All schools should offer an all-virtual option

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a better idea: Require all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated.

How does that help at lunchtime again?

Well, there will be a whole hell of a lot less coronavirus going around in the first place.

312 new cases just reported for the weekend period. Hospitalization heading up.

eh, hospitalizations in DC look pretty flat since May. And the percent of hospital beds occupied by covid patients looks flat for the past two weeks (at around 1.2%).

yes - it's remarkable actually. hospitalizations, deaths, and ventilator use remain flat. I expect they will tick up somewhat over the past few weeks, but I think DC has ... actually done a really good job of vaccinating the most vulnerable (ward 7 & at at 65% vaccinated over 65 - not great but solid.) That said, with 30% of the population in Wards 7 and 8 high risk and unvaccinated, I do expect we will see some impact.

Except for the +81 and ICU beds mentioned by the other posts. Plus we are just starting to deal with delta.

pretty sure that's a data entry error. there have been other ones like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a better idea: Require all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated.

How does that help at lunchtime again?

Well, there will be a whole hell of a lot less coronavirus going around in the first place.

312 new cases just reported for the weekend period. Hospitalization heading up.

eh, hospitalizations in DC look pretty flat since May. And the percent of hospital beds occupied by covid patients looks flat for the past two weeks (at around 1.2%).

yes - it's remarkable actually. hospitalizations, deaths, and ventilator use remain flat. I expect they will tick up somewhat over the past few weeks, but I think DC has ... actually done a really good job of vaccinating the most vulnerable (ward 7 & at at 65% vaccinated over 65 - not great but solid.) That said, with 30% of the population in Wards 7 and 8 high risk and unvaccinated, I do expect we will see some impact.

Except for the +81 and ICU beds mentioned by the other posts. Plus we are just starting to deal with delta.

pretty sure that's a data entry error. there have been other ones like that.

Let’s hope. Good to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a better idea: Require all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated.

How does that help at lunchtime again?

Well, there will be a whole hell of a lot less coronavirus going around in the first place.

312 new cases just reported for the weekend period. Hospitalization heading up.

eh, hospitalizations in DC look pretty flat since May. And the percent of hospital beds occupied by covid patients looks flat for the past two weeks (at around 1.2%).

yes - it's remarkable actually. hospitalizations, deaths, and ventilator use remain flat. I expect they will tick up somewhat over the past few weeks, but I think DC has ... actually done a really good job of vaccinating the most vulnerable (ward 7 & at at 65% vaccinated over 65 - not great but solid.) That said, with 30% of the population in Wards 7 and 8 high risk and unvaccinated, I do expect we will see some impact.

Except for the +81 and ICU beds mentioned by the other posts. Plus we are just starting to deal with delta.

pretty sure that's a data entry error. there have been other ones like that.

There’s some magical thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a better idea: Require all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated.

How does that help at lunchtime again?

Well, there will be a whole hell of a lot less coronavirus going around in the first place.

312 new cases just reported for the weekend period. Hospitalization heading up.

eh, hospitalizations in DC look pretty flat since May. And the percent of hospital beds occupied by covid patients looks flat for the past two weeks (at around 1.2%).

yes - it's remarkable actually. hospitalizations, deaths, and ventilator use remain flat. I expect they will tick up somewhat over the past few weeks, but I think DC has ... actually done a really good job of vaccinating the most vulnerable (ward 7 & at at 65% vaccinated over 65 - not great but solid.) That said, with 30% of the population in Wards 7 and 8 high risk and unvaccinated, I do expect we will see some impact.

Except for the +81 and ICU beds mentioned by the other posts. Plus we are just starting to deal with delta.

pretty sure that's a data entry error. there have been other ones like that.

There’s some magical thinking.

Sigh. I mean, DC’s own reports conflict with each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a better idea: Require all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated.

How does that help at lunchtime again?

Well, there will be a whole hell of a lot less coronavirus going around in the first place.

312 new cases just reported for the weekend period. Hospitalization heading up.

Well f**k.
How did we go from 8 to 24 covid patients in the ICU in 1 reporting day? And it hadn't been above 20 since May.

I know plans aren’t set at schools yet, but have any schools disclosed what they will do with students during quarantine periods for possible exposure? Is there really no fall back virtual option for kids during those periods?

[Anonymous]

There is no questions cases will continue to rise for a few weeks and likely some hospitalizations too.

But, that doesn't mean individual schools should be trying to run virtual programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no questions cases will continue to rise for a few weeks and likely some hospitalizations too.

