City council voting today on bill to force school closings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are going to take up a bill by that nutjob Robert White that would force schools to close when coronavirus cases reach certain thresholds (that they will inevitably reach). Contact your representative and tell them vote against this bill.


https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478128022561693700

Sorry I’m new to this — which one do I contact? Just the one for my ward or also the at-large members and Chairman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I support that bill. Finally, some common sense to release pressure off our hospitals - where you could end up TODAY, by slipping on the ice. Surely you want adequate care for your broken hip? Lots of people get heart attacks when shoveling out - surely you don't want them to die because the EMS services are slow getting them into hospital? There were waits of several hours last week from pick-up to hospital bed.

Okay, then let's close all restaurants, bars, gyms, and other non-essential businesses, rather than SCHOOLS.

YES. The fact that we're having this conversation is stone-cold stupid when schools should have been the last thing to close. It makes absolutely no sense that I can go to Orange Theory in person, sit at a bar, and stand among the sweaty masses at Starbucks but my kid can't go to school. Obviously we should be looking for as many workable solutions as possible, but having the most correct decision off the table entirely is peak idiocy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are going to take up a bill by that nutjob Robert White that would force schools to close when coronavirus cases reach certain thresholds (that they will inevitably reach). Contact your representative and tell them vote against this bill.


https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478128022561693700

Sorry I’m new to this — which one do I contact? Just the one for my ward or also the at-large members and Chairman?

Your ward + the at-large members + Chairman.

Also there was a list rumbling around on the board with the emails of the staff for each individual member, who are often more responsive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I support that bill. Finally, some common sense to release pressure off our hospitals - where you could end up TODAY, by slipping on the ice. Surely you want adequate care for your broken hip? Lots of people get heart attacks when shoveling out - surely you don't want them to die because the EMS services are slow getting them into hospital? There were waits of several hours last week from pick-up to hospital bed.

Okay, then let's close all restaurants, bars, gyms, and other non-essential businesses, rather than SCHOOLS.

YES. The fact that we're having this conversation is stone-cold stupid when schools should have been the last thing to close. It makes absolutely no sense that I can go to Orange Theory in person, sit at a bar, and stand among the sweaty masses at Starbucks but my kid can't go to school. Obviously we should be looking for as many workable solutions as possible, but having the most correct decision off the table entirely is peak idiocy.

I'm the first poster you quoted. I agree, but if elected officials aren't doing their job with closures, then something else needs to give to keep hospitals functioning. The priority is not kids in school, even though it would be so great if it was. The priority at this point is getting standards of care in hospitals to some degree of decent. I fully concur that this is unfair on the kids and parents. But we need healthcare more than anything else. And if you want to go scream at the Mayor, Governors and others for not shutting down bars and restaurants and other businesses when the time was right, then be my guest - they entirely deserve it! They're all think they can weasel out of difficult choices and no one will see through their little plans. Infuriating.

[Anonymous]

It makes no sense that closing schools would ease the burden on hospital admissions.

The staff and teachers are vaccinated. Since vaccination became available only like 2.8% of hospitalizations in DC have been vaccinated individuals.

Kids are already at a low risk for hospitalizations.

Closing schools has not been shown to reduce spread anyway.

Closing schools, if anything, will INCREASE the burden on hospitals as hospital staff can't report because they have to stay home with their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It makes no sense that closing schools would ease the burden on hospital admissions.

The staff and teachers are vaccinated. Since vaccination became available only like 2.8% of hospitalizations in DC have been vaccinated individuals.

Kids are already at a low risk for hospitalizations.

Closing schools has not been shown to reduce spread anyway.

Closing schools, if anything, will INCREASE the burden on hospitals as hospital staff can't report because they have to stay home with their kids.

But how else would these councilmembers pretend to do anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are going to take up a bill by that nutjob Robert White that would force schools to close when coronavirus cases reach certain thresholds (that they will inevitably reach). Contact your representative and tell them vote against this bill.


https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478128022561693700

Sorry I’m new to this — which one do I contact? Just the one for my ward or also the at-large members and Chairman?

