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Citizens of San Francisco have a right to know what our leaders are planning to do to slow/stop the spread of Coronavirus in our city.
We know now that community spread is already happening here in SF, which means it's only a matter of time before we need to take more drastic measures to encourage (or enforce) a higher degree of social distancing to "flatten the curve" and avoid a worst-case-scenario where our healthcare infrastructure is overwhelmed, all at once, like it is happening today (March 9th) in Italy ([1], [2], [3]).
Even if we assume the Mayor London Breed, SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews, and other local community leaders have a plan to take dramatic action when the time is right, the rate of testing has been inadequate to know precisely when the best time actually is.
The incubation period for the virus is 1-14 days, typically somewhere in between. That's the time it takes for the symptoms to show. This means that there are likely already many high-risk individuals that will need hospitalization in the coming weeks.
Again, due to the lack of widespread testing, we do not know just how many.
The prudent thing to do, therefore, is to (at least gradually) take more drastic measures to stop institutionalized spread - i.e. spread at schools and offices - where it happens most rapidly.
The things we need:
- Complete school closures
- Canceling after-school events and field trips does little to nothing by comparison
- Excusing absenses "for health reasons" isn't enough - children are known to have very mild symptoms, many none at all
- We cannot close all schools for long periods of time - it is simply too disruptive. What can we do?
- Close high schools/Cancel class for older students that are more likely to be able to stay at home without a parent/guardian
- Excuse all absences for the next few weeks
- Provide some kind of relief/Free meals to families that rely on free meals from public schools
- Employers: Encourage your employees to keep their children home if they can afford to telecommute
- Employers/Mayor Breed: Protect workers who cannot afford to take extended sick leave, especially for those who need to care for their children during school closures
- USF campus
- SFUSD
- https://www.change.org/p/sfusd-cancel-school-all-across-san-francisco
- https://www.change.org/p/close-schools-or-allow-excused-absences-in-san-francisco-unified-school-district-sfusd-to-slow-the-coronavirus-covid-19-spread-before-it-is-too-late
- https://www.change.org/p/london-breed-sfusd-cancel-school-due-to-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus
- Our World in Data: COVID-19
- Minimizing Coronavirus' impact is a race against time - this chart explains why (World Economic Forum)
- The three phases of COVID-19 and how we can make it manageable
- Why it's so important to act early on COVID-19 (animation)
- Social Distancing (demo/explainer)
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