MCPS Officially announces schools opening as planned

[Anonymous]

I did some quick calculations for my kid's school and nearby schools (some with wildly different demographics) and I'm getting that the % is already around 2-3% for most of them. Although older cases will drop off, there will also be more testing-- not to mention spread in and out of schools-- so I feel validated in my decision not to send my kid tomorrow.

It seems highly likely, as I predicted, that schools will hit that "5%" (higher in reality) in a week or less and go virtual anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm ready to let this play out. Yes, it's going to be a messy month or two, but we have to figure out what the new normal is going to look like. I, for one, am not interested in schools being remote at any point. Kids who are sick should be in bed. Kids who are well enough to attend school should come to school Everyone who is at any kind of risk has had plenty of time to be vaccinated. Now, if hospitals really are close to breaking, then we have to pull back, but unless someone can post reliable information about hospitals being overwhelmed in MoCo, I'm not in favor of closing schools. Given the state has not released county-specific hospitalization metrics since early December, that data is not available. I'd think the hospitals would be screaming if we were in trouble. Are they?

Well enough means sending sick kids to school. Kids don't live alone. If they bring it back to younger unvaccinated siblings or other family members, it could have serious consequences.

If you want kids in person, what sacrifices are you willing to make to keep them there? Sounds like none.

I’m not sure what your point is- unvaccinated younger siblings would likely be fine. Anyone who has extremely vulnerable family members at home yet didn’t apply for the VA may need to make some hard choices during this wave. The solution should not be to demand all kids go virtual for a small number of families in this situation.

Look, great covid denier, you cannot tell someone they will be fine getting covid when you don't know.

VA is 100% at capacity. It is run like a regular school and just cannot take every family who now wants in due to their lack of planning as they don't have the staff to do it. They'd have to get more funding/staff or pull teachers from other schools.

Schools aren't going virtual except if there is an outbreak. So, the issue is how do you stop outbreaks? And, if you don't know, then google is your friend.

We don’t need to stop outbreaks, though. That’s the whole point. Kids are low risk. Vaccinated/boosted teachers are low risk.

The morality rate from Covid is dropping. If you were fine with with in-person in the fall, you should still be fine with it now. If for some strange reason you’re not, homeschooling is always an option.

Are you really living in an alternative universe? Kids live with their families. Families live in communities. We absolutely need to stop outbreaks as selfish and entitled people like you cannot self regulate so we need the government to do it. Its not just about mortality. Kids also live with younger siblings who cannot be vaccinated.

If grocery store workers get sick, how will you get groceries? If medical professionals get sick, who will take care of you when you get sick? When your housekeeper gets sick, who will clean your house?

Is it really that bad in your home that no one wants to spend any time there?

Grocery store workers and medical professionals and housekeepers are currently getting sick and then getting better and returning to work. It is not a big deal anymore, and we are slowly starting to realize it. Knock off with the hysteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm ready to let this play out. Yes, it's going to be a messy month or two, but we have to figure out what the new normal is going to look like. I, for one, am not interested in schools being remote at any point. Kids who are sick should be in bed. Kids who are well enough to attend school should come to school Everyone who is at any kind of risk has had plenty of time to be vaccinated. Now, if hospitals really are close to breaking, then we have to pull back, but unless someone can post reliable information about hospitals being overwhelmed in MoCo, I'm not in favor of closing schools. Given the state has not released county-specific hospitalization metrics since early December, that data is not available. I'd think the hospitals would be screaming if we were in trouble. Are they?

Well enough means sending sick kids to school. Kids don't live alone. If they bring it back to younger unvaccinated siblings or other family members, it could have serious consequences.

If you want kids in person, what sacrifices are you willing to make to keep them there? Sounds like none.

I’m not sure what your point is- unvaccinated younger siblings would likely be fine. Anyone who has extremely vulnerable family members at home yet didn’t apply for the VA may need to make some hard choices during this wave. The solution should not be to demand all kids go virtual for a small number of families in this situation.

