Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 227, Issue 3

[Kathleen Lowry (kathleenlowrylpcclmft]

Philip, thanks. How has it worked? Any COVID hospitalizations? 

> On Dec 4, 2022, at 3:11 PM, Philip Dowds <rphilipdowds [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> John —
> 
> Good and important question.  Before answering, I’ll provide some context:
> 
>   - Overall, the Massachusetts response to the pandemic has been very
>   good.  As a state, MA is relatively amenable to education, expertise,
>   science and our public authorities — so the pandemic rules or guidelines
>   promulgated at the federal, state and local level tend to get widespread
>   respect
>   - Cornerstone is a mix of two apartment buildings, each with important
>   common spaces, plus a number of stand-alone row houses.  Our design
>   intentionally went for diversity of dwelling unit types, and this has
>   worked out well for us.  And ...
>   - Like most cohousing, a few resident members have chronic health
>   challenges.  In general, these individuals are candid about their condition
>   and needs, and the community is thoughtfully attentive to accommodating
>   them.
> 
> With that as background, I’ll report briefly about the specifics of our
> COVID response:
> 
>   1. *Disclosure.*  We say we care about each other’s health and welfare,
>   and by and large, this is true.  COVID-19 is a dangerous and sneaky
>   communicable disease — so you might guess that a communal understanding of
>   when and where it’s on our premises would be valuable for individual
>   self-protection choices.  However, Cornerstone went more the direction of
>   personal privacy:  Like household income and individual sexual activity,
>   health status of residents tends to be regarded as personal and deeply
>   private.  Our Cornerstone view ended up as, No obligation or suggestion for
>   disclosing if you’ve come down with COVID.  But, no prohibition on
>   disclosure, either.  So some of our members have disclosed their occasional
>   COVID infections — and I am guessing that a number of others have not.
>   2. *Precaution Regime.*  In the early phase of the pandemic, Cornerstone
>   did adopt some special evasive actions, including discontinuance of
>   community meals and of common space housekeeping services; and we also went
>   toward a general discouragement of “strangers” in the commons.  Following
>   the release of successful vaccinations in Feb 2021, we rescinded most such
>   community-invented guidelines, and confirmed our agreement to do as
>   recommended by our federal, state and local authorities.  Right now, our
>   normalized policies are: Strangers on campus OK; community meals and other
>   events OK; and masks optional.
>      1. One of our upgraded practices is to make sure that all members
>      know the details of events happening in the commons, so that they can (if
>      they so desire) shun those spaces while an event is in progress.
> There is
>      no expectation that our community life must be dialed down to assuage the
>      concerns of our most cautious residents — and to be fair all around, our
>      health-compromised residents tend to understand and agree that their
>      personal needs and preferences cannot set the bar for what everyone else
>      does.
>      2. Another upgraded practice for events is to enhance indoor
>      ventilation by cracking open windows and turning on more fans.  Now that
>      it’s December, we warn people to bring their sweaters.
> 
> Hope this is useful.
> 
> ------------------
> Thanks, RPD
> 617.460.4549
> 
> On December 4, 2022 at 6:16:22 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org (
> cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org) wrote:
> 
> Message: 2 Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2022 22:26:04 +0000 From: John Richmond To: "
> Cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org" Subject: [C-L]_ COVID Risk Tolerance 
> Message-ID:
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" How are communities handling
> differences between members in risk tolerance around COVID, where some
> people are not concerned about COVID and others are still very concerned or
> trying to protect vulnerable family members inside or outside the
> community? We live in a single building as opposed to separate houses. John
> Richmond Richmond Cohousing Not named after me Richmond VA
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info
> 
> 
>