When should DC drop its school mask mandate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The case rate increasingly means nothing, as has been noted by many public health commentators. Like, when many/most cases are mild colds or asymptomatic, those cases shouldn't be looked at the in the same way as prior waves.

The important metric is hospital capacity. Note that in DC we've NEVER gone above hospital bed availability, and still aren't even trending in that direction.

e.g.,
"We have reached a point in the pandemic where policy should no longer be based around the idea that we cannot resume normal life until case numbers are below a particular (arbitrary) level. One reason is that those levels were set before vaccination, and have not been adjusted accordingly, even though a large proportion of cases, in part due to the growing proportion of cases that are breakthrough cases, are now mild. Another reason is that these metrics were set at a time where policy makers were scrambling to set thresholds to open and close social institutions in the absence of robust data. Setting thresholds for activities according to cases no longer makes sense, but U.S. states and counties are still reporting daily case numbers and fluctuations as though policies should revolve around these numbers."

https://time.com/6129225/omicron-covid-19-case-counts/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The case rate increasingly means nothing, as has been noted by many public health commentators. Like, when many/most cases are mild colds or asymptomatic, those cases shouldn't be looked at the in the same way as prior waves.

The important metric is hospital capacity. Note that in DC we've NEVER gone above hospital bed availability, and still aren't even trending in that direction.

e.g.,
"We have reached a point in the pandemic where policy should no longer be based around the idea that we cannot resume normal life until case numbers are below a particular (arbitrary) level. One reason is that those levels were set before vaccination, and have not been adjusted accordingly, even though a large proportion of cases, in part due to the growing proportion of cases that are breakthrough cases, are now mild. Another reason is that these metrics were set at a time where policy makers were scrambling to set thresholds to open and close social institutions in the absence of robust data. Setting thresholds for activities according to cases no longer makes sense, but U.S. states and counties are still reporting daily case numbers and fluctuations as though policies should revolve around these numbers."

https://time.com/6129225/omicron-covid-19-case-counts/

Thank you. Love both Gandhi and Bienen. Such voices of reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The weekly case rate (which was already HIGH transmission) is now going back up.

Ya'll are a bunch of dingbats.

Uh, no it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weekly case rate (which was already HIGH transmission) is now going back up.

Ya'll are a bunch of dingbats.

Uh, no it's not.

Yes it is. Look it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The case rate increasingly means nothing, as has been noted by many public health commentators. Like, when many/most cases are mild colds or asymptomatic, those cases shouldn't be looked at the in the same way as prior waves.

The important metric is hospital capacity. Note that in DC we've NEVER gone above hospital bed availability, and still aren't even trending in that direction.

e.g.,
"We have reached a point in the pandemic where policy should no longer be based around the idea that we cannot resume normal life until case numbers are below a particular (arbitrary) level. One reason is that those levels were set before vaccination, and have not been adjusted accordingly, even though a large proportion of cases, in part due to the growing proportion of cases that are breakthrough cases, are now mild. Another reason is that these metrics were set at a time where policy makers were scrambling to set thresholds to open and close social institutions in the absence of robust data. Setting thresholds for activities according to cases no longer makes sense, but U.S. states and counties are still reporting daily case numbers and fluctuations as though policies should revolve around these numbers."

https://time.com/6129225/omicron-covid-19-case-counts/

3,000 people will die of the virus today.

And we have resumed normal life. Our children are going to school. People are going to work. People are eating in restaurants. Normal is happening.

You're just a f*ucking baby about masks. Which is ridiculous because the actual children don't care about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weekly case rate (which was already HIGH transmission) is now going back up.

Ya'll are a bunch of dingbats.

Nope, sorry. Not at our private school. Down to 0.04 %

Right, if it doesn’t affect you then who cares, amirite?

Pretty much. I've also stopped wearing a mask completely in DC. Was at the Wizards basketball game last night, for example - no one said a word to me the whole time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The case rate increasingly means nothing, as has been noted by many public health commentators. Like, when many/most cases are mild colds or asymptomatic, those cases shouldn't be looked at the in the same way as prior waves.

The important metric is hospital capacity. Note that in DC we've NEVER gone above hospital bed availability, and still aren't even trending in that direction.

e.g.,
"We have reached a point in the pandemic where policy should no longer be based around the idea that we cannot resume normal life until case numbers are below a particular (arbitrary) level. One reason is that those levels were set before vaccination, and have not been adjusted accordingly, even though a large proportion of cases, in part due to the growing proportion of cases that are breakthrough cases, are now mild. Another reason is that these metrics were set at a time where policy makers were scrambling to set thresholds to open and close social institutions in the absence of robust data. Setting thresholds for activities according to cases no longer makes sense, but U.S. states and counties are still reporting daily case numbers and fluctuations as though policies should revolve around these numbers."

https://time.com/6129225/omicron-covid-19-case-counts/

3,000 people will die of the virus today.

