Alabama students throwing ‘COVID parties’ to see who gets infected
Not to be outdone by their esteemed neighbors in Florida, the fine folks in Alabama send rousing cheers of “Eat my Farts!” in the general direction of Tallahassee.
I’m old enough to remember pox parties (chicken not small) where parents would take their kids over to visit another kid with chicken pox so that their kid would basically “get it over with.” Questionable practice but with a huge difference… back then chicken pox averaged under 200 deaths ANNUALLY. Average COVID deaths are closer to 1,000 PER DAY.
@j2 also chickenpox you gained permanent immunity from, and like many viruses it was far less troublesome the younger you got it.
Covid19, the younger you get it the less complications on average too… Unlike chicken pox though, it doesn’t appear you gain long-term immunity as a result of having it. Especially if you don’t get a bad case of it.
@j2@OnionSoup@RiotDemon YES!!! Get your Shingrix shot (the better one) if you have had chicken pox. Shingles is no joke. You do not want to get that. Ever!
I got shingles in the middle of chemo. 5 nerve roots. I was incredibly lucky that the pain went away after about 6 mo, although I still have other issues associated with having had it. Shingles redefines a 10 on the pain scale. Just think of putting part of your body in a hot frying pan and leaving it there 24/7. Then think of when a dentist hits a nerve with a drill. Have that pain zip along the path of the shingles around once a second for months. I finally was able not to finch each time but that took serious work. Clothes, your hair, a light breeze touching that skin is agony. I repeat. You do not ever want to get shingles. Ever. Get vaccinated.
@j2@Kidsandliz@RiotDemon yeah, I’ve known a few people with shingles, it sounds horrible. Sorry you had to go through that.
I didn’t know there was a shingles vaccine for people who have had chicken pox. I had CPox when really young (before my earliest recallable memories), so I don’t remember what it was like having chicken pox, but I know I’ve had it, so I probably should get the shingles vaccine.
The symptoms vary, but it had me curled up in a ball, wishing I could die so the pain would stop. I wasn’t at all suicidal, but the release of death would have been welcome. On a scale of 1-10, the pain was about 300.
I had no visible rash for several days, so multiple doctor/hospital visits just got me “take two ibuprofen, and call someone else in the morning”.
Once a few spots of rash showed up they figured it out, and provided helpful treatment. But I’m one of the lucky one with long term after effects. But it’s never been in the same league as the initial pain, mostly a persistent itch that sometimes moves into pain.
I was driving with my daughter on a 2 day drive to see family about 4 months into the shingles gig. I finally had to take my shirt off and place it over my boobs and tuck the ends behind my back. It just wasn’t possible to drive 1000 miles while holding the shirt away from my neck and shoulder top. Truck drivers passing me on the highway would have enjoyed if it had fallen off.
I know at least one person who got shingles when she was around 40yo. She was not, as far as she knew, under any particular physical stress before the shingles hit.
She late described the shingles pain using the usual incredible pain language people use to talk when they speak of shingles.
I think insurance will cover shingles shots for anyone over 50? Or similar. I have my shingrix shots.
(They don’t absolutely prevent shingles in every case, tho the incidence rates are much lower. If someone who got the shots then gets shingles, I think, supposedly, the experience is much less horrible? But am not sure.)
I think shingrix shots are about $200-$300 w no insurance, and the protocol is 2 shots, 2-6 months apart.
If your insurance won’t yet pay for your shots due to your age, and you had chicken pox at some point, well … I know a few people who have paid out of pocket for them.
Most people don’t need to do this. But no one knows who might benefit. This is a possibility for those who can afford it.
Someone over age 50 does not need a prescription to get the shot series. Someone under 50 - I’m not sure. That person may need a prescription.
My Dad has shingles when in his late 80’s, following surgery. The shingles just tore him apart. Even after the pain was gone, he was never the same.
Yeah the delayed diagnosis isn’t fun either and can cause long term problems.
I had pain over my port initially and so instead of suspecting anything else they figured a port problem. That was on a Friday. They did some scan thing to look at my port on a Monday morning. The rash started around the port that afternoon, took until Wednesday for someone to diagnosis it as shingles.
The delay in getting the antiviral was unfortunate. If you get the antiviral within 3 days of any shingles symptoms theoretically it reduces the severity of your shingles, reduces odds of longer term pain/other problems and shortens the course of the disease. So if you think you have shingles do not delay getting seen by someone. This is not something that can wait. Well it can, but then you will regret doing that.
