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So, this is where it starts to sound perverse. What we are being asked to do will not stop junior from getting the virus. It will delay it. The long bet is that in areas first hit, where half of the population has been infected (not half tested positive, there's a difference) herd immunity will become more efficient at slowing the disease than social distancing. At that point governments need to let off the brakes, and bet (yes, bet, welcome to the highest stakes game on the planet) that hospitals will have ramped up enough to handle the new cases -- including pediatric cases -- as they appear through the summer. Then, when (not if) wave two roams the earth next year, those yet to be infected will have a hard time finding Saars-Cov-2 for their cells to suck up and replicate ... hard enough that, by the time a vaccine rolls out after wave two and hopefully before wave three, there will be a safe vaccine to help us artificially inflate herd immunity to something along the lines of what we have now against measles. If we get a vaccine before wave two, it will be a human achievement the equivalent of a manned landing on Mercury. Until then, the world will have to count on kids, sooner or later, going outside, playing, and spreading germs at a rate that we all can can tolerate. Exactly when is in the hands of some friends whose jobs I'm not particularly envying. ... You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em ...

Pediatricians who've shut down their regular practice, will be ready to get on with making a living treating a high volume of patients ... annual physicals being a profitable exersize that could make up for lost revenue. I foresee a lot of extended hours for sports physicals, etc ..

Asked and answered, from a much simpler time:

I hate when people question scouts' motives ... almost as much as I hate when scouters announce that a project "counts for service hours." I swear, nobody who likes those shenanigans should let me run this organization. I would strike all service hour requirements from every rank ... immediately after eliminating the ageist policy on rank advancement, requiring ASMs and SMs to earn 1st class from their SPL/JASMs, and re-instituting Bird Study as required for Eagle. Most all scouts have fulfilled the hours need for their next rank 10x over, most all scouts want to do something for their community, and most any project is going to take twice as long as what any scout needs for his/her next rank. Nothing personal @InquisitiveScouter, you just tapped a pet peeve!

The crux of the matter is not the walk in the woods ... which I advocate for any family at this time. It's the cars needed to get there and the relatively tight parking areas (and all those door handles) ... which I wouldn't advocate. If those woods are just a walk from everyone's house, then you aren't carrying your carriers, and a service project is manageable. Honestly, litter is accumulating around people's homes. How about scouts picking that up? That nurse or doctor whose working doubles? That neighbor whose laid off? A home-cooked meal on their doorstep would go a long way! And, let's remind ourselves that, even in this pandemic, it's a big country. There is no one-size-fits-all.

The scout and his patrol could make a rolling schedule of campouts. Say you missed two weekends so far, he schedules two weekends next month. And two weekends the following month or the month after summer camp.

Friends, not only am I going to shake hands with my Mediterranean cousins who live through this ... we will kiss, first right cheek then left. (As opposed to some of my Eastern European left-then-right cousins ... that always ends up a little messy.) The one habit that I hope my scouts do maintain: hand washing. Our nails have never been so clean.

Well, a lot of troops don't take the Librarian position of responsibility seriously. And that's a shame, because the first step in teaching a scout skill is reference. News to me about the .pdf. If you make a purchase, look into the fine print on the copyright for us. If that pdf is transferable between scouts, librarians could take advantage of it to fulfill their positions this month.

@DLikens, welcome to the forums! And sorry about the scouting digital echo chamber. BSA was late to the digital game, so others went through a lot of hoops to provide what it didn't. Also, your troop library should have collected used merit badge pamphlets, and there should be a way for your troop librarian to dead-drop the desired pamphlet. If you already subscribe to Kindle, you can purchase some pamphlets. https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/09/03/merit-badge-pamphlets-leader-guides-fieldbook-now-kindle/ I don't recommend it because there is no way to transfer ownership of the pamphlet to another scout once yours is finished with it.

I was thinking about that for my orienteering club. Instead of punching in. Take a selfie of yourself with the control.

Hey, my friend in Nigeria had her 1st baby. He's a prince alright. Still got a get a gift out to the happy parents.

And there it is ... an ad for "Shop Filter face mask."

Daughter and I saw a guy with a prodigious beard wearing a coffee filter. At least an N95 isn't going to waste.

Thanks guys! The little guy is on the mend.

The reason is not "exact", it's a bit fuzzy and boils down to answering your question with a question: What does a scout learn by asking for some extra cash outright that he/she wouldn't learn by providing goods or services (e.g., a brunch, a wreath, a dead tree collection) for a nominal fee?

