Have you sign-up for weekly asymptomatic testing at APS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is about everybody, not just our individual families. It's about the kid who is asymptomatic but got it from his asymptomatic brother and who spreads it to a classmate who takes it home to her mom who is immunocompromised because she is undergoing chemo for cancer, or to her granddad who was vaccinated but has a severe breakthrough infection that lands him in the hospital. Kids are largely asymptomatic and unlikely to get seriously sick thank god, but others are not so lucky. Over 650,000 deaths is a horrible reality, it is not fear mongering to ask everyone to take one small free step to try to prevent the spread.

COVID will spread forever. Immunocompromised people didn't start existing in March 2020 and they will exist forever.

All of these arguments are for us to mask and surveillance test kids forever, since COVID will be here forever. Fortunately, APS families voted by opting out of this testing nonsense in overwhelming numbers.

I understand Smart Restart may be for Zero COVID, considering their Tweet this week praised New Zealand's military style lockdowns over 1 case. That's completely absurd and this type of testing nonsense in a highly vaccinated county seems to have a Zero COVID purpose to it (which almost every epidemiologist says is not reasonable or possible).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m glad getting covid was good for your family. I’m going to take a hard pass on just letting that happen to my kid, though. Thanks.

Different poster, but in all likelihood, your child will get Covid at some point. Covid is not going away. You are not going to be able to prevent that for the rest of their life. Even vaccinating, assuming a vaccine gets approved for young kids, will not prevent infection (it just prevents serious disease, which kids are at such an incredibly low risk for anyway).

[Anonymous]

Omg PP anti-test troll just give it a rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m glad APS is taking basic mitigation steps. Vaccinations, masks, and regular testing all help. Anyone trying to fight against preventing spread in our schools might as well be advocating for a return to full time virtual learning. It is clear there are voices in the mix that are from outside of Arlington or are unaffiliated with our schools. Parents, especially of kids not eligible for the vaccine, see you for what you are. Not going to influence anybody around here.

+1

There are clearly non-APS trolls posting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But as an American shouldn’t my children and I be allowed to kill other people as a matter of carelessness and selfishness? I was brought up believing this so I am confused.

FrEEdOM!!

[Anonymous]

Let’s definitely ignore public health recommendations and not test kids because some guy on the internet has a kid who had a mild case of covid so the rest of us should just let our unvaccinated kids have a modern day version of a chickenpox party and get it over with🤷‍♀️ Sounds smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s definitely ignore public health recommendations and not test kids because some guy on the internet has a kid who had a mild case of covid so the rest of us should just let our unvaccinated kids have a modern day version of a chickenpox party and get it over with🤷‍♀️ Sounds smart.

A non-existent, asymptomatic case of COVID is most likely the plurality of COVID cases in children. Many cases are mild. Very, very few result in hospitalization "for" COVID (not just "with" COVID), especially for a healthy child. As shown by England's public health department, an unvaccinated child has less risk with COVID than any vaccinated adult age group. https://www.newsweek.com/vaccine-children-covid-england-deaths-1627885

We don't do this type of testing for the flu, so we shouldn't do it now. Before you know it, they'll want to start doing it for the flu.

But we all know the arguments for and against. And we put those arguments to a vote and Arlington parents have voted overwhelmingly --> 80%+ did not sign up for it.

[Anonymous]

Again, should I follow the guidance of a random stranger on the internet or public health experts, who strongly advocate for frequent rapid testing in school settings? I haven’t met a single person in real life who opposed weekly testing. Some people didn’t sign up, but not because they had some massive overall objection to testing. For most it was questions about timing and how to fill out the questionnaire (which asks for more information than is actually required if you’re not symptomatic and haven’t had a known exposure). I can’t fathom the agenda motivating efforts to decrease rather than increase simple mitigation measures in our schools. I hope these are people from outside of our community.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of people were put off by the signup procedure and by confusion over whether their kids would have to miss school due to false positives. Now that there is more information and it’s clear that false positives are low, some other parents at the bus stop this morning said they are signing their kids up, so yay!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, should I follow the guidance of a random stranger on the internet or public health experts, who strongly advocate for frequent rapid testing in school settings? I haven’t met a single person in real life who opposed weekly testing. Some people didn’t sign up, but not because they had some massive overall objection to testing. For most it was questions about timing and how to fill out the questionnaire (which asks for more information than is actually required if you’re not symptomatic and haven’t had a known exposure). I can’t fathom the agenda motivating efforts to decrease rather than increase simple mitigation measures in our schools. I hope these are people from outside of our community.

Yes, 80%+ did not opt into testing in one of the most highly educated counties in the country because they couldn't complete a form. And it's all just outside agitators too.

[Anonymous]

Fight about it on DCUM all you like, the fact remains that public health experts endorse the use of frequent rapid testing in schools, and APS is simply following that pretty uncomplicated and uncontroversial guidance. It would be more effective if APS would make it an opt-out rather than an opt-in program, but it’s still better than no testing at all.

[Anonymous]

To be fair, it was not that easy to sign up. The forms asked for my kid’s student ID number, our insurance information and pics of the cards, our vaccination info and pics of the cards, and other stuff I can’t remember. There were at least three screens of permissions/waivers. And there was no confirmation at the end, so if you did something wrong, you wind up in non signed up limbo. I’m not sure if APS has simplified sign up but I’m sure some people just gave up when they didn’t have the student is or other info on hand. I did that but then came back later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fight about it on DCUM all you like, the fact remains that public health experts endorse the use of frequent rapid testing in schools, and APS is simply following that pretty uncomplicated and uncontroversial guidance. It would be more effective if APS would make it an opt-out rather than an opt-in program, but it’s still better than no testing at all.

x1 million

And APS should certainly work on communication and a better sign-up form/process. It was poorly done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, it was not that easy to sign up. The forms asked for my kid’s student ID number, our insurance information and pics of the cards, our vaccination info and pics of the cards, and other stuff I can’t remember. There were at least three screens of permissions/waivers. And there was no confirmation at the end, so if you did something wrong, you wind up in non signed up limbo. I’m not sure if APS has simplified sign up but I’m sure some people just gave up when they didn’t have the student is or other info on hand. I did that but then came back later.

Agree. The registration process/form sucked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fight about it on DCUM all you like, the fact remains that public health experts endorse the use of frequent rapid testing in schools, and APS is simply following that pretty uncomplicated and uncontroversial guidance. It would be more effective if APS would make it an opt-out rather than an opt-in program, but it’s still better than no testing at all.

No they don’t. They endorse the use of symptomatic testing. There is no ‘public health guidance’ to do asymptomatic surveillance testing like aps is doing.