Chap Petersen mask letter from 2/8 to FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a constituent and this is outrageous. He has no right to give covid to my unvaccinated 2 year old, which is what will certainly happen if my elementary schooler is around unmasked children. I will actively support any primary challenger he faces. Masks protect people and are just not a big deal!

Are you saying that your elementary schooler has never been around an unmasked child this whole time? Somehow I doubt that he/she is masked ALL THE TIME. If you had been having unmasked playdates, dining indoors with unmasked people (with or without your kids) you are a hypocrite, because your child is exposed anyway. Now you want this little power trip over other kids to be obliged to protect you when you hadn't lived in a bunker this entire time either.

I don't think you are being entirely fair or logical. There is a huge difference between letting your kids hang unmasked with a few kids and sending your kid to school unmasked with hundreds of kids. The risk goes up as the number of potential exposures go up, and unknowns about who and what risks all those other kids take.

You want to use this black and white thinking that someone is a hypocrite for assessing risk in numbers, but it doesn't work that way. People are all trying to do the best they can to manage and balance their kids' lives and happiness with different levels of risk.

Calling them hypocrites is neither useful nor accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a constituent and this is outrageous. He has no right to give covid to my unvaccinated 2 year old, which is what will certainly happen if my elementary schooler is around unmasked children. I will actively support any primary challenger he faces. Masks protect people and are just not a big deal!

Are you saying that your elementary schooler has never been around an unmasked child this whole time? Somehow I doubt that he/she is masked ALL THE TIME. If you had been having unmasked playdates, dining indoors with unmasked people (with or without your kids) you are a hypocrite, because your child is exposed anyway. Now you want this little power trip over other kids to be obliged to protect you when you hadn't lived in a bunker this entire time either.

I don't think you are being entirely fair or logical. There is a huge difference between letting your kids hang unmasked with a few kids and sending your kid to school unmasked with hundreds of kids. The risk goes up as the number of potential exposures go up, and unknowns about who and what risks all those other kids take.

You want to use this black and white thinking that someone is a hypocrite for assessing risk in numbers, but it doesn't work that way. People are all trying to do the best they can to manage and balance their kids' lives and happiness with different levels of risk.

Calling them hypocrites is neither useful nor accurate.

Except that spread in unmasked schools in northern Europe has been about the same as spread in masked schools in the US that reported their numbers - between 1 & 2%. How do you explain that, except that it's not the masks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

No it isn't. It's still classified as a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

This is truth. People will wield strawmen around here...finding the one idiot who says mask forever--- and using that anonymous online poster as proof that everyone "pro-mask at the moment" is a forever mask fascist. Bad logic and bad faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Also, state law requires districts comply with CDC guidance to the maximum extent practicable. CDC still recommends universal masks in schools. Why does he want schools to break the law?”

No one has a response to this?

He wrote an op-ed back in August when Northam's VDH put out the school mask mandate saying SB 1303 didn't require masking. WaPo refused to publish it, but that's been his stance all year. He, in his lawyerly opinion I guess, thinks SB 1303 is not a mask mandate. The Supreme Court of Virginia agreed yesterday in the decision throwing out the Chesapeake parent lawsuit (but didn't say the EO Youngkin put out was legal either). The judge clearly said school boards can forgo recommended CDC strategies.

By allowing school boards to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended COVID-19 mitigation strategies “to the maximum extent practicable,” SB 1303 necessarily gives the boards a degree of discretion to modify or even forgo those strategies as they deem appropriate for their individual circumstances.

(https://www.oag.state.va.us/files/MIYARES2022/ORD02-07-2022Castillo,M.pdf)

Chap's also saying he'll get the law changed if he has to, and as the Joe Manchin of Virginia he probably can do that. The General Assembly can overrule school boards - the judge in Arlington was pretty clear about that.

So - no law breaking. Law making to make is so school boards cannot do mask mandates if required.

Thanks for this response! Since masks are easily practicable and way easier than things like distancing, it’s hard to understand that masks aren’t required by SB1303 as long as the CDC continues to recommend universal masking in schools.

