Covid Update from Central Office

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

That's called a violation of HIPPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

That's called a violation of HIPPA.

No, it's not. It's not data at the individual level. I mean their stupid color-coded chart was doing the same thing as of yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loudly advocated staying virtual in 2020, and now I think the kids should stay in school as long as there are adequate staff to keep things going. I don't have to admit I was "wrong" about 2020 to think kids should be in school now. In 2020 catching covid was a serious risk to any adult's health, and the risk/benefit just didn't seem positive, particularly given how slow everyone was to admit the thing was airborne and wanted to talk about hand sanitizer all the time. Now it's much less dangerous (please get your boosters, people with them seem to be sailing through their covid infections), and the balance has shifted for me in favor of in person school. I don't buy closing for controlling community spread, not if we're keeping the malls open and stuff. I do feel for the parents with vulnerable people at home, I just don't think the kids should be the ones paying the price for our failures to keep things under better control.

Seriously, you have no idea how heartening I find it that at least some DCUM-ers actually make note of new development/data, and adjust their perspective. (And BTW, I don't think that means "admitting you were wrong"; it means being rational in a changing environment.) I was/am perhaps more pro-open schools than you, but I was much more on the fence in e.g. winter of 2020-21, because of course, circumstances were different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

That's called a violation of HIPPA.

No, it's not. It's not data at the individual level. I mean their stupid color-coded chart was doing the same thing as of yesterday.

Maybe I misunderstood your information collection. Without names okay. Although just because the county did it yesterday doesn't mean it's okay for today. It was completely bogus to begin with--as is your request of cases. I'm not Sur how actually helps anyone.

[Anonymous]

Oh well. We can always hope for a Chicago-style stand-off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

I actually don't agree that we need this data. We know many have already had it. No need to waste time or resources trying to figure that out. As folks get it they stay home five days and move on. That's it. No big deal. Moving forward.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn’t MCPS run these policies by the state before they adopt them? We had these type of problems last year too with the County headed in one direction and the state having to step in. Isn’t there a better process for this? It shouldn’t be this way.

Montgomery County has a lot of smart, well-educated people, but really we don’t need to come up with all of our own rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait hold up, the staff can return in 5 days? Are they following the new cdc guidance? I believe they have to be asymptomatic *and* have a negative test (which may be hard to get right now)

They don't have to have a test.

And neither do first responders, health care workers or anybody else. So......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait hold up, the staff can return in 5 days? Are they following the new cdc guidance? I believe they have to be asymptomatic *and* have a negative test (which may be hard to get right now)

Maryland Department of Health adopted the CDC guidelines, so they should be able to return in five days. That will help the staffing.

The cdc guideline says 5 days. And then wear mask when around others for 5 days.
So is staff not eating lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

That's called a violation of HIPPA.

No, it's not. It's not data at the individual level. I mean their stupid color-coded chart was doing the same thing as of yesterday.

Maybe I misunderstood your information collection. Without names okay. Although just because the county did it yesterday doesn't mean it's okay for today. It was completely bogus to begin with--as is your request of cases. I'm not Sur how actually helps anyone.

I'm not the one asking for it, nor do I know how helpful it'd be. I'm just saying they could provide metrics without it being a HIPAA violation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh well. We can always hope for a Chicago-style stand-off.

I guess if the teachers backed it you could. Sounds like they broadly don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

I actually don't agree that we need this data. We know many have already had it. No need to waste time or resources trying to figure that out. As folks get it they stay home five days and move on. That's it. No big deal. Moving forward.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that we know that the schools are going to stay open, I will expect more covid cases in the next few weeks, could be a good thing, who knows? When that happens I'd like to see how MCPS handle absences from teachers, school staff and bus drivers. No dog on this game anymore, just want the surge to end and get back to normal like last year.

I am confident it will get better not worse. Meaning all of the staff that have had it already will be good to go and the rest can slowly take off and come back in 5 days. Just like healthcare workers. This variant may very well be how we get out of this mess. Everyone gets it and moves on.

+1. Finally a more sensible approach to this mess!

I'm actually interested how many teachers in my school already had covid. I know that there were alot of cases in December, and maybe more during break. It would be helpful to get this info so we have an expectation on how many teachers could possibly get infected/ out of school and to plan accordingly.

That's called a violation of HIPPA.

No, it's not. It's not data at the individual level. I mean their stupid color-coded chart was doing the same thing as of yesterday.

Maybe I misunderstood your information collection. Without names okay. Although just because the county did it yesterday doesn't mean it's okay for today. It was completely bogus to begin with--as is your request of cases. I'm not Sur how actually helps anyone.

