FCPS Masking Update

[Anonymous]

FYI, Re: teachers being required to mask due to VA Labor standards requiring employees to follow CDC guidelines.

Apparently Va GOP/Youngkin were able to remove some of the Va Board of Labor Standards members. On Wed (last week) the Board voted to end the mask mandate for employees. I don’t think there is any further action required. So, to the extent Prince William schools or Fairfax are relying on that as the reason teachers must mask, it could be out of date and invalid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ I mean you should NOT do a stricter quality mask mandate in a time of vaccines

Expect the vaccines don’t stop transmission and wear off quickly.

Really wish people would stop with this blanket, inaccurate statement. Vaccines greatly reduce transmission. In addition to reducing severity [twitter]

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1495422423759572997?s=21[/twitter]

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI, Re: teachers being required to mask due to VA Labor standards requiring employees to follow CDC guidelines.

Apparently Va GOP/Youngkin were able to remove some of the Va Board of Labor Standards members. On Wed (last week) the Board voted to end the mask mandate for employees. I don’t think there is any further action required. So, to the extent Prince William schools or Fairfax are relying on that as the reason teachers must mask, it could be out of date and invalid.

Encouraging. Fingers crossed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sooooooo, what’s allowed March 1? Is there a consensus?

Mask optional come March 1. It’s the law.

-1. FCPS files a lawsuit next week on the issue of local control and asks for a TRO.

What is a TRO? And are you serious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sooooooo, what’s allowed March 1? Is there a consensus?

Mask optional come March 1. It’s the law.

-1. FCPS files a lawsuit next week on the issue of local control and asks for a TRO.

Could be. FCPS is on a mission to get more Republicans elected.

Seems like it!!

I think that may be a tall order. I think most of us would prefer unelecting some of the SB incumbents. I don’t see an R winning. Maybe they sit out from the areas they can’t win, and some independents push out those there now. Independent Fairfax doesn’t mean Rs take it all. Just those who the FCDC selected. Just a thought.

FCDC expunged a few people trying to get more sane candidates on the sample ballot from the rolls last month. I don’t know what group has enough pull with senior citizens who remember FCPS from the 90s and vote D to change it up.

Maybe Chap’s PAC will be able to help.

Can you explain more about what happened at FCDC? Thx

They didn’t like that democrats who had been adamant on social media about disliking the current school board joined to vote in the faux primary, so they purged them. Apparently you have to be unfailing on-board with all local Ds to join. Sorta terrifying that a handful of people control the sample ballots like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI, Re: teachers being required to mask due to VA Labor standards requiring employees to follow CDC guidelines.

Apparently Va GOP/Youngkin were able to remove some of the Va Board of Labor Standards members. On Wed (last week) the Board voted to end the mask mandate for employees. I don’t think there is any further action required. So, to the extent Prince William schools or Fairfax are relying on that as the reason teachers must mask, it could be out of date and invalid.

CORRECTING THIS INFO. it's a lotyle more complicated. There's a 30-day comment period. So masking still required for employees...(unless CDC changes their guidelines):


https://www.williamsmullen.com/news/mask-or-not-mask-question-status-virginia-doli-workplace-rules

[Anonymous]

A little more ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sooooooo, what’s allowed March 1? Is there a consensus?

Mask optional come March 1. It’s the law.

-1. FCPS files a lawsuit next week on the issue of local control and asks for a TRO.

Could be. FCPS is on a mission to get more Republicans elected.

Seems like it!!

I think that may be a tall order. I think most of us would prefer unelecting some of the SB incumbents. I don’t see an R winning. Maybe they sit out from the areas they can’t win, and some independents push out those there now. Independent Fairfax doesn’t mean Rs take it all. Just those who the FCDC selected. Just a thought.

FCDC expunged a few people trying to get more sane candidates on the sample ballot from the rolls last month. I don’t know what group has enough pull with senior citizens who remember FCPS from the 90s and vote D to change it up.