My port needed used during shingles. They debated and debated and finally decided it was the lessor of two evils to use it. Agony. Still hurts like hell some years later whenever it is accessed due to how sensitive the skin still is. And like someone else said, the long term itching can be a real nuisance.
Oh and shingles along the side of your face by/on your eye can be an emergency. You can lose your vision.
@blaineg@j2@Kidsandliz@OnionSoup@RiotDemon
Can you get shingles more than once? Mine was very mild, as a young adult, having had chicken pox when I was a toddler, and the usual vaccinations after that. Are the Shingrix like Tetanus where you have to “re-up” every decade or so.
I have known some cancer patients who have. I have no idea how common that is or if compromised immune system has anything to do with it. I asked if the vaccination would be useful for me to get since I already had had shingles and was told yes to get it.
@j2@Kidsandliz@mike808@OnionSoup@RiotDemon I don’t know how common it is, but you can get it more than once. I had the older, 50% effective Zostavax after recovering from shingles. And when Shingrix (90% effective) became available my doctor STRONGLY recommend I get it.
The only problem was you couldn’t get it. I finally got the first dose earlier this year. Then the whole world went sideways.
@j2@Kidsandliz@OnionSoup@RiotDemon A friend got shingles in his 20’s. He stood up under the big mirror on a heavy army truck, and smacked his head hard and gouged his scalp.
The physical trauma triggered shingles a few days later. It started at the scalp wound and ran down the side of his face and neck. It threatened his eye, and even had one spot on it, but he didn’t lose vision.
@blaineg@j2@Kidsandliz@mike808@OnionSoup@RiotDemon Someone in my family got it twice, maybe my Mom
Neither time was any fun, but either she was more stoic about that or it wasn’t as bad in her as usual. I know my Dad recognized it the first time cause he had had it and I think she recognized it the second time.
I got the first shingles shot and then both the shingrix shots. Not fond of shots but they are sometimes worth it.
@AuntMean67
Not sure about that… there are so many classic bits
“She turned me into a newt/I got better”
Holy hand grenade of Antioch/killer rabbit
the peasants who are ‘oppressed’ (especially the “watery tart with a sword” line)
Black knight bridge scene
I’ll be right back, I just realized I need to watch that movie again!
@chienfou I never need a reason to see it again. Also, the scene with zoot and the other girls in the “abbey” that was great! of course the wedding, too.
This page either does not exist or is currently unavailable.
(that’s what your link throws back at this time…)
Hey now… those are my homeys.
Alabama has become a genuine shitshow for the SARS-CoV II virus lately. I am totally not surprised that is going on at some of the campuses in the state. I am also pretty sure that is probably happening elsewhere as well.
Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry said students have been organizing “COVID parties” as a game to intentionally infect each other with the contagion that has killed more than 127,000 people in the United States. She said she recently learned of the behavior and informed the city council of the parties occurring in the city.
She said the organizers of the parties are purposely inviting guests who have COVID-19.
“They put money in a pot and they try to get COVID. Whoever gets COVID first gets the pot. It makes no sense,” McKinstry said. “They’re intentionally doing it.”
Tuscaloosa Fire Chief, Randy Smith, speaks at City Council mewting June 30, 2020.
In a briefing to the City Council, Smith expressed concern that in recent weeks there have been parties held throughout the city and surrounding Tuscaloosa County, “where students, or kids, would come in with known positive,” according to a video recording of the meeting obtained by ABC affiliate station WBMA in Birmingham.
“We thought that was kind of a rumor at first,” Smith told the council members. “We did some research. Not only do the doctors’ offices confirm it but the state confirmed they also had the same information.”
In his presentation, Smith, who wore a face mask, did not say what is being done to curb the behavior or what schools the students were from. Tuscaloosa is the seventh-largest city in Alabama and home to The University of Alabama and several other colleges.
@Kidsandliz If your students are behaving like this, it does not exactly instill confidence in the demonstrated effectiveness of said institution in the delivery of a discerning intellectual prowess to its students, while incurring great financial expense that inures to the benefit of said institution. Q.E.D.
@mike808 It is a concern at many colleges, not just with “my students”. The Chronicle of Higher Ed has been discussion the problems and how colleges might respond, try to prevent issues… College responses to this and how they plan to cope is all over the map. Some state schools have been ordered to fully reopen by their governors or legislators even when they don’t want to. Typical students living on campus and in frats and sorority have behaviors that includes parties, hanging out together and in bars getting drunk, taking risks, doing stupid things… This has very little to do with intellectual prowess and more to do with the age group.
