4.4 percent of MCPS staff report having COVID

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once all staff take the required rapid test I assume the numbers will go up.

What required rapid test? Nothing has been required. Staff can’t even get a test at school if a staff member wants one. There’s not enough tests.

This. These numbers are way undercounted. I’d love to know the positivity rate is. Over 5% in the community calls for additional restrictions, per the actual experts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number is absolutely an undercount, considering most people can't even find a test in the last few days, and considering the exponential rise of infection.

Of course it is undercounted. Given the high number of asymptomatic infections, we've typically assumed total infections are 2x or 3x higher than the cases from tests. We might be higher than that this time.

All that does is further emphasize that we don't need to worry about something that everyone is getting.

Not the right takeaway if you’re an intelligent adult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you cannot make your point in a couple sentences it’s not a point worth making because no one will read it.

Plenty of us will read it. Sorry if you have a Facebook attention span, but that’s a you problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For goodness sake.

I should have made quitting DCUM my New Year's resolution. Maybe there's still time.

That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work.

Source? Proof?

I can tell you that from Dec 24 to Jan 2, parents at my ES got 6 notifications for different staff members that had COVID. The MCPS pdf that circulated yesterday said we had 2 staff cases.

Regardless, MCPS is still doing a 10-day quarantine, correct? If so, 10 days from Dec 24 is exactly Jan 3, but any later than Dec 24, the person may still be in quarantine.

Just looking at this data point, it strikes me how these numbers mimic the community maps of COVID (by zip code) which might be indicative of lesser vacations and access to boosters. MCPS should work with DHHS to increase vaccinations and boosters for these communities.

...what? The data point that shows that most schools are very close to each other, especially with regard to raw numbers? Enough that the variation between 9 (Whitman) and 11 (Wheaton) could easily be explained by random chance? Even 7 (Churchill) vs 13 (Gaithersburg). It's almost double, but it's also only 6 people.

This is a really small sample size and very small actual numbers. At most, there is a small association. And maybe there is a correlation if some of these staff members got it from their student populations before break.

But you do realize that teachers and staff don't often live very near the schools they teach at anymore, right?

And these are staff numbers. These aren't a special population of poor, disadvantaged people who need more outreach and vaccine education because they live in poor, disadvantaged Silver Spring or w/e-- not on average.

In a school with 40 teachers that is less than 2 out. Very low. You're nuts.

So here's something interesting about viruses-- COVID in particular, and omicron very specifically. They-- get this-- replicate. They spread. Shocking, I know.

4% becomes 8% quite quickly, which becomes 16% pretty quickly, too, and then 32%. Without mitigation efforts, anyway. Then maybe things slow down a bit because of overlapping exposures and fewer hosts and so on. But it doesn't stop at 4% or even 8%.

When you start with a number that's already the number of typical absences during flu season-- and you're not counting additional people out with colds and flus-- and the disease is far more contagious-- that's not so good.

Barring some quirk, like another week of snow days, it's not going to stop at 4%.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, "Wait two weeks, that's what you said about X and Y and Z, I don't believe you..." Do you believe that it's never true that things will get worse in a week or two? Do you think we haven't already seen that happening with omicron, and rapidly?

The silver lining here, and a big reason that virtual should be appealing, is that it should blow through in just a few total weeks. But if we have kids in virtual during the worst of it, that will actually save lives and reduce disability among our population down the line. Sigh.

You are writing an educated analysis on a forum where education in not valued. This forum is only for people that want their children out of the house. They do not value education, learning, knowledge or analysis. They only value the removal of their children from their lives. Location is not important.

THIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For goodness sake.

I should have made quitting DCUM my New Year's resolution. Maybe there's still time.

That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work.

Source? Proof?

I can tell you that from Dec 24 to Jan 2, parents at my ES got 6 notifications for different staff members that had COVID. The MCPS pdf that circulated yesterday said we had 2 staff cases.

Regardless, MCPS is still doing a 10-day quarantine, correct? If so, 10 days from Dec 24 is exactly Jan 3, but any later than Dec 24, the person may still be in quarantine.

Just looking at this data point, it strikes me how these numbers mimic the community maps of COVID (by zip code) which might be indicative of lesser vacations and access to boosters. MCPS should work with DHHS to increase vaccinations and boosters for these communities.

...what? The data point that shows that most schools are very close to each other, especially with regard to raw numbers? Enough that the variation between 9 (Whitman) and 11 (Wheaton) could easily be explained by random chance? Even 7 (Churchill) vs 13 (Gaithersburg). It's almost double, but it's also only 6 people.

