Caitlyn Peetz on Twitter: 8am MCPS press conference for a “COVID-19 update”

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:You guys I can’t take it anymore. I just want the kids to go to school, to do my job as well as I used to, have some occasional play dates and birthday parties to break up the month. Anyone else hate this feeling of being consumed by thoughts of what MCPS is going to do next to screw your life over again. This feeling takes me back to summer 2020 (remember when they ditched hybrid?) and august 2021 when people were freaking out about delta buy thank god MCPs stuck to its plan. Sigh. I’m so tired. When will it end.

What did you think having kids was going to be? An endless round of birthday parties? Raising kids takes some effort.

If you want to do those things you need to be part of the solution.

And given that nearly 2 years of restrictions, and 1 year of availability of vaccines that remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, hasn't allowed us to get back to normal, the only plausible option left is letting Omicron burn through the community as fast as possible.

If we let covid run rampant (not that we seem to have a choice at this point) it will be over in 3 weeks. I say let it burn.

Agreed. We saw this in South Africa. Give Omicron the 3 weeks to run through.

Also, it is clear that we are not shutting down other aspects of society - hair salons, bars, restaurants, hookah bars, strip clubs, Caps games - all continue as normal. If we’re not going to go around shutting everything down (which I agree that we should not), we need to just accept that this needs to work it’s way through.

+1. Plus MCPS is delusional if they think kids will be staying home. A lot of these schools are ES- I assume aftercare programs will run distance learning programs again? Plus you can expect families to pod up or take their kids to family/friends houses instead- so many more parents are back at their workplaces compared to even a year ago. Maybe they just assume parents won’t report new Covid cases over the two week period so that the numbers will look better in two weeks time, i.e., don’t ask don’t tell.

What would you like MCPS to do? I bet a lot of the staff at these schools is sick. Who will watch the kids?

So this is due to a staffing shortage then? Are the sick teachers even going to be able to teach virtually?

Some of them will be able to.
When lots of kids are out + staff, learning will be compromised. This might be a better alternative.

Virtual learning with a sick teacher is a better alternative? Really? They should be resting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will they release the yellow list to parents can prepare?

I missed the plan for yellow school. Are they also starting virtual?

Certainly not. What would the difference between red and yellow be then?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys I can’t take it anymore. I just want the kids to go to school, to do my job as well as I used to, have some occasional play dates and birthday parties to break up the month. Anyone else hate this feeling of being consumed by thoughts of what MCPS is going to do next to screw your life over again. This feeling takes me back to summer 2020 (remember when they ditched hybrid?) and august 2021 when people were freaking out about delta buy thank god MCPs stuck to its plan. Sigh. I’m so tired. When will it end.

What did you think having kids was going to be? An endless round of birthday parties? Raising kids takes some effort.

If you want to do those things you need to be part of the solution.

And given that nearly 2 years of restrictions, and 1 year of availability of vaccines that remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, hasn't allowed us to get back to normal, the only plausible option left is letting Omicron burn through the community as fast as possible.

If we let covid run rampant (not that we seem to have a choice at this point) it will be over in 3 weeks. I say let it burn.

Agreed. We saw this in South Africa. Give Omicron the 3 weeks to run through.

Also, it is clear that we are not shutting down other aspects of society - hair salons, bars, restaurants, hookah bars, strip clubs, Caps games - all continue as normal. If we’re not going to go around shutting everything down (which I agree that we should not), we need to just accept that this needs to work it’s way through.

+1. Plus MCPS is delusional if they think kids will be staying home. A lot of these schools are ES- I assume aftercare programs will run distance learning programs again? Plus you can expect families to pod up or take their kids to family/friends houses instead- so many more parents are back at their workplaces compared to even a year ago. Maybe they just assume parents won’t report new Covid cases over the two week period so that the numbers will look better in two weeks time, i.e., don’t ask don’t tell.

What would you like MCPS to do? I bet a lot of the staff at these schools is sick. Who will watch the kids?

Well, if that many staff are sick just close altogether for two weeks, extend the school year by two weeks into the summer, and encourage the staff who are well to STAY HOME for these two weeks. For all the complaining about parents taking their kids on travel and activities over the break, plenty of teachers I know were doing the same.