I think it mostly speaks to the lack of development of the frontal lobes in traditionally aged college students. I think it also has to do with some of whom had helicopter parents and so now rebel by doing all sorts of things they know their parents would object to now that their parents aren’t breathing down their necks. Others enjoy their freedom from parental oversight for other reasons and so do “stupid” things. Growing up is a learning experience and unfortunately learning from mistakes is part of it. Equally unfortunately the consequences of some mistakes will be amplified by covid. Colleges and universities can have rules but they are almost impossible enforce 24/7. Heck look at what is going on anyway in society.
The frontal lobe of the brain continues developing until folks are around 30. That part of the brain, amongst other things, affects the ability to anticipate long term consequences of current behaviors/choices. And universities can’t control what students do off campus. Take a look at what went on pre-covid on and off campus. Enough students will still do those things, or not wear their mask 24/7 outside of their dorm room, that there will be issues. And in close quarters like you have on campus will make it easier for this to spread on campus to others there and off campus to those folks they are around.
Do you has a concerns about a coronavirus? This drunken freshman discovered one neat trick. Dentists hate him.
There is still a part of me that admires these morons. It’s a bad deal intellectually, but that confrontational recklessness feels right. If I had the wrong friends I could see having gone to one of those, back when.
@InnocuousFarmer if it meant I couldn’t get it again… Sure, I’d like to get the virus out of the way. With three children and schools starting back in autumn, I AM going to get covid eventually. I can’t avoid it.
I’d like to have the virus out of the way before hospitals overflow with patients like they are in parts of Texas. I could stay responsibly quarantined if infected until safe.
That is… If you couldn’t get the virus more than once… But it looks like you can. No gain from getting virus out of the way now if I can get it again in six months.
@InnocuousFarmer@OnionSoup it just seems reckless. People I know in their 40s have been in the ICU. One still is. Not doing great. Another person I know has been sick almost a month.
I suspect it’ll be more possible to avoid than you think. You don’t have to avoid it entirely, just keep the exposure modest enough to not catch it. Most people will play along with social distancing and all that. Presumably the schools are all going to have obsessive virus-Nazis administrators… if you’re lucky, the kids could be disgusted by adult idiots infecting themselves instead of being disgusted by adult fear of infection (right?).
When New York was overrun, they were saying maybe a quarter of the population had it, IIRC. There’s lots of room to not contract the disease, even with a little bit of virus exposure.
I think the main difficulty will be either social, or with essential workers who have to get close to people routinely.
@InnocuousFarmer I can understand. Part of me wants to experience Covid-19 first-hand to know what it feels like.
The rest of me is a responsible citizen.
@InnocuousFarmer@OnionSoup Or on college campuses with no way to social distance very well in many classrooms coupled 50 minute to 3 hour classes (and “safety” is 15 min or less exposure) with stupid college student behavior in dorms and off campus in bars, etc.
@InnocuousFarmer well obviously I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing as best I can to avoid virus but I’m not optimistic of dodging it once schools reopen.
It does look promising that a vaccine could be out before end of the year and I do work in healthcare (not front line) so I suspect that a vaccine will be provided (probably even mandated) to me fairly early on.
I just hope I don’t have to get boosters every month or two to keep immunity up, that would be tedious (but preferable to the virus itself).
@InnocuousFarmer@Limewater One problem is that the “experience” can range from literally nothing, to a miserable death. I know a couple of people that tested positive, and hadn’t had even minor symptoms. Fortunately, we’ve only had electronic contact!
It can kill brain tissue too, which may not be immediately obvious. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to impact the brain strongly in most cases.
I’m not worried that Covid will kill me if I get it, odds are strong that I will survive. My worries are, what will it do to me 10, 20 years from now. We don’t know. We also don’t know the virus completely goes away, it could remain in undetectable amounts.
We could see a bunch of apparent premature Alzheimer and Parkinson cases in Alabama in the 2030’s occuring in 30 year old adults.
Odds are, there are no long term severe effects… But I’ve never been a gambler or a risk taker and there are enough red flags with this virus that it’s not as over and done once you’ve had it.
Remember mad cow disease? They say the prion could stay dormant in a human body for many decades. Chicken Pox was brought up earlier, that hides for decades and then comes back as shingles. Keep me away from covid.