This is a really small sample size and very small actual numbers. At most, there is a small association. And maybe there is a correlation if some of these staff members got it from their student populations before break.

But you do realize that teachers and staff don't often live very near the schools they teach at anymore, right?

And these are staff numbers. These aren't a special population of poor, disadvantaged people who need more outreach and vaccine education because they live in poor, disadvantaged Silver Spring or w/e-- not on average.

In a school with 40 teachers that is less than 2 out. Very low. You're nuts.

So here's something interesting about viruses-- COVID in particular, and omicron very specifically. They-- get this-- replicate. They spread. Shocking, I know.

4% becomes 8% quite quickly, which becomes 16% pretty quickly, too, and then 32%. Without mitigation efforts, anyway. Then maybe things slow down a bit because of overlapping exposures and fewer hosts and so on. But it doesn't stop at 4% or even 8%.

When you start with a number that's already the number of typical absences during flu season-- and you're not counting additional people out with colds and flus-- and the disease is far more contagious-- that's not so good.

Barring some quirk, like another week of snow days, it's not going to stop at 4%.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, "Wait two weeks, that's what you said about X and Y and Z, I don't believe you..." Do you believe that it's never true that things will get worse in a week or two? Do you think we haven't already seen that happening with omicron, and rapidly?

The silver lining here, and a big reason that virtual should be appealing, is that it should blow through in just a few total weeks. But if we have kids in virtual during the worst of it, that will actually save lives and reduce disability among our population down the line. Sigh.

You are writing an educated analysis on a forum where education in not valued. This forum is only for people that want their children out of the house. They do not value education, learning, knowledge or analysis. They only value the removal of their children from their lives. Location is not important.

That's not true. It's for incessant whiners like you as well. Look, you're contributing some whine right now.

I KNOW you obsessive Open Schools people aren’t calling OTHER people “obsessive whiners.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For goodness sake.

I should have made quitting DCUM my New Year's resolution. Maybe there's still time.

That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work.

Source? Proof?

I can tell you that from Dec 24 to Jan 2, parents at my ES got 6 notifications for different staff members that had COVID. The MCPS pdf that circulated yesterday said we had 2 staff cases.

Regardless, MCPS is still doing a 10-day quarantine, correct? If so, 10 days from Dec 24 is exactly Jan 3, but any later than Dec 24, the person may still be in quarantine.

Just looking at this data point, it strikes me how these numbers mimic the community maps of COVID (by zip code) which might be indicative of lesser vacations and access to boosters. MCPS should work with DHHS to increase vaccinations and boosters for these communities.

...what? The data point that shows that most schools are very close to each other, especially with regard to raw numbers? Enough that the variation between 9 (Whitman) and 11 (Wheaton) could easily be explained by random chance? Even 7 (Churchill) vs 13 (Gaithersburg). It's almost double, but it's also only 6 people.

This is a really small sample size and very small actual numbers. At most, there is a small association. And maybe there is a correlation if some of these staff members got it from their student populations before break.

But you do realize that teachers and staff don't often live very near the schools they teach at anymore, right?

And these are staff numbers. These aren't a special population of poor, disadvantaged people who need more outreach and vaccine education because they live in poor, disadvantaged Silver Spring or w/e-- not on average.

In a school with 40 teachers that is less than 2 out. Very low. You're nuts.

So here's something interesting about viruses-- COVID in particular, and omicron very specifically. They-- get this-- replicate. They spread. Shocking, I know.

4% becomes 8% quite quickly, which becomes 16% pretty quickly, too, and then 32%. Without mitigation efforts, anyway. Then maybe things slow down a bit because of overlapping exposures and fewer hosts and so on. But it doesn't stop at 4% or even 8%.

When you start with a number that's already the number of typical absences during flu season-- and you're not counting additional people out with colds and flus-- and the disease is far more contagious-- that's not so good.

Barring some quirk, like another week of snow days, it's not going to stop at 4%.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, "Wait two weeks, that's what you said about X and Y and Z, I don't believe you..." Do you believe that it's never true that things will get worse in a week or two? Do you think we haven't already seen that happening with omicron, and rapidly?

The silver lining here, and a big reason that virtual should be appealing, is that it should blow through in just a few total weeks. But if we have kids in virtual during the worst of it, that will actually save lives and reduce disability among our population down the line. Sigh.

You are writing an educated analysis on a forum where education in not valued. This forum is only for people that want their children out of the house. They do not value education, learning, knowledge or analysis. They only value the removal of their children from their lives. Location is not important.

