SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic has been with us for over six months. A recent check of https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ reveals just over 13 million cases, with over a half million deaths, and 4.9 million of which are listed as active. On a positive note, 7.6 million are listed as recovered.
Unfortunately, recovered does not necessarily mean being back to the same shape someone was in pre-infection (see below).
Statistically, there are bound to be some Soylentils who have been infected (or had friends or family members who were).
I'd like to offer an opportunity for us to pull together and share our collective experiences. If you've made it through, telling others of how it went can be helpful both for the one who shares, and also for those who were recently diagnosed. Fears, doubts, and worries act to drain energy better directed to recovery.
NB: Please be mindful that "the internet never forgets". I encourage all who respond to make use of posting anonymously.
With that caution, what has been your experience? How long between time of infection and onset of symptoms? How bad was it? How are things now? What do you know now that you wish you knew earlier? What did you hear about earlier but didn't realize they meant that?
Penultimately, I realize words are inadequate, but I sincerely wish and hope that all can be spared from this malady, and those who have been afflicted may have a speedy and full recovery.
Unfortunately, it looks like that may not be as likely as we would all hope and wish for...
Ars Technica has results of an analysis of COVID-19 victims' recovery. Be aware it was from a relatively small sample of patients who had been infected and then deemed to be recovered. Two months after infection, COVID-19 symptoms persist:
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues unabated in many countries, an ever-growing group of people is being shifted from the "infected" to the "recovered" category. But are they truly recovered? A lot of anecdotal reports have indicated that many of those with severe infections are experiencing a difficult recovery, with lingering symptoms, some of which remain debilitating. Now, there's a small study out of Italy in which a group of infected people was tracked for an average of 60 days after their infection was discovered. And the study confirms that symptoms remain long after there's no detectable virus.
[...] Roughly 60 days later, the researchers followed up with an assessment of these patients. Two months after there was no detectable virus, only 13 percent of the study group was free of any COVID-19 symptoms. By contrast, a bit over half still had at least three symptoms typical of the disease.
The most common symptom was fatigue, followed by difficulty breathing, joint pain, and chest pain. Over 10 percent were still coughing, and similar numbers hadn't seen their sense of smell return. A large range of other symptoms were also present.
Journal Reference:
Angelo Carfì, Roberto Bernabei, Francesco Landi. Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19 [open], JAMA (DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.12603)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:42AM (7 children)
As a faculty member at a major public university, I'm genuinely concerned about the fall. Like many such universities, mine is planning to open its doors in the fall. Most classes are expected to be in-person, with faculty being told they're supposed to have a "meaningful" in-person component. Students have the choice to participate in these in-person classes, but do so online only. We're expected to accommodate and essentially offer the same experience online. Nothing easy about it.
The format doesn't work well for classes built around discussions during class. If there's a mix of in-person and online students in the same session, online students probably won't actually feel like they can readily participate in the same way someone can in-person. In other words, the class probably should either be 100% in-person or 100% online.
While there's still seems to be some uncertainty about how readily young children transmit COVID-19, that's not really true for college students. Just look at the 37 Clemson football players (nearly 1/3 of the team) who tested positive. It spread rapidly through the team, despite the university telling students they were expected to follow safety protocols. College students are going to make bad decisions at a significantly higher rate than other age groups. It's just to be expected for that age group. But those decisions also put faculty and staff at risk. Masks aren't 100% effective, particularly in poorly-ventilated indoor environments.
I'm very concerned that administrators are putting finances (and their extravagant salaries) ahead of safety. I know that some students won't follow the safety protocols. It's to be expected with the volume of students and the age group. COVID-19 will be a problem. But faculty are at the mercy of an administration that should be fully aware of this, but seems unwilling to put safety ahead of bloated budgets and salaries.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:08AM (4 children)
If you're worried about the class being split between video and in person, the answer would appear to be to have two different sections, with students enrolled in one section and able to audit the other whenever they felt like it. Much of the video section could be a recording of the in-person section. (No need to do the lecture twice.) Have separate TAs for the different sections, to lead and monitor any discussions. I'm sure I'm missing LOTS of details, and I can't imagine that the video classes will be nearly as good as the in-person ones, unless this is a class for a very large lecture hall.
Unfortunately, this doesn't do anything about contagion. I'm told that there's a specific frequency range of UV that will kill the virus quickly, and that moisture is enough of a barrier (and so is dead skin) that it's safe to use when humans are present. Unfortunately, the report said it took several minutes to kill half the virus. So it's a long way from perfect. Also you'd need LOTS of the correct UV lamps. (I checked when the report came out, and they were available on Amazon at that time. But I've been waiting for a follow up on the paper, since the report I saw hadn't been peer reviewed...and I haven't noticed anything.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:52AM
All the worlds current problems were resolved by the movie demolition man.