… Oh and a follow up to the chicken pox comparison and Covid coming back later…
The reason Chickenpox can do that is that it can hide in the central nervous system. It can cross the blood/brain barrier.
Recently they’ve begun to think that covid can too… So everyone who has recovered may have this virus hiding in their central nervous system waiting.
Over 50% of people with the virus show neurological symptoms (loss of a sense, confusion, or delirium, etc).
Some are even suspecting that some of the deaths attributed to the lung damage might not really be primarily because of lung damage but because of brain damage and the brain not sending the signals to the lungs to breath properly.
This virus really might be more like Chicken Pox than the Flu in several ways.
I don’t think they’ve ruled out covid being the cause of the Elephant apocalypse going on at the moment either. (Recent days elephants in Africa have been dying in their hundreds by some weird neurological disease that causes them to walk around in circles or just fall over).
It will be really creepy if the elephant apocalypse is caused by coronavirus attacking their brains and they’re more susceptible to that for some reason.
There may be long term blood clotting anomalies. I think some hospitals are now using blood thinners for every admitted COVID-19 patient (unless another unusual condition rules it out).
Autopsies in Covid-19 deaths and suspected deaths appear to commonly show unusual microclotting.
Many of us may be already had this and gotten past it without being aware of it, for the present; but we made need additional screening for lung, heart, blood, and other anomalies in the future.
A lot of my friends and family live in Tuscaloosa.
If it makes anybody feel any better, they were doing this in D.C. a couple of months ago. Those reports have fallen off the front page of Google due to other parties and infections since.
Spouse got aspiration pneumonia in May (luckily negative for Covid) and spent 2 days on a ventilator. He’s recovered now but because his oxygen saturation level was so low when tested it was recommended that we buy an oximeter (the finger clamp doctors use) and test daily. It was about $30 at Target. Have read in some cases of Covid the only symptom is a low blood oxygen saturation level which can cause organ failure if it stays down too long. Cheap for peace of mind.
Some watches also do this. The wrist tech is new, so it’s good to check the data with backup tech periodically, if the person has serious health risks.
Also, check the reviews on the oxy monitor you purchased. Supposedly some are very good and some are junk.
The output of these can also be used to watch for sleep apnea issues.
@margot@mike808
Yeah, I thought the initial report of what the officials said in Tuscaloosa was not exactly an implication of the “betting pool” part of this story. Inviting known ill folks to the party… that I can believe…
/8ball Is America doomed?
Yes
@narfcake fuck
I’m old enough to remember pox parties (chicken not small) where parents would take their kids over to visit another kid with chicken pox so that their kid would basically “get it over with.” Questionable practice but with a huge difference… back then chicken pox averaged under 200 deaths ANNUALLY. Average COVID deaths are closer to 1,000 PER DAY.
@j2 also chickenpox you gained permanent immunity from, and like many viruses it was far less troublesome the younger you got it.
Covid19, the younger you get it the less complications on average too… Unlike chicken pox though, it doesn’t appear you gain long-term immunity as a result of having it. Especially if you don’t get a bad case of it.
@j2 @OnionSoup but now if you had chicken pox shingles could be severe.
@j2 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon YES!!! Get your Shingrix shot (the better one) if you have had chicken pox. Shingles is no joke. You do not want to get that. Ever!
I got shingles in the middle of chemo. 5 nerve roots. I was incredibly lucky that the pain went away after about 6 mo, although I still have other issues associated with having had it. Shingles redefines a 10 on the pain scale. Just think of putting part of your body in a hot frying pan and leaving it there 24/7. Then think of when a dentist hits a nerve with a drill. Have that pain zip along the path of the shingles around once a second for months. I finally was able not to finch each time but that took serious work. Clothes, your hair, a light breeze touching that skin is agony. I repeat. You do not ever want to get shingles. Ever. Get vaccinated.
@j2 @Kidsandliz @RiotDemon yeah, I’ve known a few people with shingles, it sounds horrible. Sorry you had to go through that.
I didn’t know there was a shingles vaccine for people who have had chicken pox. I had CPox when really young (before my earliest recallable memories), so I don’t remember what it was like having chicken pox, but I know I’ve had it, so I probably should get the shingles vaccine.
@j2 @Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @RiotDemon Yes, get your Shingrix shots! Two are needed, a couple of months apart.
The symptoms vary, but it had me curled up in a ball, wishing I could die so the pain would stop. I wasn’t at all suicidal, but the release of death would have been welcome. On a scale of 1-10, the pain was about 300.
