McKnight's discussion with health officer about in-person learning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

Pfizer just released a study showing even the two dose regime, and especially the booster, remain effective against the new variant. Fauci has been citing it on the news. I know that does not fit with your narrative. Also, the pandemic and school closures have been especially hard on working families and front line workers, but I would not expect you to understand that. Not everyone is a SAH or works at a BS Zoom job and can stay home and bake muffins during virtual learning.

Ooo some uneducated person with a crappy job is pissed off that others can work from home

I'm pretty sure we'd have a serious problem is front line workers started working from home on zoom. Nothing in the PPs statement sounds uneducated, you just don't like the reasonableness of their statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

I think a threshold of 110 cases in a 2,200 student high school is completely reasonable.

The teachers should be vaccinated and boostered. Everyone aged 16+ in high school should be vaccinated and either boostered or at low risk of severe disease. Everyone aged 5-11 should have just gotten vaccinated. Everyone aged 12-15 should be vaccinated and can be boostered if at high risk. So why are you talking about "sacrificing lives"?

I’m talking about “sacrificing lives” because I know healthy people who have died from Covid, people who have been sick for over a year because of Covid and fully vaccinated teens who got Covid who didn’t recover.

You think it can’t happen to you and don’t care if it happens to others. Don’t pretend vaccinated people aren’t at risk and don’t overlook that not everyone can be vaccinated. How do you not know this? I have a 4 year old who has medical issues. My vaccinated but not boosted high schooler is worried about infecting his brother. What do I say to him? Someone on DCUbanmom said not to worry?

No. He’s home now because his anxiety over bringing Covid home was overwhelming. And MCPS ignores this because selfish people scream the loudest.

You seem to know an unusual number of extreme statistical outliers. I can see why your son has anxiety.

I think she also knows Patient Zero in Wuhan...

I’m not sure your comment makes sense but I have family who died from Covid and two who never recovered.
You should try reading about these kinds of cases. They aren’t rare. Fox isn’t news you know! Info is out there but you keep your head in the sand until it happens to you.

You claimed to know:

- Healthy people who have died from Covid
- People who have been sick for over a year because of Covid
- Fully vaccinated teens who got Covid who didn’t recover

That makes you an extreme statistical outlier. It is highly improbable that a single person would know multiple people in each of these categories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ask a mother of a baby in day care how scared she is. Her baby is with others who have siblings in school. The risk is real and it’s not that small.

With respect, please don't use me to further your school closing agenda. I have had a baby (now toddler) in daycare since September 2020, and you can shove it. There have been zero cases at the daycare and I honestly think it's absurd that they kept schools closed for so long. Pre-Covid, daycare mommas took the risk of their babies getting RSV all the time, and we weren't "scared" because that is life, sometimes people get sick and it sucks but it doesn't mean we need to lock babies at home. That's not good for them either (ask me how I know). I want kids in schools to the greatest extent physically feasible. You can attack my parenting all you want, I think you are insane.

[phone] Shout out to you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ask a mother of a baby in day care how scared she is. Her baby is with others who have siblings in school. The risk is real and it’s not that small.

With respect, please don't use me to further your school closing agenda. I have had a baby (now toddler) in daycare since September 2020, and you can shove it. There have been zero cases at the daycare and I honestly think it's absurd that they kept schools closed for so long. Pre-Covid, daycare mommas took the risk of their babies getting RSV all the time, and we weren't "scared" because that is life, sometimes people get sick and it sucks but it doesn't mean we need to lock babies at home. That's not good for them either (ask me how I know). I want kids in schools to the greatest extent physically feasible. You can attack my parenting all you want, I think you are insane.

She may not speak for all parents with kids in daycare, but neither do you.

[Anonymous]

The thing is with every victory we've had with covid, some people only see what they aren't allowed to do. They don't see the victory because they lack the capacity to understand that victory over a pandemic equals some people not being exposed and not getting sick.

Instead they just see their lack of manicures and how inconvenient it was having Larlo at home when they were doing their important brand marketing for a K-street firm job.

Their lack of exposure to actual suffering, coupled with their normal lack of empathy has now led these same people to think a scorched earth playbook is the way to go. "No one has died of omicron," they declare, ignoring the fact that covid usually takes three weeks (at least) to kill and we haven't been sequencing covid cases for omicron longer than that. In truth, people are dying of covid every day. More and more each day again. The raw cases numbers are higher than they've ever been. And that's not the sign of some magical version that isn't harmful. What that will mean in six months is something we can only guess. But when epidemiologists are alarmed, when they buy a farm out in the mountains and start raiding goats and investing in an off the grid system like my brother... Well. Some of us wonder if that's more than the typical North Carolina crazy. But ymmv. Most of you don't have an epidemiologist in the family.

