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:

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.

By the time those are approved, there will be a new strain like omega that is much worse because people are unwilling to do what needs to be done and shut it all down.

[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.

By the time those are approved, there will be a new strain like omega that is much worse because people are unwilling to do what needs to be done and shut it all down.

Shut it all down for how long? Seriously, how long are the pro-shut down people willing to go without basic services?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Over the course of 14 days, 110 kids isn't a huge number. I'm in PGCPS and at our elementary school we went from 2 kids reported positive to 15 and then 42 in just three days. Personally I think it spread on a bus. Once it starts to spread the cases will be there quickly.

A lot of the big outbreaks in schools happen outside of school- sports, activities, parties. I think you're right that 100 cases really isn't very many. With the holidays, I think we'll see a spike in testing and a spike in cases, leading to a lot of school closures. But hopefully it comes and goes hard and quickly. By mid-January testing will decrease, as will cases from increased acquired immunity.

What happens with surveillance testing is a big question, though. You'll pick up a lot of old or non-contagious cases through regular PCR testing. Families shouldn't opt-in for random testing until and unless mcps moves to antigen tests.

Be careful - I started a thread yesterday thanking schools for staying open and stating this as well. I got many angry messages and now the thread is entirely gone. Not sure what got it removed overnight.

[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.

By the time those are approved, there will be a new strain like omega that is much worse because people are unwilling to do what needs to be done and shut it all down.

What far flung part of the world will it come from this time? Maybe you should find their equivalent of Dcurbanmom to go whine about behavior.

[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.

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"?

I believe its also over the course of 2 weeks, so it'll actually be pretty easy to hit that threshold

Why does the PP want to sacrifice lives? Is it for their personal convenience?

That’s ridiculous. We don’t say we’re “sacrificing lives” by driving, despite the large number of vehicular fatalities each year.

Ignore the PP. It's the "Inconvenience Troll". They slip that word into every post as if they're making a point. It's a crutch to cover up lack of critical thinking.

Seriously though.....is she real? Does she really think that all of us that want to keep school open ... hate our kids? find them to be an inconvenience? She is either a troll - which makes her a loser considering she has nothing better to do than rile people up. Or she is just an absolute maniac. Not sure what is better.

[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.

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"?

I believe its also over the course of 2 weeks, so it'll actually be pretty easy to hit that threshold

Why does the PP want to sacrifice lives? Is it for their personal convenience?

That’s ridiculous. We don’t say we’re “sacrificing lives” by driving, despite the large number of vehicular fatalities each year.

Ignore the PP. It's the "Inconvenience Troll". They slip that word into every post as if they're making a point. It's a crutch to cover up lack of critical thinking.

Seriously though.....is she real? Does she really think that all of us that want to keep school open ... hate our kids? find them to be an inconvenience? She is either a troll - which makes her a loser considering she has nothing better to do than rile people up. Or she is just an absolute maniac. Not sure what is better.

I think a troll. I find it hard to believe anybody could be that unwitty or dim. They throw that word (convenience/inconvenience) into literally every post they make because it helps start a food fight.

[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.

I'll let grandmother know. She'll be excited to pick out her funeral arrangements when the kids bring it home.

You're so awesome. I hope everyone around feels the same way about you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It never ceases to amaze me how people gobble up whatever MCPS puts out. I'm guessing none of the McKnight supporters are math majors?

"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."

Sounds good, right?

"It certainly might not seem like it given the pandemic mayhem we’ve had, but the original form of SARS-CoV-2 was a bit of a slowpoke. After infiltrating our bodies, the virus would typically brew for about five or six days before symptoms kicked in. In the many months since that now-defunct version of the virus emerged, new variants have arrived to speed the timeline up. Estimates for this exposure-to-symptom gap, called the incubation period, clocked in at about five days for Alpha and four days for Delta. Now word has it that the newest kid on the pandemic block, Omicron, may have ratcheted it down to as little as three."
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/omicron-incubation-period-testing/621066/

"Delta was spreading 50% faster than Alpha, which was 50% more contagious than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2"
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/5-things-to-know-delta-variant-covid

Omicron spreads at about twice the rate of Delta (e.g. about 100% faster).