I had no visible rash for several days, so multiple doctor/hospital visits just got me “take two ibuprofen, and call someone else in the morning”.
Once a few spots of rash showed up they figured it out, and provided helpful treatment. But I’m one of the lucky one with long term after effects. But it’s never been in the same league as the initial pain, mostly a persistent itch that sometimes moves into pain.
You do not want to risk shingles!
@blaineg @j2 @Kidsandliz @RiotDemon just googled it. CDC recommends for adults 50 and over.
I’m got a few years before I get there but I’ll definitely remember to do so. When I reach that age…
@blaineg @j2 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon Yeah a 300 is about right. As I said it redefines what is a 10 on the pain scale.
I was driving with my daughter on a 2 day drive to see family about 4 months into the shingles gig. I finally had to take my shirt off and place it over my boobs and tuck the ends behind my back. It just wasn’t possible to drive 1000 miles while holding the shirt away from my neck and shoulder top. Truck drivers passing me on the highway would have enjoyed if it had fallen off.
@blaineg @j2 @Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @RiotDemon
I know at least one person who got shingles when she was around 40yo. She was not, as far as she knew, under any particular physical stress before the shingles hit.
She late described the shingles pain using the usual incredible pain language people use to talk when they speak of shingles.
I think insurance will cover shingles shots for anyone over 50? Or similar. I have my shingrix shots.
(They don’t absolutely prevent shingles in every case, tho the incidence rates are much lower. If someone who got the shots then gets shingles, I think, supposedly, the experience is much less horrible? But am not sure.)
I think shingrix shots are about $200-$300 w no insurance, and the protocol is 2 shots, 2-6 months apart.
If your insurance won’t yet pay for your shots due to your age, and you had chicken pox at some point, well … I know a few people who have paid out of pocket for them.
Most people don’t need to do this. But no one knows who might benefit. This is a possibility for those who can afford it.
Someone over age 50 does not need a prescription to get the shot series. Someone under 50 - I’m not sure. That person may need a prescription.
My Dad has shingles when in his late 80’s, following surgery. The shingles just tore him apart. Even after the pain was gone, he was never the same.
@blaineg @j2 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon
Yeah the delayed diagnosis isn’t fun either and can cause long term problems.
I had pain over my port initially and so instead of suspecting anything else they figured a port problem. That was on a Friday. They did some scan thing to look at my port on a Monday morning. The rash started around the port that afternoon, took until Wednesday for someone to diagnosis it as shingles.
The delay in getting the antiviral was unfortunate. If you get the antiviral within 3 days of any shingles symptoms theoretically it reduces the severity of your shingles, reduces odds of longer term pain/other problems and shortens the course of the disease. So if you think you have shingles do not delay getting seen by someone. This is not something that can wait. Well it can, but then you will regret doing that.
My port needed used during shingles. They debated and debated and finally decided it was the lessor of two evils to use it. Agony. Still hurts like hell some years later whenever it is accessed due to how sensitive the skin still is. And like someone else said, the long term itching can be a real nuisance.
Oh and shingles along the side of your face by/on your eye can be an emergency. You can lose your vision.
@blaineg @j2 @Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @RiotDemon
Can you get shingles more than once? Mine was very mild, as a young adult, having had chicken pox when I was a toddler, and the usual vaccinations after that. Are the Shingrix like Tetanus where you have to “re-up” every decade or so.
@blaineg @j2 @mike808 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon
I have known some cancer patients who have. I have no idea how common that is or if compromised immune system has anything to do with it. I asked if the vaccination would be useful for me to get since I already had had shingles and was told yes to get it.
@j2 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon I don’t know how common it is, but you can get it more than once. I had the older, 50% effective Zostavax after recovering from shingles. And when Shingrix (90% effective) became available my doctor STRONGLY recommend I get it.
The only problem was you couldn’t get it. I finally got the first dose earlier this year. Then the whole world went sideways.
@j2 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/
@j2 @Kidsandliz @OnionSoup @RiotDemon A friend got shingles in his 20’s. He stood up under the big mirror on a heavy army truck, and smacked his head hard and gouged his scalp.
The physical trauma triggered shingles a few days later. It started at the scalp wound and ran down the side of his face and neck. It threatened his eye, and even had one spot on it, but he didn’t lose vision.
