Big outbreak at Wakefield High School in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

Really? Then you are truly a Covid denier. 26 cases in 2 weeks at one school is not good.

This is far more than any other APS school.

Omg enough with the Covid denier bs. If no one is debilitatingly sick, hospitalized or dead, then 26 cases are merely a blip on the radar. Cases are going to happen. Covid is here to stay. Deal with it and stop screaming that the sky is falling.

You can't even engage in a discussion about cases at a school with screaming. That's really sad. We need to acknowledge reality and figure out how to deal with it.

Reality is that 26 young, healthy people tested positive, probably without even knowing they are sick. Again, so what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least one of the teachers is asymptomatic and vaccinated. Only was tested due to contract tracing

Well there you go. NBD.

[Anonymous]

I guess Smart Restart decided to do a DCUM post on this topic as their various Twitter accounts are getting 0 traction. Yawn - 20 cases in teens, let alone vaccinated teens. For a virus that will be here the rest of our lives.

I know they’ve praised New Zealand and Zero COVIDism on their Twitter profile before (New Zealand just gave up Zero COVID this week). Seems that Smart Restart is wanting Zero COVID in Arlington too. It really is a cult.

[Anonymous]

Very weird that someone wants to shutdown discussion of the WHS cases and accuse the people who would like to know what happened of being in a cult.

That's a very odd comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

That's a huge number for the population and far more than the community background case rate. It's not even close/debatable. The Wakefield case rate is 20+ cases for a population of 2200. For a county with 230,000 (over 100x the pop of Wakefield), that would be the equivalent of having 2000+ cases over the same period (100X Wakefield's 20+ cases). Arlington has very little transmission. There have been a bit more than 350 positive cases in the entire county in the last couple week. Probably not a big deal for Wakefield because COVID doesn't affect this population much. No reason to get alarmed. But the math is that Wakefield has a case rate far higher than Arlington as a whole.

Thanks for the math.

WHS is by far the most diverse HS with populations harder hit by the virus.

Wakefield isn’t particularly diverse. Last I saw it was majority Hispanic?

Yorktown was the school that most closely matched Arlington’s demographics, as I recall. But it’s been a few years since I looked at the demographics.

Yorktown has the most whites. Is that group your main concern?

[Anonymous]

So is VDH just really behind or are some of these counties just not reporting outbreaks to be included on the dashboard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

Really? Then you are truly a Covid denier. 26 cases in 2 weeks at one school is not good.

This is far more than any other APS school.

Omg enough with the Covid denier bs. If no one is debilitatingly sick, hospitalized or dead, then 26 cases are merely a blip on the radar. Cases are going to happen. Covid is here to stay. Deal with it and stop screaming that the sky is falling.

Exactly this. Vaccination rates in teens in Arlington is incredibly high, so there’s a decent chance many of these kids were vaccinated. Vaccines, however, do not prevent you from getting the disease; they do reduce the severity of it. This is going to be the “new normal.” People will continue to get Covid - it’s here to stay. With vaccinations, though, the severity of the disease should be much reduced. If none of these kids were severely ill/hospitalized/died, we’re in good shape.

So much this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

Really? Then you are truly a Covid denier. 26 cases in 2 weeks at one school is not good.

This is far more than any other APS school.

Omg enough with the Covid denier bs. If no one is debilitatingly sick, hospitalized or dead, then 26 cases are merely a blip on the radar. Cases are going to happen. Covid is here to stay. Deal with it and stop screaming that the sky is falling.

You can't even engage in a discussion about cases at a school with screaming. That's really sad. We need to acknowledge reality and figure out how to deal with it.

Reality is COVID is here to stay and kids are going to get it. Vaccinated kids will be asymptomatic or have mild to moderate symptoms--no more sick than other illnesses like strep, the flu or a cold. Unvaccinated kids might have poorer results but that's on their parents. The goal was never to eradicate COVID from schools. We haven't eradicated colds, the flu, strep, rsv..., so expecting no COVID cases in school is ridiculous. In any given two week period during flu and cold season there will be 26 sick kids from any given school. You need to learn that COVID is going to be added to the list of endemic illnesses and stop overreacting.

No one is overreacting. But it would be good to know why it is happening so diffidently compared to other schools.

How so? We’ve had schools with higher cases of flu that other schools haven’t. One year we had flu ripping through our ES that reduced a few classes down to 4 students. Another year norovirus did something similar (glad to have avoided that — neighbors were not so lucky!).

Study if you wish, but don’t be surprised if nothing highly unusual is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very weird that someone wants to shutdown discussion of the WHS cases and accuse the people who would like to know what happened of being in a cult.