Look, great covid denier, you cannot tell someone they will be fine getting covid when you don't know.

VA is 100% at capacity. It is run like a regular school and just cannot take every family who now wants in due to their lack of planning as they don't have the staff to do it. They'd have to get more funding/staff or pull teachers from other schools.

Schools aren't going virtual except if there is an outbreak. So, the issue is how do you stop outbreaks? And, if you don't know, then google is your friend.

We don’t need to stop outbreaks, though. That’s the whole point. Kids are low risk. Vaccinated/boosted teachers are low risk.

The morality rate from Covid is dropping. If you were fine with with in-person in the fall, you should still be fine with it now. If for some strange reason you’re not, homeschooling is always an option.

Are you really living in an alternative universe? Kids live with their families. Families live in communities. We absolutely need to stop outbreaks as selfish and entitled people like you cannot self regulate so we need the government to do it. Its not just about mortality. Kids also live with younger siblings who cannot be vaccinated.

If grocery store workers get sick, how will you get groceries? If medical professionals get sick, who will take care of you when you get sick? When your housekeeper gets sick, who will clean your house?

Is it really that bad in your home that no one wants to spend any time there?

Grocery store workers and medical professionals and housekeepers are currently getting sick and then getting better and returning to work. It is not a big deal anymore, and we are slowly starting to realize it. Knock off with the hysteria.

It's not a big deal for some except those that don't get better.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So much hysteria. Schools need to stay open for students. At this point, the vaccines have primed our bodies to easily fight off Covid, and the illness is either similar to the flu or way less than that. Scientists are starting to realize that "long covid" is not a thing... or any more of a thing than "long flu." Most of the people that are dying are the unvaccinated. I guarantee that lots of hysterical people got a runny nose within the past several months, didn't think anything of it, and didn't realize that they had Covid.

Long Covid is definitely a thing. Please don’t post inaccurate information

Long covid is not anything to worry about. Unless you are also worried about getting struck by lightening.

Wow, you are clueless. What’s your take on post-polio syndrome?

DP. Long COVID is nearly always mild symptoms that resolve on their own, typically in a few months. The severity and frequency of these symptoms after a Covid infection are similar to after influenza infections (about 50% more common).

So I get that people don’t want those symptoms, but it isn’t like this is some sort of new risk.

Post-polio. Maybe you’re not familiar with it. It wasn’t well-characterized when polio epidemics were happening either. And yet it’s real, it’s common, and it disables people and contributes to early death for some of them.

Ok, but you reference Long COVID, which is an observed and documented phenomenon (albeit one that has been grossly misrepresented in the media), not some hypothetical syndrome that doesn't have any evidence to support its existence in significant numbers, despite coronaviruses being common.

I suspect that “Long COVID” will turn out to be multiple clinical entities that become better-defined with time. I don’t see what coronaviruses generally being common has to do with this. With a couple of exceptions, they weren’t severe enough to kill ppl before now either.

Related viruses speak to the likelihood that this new virus will have a fairly rare property. SARS patients continued to get better over time, including those who had long-COVID-like symptoms. They didn't get better, and then later get worse. There's no reason to think your hypothetical syndrome will exist.

We’ll see. But we can’t see now. That’s how the passage of time works.

I guess we will. In the meantime, it is ridiculous to make decisions based on wild suppositions that lack evidence.

Correct. Follow your own advice. Oh the irony.

A lot of people who suspect this is no big deal because they heard it on Fox News.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm ready to let this play out. Yes, it's going to be a messy month or two, but we have to figure out what the new normal is going to look like. I, for one, am not interested in schools being remote at any point. Kids who are sick should be in bed. Kids who are well enough to attend school should come to school Everyone who is at any kind of risk has had plenty of time to be vaccinated. Now, if hospitals really are close to breaking, then we have to pull back, but unless someone can post reliable information about hospitals being overwhelmed in MoCo, I'm not in favor of closing schools. Given the state has not released county-specific hospitalization metrics since early December, that data is not available. I'd think the hospitals would be screaming if we were in trouble. Are they?