@blaineg @j2 @Kidsandliz @mike808 @OnionSoup @RiotDemon Someone in my family got it twice, maybe my Mom
Neither time was any fun, but either she was more stoic about that or it wasn’t as bad in her as usual. I know my Dad recognized it the first time cause he had had it and I think she recognized it the second time.
I got the first shingles shot and then both the shingrix shots. Not fond of shots but they are sometimes worth it.
@mike808 Probably the best scene of the movie!
@AuntMean67
Not sure about that… there are so many classic bits
“She turned me into a newt/I got better”
Holy hand grenade of Antioch/killer rabbit
the peasants who are ‘oppressed’ (especially the “watery tart with a sword” line)
Black knight bridge scene
I’ll be right back, I just realized I need to watch that movie again!
@chienfou I never need a reason to see it again. Also, the scene with zoot and the other girls in the “abbey” that was great! of course the wedding, too.
@AuntMean67 @chienfou
Yuuuuge tracts of land, you say?
Brave, brave Sir Robin!
We want a … Shubbery!
Bring out your dead.
How do you know she’s a witch?
MP&THG is the G.O.A.T. film comedy.
@AuntMean67 @chienfou @mike808
/giphy coconut shells!
@chienfou @mike808 I’m not dead yet. I think I’ll go for a walk.
@chienfou @mike808 Pia Jeasu Domine. I actually go around on super bad evenings banging my head and chanting this, too.
/giphy big sigh
(that’s what your link throws back at this time…)
Hey now… those are my homeys.
Alabama has become a genuine shitshow for the SARS-CoV II virus lately. I am totally not surprised that is going on at some of the campuses in the state. I am also pretty sure that is probably happening elsewhere as well.
you’re an all-star
@chienfou I have relatives in Montgomery and in Daphne. These poor souls are in Tuscaloosa, so the good news is that it ain’t Auburn.
Roll tide, indeed.
@djslack Roll Tide Pods.
@djslack @Fuzzalini What if Tide Pods were the cure?
@blaineg @djslack @Fuzzalini
If only …
/giphy tide pods
Headline Article
https://abcn.ws/3gm7OI5
Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry said students have been organizing “COVID parties” as a game to intentionally infect each other with the contagion that has killed more than 127,000 people in the United States. She said she recently learned of the behavior and informed the city council of the parties occurring in the city.
She said the organizers of the parties are purposely inviting guests who have COVID-19.
“They put money in a pot and they try to get COVID. Whoever gets COVID first gets the pot. It makes no sense,” McKinstry said. “They’re intentionally doing it.”
Tuscaloosa Fire Chief, Randy Smith, speaks at City Council mewting June 30, 2020.
In a briefing to the City Council, Smith expressed concern that in recent weeks there have been parties held throughout the city and surrounding Tuscaloosa County, “where students, or kids, would come in with known positive,” according to a video recording of the meeting obtained by ABC affiliate station WBMA in Birmingham.
“We thought that was kind of a rumor at first,” Smith told the council members. “We did some research. Not only do the doctors’ offices confirm it but the state confirmed they also had the same information.”
In his presentation, Smith, who wore a face mask, did not say what is being done to curb the behavior or what schools the students were from. Tuscaloosa is the seventh-largest city in Alabama and home to The University of Alabama and several other colleges.
@mike808 What the holy fuck?
@mike808 And this is why it is stupid to open up colleges for face to face classes this fall (this is a raging debate in higher education right now).
@Kidsandliz If your students are behaving like this, it does not exactly instill confidence in the demonstrated effectiveness of said institution in the delivery of a discerning intellectual prowess to its students, while incurring great financial expense that inures to the benefit of said institution. Q.E.D.
@mike808 It is a concern at many colleges, not just with “my students”. The Chronicle of Higher Ed has been discussion the problems and how colleges might respond, try to prevent issues… College responses to this and how they plan to cope is all over the map. Some state schools have been ordered to fully reopen by their governors or legislators even when they don’t want to. Typical students living on campus and in frats and sorority have behaviors that includes parties, hanging out together and in bars getting drunk, taking risks, doing stupid things… This has very little to do with intellectual prowess and more to do with the age group.
I think it mostly speaks to the lack of development of the frontal lobes in traditionally aged college students. I think it also has to do with some of whom had helicopter parents and so now rebel by doing all sorts of things they know their parents would object to now that their parents aren’t breathing down their necks. Others enjoy their freedom from parental oversight for other reasons and so do “stupid” things. Growing up is a learning experience and unfortunately learning from mistakes is part of it. Equally unfortunately the consequences of some mistakes will be amplified by covid. Colleges and universities can have rules but they are almost impossible enforce 24/7. Heck look at what is going on anyway in society.
