MCPS covid cases

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.[/quote

Of course it makes sense. Kids have lower vaccination rates because 5-12 year olds only recently were authorized to be vaccinated. So of course they're going to experience a larger increase in cases. Furthermore, kids are the main demographic group with pressure to frequently test. How many employers are doing random PCR testing? Or making employees that had an exposure, or that showed cold-like symptoms, produce a PCR test to go back to work?

The federal agency I work for certainly isn't doing that. Nor does the hospital that my wife works at. So you're going to catching a lot more cases among children than adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.[/quote

Of course it makes sense. Kids have lower vaccination rates because 5-12 year olds only recently were authorized to be vaccinated. So of course they're going to experience a larger increase in cases. Furthermore, kids are the main demographic group with pressure to frequently test. How many employers are doing random PCR testing? Or making employees that had an exposure, or that showed cold-like symptoms, produce a PCR test to go back to work?

The federal agency I work for certainly isn't doing that. Nor does the hospital that my wife works at. So you're going to catching a lot more cases among children than adults.

Are you saying that adults with covid symptoms can go to work without being tested? For MCPS, even we exclude MS and ES kids the uptick in HS kids is still a lot higher. The HS kids got tested because they developed symptoms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Of course it makes sense. Kids have lower vaccination rates because 5-12 year olds only recently were authorized to be vaccinated. So of course they're going to experience a larger increase in cases. Furthermore, kids are the main demographic group with pressure to frequently test. How many employers are doing random PCR testing? Or making employees that had an exposure, or that showed cold-like symptoms, produce a PCR test to go back to work?

The federal agency I work for certainly isn't doing that. Nor does the hospital that my wife works at. So you're going to catching a lot more cases among children than adults.

Are you saying that adults with covid symptoms can go to work without being tested? For MCPS, even we exclude MS and ES kids the uptick in HS kids is still a lot higher. The HS kids got tested because they developed symptoms.

I wasn't saying that. Although it is true a lot more than you'd probably like to believe. Doctors and other medical care workers are frequently expected to work through COVID symptoms. I'm even aware of cases where the group pressured doctors that had positive PCR tests to come in. Those were the most extreme, and rare, examples. But there's definitely pressure to avoid tests for mild symptoms.

What I was mostly saying was that most employees don't have policies requiring a negative test to return to the office. If you go home sick from work with an apparent cold, you can come back the next day if your symptoms are better. Kids, on the other hand, would need to produce a negative PCR test to return to school.

I don't want to be misunderstood here. I'm not claiming cases in children are inflated with false positives. I'm sure the cases being identified are true positives in the vast majority of instances. What I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of adult cases that aren't being identified because they don't need to obtain a test. So, when case rates go up, we'll see a larger increase in cases in children than adults, which probably isn't fully and accurately reflective of all cases in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Of course it makes sense. Kids have lower vaccination rates because 5-12 year olds only recently were authorized to be vaccinated. So of course they're going to experience a larger increase in cases. Furthermore, kids are the main demographic group with pressure to frequently test. How many employers are doing random PCR testing? Or making employees that had an exposure, or that showed cold-like symptoms, produce a PCR test to go back to work?

The federal agency I work for certainly isn't doing that. Nor does the hospital that my wife works at. So you're going to catching a lot more cases among children than adults.

Are you saying that adults with covid symptoms can go to work without being tested? For MCPS, even we exclude MS and ES kids the uptick in HS kids is still a lot higher. The HS kids got tested because they developed symptoms.

I wasn't saying that. Although it is true a lot more than you'd probably like to believe. Doctors and other medical care workers are frequently expected to work through COVID symptoms. I'm even aware of cases where the group pressured doctors that had positive PCR tests to come in. Those were the most extreme, and rare, examples. But there's definitely pressure to avoid tests for mild symptoms.

What I was mostly saying was that most employees don't have policies requiring a negative test to return to the office. If you go home sick from work with an apparent cold, you can come back the next day if your symptoms are better. Kids, on the other hand, would need to produce a negative PCR test to return to school.

I don't want to be misunderstood here. I'm not claiming cases in children are inflated with false positives. I'm sure the cases being identified are true positives in the vast majority of instances. What I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of adult cases that aren't being identified because they don't need to obtain a test. So, when case rates go up, we'll see a larger increase in cases in children than adults, which probably isn't fully and accurately reflective of all cases in the county.

The uptick in MCPS has a lot to do with community spread within the schools. It is possible that the higher proportion of cases at schools is due to the unavoidable crowdedness at our schools. Kids, especially high school kids, mingle more and are probably less cautious. It may not be too late for MCPS to enforce some social distancing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Of course it makes sense. Kids have lower vaccination rates because 5-12 year olds only recently were authorized to be vaccinated. So of course they're going to experience a larger increase in cases. Furthermore, kids are the main demographic group with pressure to frequently test. How many employers are doing random PCR testing? Or making employees that had an exposure, or that showed cold-like symptoms, produce a PCR test to go back to work?

The federal agency I work for certainly isn't doing that. Nor does the hospital that my wife works at. So you're going to catching a lot more cases among children than adults.

