Will MCPS go virtual the first part of January?

[Anonymous]

Yeah and yet no one is all that sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s no way we’re going back. How are people not realizing this? Hope you all enjoyed your travel!

I had the absolute best time, thank you. I had a huge family Christmas with all adults boosted and all kids vaccinated. Cousins played in the snow for hours. Then I met a dear friend I hadn’t seen in years (a doctor!) at a crowded downtown restaurant for drinks and dinner. Life feels good and normal. Sad to return to moco.

[Anonymous]

And yes, obviously 12% positivity doesn't mean 12% of people in Maryland have covid. Comparing apples to apples, case rates right now are at 110 per 100,000 people per day (the highest ever, by far), which would mean about 1.5% of people in Maryland would test positive over a 14 day period if rates stay the same. So rates in a school would have to be more than 3 times that level for them to consider going virtual-- which seems super unsafe to me, but I guess for you guys who think that two weeks of virtual is worse than preventing death and disability, that should be really reassuring. It has to be 3 times worse than the current unprecedented, terrifyingly high community rates for them to even consider a school going virtual!

(Except they'll probably end up having to shut down anyway once enough teachers get sick and can't teach. So then the schools will be closed but kids'll probably get some sort of haphazard asynchronous stuff that doesn't actually teach kids much if anything, rather than regular, planned, organized virtual learning with their own teachers.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the department of health not forcing them to go virtual? Why is Prince George’s sensible and MoCo ridiculous? They are going to kill people by forcing them back. It will be an epic tidal wave.

We’re you living under a rock for the more than a year schools were virtual and the disaster that was? The hysteria has got to stop. We have done enough harm to children for no good reason.

Go away, we’re talking about numbers. Take your emotions to other threads where you can grind teeth with like-minded people who can’t think past your kids. They are not more important than the health and safety of the community.

The community is fine. And if you are that concerned tell Marc to close bars and indoor dining and gyms. Then let’s talk.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:They should, but their rule states pivot after >5% positivity during 14 days.
If I read that right.

Which means closing in the last two weeks of Jan, after making everything worse.

Today in MD, positivity is at 12%.

I think the 5% positive means 5% of staff and students test positive for the virus.

12% positivity means something different. That means, of those people who took a test, 12% were positive for COVID. It doesn't mean 12% of the population is positive for COVID. Because lots of people didn't take the test.

If there’s 12 or 16% positivity in the community, there’s also a similar number among students and staff, silly.

And of course it’s people taking tests. How else would we know they’re positive?

The positivity rate in MCPS will be the same as the community as s whole.

But no one is testing the ENTIRE Montgomery County community for COVID.
12% test positivity doesn't mean we tested every single person in the county, and 12% of them had COVID.

It means, of the people who showed up for testing (and were able to secure a test) 12% of THOSE people tested positive. Since people with symptoms are much more likely to get tested, and people who are close contact are also more likely, that population skews highly more likely to actually have COVID.

Yes, apples and oranges. Posters trying to equate 12% of a population that went to get tested vs. 5% of an entire population (1) either don't get it and we're fortunate that they're not decisionmakers or (2) are being willfully ignorant.

I still don’t get it. MCPS is not testing their entire student body every day or every week. 5 or 10 % of what exactly? Who is testing?

Five percent would include parent-reported positives.

MCPS really needs to get a test-to-stay program in place. It is absurd to quarantine 95% of students who are healthy. Parents really need to start recognize that if they have to close any schools because of their capricious 5% threshold, it is really due to their own incompetence for not getting a test-to-stay program in place.

Are you serious? 5% positive means 1 in every 20 people in the school have had covid (and probably twice that many are incubating it and will become contagious shortly, maybe more, starting before their rapid tests would turn positive.) At rates that high, and given that omicron is practically as contagious as measles, you'd be sending kids and staff in with an astronomically high risk of catching covid.

It’s not so risky if you are vaccinated and get your booster when it’s time. The 5% of MCPS staff who refused to get vaccinated should be concerned. Not a reason to close schools though.

A few hundred staff vaccinated will not fix this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the department of health not forcing them to go virtual? Why is Prince George’s sensible and MoCo ridiculous? They are going to kill people by forcing them back. It will be an epic tidal wave.

We’re you living under a rock for the more than a year schools were virtual and the disaster that was? The hysteria has got to stop. We have done enough harm to children for no good reason.

Go away, we’re talking about numbers. Take your emotions to other threads where you can grind teeth with like-minded people who can’t think past your kids. They are not more important than the health and safety of the community.

The community is fine. And if you are that concerned tell Marc to close bars and indoor dining and gyms. Then let’s talk.