That's a very odd comment.

What information are you actually seeking that DCUM can provide? How does speculation and gossip help?

Isn’t it obvious that high schoolers were together in a big group? Possibly a party, a game, a concert. It’s not going to change APS policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

Really? Then you are truly a Covid denier. 26 cases in 2 weeks at one school is not good.

This is far more than any other APS school.

Omg enough with the Covid denier bs. If no one is debilitatingly sick, hospitalized or dead, then 26 cases are merely a blip on the radar. Cases are going to happen. Covid is here to stay. Deal with it and stop screaming that the sky is falling.

You can't even engage in a discussion about cases at a school with screaming. That's really sad. We need to acknowledge reality and figure out how to deal with it.

Reality is COVID is here to stay and kids are going to get it. Vaccinated kids will be asymptomatic or have mild to moderate symptoms--no more sick than other illnesses like strep, the flu or a cold. Unvaccinated kids might have poorer results but that's on their parents. The goal was never to eradicate COVID from schools. We haven't eradicated colds, the flu, strep, rsv..., so expecting no COVID cases in school is ridiculous. In any given two week period during flu and cold season there will be 26 sick kids from any given school. You need to learn that COVID is going to be added to the list of endemic illnesses and stop overreacting.

No one is overreacting. But it would be good to know why it is happening so diffidently compared to other schools.

How so? We’ve had schools with higher cases of flu that other schools haven’t. One year we had flu ripping through our ES that reduced a few classes down to 4 students. Another year norovirus did something similar (glad to have avoided that — neighbors were not so lucky!).

Study if you wish, but don’t be surprised if nothing highly unusual is going on.

This. One year our SPED department got totally destroyed by Norovirus, staff and students. My friend teaches in a small, non-local district that had to close several schools for flu outbreaks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

That's a huge number for the population and far more than the community background case rate. It's not even close/debatable. The Wakefield case rate is 20+ cases for a population of 2200. For a county with 230,000 (over 100x the pop of Wakefield), that would be the equivalent of having 2000+ cases over the same period (100X Wakefield's 20+ cases). Arlington has very little transmission. There have been a bit more than 350 positive cases in the entire county in the last couple week. Probably not a big deal for Wakefield because COVID doesn't affect this population much. No reason to get alarmed. But the math is that Wakefield has a case rate far higher than Arlington as a whole.

Thanks for the math.

WHS is by far the most diverse HS with populations harder hit by the virus.

Wakefield isn’t particularly diverse. Last I saw it was majority Hispanic?

Yorktown was the school that most closely matched Arlington’s demographics, as I recall. But it’s been a few years since I looked at the demographics.

Have you ever looked at the demographics? Yorktown does not approximate the overall student demographics. That's WL.
And yes, Wakefield is high % Hispanic; but also has a lot more Black and still significant portion of White. Low on Asian. 45% FRL-eligibility at Wakefield is still a diverse school and more so than the 10-15% at Yorktown; but WL's 30-ish is what mirrors the overall student SE profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So? It’s a huge school. These numbers actually sound pretty good to me

Really? Then you are truly a Covid denier. 26 cases in 2 weeks at one school is not good.

This is far more than any other APS school.

Omg enough with the Covid denier bs. If no one is debilitatingly sick, hospitalized or dead, then 26 cases are merely a blip on the radar. Cases are going to happen. Covid is here to stay. Deal with it and stop screaming that the sky is falling.

You can't even engage in a discussion about cases at a school with screaming. That's really sad. We need to acknowledge reality and figure out how to deal with it.

Reality is that 26 young, healthy people tested positive, probably without even knowing they are sick. Again, so what?

And most of them were probably asymptomatic and only realized they are positive due to regular testing of students athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very weird that someone wants to shutdown discussion of the WHS cases and accuse the people who would like to know what happened of being in a cult.

That's a very odd comment.

You mean no one wants to engage in wild speciation based on rumor snippets adults overhear from random hs students? You mean you are the OP and are disappointed that this thread only got to 3 pages and you were expecting it to blow up?

If you are really concerned, just contact the school. Email or call them directly. There is literally no barrier for anyone to do so. All emails and phone numbers are publicly posted on the school website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Your point??

Sorry, that wasn't very clear. The point is: "Big outbreak at Wakefield High School in Arlington"

+1

[Anonymous]

Uneven transmission has been consistent throughout the pandemic. Most people give the virus to few or no one, but a few are superspreaders for reasons we still don’t understand. It makes sense that there would be a large cluster in one school and little to nothing in others.