Firstly, Saars-Cov-2 is in no way on par with any predator. It is merely a chain letter in an envelope that cells --of our species in particular and maybe one or two others in general -- find very desirable to grab, open, copy, and disseminate. Secondly, my "home range" includes: the homes and scout-houses of SMs who insist that I visit someday, be they in Denmark, Sweden, India, Indonesia or elsewhere. a hospital ... the walls of which I may not cross ... In which Son #1's Son #1 is recovering from a necessarily invasive surgery to correct a fetal heart defect. Unlike mere beasts, I understand the necessity of withdrawing to a territory for some time, but like creatures -- from box turtles to mountain lions -- I could no more stay from walking the block outside that hospital any more than they could stay from crossing a busy road.

The insignia dorks shudder at the thought!

Some scouts are essential and trained. They just haven't put 2-and-2 together to realize that they could score a MB. That's what counseling does. Also, restaurants in college ghost towns are shuttered. Take-out just won't fly. Otherwise, your point is well-taken. But, you are right about Bird Study. That should definitely be at the top of the list. We have a counselor in our troop. I'm gonna drop him a line.

Counter-prediction (which you all would have placed in the realm of sci- fi- last year): BSA and various councils cut a deal with the US to maintain their properties for use in time of pandemics as internment camps. Compared to the $Trillions to execute state-wide shelter-in-place, the cost of maintaining a container of medical supplies and modular housing (in addition to the cabins at most camps) would be trivial. Being nearest (yet sufficiently far from) our WV's (and the nation's) capital, SBR and all buildings on it become "available for emergency service" by the national guard in exchange for payment of any outstanding liens. In effect we become the inverse of AP Hill. Instead of a military base occasionally on loan to scouts, it becomes a scout base occasionally on loan to the military.

I concur about visiting a facility. If the badge wanted to accept virtual tours, requirement 5 could have been worded like requirement 7 (which allows website work). That said, right now would be a very good time to visit a food handling facility. If the scout's family member run's a restaurant, there is nothing else going on. He/she's the least risk to everyone, and the family member might need someone to help check the freezers etc ...

IMHO, we are thinking about this wrongly. It seems to me that we need our trained, registered, MC's and SM's who have developed conferencing abilities (and we have a lot of them) to be prepared to host meetings of scouts with themselves, or scouts with other adults (be they SM's, MBC's, MC's, district representatives, etc ...). This could be via phone, the internet that Al Gore and I built, or ham radio. Basically, we need to get back our "1 hour a week". The goal should not be doing only the MBs that you can complete during confinement. Rather, the goal should be learning what you and your team-mates are doing, and coming along side them to make their effort truly epic. This may mean you start a badge and hit a road block. No worries, that's what partials are for. Then you conference with your patrol, and line up a weekend or two to do the "do" requirements that imply some necessary social proximity. Who knows? If you guys push those confined minds to think "out of the box," one of you might have some patrol welding the manifold for a motorboat during a water skiing weekend!

16+ year-olds may donate blood. This is really important, because this demographic has not traveled abroad, and fewer of them will have disqualifications. But, blood drives would necessarily take longer to keep donors isolated. Coordinating a campaign with your local blood bank to do this safely could be a challenging, yet rewarding, service project.

Laughing out loud ... Son #2 just got hired to build and test a mobile wastewater treatment prototype! The plant could literally visit them. (If the client would let the scouts on the property.) That is, once the shipping container it was built to fit in starts its journey across the Pacific. I remember a town hike as a scout to the wastewater treatment plant. It's a pretty good show. Obviously some requirements will have to be delayed for any MB. I could try to make distance-counseling work. But, I'd really be concerned about some bean-counter busting on scouts' chops if my paperwork would be delayed. It's one thing to mess with your own scouts, but scouts from a different region? Besides, it's the personal, local connections that make this whole thing worthwhile. I could (on better days) arrange a bunch of scouts to meet online with our county director of public health ... she's a very good presenter ... but, that doesn't do the scouts much good if the person they really should get to know is their local public health officer. This is really important because, aside from this pandemic, teens face different health crises depending on where they live.

Not an MB, but I did 4th+5th grade Sunday School class via Google Hangouts, arranged with parents' assistance it. The only problem was that I stubbed my toe in a game of "fetch." It was fun. We'd call out an object, and everyone would have to run off camera, find it, and return with it to show. I'll repeat it next week. I'm putting my hat in the ring for Public Health MB. (How I'll get the paperwork to HQ is another issue.) My buddy consults for the CDC, his whole job is online (with the occasional visit to Atlanta). He's swamped at the moment. Just like our mutual Korean friend was a few weeks ago. It's been like having friends with an extra season ticket to a slow motion train wreck. When the dust settles, I'm dragging him to a meeting and giving the scouts a sense of what it was like from the inside.