Yes, I agree that the GA can change the law but it seems this is what Chap should do — his job — instead of sending insulting and political letters out to a superintendent.

Also I have a little question about whether the GA can even delve into this level of managing schools given the state constitution. I don’t think anyone challenged SB1303 because all the districts wanted to go in person anyway.

Based on what part of the constitution? Because the judge in Arlington said that the General Assembly makes the laws that control the school boards. See the temporary restraining order against the EO issued by the Arlington Judge here: https://twitter.com/KarlFrischFCPS/status/1489698865079066624/photo/1

Article VIII, Section 7. And the opinion stated that “abundant case law has developed in Virginia deferring to the judgment and decisions of local school boards regarding the safety and welfare of its students and generally acknowledging local school board authority to supervise its schools.” The GA is supposed to ensure a high quality of educational program (so they come up with the standards of quality and model curriculum) but the local school boards deal with safety and welfare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

This assumes mask mandates work against respiratory diseases, but we have RCTs on RCTs to prove that they don't, which is why we never masked against flu and RSV before. For ex: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

No it isn't. It's still classified as a pandemic.

Where do people get the idea that it is endemic? Endemic viruses don't cause 10K deaths daily worldwide. When was the last time a COLD caused 2000 daily US deaths and 70 deaths in kids under 18 in one month alone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

No it isn't. It's still classified as a pandemic.

Where do people get the idea that it is endemic? Endemic viruses don't cause 10K deaths daily worldwide. When was the last time a COLD caused 2000 daily US deaths and 70 deaths in kids under 18 in one month alone?

Places with high vaccination rates are declaring it endemic. See: Denmark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

Nobody ever cared about some classmate's grandma dying from a mild flu your kid was spreading when you send them to school after medicating their low grade fever with some Tylenol. Had anyone quaranteened their kid for at least 5 days from teh onset of mild cold/flu symptoms? Never. The lives of the immune compromised, chronically ill, or elderly or vulnerable kids never mattered so much before for some reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all political phrasing and capitalization like “Forced Masking” and “Forever Maskers.” It’s such political BS and is tearing apart our community. No one wants to mask forever. Some people want science-based end to masking instead of “parent’s rights” political strategy. We also want schools to stay in person and not close due to staffing shortages if there is another highly contagious variant.

There never will be "science based" end to masking because there always will be respiratory viruses dangerous for the vulnerable and they had always been. Covid is endemic at this point, but it will keep coming back every season with flu and colds. If we want to be "science based" and cannot allow any vulnerable person at all to contract these easily communicable diseases then we should mask every single year for about 5 months. I know many of you are ready for this and would approve. But many of us don't want any of this and tired of hypocricy when none of you mask crazies ever cared about sending your sick kids to school all these years before Covid knowing very well that flu and colds and strep and other viruses do kill vulnerable people who could live in the same households.

Nobody ever cared about some classmate's grandma dying from a mild flu your kid was spreading when you send them to school after medicating their low grade fever with some Tylenol. Had anyone quaranteened their kid for at least 5 days from teh onset of mild cold/flu symptoms? Never. The lives of the immune compromised, chronically ill, or elderly or vulnerable kids never mattered so much before for some reason.

Again, when did the flu cause as much death and illness (since 1917 at least?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted on the non FCPS thread by mistake.

He is playing politics by using the weirdly capitalized phrase “Forced Masking.” Also by calling Dr. Brabrand Mr. Brabrand.

I think his district just changed and I don’t think his new constituents are on board with his political posturing.

Also, state law requires districts comply with CDC guidance to the maximum extent practicable. CDC still recommends I universal masks in schools. Why does he want schools to break the law?

Schools who refuse to comply with Governor Younkin’s lawful executive order are breaking the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a constituent and this is outrageous. He has no right to give covid to my unvaccinated 2 year old, which is what will certainly happen if my elementary schooler is around unmasked children. I will actively support any primary challenger he faces. Masks protect people and are just not a big deal!