Well enough means sending sick kids to school. Kids don't live alone. If they bring it back to younger unvaccinated siblings or other family members, it could have serious consequences.

If you want kids in person, what sacrifices are you willing to make to keep them there? Sounds like none.

I’m not sure what your point is- unvaccinated younger siblings would likely be fine. Anyone who has extremely vulnerable family members at home yet didn’t apply for the VA may need to make some hard choices during this wave. The solution should not be to demand all kids go virtual for a small number of families in this situation.

Look, great covid denier, you cannot tell someone they will be fine getting covid when you don't know.

VA is 100% at capacity. It is run like a regular school and just cannot take every family who now wants in due to their lack of planning as they don't have the staff to do it. They'd have to get more funding/staff or pull teachers from other schools.

Schools aren't going virtual except if there is an outbreak. So, the issue is how do you stop outbreaks? And, if you don't know, then google is your friend.

We don’t need to stop outbreaks, though. That’s the whole point. Kids are low risk. Vaccinated/boosted teachers are low risk.

The morality rate from Covid is dropping. If you were fine with with in-person in the fall, you should still be fine with it now. If for some strange reason you’re not, homeschooling is always an option.

Are you really living in an alternative universe? Kids live with their families. Families live in communities. We absolutely need to stop outbreaks as selfish and entitled people like you cannot self regulate so we need the government to do it. Its not just about mortality. Kids also live with younger siblings who cannot be vaccinated.

If grocery store workers get sick, how will you get groceries? If medical professionals get sick, who will take care of you when you get sick? When your housekeeper gets sick, who will clean your house?

Is it really that bad in your home that no one wants to spend any time there?

Grocery store workers and medical professionals and housekeepers are currently getting sick and then getting better and returning to work. It is not a big deal anymore, and we are slowly starting to realize it. Knock off with the hysteria.

It's not a big deal for some except those that don't get better.

Those people should have gotten vaccinated and boosted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm ready to let this play out. Yes, it's going to be a messy month or two, but we have to figure out what the new normal is going to look like. I, for one, am not interested in schools being remote at any point. Kids who are sick should be in bed. Kids who are well enough to attend school should come to school Everyone who is at any kind of risk has had plenty of time to be vaccinated. Now, if hospitals really are close to breaking, then we have to pull back, but unless someone can post reliable information about hospitals being overwhelmed in MoCo, I'm not in favor of closing schools. Given the state has not released county-specific hospitalization metrics since early December, that data is not available. I'd think the hospitals would be screaming if we were in trouble. Are they?

Well enough means sending sick kids to school. Kids don't live alone. If they bring it back to younger unvaccinated siblings or other family members, it could have serious consequences.

If you want kids in person, what sacrifices are you willing to make to keep them there? Sounds like none.

I’m not sure what your point is- unvaccinated younger siblings would likely be fine. Anyone who has extremely vulnerable family members at home yet didn’t apply for the VA may need to make some hard choices during this wave. The solution should not be to demand all kids go virtual for a small number of families in this situation.

Look, great covid denier, you cannot tell someone they will be fine getting covid when you don't know.

VA is 100% at capacity. It is run like a regular school and just cannot take every family who now wants in due to their lack of planning as they don't have the staff to do it. They'd have to get more funding/staff or pull teachers from other schools.

Schools aren't going virtual except if there is an outbreak. So, the issue is how do you stop outbreaks? And, if you don't know, then google is your friend.

We don’t need to stop outbreaks, though. That’s the whole point. Kids are low risk. Vaccinated/boosted teachers are low risk.

The morality rate from Covid is dropping. If you were fine with with in-person in the fall, you should still be fine with it now. If for some strange reason you’re not, homeschooling is always an option.

Are you really living in an alternative universe? Kids live with their families. Families live in communities. We absolutely need to stop outbreaks as selfish and entitled people like you cannot self regulate so we need the government to do it. Its not just about mortality. Kids also live with younger siblings who cannot be vaccinated.