The virus spreads on toilet paper, stop the toilet paper, use the seashells. No more fluid exchange or cursing either. Enforced by mass surveillance state with no remaining middle class. Keep in mind the people who wanted that world were the bad guys in the movie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @04:10AM (1 child)
The problem with your idea is that there are only so many hours in a day. Unless they cut publication requirements for the year or hire more faculty, there is no way for every professor and instructor to teach twice as many classes. Additionally, recording lectures isn't effective depending on what you are doing. If the student gets lost early on and a correction can't be made, the entire rest of the class on that topic could be a wash. And if your lecture can be replace with a static recording, there are some good arguments you are doing it wrong. There are also classes where you can't lecture/discuss everything and have to choose based on what the students are missing. A good chunk of some classes is determined by the scores on the pre-tests or emails we get with questions beforehand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @07:32AM
My experience is that student are lazy, incompetent, and maligant. They do not show up for on-line sessions, even to the extent they managed to show up to in person sessions pre-covid. Online teaching is a scam, a trollop, a way to not provide students the support and education they deserve. I have often said, that anyone, now, in the age of the internets, can educate themselves on anything, if they have the motivation. People like khallow and the Mighty Buzzard, and the unfortunate Runaway-from-education, well, not much we can do for them. Unless it is getting them not to wear a mask and attend the "party of the Ozarks" or "Trump Tulsa!", or some other infectious opportunity. Lack of education is interesting, and often fatal!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @08:07AM
As the AC you replied to, I think universities could and should have handled this matter much differently. The reality is we'll probably have to move to online instruction quickly, anyway. If I had to guess, I expect once it becomes known there's an outbreak on campus, faculty will either cancel class sessions or move them online in defiance of the administration. Either way, I don't see the idea of in-person classes lasting very long. The real issue isn't just what happens in the classroom, but also in dining halls, libraries, greek houses, dorms, and places like that. We are fools if we expect students to diligently take the necessary precautions.
I'd have liked to see a lot more open communication between administrators and the students and faculty they're overseeing. My experience is that these decisions are made behind closed doors without students and faculty even knowing who's making the decisions, let alone having our input solicited. Faculty could have been trained over the past few months about how to deliver effective online instruction. We could have faculty and staff reach out and try to meet with students periodically in smaller groups or individually to check in on their well-being. We could be encouraging and working with students to organize online study groups to try to help students avoid being socially isolated. Frankly, this might be a really good thing to do outside of a pandemic situation, too.
As much as I'm frustrated with the administration, I feel bad for the students. Administrators haven't been any more forthcoming with them than with faculty. At least at my university, classrooms aren't large enough to accommodate the full enrollment once social distancing is taken into account. Students will be forced to some classes or sessions remotely whether they like it or not. Students may feel they have to go to class out of concern they won't do well in an online class. That may expose them to this virus and cause them to become ill. What happens at the end of the semester and take it home?
I appreciate your comment. Neither you nor I really have the answers, but I really feel like the administration is taking a bad situation and making it worse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:18AM (1 child)
We have multiple campuses, and some classes have been offered with partial remote participation for 10+ years now. Sure, one remote classroom is easier to handle than a zoofull on Zoom, but if the students find it annoying, they can come back to class in person.
Newsflash: People get these conditions called diseases, some being contagious. Quit your bellyaching, wear a mask if you want, or stay home. There's many others out there that want to work.
"Their extravagant salaries"? Admins make good money, but its extravagant only when compared to adjuncts.
Damn sure finances take a priority, the point of a university is to process oodles of money for its stakeholders. Before Trump threatened to cut off the gold mine of foreign students paying cash, my expectation was that the administrators you are blaming now were going to pull out the "all classes online!" card a week before start of classes, when it would be too late to make alternate plans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @07:32AM
There are many problems with your comment.
Actually, students may not have the choice of coming back to class in person. Classes will be in rooms with reduced capacities, but section sizes aren't being reduced. In many cases, those rooms will be unable to properly accommodate all of the students. The reality is that students may well be required to sign up for which class periods they want to attend and may be forced to attend some classes online. Something resembling this scenario is nearly ubiquitous across universities campuses.
Most of these contagious diseases do not pose the risk that COVID-19 does. They are either not as infectious or not as severe. The combination of being very infectious coupled with the relatively high probability of serious complications makes COVID-19 more dangerous than most other diseases. Additionally, because it is caused by a novel virus, virtually nobody was immune to it when it first appeared. Even now, most people haven't been infected and, therefore, lack immunity. So your implication that it's just a contagious disease is ignorant.
Additionally, the current advice from medical experts is that most masks don't provide all that much protection for the wearer. They are intended to prevent the wearer from infecting others if they are infected and don't know it. Your advice to "wear a mask if you want" isn't really helpful.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars is extravagant when compared to most people.
At least with state universities, the purpose of the university is to serve the needs of the state's residents. Finances matter, but universities really aren't fiscally responsible. They spend extravagantly when finances are good, but end up with serious shortfalls in times like this. Fiscal responsibility in salaries and building projects would be prudent.
I agree that the administrators should be more forthcoming about their plans. The reality is that they're not, to the detriment of both students and faculty.
Part of the reason that students don't learn well online is that faculty aren't well-trained in how to teach well online. Sure, any faculty member can teach a class online. The key is teaching that course well, in a way that delivers a good product for students. The prioritization of research over teaching at many universities means that students don't learn effectively. This is definitely true in most large classes. Most instructors don't have much training in how to teach effectively. Instead of continuing to tell students classes will be in-person when that may well not be reasonable or safe, universities could have spent the time working with faculty to make sure they were prepared to deliver high quality classes online.
Many universities are shortening their semesters, making the situation already difficult for students. If classes have to be moved online mid-semester and students have to leave campus under those circumstances, it will be particularly disruptive for everyone involved. This seems inevitable, given the high probability of COVID-19 outbreaks on campuses this fall. It would have been better to plan for classes to be fully online, then spend the time working with faculty to make sure they're prepared to deliver high quality instruction remotely.