Should we prepare for virtual schooling starting in January?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

+1

And they should also be taking precautions in their personal lives, in the same ways healthcare workers do.

I take it you don’t know a lot of healthcare workers. My friends and family members that are doctors and nurses are among the least nervous and cautious.

It isn’t so much that I think there’s a consistent trend in that direction. It is mostly that many people in Montgomery County have lost touch with reality. Among the people I know, the healthcare workers are pretty similar with their precautions and level of worry regardless of where they are in the country. That makes them much more cautious than the average person in a place like Georgia, but much less cautious than many people in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

+1

And they should also be taking precautions in their personal lives, in the same ways healthcare workers do.

I take it you don’t know a lot of healthcare workers. My friends and family members that are doctors and nurses are among the least nervous and cautious.

It isn’t so much that I think there’s a consistent trend in that direction. It is mostly that many people in Montgomery County have lost touch with reality. Among the people I know, the healthcare workers are pretty similar with their precautions and level of worry regardless of where they are in the country. That makes them much more cautious than the average person in a place like Georgia, but much less cautious than many people in Montgomery County.

This board has always been moths to a flame when it comes to the hyper paranoid. Even when cases were a trickle over the summer, there was an ever-present doom patrol hyperventilating about bad behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

+1

And they should also be taking precautions in their personal lives, in the same ways healthcare workers do.

I take it you don’t know a lot of healthcare workers. My friends and family members that are doctors and nurses are among the least nervous and cautious.

It isn’t so much that I think there’s a consistent trend in that direction. It is mostly that many people in Montgomery County have lost touch with reality. Among the people I know, the healthcare workers are pretty similar with their precautions and level of worry regardless of where they are in the country. That makes them much more cautious than the average person in a place like Georgia, but much less cautious than many people in Montgomery County.

Agree completely. Married to a scientist. From a family of doctors. We are more covid cautious than most people in other areas but reckless in comparison to people we know here in Montgomery County. We live in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

+1

And they should also be taking precautions in their personal lives, in the same ways healthcare workers do.

I take it you don’t know a lot of healthcare workers. My friends and family members that are doctors and nurses are among the least nervous and cautious.

It isn’t so much that I think there’s a consistent trend in that direction. It is mostly that many people in Montgomery County have lost touch with reality. Among the people I know, the healthcare workers are pretty similar with their precautions and level of worry regardless of where they are in the country. That makes them much more cautious than the average person in a place like Georgia, but much less cautious than many people in Montgomery County.

Agree completely. Married to a scientist. From a family of doctors. We are more covid cautious than most people in other areas but reckless in comparison to people we know here in Montgomery County. We live in Bethesda.

Pharmacist and dentist couple here. Never worked from home, vaccinating people in the county from the start. We are reasonable with precautions, wear a mask inside, all vaxxed and boosted, kids in sports in masks. But according to DCUM we are Trumpers and Covid deniers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

+1

And they should also be taking precautions in their personal lives, in the same ways healthcare workers do.

I take it you don’t know a lot of healthcare workers. My friends and family members that are doctors and nurses are among the least nervous and cautious.

It isn’t so much that I think there’s a consistent trend in that direction. It is mostly that many people in Montgomery County have lost touch with reality. Among the people I know, the healthcare workers are pretty similar with their precautions and level of worry regardless of where they are in the country. That makes them much more cautious than the average person in a place like Georgia, but much less cautious than many people in Montgomery County.

Agree completely. Married to a scientist. From a family of doctors. We are more covid cautious than most people in other areas but reckless in comparison to people we know here in Montgomery County. We live in Bethesda.

Pharmacist and dentist couple here. Never worked from home, vaccinating people in the county from the start. We are reasonable with precautions, wear a mask inside, all vaxxed and boosted, kids in sports in masks. But according to DCUM we are Trumpers and Covid deniers.

Hmm. My husband is a virologist and works on Covid-19.

We have been extremely careful during this entire pandemic, because those who can afford to do so should do so. Other doctors and pharmacists in the family have not taken so many precautions, because of the nature of their work or because they have a different risk strategy or are not experts in viral spread. One of our doctor nieces in her late 20s who works in a hospital had a very painful case of Covid-induced migraines. My Grandmother passed away from Covid complications.

Again, everyone has to do their best, and their "best" will vary from individual to individual.

[Anonymous]

Our dental office staff still takes COVID seriously in the office and in most of our private lives.

* we all have been vaccinated and boosted

* we have had our family members do the same

* we wear masks at work even when patients are not in the office

* we eat lunch separately so we aren’t taking off our masks around each other

* we do not have a waiting room; patients wait in their car till their room is ready

* we are lucky to have separate exam rooms - not a group of chairs on one floor where aerosols can spread

* we have medical grade HEPA filters in every room of the office

* we wear at a minimum to a level 3 surgical mask but that gets upgraded to a N95 or respirator for staff during a procedure

* if staff develop symptoms or a family member gets symptoms, they get COVID tested. Staff members have time off till symptoms subside; obviously if the COVID test comes back positive, the staff member quarantines for 14 days, however, no one in our office thus far has had COVID

* we don’t eat in restaurants, go to movie theaters, or bars and we limit the amount of in person shopping we do

We have made a lot of life changes that have kept us and our family members safe. We have adjusted in simple ways but we still serve the public. I think those who generalize without actually working in the field are spreading misconceptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

+1

And they should also be taking precautions in their personal lives, in the same ways healthcare workers do.

No they actually shouldn’t. They aren’t healthcare workers. Jesus, no wonder teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

Are you for real?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should be strongly encouraged to remain COVID free. We should be providing them with rapid testing kits for their families and with KN95 masks all break so they can try to stay healthy and be able to come to work next week. If teachers are healthy, schools can remain open.

