I work for the federal government in DC. I can work just as well at home as in my office. In fact, I already telework two days a week.

This Tuesday I commuted in on the bus and then the metro. I was exposed to scores of people in just that one day, and each of them was exposed to scores of people.

Why not be proactive and decide that teleworkers can work from home until further notice? It would cost the government nothing to do this. Yet no one has even considered it.

Real leadership would be to encourage every state and local government to increase telework, to grant federal contractors the ability to telework, and encourage private employers to do the same.

Yes.

I guess there is a portion of people that just won't believe science until it is too late to do anything about it.

Then we will read "no one knew it would be like this". Over and over and over...

Just thinking out loud here...

Is part of it because of the tendency for management/bosses to believe that people won't do their jobs if they're not being supervised?

Is a different part of it the belief that the quality of work will suffer if people move online?

With regard to education, pretty much everyone I talk to says the quality of our course content delivery will suffer if we are forced to move to 100% online content deliver method...

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Why not be proactive and decide that teleworkers can work from home until further notice?

Because the government believes that the Coronavirus is a giant left wing hoax designed to make certain politicians look bad, and that it's really no worse than a common cold.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

With regard to education, pretty much everyone I talk to says the quality of our course content delivery will suffer if we are forced to move to 100% online content deliver method...

And yet your university and mine are deep in planning to finish our semesters online if we are ordered to close, or if our schools choose to shut down in response to a local case.

More specifically, I'm sure all contingencies -- from using Panopto lecture capture to using Zoom -- are under consideration. Tests can be administered online (honor code), and papers can be turned in online. Mentoring can be by Skype or email.

Optimal? Not by a long shot. But in a pinch, it's an acceptable way to complete courses in a way that accords with our accreditation standards.

quote:

And yet your university and mine are deep in planning to finish our semesters online if we are ordered to close, or if our schools choose to shut down in response to a local case.

Yep.

They also sent out an email today asking faculty not to spread rumors.

Actually, in all seriousness, I think our administration is doing a good job (and they are actually getting better at it each day) of handling things, trying to prepare for the worst and so on.

Re teaching online: I can do it, and I will do it if I have to. I teach online in the summer, asynchronously. And I tested out various things on Zoom yesterday with some other teachers in my dept and if we do have to move online, I hope to include at least some regular synchronous activities as well. (If not have all classes online synchronously)

But, to respond to Cindy's original question, moving spring semester classes online is not something I want to or would choose to do, and so I certainly wouldn't want to start it any earlier than I have to.

I would guess that's the case with all kinds of workplaces.

There is zero screening being done at airports, regardless of where the flight originated. It's insane.

I-1 has a hunch. Best not look for much more than that.

Emails.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
There is zero screening being done at airports, regardless of where the flight originated. It's insane.

Yeah, that’s bad. I would say that probably needs to be implemented.

I'm flying tomorrow. I'll tell ya'll if there is any MORE screening ...

Rachel flew home from LA on Wednesday. She said there were a number of people wearing masks on the plane.

I last flew 10 days ago. I’m usually the only one with a mask on a flight but on my last flight there were three or four of us, including one woman with an N95 mask.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
There is zero screening being done at airports, regardless of where the flight originated. It's insane.

Tweet from yesterday:

quote:

I just landed at JFK after reporting on #coronavirus in Milan and Lombardy —the epicenter of Italy’s outbreak— for
@vicenews
. I walked right through US customs. They didn’t ask me where in Italy I went or if I came into contact with sick people. They didn’t ask me anything.

Good grief.

What’s weird is we screened flights from Wuhan in late January, when there were fewer than 1000 cases there. Now Italy, orders of magnitude smaller, has 4K cases and there’s no screening.