May 5 data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

Um. That's a false statement / fake news.

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/#Average%20daily%20deaths%20in%20the%20United%20States,%20by%20cause%20(March%202020%20-%20February%202022)%C2%A0%C2%A0

In terms of leading causes of death in the U.S., as of Jan 2022, covid surpassed cancer, accidents, stroke, respiratory disease, alzheimer, and diabetes. Only heart disease killed more people (and covid wasn't that far behind).

If you're trying to make a point, do it as an opinion without lying.

Fake news? That’s directly from the CDC data for the most recent week that data is available:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

It isn’t at odds with what you said, though. As I said in my post, this is the weekly covid mortality rate for the 18-50 year old demographic that has been boosted. Old people are at higher risk. Unvaccinated people are at higher risk. Old, unvaccinated people are at really high risk.

I see. Your point is that if you do a very narrow selection of data, you can maximize your opinion?

That's fine. Why don't you volunteer to your local hospital and have any body bag for under 18 and over 50 dumped at your front door?

How dare you minimize the lives of people. You really are a pathetic person who lacks a moral center. May God help you.

CDC doesn’t report weekly mortality rates broken down by vaccination status, but if you look at them all kids regardless of vaccination status, they're still at lower risk than boosted adults 18-49.

I don't understand why you think it is unreasonable to look specifically at the risk for vaccinated/boosted adults. If someone is concerned about covid, they should get vaccinated. I feel sorry for the family and friends that the antivaxxers leave behind, but we shouldn't let them stop the rest of society from moving on with their lives.

Everyone I know who had covid this month or has it now is vaccinated, many boosted. At best, it helps with hospitalization and that's it. Society has moved on which is why we are still having issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

Um. That's a false statement / fake news.

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-leading-cause-of-death-ranking/#Average%20daily%20deaths%20in%20the%20United%20States,%20by%20cause%20(March%202020%20-%20February%202022)%C2%A0%C2%A0

In terms of leading causes of death in the U.S., as of Jan 2022, covid surpassed cancer, accidents, stroke, respiratory disease, alzheimer, and diabetes. Only heart disease killed more people (and covid wasn't that far behind).

If you're trying to make a point, do it as an opinion without lying.

Fake news? That’s directly from the CDC data for the most recent week that data is available:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

It isn’t at odds with what you said, though. As I said in my post, this is the weekly covid mortality rate for the 18-50 year old demographic that has been boosted. Old people are at higher risk. Unvaccinated people are at higher risk. Old, unvaccinated people are at really high risk.

I see. Your point is that if you do a very narrow selection of data, you can maximize your opinion?

That's fine. Why don't you volunteer to your local hospital and have any body bag for under 18 and over 50 dumped at your front door?

How dare you minimize the lives of people. You really are a pathetic person who lacks a moral center. May God help you.

CDC doesn’t report weekly mortality rates broken down by vaccination status, but if you look at them all kids regardless of vaccination status, they're still at lower risk than boosted adults 18-49.

I don't understand why you think it is unreasonable to look specifically at the risk for vaccinated/boosted adults. If someone is concerned about covid, they should get vaccinated. I feel sorry for the family and friends that the antivaxxers leave behind, but we shouldn't let them stop the rest of society from moving on with their lives.

Everyone I know who had covid this month or has it now is vaccinated, many boosted. At best, it helps with hospitalization and that's it. Society has moved on which is why we are still having issues.

Right- the vaccines keep people from getting severely ill. That’s the main thing we needed them to do, and they happen to do it well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

Given colds, flu, and Covid, perhaps we should continue, especially at school. May numbers are steadily rising. Aprils were high. Removing makes was a bad idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

She's pointing out that masks do work. Meanwhile, your family has had covid so many times you've mutated your own strains.

I feel so bad for your kids, dude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

She's pointing out that masks do work. Meanwhile, your family has had covid so many times you've mutated your own strains.

I feel so bad for your kids, dude.

We haven’t had covid at all. Or if we have, we didn’t know it.

The PP was asked what the end result should be for covid. In her response describing what she considers to be a "measured" long-term approach, the pp said "Long-term, indoor masking is required."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

The odds don’t look good for kids?

Have you looked at the mortality and hospitalization rates in kids? The odds look fine.

Under the assumption that: a child will not experience multiple reinfections, mild covid does not cause cumulative lung scarring or organ damage, and covid does not mutate into a more virulent or strain previously unrecognized by the body's immune system, then I might agree.

Do I think that not planning for or accounting for any of these possibilities is foolish? Yes. I still remember people spewing off phrases like "covid is like the flu" or "there are only six cases in the U.S." or "why do we care, it's only in China" or "covid is done" in 2020, then 2021, and now. I'm just rendering an opinion based upon the science I've read and the math. Feel free to think whatever you want to.

How do you explain that 75% of kids have had covid, some multiple times, and severe and/or long-term outcomes are quite rare?

Don’t worry. PP will continue to move the goalposts and cite 5,000,000 more examples of how we can completely eradicate this virus, and how if you don’t wear a mask for the next 10 years she feels so sorry for your guinea pig children. Just wait for it.

