Day 97: Crying Wolf

Don't worry; I"m not going to talk about how it's still not the flu, or how unscientific restrictions on harmless, healthy fresh air do more harm than good. No, the crying of wolf came up in the news today when the governor felt the need to ask people to answer the phone when the COVID-19 tracers call. It seems that more than 50% of their calls go unanswered, even though the caller ID says MA Covid Team. Much like the press conference where he told people to go to the hospital if you're sick, he trotted out a bunch of community representatives to repeat the message that you should answer your phone when COVID calls.

The federal government should have done something about spam phone calls, say, five or ten years ago already, before they needed the phones for a pandemic response. You snooze, you lose your telecommunications channel to noise. PlagueBlog recommends that COVID leave voicemail, preferably in English. (Portuguese is an option, but Chinese is right out.)

Speaking of Massachusetts, our numbers are up 2% today. Our golf courses are open by special dispensation of the governor, but it's a complicated reopening because there are some rather unnecessary rules (considering the existing social distancing requirements), and they're still non-essential businesses so cannot have employees doing anything but required maintenance.

Wired reports on why it's so hard to pack meat without spreading a pandemic disease. Erin Bromage, a biology professor at UMass Dartmouth, also touched on the meat packing menace in her latest blog post, on the risks of reopening.