But, that doesn't mean individual schools should be trying to run virtual programs.

So kids just get suspended for sitting next to the wrong person and have to pay the price of falling behind? I’m not sure if that’s right given the technology resources we have developed. It’s not an ideal situation but surely we can do better than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no questions cases will continue to rise for a few weeks and likely some hospitalizations too.

But, that doesn't mean individual schools should be trying to run virtual programs.

So kids just get suspended for sitting next to the wrong person and have to pay the price of falling behind? I’m not sure if that’s right given the technology resources we have developed. It’s not an ideal situation but surely we can do better than that.

It feels even more perverse than that. Because some kids haven't been able to learn at home, it's better to suspend than allow anyone to continue learning when home.

[Anonymous]

Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

The answer is NOT to demand virtual, but to demand mandatory vaccination of staff/teachers, and to use rational quarantine policies that exclude the fewest kids possible- for example by rapid testing every day instead of sending them home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

The answer is NOT to demand virtual, but to demand mandatory vaccination of staff/teachers, and to use rational quarantine policies that exclude the fewest kids possible- for example by rapid testing every day instead of sending them home.

(and vaccinated kids/students should not have to quarantine)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

The answer is NOT to demand virtual, but to demand mandatory vaccination of staff/teachers, and to use rational quarantine policies that exclude the fewest kids possible- for example by rapid testing every day instead of sending them home.

The flaw with this plan is that testing is an opt-in and as detailed in the travel threads, lots of parents will refuse to opt in so they can travel without having to quarantine etc. There’s no way to make medical testing for kids mandatory, and I’ve harped on this before, there’s the religious exemption loophole so even when vaccines are available for all age groups, there will be parents who opt out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

The answer is NOT to demand virtual, but to demand mandatory vaccination of staff/teachers, and to use rational quarantine policies that exclude the fewest kids possible- for example by rapid testing every day instead of sending them home.

The flaw with this plan is that testing is an opt-in and as detailed in the travel threads, lots of parents will refuse to opt in so they can travel without having to quarantine etc. There’s no way to make medical testing for kids mandatory, and I’ve harped on this before, there’s the religious exemption loophole so even when vaccines are available for all age groups, there will be parents who opt out.

the testing I’m talking about is a daily rapid test in leiu of quarantine after an exposure. this approach was researched in the UK and worked well. anyone who declined to test would have to quarantine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

The answer is NOT to demand virtual, but to demand mandatory vaccination of staff/teachers, and to use rational quarantine policies that exclude the fewest kids possible- for example by rapid testing every day instead of sending them home.

The flaw with this plan is that testing is an opt-in and as detailed in the travel threads, lots of parents will refuse to opt in so they can travel without having to quarantine etc. There’s no way to make medical testing for kids mandatory, and I’ve harped on this before, there’s the religious exemption loophole so even when vaccines are available for all age groups, there will be parents who opt out.

That’s parents not wanting to opt in to surveillance testing, bc they want their kid in school (and surveillance testing comes with a ton of issues, the basic one being high degree of false positives). This is different, as the daily testing after exposure is targeted and woul allow kids to be in person. I guess opting out of that would mean you have to stay home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. We need to be able to do both at once. If schools aren’t able to pivot to virtual, either for entire classrooms or individual students who need to quarantine (because they are positive, they live with someone who is positive, etc), our choice is allowing these kids to continue to being covid to their classmates or for them to experience guaranteed learning loss. Especially with all we invested in DL last year, we shouldn’t be facing this choice.

It very much seems that there would be plenty of “demand” for virtual classrooms next year, both from parents uncomfortable sending their unvaxed kids during delta, and kids who should be isolating.

The answer is NOT to demand virtual, but to demand mandatory vaccination of staff/teachers, and to use rational quarantine policies that exclude the fewest kids possible- for example by rapid testing every day instead of sending them home.

Mandatory vaccines, yes, absolutely, but because that is not feasible by September, bringing it up in every discussion is a bit of an unproductive derailment. What we need are solutions for September - December 2021.

Alas, the fewest kids possible quarantined, with delta's R0, is nothing less than a whole (unvaccinated) classroom. I don't think someone can twist the science to pretend otherwise, with what we know about how contagious delta is.

Rapid testing everyday YES YES YES! At this point, though, we don't even have "10% of a cohort tested each week," which is what the asymptomatic testing program had derived to in theory, but which we never even got, because families didn't opt in. So good luck convincing anyone of daily rapid testing.