Maybe Chap’s PAC will be able to help.

Can you explain more about what happened at FCDC? Thx

They didn’t like that democrats who had been adamant on social media about disliking the current school board joined to vote in the faux primary, so they purged them. Apparently you have to be unfailing on-board with all local Ds to join. Sorta terrifying that a handful of people control the sample ballots like that.

Wow that is terrible. Just about as bad as how Omeish got on the sample ballot with FCDC. We really have to get independent fairfax school board nominees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sooooooo, what’s allowed March 1? Is there a consensus?

Mask optional come March 1. It’s the law.

-1. FCPS files a lawsuit next week on the issue of local control and asks for a TRO.

Could be. FCPS is on a mission to get more Republicans elected.

Seems like it!!

I think that may be a tall order. I think most of us would prefer unelecting some of the SB incumbents. I don’t see an R winning. Maybe they sit out from the areas they can’t win, and some independents push out those there now. Independent Fairfax doesn’t mean Rs take it all. Just those who the FCDC selected. Just a thought.

FCDC expunged a few people trying to get more sane candidates on the sample ballot from the rolls last month. I don’t know what group has enough pull with senior citizens who remember FCPS from the 90s and vote D to change it up.

Maybe Chap’s PAC will be able to help.

Can you explain more about what happened at FCDC? Thx

They didn’t like that democrats who had been adamant on social media about disliking the current school board joined to vote in the faux primary, so they purged them. Apparently you have to be unfailing on-board with all local Ds to join. Sorta terrifying that a handful of people control the sample ballots like that.

Wow that is terrible. Just about as bad as how Omeish got on the sample ballot with FCDC. We really have to get independent fairfax school board nominees.

I figure if the parties won’t stay out of it, all the “non-partisan” offices should have real, open primaries. Just imagine, say, Moon v. Omeish but now it’s normal primary voters picking.

[Anonymous]

For anyone who cares about kids, this is a must read by: Shelli Farhadian is an infectious disease physician and an assistant professor of medicine and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine who is studying how Covid-19 affects the brain. Shira Doron is an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/14/controlled-studies-ease-worries-widespread-long-covid-kids/

In two other studies that included scientific controls, the rates of long Covid symptoms were nearly the same in children who had tested positive for Covid-19 compared to those who didn’t. In other words, other factors were to blame in many or most of these cases.

Indeed, children who had not had Covid-19 reported higher rates of many symptoms, including difficulty concentrating and muscle pains — nearly every long Covid symptom except the loss of smell and taste. Similar findings have also been reported in controlled studies in adults.

To be sure, debilitating Covid-19 symptoms persist for weeks in a small number of children, likely due to lingering effects of infection and the body’s immune response to it. But the studies that include control groups tell us that the odds of this occurring in a child with Covid-19 is low, lower even than the odds of getting seriously injured while playing sports.

Controlled studies like the CLoCk study in England, published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Feb. 7, also offer crucial information about the mental health toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on children, regardless of whether they had personally been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. An alarming 40% of teens surveyed — those who had Covid-19 and those who did not have it — reported feeling worried, sad, or unhappy. These mental health symptoms are real, but the data indicate that, more often than not, they are not a consequence of direct Covid-19 infection. Among those who did have Covid-19, poor mental health before getting Covid-19 was an important risk factor for having multiple long Covid symptoms after three months, highlighting the importance of accounting for mental health conditions in studies of pediatric long Covid.

Framed this way, restrictions on children should not be maintained in the name of preventing long Covid.

Fear has had a strong hold on Americans for more than two years, and it is a hard thing to let go of. But we owe it to children to follow the science: Children are more likely to suffer from pandemic-associated symptoms than from infection-associated symptoms. School policies should reflect this reality.

