Reply to "Without mitigation, they predict that 80% of elementary students will be infected within 2 months"

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Reply to ""Without mitigation, they predict that 80% of elementary students will be infected within 2 months""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People who post these scare-monger if threads with headlines that don’t make sense or are misleading (as many PPs have pointed out, we have many mitigation strategies in place, including mandatory vaccines for adults, masks for all, quarantines for outbreaks, social distancing), should have to explain what Plan B is.

Okay, say we close schools preemptively again because of reports like this, instead of trying mitigation and seeing that can enable us to keep schools open. Then what? How do we make sure working families have childcare? It’s not like last year when employers were understanding and more people were WFH. Now a lot of parents are back in offices and employers are explicitly requiring them to have childcare. Obviously some people can afford that but many of us can’t. Also, it’s unrealistic that everyone’s hiring a nanny or tutor, right? Which means kids will be going into group care, which is … just like school in terms of Covid risk! Plus we also still face the problems of disparate impact in learning loss, pulling lowers SES kids further and further behind. Plus the social implications for kids, which are real and get worse daily.

So fine, post these stupid context-less headlines and try to freak everyone out. But you have to explain what your alternative is then. “Close schools” is what we have been doing. Not sure if you noticed, but it has not worked. So what’s YOUR plan?[/quote]
Denying the risks of mass infection of our children is what is actually stupid. Doctors are concerned that there aren’t enough PICU beds or enough staff for the coming surge when we open schools-cities like Dallas already have ZERO available. What is your solution to that? To shrug your shoulders because you need childcare? What’s YOUR solution to the death and long term disability of children? 
The reality is that there should be no group childcare, and no in person schooling, until Delta stops spreading rampantly among the unvaccinated. [/quote]

Do your research.

1) PICU's (and ICUs generally) operate on narrow margins as a matter of course, even pre-Covid. They are often at or near capacity. That's because healthcare in this country is a business, and hospitals make careful choices about number of beds (especially expensive-to-staff-and-maintain beds, like in ICUs) in order to minimize costs and maximize profits. Be wary of the scare mongering stories that talk about hospitals being at or near capacity without talking about this. Plenty of PICUs have experienced spikes just like we are seeing now pre-Covid, due to flu season or RSV. We didn't shut down schools for that. Ask yourself why this is different.

2) You can't separate the childcare from the health & safety issue for children. They are deeply intertwined. Say we shut down schools because of the risk of Covid. Okay, we immediately put many kids at higher risk of things like child abuse, malnutrition, street violence, even car accidents. Schools are one way we keep many kids safe and fed in this country. You cannot disregard that just because your personal fear of Covid is higher than your fear of malnutrition. That's not the equation for many kids in this country.

3) If shutting down schools just forces people to place their kids in group care, what have we gained in terms of safety from the Delta variant? Why does shifting children from a group setting at school to a group setting in a private facility help? Be specific. This is precisely what I mean when I say "scare mongering". If you think we need to close schools, fine. Make the argument. But make it an actual argument that explains who it will reduce spread, and factor in things like the fact that working parents MUST have childcare and are not going to just quit their jobs to stay home with their kids. If your goal is to diminish spread, you have to account for the fact that kids are going to be in group care whether schools are open or not.

I am tired of this conversation being driven by people who just want to point at the sky and scream that it's falling, instead of by policy experts and the people actually on the front lines in schools, hospitals, and government administration. Closing schools at this point solves nothing, and perpetuates problems that have already reached critical breaking points. Focus on mitigating spread in schools. Vaccines, masks, cohosting, outdoor lunch, quarantine policies. Make these as good as they can be, make sure people follow them, create consequences for schools and individuals who don't follow them. That's the solution. "Close the schools" IS. NOT. A. SOLUTION. It's a panic attack. I am tired of dealing with your panic attacks.[/quote]

+100

I taught in person last year from November to June, without a vaccine, through the deadly winter surge. I wore two cloth masks. Panic attacks accomplish nothing. I would know, given my history of an anxiety disorder.

Keep calm and carry on! [/quote]

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