So, if one child goes to school asymtomatic for three days, and during that time infects (let's be conservative) two children per day, how many kids have the potential to be infected by the time the school shuts down?

It's approximately 2Exp(n-1) where n = the day into the infection brought into the school, and faster the longer the infected child isn't removed from the environment. In 14 days, that could be 8,192 infections.

Factors increasing this rate are parents who keep their children in the classroom without Covid testing or knowingly keep the child in-school even though they're Covid positive. Remember, the criteria is "test positive" - and no test, no positive to count.

Factors decreasing this rate are kids not intermingling efficiently (ex. alienating the reckless kids), masking, good classroom air filtration or exit airflow, etc.

Given that January will be when all the children have been exposed to infected family members, then intermixing simultaneously when school reconvenes - the question is how responsible a decision is this?

I think some folks need to take more math..

[Anonymous]

So if an elementary school has 500 students, and 25 of them get covid in a two week period, we keep the entire school home. Seems to against the priority of keeping healthy kids in school.

[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.

I'll let grandmother know. She'll be excited to pick out her funeral arrangements when the kids bring it home.

You're so awesome. I hope everyone around feels the same way about you.

Well, she can turn on the TV tonight and see that's Biden's policy as well (which I agree with).

[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"?

I’m talking about “sacrificing lives” because I know healthy people who have died from Covid, people who have been sick for over a year because of Covid and fully vaccinated teens who got Covid who didn’t recover.

You think it can’t happen to you and don’t care if it happens to others. Don’t pretend vaccinated people aren’t at risk and don’t overlook that not everyone can be vaccinated. How do you not know this? I have a 4 year old who has medical issues. My vaccinated but not boosted high schooler is worried about infecting his brother. What do I say to him? Someone on DCUbanmom said not to worry?

No. He’s home now because his anxiety over bringing Covid home was overwhelming. And MCPS ignores this because selfish people scream the loudest.

[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.

I'll let grandmother know. She'll be excited to pick out her funeral arrangements when the kids bring it home.

You're so awesome. I hope everyone around feels the same way about you.

You are cracking me up now. What a maniac!

[Anonymous]

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.

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"?

I’m talking about “sacrificing lives” because I know healthy people who have died from Covid, people who have been sick for over a year because of Covid and fully vaccinated teens who got Covid who didn’t recover.

You think it can’t happen to you and don’t care if it happens to others. Don’t pretend vaccinated people aren’t at risk and don’t overlook that not everyone can be vaccinated. How do you not know this? I have a 4 year old who has medical issues. My vaccinated but not boosted high schooler is worried about infecting his brother. What do I say to him? Someone on DCUbanmom said not to worry?

No. He’s home now because his anxiety over bringing Covid home was overwhelming. And MCPS ignores this because selfish people scream the loudest.

Unenroll and home school, then.

[Anonymous]

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.

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"?

I’m talking about “sacrificing lives” because I know healthy people who have died from Covid, people who have been sick for over a year because of Covid and fully vaccinated teens who got Covid who didn’t recover.

You think it can’t happen to you and don’t care if it happens to others. Don’t pretend vaccinated people aren’t at risk and don’t overlook that not everyone can be vaccinated. How do you not know this? I have a 4 year old who has medical issues. My vaccinated but not boosted high schooler is worried about infecting his brother. What do I say to him? Someone on DCUbanmom said not to worry?

No. He’s home now because his anxiety over bringing Covid home was overwhelming. And MCPS ignores this because selfish people scream the loudest.

Who is selfish when you want the entire system shut down because of your situation?

[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.

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"?

I believe its also over the course of 2 weeks, so it'll actually be pretty easy to hit that threshold

The metrics were manufactured to ensure the desired outcome. It's just a way for them to go virtual without saying that made the decision across the board. The thing is they cannot justify these decisions anymore. Why 5%? Why not 10%? Why not 3%? Even more so no one can tell us why this is necessary when everyone is vaxxed and boosted and at very very low risk of severe outcomes.

“Everyone” is vaccinated? Huh?
Well this kind of ignorance means nobody can take you seriously. Can’t you Google?
Another person so selfishly wrapped up in their own world. Painful.