Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So for all the people who think it’s futile would you be happy if they did nothing?
Exactly. This round of antigen testing is better than nothing.
Agree. I think people don't get that this isn't meant to pick up EVERY case. That's impossible, regardless of your testing regime. It's meant to mitigate the spread in schools, if only for a short time. And hopefully within a few weeks the surge will end and the short-term nature of the mitigation will have been appropriate.
In the meantime, everyone should vaccinate their kids if they haven't yet.
This. People love crapping over every proposed plan but don't really have an alternative. We could close schools but (1) not clear that would help, and could actually encourage, omicron spread because it sends thousands of families scrambling for childcare, and (2) it's hugely disruptive for kids.
The positives of the testing plan are multiple:
1) Discourages people from engaging in risky behavior that will be more likely to turn a positive rapid test on Tuesday, which could jeopardize their kid returning to school on Wednesday. Note that it does this even if the system doesn't work! Deterrence is cool.
2) Assuming the system works at all, it gives DCPS some data to work with. If 60% of the tests come back positive, suddenly closing schools looks much more worth it AND that move would be based on more than just generalized fear. Yes the tests aren't perfect but they are at least something. Staff are also testing and that's another data point. It's something. Something is better than nothing.
3) There are lots of long-reaching benefits to creating a system for testing. DCPS hasn't announced a real test-to-stay program, but Tuesday can serve as a proving ground for how one might work. This is the district's first attempt at using at-home testing as a mitigation measure in an official way (many of us have been using at-home testing, both PCR and antigen, on our own for months). It's a step in the right direction.
For a town full of policy wonks, a lot of you sound like the least helpful person in the room whenever real policy is made. It's easy to sit around complaining, easy to point out why something won't work perfectly. Seriously -- it's so easy! What takes effort is looking at your imperfect policy, figuring out how to make it work as well as you can, and then tweaking and refining until it does what it's supposed to do. I know everyone wants a solution RIGHT NOW. But this situation sucks, so there are not great solutions. The best thing you can do is vaccinate, get boosted, monitor for symptoms, test as needed. Hope others do the same.
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