May the odds be ever in your favor, k-holes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing is with every victory we've had with covid, some people only see what they aren't allowed to do. They don't see the victory because they lack the capacity to understand that victory over a pandemic equals some people not being exposed and not getting sick.

Instead they just see their lack of manicures and how inconvenient it was having Larlo at home when they were doing their important brand marketing for a K-street firm job.

Their lack of exposure to actual suffering, coupled with their normal lack of empathy has now led these same people to think a scorched earth playbook is the way to go. "No one has died of omicron," they declare, ignoring the fact that covid usually takes three weeks (at least) to kill and we haven't been sequencing covid cases for omicron longer than that. In truth, people are dying of covid every day. More and more each day again. The raw cases numbers are higher than they've ever been. And that's not the sign of some magical version that isn't harmful. What that will mean in six months is something we can only guess. But when epidemiologists are alarmed, when they buy a farm out in the mountains and start raiding goats and investing in an off the grid system like my brother... Well. Some of us wonder if that's more than the typical North Carolina crazy. But ymmv. Most of you don't have an epidemiologist in the family.

May the odds be ever in your favor, k-holes.

Very true. And I'm as furious as you, so exceptionally, I agree with the insults as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing is with every victory we've had with covid, some people only see what they aren't allowed to do. They don't see the victory because they lack the capacity to understand that victory over a pandemic equals some people not being exposed and not getting sick.

Instead they just see their lack of manicures and how inconvenient it was having Larlo at home when they were doing their important brand marketing for a K-street firm job.

Their lack of exposure to actual suffering, coupled with their normal lack of empathy has now led these same people to think a scorched earth playbook is the way to go. "No one has died of omicron," they declare, ignoring the fact that covid usually takes three weeks (at least) to kill and we haven't been sequencing covid cases for omicron longer than that. In truth, people are dying of covid every day. More and more each day again. The raw cases numbers are higher than they've ever been. And that's not the sign of some magical version that isn't harmful. What that will mean in six months is something we can only guess. But when epidemiologists are alarmed, when they buy a farm out in the mountains and start raiding goats and investing in an off the grid system like my brother... Well. Some of us wonder if that's more than the typical North Carolina crazy. But ymmv. Most of you don't have an epidemiologist in the family.

May the odds be ever in your favor, k-holes.

It's definitely more than the typical North Carolina crazy. I'm sorry that your brother has gone off the deep end, PP.

Now please cut it out with the talking point that virtual school was inconvenient.

[Anonymous]

Did I say it was inconvenient? I said that so many people on these boards found it inconvenient not to have an army of service professionals exposing themselves to covid while they themselves worked at home.

Accurate.

My brother and I aren't close. He's not exactly foaming at the mouth with conspiracy theories. I'm just finding his sudden pivot on going back to nature with his family a little oddly-timed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did I say it was inconvenient? I said that so many people on these boards found it inconvenient not to have an army of service professionals exposing themselves to covid while they themselves worked at home.

Accurate.

My brother and I aren't close. He's not exactly foaming at the mouth with conspiracy theories. I'm just finding his sudden pivot on going back to nature with his family a little oddly-timed.

Wait, that’s what happened - service professionals worked outside the home while DCUMers worked at home. So confused.

And if you aren’t close with your brother, you don’t know omicron caused it. My epidemiologist sister at Hopkins isn’t worried, so I will stick with her over your brother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did I say it was inconvenient? I said that so many people on these boards found it inconvenient not to have an army of service professionals exposing themselves to covid while they themselves worked at home.

Accurate.

My brother and I aren't close. He's not exactly foaming at the mouth with conspiracy theories. I'm just finding his sudden pivot on going back to nature with his family a little oddly-timed.

Yes, you did.

Instead they just see their lack of manicures and how inconvenient it was having Larlo at home when they were doing their important brand marketing for a K-street firm job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did I say it was inconvenient? I said that so many people on these boards found it inconvenient not to have an army of service professionals exposing themselves to covid while they themselves worked at home.

Accurate.

My brother and I aren't close. He's not exactly foaming at the mouth with conspiracy theories. I'm just finding his sudden pivot on going back to nature with his family a little oddly-timed.

Yes, you did.

Instead they just see their lack of manicures and how inconvenient it was having Larlo at home when they were doing their important brand marketing for a K-street firm job.

Is English not your first language? I said, "they just see... How inconvenient it was having Larlo at home...."