[Cruzado]

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who cares about kids, this is a must read by: Shelli Farhadian is an infectious disease physician and an assistant professor of medicine and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine who is studying how Covid-19 affects the brain. Shira Doron is an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/14/controlled-studies-ease-worries-widespread-long-covid-kids/

In two other studies that included scientific controls, the rates of long Covid symptoms were nearly the same in children who had tested positive for Covid-19 compared to those who didn’t. In other words, other factors were to blame in many or most of these cases.

Indeed, children who had not had Covid-19 reported higher rates of many symptoms, including difficulty concentrating and muscle pains — nearly every long Covid symptom except the loss of smell and taste. Similar findings have also been reported in controlled studies in adults.

To be sure, debilitating Covid-19 symptoms persist for weeks in a small number of children, likely due to lingering effects of infection and the body’s immune response to it. But the studies that include control groups tell us that the odds of this occurring in a child with Covid-19 is low, lower even than the odds of getting seriously injured while playing sports.

Controlled studies like the CLoCk study in England, published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Feb. 7, also offer crucial information about the mental health toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on children, regardless of whether they had personally been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. An alarming 40% of teens surveyed — those who had Covid-19 and those who did not have it — reported feeling worried, sad, or unhappy. These mental health symptoms are real, but the data indicate that, more often than not, they are not a consequence of direct Covid-19 infection. Among those who did have Covid-19, poor mental health before getting Covid-19 was an important risk factor for having multiple long Covid symptoms after three months, highlighting the importance of accounting for mental health conditions in studies of pediatric long Covid.

Framed this way, restrictions on children should not be maintained in the name of preventing long Covid.

Fear has had a strong hold on Americans for more than two years, and it is a hard thing to let go of. But we owe it to children to follow the science: Children are more likely to suffer from pandemic-associated symptoms than from infection-associated symptoms. School policies should reflect this reality.

Thanks for posting. It’s good confirmation of what many of us have been saying—based on the science—for over a year now: COVID is not a serious threat to children; it’s less of a threat than many other risks to children that we accept and live with every day; and many of the mitigation measures may be worse in terms of unintended consequences.

Remember folks—your child will get COVID if they haven’t already. Common sense tells us that we can’t stop our children from catching a highly-contagious coronavirus that’s endemic to the population at this point. And if common sense isn’t enough, the CDC has already admitted that “essentially everybody” is going to get COVID. So what, exactly, are all the potentially harmful mitigation measures for? To delay the inevitable? To what end? Hospitals are not overwhelmed and children hospitalized because of COVID are an immeasurably small percentage of hospital patients.

Long COVID may or may not present issues for all of us; none of us are going to be able to avoid it over the long term. We have to go back to living normal life and letting our children do the same.

[Anonymous]

Cruzado wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who cares about kids, this is a must read by: Shelli Farhadian is an infectious disease physician and an assistant professor of medicine and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine who is studying how Covid-19 affects the brain. Shira Doron is an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/14/controlled-studies-ease-worries-widespread-long-covid-kids/

In two other studies that included scientific controls, the rates of long Covid symptoms were nearly the same in children who had tested positive for Covid-19 compared to those who didn’t. In other words, other factors were to blame in many or most of these cases.

Indeed, children who had not had Covid-19 reported higher rates of many symptoms, including difficulty concentrating and muscle pains — nearly every long Covid symptom except the loss of smell and taste. Similar findings have also been reported in controlled studies in adults.

To be sure, debilitating Covid-19 symptoms persist for weeks in a small number of children, likely due to lingering effects of infection and the body’s immune response to it. But the studies that include control groups tell us that the odds of this occurring in a child with Covid-19 is low, lower even than the odds of getting seriously injured while playing sports.

Controlled studies like the CLoCk study in England, published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Feb. 7, also offer crucial information about the mental health toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on children, regardless of whether they had personally been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. An alarming 40% of teens surveyed — those who had Covid-19 and those who did not have it — reported feeling worried, sad, or unhappy. These mental health symptoms are real, but the data indicate that, more often than not, they are not a consequence of direct Covid-19 infection. Among those who did have Covid-19, poor mental health before getting Covid-19 was an important risk factor for having multiple long Covid symptoms after three months, highlighting the importance of accounting for mental health conditions in studies of pediatric long Covid.

