earned your six figures there. Reopening Fever, yeah! Are you ready for some football?! Whooo Wildcats! Bear Down! *
The Republicans have succeeded in turning this into, “Kill people or lose your business”, so everyone is busy killing people (and many people are still losing their businesses, of course). Meanwhile, Democrats have decided that saying something is the equivalent of doing something, and it’s unpossible for them to do anything, ergo they can’t say anything.
* I’m sorry, but that has to be my least favorite college motto ever, and it’s everywhere. Some goddamn ad with a bright young kid in a lab coat and a phrase that instantly invokes a mental picture of someone squatting.
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“ A gfs.bern poll had found that 63 percent of respondents opposed the SVP proposal and 35 percent supported it, suggesting voters wanted stability at a time of economic uncertainty during the coronavirus pandemic.”
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Here in Ontario 
it’s usually the teachers who, after they are done over, fell governments. But, firefighters… that works…
We were pointed to the “advisory” by a friend and educator this weekend; so far it’s a smattering of cases in school here. This advisory appears to be SOP for the area’s school boards. Would I be correct in assuming elsewhere?
https://www.peelschools.org/covid19-advisory/Pages/default.aspx
The situation is complicated by test turn-around in Ontario taking 4-6 days, up from 2 days in the summer, and getting a test is now a several hour commitment. Nearly 70% of Ontario’s COVID-19 cases are now under 40.
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Guy’s too stupid for his shirt.
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With many people planning to continue distancing, isolation, and wearing masks until late next year, hopefully the number of flu cases will be reduced along with coronavirus cases. Time will tell… 
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Here all children of school age are getting the flu vaccination as well as all vulnerable, healthcare workers, and old people. The kids need it because they are filthy little petri dishes at the best of times. I’ve never got one before but I plan to this year, more so I don’t pass it on to someone else really.
As for masks and washing stopping the flu - I caught it in the isolation ward my parents were in this January (they were there together with the flu). Difficult to keep mask discipline for hours on end. I guess I touched my eyes or something.
ETA - kids 4-12 that is. For some reason secondary school children aren’t. Well, they have to wear masks and their pods are more rigid.
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“If we consider a sample of 100 people with COVID-19, having a fever will show up in 50 per cent of cases, but smell loss in 70 per cent of cases,” Parma said.
So… a question for our medical professionals: if these symptoms are independent and we check for fever and anosmia then we’re up to 85% of symptomatic cases we can eliminate at the door of the school (or aircraft or venue).
(Acknowledging this isn’t trying to differentiate from other diseases if we exclude a pupil with either symptom, but if a pupil shows up with these symptoms then they likely need to be at home anyhow, and anosmia seems to me to be fairly specific to COVID-19 versus other diseases running around the general population. A cough is also indicative of bronchitis or sniffles with allergies, which has been a problem here, students sent home for a test, losing 5 days of school, where there was another known condition.)
Has anyone considered a spot check that involves putting 3 scents on a neutral substrate, say filter paper strips, and asking people to identify them in order? Either a severe misidentification or an adverse reaction to a pleasant scent would count as a failure. Choose them out of 10 distinct and easily identified scents at random and that gets you down to <0.2% error in the test; throw in up to 3 more to confirm as needed.
Thoughts?
(“Essential oil” salespeople would be all over this one 
)
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OK, there’s a basis for selecting 10 scents, so I propose 10 that I would guess would be pretty easily identified by Torontonians:
- Lavender
- Apple
- Orange
- Pine
- Rubber (like tires)
- Vanilla (or similar sweet smell, since vanilla’s a bit precious these days)
- Mint
- Popcorn
- Cheese (cheddar)
- Skunk
(thinned a bit from the natural concentration, of course)
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I’ve read the chart five times, and as best I can tell there is not even a subset of these symptoms (which apparently manifest pretty randomly) which would allow you to actually tell.
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The union’s complaint, filed Friday in Superior Court, alleges that the department’s policy of directing firefighters to return to work after they were exposed to infected coworkers, but tested negative themselves for COVID-19, risks spreading the coronavirus among firefighters, their families and the public. It asked the department to require exposed firefighters to self-quarantine for 14 days on paid leave regardless of the outcome of tests.
Don’t want to panic anyone, but hospitals don’t even do this. We had two out who tested positive and we weren’t even informed, much less quarantined… or even tested…
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I’m not scared, it just makes me angry and sad:
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