I'm not the one asking for it, nor do I know how helpful it'd be. I'm just saying they could provide metrics without it being a HIPAA violation.

Only if that information is without identification, as I stated above. It's a waste of resources. Perhaps spend that time making sure we have enough bus drivers and staff to serve food to students! Test of you're sick, hand out k95s for staff AND students, helps if we adopt the 5 day quarantine as suggested by the CDC. Moving on...I want to stay in school to teach!! I miss my students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are so happy to see this update! Upgrade your masks everyone and go to school!

Only complete idiots think this is good news. Enjoy your kid’s subpar education for the remainder of the year, stuffed into auditoriums with no teachers. But they are socializing! (If you actually talked to your kid, you’d know the kids are absolutely miserable in the buildings right now)

They're not going to be stuffed in auditoriums without teachers for the remainder of the year. But if they pivoted to virtual, we know they would be stuck in that special slice of hell for the remainder of (or near to) the year. At least as of today, this is a big victory for many across teachers, students, and parents.

No, WE do not know.

You have no source at all for this invention of your imagination, except, what? That MCPS stayed virtual longer than it expected to when a novel virus first hit and people were dropping like flies, and no one was vaccinated?

Literally every district around here did the same. Some didn't stay virtual as long, but all of them "lied" when they said it was for "2 weeks" because it was a very specific situation with almost no information.

But sure, that definitely means that any pivot to virtual would end the same way. Absolutely.

I can't believe that those of us who advocated for a sensible, orderly preemptive pivot to virtual before all this mess were called the "hysterical" ones operating on "feelings," not "data."

The DATA predicted all of this spread, staffing issues, etc. would very likely happen if we reopened normally after winter break.

If we listened to you, we have DL and a Covid surge. This way we only get a Covid surge. I am rabidly anti-DL but I agree we all knew this was coming. Just like we all know it will be over on four weeks so closing and reopening schools isn’t worth it. Just get boosted, get a good mask, and cross your fingers.

Yes, if you "listened to me*" we'd certainly have a COVID surge, because we were always going to. And we would have DL, because that's what I suggested.

With "your way"-- achieved by "not listening to me"-- we have:

-A bunch of reactive nonsense and confusion from MCPS
-All kinds of predictable disruptions-- e.g., SOME kids clustered in the cafeteria doing make-work asynchronously, SOME kids stranded at bus stops, etc.
-A ton of schools going virtual ANYWAY because they will unless MCPS just decided to completely throw up their hands (which I always made exception for)
-At least a decent proportion of schools going virtual regardless because of lack of staffing
-Most likely more spread, or faster spread in the community and among kids-- who remain less-vaccinated than adults, but fine, I'll put that at the bottom

The thing is-- it's exactly because COVID was going to surge and then ebb in ~4 weeks anyway that we should have gone to virtual for 2-4 weeks. I've never claimed otherwise.

If very few schools really do go virtual because MCPS is saying, eff it, let it ride... people will come out of the other side in February, and whatever the consequences-- because you can't prove a counterfactual-- will say "See, it wasn't so bad, or it would have been this bad even if we had proactively gone virtual, or at least it wasn't that bad in my school, and at least we didn't all have to go virtual!" ("Oh, and also if we had gone virtual, I know without a shadow of a doubt that would have meant 5 months of virtual-- look what we saved you from!")

It's just a version of what's happened throughout COVID. "Why did we close down anything/mask/do anything at all? COVID wasn't so bad. No one I knew died except like one 90-year-old. We should have just kept living our lives because it's the fault of half-assed mitigation efforts that I didn't really follow that everyone is so stressed out now, not the fault of a pandemic that's close to having killed a million Americans. Signed, a Callous and Privileged Person"

I'm not saying you are that person. I'm saying what will happen if this is allowed to ride out without shifting most schools to virtual for a couple of weeks is likely to be a VERSION OF what has already happened.

People who are affected more by mitigation than COVID will blame mitigation (which does have some real negative consequences!) for all of their ills, and believe that it didn't or wouldn't help in terms of COVID, which is "unstoppable," and hey, we survived, so it was all a big farce and nanny nanny boo boo. Meanwhile, death and disability, past and future, are so much statistical noise.


*Very little of our personal opinions could have influenced this much, one way or another.