Framed this way, restrictions on children should not be maintained in the name of preventing long Covid.

Fear has had a strong hold on Americans for more than two years, and it is a hard thing to let go of. But we owe it to children to follow the science: Children are more likely to suffer from pandemic-associated symptoms than from infection-associated symptoms. School policies should reflect this reality.

Thanks for posting. It’s good confirmation of what many of us have been saying—based on the science—for over a year now: COVID is not a serious threat to children; it’s less of a threat than many other risks to children that we accept and live with every day; and many of the mitigation measures may be worse in terms of unintended consequences.

Remember folks—your child will get COVID if they haven’t already. Common sense tells us that we can’t stop our children from catching a highly-contagious coronavirus that’s endemic to the population at this point. And if common sense isn’t enough, the CDC has already admitted that “essentially everybody” is going to get COVID. So what, exactly, are all the potentially harmful mitigation measures for? To delay the inevitable? To what end? Hospitals are not overwhelmed and children hospitalized because of COVID are an immeasurably small percentage of hospital patients.

Long COVID may or may not present issues for all of us; none of us are going to be able to avoid it over the long term. We have to go back to living normal life and letting our children do the same.

I think mitigation measures are there, for the most part, to protect the adults who keep the school open and running. If you want school, you sort of need to protect the people who are, essentially, “school.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Cruzado wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who cares about kids, this is a must read by: Shelli Farhadian is an infectious disease physician and an assistant professor of medicine and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine who is studying how Covid-19 affects the brain. Shira Doron is an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/14/controlled-studies-ease-worries-widespread-long-covid-kids/

In two other studies that included scientific controls, the rates of long Covid symptoms were nearly the same in children who had tested positive for Covid-19 compared to those who didn’t. In other words, other factors were to blame in many or most of these cases.

Indeed, children who had not had Covid-19 reported higher rates of many symptoms, including difficulty concentrating and muscle pains — nearly every long Covid symptom except the loss of smell and taste. Similar findings have also been reported in controlled studies in adults.

To be sure, debilitating Covid-19 symptoms persist for weeks in a small number of children, likely due to lingering effects of infection and the body’s immune response to it. But the studies that include control groups tell us that the odds of this occurring in a child with Covid-19 is low, lower even than the odds of getting seriously injured while playing sports.

Controlled studies like the CLoCk study in England, published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Feb. 7, also offer crucial information about the mental health toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on children, regardless of whether they had personally been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. An alarming 40% of teens surveyed — those who had Covid-19 and those who did not have it — reported feeling worried, sad, or unhappy. These mental health symptoms are real, but the data indicate that, more often than not, they are not a consequence of direct Covid-19 infection. Among those who did have Covid-19, poor mental health before getting Covid-19 was an important risk factor for having multiple long Covid symptoms after three months, highlighting the importance of accounting for mental health conditions in studies of pediatric long Covid.

Framed this way, restrictions on children should not be maintained in the name of preventing long Covid.

Fear has had a strong hold on Americans for more than two years, and it is a hard thing to let go of. But we owe it to children to follow the science: Children are more likely to suffer from pandemic-associated symptoms than from infection-associated symptoms. School policies should reflect this reality.

Thanks for posting. It’s good confirmation of what many of us have been saying—based on the science—for over a year now: COVID is not a serious threat to children; it’s less of a threat than many other risks to children that we accept and live with every day; and many of the mitigation measures may be worse in terms of unintended consequences.

Remember folks—your child will get COVID if they haven’t already. Common sense tells us that we can’t stop our children from catching a highly-contagious coronavirus that’s endemic to the population at this point. And if common sense isn’t enough, the CDC has already admitted that “essentially everybody” is going to get COVID. So what, exactly, are all the potentially harmful mitigation measures for? To delay the inevitable? To what end? Hospitals are not overwhelmed and children hospitalized because of COVID are an immeasurably small percentage of hospital patients.

