Author: knutson4

Quoted: Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute, said the good news is that being outdoors decreases the risk of transmission.

“However, since the primary transmission is from human to human, individuals in close quarters with little movement do have increased opportunity for higher ‘quality’ contact and subsequent infection,” he said in an email. “Obviously it depends on how many infected people there are in the group, and how careful individuals are about their own hygiene.”

“It’s really disappointing to hear that the police in Madison took actions that exacerbated the risk of transmission at the protest, like pushing people together into crowded spaces, forming riot lines, and using chemicals that make people cough and spread more droplets,” said Malia Jones, a social epidemiologist and assistant scientist in health geography at the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at UW Health, said she noticed that the gatherings violated distancing recommendations. But she said she had to weigh which was the greater threat to society: COVID-19, or accepting what Safdar called “murder in broad daylight” by police.

Protests are another way of engaging in the political process — which is “essential,” said UW-Madison epidemiologist Patrick Remington.

“We have to get back to being engaged in society, we just have to do that understanding that there’s an infectious disease that could make you pay a high (price) for that involvement,” he said.

Noted: The CDC recommends the public wear cloth masks and not use masks meant for health professionals, including N95 masks. Given that you have “significant underlying conditions,” it’s important that you keep yourself safe and consult your doctor on how best to do that.

It’s safer to avoid public restrooms. If you must use one, be sure you have your mask on when you are inside. If you are not the only occupant, keep six or more feet from others. Avoid touching surfaces including doors, faucet handles, pump soap, etc. If you can wash your hands safely and properly inside the restroom, it’s still a good idea to use alcohol rub to disinfect your hands once you get outside the bathroom. Avoid touching your face unless your hands are clean.

— Ajay K. Sethi, associate professor, population health sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: How science, and those who communicate it, deal with changing sets of facts is an important question in a pandemic. Uncertainty must be clearly demonstrated and explained — or used in bad faith, according to Richard Keller, a professor of science history at UW-Madison. 

“Scientists are comfortable with uncertainty — they don’t like it, they want to be certain  — but they recognize that you’ll never be completely certain,” Keller says. “There’s a degree of comfort with uncertainty the general public doesn’t have. We want to know what we should likely do, what we have to do.”

Quoted: These conditions are important to help understand who is most vulnerable to the disease and how to take protective measures, according to Dr. Patrick Remington, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But Remington cautioned against “othering” people, thinking that COVID-19 is a problem affecting someone else.

“Remember, most Americans have comorbidities,” said Remington, a former CDC epidemiologist and now the director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at Madison.  “I wouldn’t want anyone to think this is another person’s disease.”