yknot

Absolutely. I'm not talking about doing anything foolhardy. If camping activities are not safe in your council or area, then we need to follow that lead. But for many of us in areas with few and declining new cases, an in town patrol or unit camp out this summer might be within the realm of possibility. Certainly family camping will be feasible for some. I just don't buy that the only way to get kids outside this summer is to send them to a high risk summer scout camp. There are plenty of other options, and in a worst case scenario, we will do a lot of day hiking and outings this summer with t

There's no problem with going camping. I think we're all working on that and expecting to be able to do it fairly soon. It's pretty manageable locally in small patrol or unit groups with smart people and good protocols in place. It's traditional summer camp and regional activities that are the issue. CDC draft guidelines advise local geographic area camps only. None of the scout summer camps I know of around here are local.

Someone still has to hand them out multiple times a day. And then someone has to put a name on them so they don't pick up someone else's bottle if they put it down. The bottom line is it's kids and there are a dozen things like this that are going to be a problem. It's one thing if you are trying to guard against run of the mill stomach bugs or colds at camp. It's another if you're trying to avoid spreading a potentially fatal virus during a pandemic. If scout camps were on top of this, we should be seeing more proactive communications but in my area at least there has been nothing other than

Someone with clean hands is going to have to stand there and fill up the individual water bottles. You can't have a hundred hands touch that spigot and it would be a waste of hand sanitizer (that no one yet seems to have) to sanitize between each use. Plus, sanitizer is really not all that effective the way most people use it. You've got to glop it on and let it sit for a minute or two before touching anything.

As far as I know, there are no formal CDC guidelines yet issued for the opening of summer camps. There are draft recommendations that the CDC issued however that were intended to keep communities safe. They outline the following: - They seem to envision only day camps opening - Camps in earlier phases are limited to kids from the same local geographic area -- in the draft guidelines local appears to mean municipal - No mixing of kids or staff from high and low transmission areas - Enhanced social distancing measures in place - Large group facilities or activities clos

Our state and our district are considering online summer enrichment classes in June and July.

It would be great to have a credit card platform that each council/troop could use for fundraising. Popcorn has to go. People want something useful.

In most areas, you can't get disinfecting sprays, wipes, or sanitizers except for random shipments. Media reports say the shortages are caused by demand as well as the unavailability of key ingredients that come from overseas. As businesses ramp up in parts of the country over the next couple weeks, demand will only increase. Shortages are supposed to last at least through July. I'd want to know that a camp has inventory on hand.

Undoubtedly, and I understand that, but I think it's a choice between having kids and adult leaders come home healthy or not. Traditional camp structure and activities are going to have to be adjusted this summer. You had mentioned doing your own camp and I think anyone considering this option as a back up is also mulling these kinds of strategies.

I just don't see how camps and especially HA will be able to run this year. The only things that work right now are social distancing, masks, and hygiene. Temperature checks are really not that useful because a significant percentage of people do not ever develop fevers or only do so long after they have already been contagious. The symptoms we are learning are also increasingly variable far beyond a cough, fever, or sore throat. The CDC recently expanded the symptom list, but it still does not include GI symptoms which appear in many cases. Other nonspecific symptoms include skin rashes, pink

In our multi state region, many camps have already cancelled for the summer. I think it's going to be a very regional decision. I would also say that if anything has become obvious about this virus over the past three or so months, it is that we really don't know much about it or how it behaves. It's far more contagious than initially thought, spread possibly even while simply speaking, and its symptoms are far more varied. Temperature checks are a helpful but not really effective screen because the data is showing many infected people don't present with fever. In a large percentage of ca

It doesn't do any harm to try to plan for camp openings this summer but I can't see it happening in most parts of the country. Much as it pains me, I think scout camps are exactly the kind of camp that should not open this summer in most areas. Scout camps in our region typically draw from a large geographic area, interstate in some cases, and rely on unit parental volunteers who change weekly, if not daily. The contact tracing for it would be mind boggling. Compare this to local rec or institutional linked camps where you might draw kids from one town or a grouping of towns or a county.

Technically, I guess we can say we are utilizing council approved camps because they are aware of what units are doing, don't take issue with it, and provide COIs for many of the facilities. I am talking about Pack overnighters though, not summer day camp. That we generally do at council run camps I would not like being in your council. My sympathies.

