Mandatory vaccines for teachers/staff and eligible students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, actually, scientists have consistently found, throughout the pandemic, that schools have far lower coronavirus transmission rates than the surrounding communities. If you're somewhere where there's a lot of coronavirus, it turns out that schools are about the safest places you can be.

Also, not to point out the obvious, but kids and teachers and school staffs interact with adults outside their schools all the time so, yes, the fact that there is a huge number of unvaccinated adults in the area does matter, even if those people themselves don't physically step into a school.

You are clearly arguing just for the sake of arguing and you have long since passed the point of making any sense at all. Just think for a minute. All adults in schools will either be vaccinated or tested weekly. None of the under 12s will be vaccinated -- at least in the beginning -- and we will be lucky if even half of the 12 and overs are vaxxed. Moreover, there are considerably more children than adults in schools. So it is obvious to everyone other than you that children will be the most likely vector for the virus in schools.

Yes, it would be nice if adults in all wards, not just 7 and 8, were vaxxed at higher rates. But trying to argue that the problem facing DC schools is the vax rate of adults in wards where only 10% of the children are vaxxed is really being obtuse.

You should run your theories by a doctor. I think you will be hard pressed to find one who agrees with you.

LOL. What doctor is going to think that adults who are either vaxxed or tested weekly are more likely to spread a virus than unvaxxed children who exponentially outnumber them?

there’s plenty of research on this. adults spread more than children. 50+ plus cases in DCPS are adults, despite the fact that there are many more kids than adults. it’s the adults.

Onnnnnce again, we are not talking about LAST SCHOOL YEAR. We are talking about Delta now, which is much more transmissible in general and IS being transmitted by kids.

Given that, maybe WTU could finally tell us how many teachers are vaccinated. Strange they've refused to release that information...

Why do you think the WTU even has that information? Teachers are under no obligation to tell the WTU their vaccination status.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1

They are saying the best protection we can give unvaccinated children is for the adults in the household to be vaccinated. The same would apply to protecting 12-17 year olds. Adults should vaccinate now.

An even better way to protect 12-17 year olds is for them to get vaxxed themselves. In a situation in which less than 10% of them are vaccinated, focusing on the adults who -- even in the worse case -- are 3 times more likely to be vaxxed is not the most effective strategy.

Please do not feed into these arguments. It is important for every single eligible person age 12-17 and all adults 18 and older to get vaccinated. There is no sense in arguing which is more preferred. This is an all hands on deck moment in history.

It is not us vs. them.

This. I am perplexed by this move to blame children in order to deflect from adults not getting vaxed, particularly the adults that are around children (parents and school workers). It's that same argument that "it doesn't matter if teachers don't get vaxxed because there will be children in the room that aren't vaxxed." It makes no sense from a logic perspective, and no sense from a public health perspective.

Not sure what you mean by whataboutism? The mayor is requiring teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or tested weekly. Why not do the same with kids who are eligible for the vaccine. That would really help middle and high schools stay open. Older kids huddle with other kids in groups. They are probably more likely to catch Covid from each other than the teacher who will most likely keep some distance between themselves and the kids. LA now has a vaccine mandate for kids as well. Why not DC?

[Anonymous]

PP has a good point. Teachers, staff, and students who can get the vaccine should get the vaccine or be subject to weekly testing. 100,000 positive cases a day and the deaths will follow. This is serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1

They are saying the best protection we can give unvaccinated children is for the adults in the household to be vaccinated. The same would apply to protecting 12-17 year olds. Adults should vaccinate now.

An even better way to protect 12-17 year olds is for them to get vaxxed themselves. In a situation in which less than 10% of them are vaccinated, focusing on the adults who -- even in the worse case -- are 3 times more likely to be vaxxed is not the most effective strategy.

Please do not feed into these arguments. It is important for every single eligible person age 12-17 and all adults 18 and older to get vaccinated. There is no sense in arguing which is more preferred. This is an all hands on deck moment in history.

It is not us vs. them.