If grocery store workers get sick, how will you get groceries? If medical professionals get sick, who will take care of you when you get sick? When your housekeeper gets sick, who will clean your house?

Is it really that bad in your home that no one wants to spend any time there?

Grocery store workers and medical professionals and housekeepers are currently getting sick and then getting better and returning to work. It is not a big deal anymore, and we are slowly starting to realize it. Knock off with the hysteria.

It's not a big deal for some except those that don't get better.

Those people should have gotten vaccinated and boosted.

Or had jobs with remote work options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did some quick calculations for my kid's school and nearby schools (some with wildly different demographics) and I'm getting that the % is already around 2-3% for most of them. Although older cases will drop off, there will also be more testing-- not to mention spread in and out of schools-- so I feel validated in my decision not to send my kid tomorrow.

It seems highly likely, as I predicted, that schools will hit that "5%" (higher in reality) in a week or less and go virtual anyway.

How so? Are cases by school listed somewhere? The dashboard hasn’t been updated.

On a systemwide basis, the number of reported cases falls well short of the pace necessary to hit 5% in 14 days. (Averaging 369 cases per day over break compared to 643/day necessary)

Obviously seem schools will be higher than others, but I don't think you can accurately extrapolate off of previously reported cases.

[Anonymous]

What is wrong with MCPS? They need to cancel school for tomorrow. Just call it already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The morality rate from Covid is dropping. If you were fine with with in-person in the fall, you should still be fine with it now. If for some strange reason you’re not, homeschooling is always an option.

The morality rate is low, it's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is wrong with MCPS? They need to cancel school for tomorrow. Just call it already.

Just watch. It’ll stay above freezing and just come down as rain.

There’s no reason to cancel school tomorrow at this time. See what happens overnight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did some quick calculations for my kid's school and nearby schools (some with wildly different demographics) and I'm getting that the % is already around 2-3% for most of them. Although older cases will drop off, there will also be more testing-- not to mention spread in and out of schools-- so I feel validated in my decision not to send my kid tomorrow.

It seems highly likely, as I predicted, that schools will hit that "5%" (higher in reality) in a week or less and go virtual anyway.

How so? Are cases by school listed somewhere? The dashboard hasn’t been updated.[b]

On a systemwide basis, the number of reported cases falls well short of the pace necessary to hit 5% in 14 days. (Averaging 369 cases per day over break compared to 643/day necessary)

Obviously seem schools will be higher than others, but I don't think you can accurately extrapolate off of previously reported cases.

Yes. Here's where cases are listed by school:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/Coronavirus/Winter%20Break%20COVID%20Cases%20Reported%20Through%2010%20pm%20January%201%202022.pdf

I wasn't looking at the dashboard. This link was in the email/text MCPS just sent out an hour or two ago.

I don't follow your numbers here anyway and would be interested in your explanation. Daily cases will very likely increase quite quickly from those reported at break for a number of reasons-- increased access to testing/in-school testing in addition to increased spread in the community and in schools, which is inevitable to SOME degree. People going back to work in larger numbers and back to school inevitably leads to increased spread within MoCo communities. But the access to testing and understanding of how/when/why to report positives will most definitely increase as well.

I don't think you can say that we needed X cases a day during break in order to hit 5% by... 2 weeks from tomorrow? Not with any certainty about what X MUST be. But I'm open to hearing more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is wrong with MCPS? They need to cancel school for tomorrow. Just call it already.

Just watch. It’ll stay above freezing and just come down as rain.

There’s no reason to cancel school tomorrow at this time. See what happens overnight.

Other districts already announced, including Fairfax. DCPS is already closed tomorrow. Prince George's is already virtual. MCPS is looking so behind the eight ball lately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is wrong with MCPS? They need to cancel school for tomorrow. Just call it already.

Just watch. It’ll stay above freezing and just come down as rain.

There’s no reason to cancel school tomorrow at this time. See what happens overnight.

