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I'm by no means an expert, but... Is it a good idea to send a campus of young potential carriers from an emergency zone [0] to the rest of the nation, if not t

I'm by no means an expert, but... Is it a good idea to send a campus of young potential carriers from an emergency zone [0] to the rest of the nation, if not the world? MIT and Harvard may be setting a precedent in the world's largest college town that the status quo is to send thousands of travelers from a disease epicenter to lesser-affected areas. I'm genuinely concerned - not for my health as a student, but for how I might be impacting the health of the geographies I'm returning to. Am I misguided in this? [0] https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-latest-massachusetts-governor-charlie-baker-state-of-emergency/ https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-latest-ma...

jacquesm 7y ago
They're not potential carriers. They are potential future problems and concentrating so many people that are so mobile is currently a very large risk. Right now the chances of many of them being infected are still relatively low. Give it a few weeks and it is pretty much a certainty.
- whymauri 7y ago
  After some reading, I've become slightly more sympathetic to the theory that flattening the curve via early dispersion is a good idea since students would have to travel anyways in May. That said, I really do believe there could be several potential carriers on campus. Here are some reasons why: (1) There were still large events and gatherings, like the Bitcoin Expo. (2) Especially notable, large lectures were not canceled until very recently. (3) Testing has been incredibly hard to do via campus medical services. If cases are identified later, I'd imagine it'd be under-reported since students are young and testing is hard. (4) The carrier who was on campus a few weeks ago was in a very high-traffic building (MIT Sloan) and there was no timely warning of this. But yes, I do actually see the merits of early dispersion now and understand the point you're getting across.

jacquesm 7y ago

They're not potential carriers. They are potential future problems and concentrating so many people that are so mobile is currently a very large risk. Right now the chances of many of them being infected are still relatively low. Give it a few weeks and it is pretty much a certainty.

whymauri 7y ago
After some reading, I've become slightly more sympathetic to the theory that flattening the curve via early dispersion is a good idea since students would have to travel anyways in May. That said, I really do believe there could be several potential carriers on campus. Here are some reasons why: (1) There were still large events and gatherings, like the Bitcoin Expo. (2) Especially notable, large lectures were not canceled until very recently. (3) Testing has been incredibly hard to do via campus medical services. If cases are identified later, I'd imagine it'd be under-reported since students are young and testing is hard. (4) The carrier who was on campus a few weeks ago was in a very high-traffic building (MIT Sloan) and there was no timely warning of this. But yes, I do actually see the merits of early dispersion now and understand the point you're getting across.