In this context, I am mocking these people. I am not agreeing with them that having Larlo home is inconvenient.

But I know how you play this pointless game. Have we played it before? Now you will accuse me of backtracking, insist that isn't what I was saying, and try and distract with more inanity to derail the thread. That's what you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did I say it was inconvenient? I said that so many people on these boards found it inconvenient not to have an army of service professionals exposing themselves to covid while they themselves worked at home.

Accurate.

My brother and I aren't close. He's not exactly foaming at the mouth with conspiracy theories. I'm just finding his sudden pivot on going back to nature with his family a little oddly-timed.

Wait, that’s what happened - service professionals worked outside the home while DCUMers worked at home. So confused.

And if you aren’t close with your brother, you don’t know omicron caused it. My epidemiologist sister at Hopkins isn’t worried, so I will stick with her over your brother.

We know you're confused, Svetlana. It's probably because you don't really have an epidemiologist at Hopkins for a sister.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ask a mother of a baby in day care how scared she is. Her baby is with others who have siblings in school. The risk is real and it’s not that small.

With respect, please don't use me to further your school closing agenda. I have had a baby (now toddler) in daycare since September 2020, and you can shove it. There have been zero cases at the daycare and I honestly think it's absurd that they kept schools closed for so long. Pre-Covid, daycare mommas took the risk of their babies getting RSV all the time, and we weren't "scared" because that is life, sometimes people get sick and it sucks but it doesn't mean we need to lock babies at home. That's not good for them either (ask me how I know). I want kids in schools to the greatest extent physically feasible. You can attack my parenting all you want, I think you are insane.

Daycare whos? lmao

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

I think a threshold of 110 cases in a 2,200 student high school is completely reasonable.

The teachers should be vaccinated and boostered. Everyone aged 16+ in high school should be vaccinated and either boostered or at low risk of severe disease. Everyone aged 5-11 should have just gotten vaccinated. Everyone aged 12-15 should be vaccinated and can be boostered if at high risk. So why are you talking about "sacrificing lives"?

I believe its also over the course of 2 weeks, so it'll actually be pretty easy to hit that threshold

The metrics were manufactured to ensure the desired outcome. It's just a way for them to go virtual without saying that made the decision across the board. The thing is they cannot justify these decisions anymore. Why 5%? Why not 10%? Why not 3%? Even more so no one can tell us why this is necessary when everyone is vaxxed and boosted and at very very low risk of severe outcomes.

“Everyone” is vaccinated? Huh?
Well this kind of ignorance means nobody can take you seriously. Can’t you Google?
Another person so selfishly wrapped up in their own world. Painful.

If you are not vaccinated you do not care about your own health....so why should I? Done looking out for others that don't want to look out for themselves. Vaccines work!

You misunderstood. I agree with you that idiots who don’t vaccinate deserve what they get but young kids aren’t eligible and teens have old vaccines with no approved booster.

Vaccines work of course. We need to focus on mandating vaccines for those who are eligible and developing vaccines for those not yet eligible.
It seems like people without young kids feel like they don’t count. Saying everyone is vaccinated just isn’t true (sadly). Ask a mother of a baby in day care how scared she is. Her baby is with others who have siblings in school. The risk is real and it’s not that small.

Every school age child is eligible and has been for almost 2 months.

Absolutely not true. Kids up to age 5 go to day care and preschool. They are not vaccinated and several people on here think they are expendable. Also most kids are not boosted and many have old vaccines that aren't as effective as they need to be against these new variants.

Don't people realize that not everyone is over age 16? Surely people on here have had young kids at some point and thought their health was important. I'm really tired of people picking and choosing data that is misleading. If I say young kids can't get vaccines or boosters, telling me a 16 year old can get a booster really isn't that relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Absolutely not true. Kids up to age 5 go to day care and preschool. They are not vaccinated and several people on here think they are expendable. Also most kids are not boosted and many have old vaccines that aren't as effective as they need to be against these new variants.

Don't people realize that not everyone is over age 16? Surely people on here have had young kids at some point and thought their health was important. I'm really tired of people picking and choosing data that is misleading. If I say young kids can't get vaccines or boosters, telling me a 16 year old can get a booster really isn't that relevant.

This is the MCPS forum. Everyone in MCPS is at least 5 years old, except for a small number of pre-K students.

Kids 5-11 just got vaccinated. Kids 16+ can get boostered. That just leaves kids 12-15, who may have been vaccinated 6 months ago and can't yet get boostered. Now, as it happens, I have a vaccinated/unboostered 15-year-old, so I have no patience with your concern trolling. The kids need to be in school unless that's operationally impossible at the individual school.