Are you saying that adults with covid symptoms can go to work without being tested? For MCPS, even we exclude MS and ES kids the uptick in HS kids is still a lot higher. The HS kids got tested because they developed symptoms.

I wasn't saying that. Although it is true a lot more than you'd probably like to believe. Doctors and other medical care workers are frequently expected to work through COVID symptoms. I'm even aware of cases where the group pressured doctors that had positive PCR tests to come in. Those were the most extreme, and rare, examples. But there's definitely pressure to avoid tests for mild symptoms.

What I was mostly saying was that most employees don't have policies requiring a negative test to return to the office. If you go home sick from work with an apparent cold, you can come back the next day if your symptoms are better. Kids, on the other hand, would need to produce a negative PCR test to return to school.

I don't want to be misunderstood here. I'm not claiming cases in children are inflated with false positives. I'm sure the cases being identified are true positives in the vast majority of instances. What I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of adult cases that aren't being identified because they don't need to obtain a test. So, when case rates go up, we'll see a larger increase in cases in children than adults, which probably isn't fully and accurately reflective of all cases in the county.

The uptick in MCPS has a lot to do with community spread within the schools. It is possible that the higher proportion of cases at schools is due to the unavoidable crowdedness at our schools. Kids, especially high school kids, mingle more and are probably less cautious. It may not be too late for MCPS to enforce some social distancing.

3ft vs 6ft distancing does not have a statistically significant impact on case rates, but does pose extremely difficult challenges for schools given that you can't just magically create more space and teachers. The CDC moved away from that along ago.

It is hard to say how much schools contribute. I'm sure they do. I'm sure activities/sports do. But we can't, or at least shouldn't, continue the most restrictive policies on the lowest risk group. And that includes the much closer focus we have on identifying cases-- particularly asymptomatic cases-- in kids versus adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

The vaccination rate in eligible kids is certainly lower. Vaccine protection for kids may wane faster. We don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Uptick everywhere that people are going inside because, baby, it's cold outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Uptick everywhere that people are going inside because, baby, it's cold outside.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The uptick in MCPS has a lot to do with community spread within the schools. It is possible that the higher proportion of cases at schools is due to the unavoidable crowdedness at our schools. Kids, especially high school kids, mingle more and are probably less cautious. It may not be too late for MCPS to enforce some social distancing.

Yes, it is too late. Way too late. The kids need to be in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

I'm not an expert, but I think the pattern is similar to last year (even though vaccines weren't yet available). We have more people gathering indoors without masks, which increases cases. Add to that declining efficacy of vaccines, unboosted teens engaging in maskless activities, and maybe the beginning of Omicron, although most cases now are still Delta. While the vaccines are still effective to prevent severe illness, they are not working as well to prevent cases, and behavior with greater risk (anything maskless indoors) is likely to increase community spread. We don't know what the case numbers are but assume that they have increased considerably in the past two weeks. Add in Thanksgiving travel and gatherings, and we are at a similar point as last holiday season, albeit with better protection from serious disease for those who are vaccinated.

Its actually worse than last year as we know better. MCPS isn't to blame. Parents wanted schools open 100% in person so there was no way to do things like distancing. Some parents are refusing testing. Some parents send in their kids sick. Many parents allow their kids to socialize unmasked indoors. Many parents are back to life as normal with no precautions nor any expectations for their kids to take precautions. It was only a matter of time for this to happen and we'll have an upswing till February as people are going to continue to behave in an unsafe way. Slowly the holiday stuff will be over and things will slow down and a surge a spring break and then things will get better as people move outdoors some again. People are putting their 100% faith in the vaccines and don't care if they catch or spread covid as they want to believe severe illness will not happen to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The uptick in MCPS has a lot to do with community spread within the schools. It is possible that the higher proportion of cases at schools is due to the unavoidable crowdedness at our schools. Kids, especially high school kids, mingle more and are probably less cautious. It may not be too late for MCPS to enforce some social distancing.

Yes, it is too late. Way too late. The kids need to be in school.

Kids have always been in school. If you "need" your kids to be in person school for your needs, what are you willing to do to help stop the spread. It is not too late. But, it takes responsible parents to also help stop the spread and people like you aren't willing to be part of the solution and only care about your needs.

[Anonymous]

Thanksgiving gatherings. New variants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Uptick everywhere that people are going inside because, baby, it's cold outside.

This difference too is schools returned to 100% in person with no distancing and minimal precautions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Uptick everywhere that people are going inside because, baby, it's cold outside.

This difference too is schools returned to 100% in person with no distancing and minimal precautions.

We don't know that, but let's just assume it is. Particularly given the general decrease in case severity with the broad rollout of the vaccines, it is absolutely sensible to accept more cases to keep schools open to all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big uptick in covid cases in MCPS do not make sense. What has changed since September? The overall cases in MC are up somewhat for sure but the increase in MCPS is out of proportion.

Uptick everywhere that people are going inside because, baby, it's cold outside.

This difference too is schools returned to 100% in person with no distancing and minimal precautions.

We don't know that, but let's just assume it is. Particularly given the general decrease in case severity with the broad rollout of the vaccines, it is absolutely sensible to accept more cases to keep schools open to all students.

No it is not when there are outbreaks. Hire a nanny.