How ridiculous of a comment to make. Kids learn better at school, for the most part. That's why there are lots of studies showing learning loss from last years virtual learning. Also, not everyone should be staying at home because home is not safe.

And when we’re not in a spike of a highly transmissible variant, great, they can “learn better at school.”

And sorry, but schools are not responsible for addressing all of the world’s ills. But feel free to sign up and sub if you demand buildings be open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except that all schools had trouble filling in with subs before the break - where do you think they are magically going to come from to cover for those teachers? Schools were already doubling up for classes, eliminating planning periods for teachers as they covered for their peers.

Why didn’t Central Office work during winter break to hire additional staff? There were new graduates as colleges held winter commencements. Perhaps new graduates would help fill the substitute rolls or permanent hires.

Oh yeh - Dr. McKnight gave administrators an extra week of vacation. That was more important than dealing with staffing shortages and developing a current plan for the impact of a new COVID variant.

No one is applying over winter break.

And gee, I wonder why new grads aren’t rushing to jump into total chaos and Omicron soup NOW NOW NOW.

What a mystery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cannot make your point in a couple sentences it’s not a point worth making because no one will read it.

That makes perfect sense in a forum where an OP will post something like, "My 6-year-old is bored on weekends-- what activities would you suggest for an only child?"

And more than one response will be like: "Why are you scheduling your teens' weekends for them? My kids just play video games with each other, it's fine."

Post length is not the primary factor when it comes to what people choose to ignore, and why.

Most of it is their own cognitive bias, which is why every. single. thread. in the MCPS forum devolves into the same bickering with the same overwarmed arguments. The post could be specifically about, I don't know, current staff positives, and 2 pages in, it's about basement-dwellers, "Monifa" and free babysitting.

But, hey, at least it's in nice, easy-to-read "couple-sentence" bites!

Long post writing person is defensive and likes projection!

How do you know? You were incapable of reading it, since it was more than two sentences.

[Anonymous]

+1000 to the prior two posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it interesting that some schools have many more cases of COVID among staff than others.
Are safety protocols such as masks being followed?
Are staff eating lunch or going out together for maskless social events after work?
How well are the ventilation measures in these schools?
Are vaccination rates low among students and staff?

The extremes of the spread in some schools but relatively low numbers of COVID in other schools seems odd unless there’s an underlying risk for higher rates of transmission in specific schools.

Honey, these teachers have been on winter break. Same as families. Travel, socializing, restaurants. Majority of staff are vaccinated. We need to stop relying on vaccines to save us.

Perhaps it’s time to also point out those who want schools to close because of exposure risk, but then go out to eat and watch a moving on a theater.

The scientist in me is puzzled by the differences in the numbers within the schools. I would think the DHHS would want to comb through the numbers to see if safety protocols for staff and students could be improved.

If I were the teacher union or a parent, would you want to know if the air filtration is inadequate and needs fixing hence why one school rate of transmission is higher than another?

If I was in DHHS, do these schools represent pockets in the community that have been denied an opportunity for testing, vaccinations, and boosters because they can’t take off work. Does the county need to make testing and shots more accessible in these pockets?

The disparity in the data is something someone should comb through as a matter of public health and safety. Yes I know COVID is here, but learning to live with the virus is learning how to decrease community transmission. Sick employees can’t work, sick students can’t go to schools, and any family sick with COVID means the whole house needs to quarantine which is especially hard on hourly laborers.

I

So, you just want more theater? We have plenty of opportunities for testing and vaccines/boosters. You can get them all over the place at different times. You are making up excuses.

What needs to stop is behavior. That is what is spreading it.

HAHAHAHA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except that all schools had trouble filling in with subs before the break - where do you think they are magically going to come from to cover for those teachers? Schools were already doubling up for classes, eliminating planning periods for teachers as they covered for their peers.

Why didn’t Central Office work during winter break to hire additional staff? There were new graduates as colleges held winter commencements. Perhaps new graduates would help fill the substitute rolls or permanent hires.

Oh yeh - Dr. McKnight gave administrators an extra week of vacation. That was more important than dealing with staffing shortages and developing a current plan for the impact of a new COVID variant.

No one is applying over winter break.

And gee, I wonder why new grads aren’t rushing to jump into total chaos and Omicron soup NOW NOW NOW.

What a mystery.

What are you talking about? You’re spamming this board with incoherent hysteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For goodness sake.

I should have made quitting DCUM my New Year's resolution. Maybe there's still time.

