Sheer scale of new student covid cases (real data)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A reality check for those of you who don't follow the news:

1. Omicron cases in places like South Africa are plummeting

2. All the available evidence indicates that Omicron is far less dangerous than Delta

3. The FDA just approved a new pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization or death in people with COVID by a whopping 90 percent.

Get vaccinated, and you will be fine. And there is absolutely zero reason to keep kids out of school.

This

What about PK3-K’ers who can’t get vaccinated? Or kids in school with younger siblings who can’t get vaccinated?

Toddlers are at extremely low risk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A reality check for those of you who don't follow the news:

1. Omicron cases in places like South Africa are plummeting

2. All the available evidence indicates that Omicron is far less dangerous than Delta

3. The FDA just approved a new pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization or death in people with COVID by a whopping 90 percent.

Get vaccinated, and you will be fine. And there is absolutely zero reason to keep kids out of school.

+1

-1

1. is this is relevant because? we are not in South Africa. they are plummeting after a big surge, they will plummet here too after having infected tons of people. good news that it appears to be milder. it does not mean that we are happy to get it

2. this is true, thank god. still i prefer not to get infected thanks (parent with preexisting conditions)

3. yes, good to know that in 2-3 months, way after the surge is likely over, there will be pills available to take at home in the esarly stages. now and in the next few weeks there are no pills availale for a large number of people to take them at home before they get really sick

we are all vaccinated, parents bosted and older teenager will be boosted next week. still the surge is now, i know directly people that in the last two weeks got very sick for days because of Covid, and among parents adn teachers i bet there are many that because of age, cancer treatmentsm diabetes or other issues are at higher risk.

i a not saying we need to go online another year. but given the raopid spread, schools should have closed last Friday and maybe go online one full week (or maybe two depending on the numbers) after we are back just to let the surge pass (which may be fast like in South Africa). i sent my kids to school this year knowing that it was the best for them, learning in class and being aware that they might be in contact with positive people, but i am much less willing to send my kids to school when half the school is sick.

Once they close "temporarily" the union and others will dig in their heals to keep them closed until the wave is over - a minimum of 6-8 weeks with no guarantee that the virus will not continue to circulate at high levels among the large numbers of unvaccinated children. The vaccine mandate will not come into effect for under 16 year olds meaning the closure could last the entire year. The only way I can see forward is to follow the CDC public health guidance which says that schools should remain open and instead of lobbying for closure as many parents and teachers are currently doing, we should be lobbying for increased resources for testing in schools and more funds for long term subs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A reality check for those of you who don't follow the news:

1. Omicron cases in places like South Africa are plummeting

2. All the available evidence indicates that Omicron is far less dangerous than Delta

3. The FDA just approved a new pill that reduces the risk of hospitalization or death in people with COVID by a whopping 90 percent.

Get vaccinated, and you will be fine. And there is absolutely zero reason to keep kids out of school.

+1

-1

1. is this is relevant because? we are not in South Africa. they are plummeting after a big surge, they will plummet here too after having infected tons of people. good news that it appears to be milder. it does not mean that we are happy to get it

2. this is true, thank god. still i prefer not to get infected thanks (parent with preexisting conditions)

3. yes, good to know that in 2-3 months, way after the surge is likely over, there will be pills available to take at home in the esarly stages. now and in the next few weeks there are no pills availale for a large number of people to take them at home before they get really sick

we are all vaccinated, parents bosted and older teenager will be boosted next week. still the surge is now, i know directly people that in the last two weeks got very sick for days because of Covid, and among parents adn teachers i bet there are many that because of age, cancer treatmentsm diabetes or other issues are at higher risk.

i a not saying we need to go online another year. but given the raopid spread, schools should have closed last Friday and maybe go online one full week (or maybe two depending on the numbers) after we are back just to let the surge pass (which may be fast like in South Africa). i sent my kids to school this year knowing that it was the best for them, learning in class and being aware that they might be in contact with positive people, but i am much less willing to send my kids to school when half the school is sick.

Once they close "temporarily" the union and others will dig in their heals to keep them closed until the wave is over - a minimum of 6-8 weeks with no guarantee that the virus will not continue to circulate at high levels among the large numbers of unvaccinated children. The vaccine mandate will not come into effect for under 16 year olds meaning the closure could last the entire year. The only way I can see forward is to follow the CDC public health guidance which says that schools should remain open and instead of lobbying for closure as many parents and teachers are currently doing, we should be lobbying for increased resources for testing in schools and more funds for long term subs.

