COVID-19 response

[Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu>]

Hi, all.  Probably I should have kept my mouth shut instead of saying

    In my opinion it would be prudent to follow the CDC guidelines, but
    there is no need to go beyond them.  As I understand them, these
    guidelines depend critically on whether or not there is community
    spread, meaning people who are turning up sick with no connection to 
any
    known case.  In that case it is probably appropriate to cancel most
    events.  Otherwise CDC recommends only ordinary precautions 
(handwashing
    etc.)  At the moment, Massachusetts has community spread only in the
    Berkshires, so it seems that we can go on with our lives here at least
    for now.

On Thursday, a Tufts student tested positive for COVID-19.  At this
moment Tufts does not know how this student was infected.  I inquired
and they sent me a rather ambiguous message: "At some point we may be
able to track the source, but it's not clear right now."  So perhaps we
do have community transmission in the Boston area.

A closer look at CDC's classifications says that this is still "None to
Minimal" community transmission, and it doesn't trigger any different
recommendations.  On the other hand, CDC seems to be an outlier in their
conservative recommendations.  Even in the case of Seattle, which has
widespread community transmission, they don't go as far as saying that
you should cancel all meetings and close schools.  Many epidemiologists
have recommended far more stringent restrictions.  So maybe CDC is not
really to be trusted to be recommending sufficient action.

                                        Ken