This makes no sense. Most parents don’t want the school year extended by 2 weeks. Also, only a few schools are affected at the moment. They can’t just shut down 9 schools and extend the school year for them. Why are you saying moronic things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the plan for yellow schools?? Anyone?

Wait until they turn red? Probably during the next random testing day.

if the numbers are high enough they turn red, then go virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the problem? This is exactly what MCPS said it would do. They aren't switching the entire school district to virtual; they are switching an individual school to virtual if it reaches a certain threshhold of absences due to COVID (or presumably any other illness).

Yes, there will soon be a LOT of school moved to virtual when all those yellow schools enter the red zone. But wasn't that expected?

No and they won’t. Some will but they certainly won’t all.

What makes no sense here is that this is after the break. When they announced the 5 percent plan it seemed to be about stopping school spread. Closing schools whose population have caught Covid while out of school over the holidays makes zero sense. School wasn’t driving that transmission as they were at home.

Well, that is a fair point. Except that a large number of kids sick in a neighborhood does indicate some level of local community transmission, I suppose.

[Anonymous]

Has MCPS actually shared the yellow list?

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to get clear on the rationale here.

Is it due to staff shortages? If so, I get it.
Is it an effort to slow the spread? If so, I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys I can’t take it anymore. I just want the kids to go to school, to do my job as well as I used to, have some occasional play dates and birthday parties to break up the month. Anyone else hate this feeling of being consumed by thoughts of what MCPS is going to do next to screw your life over again. This feeling takes me back to summer 2020 (remember when they ditched hybrid?) and august 2021 when people were freaking out about delta buy thank god MCPs stuck to its plan. Sigh. I’m so tired. When will it end.

What did you think having kids was going to be? An endless round of birthday parties? Raising kids takes some effort.

If you want to do those things you need to be part of the solution.

And given that nearly 2 years of restrictions, and 1 year of availability of vaccines that remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, hasn't allowed us to get back to normal, the only plausible option left is letting Omicron burn through the community as fast as possible.

If we let covid run rampant (not that we seem to have a choice at this point) it will be over in 3 weeks. I say let it burn.

Agreed. We saw this in South Africa. Give Omicron the 3 weeks to run through.

Also, it is clear that we are not shutting down other aspects of society - hair salons, bars, restaurants, hookah bars, strip clubs, Caps games - all continue as normal. If we’re not going to go around shutting everything down (which I agree that we should not), we need to just accept that this needs to work it’s way through.

+1. Plus MCPS is delusional if they think kids will be staying home. A lot of these schools are ES- I assume aftercare programs will run distance learning programs again? Plus you can expect families to pod up or take their kids to family/friends houses instead- so many more parents are back at their workplaces compared to even a year ago. Maybe they just assume parents won’t report new Covid cases over the two week period so that the numbers will look better in two weeks time, i.e., don’t ask don’t tell.

What would you like MCPS to do? I bet a lot of the staff at these schools is sick. Who will watch the kids?

Well, if that many staff are sick just close altogether for two weeks, extend the school year by two weeks into the summer, and encourage the staff who are well to STAY HOME for these two weeks. For all the complaining about parents taking their kids on travel and activities over the break, plenty of teachers I know were doing the same.

This makes no sense. Most parents don’t want the school year extended by 2 weeks. Also, only a few schools are affected at the moment. They can’t just shut down 9 schools and extend the school year for them. Why are you saying moronic things.

Because the yellow schools are all on the cusp of turning red, and there’s a lot more of those. And there are tons of staffing shortages even at yellow/green schools. Just not enough staff to safely open most of these. That’s why parking lots aren’t being plowed, to have an excuse to close again tomorrow due to “weather” and not Covid.

[Anonymous]

They should have just all gone virtual for two weeks and let the surge pass, staff get healthy, and return to "normal."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys I can’t take it anymore. I just want the kids to go to school, to do my job as well as I used to, have some occasional play dates and birthday parties to break up the month. Anyone else hate this feeling of being consumed by thoughts of what MCPS is going to do next to screw your life over again. This feeling takes me back to summer 2020 (remember when they ditched hybrid?) and august 2021 when people were freaking out about delta buy thank god MCPs stuck to its plan. Sigh. I’m so tired. When will it end.