That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work.

Source? Proof?

I can tell you that from Dec 24 to Jan 2, parents at my ES got 6 notifications for different staff members that had COVID. The MCPS pdf that circulated yesterday said we had 2 staff cases.

Regardless, MCPS is still doing a 10-day quarantine, correct? If so, 10 days from Dec 24 is exactly Jan 3, but any later than Dec 24, the person may still be in quarantine.

Just looking at this data point, it strikes me how these numbers mimic the community maps of COVID (by zip code) which might be indicative of lesser vacations and access to boosters. MCPS should work with DHHS to increase vaccinations and boosters for these communities.

...what? The data point that shows that most schools are very close to each other, especially with regard to raw numbers? Enough that the variation between 9 (Whitman) and 11 (Wheaton) could easily be explained by random chance? Even 7 (Churchill) vs 13 (Gaithersburg). It's almost double, but it's also only 6 people.

This is a really small sample size and very small actual numbers. At most, there is a small association. And maybe there is a correlation if some of these staff members got it from their student populations before break.

But you do realize that teachers and staff don't often live very near the schools they teach at anymore, right?

And these are staff numbers. These aren't a special population of poor, disadvantaged people who need more outreach and vaccine education because they live in poor, disadvantaged Silver Spring or w/e-- not on average.

In a school with 40 teachers that is less than 2 out. Very low. You're nuts.

So here's something interesting about viruses-- COVID in particular, and omicron very specifically. They-- get this-- replicate. They spread. Shocking, I know.

4% becomes 8% quite quickly, which becomes 16% pretty quickly, too, and then 32%. Without mitigation efforts, anyway. Then maybe things slow down a bit because of overlapping exposures and fewer hosts and so on. But it doesn't stop at 4% or even 8%.

When you start with a number that's already the number of typical absences during flu season-- and you're not counting additional people out with colds and flus-- and the disease is far more contagious-- that's not so good.

Barring some quirk, like another week of snow days, it's not going to stop at 4%.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, "Wait two weeks, that's what you said about X and Y and Z, I don't believe you..." Do you believe that it's never true that things will get worse in a week or two? Do you think we haven't already seen that happening with omicron, and rapidly?

The silver lining here, and a big reason that virtual should be appealing, is that it should blow through in just a few total weeks. But if we have kids in virtual during the worst of it, that will actually save lives and reduce disability among our population down the line. Sigh.

You are writing an educated analysis on a forum where education in not valued. This forum is only for people that want their children out of the house. They do not value education, learning, knowledge or analysis. They only value the removal of their children from their lives. Location is not important.

That's not true. It's for incessant whiners like you as well. Look, you're contributing some whine right now.

I KNOW you obsessive Open Schools people aren’t calling OTHER people “obsessive whiners.”

You’re putting on a whining exhibition right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work. Stop with your fear mongering attempts to shut down the schools.

It doesn’t include those who have it now who don’t have symptoms yet, those who can’t find tests and those who will remain asymptomatic but who will pass it along to others.

So pipe down with the whole deadly virus isn’t a big deal. MCPS has downplayed the numbers all along and even more so during the break.

If you lost a dear family member to covid, you’d feel differently.
Your unfortunate combination of ignorance and selfishness is why we are in this mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work. Stop with your fear mongering attempts to shut down the schools.

It doesn’t include those who have it now who don’t have symptoms yet, those who can’t find tests and those who will remain asymptomatic but who will pass it along to others.

So pipe down with the whole deadly virus isn’t a big deal. MCPS has downplayed the numbers all along and even more so during the break.

If you lost a dear family member to covid, you’d feel differently.
Your unfortunate combination of ignorance and selfishness is why we are in this mess.

Yeah, PP is responsible and why we’re in this mess. Report them to MCPS so that we can end this the global pandemic tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That number includes some who tested positive at the beginning of winter break and who are now out of the quarantine stage and able to return to work. Stop with your fear mongering attempts to shut down the schools.

It doesn’t include those who have it now who don’t have symptoms yet, those who can’t find tests and those who will remain asymptomatic but who will pass it along to others.

So pipe down with the whole deadly virus isn’t a big deal. MCPS has downplayed the numbers all along and even more so during the break.

If you lost a dear family member to covid, you’d feel differently.
Your unfortunate combination of ignorance and selfishness is why we are in this mess.

I understand you are sad, and perhaps also mad, but that’s no reason to take it out on kids. You should refocus your energy on mitigations targetting higher risk groups than kids at school.