Ok, let's say the whole county switches to virtual for two weeks. Two weeks go by and we still haven't peaked, or we have, but cases are still really high. Do you honestly think that the MCEA wouldn't push to delay the return? Just look at what's going on in Chicago. MCEA's bargaining position is MUCH stronger if the whole county is virtual v. rolling closures as needed to deal with staff shortages. The next few weeks are doing to be chaotic and not as much learning will take place. For many, DL=not much learning, so that's not really a good solution IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are so happy to see this update! Upgrade your masks everyone and go to school!

Only complete idiots think this is good news. Enjoy your kid’s subpar education for the remainder of the year, stuffed into auditoriums with no teachers. But they are socializing! (If you actually talked to your kid, you’d know the kids are absolutely miserable in the buildings right now)

They're not going to be stuffed in auditoriums without teachers for the remainder of the year. But if they pivoted to virtual, we know they would be stuck in that special slice of hell for the remainder of (or near to) the year. At least as of today, this is a big victory for many across teachers, students, and parents.

No, WE do not know.

You have no source at all for this invention of your imagination, except, what? That MCPS stayed virtual longer than it expected to when a novel virus first hit and people were dropping like flies, and no one was vaccinated?

Literally every district around here did the same. Some didn't stay virtual as long, but all of them "lied" when they said it was for "2 weeks" because it was a very specific situation with almost no information.

But sure, that definitely means that any pivot to virtual would end the same way. Absolutely.

I can't believe that those of us who advocated for a sensible, orderly preemptive pivot to virtual before all this mess were called the "hysterical" ones operating on "feelings," not "data."

The DATA predicted all of this spread, staffing issues, etc. would very likely happen if we reopened normally after winter break.

If we listened to you, we have DL and a Covid surge. This way we only get a Covid surge. I am rabidly anti-DL but I agree we all knew this was coming. Just like we all know it will be over on four weeks so closing and reopening schools isn’t worth it. Just get boosted, get a good mask, and cross your fingers.

Yes, if you "listened to me*" we'd certainly have a COVID surge, because we were always going to. And we would have DL, because that's what I suggested.

With "your way"-- achieved by "not listening to me"-- we have:

-A bunch of reactive nonsense and confusion from MCPS
-All kinds of predictable disruptions-- e.g., SOME kids clustered in the cafeteria doing make-work asynchronously, SOME kids stranded at bus stops, etc.
-A ton of schools going virtual ANYWAY because they will unless MCPS just decided to completely throw up their hands (which I always made exception for)
-At least a decent proportion of schools going virtual regardless because of lack of staffing
-Most likely more spread, or faster spread in the community and among kids-- who remain less-vaccinated than adults, but fine, I'll put that at the bottom

The thing is-- it's exactly because COVID was going to surge and then ebb in ~4 weeks anyway that we should have gone to virtual for 2-4 weeks. I've never claimed otherwise.

If very few schools really do go virtual because MCPS is saying, eff it, let it ride... people will come out of the other side in February, and whatever the consequences-- because you can't prove a counterfactual-- will say "See, it wasn't so bad, or it would have been this bad even if we had proactively gone virtual, or at least it wasn't that bad in my school, and at least we didn't all have to go virtual!" ("Oh, and also if we had gone virtual, I know without a shadow of a doubt that would have meant 5 months of virtual-- look what we saved you from!")

It's just a version of what's happened throughout COVID. "Why did we close down anything/mask/do anything at all? COVID wasn't so bad. No one I knew died except like one 90-year-old. We should have just kept living our lives because it's the fault of half-assed mitigation efforts that I didn't really follow that everyone is so stressed out now, not the fault of a pandemic that's close to having killed a million Americans. Signed, a Callous and Privileged Person"

I'm not saying you are that person. I'm saying what will happen if this is allowed to ride out without shifting most schools to virtual for a couple of weeks is likely to be a VERSION OF what has already happened.

People who are affected more by mitigation than COVID will blame mitigation (which does have some real negative consequences!) for all of their ills, and believe that it didn't or wouldn't help in terms of COVID, which is "unstoppable," and hey, we survived, so it was all a big farce and nanny nanny boo boo. Meanwhile, death and disability, past and future, are so much statistical noise.


*Very little of our personal opinions could have influenced this much, one way or another.

Ok, let's say the whole county switches to virtual for two weeks. Two weeks go by and we still haven't peaked, or we have, but cases are still really high. Do you honestly think that the MCEA wouldn't push to delay the return? Just look at what's going on in Chicago. MCEA's bargaining position is MUCH stronger if the whole county is virtual v. rolling closures as needed to deal with staff shortages. The next few weeks are doing to be chaotic and not as much learning will take place. For many, DL=not much learning, so that's not really a good solution IMO.

There's going to be a learning loss either way, IMO.