When do you think school will be back to normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect schools will be open this fall as normal. Rightly or wrongly, the world is moving on. By August, I bet coronavirus will not get nearly the same attention is does now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/us/politics/coronavirus-washington-trump.html

This is because it is summer. People are outside a lot more which helps limit the spread. If we look at Fauci’s statements, and the history of the Spanish flu, once the weather gets cooler things will change. Being in a school, let alone a tiny classroom with almost 30 kids, is a recipe for disaster. We don’t all teach young children. My students are 17-18 years old, nothing says they can’t spread the virus like a typical adult.

Summer weather doesn’t last forever. We have to think about the full year, not just right now. Health always always always needs to come first!

But Covid doesn't kill like the Spanish flu. It kills mostly people over 65. For the vast majority of younger people, the risk is minuscule. That is a scientific fact. When you weigh the education of millions against the health concerns of a small minority, it is not obvious that health must come first. We need to make accommodations for those at risk while recognizing the essential importance of education for millions of kids.

Please stop spreading false facts. You do not have to be old, you can be 30 and die. If you are overweight (which many Americans are), have Diabetes, etc. you have a much higher risk. That is a scientific fact.

For people under 30, the risk is lower than from the regular flu. BY A LOT. For kids under 18, they have a higher risk of being hospitalized as a result of NOROVIRUS (i.e., the regular old stomach bug) than COVID. This is not dangerous for kids. To the extent we're locking down, it is for vulnerable populations, but let's not pretend we aren't making kids and young workers bear the brunt of the costs while AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT POPULATION is the most at risk (and, in the case of retired folks, BY FAR THE LEAST AFFECTED economically).

Not true, especially not for babies under 1. 11% of babies under 1 will become critical if contracted. 7% of 1-4 year olds will be critical and 4% of 5+ children. Think about the huge number of kids in schools. That translates into a lot of hospitalized critical kids. Even if the death rate is super low, i don’t want what I consider a pretty significant chance of my two young kids and infant being hospitalized and in critical condition.

You're numbers are way off:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covid-net/purpose-methods.html

Look at the hospitalization rates for kids. It's minuscule. We can't keep making policy decisions impacting 99.9% of folks to potentially/maybe reduce impact on the .1%

https://www.aappublications.org/news/2020/03/16/coronavirus031620

“ The study also found infants had higher rates of serious illness than older children. Just under 11% of infants had severe or critical cases compared to 7% of children ages 1-5, 4% of those 6-10, 4% of those 11-15 and 3% of those 16 and older.”

I wonder if you actually read the link. This was way back in March and only a subset of children in China. Totally unclear how they got these cases, but not randomly sampled. One listed limitation was that many of the most serious cases were never confirmed to be COVID and could have been something else. Many many more recent studies have contradicted these numbers.

[Anonymous]

Oh good. We are back to the lazy terrible teacher argument. Every time there is a thread on school closure, it ends up talking about the no good teachers who only care about their own health. This argument is old and tired. It does not relate to the topic or continue the discussion. Please start a new thread titled Teachers are the worst kind of people and post there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect schools will be open this fall as normal. Rightly or wrongly, the world is moving on. By August, I bet coronavirus will not get nearly the same attention is does now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/us/politics/coronavirus-washington-trump.html

This is because it is summer. People are outside a lot more which helps limit the spread. If we look at Fauci’s statements, and the history of the Spanish flu, once the weather gets cooler things will change. Being in a school, let alone a tiny classroom with almost 30 kids, is a recipe for disaster. We don’t all teach young children. My students are 17-18 years old, nothing says they can’t spread the virus like a typical adult.

Summer weather doesn’t last forever. We have to think about the full year, not just right now. Health always always always needs to come first!

But Covid doesn't kill like the Spanish flu. It kills mostly people over 65. For the vast majority of younger people, the risk is minuscule. That is a scientific fact. When you weigh the education of millions against the health concerns of a small minority, it is not obvious that health must come first. We need to make accommodations for those at risk while recognizing the essential importance of education for millions of kids.

Please stop spreading false facts. You do not have to be old, you can be 30 and die. If you are overweight (which many Americans are), have Diabetes, etc. you have a much higher risk. That is a scientific fact.

For people under 30, the risk is lower than from the regular flu. BY A LOT. For kids under 18, they have a higher risk of being hospitalized as a result of NOROVIRUS (i.e., the regular old stomach bug) than COVID. This is not dangerous for kids. To the extent we're locking down, it is for vulnerable populations, but let's not pretend we aren't making kids and young workers bear the brunt of the costs while AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT POPULATION is the most at risk (and, in the case of retired folks, BY FAR THE LEAST AFFECTED economically).