Long COVID may or may not present issues for all of us; none of us are going to be able to avoid it over the long term. We have to go back to living normal life and letting our children do the same.

I think mitigation measures are there, for the most part, to protect the adults who keep the school open and running. If you want school, you sort of need to protect the people who are, essentially, “school.”

Most effective mitigation = vaccines ✓ effective air filtration or N95 masks ✓

Done. The rest of mitigation, we're past that. With effective air filtration, adults in school buildings don't need masks, by themselves or by the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Cruzado wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who cares about kids, this is a must read by: Shelli Farhadian is an infectious disease physician and an assistant professor of medicine and of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine who is studying how Covid-19 affects the brain. Shira Doron is an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/14/controlled-studies-ease-worries-widespread-long-covid-kids/

In two other studies that included scientific controls, the rates of long Covid symptoms were nearly the same in children who had tested positive for Covid-19 compared to those who didn’t. In other words, other factors were to blame in many or most of these cases.

Indeed, children who had not had Covid-19 reported higher rates of many symptoms, including difficulty concentrating and muscle pains — nearly every long Covid symptom except the loss of smell and taste. Similar findings have also been reported in controlled studies in adults.

To be sure, debilitating Covid-19 symptoms persist for weeks in a small number of children, likely due to lingering effects of infection and the body’s immune response to it. But the studies that include control groups tell us that the odds of this occurring in a child with Covid-19 is low, lower even than the odds of getting seriously injured while playing sports.

Controlled studies like the CLoCk study in England, published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health on Feb. 7, also offer crucial information about the mental health toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on children, regardless of whether they had personally been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19. An alarming 40% of teens surveyed — those who had Covid-19 and those who did not have it — reported feeling worried, sad, or unhappy. These mental health symptoms are real, but the data indicate that, more often than not, they are not a consequence of direct Covid-19 infection. Among those who did have Covid-19, poor mental health before getting Covid-19 was an important risk factor for having multiple long Covid symptoms after three months, highlighting the importance of accounting for mental health conditions in studies of pediatric long Covid.

Framed this way, restrictions on children should not be maintained in the name of preventing long Covid.

Fear has had a strong hold on Americans for more than two years, and it is a hard thing to let go of. But we owe it to children to follow the science: Children are more likely to suffer from pandemic-associated symptoms than from infection-associated symptoms. School policies should reflect this reality.

Thanks for posting. It’s good confirmation of what many of us have been saying—based on the science—for over a year now: COVID is not a serious threat to children; it’s less of a threat than many other risks to children that we accept and live with every day; and many of the mitigation measures may be worse in terms of unintended consequences.

Remember folks—your child will get COVID if they haven’t already. Common sense tells us that we can’t stop our children from catching a highly-contagious coronavirus that’s endemic to the population at this point. And if common sense isn’t enough, the CDC has already admitted that “essentially everybody” is going to get COVID. So what, exactly, are all the potentially harmful mitigation measures for? To delay the inevitable? To what end? Hospitals are not overwhelmed and children hospitalized because of COVID are an immeasurably small percentage of hospital patients.

Long COVID may or may not present issues for all of us; none of us are going to be able to avoid it over the long term. We have to go back to living normal life and letting our children do the same.

I think mitigation measures are there, for the most part, to protect the adults who keep the school open and running. If you want school, you sort of need to protect the people who are, essentially, “school.”

They have booster, good one way masks if they want them, and they should work on improved air filtration in their own room to the extent possible - such as opening windows. I know all classrooms don’t have windows but most of them do - and I’m active on the PTA for example and if the school didn’t provide something to improve air filtration in the room and the teacher wanted something - that is something we would reimburse like we do for supplies every year.