Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[feelotraveller]

Yeah, I guess your institution wants to be seen to be doing something.  On the bright side spreading a bit of bleach-water about shouldn't do any harm, ice-cream bowls aside.

In terms of reducing the (already low to very low) chance of transmission via surface, roughly in order of importance: prevent people with covid from attending the school, ensure good face mask practice and provide as much ventilation as possible.  All of those also reduce the risk of aerosol transmission.  Beyond that regular hand-washing (scrub for 30 seconds) for breaking a possible surface to hand to nose/mouth route; and it is a good health habit to develop anyways.

[Maximum Spin]

I do want to note that the CDC is a political entity and its recommendations are not science-based, but bureaucratic decisions (often involving a lot of fear of lawfare). To the best of my knowledge, surface transmission has never been documented and there are good theoretical reasons to think that dry (which I should have specified, it's true) surfaces cannot transfer the virus under normal contact scenarios at all. If anyone has even a single reputable case study showing actual surface transmission, obviously I'll change my mind.

But also,

*cuts to the time I saw a student licking their desk as if it were a recently finished bowl of ice cream*

this massively realigns my assumptions about the intelligence of the students in question. An indirect droplet-based transmission where one kid sneezes on something and another rubs his face in it while wet... is a scenario I hadn't even imagined because it's completely outside the realm of my experience. But it could happen. I was assuming, since you were talking about sanitising surfaces after use (apparently at the end of the day), that they were dry.

[MonkeyHead]

Oh, trust me, some school age students are pretty boneheaded, often willfully so for the sake of it. As a yardstick, consider one of average intelligence. Half of them are below that.

[Maximum Spin]

As a yardstick, consider one of average intelligence. Half of them are below that.

Sure, I know that. The problem here is that my impressions of average intelligence are severely overestimated because of my life history.

[delphonso]

Oh, trust me, some school age students are pretty boneheaded, often willfully so for the sake of it. As a yardstick, consider one of average intelligence. Half of them are below that.

Or at least - without inhibitions most of the time.

To clarify further - this was in the middle of my class, halfway through the day, and we resumed class after the spraydown.

[Maximum Spin]

Ergo, it's probably in everyone's best interests, non-science-based political entities and otherwise, to suggest that you clean up after other people and wipe down public surfaces, or to wipe down everything for peace of mind.

Well sure, I'll agree with that any day. But people should be doing that ANYWAY. There isn't actually much more reason to do that now than there is all the time. I find the fact that people haven't changed their perceived risk levels way, way less concerning than the levels they had them at in the first place.

[Maximum Spin]

So yes, suggest we do that all the time anyways, but not when the CDC says it, because they're a political, non-science-based entity, but still do it because that's smart, yeah?

No, I mean, do that all the time anyway, but don't do it because of the coronavirus when it will have zero impact on the spread of the coronavirus.

Might be the CDC guidelines are best-practice advisory for those who are not us, eh? Fault them for saying it because it's dumb to you and common sense, sure, but it's common sense because an entity like the CDC is saying to do it.

No, I fault them for saying that it has anything to do with this particular virus. If they said "clean your surfaces so you don't get other diseases that do have this kind of transmission demonstrated", that would be a completely different scenario. Misleading people to get them to do something is not okay even if the thing itself is usually a good idea. We need to be honest and follow the science, especially in a situation like this. Keep in mind, COVID-19 is mild as novel diseases go. The chances are very high that, within the next generation or so, we're going to see something much, much worse. If our institutions can't even acquit themselves rationally with this trial run, what chance do we have when that happens?

To clarify further - this was in the middle of my class, halfway through the day, and we resumed class after the spraydown.

I almost missed this. So, it was just entirely theatrical? I mean, if you just... went back to sitting at the same desks you were just sitting at ten minutes ago... then it wouldn't matter if they had sterilised them with flamethrowers: you'd already been exposed to anything on them!

[Starver]

"The flamethower combusted my homework..."

[Ziusudra]

Oh, trust me, some school age students are pretty boneheaded, often willfully so for the sake of it. As a yardstick, consider one of average intelligence. Half of them are below that.

Half of them are below the median - the smartest of them pull the average up above that - so more than half are below the average.

[bloop_bleep]

Oh, trust me, some school age students are pretty boneheaded, often willfully so for the sake of it. As a yardstick, consider one of average intelligence. Half of them are below that.

Half of them are below the median - the smartest of them pull the average up above that - so more than half are below the average.

Was going to say this.

[Starver]

You two are so mean!

[King Zultan]

So what you guys are saying that almost all kids are stupid, pretty sure that's been the case since the dawn of time.

[MonkeyHead]

Oh, trust me, some school age students are pretty boneheaded, often willfully so for the sake of it. As a yardstick, consider one of average intelligence. Half of them are below that.

Half of them are below the median - the smartest of them pull the average up above that - so more than half are below the average.

Was going to say this.

Unless there are a few really stupid ones, pulling in the other direction...

Yay semantics! Never change, B12LB.

[delphonso]

As a teacher, I'd actually support the "few very stupid ones pulling down the average" model.

[MonkeyHead]

As a teacher, I'd actually support the "few very stupid ones pulling down the average" model.

Snap