Responsible people are not doing those things. Why do you need the government to tell you no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s no way we’re going back. How are people not realizing this? Hope you all enjoyed your travel!

I had the absolute best time, thank you. I had a huge family Christmas with all adults boosted and all kids vaccinated. Cousins played in the snow for hours. Then I met a dear friend I hadn’t seen in years (a doctor!) at a crowded downtown restaurant for drinks and dinner. Life feels good and normal. Sad to return to moco.

This is why Covid I’d spreading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the department of health not forcing them to go virtual? Why is Prince George’s sensible and MoCo ridiculous? They are going to kill people by forcing them back. It will be an epic tidal wave.

We’re you living under a rock for the more than a year schools were virtual and the disaster that was? The hysteria has got to stop. We have done enough harm to children for no good reason.

Go away, we’re talking about numbers. Take your emotions to other threads where you can grind teeth with like-minded people who can’t think past your kids. They are not more important than the health and safety of the community.

The community is fine. And if you are that concerned tell Marc to close bars and indoor dining and gyms. Then let’s talk.

Sorry, you have to talk to Hogan. I'm not the one whining about bars and restaurants, or schools for that matter.
I am pointing out that school decisions are independent from other decisions, because the people involved are not the same ones. I am also pointing out that hysterics won't solve anything, so the rabid "Open at all costs" posters can just take their pitchforks to another thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will go up higher after New Years and people returning from travel. This is not an accurate positivity rate as some are testing at home and not reporting results so its probably much higher.

Great so return 1/3 spread infection among unvaxxed 5-11 (many) and good luck staff and kids. Awful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, the screamers won, school will stay open so parents can go to work.

So parents go go to work at home in their ever expanding PJs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should, but their rule states pivot after >5% positivity during 14 days.
If I read that right.

Which means closing in the last two weeks of Jan, after making everything worse.

Today in MD, positivity is at 12%.

Me again. After reading the letter again, I think they may close as soon as they reach 5% positivity. That would make more sense.

Someone read that paragraph and tell me what they think:
“ 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 transition to virtual learning.”

How are they going to do that when there Covid case data for Maryland hasn’t been updated since Dec 4???

Maybe that’s why Hogans not fixing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will go up higher after New Years and people returning from travel. This is not an accurate positivity rate as some are testing at home and not reporting results so its probably much higher.

Great so return 1/3 spread infection among unvaxxed 5-11 (many) and good luck staff and kids. Awful

Vaccinated are getting and spreading it too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should, but their rule states pivot after >5% positivity during 14 days.
If I read that right.

Which means closing in the last two weeks of Jan, after making everything worse.

Today in MD, positivity is at 12%.

Me again. After reading the letter again, I think they may close as soon as they reach 5% positivity. That would make more sense.

Someone read that paragraph and tell me what they think:
“ 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 transition to virtual learning.”

How are they going to do that when there Covid case data for Maryland hasn’t been updated since Dec 4???

Maybe that’s why Hogans not fixing it.

It’s per school! Not the entire district ! So if in a school of 1000, 50 people test positive over 14 days, the school will go into quarantine for 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will go up higher after New Years and people returning from travel. This is not an accurate positivity rate as some are testing at home and not reporting results so its probably much higher.

Great so return 1/3 spread infection among unvaxxed 5-11 (many) and good luck staff and kids. Awful

Kids were unvaccinated in March, when many opted to return in person, and in the beginning of the school year.

If you’re speaking to Omicron’s ease of transmission, fair point. If you’re speaking to danger, Omicron isn’t any more dangerous to them than previous strains.

[Anonymous]

NP here.

Wow - less than three hours to produce 6 pages of uninformed nonsense. Y’all need to stop handwringing and put on your thinking caps.

MCPS rules about 5% of student and staff population is to address transmission happening IN THE SCHOOL, not in the home or community acquired. We will have just had an 11 day shutdown. Any student or staff cases that happen on January 3 will not be school related. The counting for the 5% of school population starts then.

What would be more likely to close a school in early January is if there are too many staff out to operate safely (supervise students). They won’t have any idea until later in the week or on the weekend about staff out sick, especially with the difficulty getting tested and long turnaround for PCR results. I’m a teacher and had a Covid exposure last Friday (person was sick on Sunday and positive on a home test.) Technically, my quarantine ends in time for school Monday. However, I could start having symptoms in a couple of days, then get tested and get results Sunday night that I have Covid and can’t teach Monday. This is the reality everywhere in the county and state right now. MCPS will not know whether or not any given school can operate 1/3 until the day before. Demanding to know sooner is foolish. Demanding that MCPS close due to uncertainty is also foolish. This is something people are just going to have to wait out, just like those in quarantine.