Should we prepare for virtual schooling starting in January?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be “some” big issue when all schools go back in a week. Teachers will be getting sick and there are not enough substitutes( even with lowering the bar and not even requiring a BS degree-just a number of credits). There will be an issue of not having enough teachers in the building in January. Not sure how school systems will deal with this.

This is going to be the real issue.

Probably. Because MCPS hasn’t been willing to take any steps to recruit and attract more subs to take jobs, such as increasing pay. It is also a self-perpetuating problem- more schools could be forced to close as more teachers are forced to stay home with their own kids when their schools close. This really wouldn’t be hard to fix- don’t close schools, end quarantines, and reduce isolation periods for vaccinated individuals.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Yes you should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

My kids are in pgcps and this is, in fact, literally what is happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despite all the threads you guys keep starting, the answer is the same: no; there will not be virtual school.

We've seen the results. It won't happen

That's not at all what the MCPS leadership has said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be “some” big issue when all schools go back in a week. Teachers will be getting sick and there are not enough substitutes( even with lowering the bar and not even requiring a BS degree-just a number of credits). There will be an issue of not having enough teachers in the building in January. Not sure how school systems will deal with this.

This is going to be the real issue.

I wonder how January will play out. We all need to be flexible and adaptable. I think by March at the latest, things should be looking up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

My kids are in pgcps and this is, in fact, literally what is happening.

PG had to close because they reached a point where they didn’t have enough staff to safely open the schools. I’m not sure what else they could have done. Hogan was an ass to call them out. This could happen in MCPS. MCPS should have central office staff serve as backup so schools don’t have to close but I doubt they will do that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

My kids are in pgcps and this is, in fact, literally what is happening.

PG had to close because they reached a point where they didn’t have enough staff to safely open the schools. I’m not sure what else they could have done. Hogan was an ass to call them out. This could happen in MCPS. MCPS should have central office staff serve as backup so schools don’t have to close but I doubt they will do that

That’s such a cop-out. Do hospitals close when they have a hard time with nurses calling out? No, they contract with other companies to bring in temporary staff that are paid at much higher than usual rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

Here’s why:

I know several families who have covid. All were vaccinated. Here’s how it played out:

Older kids who were vaxxed but not boosted got very sick. Think: 2 weeks of symptoms.

Those who were very recently boosted (1-3 weeks) had the mildest symptoms. Everyone who was boosted more than a month out were laid up in bed for nearly two weeks (or on the toilet).

I’m boosted, but I’m convinced the protection wanes much faster than doctors predict.

I don’t have time for my family of six to be sick for weeks on end. Since my kids aren’t boosted, I’m worried they will be sick for a while. My booster is 1+ month out, and dh’s is 2+ months out.

Ok, so you “don’t have time…”
I thought this was about safety?
Is 2 weeks of illness less “inconvenient” than 4 weeks of virtual school + 2 weeks of Illness? If getting a breakthrough case is inevitable, I think 6 weeks of inconvenience is greater than 2, no? Is my math correct here?

Let me clarify: when one person gets covid, your household doesn’t typically get it immediately. The dominoes fall more slowly, and the timeline extends beyond 2 weeks. Relatives are currently on week 3 with covid; they are a family of 4.

As a working mom of 4, I definitely don’t have sufficient leave for multiple weeks of covid.

I am not afraid that any of us will die. We are vaxxed. The adults are boosted. We will survive.

The original question I responded to was what are you afraid of if you are vaxxed. I told you.

Fwiw, people with asthma or who typically need inhalers or nebulizers when they have an upper respiratory infection are struggling with omicron despite being vaxxed.

Everyone is sick right now. It makes no sense to drag everyone back on the heels of the holidays when people are traveling and going to parties. Covid is surging right now, but should peak by the end result f January. Virtual until February would help get things under control.

Your story doesn’t make sense. You don’t have 4 weeks of leave for covid quarantine, but you do have four weeks of leave for virtual school?

?

My kids were virtual for over a year while I worked from home. They quickly learned the technology. I didn’t hover. My office is still working remotely. I’d rather have 4 weeks of virtual learning in January than 4 weeks of covid in my house. I’m also the primary caregiver for my elderly parents. If my family gets sick, there’s nobody local to care for them.

Take your kids out for January then. Trust me nobody will bother you about it. School shouldn’t close because of your personal risk assessment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

And where are these

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

My kids are in pgcps and this is, in fact, literally what is happening.

PG had to close because they reached a point where they didn’t have enough staff to safely open the schools. I’m not sure what else they could have done. Hogan was an ass to call them out. This could happen in MCPS. MCPS should have central office staff serve as backup so schools don’t have to close but I doubt they will do that

That’s such a cop-out. Do hospitals close when they have a hard time with nurses calling out? No, they contract with other companies to bring in temporary staff that are paid at much higher than usual rates.