The frontal lobe of the brain continues developing until folks are around 30. That part of the brain, amongst other things, affects the ability to anticipate long term consequences of current behaviors/choices. And universities can’t control what students do off campus. Take a look at what went on pre-covid on and off campus. Enough students will still do those things, or not wear their mask 24/7 outside of their dorm room, that there will be issues. And in close quarters like you have on campus will make it easier for this to spread on campus to others there and off campus to those folks they are around.
@mike808 Well, this is good news…
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-parties-are-not-a-thing/
@Kidsandliz I didn’t mean “your students” as yours specifically, I meant “your students” from the perspective of major university leadership.
@mike808 Darwin Award winners 2020
@asplus @mike808 You said it!
btw My Daddy and Granddaddy went to Auburn and I went out of state
Do you has a concerns about a coronavirus? This drunken freshman discovered one neat trick. Dentists hate him.
There is still a part of me that admires these morons. It’s a bad deal intellectually, but that confrontational recklessness feels right. If I had the wrong friends I could see having gone to one of those, back when.
@InnocuousFarmer if it meant I couldn’t get it again… Sure, I’d like to get the virus out of the way. With three children and schools starting back in autumn, I AM going to get covid eventually. I can’t avoid it.
I’d like to have the virus out of the way before hospitals overflow with patients like they are in parts of Texas. I could stay responsibly quarantined if infected until safe.
That is… If you couldn’t get the virus more than once… But it looks like you can. No gain from getting virus out of the way now if I can get it again in six months.
@InnocuousFarmer @OnionSoup it just seems reckless. People I know in their 40s have been in the ICU. One still is. Not doing great. Another person I know has been sick almost a month.
It is not worth it.
@OnionSoup Not with that attitude
I suspect it’ll be more possible to avoid than you think. You don’t have to avoid it entirely, just keep the exposure modest enough to not catch it. Most people will play along with social distancing and all that. Presumably the schools are all going to have obsessive virus-Nazis administrators… if you’re lucky, the kids could be disgusted by adult idiots infecting themselves instead of being disgusted by adult fear of infection (right?).
When New York was overrun, they were saying maybe a quarter of the population had it, IIRC. There’s lots of room to not contract the disease, even with a little bit of virus exposure.
I think the main difficulty will be either social, or with essential workers who have to get close to people routinely.
@InnocuousFarmer I can understand. Part of me wants to experience Covid-19 first-hand to know what it feels like.
The rest of me is a responsible citizen.
@InnocuousFarmer @OnionSoup Or on college campuses with no way to social distance very well in many classrooms coupled 50 minute to 3 hour classes (and “safety” is 15 min or less exposure) with stupid college student behavior in dorms and off campus in bars, etc.
@InnocuousFarmer well obviously I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing as best I can to avoid virus but I’m not optimistic of dodging it once schools reopen.
It does look promising that a vaccine could be out before end of the year and I do work in healthcare (not front line) so I suspect that a vaccine will be provided (probably even mandated) to me fairly early on.
I just hope I don’t have to get boosters every month or two to keep immunity up, that would be tedious (but preferable to the virus itself).
@InnocuousFarmer @Limewater One problem is that the “experience” can range from literally nothing, to a miserable death. I know a couple of people that tested positive, and hadn’t had even minor symptoms. Fortunately, we’ve only had electronic contact!
@blaineg @InnocuousFarmer @Limewater no symptoms that they know of…
2/3rds of “asymptomatic cases” have lung lesions.
It can kill brain tissue too, which may not be immediately obvious. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to impact the brain strongly in most cases.
I’m not worried that Covid will kill me if I get it, odds are strong that I will survive. My worries are, what will it do to me 10, 20 years from now. We don’t know. We also don’t know the virus completely goes away, it could remain in undetectable amounts.
We could see a bunch of apparent premature Alzheimer and Parkinson cases in Alabama in the 2030’s occuring in 30 year old adults.
Odds are, there are no long term severe effects… But I’ve never been a gambler or a risk taker and there are enough red flags with this virus that it’s not as over and done once you’ve had it.
Remember mad cow disease? They say the prion could stay dormant in a human body for many decades. Chicken Pox was brought up earlier, that hides for decades and then comes back as shingles. Keep me away from covid.
