The CDC finally spoke out against COVID testing if asymptomatic people. Exposed but symptom-free people don’t need to be tested.
This is a huge win for rationality.
The CDC finally spoke out against COVID testing if asymptomatic people. Exposed but symptom-free people don’t need to be tested.
This is a huge win for rationality.
I just have to say that I’m tired of some of my colleagues complaining about everything…
Example (all from the same person, whom I really like, apart from this):
1) Teaching in person is bad–it’s forcing profs and students to “risk their lives”
2) Synchronous online is bad–it’s “invasive” and “inequitable”
3) Asynchronous online is bad–our students don’t do well in asynchronous courses, so student learning outcomes aren’t met in such courses
Should I suggest that we cancel all classes and shut down the university for the academic year. Faculty won’t get paid, but we have to save lives, right?
What I care about is whether or not the people who want to teach remotely can do so or not. And for the most part, the people who are complaining about the university being open for in-person classes are people who are already teaching all their courses online. (I checked because I was curious.)
And don’t get me wrong–I love to complain about things that aren’t fair. But at the same time, I can recognize how privileged I am in my current position as a tenured professor in the humanities who’s paid a salary rather than an hourly wage that I might not get if my business (the uni) closed down.
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“I can recognize how privileged I am in my current position as a tenured professor… who’s paid a salary.”
That’s really the point. Professors work in a service industry that is built around in-person contact between instructors and students. If they’re not prepared to work to standard, then their pay and benefits should be adjusted downwards. Bet these preening skivers wouldn’t put up with eating virtual groceries or getting their stinky household garbage collected by virtual trucks.
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Perhaps their paychecks should be rendered in virtual cash…
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“virtual cash…”
Brilliant. The institution’s Financial Office could just schedule a Zoom meeting every two weeks with the virtuous virtual professor in which they showed him/her/zim their pay in cash. A .pdf of their cash could subsequently be posted online for later viewing. Virtual benefits might prove to be more complicated but not totally unmanageable: imagine, for example, how much less uncomfortable a virtual teeth cleaning with a virtual dental hygienist would be.
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I was thinking like the in-game money for zynga. They could use it to buy virtual pets, or upgrades for their virtual restaurants.
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Have you been following the backlash against this recommendation though? The liberal media and a number of Democratic politicians are now accusing this recommendation as a political move. I hope the CDC does not back down!
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I only found out because a colleague started freaking out over it. Thankfully, nobody else responded. I guess the lack of mass casualties from the school reopening on Monday is having an effect.
People were actually asking me if I had made a will since I was willing to go into the classroom. But they seem to have quieted down since.
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And as expected, the CDC walks back!
I just don’t understand this! What kind of sheeple are we? How can one political party dictate science? How can it dictate reality? How can it decide to keep people from practicing their livelihoods and children from getting educated? I really hope Trump wins by a landslide this time.
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Good. Now, if only every other illness under the sun didn’t have overlapping symptoms. The only good thing about having to go get tested this last time was finding out I have gastroenteritis, and not a kidney-related issue. The new nasal mid-turbinate swabs really bother my eustacian tubes and sinuses, too, so it was just a miserable day.
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Since the CDC doesn’t recommend testing for asymptomatic people, our university is now asking exposed students to isolate for 14 days instead. I really don’t see how that’s better.
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