We don't need funds for subs. There are hindreds of Central Office employees with teaching certificates, background checks, and every qualification necessary. We just need the dang Chancellor to issue an all hands on deck order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the face of everybody in the world, it seems, doing everything they can to keep the schools open, it’s not enough for you. You still have to come on here and complain. So many of you are so damned selfish, thinking only of how the pandemic affects you and your family and no one else. It’s really sad.

+1000

There is a big risk to kids and adults why have underlying issues. Letting Covid spread unmitigated is a disaster even if it is fine for your family. Health care workers are burned out and hospitals are in crisis mode. Same for schools and teachers.

+ 1 million

It’s disheartening how little you care about kids like my daughter, with a rare disease the compromises her immune system. She has these big beautiful eyes that light up the sky. Letting a pandemic rip through schools that her brother could bring home could kill her. Does she deserve to die because you can’t be bothered? Think about what happens to a community when there are no guardrails.

Keep kids in school but do it safely.

I have a friend with three kids one of whom is extremely vulnerable to Covid. She is homeschooling all three this year. She isn’t going around demanding that everyone keep their kids home too or that schools meet some impossible standard of safety to accommodate her individual situation.

You guys are horrible. She never said anything about going virtual for an extended time. Omicron will pass through quickly. All she is saying is that 2 weeks virtual in early January might be prudent. But you are too selfish to inconvenience yourself even a smidgen.

No, you have this completely backwards. The people who are selfish are the ones who have special circumstances and expect the whole system to conform to their needs. If you really think about the collective of kids, schools should not shut down even for two weeks. For the vast majority of children, the disruption and the additional lost learning of those two weeks (after 1.5 years of closed schools!) is worse than the risk of catching Covid at school, which can and will happen at some point anyway, and not necessarily at school. Also, many parents have run out of leave and will have to find alternative childcare, which is another reason shutting schools is also not going to make a dent into the potential problem of overburdened hospitals.

That's not how decent societies work, but this is America, so I should really stop being shocked.

I did pull her brother out early once I saw numbers; we just take the unexcused absences. We make personal decisions that I don't demand others do to mitigate our risk.

However, it's not just my kid. There are tens of thousands of at-risk people. So while you DGAF whether my kid lives or dies, I sure as heck hope you get it through your skull that when those at-risk people end up in hospitals, that impacts you. When children across the city are orphaned or traumatized, that creates long-term social impacts for our city, and therefore impacts you. When the workforce is unable to work, that impacts you.

Open-at-all-costs thinking, refusing to consider going virtual even for the three whole days before Christmas, creates ripple effects and expedites community transmission.

And when people like you say there should be no guardrails and everyone should get sick, what you're really you don't care about the immunocompromised, the disabled, the unvaccinated who could get seriously ill. It's sick and it's short-sighted.

You are reading a lot into my post that I didn't say or imply, so I don't think it's worth engaging in detail because you are not arguing in good faith, and are raging against some imaginary Trumpian Covid denier that I am not. You are also making a lot of assumptions about the impact of schools on the larger course of the pandemic that are not founded in data.

And just for the record, I'm not American, but come from a country that understood much better than people around here that school is essential, and didn't keep schools closed for 18 months. They also didn't sneer at parents who think that one function of the public school system is to provide childcare, like American liberals have amazingly taken upon themselves to do. So if in my country they closed schools for a couple of days or even a couple of weeks, people wouldn't freak out as much because they haven't lost trust in the the public good that is public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the face of everybody in the world, it seems, doing everything they can to keep the schools open, it’s not enough for you. You still have to come on here and complain. So many of you are so damned selfish, thinking only of how the pandemic affects you and your family and no one else. It’s really sad.

+1000

There is a big risk to kids and adults why have underlying issues. Letting Covid spread unmitigated is a disaster even if it is fine for your family. Health care workers are burned out and hospitals are in crisis mode. Same for schools and teachers.

+ 1 million

It’s disheartening how little you care about kids like my daughter, with a rare disease the compromises her immune system. She has these big beautiful eyes that light up the sky. Letting a pandemic rip through schools that her brother could bring home could kill her. Does she deserve to die because you can’t be bothered? Think about what happens to a community when there are no guardrails.

Keep kids in school but do it safely.

I have a friend with three kids one of whom is extremely vulnerable to Covid. She is homeschooling all three this year. She isn’t going around demanding that everyone keep their kids home too or that schools meet some impossible standard of safety to accommodate her individual situation.

You guys are horrible. She never said anything about going virtual for an extended time. Omicron will pass through quickly. All she is saying is that 2 weeks virtual in early January might be prudent. But you are too selfish to inconvenience yourself even a smidgen.

