NYT Op Ed from a pediatrician - again arguing against schools closures

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
There is a vocal handful on these boards that clamor for school openings and quote dubious claims by people who are not pandemic experts.
We must ignore them. They are literally pushing for more deaths.

Yep the Trumpers are out in force the last few days.

I love how many of them are not infectious disease experts, LOL.

Pea brained.

Yes! Thar f'ing pea brain Trumpist Dr. Fauci too saying that we should KEEP the schools open for as long as possible! I mean what does he know?! Follow the science!

[Anonymous]

If some random pediatician, electrician or auto mechanic wrote an opinion piece saying should be open even though a quarter million people are dead from this plague who an i to argue.

[Anonymous]

Please remember that real people read your posts.

I am a teacher. I go where they tell me and do what they tell me to do. Like nearly everyone I know I’m not opposed to doing whatever the public authorities think we should do.

But after a very long and difficult week (month, year), I see these posts that say teachers are cowards and losers and whiners and idiots. Refusing to work. Laying around all day.

I feel dejected, and I wonder why I’m even trying to keep doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want schools open stop supporting Trump.

If we can not focus as a country we won't get back to school.

Trumpers you want schools stop with the nonsense this is all on you little people who literally can not put on a little mask.

You failed, Trump failed and now the rest of us are suffering. Particularly children. This is your fault!

#trumpliesAmericansdie

This is the problem we face; you cannot just vilify anyone with any opposing opinion.

FWIW, I have a "Biden/Harris" sign in my front yard. It's right next to my "OpenMCPS" sign.

Simply because we disagree on this one topic does not mean that I'm some boogey-man Trumper.

Yes, Trump failed. But we don't need to extend the failure, and the impact on children, just to highlight his incompetence. He's not the one suffering; the children are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Putting small children online for 12+ months of “school” is gross. Save the children.

So, all the videos, tv, apps are ok, just not school. Got it.

Well, FWIW, my kids have struggled extra hard. Because up until this point, they never had a video game console, or a tablet, or a phone. And they were allowed 30-60 minutes of TV a day.

Then suddenly, they are being asked to sit in front of a screen for 6 hours, and have the skills to navigate multiple websites and platforms.

It would be like asking to you to read navigate roadsigns in China

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please remember that real people read your posts.

I am a teacher. I go where they tell me and do what they tell me to do. Like nearly everyone I know I’m not opposed to doing whatever the public authorities think we should do.

But after a very long and difficult week (month, year), I see these posts that say teachers are cowards and losers and whiners and idiots. Refusing to work. Laying around all day.

I feel dejected, and I wonder why I’m even trying to keep doing this.

Same.

I had back to back 30 min meetings with parents from 6:30 until 8:30 this morning because they can’t take work off on the conference days. I didn’t get paid for that time. I could have said no. I did it to be nice. But I’m lazy, whiny, and a loser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please remember that real people read your posts.

I am a teacher. I go where they tell me and do what they tell me to do. Like nearly everyone I know I’m not opposed to doing whatever the public authorities think we should do.

But after a very long and difficult week (month, year), I see these posts that say teachers are cowards and losers and whiners and idiots. Refusing to work. Laying around all day.

I feel dejected, and I wonder why I’m even trying to keep doing this.

Same.

I had back to back 30 min meetings with parents from 6:30 until 8:30 this morning because they can’t take work off on the conference days. I didn’t get paid for that time. I could have said no. I did it to be nice. But I’m lazy, whiny, and a loser.

What do you mean you don't get paid for that? Do you get paid by the hour? If you want to be considered a professional, you can't claim to never have to work longer hours in crunch times. Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Putting small children online for 12+ months of “school” is gross. Save the children.

So, all the videos, tv, apps are ok, just not school. Got it.

Well, FWIW, my kids have struggled extra hard. Because up until this point, they never had a video game console, or a tablet, or a phone. And they were allowed 30-60 minutes of TV a day.

Then suddenly, they are being asked to sit in front of a screen for 6 hours, and have the skills to navigate multiple websites and platforms.

It would be like asking to you to read navigate roadsigns in China

OP again - this is how I feel. I have struggled my whole parenting life to get my kids OFF screens and AWAY from media. And now I have to sit next to my 2nd grader and say - keep looking at the screen. Keep looking. It is killing me.

[Anonymous]

Logically, I don't understand how all these reports people are posting that says schools mimic community transmission (or falls slightly under) but that the transmission comes from the community and not the school? I think restaurants and bars are spreaders because people obviously take masks off. But, how could a grocery store or nail salon be a bigger spreader than a school where kids and adults are more concentrated for a longer time? How can they know this with absolute certainty; especially without rigorous contact tracing?