Are you saying that your elementary schooler has never been around an unmasked child this whole time? Somehow I doubt that he/she is masked ALL THE TIME. If you had been having unmasked playdates, dining indoors with unmasked people (with or without your kids) you are a hypocrite, because your child is exposed anyway. Now you want this little power trip over other kids to be obliged to protect you when you hadn't lived in a bunker this entire time either.

Nope, no unmasked indoor playdates, no indoor dining for anyone in the family. We are doing everything we can to be sure that no one in the family gets covid prior to getting vaccinated. We don't want to end up with some unknown awful complication many years hence.

I have a child too young to be vaccinated, who ended up getting Covid from their elementary age sibling who brought it home from school with masking in place. I personally think masks should be worn until community spread it back to lower levels (which it will be this spring), but it’s important to grasp the reality that sending your older child to in person school, with or without a mask mandate, increases your younger child’s risk of getting Covid. Wearing masks probably doesn’t reduce that risk as ki h as you want to believe. I’m not saying you should keep your older child home from school, just that you should be more accurate in your risk assessment. You should also consider whether you avoid other activities that pose a similar risk of an adverse outcome, or if you accept those other risks as part of living.

You would probably be less angry about the behavior of other people who you can’t control if you assess risk more realistically. In an ideal world everyone would care and want to have protected my 4 year old from Covid. It is not the world we live in. At the end of the day the only one who can take action to reduce my child’s risk is me. I can’t spend my life being angry at other people and expecting them to wait until a vaccine is available for the youngest group. In a similar vein, I am not willing to wait until immune compromised people feel totally safe in the world because no one knows when that will be. Everyone needs to be a little more honest about what they’re willing to give up for others. I am willing to bet that you aren’t willing to keep doing what you’re doing for years just so some other group of people can have a reduced risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a constituent and this is outrageous. He has no right to give covid to my unvaccinated 2 year old, which is what will certainly happen if my elementary schooler is around unmasked children. I will actively support any primary challenger he faces. Masks protect people and are just not a big deal!

Are you saying that your elementary schooler has never been around an unmasked child this whole time? Somehow I doubt that he/she is masked ALL THE TIME. If you had been having unmasked playdates, dining indoors with unmasked people (with or without your kids) you are a hypocrite, because your child is exposed anyway. Now you want this little power trip over other kids to be obliged to protect you when you hadn't lived in a bunker this entire time either.

Nope, no unmasked indoor playdates, no indoor dining for anyone in the family. We are doing everything we can to be sure that no one in the family gets covid prior to getting vaccinated. We don't want to end up with some unknown awful complication many years hence.

I have a child too young to be vaccinated, who ended up getting Covid from their elementary age sibling who brought it home from school with masking in place. I personally think masks should be worn until community spread it back to lower levels (which it will be this spring), but it’s important to grasp the reality that sending your older child to in person school, with or without a mask mandate, increases your younger child’s risk of getting Covid. Wearing masks probably doesn’t reduce that risk as ki h as you want to believe. I’m not saying you should keep your older child home from school, just that you should be more accurate in your risk assessment. You should also consider whether you avoid other activities that pose a similar risk of an adverse outcome, or if you accept those other risks as part of living.

You would probably be less angry about the behavior of other people who you can’t control if you assess risk more realistically. In an ideal world everyone would care and want to have protected my 4 year old from Covid. It is not the world we live in. At the end of the day the only one who can take action to reduce my child’s risk is me. I can’t spend my life being angry at other people and expecting them to wait until a vaccine is available for the youngest group. In a similar vein, I am not willing to wait until immune compromised people feel totally safe in the world because no one knows when that will be. Everyone needs to be a little more honest about what they’re willing to give up for others. I am willing to bet that you aren’t willing to keep doing what you’re doing for years just so some other group of people can have a reduced risk.

Not PP, but thanks for being so compassionate and yet thoughtful. Rare on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Covid numbers in schools mirrors community spread. If you want your kids to go to school safely, then you have to not eat indoors, travel on holiday, go to sporting events, go to the gym or go to parties. No one I know is willing to stop doing that - even if they strongly support mask mandates. It makes no sense.