Will MCPS adopt the new quarantine guidelines?

[Anonymous]

Because it will make lots of 12-15 year olds that got vaccinated in the spring now have to quarantine after exposure, since they’re 6 months or more after their second shot but not eligible for a booster.

Also makes sports a mess, since it basically means that vaccinated but not boosted is the same as unvaccinated. How will they treat non-boosted athletes? We heard my DD’s HS swim team had a positive - would they now need to contact trace, or force all non-boosted teammates to quarantine?

What a mess

[Anonymous]

Demanding boosters and changing the quarantine guidelines is a joke as this new variant is evading the vaccines.

There have been numerous positives on the swim teams but many families are not reporting them that I know. We pulled our kids from swim right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it will make lots of 12-15 year olds that got vaccinated in the spring now have to quarantine after exposure, since they’re 6 months or more after their second shot but not eligible for a booster.

Also makes sports a mess, since it basically means that vaccinated but not boosted is the same as unvaccinated. How will they treat non-boosted athletes? We heard my DD’s HS swim team had a positive - would they now need to contact trace, or force all non-boosted teammates to quarantine?

What a mess

It sure did create a mess. I don’t envy the schools in trying to figure out a path forward tbh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it will make lots of 12-15 year olds that got vaccinated in the spring now have to quarantine after exposure, since they’re 6 months or more after their second shot but not eligible for a booster.

Also makes sports a mess, since it basically means that vaccinated but not boosted is the same as unvaccinated. How will they treat non-boosted athletes? We heard my DD’s HS swim team had a positive - would they now need to contact trace, or force all non-boosted teammates to quarantine?

What a mess

They need to cancel sports for now and focus on just safety and educating kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Demanding boosters and changing the quarantine guidelines is a joke as this new variant is evading the vaccines.

There have been numerous positives on the swim teams but many families are not reporting them that I know. We pulled our kids from swim right now.

Agree, it's a joke if they didn't do it.

[Anonymous]

Omicron evades vaccines regarding infection, but does not evade vaccines regarding protection against complications. It makes sense to require boosters for those eligible to protect their individual health.

However, it does nothing for the positivity rate, which is the metric that determines whether schools close.

The best news is the quarantine, which makes sense considering what we know about Omicron (it infects quickly and leaves quickly) and reduces the impact on learning for students obliged to stay home without access to virtual instruction.

However, I still think January will be a sh1tshow, given the extraordinary positivity, which right now is at more than 10% in our community, so way above the 5% threshold indicated by MCPS.

[Anonymous]

The big difference is that the new guidelines only count if you have been vaccinated in the past 6 months. I wonder what they will do about teenagers and even staff who haven’t been boosted or vaccinated in the past 6 months? Up to this point, you didn’t have to quarantine after exposure as long as you were vaccinated, the new guidelines change that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it will make lots of 12-15 year olds that got vaccinated in the spring now have to quarantine after exposure, since they’re 6 months or more after their second shot but not eligible for a booster.

Also makes sports a mess, since it basically means that vaccinated but not boosted is the same as unvaccinated. How will they treat non-boosted athletes? We heard my DD’s HS swim team had a positive - would they now need to contact trace, or force all non-boosted teammates to quarantine?

What a mess

They need to cancel sports for now and focus on just safety and educating kids.

+a million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big difference is that the new guidelines only count if you have been vaccinated in the past 6 months. I wonder what they will do about teenagers and even staff who haven’t been boosted or vaccinated in the past 6 months? Up to this point, you didn’t have to quarantine after exposure as long as you were vaccinated, the new guidelines change that.

Either you lie and get your kid a booster or deal with it. It is a bit absurd when teens cannot get boosters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it will make lots of 12-15 year olds that got vaccinated in the spring now have to quarantine after exposure, since they’re 6 months or more after their second shot but not eligible for a booster.

Also makes sports a mess, since it basically means that vaccinated but not boosted is the same as unvaccinated. How will they treat non-boosted athletes? We heard my DD’s HS swim team had a positive - would they now need to contact trace, or force all non-boosted teammates to quarantine?

What a mess

They need to cancel sports for now and focus on just safety and educating kids.

The problem with canceling sports is many of these kids are on outside sports teams. The county pool, for example is having 6-8 kids per lane with very little distancing. They refuse to go back to distancing like they did last year. And, its all self report for covid positives. If covid was in the building at the team prior to yours, you don't hear about it.

[Anonymous]

What about all the test to stay stuff? That was just passed like a month ago. Good god.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about all the test to stay stuff? That was just passed like a month ago. Good god.

How would they administer dozens or hundreds of rapid tests every morning before letting exposed students or teachers into the building or before the kids rode the bus? It was feasible with the number of Delta cases but I think every classroom will have exposures and I don’t think there is manpower to widely stand that up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about all the test to stay stuff? That was just passed like a month ago. Good god.

How would they administer dozens or hundreds of rapid tests every morning before letting exposed students or teachers into the building or before the kids rode the bus? It was feasible with the number of Delta cases but I think every classroom will have exposures and I don’t think there is manpower to widely stand that up.

Simple, they set up mass testing sites like they did for mass vaccine sites. Only kids who don't have transportation or other valid reasons test at school. MoCo offers free transportation to testing sites so that takes away the transportation excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about all the test to stay stuff? That was just passed like a month ago. Good god.

It was just for show.

[Anonymous]

The CDC is completely lost. Only 30% of the fully vaccinated in the US got boosters. According to the new guidelines, everybody else is bound to be in quarantine in a few days. Folks, get ready because we should be learning pretty soon about virtual classes for the month of January unless the schools do not follow the CDC or the CDC itself revises this absurd guidance - which by the way is bound to paralyze much more than schooling. Maybe time to shop for toilet paper…