What did you think having kids was going to be? An endless round of birthday parties? Raising kids takes some effort.

If you want to do those things you need to be part of the solution.

And given that nearly 2 years of restrictions, and 1 year of availability of vaccines that remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, hasn't allowed us to get back to normal, the only plausible option left is letting Omicron burn through the community as fast as possible.

If we let covid run rampant (not that we seem to have a choice at this point) it will be over in 3 weeks. I say let it burn.

Agreed. We saw this in South Africa. Give Omicron the 3 weeks to run through.

Also, it is clear that we are not shutting down other aspects of society - hair salons, bars, restaurants, hookah bars, strip clubs, Caps games - all continue as normal. If we’re not going to go around shutting everything down (which I agree that we should not), we need to just accept that this needs to work it’s way through.

Ok but I’d prefer it “work it’s way through” with the idiots who won’t take precautions or vaccinate.
I’m tired of always being careful and then having no option but to send my kids to school with kids whose parents aren’t being careful.
I’m tired of hearing people say we need to just accept this. I’ve done virtual funerals for family members (front line workers) who died from Covid and I have a close family member who never recovered a year after getting Covid the one time she had to leave lockdown.

Letting this “run through” will overwhelm hospitals. It may also allow more mutations.

Hogan is not exactly a good guy - he’s not going to close certain businesses but it doesn’t mean MCPS can’t do the right thing and close for 2 weeks to protect kids and teachers. Just because salons and restaurants are open doesn’t mean we have to go in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should have just all gone virtual for two weeks and let the surge pass, staff get healthy, and return to "normal."

That’s ridiculous. Why shut down the whole system against prior assurances, needlessly punishing all 157,000 students? I might be Ok with it if they said 2 weeks and then ending quarantining of students until/unless they test positive, and a real assurance that no schools would ever close again. But in reality, we’d find ourselves in exactly the same place 2 weeks from now.

If staffing really becomes a problem, they should simply close for a week and add those days back with the makeup days in the calendar. 2 weeks would be too long to do that, but 5 days could be done fairly easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys I can’t take it anymore. I just want the kids to go to school, to do my job as well as I used to, have some occasional play dates and birthday parties to break up the month. Anyone else hate this feeling of being consumed by thoughts of what MCPS is going to do next to screw your life over again. This feeling takes me back to summer 2020 (remember when they ditched hybrid?) and august 2021 when people were freaking out about delta buy thank god MCPs stuck to its plan. Sigh. I’m so tired. When will it end.

What did you think having kids was going to be? An endless round of birthday parties? Raising kids takes some effort.

If you want to do those things you need to be part of the solution.

And given that nearly 2 years of restrictions, and 1 year of availability of vaccines that remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, hasn't allowed us to get back to normal, the only plausible option left is letting Omicron burn through the community as fast as possible.

If we let covid run rampant (not that we seem to have a choice at this point) it will be over in 3 weeks. I say let it burn.

Agreed. We saw this in South Africa. Give Omicron the 3 weeks to run through.

Also, it is clear that we are not shutting down other aspects of society - hair salons, bars, restaurants, hookah bars, strip clubs, Caps games - all continue as normal. If we’re not going to go around shutting everything down (which I agree that we should not), we need to just accept that this needs to work it’s way through.

Ok but I’d prefer it “work it’s way through” with the idiots who won’t take precautions or vaccinate.
I’m tired of always being careful and then having no option but to send my kids to school with kids whose parents aren’t being careful.
I’m tired of hearing people say we need to just accept this. I’ve done virtual funerals for family members (front line workers) who died from Covid and I have a close family member who never recovered a year after getting Covid the one time she had to leave lockdown.

Letting this “run through” will overwhelm hospitals. It may also allow more mutations.

Hogan is not exactly a good guy - he’s not going to close certain businesses but it doesn’t mean MCPS can’t do the right thing and close for 2 weeks to protect kids and teachers. Just because salons and restaurants are open doesn’t mean we have to go in.