This. I am perplexed by this move to blame children in order to deflect from adults not getting vaxed, particularly the adults that are around children (parents and school workers). It's that same argument that "it doesn't matter if teachers don't get vaxxed because there will be children in the room that aren't vaxxed." It makes no sense from a logic perspective, and no sense from a public health perspective.

Not sure what you mean by whataboutism? The mayor is requiring teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or tested weekly. Why not do the same with kids who are eligible for the vaccine. That would really help middle and high schools stay open. Older kids huddle with other kids in groups. They are probably more likely to catch Covid from each other than the teacher who will most likely keep some distance between themselves and the kids. LA now has a vaccine mandate for kids as well. Why not DC?

Can you link to what LA is mandating for kids?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being tested weekly is not prevention.

Vaccine is more effective at prevention.

I agree. But the reality is that this is the best we are going to get. It would be very difficult to get rid of medical and religious exemptions.

It’s not getting rid of medical and religious exceptions that is the problem. It’s getting rid of the third category - opting into weekly testing to avoid vaccination just because. That is the exemption category that should not exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1

They are saying the best protection we can give unvaccinated children is for the adults in the household to be vaccinated. The same would apply to protecting 12-17 year olds. Adults should vaccinate now.

An even better way to protect 12-17 year olds is for them to get vaxxed themselves. In a situation in which less than 10% of them are vaccinated, focusing on the adults who -- even in the worse case -- are 3 times more likely to be vaxxed is not the most effective strategy.

Please do not feed into these arguments. It is important for every single eligible person age 12-17 and all adults 18 and older to get vaccinated. There is no sense in arguing which is more preferred. This is an all hands on deck moment in history.

It is not us vs. them.

This. I am perplexed by this move to blame children in order to deflect from adults not getting vaxed, particularly the adults that are around children (parents and school workers). It's that same argument that "it doesn't matter if teachers don't get vaxxed because there will be children in the room that aren't vaxxed." It makes no sense from a logic perspective, and no sense from a public health perspective.

Not sure what you mean by whataboutism? The mayor is requiring teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or tested weekly. Why not do the same with kids who are eligible for the vaccine. That would really help middle and high schools stay open. Older kids huddle with other kids in groups. They are probably more likely to catch Covid from each other than the teacher who will most likely keep some distance between themselves and the kids. LA now has a vaccine mandate for kids as well. Why not DC?

Can you link to what LA is mandating for kids?

Actually I was wrong. LA Unified is mandating weekly testing of all teachers and students regardless of vaccination status.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-10/gov-newsom-expected-to-order-school-employees-to-get-vaccinated-or-be-tested-regularly%3f_amp=true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Aside from a vax mandate for kids 12+ I'm not sure what to do. I wonder how that would work politically in DC -- I think it wouldn't go over well, based on the racial dynamics of covid vaccine hesistancy.

Can we talk about this? Could Bowser even do a mandate for 12+ vaccinations if she wanted to? And would she even if she could?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Actually I was wrong. LA Unified is mandating weekly testing of all teachers and students regardless of vaccination status.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-10/gov-newsom-expected-to-order-school-employees-to-get-vaccinated-or-be-tested-regularly%3f_amp=true

I wonder how they afford that.

Also, I wonder what their policies are regarding positives -- do they allow for retests to see if it was a false positive, do they send the entire class home, etc.

Their summer school testing I believe was the same thing -- weekly testing -- and that caught a very low rate of cases and very little spread in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually I was wrong. LA Unified is mandating weekly testing of all teachers and students regardless of vaccination status.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-10/gov-newsom-expected-to-order-school-employees-to-get-vaccinated-or-be-tested-regularly%3f_amp=true

I wonder how they afford that.

Also, I wonder what their policies are regarding positives -- do they allow for retests to see if it was a false positive, do they send the entire class home, etc.

Their summer school testing I believe was the same thing -- weekly testing -- and that caught a very low rate of cases and very little spread in schools.

