McKnight's discussion with health officer about in-person learning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

Pfizer just released a study showing even the two dose regime, and especially the booster, remain effective against the new variant. Fauci has been citing it on the news. I know that does not fit with your narrative. Also, the pandemic and school closures have been especially hard on working families and front line workers, but I would not expect you to understand that. Not everyone is a SAH or works at a BS Zoom job and can stay home and bake muffins during virtual learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS has now extended winter break by 2 days to allow time for schools to load up on Covid testing supplies or something like that. Seems weird that MCPS is acting like they don’t have to make any adjustments

It's right on target that they do not need to make any adjustments. The mall is jam packed. Kids can go to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

The vaccines work fine against the new variant. There’s good data showing that the vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness. That’s what the vaccines are for.

New vaccines are being developed now to respond to omnicron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

The vaccines work fine against the new variant. There’s good data showing that the vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness. That’s what the vaccines are for.

New vaccines are being developed now to respond to omnicron.

Fauci himself said new vaccines for Omnicron are necessary. It's called drug companies trying to make money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

The vaccines work fine against the new variant. There’s good data showing that the vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness. That’s what the vaccines are for.

New vaccines are being developed now to respond to omnicron.

Not that that's a bad thing because they'll help with the next evolution of this...but by the time they're available, Omicron will have crashed and burned. That's the upside of such a transmissible virus. We can just get through this quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is amazing how many people are in denial. You are all getting COVID whether you like it or now. Just go to school and ditch the testing. If your kid is sick, keep them home.

EXACTLY!!!! We are all getting it. Get vaccinated. Live life! Look outside of Montgomery County. The people on this board have no idea that other parts of the country have been living for two years now. Get vaccinated and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

The vaccines work fine against the new variant. There’s good data showing that the vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness. That’s what the vaccines are for.

New vaccines are being developed now to respond to omnicron.

Fauci himself said new vaccines for Omnicron are necessary. It's called drug companies trying to make money.

Right. All virus and diseases are imaginary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is amazing how many people are in denial. You are all getting COVID whether you like it or now. Just go to school and ditch the testing. If your kid is sick, keep them home.

We might all get infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus), but we're not all going to get covid (the disease).

You again? You love to bring this up. You know what they mean. We get it you are smarter than everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

"Sacrifice lives" ???? We live in the most vaccinated county in the country! What are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

I think a threshold of 110 cases in a 2,200 student high school is completely reasonable.

The teachers should be vaccinated and boostered. Everyone aged 16+ in high school should be vaccinated and either boostered or at low risk of severe disease. Everyone aged 5-11 should have just gotten vaccinated. Everyone aged 12-15 should be vaccinated and can be boostered if at high risk. So why are you talking about "sacrificing lives"?

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

Well said!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

It is a pandemic. There is a new variant. Vaccines were not made for this variant. You are defeated. The rest of us will keep our families safe and emerge strong with resilient children who have learned how to cope and survive adversity.

God. Children are not resilient. They are young, and scared and impressionable. Very few people go to therapy to talk about what happened when they were in their 20s. They go to talk about what happened when they were small vulnerable children.

Your children will not emerge "stronger" or more "resilient". They will emerge damaged and scared

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is amazing how many people are in denial. You are all getting COVID whether you like it or now. Just go to school and ditch the testing. If your kid is sick, keep them home.

EXACTLY!!!! We are all getting it. Get vaccinated. Live life! Look outside of Montgomery County. The people on this board have no idea that other parts of the country have been living for two years now. Get vaccinated and move on.

You can even look within MoCo. It's relatively normal. It's just people living their lives through a computer screen aren't out there to see it so they imagine it's a certain way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short, they've put metrics around when an individual school may move to 14 days of virtual, but no system wide closure.

Now the health dept guys is lecturing about hand-washing.

Thank you for the summary, PP, which I really really hope is accurate!

The metrics are 5% or more unrelated cases within 14 days, or minimum of 10 in a classroom. Pretty reasonable I think.

5% is huge. My son’s school has 2200 kids so they wait until they have 110 cases confirmed before doing anything. We know lots of kids at that point are carriers and a symptomatic so the number is really higher. I bet they’ll be at the 5% after the holidays but have no idea because the reporting system is flawed.

They are basically saying that they are willing to sacrifice a certain number of lives before doing anything. It’s crazy. Our teacher shortages is about to get a lot worse too.

MCPS is acting like we live in some backward districts in Florida or Texas.

Sacrifice lives? Everyone at risk of anything even remotely serious should be vaccinated and boosted. No excuses at this point. The rate of hospitalization for people under 65 who are fully vaxxed is extremely low. The rate of death for the fully vaxxed is virtually nil. You need to be clinically neurotic and/or innumerate to be so scared of this that you are willing to shut down schools again. And if you really are that concerned, it's probably best you home school your kids, which is always an option.

This. This is why people are angry and frustrated. We all just got our kids vaccinated and boosted ourselves and took a deep breath. It seems MCPS is just looking for ways for schools to go virtual. Posters will say but it's the virus. No, really, it's our policies. The data clearly bear out this virus is not a major threat to vaccinated children and adults. Where does it end? At some point we really do have to stop using cases as a metric. The thought of having school closures looming for the duration of my children's education is really defeating.

I think it's great that MCPS is looking for ways to protect our children!

Protect them from what?!!!!!! Look at the rest of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize they just ended the presser, but where is the information in writing? Seems like they should get that out ASAP to avoid misinterpretation and rumor mill confusion....

They just put out this press release:

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=12567&type=&startYear=&pageNumber=&mode=

Here is the key paragraph:

The following parameter will require the consideration of individual school closures.
To ensure the safety of students and staff, MCPS will be following DHHS guidance around individual school outbreaks as defined by the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). Beginning in January, if 5 percent or more of unrelated students/teachers/staff (minimum of 10 unrelated students/teachers/staff) test positive in a 14-day period, then DHHS and MCPS will work together to determine if the school should be closed for 14 days and the students would transition to virtual learning.

As always there is something unclear in what MCPS says. What exactly does unrelated mean? That they are not biologically related or live in the same household? Or that they are in different classrooms? Such a shame these are the people teaching our children to think and express themselves clearly.

This is what it says in Bethesda Magazine:

The “unrelated” label for the school population means there is spread throughout various activities and/or parts of the building, he added.

This doesn't make sense to me. If the students and staff who test positive are in different classrooms and activities, couldn't that also support that COVID is from outside and not spreading in school? Seems like a logical fallacy to say if kids in different classes have it, it is spreading in school. If the students and staff were related, that would seem more to support spreading in school.

No it means there's insufficient testing and a lot asymptomatic people are running around the school spreading it.