+1. Covid is to the far left as climate change is to the far right.

This isn't political. I realize you can't understand that because your brain has enough microlots in it to look like swiss cheese, but this isn't political. This is an act of God that humankind is handling badly. That's all. A lightning strike that has left brushfires everywhere and people like you seem to be hellbent on nurturing them, tending them, ensuring they'll never die out.

It is an inconvenient truth for your family that all the studies show that even mild cases of covid do long-term damage in an alarmingly large percentage of people. I know why you shy away from admitting you've repeatedly given your kids a virus that saps their energy, their iq, their lung capacity, etc. It's very human if you. No one wants to admit they've made a bad call.

But you have.

I'm not gleeful about it, I'm not glad. You've caused a lot of suffering and now you want to cause more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

Given colds, flu, and Covid, perhaps we should continue, especially at school. May numbers are steadily rising. Aprils were high. Removing makes was a bad idea.

Going from two weeks to flatten the curve to permanent mask mandates to prevent colds...

You do realize that's a pretty extreme view, don't you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

She's pointing out that masks do work. Meanwhile, your family has had covid so many times you've mutated your own strains.

I feel so bad for your kids, dude.

We haven’t had covid at all. Or if we have, we didn’t know it.

The PP was asked what the end result should be for covid. In her response describing what she considers to be a "measured" long-term approach, the pp said "Long-term, indoor masking is required."

That's not what she said in a vacuum. What she said was, (paraphrase) there was an alternative to long term internal masking that involved monitoring cases, improving ventilation, and minimizing spread of COVID... But since our school district and parents like you are too selfish, stupid, and shortsighted to be responsible, the rest of us need masks to protect ourselves.

And yeah, as long as your plauguebearing ratsnest of a family is going to be bringing it into the school, my family will be masking and avoiding them.

Your words are quite telling, btw. Your family hasn't had COVID as far as you know? Yes. That is one of the most dangerous things about COVID. Asymptomatic transmission. Bragging about how many times your kids have infected others is quite something.

Meanwhile, asymptomatic covid can still give them so many long-term conditions.

Again, this isn't glee in my voice. It's disgust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool. And covid hospitalizations in kids are stable at 1-2 per day across the entire state. We did it! The pandemic is over in Maryland is over. This is what endemic looks like.

Maybe you’re good with this quality of life; my standards are higher.

+1, there is more to covid than just this.

Lets talk about kids who brought covid home to their parents and then lost their parents. 40K kids in this country alone. That surely cannot be good for their mental health.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/health/parental-deaths-covid-19-wellness/index.html

And we all know that parents have never died of anything besides covid. And that child->parent is the only covid transmission route.

Covid risk blends into the background noise if you're vaccinated and boosted. Or a child, regardless of vaccination status.

Actually it doesn't just blend in if you are vaaccinanted and boosted and its pathetic that you are using that to justify your poor attitude.

For the 18-50 age group, weekly mortality rates from covid are about 0.01 per 100,000 in boosted individuals.

1 in 10 million blends into the background.

For some of us, it’s not just about dying but you cannot seem to understand that.

Well, I agree with you there. I don’t understand why you’re so concerned about getting what would likely be about as serious as a cold or flu infection (assuming you’re vaccinated and boosted). Particularly when there’s nothing that can practically be done to avoid exposure while being part of society.

Ready to learn? There is a lot that can be done to prevent catching covid. Why be concerned about catching this virus? Because catching it, spreads it and allows it to keep mutating. The mutations are getting worse. If you love gifting your children a plague, don’t do anything to prevent transmission of covid.
Don’t send your children to school because they might take science and learn you are an idiot.

Correct. Personal opinion is that it's like a ripple in a global pond that bounces around. If you remove protections (making the pond very still) and try to play politics with an apolitical virus, the chances of more serious consequences are heightened. Until the variants have died out all over the world (since we're all interconnected now), mutations can be an overnight game-changer. Teaching children to downplay the issue is not the right thing to do.

It's also possible that vaccination or boosting may only be partially effective or maybe even not effective at all. It depends on whether the spike proteins were the same or similar to prior strains. Enough mutation and the vaccination protection is questionable. There is also the possibility that vaccinated people get tired of boosting, the same way people get tired of wearing masks. Be honest, before the pandemic, how many people skipped their flu shots? Truth be told, I skipped many years worth of flu shots myself.

In my opinion, the only reason why we were relatively lucky with Omicron is because it replicated best in the upper respiratory area and didn't have the same mortality rate as delta. Banking on that in the future is nothing better than gambling, and I never liked the house odds. The math is stacked against us right now, maybe not this summer, but my guess is in the upcoming fall.

I'm personally not against anyone who wants to not wear a mask, but I do feel sorry for their children. Their children will be the ones suffering the consequences of their family's ignorance or pride / vanity, as the case may be. It's sad, but all you can do is leave them alone and let them find out the hard way.

With the constant rain all coming up, and over a third of the schools past the 3% infection mark, the odds don't look good if your kids are unmasking and eating in the cafeteria. All you can do is keep masking indoors, since MCPS is too stubborn to go hybrid and dodge the bullet. You're doing the right thing and everyone good luck this week!