No, you have this completely backwards. The people who are selfish are the ones who have special circumstances and expect the whole system to conform to their needs. If you really think about the collective of kids, schools should not shut down even for two weeks. For the vast majority of children, the disruption and the additional lost learning of those two weeks (after 1.5 years of closed schools!) is worse than the risk of catching Covid at school, which can and will happen at some point anyway, and not necessarily at school. Also, many parents have run out of leave and will have to find alternative childcare, which is another reason shutting schools is also not going to make a dent into the potential problem of overburdened hospitals.

That's not how decent societies work, but this is America, so I should really stop being shocked.

I did pull her brother out early once I saw numbers; we just take the unexcused absences. We make personal decisions that I don't demand others do to mitigate our risk.

However, it's not just my kid. There are tens of thousands of at-risk people. So while you DGAF whether my kid lives or dies, I sure as heck hope you get it through your skull that when those at-risk people end up in hospitals, that impacts you. When children across the city are orphaned or traumatized, that creates long-term social impacts for our city, and therefore impacts you. When the workforce is unable to work, that impacts you.

Open-at-all-costs thinking, refusing to consider going virtual even for the three whole days before Christmas, creates ripple effects and expedites community transmission.

And when people like you say there should be no guardrails and everyone should get sick, what you're really you don't care about the immunocompromised, the disabled, the unvaccinated who could get seriously ill. It's sick and it's short-sighted.

This is not an issue of who is the most selfish. There is room for good intentions on all sides of the issue. The fact is that public health guidance (CDC) says that schools should be open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the face of everybody in the world, it seems, doing everything they can to keep the schools open, it’s not enough for you. You still have to come on here and complain. So many of you are so damned selfish, thinking only of how the pandemic affects you and your family and no one else. It’s really sad.

+1000

There is a big risk to kids and adults why have underlying issues. Letting Covid spread unmitigated is a disaster even if it is fine for your family. Health care workers are burned out and hospitals are in crisis mode. Same for schools and teachers.

+ 1 million

It’s disheartening how little you care about kids like my daughter, with a rare disease the compromises her immune system. She has these big beautiful eyes that light up the sky. Letting a pandemic rip through schools that her brother could bring home could kill her. Does she deserve to die because you can’t be bothered? Think about what happens to a community when there are no guardrails.

Keep kids in school but do it safely.

I have a friend with three kids one of whom is extremely vulnerable to Covid. She is homeschooling all three this year. She isn’t going around demanding that everyone keep their kids home too or that schools meet some impossible standard of safety to accommodate her individual situation.

You guys are horrible. She never said anything about going virtual for an extended time. Omicron will pass through quickly. All she is saying is that 2 weeks virtual in early January might be prudent. But you are too selfish to inconvenience yourself even a smidgen.

No, you have this completely backwards. The people who are selfish are the ones who have special circumstances and expect the whole system to conform to their needs. If you really think about the collective of kids, schools should not shut down even for two weeks. For the vast majority of children, the disruption and the additional lost learning of those two weeks (after 1.5 years of closed schools!) is worse than the risk of catching Covid at school, which can and will happen at some point anyway, and not necessarily at school. Also, many parents have run out of leave and will have to find alternative childcare, which is another reason shutting schools is also not going to make a dent into the potential problem of overburdened hospitals.

That's not how decent societies work, but this is America, so I should really stop being shocked.

I did pull her brother out early once I saw numbers; we just take the unexcused absences. We make personal decisions that I don't demand others do to mitigate our risk.

However, it's not just my kid. There are tens of thousands of at-risk people. So while you DGAF whether my kid lives or dies, I sure as heck hope you get it through your skull that when those at-risk people end up in hospitals, that impacts you. When children across the city are orphaned or traumatized, that creates long-term social impacts for our city, and therefore impacts you. When the workforce is unable to work, that impacts you.

Open-at-all-costs thinking, refusing to consider going virtual even for the three whole days before Christmas, creates ripple effects and expedites community transmission.

And when people like you say there should be no guardrails and everyone should get sick, what you're really you don't care about the immunocompromised, the disabled, the unvaccinated who could get seriously ill. It's sick and it's short-sighted.

This is not an issue of who is the most selfish. There is room for good intentions on all sides of the issue. The fact is that public health guidance (CDC) says that schools should be open.

Exactly. I'm the PP the poster above is responding to, and it's important to stress that the CDC, under Biden, is now where many of the social-democratic countries of Europe were last year. They now recognize that the population of children as a whole is best served by schools remaining open under almost all circumstances, and that as a society, it is worth accepting a certain amount of risk for this to happen.

That doesn't mean that kids and families who have special, high-risk circumstances shouldn't be allowed to choose alternatives (although note how European countries only allow this in cases of documented medical need) and be supported in those situations of need. But not by shutting down the system for everybody, because a government has to make policy that serves the largest number of people well and not a select few.