“They’re continuing to trend downward and that’s really encouraging,” said Dr. Beth Carlton, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, who’s also on the state’s coronavirus modeling team. “It hasn’t been this kind of snap reopen as soon as we transitioned to Safer at Home,” Carlton said.
The study looked at colds, influenza and respiratory infections caused by a variety of viruses. It did not include the novel coronavirus. But it did look at milder infections caused by other strains of coronavirus, said Dr. Adit Ginde, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the study’s lead author.
As restaurants reopen and people spend less time at home, “we have a very important month ahead. We have to make sure that we don’t overshoot,” said Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean and professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health.
“It is essential that we take these new precautions and make every effort to maximize the academic progress and social and emotional development for our kids,” Steve Federico, a pediatric and school programs specialist with Denver Health [and CU School of Medicine], said in a video outlining the district’s proposed changes.
Scientists on the governor’s modeling team echoed caution, stressing that the state has allowed business to resume only with social distancing and cleaning. “This is not a complete reopening,” says Elizabeth Carlton, an epidemiologist at the Colorado School of Public Health and a member of the modeling team.
“If you are going to go to all these steps of taking the sushi out of the packaging and washing your hands, make sure you don’t go to the ‘in’ place that has 20 people packed in the vestibule to do pickup,” said Elizabeth Carlton, an assistant professor of environmental health at the Colorado School of Public Health.
“The use of any agent that’s going to generate a lot of coughing among people that are in dense group settings, when people are in close proximity, that’s absolutely going to elevate risks considerably,” said Glen Mays, a professor of health policy at the Colorado School of Public Health.
Glen Mays, professor of health policy at the Colorado School of Public Health, added that beaches, when compared to pools, could provide a few more degrees of freedom since they offer greater space to socially distance. “You don’t want to go to a beach or a pool that’s kind of oversubscribed, where it’s going to be more difficult to maintain a minimum of 6-foot social distance,” Mays said.