Your ward + the at-large members + Chairman.

Also there was a list rumbling around on the board with the emails of the staff for each individual member, who are often more responsive.

PP here, thanks! I’ve sent the emails and copied randomly selected staff members…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I support that bill. Finally, some common sense to release pressure off our hospitals - where you could end up TODAY, by slipping on the ice. Surely you want adequate care for your broken hip? Lots of people get heart attacks when shoveling out - surely you don't want them to die because the EMS services are slow getting them into hospital? There were waits of several hours last week from pick-up to hospital bed.

Okay, then let's close all restaurants, bars, gyms, and other non-essential businesses, rather than SCHOOLS.

YES. The fact that we're having this conversation is stone-cold stupid when schools should have been the last thing to close. It makes absolutely no sense that I can go to Orange Theory in person, sit at a bar, and stand among the sweaty masses at Starbucks but my kid can't go to school. Obviously we should be looking for as many workable solutions as possible, but having the most correct decision off the table entirely is peak idiocy.

I'm the first poster you quoted. I agree, but if elected officials aren't doing their job with closures, then something else needs to give to keep hospitals functioning. The priority is not kids in school, even though it would be so great if it was. The priority at this point is getting standards of care in hospitals to some degree of decent. I fully concur that this is unfair on the kids and parents. But we need healthcare more than anything else. And if you want to go scream at the Mayor, Governors and others for not shutting down bars and restaurants and other businesses when the time was right, then be my guest - they entirely deserve it! They're all think they can weasel out of difficult choices and no one will see through their little plans. Infuriating.

If we want to keep hospitals functioning, we should stop testing/isolating/quarantining asymptotic staff. If sick, stay home, otherwise work as usual. The CDC changes were a good first step but we need to go further.

[Anonymous]

I wish the bill started with the premise that they were trying to keep schools open, rather than looking for a threshold to close them. I support transparency and quicker notifications, but I don’t trust that the council members (especially the ones sponsoring the bill) have in-person schooling sufficiently prioritized.

[Anonymous]

This is a pretty disingenuous description of the bill, OP. But you already knew that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I support that bill. Finally, some common sense to release pressure off our hospitals - where you could end up TODAY, by slipping on the ice. Surely you want adequate care for your broken hip? Lots of people get heart attacks when shoveling out - surely you don't want them to die because the EMS services are slow getting them into hospital? There were waits of several hours last week from pick-up to hospital bed.

Okay, then let's close all restaurants, bars, gyms, and other non-essential businesses, rather than SCHOOLS.

YES. The fact that we're having this conversation is stone-cold stupid when schools should have been the last thing to close. It makes absolutely no sense that I can go to Orange Theory in person, sit at a bar, and stand among the sweaty masses at Starbucks but my kid can't go to school. Obviously we should be looking for as many workable solutions as possible, but having the most correct decision off the table entirely is peak idiocy.

I'm the first poster you quoted. I agree, but if elected officials aren't doing their job with closures, then something else needs to give to keep hospitals functioning. The priority is not kids in school, even though it would be so great if it was. The priority at this point is getting standards of care in hospitals to some degree of decent. I fully concur that this is unfair on the kids and parents. But we need healthcare more than anything else. And if you want to go scream at the Mayor, Governors and others for not shutting down bars and restaurants and other businesses when the time was right, then be my guest - they entirely deserve it! They're all think they can weasel out of difficult choices and no one will see through their little plans. Infuriating.

NP. The fundamental problem with your argument is that there is no data to suggest that closing schools helps the hospital situation in any way. NONE. School closures have never shown to make a positive difference in hospital admission numbers.