There is evidence that kids are spreading it, so it just doesn't make sense for them to claim there is NO school spread, that all the school COVID is from the community. I wonder if this is because the community becomes more lax when school is in session?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Logically, I don't understand how all these reports people are posting that says schools mimic community transmission (or falls slightly under) but that the transmission comes from the community and not the school? I think restaurants and bars are spreaders because people obviously take masks off. But, how could a grocery store or nail salon be a bigger spreader than a school where kids and adults are more concentrated for a longer time? How can they know this with absolute certainty; especially without rigorous contact tracing?

There is evidence that kids are spreading it, so it just doesn't make sense for them to claim there is NO school spread, that all the school COVID is from the community. I wonder if this is because the community becomes more lax when school is in session?

No one is claiming there's no school spread. They're saying that all available evidence suggests it occurs less frequently than in the community, even in the places that have broadly opened schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Logically, I don't understand how all these reports people are posting that says schools mimic community transmission (or falls slightly under) but that the transmission comes from the community and not the school? I think restaurants and bars are spreaders because people obviously take masks off. But, how could a grocery store or nail salon be a bigger spreader than a school where kids and adults are more concentrated for a longer time? How can they know this with absolute certainty; especially without rigorous contact tracing?

There is evidence that kids are spreading it, so it just doesn't make sense for them to claim there is NO school spread, that all the school COVID is from the community. I wonder if this is because the community becomes more lax when school is in session?

No one is claiming there's no school spread. They're saying that all available evidence suggests it occurs less frequently than in the community, even in the places that have broadly opened schools.

SO, explain why schools are shutting down right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please remember that real people read your posts.

I am a teacher. I go where they tell me and do what they tell me to do. Like nearly everyone I know I’m not opposed to doing whatever the public authorities think we should do.

But after a very long and difficult week (month, year), I see these posts that say teachers are cowards and losers and whiners and idiots. Refusing to work. Laying around all day.

I feel dejected, and I wonder why I’m even trying to keep doing this.

Same.

I had back to back 30 min meetings with parents from 6:30 until 8:30 this morning because they can’t take work off on the conference days. I didn’t get paid for that time. I could have said no. I did it to be nice. But I’m lazy, whiny, and a loser.

What do you mean you don't get paid for that? Do you get paid by the hour? If you want to be considered a professional, you can't claim to never have to work longer hours in crunch times. Come on.

Who said teachers want to be considered professionals? They're certainly not acting like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Logically, I don't understand how all these reports people are posting that says schools mimic community transmission (or falls slightly under) but that the transmission comes from the community and not the school? I think restaurants and bars are spreaders because people obviously take masks off. But, how could a grocery store or nail salon be a bigger spreader than a school where kids and adults are more concentrated for a longer time? How can they know this with absolute certainty; especially without rigorous contact tracing?

There is evidence that kids are spreading it, so it just doesn't make sense for them to claim there is NO school spread, that all the school COVID is from the community. I wonder if this is because the community becomes more lax when school is in session?

No one is claiming there's no school spread. They're saying that all available evidence suggests it occurs less frequently than in the community, even in the places that have broadly opened schools.

SO, explain why schools are shutting down right now?

They're mostly staying open in Europe. Particularly primary schools. France only recently expanded their mask requirement to include young students.

And as I said, schools do cause some community spread. So yes, if/when things get bad enough it may be proper to close them. And perhaps we're already on the path that would require them to close.

But it's not rational to demand cases below 5/100,000 before we let students come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Putting small children online for 12+ months of “school” is gross. Save the children.

So, all the videos, tv, apps are ok, just not school. Got it.

Well, FWIW, my kids have struggled extra hard. Because up until this point, they never had a video game console, or a tablet, or a phone. And they were allowed 30-60 minutes of TV a day.

Then suddenly, they are being asked to sit in front of a screen for 6 hours, and have the skills to navigate multiple websites and platforms.

It would be like asking to you to read navigate roadsigns in China

OP again - this is how I feel. I have struggled my whole parenting life to get my kids OFF screens and AWAY from media. And now I have to sit next to my 2nd grader and say - keep looking at the screen. Keep looking. It is killing me.

No, it's not.

Should school for your second-grader have been distance learning this fall? No, I don't think so. But "It is killing me" metaphors are particularly inappropriate when schools are closed due to a pandemic that actually, literally is killing people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
There is a vocal handful on these boards that clamor for school openings and quote dubious claims by people who are not pandemic experts.
We must ignore them. They are literally pushing for more deaths.

My neighbor's father is literally a pandemic expert and her kids are in school, at his urging.

My best friend's son is married to a veterinarian who had a room mate who went on to study psychology (you wouldn't know him, he lives in Canada). Anyway he has a word for this persuasion trick. Its like, appeal to authority or something.

That's not from psychology. It's the name of a logical fallacy.