Not true, especially not for babies under 1. 11% of babies under 1 will become critical if contracted. 7% of 1-4 year olds will be critical and 4% of 5+ children. Think about the huge number of kids in schools. That translates into a lot of hospitalized critical kids. Even if the death rate is super low, i don’t want what I consider a pretty significant chance of my two young kids and infant being hospitalized and in critical condition.

You're numbers are way off:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covid-net/purpose-methods.html

Look at the hospitalization rates for kids. It's minuscule. We can't keep making policy decisions impacting 99.9% of folks to potentially/maybe reduce impact on the .1%

https://www.aappublications.org/news/2020/03/16/coronavirus031620

“ The study also found infants had higher rates of serious illness than older children. Just under 11% of infants had severe or critical cases compared to 7% of children ages 1-5, 4% of those 6-10, 4% of those 11-15 and 3% of those 16 and older.”

I wonder if you actually read the link. This was way back in March and only a subset of children in China. Totally unclear how they got these cases, but not randomly sampled. One listed limitation was that many of the most serious cases were never confirmed to be COVID and could have been something else. Many many more recent studies have contradicted these numbers.

This study said that only 4% of kids were asymptomatic, so we know the pool here was vastly abnormal given what we know now. I’m guessing these were hospital admissions, so disproportionately super sick and/or with underlying conditions. Also they didn’t confirm many of the most serious cases were COVID, which seems... a problem.

[Anonymous]

I’d certainly hope that it goes back to normal this fall. Taking precautions, sure. But not sure why the US schools need to be different than the rest of the world, as everyone else is re-opening their schools fully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d certainly hope that it goes back to normal this fall. Taking precautions, sure. But not sure why the US schools need to be different than the rest of the world, as everyone else is re-opening their schools fully.

Pretty much every other developed country has much lower rates of infection than us by now. As do many less-developed countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d certainly hope that it goes back to normal this fall. Taking precautions, sure. But not sure why the US schools need to be different than the rest of the world, as everyone else is re-opening their schools fully.

Pretty much every other developed country has much lower rates of infection than us by now. As do many less-developed countries.

They also have less fear of lawsuits, and are generally a bit less safety-obsessed. Just look at German playgrounds vs US playgrounds. The German playgrounds are a lot more interesting. Incidentally, Berlin just announced they will drop the social distance requirement in schools after the summer and go back to normal operations.

[Anonymous]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/12/teachers-face-a-summer-of-soul-searching-what-do-they-do-in-the-fall/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/06/12/teachers-face-a-summer-of-soul-searching-what-do-they-do-in-the-fall/

Sad but very true. I don't get why people don't demand the government give schools more funding? Then we could actually help make IN PERSON learning safer. Isn't that what most parents want? Sometimes I feel like only teachers and ward 7 & 8 parents are fighting for more funding, even before the pandemic.

-A teacher who is thinking this summer

[Anonymous]

All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

I have also found this odd. Are they considering having us spend part of our teaching time instead contact tracing? Very strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

I have also found this odd. Are they considering having us spend part of our teaching time instead contact tracing? Very strange.

I think it’s a numbers game. Look at this!! We have 5,0000 contract tracers!!!! See how safe you are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

Have you taken the training yet? It’s more of a training on what contract tracers do than actually being trained as a contract tracer. At least let’s hope it’s not the same training or we’re all screwed. The two trainings (including what is coronavirus) are stated to take 45 minutes, I read through, found almost nothing new, waited with the course open until it deemed I spent enough time with the course to take a quiz that I got 5/5 on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

I have also found this odd. Are they considering having us spend part of our teaching time instead contact tracing? Very strange.

I think it’s a numbers game. Look at this!! We have 5,0000 contract tracers!!!! See how safe you are?

I feel like that was the purpose of incentivizing people who protested to test ASAP with no questions asked and prerequisites. Studies show that pre-symptoms, false positives have a rate of at least 65%. It makes zero sense to test if you have no symptoms. Yet thousands of people have been lining up already. Nearly all will likely my negative but many will be a false negative yet all of them will help to drive down the positivity rate. Stupid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

I have also found this odd. Are they considering having us spend part of our teaching time instead contact tracing? Very strange.

I’m a dc gov employee and was wondering why we have to take an online mandatory contact tracing class. I think they are having a rd time hiring more and would prefer to reassign existing employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All DC government employees (including teachers) are being trained as contact tracers. I’m unsure how teachers would even have time for this but We are required to take the training.

I have also found this odd. Are they considering having us spend part of our teaching time instead contact tracing? Very strange.

I’m a dc gov employee and was wondering why we have to take an online mandatory contact tracing class. I think they are having a rd time hiring more and would prefer to reassign existing employees.

+1

Which is crazy given the unemployment rate and the very impressive salary for contact tracing. Some friends who are teachers were joking they’d make more and have less risk being a contact tracer in the fall