With all the positive cases at MCPS, can you simply elect to do zoom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please get your kids vaccinated if you're worried. So far the Pfizer CEO has said omicron is milder than delta. If your child is vaccinated, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Is there any data on breakthrough cases where students are vaccinated and getting covid?

Yes. All the cases we have heard about at our school are break through cases. This is the big problem. And those kids are in school for a few days before they get a positive test and the alarms start going off. So there are a few days where they are exposing other students to covid. And yes, the kids are inside in school with no masks (legitimately).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What positive cases? At our school, there have been very few—maybe 5 since school started and most of them weren’t kids…

Pay attention, multiple outbreaks.

Yet we're still talking about a small number of cases given the size of the district and county. And no reason to believe we're seeing a significant number of cases involving severe illness. Given the large number of kids vaccinated in MCPS, particularly older kids, we probably won't see much in the way of severe illness.

The students aren’t going to school in the NBA bubble; they’re traveling through and living in the community. Yes, many MCPS students are vaccinated and will avoid severe infections, but the same cannot be said for the members of the community that the students come in contact with. When the schools report positive cases, they do not include family members infected by the students. Similarly, if a staffer tests positive, they don’t include the staffer’s family members if they have infected by the staffer. So when a school reports that 4 students have tested positive, that just means a greater number of people in the community have been exposed and will likely test positive. Throughout this pandemic people have downplayed the symptoms and likelihood of a bad infection, until they’re the one suffering.

So? The same can be said about a given restaurant or the mall. Somehow schools are seen as the key to stopping the pandemic by a small group of posters. Kids can be vaccinated now. Masks are mandated. Good enough.

They don't shine when the infected kid exposes someone more at risk at home or elsewhere.

Cases are rising so clearly its not good enough.

Cases themselves don't matter. Case severity matters, and that's where the vaccines shine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whether isolating or by choice, can a student simply join class by zoom? This would facilitate a measure of safety for all.

No. MCEA demanded a prohibition on concurrent teaching in their agreement with MCPS for this school year. I think this could have been a good way to deal with quarantined/isolated students. It's too bad the teachers blocked it.

No, concurrent is horrible for everyone, the teacher, the in-person students, and the virtual ones. It takes a highly trained teacher with the right technology, and MCPS has not trained their teachers and has not offered them the right technology.

Even training can't make up for the fact that concurrent requires two different skill sets, two different modes of presentation, two different ways of delivering interactive materials, and two different audience contact styles...at the exact same time, while also modulating one's voice and physical presentation to try to work both spaces at once. Putting a tech aide in the room doesn't fix it. Making the Zoom kids watch passively while the in-person kids participate doesn't fix it. And breaking the kids into groups that alternate working with the teacher means that there is no actual concurrent instruction going on anyway. It is not a reasonable expectation to place on anyone. All students need and deserve the best teaching they can get. Concurrent ruins that for everyone involved, including the teacher.

You are right about this, but it is better than nothing. Maybe just a screen recording of the computer/board with audio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

And in a couple days, they’re breakthrough recoveries.

Ok, covid denier. You don't seem to get those cases, will spread within all the schools through siblings and our community. Thanks for doing your part to spread it through the schools.

If you wanted zero risk of covid, you should have applied for virtual.

I just don’t know how long of you want to live like this, being fully vaccinated yet still wanting to avoid any exposure/illness at all.

I don't think the PP wants what you say. I think it makes sense to have options to sit out at times from the classroom (whether isolating or just stay out of school when cases are high). However, I did not know that the teachers negotiated a deal where they do not do both. I think an option to record the screen and audio is reasonable and not much extra effort. But maybe they are already doing this for the isolating kids but not publicizing it. Thanks to all the teachers - you really have a lot on your hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

Answer me this: are they mild? Then I don’t care

The only way that "mild" cases can pose a problem is if the variant is so transmissible and therefore spreads so much that it ends up sending a large portion of vulnerable people (partially vaccinated, those with waning immunity, the elderly, the medically fragile, etc) into hospitals, and the hospitals get overwhelmed. So mild Covid in children or healthy, recently-boostered adults, doesn't really tell you much, because it doesn't give you an accurate picture of what the same variant could do if a whole lot of vulnerable people had it within a short period of time and all went to the hospital, also within a short period of time.

This is the concern with Omicron. The UK has come out with a predictive study that lists a range of potential Omicron outcomes, none of which are good, but the worse one is hospitals getting overwhelmed and lockdowns put in place, because despite a robust vaccination system, this variant is way more transmissible than Delta: it doubles cases once every 2.4 days.