And staff. Teacher/staff positives are a huge reason for the switch to virtual.

This only works if the teachers and families work to protect themselves during the closure. Many families will not have the luxury of keeping everyone home, and others won't think it is necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have just all gone virtual for two weeks and let the surge pass, staff get healthy, and return to "normal."

That’s ridiculous. Why shut down the whole system against prior assurances, needlessly punishing all 157,000 students? I might be Ok with it if they said 2 weeks and then ending quarantining of students until/unless they test positive, and a real assurance that no schools would ever close again. But in reality, we’d find ourselves in exactly the same place 2 weeks from now.

If staffing really becomes a problem, they should simply close for a week and add those days back with the makeup days in the calendar. 2 weeks would be too long to do that, but 5 days could be done fairly easily.

Doesn’t matter how you choose to close, they are all making their way to closing. Wait until school testing numbers return in the next two weeks, it will be almost everyone at this rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys I can’t take it anymore. I just want the kids to go to school, to do my job as well as I used to, have some occasional play dates and birthday parties to break up the month. Anyone else hate this feeling of being consumed by thoughts of what MCPS is going to do next to screw your life over again. This feeling takes me back to summer 2020 (remember when they ditched hybrid?) and august 2021 when people were freaking out about delta buy thank god MCPs stuck to its plan. Sigh. I’m so tired. When will it end.

What did you think having kids was going to be? An endless round of birthday parties? Raising kids takes some effort.

If you want to do those things you need to be part of the solution.

And given that nearly 2 years of restrictions, and 1 year of availability of vaccines that remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, hasn't allowed us to get back to normal, the only plausible option left is letting Omicron burn through the community as fast as possible.

If we let covid run rampant (not that we seem to have a choice at this point) it will be over in 3 weeks. I say let it burn.

Agreed. We saw this in South Africa. Give Omicron the 3 weeks to run through.

Also, it is clear that we are not shutting down other aspects of society - hair salons, bars, restaurants, hookah bars, strip clubs, Caps games - all continue as normal. If we’re not going to go around shutting everything down (which I agree that we should not), we need to just accept that this needs to work it’s way through.

Ok but I’d prefer it “work it’s way through” with the idiots who won’t take precautions or vaccinate.
I’m tired of always being careful and then having no option but to send my kids to school with kids whose parents aren’t being careful.
I’m tired of hearing people say we need to just accept this. I’ve done virtual funerals for family members (front line workers) who died from Covid and I have a close family member who never recovered a year after getting Covid the one time she had to leave lockdown.

Letting this “run through” will overwhelm hospitals. It may also allow more mutations.

Hogan is not exactly a good guy - he’s not going to close certain businesses but it doesn’t mean MCPS can’t do the right thing and close for 2 weeks to protect kids and teachers. Just because salons and restaurants are open doesn’t mean we have to go in.

Your post would make a lot more sense if it wasn’t for the fact that we can’t actually stop the spread of covid. All we can do is slightly slow it down, but it will still hit everyone that isn’t continuing to go to extreme measures to isolate themselves. Reducing the rate of transmissions could help hospitals, but only if they're successful at reducing transmissions to the elderly, unvaccinated, and medically frail. Stopping low-risk kids from going to school, while keeping all adult-oriented activities and facilities "business as usual" isn't going to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have just all gone virtual for two weeks and let the surge pass, staff get healthy, and return to "normal."

That’s ridiculous. Why shut down the whole system against prior assurances, needlessly punishing all 157,000 students? I might be Ok with it if they said 2 weeks and then ending quarantining of students until/unless they test positive, and a real assurance that no schools would ever close again. But in reality, we’d find ourselves in exactly the same place 2 weeks from now.

If staffing really becomes a problem, they should simply close for a week and add those days back with the makeup days in the calendar. 2 weeks would be too long to do that, but 5 days could be done fairly easily.

Doesn’t matter how you choose to close, they are all making their way to closing. Wait until school testing numbers return in the next two weeks, it will be almost everyone at this rate.

Perhaps parents will wise up that opting-in to testing only hurts the kids in the school. Or perhaps the next week of incredibly high covid numbers will drive people to accept the reality that covid is neither avoidable nor terrifying.