The second problem is that next to hospitals and grocery stores, nothing in our society is more essential than schools. So we shouldn't even be talking about closing schools at all. We can talk about closing other things, but not the venues where the people who are least at risk from Covid and most vulnerable in so many other ways get their education, which will affect their future and long-term life expectancy. It is pure lunacy and unethical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I support that bill. Finally, some common sense to release pressure off our hospitals - where you could end up TODAY, by slipping on the ice. Surely you want adequate care for your broken hip? Lots of people get heart attacks when shoveling out - surely you don't want them to die because the EMS services are slow getting them into hospital? There were waits of several hours last week from pick-up to hospital bed.

Okay, then let's close all restaurants, bars, gyms, and other non-essential businesses, rather than SCHOOLS.

YES. The fact that we're having this conversation is stone-cold stupid when schools should have been the last thing to close. It makes absolutely no sense that I can go to Orange Theory in person, sit at a bar, and stand among the sweaty masses at Starbucks but my kid can't go to school. Obviously we should be looking for as many workable solutions as possible, but having the most correct decision off the table entirely is peak idiocy.

I'm the first poster you quoted. I agree, but if elected officials aren't doing their job with closures, then something else needs to give to keep hospitals functioning. The priority is not kids in school, even though it would be so great if it was. The priority at this point is getting standards of care in hospitals to some degree of decent. I fully concur that this is unfair on the kids and parents. But we need healthcare more than anything else. And if you want to go scream at the Mayor, Governors and others for not shutting down bars and restaurants and other businesses when the time was right, then be my guest - they entirely deserve it! They're all think they can weasel out of difficult choices and no one will see through their little plans. Infuriating.

So just because elected officials won't implement the closures that *might* help with the hospital problem, you want to close schools as a sort of ritualistic sacrifice to feel like you are doing *something* to help, even if there is no evidence that it has the intended effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know about the long-term effects of influenza and the common cold on the human body. We know next to nothing about the long-term effects of COVID-19. We have to look beyond the short-term symptoms (or no symptoms) that COVID causes. Until we have a greater understanding of what COVID truly does to the body, I have no problem with public policies designed to reduce exposure.

Well, if you want long-term data you have to, by definition, wait a long time. We can't afford to disrupt schooling for that long, and we shouldn't, given that all the available data is pointing in the direction that the long-term effects of Covid aren't that different from influenza or the common cold.

You can't live life based on What-Ifs. That has never been a wise approach.

Yes, let's not borrow problems.

[Anonymous]

They could close everything but schools. ...

Also why close schools but not daycare? Or day off camps? And why close public but not private schools? If it's public health then all should be examined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I support that bill. Finally, some common sense to release pressure off our hospitals - where you could end up TODAY, by slipping on the ice. Surely you want adequate care for your broken hip? Lots of people get heart attacks when shoveling out - surely you don't want them to die because the EMS services are slow getting them into hospital? There were waits of several hours last week from pick-up to hospital bed.

Okay, then let's close all restaurants, bars, gyms, and other non-essential businesses, rather than SCHOOLS.

YES. The fact that we're having this conversation is stone-cold stupid when schools should have been the last thing to close. It makes absolutely no sense that I can go to Orange Theory in person, sit at a bar, and stand among the sweaty masses at Starbucks but my kid can't go to school. Obviously we should be looking for as many workable solutions as possible, but having the most correct decision off the table entirely is peak idiocy.

I'm the first poster you quoted. I agree, but if elected officials aren't doing their job with closures, then something else needs to give to keep hospitals functioning. The priority is not kids in school, even though it would be so great if it was. The priority at this point is getting standards of care in hospitals to some degree of decent. I fully concur that this is unfair on the kids and parents. But we need healthcare more than anything else. And if you want to go scream at the Mayor, Governors and others for not shutting down bars and restaurants and other businesses when the time was right, then be my guest - they entirely deserve it! They're all think they can weasel out of difficult choices and no one will see through their little plans. Infuriating.

Even if I did agree with you, you're talking about hospital utilization rates, not case rates, which is what this bill is about.