Weren't we given massive Covid relief funds? I know states have used them for EVERYTHING on their fantasy shopping lists, but shouldn't we (with these funds) be able to "afford" means to keep schools open and children safe? If that were high on the list, that is. Our summer camps tested, but schools not so much? I'm annoyed by the afford argument as we were given funds specifically to reopen society as best we can, not to backfill pet projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually I was wrong. LA Unified is mandating weekly testing of all teachers and students regardless of vaccination status.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-10/gov-newsom-expected-to-order-school-employees-to-get-vaccinated-or-be-tested-regularly%3f_amp=true

I wonder how they afford that.

Also, I wonder what their policies are regarding positives -- do they allow for retests to see if it was a false positive, do they send the entire class home, etc.

Their summer school testing I believe was the same thing -- weekly testing -- and that caught a very low rate of cases and very little spread in schools.

But void funds are for covid related expenditures, right? Or were extra discretionary funds included. School psychologist from an actual state said she was given a lot of leeway in requests supposedly related to covid
Weren't we given massive Covid relief funds? I know states have used them for EVERYTHING on their fantasy shopping lists, but shouldn't we (with these funds) be able to "afford" means to keep schools open and children safe? If that were high on the list, that is. Our summer camps tested, but schools not so much? I'm annoyed by the afford argument as we were given funds specifically to reopen society as best we can, not to backfill pet projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually I was wrong. LA Unified is mandating weekly testing of all teachers and students regardless of vaccination status.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-10/gov-newsom-expected-to-order-school-employees-to-get-vaccinated-or-be-tested-regularly%3f_amp=true

I wonder how they afford that.

Also, I wonder what their policies are regarding positives -- do they allow for retests to see if it was a false positive, do they send the entire class home, etc.

Their summer school testing I believe was the same thing -- weekly testing -- and that caught a very low rate of cases and very little spread in schools.

Weren't we given massive Covid relief funds? I know states have used them for EVERYTHING on their fantasy shopping lists, but shouldn't we (with these funds) be able to "afford" means to keep schools open and children safe? If that were high on the list, that is. Our summer camps tested, but schools not so much? I'm annoyed by the afford argument as we were given funds specifically to reopen society as best we can, not to backfill pet projects.

Quick back-of-the-envelope:

say you've got 100,000 kids in DC schools

35 weeks of school

Each test is $5 (?).

That gets you a cost of $17.5M.

I don't know if that's big or small in relation to DC's covid relief funds, nor do I know if that $5 includes the lab capacity (or it is just the cost of the test itself).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually I was wrong. LA Unified is mandating weekly testing of all teachers and students regardless of vaccination status.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-10/gov-newsom-expected-to-order-school-employees-to-get-vaccinated-or-be-tested-regularly%3f_amp=true

I wonder how they afford that.

Also, I wonder what their policies are regarding positives -- do they allow for retests to see if it was a false positive, do they send the entire class home, etc.

Their summer school testing I believe was the same thing -- weekly testing -- and that caught a very low rate of cases and very little spread in schools.

Weren't we given massive Covid relief funds? I know states have used them for EVERYTHING on their fantasy shopping lists, but shouldn't we (with these funds) be able to "afford" means to keep schools open and children safe? If that were high on the list, that is. Our summer camps tested, but schools not so much? I'm annoyed by the afford argument as we were given funds specifically to reopen society as best we can, not to backfill pet projects.

Quick back-of-the-envelope:

say you've got 100,000 kids in DC schools

35 weeks of school

Each test is $5 (?).

That gets you a cost of $17.5M.

I don't know if that's big or small in relation to DC's covid relief funds, nor do I know if that $5 includes the lab capacity (or it is just the cost of the test itself).

They may be doing pooled testing by class, which should be much cheaper.

[Anonymous]

The WTU sent an email out saying that testing will be at school sites or can be done else where during working hours paid for by DCPS. So they certainly aren’t making testing a burden!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The WTU sent an email out saying that testing will be at school sites or can be done else where during working hours paid for by DCPS. So they certainly aren’t making testing a burden!

unreal. “only when it’s safe,” indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The WTU sent an email out saying that testing will be at school sites or can be done else where during working hours paid for by DCPS. So they certainly aren’t making testing a burden!

Disgusting. Our funding dollars being eaten by anti-vaxxers.