Re: Testing (my patience?)

1

It's malice, not negligence.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:35 AM
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2

True. I was picturing the implementation of this in institutions as being negligent.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:41 AM
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3

Yes, no one should implement this directive. I hope we see some good follow up reporting on this.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:49 AM
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4

And the timing! Right as universities are trying to navigate reopening and monitor outbreaks!


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:51 AM
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5

If it's any consolation, the whole school reopening thing was always going to be a disaster anyway.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 6:51 AM
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6

This CDC has been so thoroughly corrupted, at least at the top, that it would be malfeasance to act or report on their guidance absent corroboration by reputable authorities.


Posted by: (gensym) | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 6:57 AM
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7

They made this decision while Dr. Fauci was under general anesthesia to have a vocal polyp removed. Per Fauci's interview with CNN. There is truly no bottom.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:19 AM
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8

I don't think the new guidance will change much. Responsible people with resources aren't likely to do anything different. Assholes and people who can't eat unless they go to work were mostly not testing unless too sick to deny it anyway. It's just a fuck you to everyone, especially Fauci.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:19 AM
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9

8 before seeing 7, but that's what I meant.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:21 AM
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10

Idk, there are plenty of big corporations that view CDC guidance as a legally defensible shield for their policies. Hard to see the courts not taking that into account, were liability lawsuits to be forthcoming.


Posted by: (gensym) | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:22 AM
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11

I don't agree with 7. At Heebie U, everything is ultimately "according to CDC guidelines" because people with low levels of scientific knowledge are trying their best to keep their policies defensible. To start breaking with the CDC requires a different defense/explanation to the university community, for the inevitable pushback. That's not anyone's first choice of how to proceed.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:23 AM
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12

11 was to 8, not 7. Oops.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:23 AM
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13

That's true. My sister's employer was pointing to the CDC for why employees with Covid cold come back to work ten days after first symptoms even if they would have had to quarantine for 14 days with a positive test and no symptoms.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:26 AM
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14

States, which are still coordinating and prioritizing a whole lot (most?) of the testing, could also go off this guideline. Hopefully they don't have to.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:46 AM
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15

Some, of course, will want to.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 7:46 AM
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16

It matters what the CDC says. My own wife, who has good judgment except for her taste in men, was talking about following the state government's guidance on Covid. Now our state government isn't horrible, relative to the rest of the country, but the People's Republic of Maryland is still ruled by a Republican, and political judgments have definitely affected public health guidance.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 8:14 AM
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17

I sometimes forget that we're an anomaly because both my wife and I have employers who are keeping everyone home.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 8:20 AM
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18

10, 11, 13 are correct. To the mind of a corporation, it is unfair to the beautiful shareholders and therefore probably illegal and immoral to reduce its profits by doing anything safety-wise beyond the minimum needed to cover its ass. This is determined by government guidelines. The government that doesn't create guidelines obviously creates a race to the bottom. This basic principle applies to OSHA, accessibility, food inspectors, and new for 2020, infectious disease control.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 8:23 AM
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19

If you're doing banned analogies, someone else said it's having the air traffic control turn off the radar because there are too many planes to deal with.
(My first day back in the office today- we are super strict 100% mask compliance except when sitting alone at your desk, temperature check on entry, free food in cafeteria to avoid lines, limited elevator capacity of four at a time, limiting lab capacity.)


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 8:23 AM
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20

Apparently they're walking it back?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 8:39 AM
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21

Demonstrating even more clearly that this guidance was political, not motivated by evidence.


Posted by: (gensym) | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:02 AM
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22

I myself am waiting for the "let's have the market decide if food service employees should be required to wash their hands after shitting" guidance.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:07 AM
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23

This is going to be an excuse not to expand testing.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:22 AM
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24

I think they already stopped doing that in the states that need it most.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:29 AM
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25

If you don't know how to do it
I'll show you how to walk it back.


Posted by: Opinionated Rufus Thomas | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:30 AM
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26

I think Utah is on the fence, and I think this will mean we have no push for expanded testing.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:31 AM
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27

Meanwhile Newsom just announced a contract to double California's testing.