And where are these temporary teachers that are waiting in the wings to be enticed with high pay???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

And where are these

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

My kids are in pgcps and this is, in fact, literally what is happening.

PG had to close because they reached a point where they didn’t have enough staff to safely open the schools. I’m not sure what else they could have done. Hogan was an ass to call them out. This could happen in MCPS. MCPS should have central office staff serve as backup so schools don’t have to close but I doubt they will do that

That’s such a cop-out. Do hospitals close when they have a hard time with nurses calling out? No, they contract with other companies to bring in temporary staff that are paid at much higher than usual rates.

And where are these temporary teachers that are waiting in the wings to be enticed with high pay???

Increasing substitute pay has been an effective way for school districts to attract more subs during the pandemic. If they can't do that directly because of the pandemic, there are companies that could quickly expand to provide this under a contract.(e.g., sub teaching firms in neighboring states and/or educational consulting firms)

[Anonymous]

Teachers and subs aren’t the only employees needed to keep a school open. What about all the folks paid to keep the schools clean? Serve food? Or transport kids to and from school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers and subs aren’t the only employees needed to keep a school open. What about all the folks paid to keep the schools clean? Serve food? Or transport kids to and from school?

Those are even easier jobs to contract out. And retention would improve with higher pay.

We got $390M in covid funds. We have the money to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no point to requiring a PCR test to return to school when your school community is in the middle of a widespread outbreak of a disease.

Requiring testing makes sense when you area has little community spread, but students might have traveled to areas of spread.

But if COVID is widely circulating in the community, a single test on a single day is pretty meaningless, as they can just pick COVID up from the community that afternoon.

If you don't want COVID in the schools, either switch to virtual until COVID spread in the community is no longer widespread, or acknowledge that COVID is widespread and make KN95 masks mandatory and don't allow kids to eat near each other (this part is very hard). Or just allow spread during the lunch time and hope for the best.

What does it matter if COVID is in school buildings if students and staff have it anyway, whether you let them in the building or not? Is it worse for COVID to be in school buildings vs everywhere else?

What about the kids and staff who don’t have it? What about the staff who get sick enough to need leave? What about those with health issues?

We are talking about mcps not MoCo. MoCo Is a different topic. The issue is keeping staff, students and families safe.

The best way to keep students safe is to keep them in school. You’re obviously not interested in what is best for students here.

So you're saying the best way to keep them safe is to expose them to COVID?

Why are you so worried about your kids getting covid? Are you all not vaccinated?

You aren't concerned about your children getting a deadly virus that has claimed the lives of millions?

No, because they’re vaccinated!
And BEFORE they were vaccinated, they were STILL at less risk of severe outcomes from covid than RSV or flu!
I also have an unvaccinated 3 year old and the risk to him is still EXTREMELY small; again, less than RSV and flu.
This is actually a fact, as hard as it might be for you to hear this!
When have we ever shut down an entire school system for flu? Even though it is literally more dangerous than covid?
I swear, some of y’all covid extremists are just as ignorant and anti-science as the anti vaxxers.

And before you come in here like “but, LONG COVID!!!” the risk of long covid is, contrary to popular belief, also very small.

No person who actually works in public health (as I do) would EVER be as cavalier about the actual societal harms of shutting down essential services like education. Before vaccines, the calculation was different (and yet every other county in the world still managed to provide more school to their kids than Maryland). We are prioritizing the wrong things. A pandemic response that imposes 100% of the burden to respond on individuals and deprives kids of education is not good for society and not good for public health and not effective at mitigating spread of the virus.

But the anti-science, irrational hysteria and crippling re-entry anxiety from people like you is what gives our government cover to continue their half-assed and ineffective pandemic response.

No one who actually works in public health thinks this is what is happening, but nice try blaming your frustration with policy on random cautious individuals.

My kids are in pgcps and this is, in fact, literally what is happening.

PG had to close because they reached a point where they didn’t have enough staff to safely open the schools. I’m not sure what else they could have done. Hogan was an ass to call them out. This could happen in MCPS. MCPS should have central office staff serve as backup so schools don’t have to close but I doubt they will do that [/quote]
We have had someone from central office helping at our school every week since about October. I love it when parents who aren't in the system assume there are just tons of folks waiting in the wings to join MCPS as contractors to support instruction. It's not going to happen. 4 more of my co-workers have tested positive since we went on break. As of now, they can't come back until Wednesday, Jan 5th. Who is going to cover those classes as well as the ones of teachers who get sick between now and then?

[Anonymous]

PG was short 300 bus drivers. Good luck replacing that there or in MCPS in short period of time