You know what? I’m 100% over the adults that can’t be bothered to get vaccinated. Done. And the LTC facilities and medically vulnerable need to step up the precautions to protect themselves. Given the high vaccination rate in this area, I think the chances of hospitals being overrun is small, so I don’t think we should be taking drastic measures with kids to prevent Covid at all costs.

We have high vax rate and yes our hospitals are getting overrun again. My friend in a MoCo ICU says they are tired. There is so much we know now, but there is also so much we do not know. It's always good to have options and take precautions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

Answer me this: are they mild? Then I don’t care

We know you don’t care. You don’t need to keep repeating it. You and your kind have made it repeatedly and abundantly clear that you don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

Answer me this: are they mild? Then I don’t care

We know you don’t care. You don’t need to keep repeating it. You and your kind have made it repeatedly and abundantly clear that you don’t care.

I don’t care either. I haven’t repeated it yet, though I deserve the right to do so downthread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

And in a couple days, they’re breakthrough recoveries.

Ok, covid denier. You don't seem to get those cases, will spread within all the schools through siblings and our community. Thanks for doing your part to spread it through the schools.

You're welcome. My kids certainly enjoy being back in-person. I just took a look...Giant Foods is carrying both 2-ply and 3-ply Kleenex if you're interested.

Hope Giant Foods sells some class next to those Kleenex, because you’re sadly in need of some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What positive cases? At our school, there have been very few—maybe 5 since school started and most of them weren’t kids…

They’re doing regular, non optional asymptomatic testing of all adults and students regularly so you actually know this? Great news! What school is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

Answer me this: are they mild? Then I don’t care

We know you don’t care. You don’t need to keep repeating it. You and your kind have made it repeatedly and abundantly clear that you don’t care.

I don’t care either. I haven’t repeated it yet, though I deserve the right to do so downthread.

NP. I don’t care either I’ll repeat it as long as you keep spouting your paramnoia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What positive cases? Our school has about 3. My kids ain’t staying home for that!

Same! Our school has had 3 cases since school opened in September.

My kid’s HS has had 5. I think we got notices about maybe 3 or 4 additional cases, but they never showed up on the dashboard.

Admin says that’s usually because a case turned out to be a false positive, or it was later determined the person had no close contacts on campus (like a parent or delivery person who was there less than 15 minutes).

“15 minutes” hasn’t been a thing since Alpha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

And in a couple days, they’re breakthrough recoveries.

Ok, covid denier. You don't seem to get those cases, will spread within all the schools through siblings and our community. Thanks for doing your part to spread it through the schools.

You're welcome. My kids certainly enjoy being back in-person. I just took a look...Giant Foods is carrying both 2-ply and 3-ply Kleenex if you're interested.

Hope Giant Foods sells some class next to those Kleenex, because you’re sadly in need of some.

I hear they carry Xanax. You could definitely benefit from some

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

Answer me this: are they mild? Then I don’t care

We know you don’t care. You don’t need to keep repeating it. You and your kind have made it repeatedly and abundantly clear that you don’t care.

I don’t care either. I haven’t repeated it yet, though I deserve the right to do so downthread.

NP. I don’t care either I’ll repeat it as long as you keep spouting your paramnoia.

Many of us care about getting sick. If you don't, find but don't complain to us when you are sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

And in a couple days, they’re breakthrough recoveries.

Ok, covid denier. You don't seem to get those cases, will spread within all the schools through siblings and our community. Thanks for doing your part to spread it through the schools.

You're welcome. My kids certainly enjoy being back in-person. I just took a look...Giant Foods is carrying both 2-ply and 3-ply Kleenex if you're interested.

Hope Giant Foods sells some class next to those Kleenex, because you’re sadly in need of some.

Supposedly Omicron can cause a scratchy throat as well. You might also consider getting some honey for your tea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why OP? Not vaccinated? Otherwise, what does it matter?

Many of the recent outbreaks are "breakthrough cases."

And in a couple days, they’re breakthrough recoveries.

Ok, covid denier. You don't seem to get those cases, will spread within all the schools through siblings and our community. Thanks for doing your part to spread it through the schools.

If you wanted zero risk of covid, you should have applied for virtual.

I just don’t know how long of you want to live like this, being fully vaccinated yet still wanting to avoid any exposure/illness at all.

I don't think the PP wants what you say. I think it makes sense to have options to sit out at times from the classroom (whether isolating or just stay out of school when cases are high). However, I did not know that the teachers negotiated a deal where they do not do both. I think an option to record the screen and audio is reasonable and not much extra effort. But maybe they are already doing this for the isolating kids but not publicizing it. Thanks to all the teachers - you really have a lot on your hands.

Teachers had no say in any of this. You have the option to homeschool if you want your kids to be home. Or, pay for a private program.