Are you for real?

Sure. I’m an elementary teacher. We are essential workers. I except that part of my job is in fact providing childcare. Of course we can teach virtually, but that doesn’t solve the need for childcare the parents house. We can keep schools open even if children are sick with Covid. However we have staff need to be healthy in order to provide that child care function. I did not travel or visit with outside family members or friends this Christmas break, in part because I want to stay healthy enough to keep working through this surge. I’ve been spending my own money on KN95 masks For my entire household, but would be thrilled to have these masks provided by my employer, as a recognition that I am an essential employee and need to be protected at home during a community outbreak so that I can come into work.

[Anonymous]

Accept not except!

[Anonymous]

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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.

This.

If PP wants to homeschool, so be it.

The rest of us want proper public schooling.

You’re not going to be getting it in MCPS in January 2022. Take it to the bank.

We'll see. The 'take it to the bank' posters were out in force in August as well.

Yeah l had a coworker who is convinced that we would be flipping to virtual by October 1.

One guy I know was wrong in October! Therefore now, with a 16% positivity rate in a district that has already told us they will “assess” to flip to virtual at 5% positivity, WE SHOULD NOT BE PREPARING FOR VIRTUAL. No no no. Definitely not!

Y’all crazy.

Thank you, PP. I'm a NP and this is maddening.

"People said something bad would happen a different time and it wasn't as bad as (I thought) they said it would be! Therefore, in the face of hard evidence that things are already even worse, I'm going to guess they're not going to get as bad as they already are. A person made a negative prediction before, and was 'wrong.' Now other people are making a negative prediction, so they must also be wrong. QED."

Some posters on this board are really invested in Covid taking over as a vehicle for district-wide virtual. They're the ones that made the predictions in October, and they're the ones rooting for higher Covid numbers right now.

Some posters on this board are really invested in stirring up trouble whenever and however possible. Trolling on both sides of the issue.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Md hospitals already having issues

+1 Elective surgeries already cancelled.

Some are being postponed. Many aren't.

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/12/23/md-hospitals-surpass-1500-covid-19-hospitalizations-triggering-changes/

“Our projections now show that in the coming weeks, we could reach record levels of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maryland, possibly over 2,000. We have been actively preparing for this scenario in coordination with all of our hospitals, and today’s actions are the latest step in that planning,” said Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R).

"In preparation for the surge, Maryland committed $100 million in emergency funding to address hospital and nursing home staffing needs."

That's certainly $100 million well spent!!!! Great job Hogan!!! You're awesome!!!! (I'd say you should do a Victory Lap, but you're probably in one of those hospital beds yourself?)

Now MCPS is going to accelerate that trend next week!!!! Great job MCPS!!!

Yet no extra frimHogan to fund Testing pods at schools to test staff and kids prior to spreading the variant at schools where kids do not wear masks properly, many are not vaccinated (K-5) and staff are overburdened. I wonder how many won’t show Jan 3? I hear coworkers discussing leave of absence. Mass chaos

High school teacher here. This is the first time in my life I have thought to call in sick before I have symptoms of illness. I have no faith in MCPS to do anything to guarantee my safety. The lack of planning is ridiculous. Opening in January is going to be a clusterF. Kids don’t wear masks reliably and lunch is basically a guaranteed superspreader event in every school. If MCPS stays open I am going to slow walk a return by taking sick leave and then wait for results from the PCR test. I honestly don’t feel that I have a better option given the situation. I know this will infuriate some here, but I expect to be treated as a valued professional. The current situation is not that allow for that. I have not spoken to other staff butI am sure most feel the same way about the lack of safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Md hospitals already having issues

+1 Elective surgeries already cancelled.

Some are being postponed. Many aren't.

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/12/23/md-hospitals-surpass-1500-covid-19-hospitalizations-triggering-changes/

“Our projections now show that in the coming weeks, we could reach record levels of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maryland, possibly over 2,000. We have been actively preparing for this scenario in coordination with all of our hospitals, and today’s actions are the latest step in that planning,” said Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R).

"In preparation for the surge, Maryland committed $100 million in emergency funding to address hospital and nursing home staffing needs."

That's certainly $100 million well spent!!!! Great job Hogan!!! You're awesome!!!! (I'd say you should do a Victory Lap, but you're probably in one of those hospital beds yourself?)

Now MCPS is going to accelerate that trend next week!!!! Great job MCPS!!!

Yet no extra frimHogan to fund Testing pods at schools to test staff and kids prior to spreading the variant at schools where kids do not wear masks properly, many are not vaccinated (K-5) and staff are overburdened. I wonder how many won’t show Jan 3? I hear coworkers discussing leave of absence. Mass chaos

High school teacher here. This is the first time in my life I have thought to call in sick before I have symptoms of illness. I have no faith in MCPS to do anything to guarantee my safety. The lack of planning is ridiculous. Opening in January is going to be a clusterF. Kids don’t wear masks reliably and lunch is basically a guaranteed superspreader event in every school. If MCPS stays open I am going to slow walk a return by taking sick leave and then wait for results from the PCR test. I honestly don’t feel that I have a better option given the situation. I know this will infuriate some here, but I expect to be treated as a valued professional. The current situation is not that allow for that. I have not spoken to other staff butI am sure most feel the same way about the lack of safety.

Cloth masks don't do much so I would honestly not stress about kids wearing them. At this point most people are going to get Covid. I get that the union has riled you up, but if you are vaccinated the odds of severe disease or death are very low. Beyond that there is not much MCPS can do. Omicron will spread before tests could catch it, whether you choose to show up for work or not.

[Anonymous]

Union has nothing to do with it. I speak for me. Nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Union has nothing to do with it. I speak for me. Nothing else.

Ok, then you don't sound very well informed about how omicron operates.