emma dog

I am a physician. Every state I've worked and lived in have laws where public health concerns override an individual's "right to privacy." The way this is handled is that people who may have had exposure are called and informed that they may have had close contact with someone who had the disease. For the privacy of the patient who is COVID+, they don't tell any individual where it happened nor do they tell you who it is. That way the person who was exposed can take personal precautions and responsibilities to stop the spread.

Personal opinion only:
COVID is now so out of control in the US, it's likely folks are regularly exposed to someone who has COVID when going to the grocery store, etc., or from their kids if they're going to an in-person school. Contact tracing at this point isn't doing a whole lot to cut down on the disease. All this being said, if you wear a mask (and especially an N-95 or equivalent), eye protection, wash hands, and socially distance, you have a low likelihood of getting it. I am exposed to COVID+ patients on a daily basis and this is what I do... and as a physician I don't have to quarantine because I follow this guidance.

pfreet

Since it is now ok to share personal opinions here:
"As a physician ... out of control" Well then I guess lockdowns, masks, shutting down schools, theaters, churches, sports, concerts, restaurants, etc, didn't work - except to destroy many small business, put people out of work, and take away a year from so many people we can never get back - no vacation, no high school graduation, no softball team, no dating, on and on ... At this point, let's go the Sweden route, protect the old and vulnerable and let everyone else go back to normal. And if we are ill for a few days, 99.97% of us will get over it, as we do every other year from influenza and colds.

Ilove2fly

There is so much misinformation on this post. First: much less than 99.97% recover. It is much worse than flu and cold. Lock down works if people participate. All it takes is for just one asymptomatic ill person not wearing the mask properly to get multiple people sick. Each of that new sick person will infect a few more. Lock down wouldn't have been required if people just wear their masks properly. cover the nose and mouth, Please!!! The n-95 masks with a valve are the worse. It does not stop the spread if the person wearing it is already infected. Don't be selfish, wear masks to protect others and reduce the lock down time. It can be done, just look at Korea, Taiwan, News Zealand ... a few more countries.

pfreet

The point is: Extreme lockdown -> cases skyrocket
It didn't work, what else you got?

It appears letting other people live their lives, and make their own decisions is now selfish. Telling other people how to live their lives so you feel safer (you aren't) is altruistic. We cannot stop a respiratory virus. We never have. Most everything we did in 2020 was for naught in my opinion.

BTW, 99.97% survival rate is people under 50. The majority of the USA. I'll get you a source shortly.

Newman55

When and where is this extreme lockdown in the US?

We are where we are because a good proportion of the country is lazy and can’t wear a stupid mask and wash their hands. If you have a problem with contact tracing; stay home.

stephem

A. There wasnt an “extreme” lock down anywhere in the US, we tried to pretend we could do marginally important to totally unimportant things like play high school and college sports, keep bars open, etc almost everywhere and 2. We have far too many people who refuse to follow any guidance or rules under the guise of personal choice. I walked by a bar last night that will be closed at 11:59pm tonight due to new rules in California, and it was packed, nobody wearing masks, not even the servers.

But this is all an extreme digression from the basic point that states have wide latitude to collect and use information in a public health situation like we are in. And of course they can do more than just make a friendly call to you, they can bar your entry, fine you (maybe more) for not following their quarantine requirements and so on. Of course few states have to date exerted anywhere near the full authority they have, but since the “personal responsibility” crowd has been so irresponsible I would guess we will see much more as the community infection rates spike.

cmd320

I'd want to know exactly where that individual was located on the plane. If I was in 2A and they were in 25J it would be about the same level of risk as me driving by a hospital with CV patients inside.

DLASflyer

I think they contact traced/requested quarantine of the entire plane. Probably not grounded in science. I was in 11D. Should have been in F but gate agent never processed upgrades. Aircraft was an A319.

PointsPanda

I feel its different when its mandatory, plus a lot of us have our profiles are private anyways, and sharing info with your social media buddies I think is very different then a forced program to share it with the govt. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

stephem

I'd love to see the journal article that supports that conclusion, but I am guessing there isn't one. I have been reading most of the articles on dynamics of spread in indoor spaces and your comparison to a risk of transmission from passing by an entirely sealed building envelope is pretty far off from what we are learning. Check out the recent paper "Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea" which explains how "droplet transmission can occur at a distance greater than 2 m if there is direct air flow from an infected person." In that article, the authors show how the HVAC system design resulted in the transport of virus droplets and the infection of a person over 20 feet away from the primary case. Of course we don't know how each airplane's ventilation system works and even if it did operate like the one in this restaurant, keeping your mask on at all times (and not having a drink where you would need to remove it) would probably significantly reduce most of the risk of these ventilation system transmissions. The diagram below shows in graphical form what is discussed in the paper.

cmd320

Yes, we actually do. And it's very different from the standard commercial HVAC system in your average restaurant. No to mention, inside a restaurant no one is going to be masked other than staff.

DLASflyer

The main difference being masks (airplane) and no masks (restaurant). Really at a loss why so many FTers want meals reintroduced to metal tubes with hundreds of people right now.

Duke787

LOLOL okay. Private on the internet isn't actually private (and anyone who thinks that is burying their head in the sand) but okay sure.

You do realize your information is already shared with the government when you travel...especially if you do any international travel, have TSA Precheck, have Global Entry, have a Passport or Driver's License that matches your ticket when you board a plane, go through CBP to enter or exit the country. All things that were put in place in response to 9/11 (without much pushback I might add) but sure how dare the government work with private companies that have my personal information to do contract tracing to try and curb a global pandemic that's killing the equivalent of the number of people who died on 9/11 every two days

stephem

Love the ellipsis, a sure sign in my work that what comes next was probably relevant to the truncated quote ;-)

Also, I don't think "we" do know much about aircraft ventilation systems, so feel free to educated us.

Hawkeyefan

Wrong, so wrong. Here in MN everyone wears masks in public up to their eyeballs. Mandate since July. Locked out businesses. And apparently none of that makes any diff as we are on a steady climb up. Virus is going to virus folks, this stupid paper on the face and lockdown stuff amounts to bunk. Iso the most vulnerable, to the others, lets fly.