Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday • Hacker News Board

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#11

Post by olyjohn » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:36 PM UTC

The way at which we are opening up here in Washington State, you'd think that Covid was gone. But now here we are with double the cases we had when we originally shut down, and we're opening things back up. It's like we did all the previous shutdowns for nothing... like all that we did to isolate, work from home, etc was for nothing. It makes it feel like we were wrong to shut down before, and that it wasn't even necessary.

Sure we have a vaccine now, a vaccine that most people don't have. It's not any safer now than it has been. It makes it feel like the Republicans were partly right in that the shutdowns only caused unnecessary economic damage, and that isolation did nothing. I want to believe that's not true, but that's not the message that I'm getting now.

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#12

Post by richardlblair » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:38 PM UTC

It's another pseudo lock down that won't accomplish anything. Ford has been putting in half measures and has lacked follow through. It has confused the population, and people are growing tired of his bullshit. This is resulting in people making up their own rules.

Vaccine roll out has also been a laugh. The older populations book their appointments early in the morning, so the vaccine clinic sit vacant throughout the day.

I'm deeply disappointed by our federal and provincial government. I'm also really disappointed in my fellow citizens.

We got so over confident from a strong start, but we have been fumbling along since we reopened too early last summer. We had an opportunity to drive cases down to single digit, but the province opened when we were just under 100 cases / day. We haven't recovered since.

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#13

Post by hn8788 » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:38 PM UTC

corry wrote: post #7

I'm not close enough to the data to know -- so am asking HN -- but why are schools being kept open? Is it because truly there is low risk on transmission that way (and this holds true for new variants too)? Or is this just to avoid the negative drag on worker productivity caused by kids staying home? In other words - how political is the decision to keep schools open? Should concerned parents still keep their kids ho…

There was an article published not long ago that said there has been a huge increase in the number of reported mental health cases for school-aged children due to the lack of socialization from lockdowns.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-c...

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#14

Post by ChrisArchitect » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:38 PM UTC

corry wrote: post #7

I'm not close enough to the data to know -- so am asking HN -- but why are schools being kept open? Is it because truly there is low risk on transmission that way (and this holds true for new variants too)? Or is this just to avoid the negative drag on worker productivity caused by kids staying home? In other words - how political is the decision to keep schools open? Should concerned parents still keep their kids ho…

keep schools open (the kids need to go to school/helps on a number of levels), that should be a chosen priority and that's it. drop everything else.

Problem is everyone wants it all, shopping and dining and schools. Can't have it all. Society needs to priortize the one thing and lockdown rest

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#15

Post by greenyoda » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:39 PM UTC

Paris is also in a 4-week lockdown: https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/543993-paris...

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#16

Post by 14 » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:40 PM UTC

corry wrote: post #7

I'm not close enough to the data to know -- so am asking HN -- but why are schools being kept open? Is it because truly there is low risk on transmission that way (and this holds true for new variants too)? Or is this just to avoid the negative drag on worker productivity caused by kids staying home? In other words - how political is the decision to keep schools open? Should concerned parents still keep their kids ho…

I don't think we need much more data then what is already available, there are transmissions in children and they are happening at schools. In my local news there have already been several stories about outbreaks happening in schools and having to shut them down for periods of time. Even if kids are at lower risk they are still at risk so sending them to school is foolish if avoidable. I say if avoidable because not working for months on end and starving to death is also not good.

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#17

Post by frockington1 » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:40 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #11

The way at which we are opening up here in Washington State, you'd think that Covid was gone. But now here we are with double the cases we had when we originally shut down, and we're opening things back up. It's like we did all the previous shutdowns for nothing... like all that we did to isolate, work from home, etc was for nothing. It makes it feel like we were wrong to shut down before, and that it wasn't even nec…

Do you know what is causing the vaccine delays in your state? I'm in Ohio and anyone can get a vaccine now by scheduling an appointment online. So much optimism now when there was none. Even if it is a little slower in your state don't give up hope, its coming soon

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#18

Post by space_fountain » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:40 PM UTC

corry wrote: post #7

I'm not close enough to the data to know -- so am asking HN -- but why are schools being kept open? Is it because truly there is low risk on transmission that way (and this holds true for new variants too)? Or is this just to avoid the negative drag on worker productivity caused by kids staying home? In other words - how political is the decision to keep schools open? Should concerned parents still keep their kids ho…

Schools are indeed quite safe. The younger the safer, but generally children get sick less and are vanishingly unlikely to end up in the hospital or die. There's also evidence that schools haven't been a big transmission sites for covid probably because while teacher to teacher transmission is as big a problem as anywhere teacher student and student student transmission isn't that likely. The other side is that closing schools has had big negative impacts on children especially poor children.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-br... https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#19

Post by undefined1 » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:42 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #11

The way at which we are opening up here in Washington State, you'd think that Covid was gone. But now here we are with double the cases we had when we originally shut down, and we're opening things back up. It's like we did all the previous shutdowns for nothing... like all that we did to isolate, work from home, etc was for nothing. It makes it feel like we were wrong to shut down before, and that it wasn't even nec…

Florida vs California is telling. FL mostly stayed open and didn't do much worse than CA, despite Florida's much older population.

Re: Ontario to enter four-week, province-wide Covid-19 shutdown on Saturday

#20

Post by space_fountain » Thu, Apr 01, 2021, 6:43 PM UTC

14 wrote: post #16

corry wrote: post #7

I'm not close enough to the data to know -- so am asking HN -- but why are schools being kept open? Is it because truly there is low risk on transmission that way (and this holds true for new variants too)? Or is this just to avoid the negative drag on worker productivity caused by kids staying home? In other words - how political is the decision to keep schools open? Should concerned parents still keep their kids ho…

I don't think we need much more data then what is already available, there are transmissions in children and they are happening at schools. In my local news there have already been several stories about outbreaks happening in schools and having to shut them down for periods of time. Even if kids are at lower risk they are still at risk so sending them to school is foolish if avoidable. I say if avoidable because not…

Could you please provide citations? My understanding is that most of that transmission is happening outside of school and documents like: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-br... seem to back up the idea that transmission inside schools is pretty rare. There's also tons of studies showing online school has been devastating to children

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...