Safer California => continued migration controls => independence?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:33 AM
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28

Utah is on the fence. Arizona is on the wall.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:33 AM
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29

27.2 Guess we all get to learn to fight fires!


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 10:52 AM
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30

19: my husband got free food during the shut down when he was deemed essential and had to go in. The biologists were supposed to go in some but didn't and claimed they were analyzing data from home. The chemists had to go. Now there are some more scientists there, and they reopened the cafeteria which is not free.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 11:44 AM
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31

I'm home until June.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 11:45 AM
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32

My brother in law and his fiance just picked their wedding date, for next September.

It could be fine? I just wouldn't have personally chosen to plan on something for next September.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:07 PM
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33

Lots of people get married in September.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:14 PM
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34

Maybe they are saving themselves for marriage and figure 13 more months is as long as they can wait.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:15 PM
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35

No, I've slept with them both already.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:18 PM
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36

That's different.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:19 PM
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37

You mean next year, not next week?

A year from now anything could have happened, including the zombie apocalypse this November. But realistically by then there will either be a covid vaccine or there will never be one. So you might as well plan on that timescale as not. Much further out than that is more or less forever, the way the world is now, so one year or three doesn't make a lot of difference


Posted by: Chris Y | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:22 PM
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38

The zombie apocalypse is the October Surprise.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:24 PM
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39

Either way, little bags of candied almonds.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:43 PM
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40

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition twice in the same calendar year.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 12:51 PM
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41

Whoa:

We just got called by the Texas Dept of Health & Safety Contact Tracing Department. They wanted to talk about Ace's positive Covid test.

I was super confused. Ace has had two negative tests - one from the middle of July, before our road trip to Montana, and one from the beginning of June, before she had her tonsils out. Both were negative.

They meant the June one, and that it was positive. It truly must be a mistake, because statistically it's really hard to imagine that all six of us were completely asymptomatic. And it's also hard to believe that one of us could have had it and not given it to us all.

The part I think is shocking is that the state of Texas is so backed up - and yet still going through cases one by one! - that they are contact tracing a June 3rd test on August 27th.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:15 PM
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42

That reminds me of The Simpsons where Ringo answered all his fan mail in order and replied to Marge thirty years later.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:22 PM
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43

I think Jasper Johns


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:25 PM
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44

Stupid phone.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:30 PM
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45

41: So you were told the June test was a negative but the state understands it to have been a positive?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 5:32 PM
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46

yep. Actually, the hospital said, "we'll only let you know if the test is positive." And we didn't hear anything. So we showed up, and the surgery took place as scheduled.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 08-27-20 9:41 PM
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47

This is very disturbing news, heebie. I hope you get to the bottom of it.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 3:46 AM
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48

I mean, it's only disturbing insofar as it reflects the backlog, right? If we were all asymptomatic, then the damage is done, and we got off scot-free, and anyone we spread it to has long since had their go of it. And we were being scrupulous, so the only exposures would have been the surgeons and nurses.

And if it's an error, well then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Anyway, I'll call when things open up.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 4:55 AM
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49

I think the worrying part is that they are using the resources for contact tracing in a way that doesn't seem effective at reducing transmission.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 5:21 AM
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50

Exactly. WTF kind of decision-makers do we have, wasting resources on contact-tracing from June 3rd?! It's madness.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 5:28 AM
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51

Honestly, finding out that all six of us had it, and were asymptomatic, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Having at least some protection going forward would make it easier to consider doing our jobs and school in person.

I even had a brief fantasy that we caught it from my parents, when we visited them two weeks earlier, and thus they'd also had an asymptomatic case.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 5:30 AM
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52

That seems really unlikely.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 5:43 AM
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53

If you want to find out for sure, you can pay for an antigen test easily enough.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 6:26 AM
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54

Antibody?


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 6:28 AM
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55

Anyway, I called the hospital, and spoke with two people who were both jerks. But they did confirm that they have the test recorded as being negative.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-28-20 6:47 AM
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56

54: well, neither; antigen test detects the virus itself and wouldn't show anything this late because if you had the virus you'll have cleared it by now. Antibody test detects antibodies and also has a high chance of negative even if you did have it in June because antibody quantity seems to drop after a few weeks.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-29-20 12:49 AM
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