5 ms·

The "empty out campus" bit seems a bit overmuch to me. What's the epidemiologists' take on something like this? I can see asking students who left for spring b

The "empty out campus" bit seems a bit overmuch to me. What's the epidemiologists' take on something like this? I can see asking students who left for spring break not to come back. But asking students currently on campus to leave, and even demanding that they travel internationally, seems like it might just increase everyone's risk of exposure, and spread it around. Especially considering that, at least according to the stats they post on their website, about 75% of their international students are from Asia or Europe.

adrianmonk 7y ago
Yeah, this sounds like a local optimization that is going to make things worse overall. Even if international students get to stay, you're still giving people a lot of reason to travel. Twice. A lot of people are going to go home and stay with Mom and Dad, I would expect.
- chickenpotpie 7y ago
  Oh god, I didn't even think about how someone with Corona is going to go from spending all day around young, healthy individuals to their aging parents.
Ericson2314 7y ago
There is an exception for some international students as stated elsewhere in the thread, but yes I still agree. Even the domestic churn of thousands of schools from various schools going home is no good. Massachusetts surely has one of the highest hospital densities in the country, too. I would cancel classes, but allow everyone that wants to to stay put.
- the-dude 7y ago
  You want to know what is going to happen? They will party all night long.
  - Ericson2314 7y ago
    Not every night the whole quarantine, but perhaps long enough to so that they all get sick. Surely this, along with general hot-potato risk management, is what MIT's administration had in mind.
wegs 7y ago
Not an epidemiologist, but a Boston resident. Generally, people under 30 completely ignore anything about the coronavirus here. You have people hitting a different nightclub each night, going to parties, and that sort of thing. A college town full of students who see their risk as 0.1% is not what you want right now. Now, a more sensible thing might be to close the nightclubs, bars, and parties. But the city hasn't done that. Patient zero will probably infect hundred here. And the people who will die will be the elderly (which includes a lot of faculty too).
- leggomylibro 7y ago
  Boston has had confirmed cases for quite some time; about 70 of them came from the same conference meeting. The area's "patient zero" event happened like a week ago.
- JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
  So you have tens of thousands of people, who all have been in close proximity, now exposing their risk to their family. And if these college students have any elderly family members, that could pose a serious risk. By forcing people to go home, rather than shelter in place, everyone has increased contact with others and public infrastructure where the virus could be.
  - wegs 7y ago
    Now here, you have to consider who is making the decisions. The president of MIT was born in 1950. The Chairman of the Board was class of '73. Virtually everyone in senior leadership are in categories with 10+% mortality rates. I'm not cynical about everything about the Institute (see my other comments, correcting cynical theories), but this is a place where I know many of the personalities involved personally, and I'm definitely very, very cynical.
    - JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
      High-risk individuals should be quarantining themselves. It'd be a far more effective strategy than any other measure.
thebruce87m 7y ago
Two weeks ago today Italy had 322 cases. Today they have over 10,000. This thing moves fast. The situation will be very different a week from now so maybe their only a few days ahead of everyone else. This site is good for tracking the data: https://studylib.net/coronavirus https://studylib.net/coronavirus Click on a country to see the graphs.
- willj 7y ago
  Do you know if it’s because they’re testing more?

adrianmonk 7y ago

Yeah, this sounds like a local optimization that is going to make things worse overall. Even if international students get to stay, you're still giving people a lot of reason to travel. Twice. A lot of people are going to go home and stay with Mom and Dad, I would expect.

chickenpotpie 7y ago
Oh god, I didn't even think about how someone with Corona is going to go from spending all day around young, healthy individuals to their aging parents.

Ericson2314 7y ago

There is an exception for some international students as stated elsewhere in the thread, but yes I still agree. Even the domestic churn of thousands of schools from various schools going home is no good. Massachusetts surely has one of the highest hospital densities in the country, too. I would cancel classes, but allow everyone that wants to to stay put.

the-dude 7y ago
You want to know what is going to happen? They will party all night long.
- Ericson2314 7y ago
  Not every night the whole quarantine, but perhaps long enough to so that they all get sick. Surely this, along with general hot-potato risk management, is what MIT's administration had in mind.

wegs 7y ago

Not an epidemiologist, but a Boston resident. Generally, people under 30 completely ignore anything about the coronavirus here. You have people hitting a different nightclub each night, going to parties, and that sort of thing. A college town full of students who see their risk as 0.1% is not what you want right now. Now, a more sensible thing might be to close the nightclubs, bars, and parties. But the city hasn't done that. Patient zero will probably infect hundred here. And the people who will die will be the elderly (which includes a lot of faculty too).

leggomylibro 7y ago
Boston has had confirmed cases for quite some time; about 70 of them came from the same conference meeting. The area's "patient zero" event happened like a week ago.
JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
So you have tens of thousands of people, who all have been in close proximity, now exposing their risk to their family. And if these college students have any elderly family members, that could pose a serious risk. By forcing people to go home, rather than shelter in place, everyone has increased contact with others and public infrastructure where the virus could be.
- wegs 7y ago
  Now here, you have to consider who is making the decisions. The president of MIT was born in 1950. The Chairman of the Board was class of '73. Virtually everyone in senior leadership are in categories with 10+% mortality rates. I'm not cynical about everything about the Institute (see my other comments, correcting cynical theories), but this is a place where I know many of the personalities involved personally, and I'm definitely very, very cynical.
  - JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
    High-risk individuals should be quarantining themselves. It'd be a far more effective strategy than any other measure.

thebruce87m 7y ago

Two weeks ago today Italy had 322 cases. Today they have over 10,000. This thing moves fast. The situation will be very different a week from now so maybe their only a few days ahead of everyone else. This site is good for tracking the data: https://studylib.net/coronavirus https://studylib.net/coronavirus Click on a country to see the graphs.

willj 7y ago
Do you know if it’s because they’re testing more?