I agree with most of what you said but what is the end result?

If it will always be around and mutating that means one cannot avoid Covid in whatever mutation it is forever. Can we truly mask/avoid high risk situations forever?

There are several possible outcomes.

(a) a true cure is developed and distributed. This is an unlikely outcome, since it would be cost and logistically prohibitive to have everyone in the world take all medication at once.
(b) the virus dies out itself. This is also an unlikely outcome, since the virus has shown a remarkable ability to mutate (in one study over 50 mutations in a six-month period in a immunocompromized person.
(c) the politics wins. Unmasking is common and the Government gives up on the virus, focusing on bigger concerns. I believe this is the worst possible scenario. Studies have shown actual damage to lungs and internal organs that may not completely heal. This means that there will be a cumulative effect until one day people just realize the damage to their body is too great (ex. think "long-term smoker"). This would be a likely scenario for children now, imho.
(d) a measured long-term approach. What is a measured, long-term approach? Glad you asked.

Long-term, indoor masking is required. If a teacher complains they want to wear a mask but a student can't hear them in the back, get them a karaoke machine or speaker. If a teacher doesn't want to wear a mask, get them a spit shield. If MCPS CO says they can't pay for it, remind them they received covid grants (and this was what the money was supposed to be for).

There was another alternative to masking. Had MCPS used covid funds to improve building ventilation (ex. overdesign a negative pressure updraft, for example, where you could feel a breeze going up to the ceiling while being still), then a simple face shield could have worked, but that ship sailed. The money was wasted and there probably won't be any more forthcoming. Hopefully this will be included in future building renovation designs?

Over this summer, MCPS works up a formal game plan for hybrid dynamic response. The local officials establish stair-step ground rules and communicate them out to the community with meetings and surveys. There are many variations of how hybrid could be set up.

Ex. Provisions are made to identify in advance the children who's parents cannot take time off from work for in-person learning. They're identified in advance of the school year and a formal plan is made to accommodate them even in the worst possible conditions.

For everyone else, I'd recommend separating the kids into Groups. (ex. might be their lunchroom groups, or PE groups, could be determined at the P level that makes sense. Parents are told that when a school goes hybrid, the kids in Group 1 will be remote M,W,F and Group 2 remote T,Th,F. This will permit better spacing to occur in the classroom and crowded busses, while allowing kids to do in-class labs, etc. Classrooms are set up for simultaneous remote learning.

MCPS monitors and publishes real data (like they did prior to March 1st). The monitoring is to watch for spikes. When spikes occur, MCPS needs to dynamically react by going (a) hybrid for contact exposed (ex. a band class, a PE class, a classroom, etc), once infection rates reach X infections (this could be set as a community wide agreement with parents, but my recommendation is ex. 3 in a single classroom). If infections continue to rise and exceed Y%, this means there is a possibility of more serious issues and hybrid goes into effect for the school. If infections continue to rise, or deaths begin as a result (think a really bad deltacron mutation, which we haven't seen yet), the affected school goes a full two-weeks.

Yes, this does prioritize health over the educational experience, but MCPS has already allocated funding for summer programs, tutoring, after-school / weekend programs. Students and parents are told that not meeting academic milestones / objectives will trigger automatic enrollment into one of these options. I would argue that having a sold, well-thought-out plan goes a long way towards acceptance by students and parents alike.

Feel free to attack this, or say it's complicated, but it's better to be prepared than gripping the table hoping crossing your fingers as the parents are yelling at you.

I really do appreciate this detailed and thoughtful answer. I wish everyone was so clear about what they’re looking for. I think there are a lot of people in the middle on covid restrictions and policies. They don’t like them, but generally willing to put up with them a little bit longer if need be. But this PP is arguing for permanent covid restrictions, including indoor masking and ongoing threats of virtual school. There aren't many people left that would consider that a sensiblle tradeoff for slightly reduced risks from a disease that is already in the neighborhood of the risks we've long faced from the flu (for vaccinated individuals and kids).

It's a hodge podge of bad, impractical ideas. None of it is going to happen. But I guess that's what message boards are for. Cathartic release.

No, so meant it. People should be saying what they really mean. At this point, the people still talking about mask mandates ultimately want permanent mask mandates. I appreciate the PP being willing to admit it.

Something is seriously off with you when its always all or nothing. No one wants permanent masking but covid is far from stable right now.

The PP said she wanted long-term indoor masking because we can’t “cure” or eradicate Covid.

No one wants long term. We don't want covid from you. How hard is that to understand? Its a bit ironic in the richer areas, few are masking and the more moderate to lower income areas, many are still masking.

The PP does. She specifically said she wanted indoor masking long-term.

Given colds, flu, and Covid, perhaps we should continue, especially at school. May numbers are steadily rising. Aprils were high. Removing makes was a bad idea.

Going from two weeks to flatten the curve to permanent mask mandates to prevent colds...

You do realize that's a pretty extreme view, don't you?

COVID isn't a cold.

You have too much brain damage to realize how bad your arguments are.

COVID doesn't care about your whining.