And we have resumed normal life. Our children are going to school. People are going to work. People are eating in restaurants. Normal is happening.

You're just a f*ucking baby about masks. Which is ridiculous because the actual children don't care about them.

Are you a paid troll? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The case rate increasingly means nothing, as has been noted by many public health commentators. Like, when many/most cases are mild colds or asymptomatic, those cases shouldn't be looked at the in the same way as prior waves.

The important metric is hospital capacity. Note that in DC we've NEVER gone above hospital bed availability, and still aren't even trending in that direction.

e.g.,
"We have reached a point in the pandemic where policy should no longer be based around the idea that we cannot resume normal life until case numbers are below a particular (arbitrary) level. One reason is that those levels were set before vaccination, and have not been adjusted accordingly, even though a large proportion of cases, in part due to the growing proportion of cases that are breakthrough cases, are now mild. Another reason is that these metrics were set at a time where policy makers were scrambling to set thresholds to open and close social institutions in the absence of robust data. Setting thresholds for activities according to cases no longer makes sense, but U.S. states and counties are still reporting daily case numbers and fluctuations as though policies should revolve around these numbers."

https://time.com/6129225/omicron-covid-19-case-counts/

3,000 people will die of the virus today.

And we have resumed normal life. Our children are going to school. People are going to work. People are eating in restaurants. Normal is happening.

You're just a f*ucking baby about masks. Which is ridiculous because the actual children don't care about them.

Are you even responding to the quote? It doesn't seem like it. The quote is how we shouldn't tie mitigation efforts to case rates any more.

I realize that moving toward unmasking is going to be difficult for you, if your response to well-stated discussion is to swear at people and turn hysterical. But it's going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weekly case rate (which was already HIGH transmission) is now going back up.

Ya'll are a bunch of dingbats.

Nope, sorry. Not at our private school. Down to 0.04 %

Right, if it doesn’t affect you then who cares, amirite?

Pretty much. I've also stopped wearing a mask completely in DC. Was at the Wizards basketball game last night, for example - no one said a word to me the whole time.

Ew gross. Why act like rules don't affect you? It's most likely that other people (such as myself) can't trust that you aren't a total a-hole who wouldn't berate me and even turn violent just for asking you to follow the rules. Do you teach your kids to ignore rules they don't like too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weekly case rate (which was already HIGH transmission) is now going back up.

Ya'll are a bunch of dingbats.

Uh, no it's not.

Yes it is. Look it up.

It doesn't matter if it is or isn't. The only thing that should really matter for schools is pediatric hospital bed availability. And while DC doesn't have numbers for that on its dashboard, it does have hospital bed availability, and everything if fine there.

[Anonymous]

One thing the mayor / DOH / OSSE / skittish LEA leaders are going to do here is drag out making changes to school masking policies based on case rates ("high" vs "substantial", "moderate" and "low"). But these thresholds as defined by the CDC are totally irrelevant because of vaccine effectiveness and given that Omicron has a different infection and disease profile.

Like, compare the insane Omicron case spike:
https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/images/WeeklyCaseRateDash020922.jpg

To the hospitalization figures:
https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/images/PercentHospofCases020922.jpg

The link between cases (+current case thresholds) and hospitalization is now totally broken; It is going to be total BS when Bowser et al. leaders start slinging BS about substantial transmission.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, i just wish my kindergartener was allowed to play with other kids at stations in her class. I am fine dropping the maskeventually, but can we first at least allow kids to stop distancing in such a way that is inappropriate for that age. It breaks my heart to see her dislike school so much, and I think it's related to the mitigation measures OTHER than masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, i just wish my kindergartener was allowed to play with other kids at stations in her class. I am fine dropping the maskeventually, but can we first at least allow kids to stop distancing in such a way that is inappropriate for that age. It breaks my heart to see her dislike school so much, and I think it's related to the mitigation measures OTHER than masks.

I think you are at a rare school that is still conforming to those measures. I'm pretty sure my PK and first graders are not distancing at all in school beyond staying in cohort by grade.

[Anonymous]

February 28th, as soon as Bowser drops indoor mandate for DC, schools should follow suit immediately!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing the mayor / DOH / OSSE / skittish LEA leaders are going to do here is drag out making changes to school masking policies based on case rates ("high" vs "substantial", "moderate" and "low"). But these thresholds as defined by the CDC are totally irrelevant because of vaccine effectiveness and given that Omicron has a different infection and disease profile.

Like, compare the insane Omicron case spike:
https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/images/WeeklyCaseRateDash020922.jpg

To the hospitalization figures:
https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/images/PercentHospofCases020922.jpg

The link between cases (+current case thresholds) and hospitalization is now totally broken; It is going to be total BS when Bowser et al. leaders start slinging BS about substantial transmission.

Wow, that data for Dec. - Feb., Omicron is something very different.