Other districts already announced, including Fairfax. DCPS is already closed tomorrow. Prince George's is already virtual. MCPS is looking so behind the eight ball lately.

The majority of snow is south tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did some quick calculations for my kid's school and nearby schools (some with wildly different demographics) and I'm getting that the % is already around 2-3% for most of them. Although older cases will drop off, there will also be more testing-- not to mention spread in and out of schools-- so I feel validated in my decision not to send my kid tomorrow.

It seems highly likely, as I predicted, that schools will hit that "5%" (higher in reality) in a week or less and go virtual anyway.

How so? Are cases by school listed somewhere? The dashboard hasn’t been updated.[b]

On a systemwide basis, the number of reported cases falls well short of the pace necessary to hit 5% in 14 days. (Averaging 369 cases per day over break compared to 643/day necessary)

Obviously seem schools will be higher than others, but I don't think you can accurately extrapolate off of previously reported cases.

Yes. Here's where cases are listed by school:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/Coronavirus/Winter%20Break%20COVID%20Cases%20Reported%20Through%2010%20pm%20January%201%202022.pdf

I wasn't looking at the dashboard. This link was in the email/text MCPS just sent out an hour or two ago.

I don't follow your numbers here anyway and would be interested in your explanation. Daily cases will very likely increase quite quickly from those reported at break for a number of reasons-- increased access to testing/in-school testing in addition to increased spread in the community and in schools, which is inevitable to SOME degree. People going back to work in larger numbers and back to school inevitably leads to increased spread within MoCo communities. But the access to testing and understanding of how/when/why to report positives will most definitely increase as well.

I don't think you can say that we needed X cases a day during break in order to hit 5% by... 2 weeks from tomorrow? Not with any certainty about what X MUST be. But I'm open to hearing more.

Thanks. I never get those emails!

My numbers were just naive averages. Through Saturday, there had been 10 days in winter break. 642 was just from 5% of 180,000 students and staff spread over 14 days.

You’re obviously right that the cases won’t be uniformly distributed, by school or by date, but I didn’t know the school numbers and I’m not sure what to expect with case trends. I have no doubt that cases will increase over the next two weeks, but I think there’s going to be less pressure to test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did some quick calculations for my kid's school and nearby schools (some with wildly different demographics) and I'm getting that the % is already around 2-3% for most of them. Although older cases will drop off, there will also be more testing-- not to mention spread in and out of schools-- so I feel validated in my decision not to send my kid tomorrow.

It seems highly likely, as I predicted, that schools will hit that "5%" (higher in reality) in a week or less and go virtual anyway.

How so? Are cases by school listed somewhere? The dashboard hasn’t been updated.[b]

On a systemwide basis, the number of reported cases falls well short of the pace necessary to hit 5% in 14 days. (Averaging 369 cases per day over break compared to 643/day necessary)

Obviously seem schools will be higher than others, but I don't think you can accurately extrapolate off of previously reported cases.

Yes. Here's where cases are listed by school:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/Coronavirus/Winter%20Break%20COVID%20Cases%20Reported%20Through%2010%20pm%20January%201%202022.pdf

I wasn't looking at the dashboard. This link was in the email/text MCPS just sent out an hour or two ago.

I don't follow your numbers here anyway and would be interested in your explanation. Daily cases will very likely increase quite quickly from those reported at break for a number of reasons-- increased access to testing/in-school testing in addition to increased spread in the community and in schools, which is inevitable to SOME degree. People going back to work in larger numbers and back to school inevitably leads to increased spread within MoCo communities. But the access to testing and understanding of how/when/why to report positives will most definitely increase as well.

I don't think you can say that we needed X cases a day during break in order to hit 5% by... 2 weeks from tomorrow? Not with any certainty about what X MUST be. But I'm open to hearing more.

I find it interesting that the staff cases are higher in the schools with higher student cases. To me, this looks like possible evidence of in school spread. These teachers likely got it from their students in the last few days before the break began.