Our cubs have camped for years at state, county, town parks and even privately held properties that offer camping access. Personally, I feel that a significant loss of locally available council camps would be a death blow to scouts. It would then only serve the wealthy or the lucky. Relying on non Council owned camp options going forward will be risky, especially since park services constantly have their funding cut. I can't imagine what is going to happen to park facilities over the next few years as we recover from this. There is no point in keeping council offices and administr

Yup, that's how we wound up with Coxsakie virus among other odd names.

Here's something that would be really useful as we do post mortems on our current national experience: https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/index.html This initiative is at least ten years old and apart from all the practical ramp up capabilities we need in order to address possible pandemics, it also would create greater common sense surveillance and comparative medicine measures to put in place to help prevent the next zoonotic breakout. At the most basic level, it would also help educate people about every day risks from many poorly understood zoonotic diseases like rabies or tick

Eagle 1993, that's not what Dr. Fauci said. He said he is hopeful schools can reopen in the fall but I think was pretty clear that summer camps are in question and would depend on how things unfold. The Harvard article is 10 days old and is already out of date. Some kind of staged return to a new normal will need to take place, and yes that will likely result in some new exposures and deaths, but we have to have measures in place to keep that minimal. If you read the article carefully, and if you listen to Dr. Fauci, any kind of return is predicated on having a number of things in place t

Agreed. You are making my point for me, qwazse. For all those reasons cited there is no point to rush back into activities that are not essential. We need a measured WWII mentality. We are in this for the long haul and need to do all the right and prudent things as best we can determine. This will be our version of rationing, national discretion -- not in what we say but in what we do -- and sacrifice of some of the things we'd normally like to be enjoying. Our doctors, nurses, and medical researchers are in the middle of something like a Manhattan Project right now. We need to do our best to

qwaze, you are misunderstanding the concept of "herd immunity". The term arises from production animal medicine where producers want to minimize losses among livestock for economic reasons. It is generally achieved via vaccination. Producers do not want the kind of herd immunity process through contagion that you describe because that creates unsustainable economic losses. That is why producers are sometimes required to destroy entire herds or flocks to minimize the spread. We don't do the equivalent of that with humans for obvious reasons. In the scheme of things, recreational kid activ

Anyone weighing summer camp or other youth activities this summer needs to pay attention to the latest CDC report in Morbidity and Mortality released today. The report documents more than 2500 US pediatric infections, albeit many of them mild, but hundreds have resulted in hospitalization and there have been three deaths. It is useful to note that the median age of infected patients is 11 years and not all of the most serious cases have had underlying conditions reported. Children are less at risk, but they are still at risk. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6914e4.htm?s_cid=mm6

I'm sorry but this is not the reality in many corners of our country that are not affluent. Sometimes the only times kids with underlying issues are picked up is when they have a mandatory physical.

I don't agree with either of those positions for medical reasons, but think about what you are suggesting from another angle: What kind of public relations do you think the bankrupt BSA would garner if it waived standard annual physical exam requirements in order to allow scouts to attend camp this summer and an asthmatic scout fell ill with COVID 19? It is not worth the risk of further damage to our reputation.

I've seen this idea floated before about waiving Part C to allow participation at camp. First, I'm not even sure how that would work on a liability basis from an insurance perspective. Second, it would seem ill advised from a public health perspective and that the opposite would be more ideal -- a more current physical. If there was ever a time to identify any underlying and previously undiagnosed conditions, or for a health care provider to provide one on one advice before heading to camp, it would be now. I understand the deep desire that we all have to get back to normal as quickly as poss

Yes, we just filed for this for our church and for a small business as well. I don't see camps or HA realistically operating this summer. Without a vaccine or effective therapeutics, I would not send a kid to camp even if they were open. The virus is mutating all the time and the more cases there are, the more mutations there are. We have seen an explosive increase in cases in the US and Europe. There is no guarantee it won't mutate into something that children are more susceptible to. The best way to avoid this is to keep them out of the clinical picture so that this very smart virus do

There will be no HA this summer. There will be no summer camps. So don't worry about it. Hopefully we can get something figured out for 2021. Nothing is going to happen until there is a vaccine or effective therapeutics and all that is months to a year or years away. Focus on supporting your family and helping the country and your fellow citizens by staying in place during this challenging time.