… Oh and a follow up to the chicken pox comparison and Covid coming back later…
The reason Chickenpox can do that is that it can hide in the central nervous system. It can cross the blood/brain barrier.
Recently they’ve begun to think that covid can too… So everyone who has recovered may have this virus hiding in their central nervous system waiting.
Over 50% of people with the virus show neurological symptoms (loss of a sense, confusion, or delirium, etc).
Some are even suspecting that some of the deaths attributed to the lung damage might not really be primarily because of lung damage but because of brain damage and the brain not sending the signals to the lungs to breath properly.
This virus really might be more like Chicken Pox than the Flu in several ways.
I don’t think they’ve ruled out covid being the cause of the Elephant apocalypse going on at the moment either. (Recent days elephants in Africa have been dying in their hundreds by some weird neurological disease that causes them to walk around in circles or just fall over).
It will be really creepy if the elephant apocalypse is caused by coronavirus attacking their brains and they’re more susceptible to that for some reason.
@blaineg @InnocuousFarmer @Limewater
There have been times have I wished they would invent how to send, oh say, skunk odor, over the internet.
@blaineg @InnocuousFarmer @Limewater @OnionSoup
There may be long term blood clotting anomalies. I think some hospitals are now using blood thinners for every admitted COVID-19 patient (unless another unusual condition rules it out).
Autopsies in Covid-19 deaths and suspected deaths appear to commonly show unusual microclotting.
Many of us may be already had this and gotten past it without being aware of it, for the present; but we made need additional screening for lung, heart, blood, and other anomalies in the future.
@InnocuousFarmer @Kidsandliz @Limewater
Your wish is my command!
https://www.amazon.com/Pete-Rickard-LH560-Liquid-Essence/dp/B0000AVVF5/
@blaineg @InnocuousFarmer @Kidsandliz @Limewater coat a confetti bomb with this.
Everyone, even bots, would think that was Awesome.
OWLS! TOWELS! JOWLS! AWESOME!
A lot of my friends and family live in Tuscaloosa.
If it makes anybody feel any better, they were doing this in D.C. a couple of months ago. Those reports have fallen off the front page of Google due to other parties and infections since.
Not just stupid kids.
@blaineg WTFH
@blaineg That is some black sarcasm. I’m tempted to laugh on principle.
Is that definitely real? Not some kind of Facebook… socially corruptive Russia account…
@blaineg @InnocuousFarmer
Right in the heart of Trump Country.
Couldn’t be more proud. 'Murica!
Pigeon Forge is home to Dollywood outside of Gatlinburg, TN and adjacent to the Smoky Mountains National Park.
@InnocuousFarmer Apparently real, but it was canceled.
@blaineg @InnocuousFarmer It’s real. I asked a friend who lives near Pigeon Forge, and she said sadly that it was.
@asplus Press F to pay respect.
@blaineg
man I miss the Far Side…
@chienfou It’s back! Maybe? I guess we find out tomorrow.
https://www.thefarside.com/
Spouse got aspiration pneumonia in May (luckily negative for Covid) and spent 2 days on a ventilator. He’s recovered now but because his oxygen saturation level was so low when tested it was recommended that we buy an oximeter (the finger clamp doctors use) and test daily. It was about $30 at Target. Have read in some cases of Covid the only symptom is a low blood oxygen saturation level which can cause organ failure if it stays down too long. Cheap for peace of mind.
@carwinew
Some watches also do this. The wrist tech is new, so it’s good to check the data with backup tech periodically, if the person has serious health risks.
Also, check the reviews on the oxy monitor you purchased. Supposedly some are very good and some are junk.
The output of these can also be used to watch for sleep apnea issues.
/8ball Is coronavirus a hoax?
It is decidedly so
@nostrom0
@asplus @nostrom0
you forgot to attribute the quote…
Turns out that the 'parties" are essentially the product of the death of journalism and the printing of anything “clickable”.
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-parties-are-not-a-thing/
@margot Who knew that for-profit journalism would prioritize gamification over the public good?
I look forward to Kanye’s yeetin’ up the presidential debates this fall. Per Fox News, of course.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/kanye-west-tweets-running-for-president-2020
@margot @mike808
Yeah, I thought the initial report of what the officials said in Tuscaloosa was not exactly an implication of the “betting pool” part of this story. Inviting known ill folks to the party… that I can believe…
People have legit thrown HIV parties to infect themselves. “Bugchasing” is a thing. A very sad, pathetic thing, but a thing nonetheless.