Reply to So realistically, when do you think somewhat normal full time f2f education will resume?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Fall 2021, sadly. There are two ways I think they'd be open to full-time F2F:

1. Everyone vaccinated. Even if we have  vaccine by the end of this year, it will take at least 6 months to vaccinate 330 million people.
2. Rapid testing (like, answer in an hour). Then if any kid shows symptoms, test the whole classroom the same day, so you have results before they even go home.

#2 requires a higher level of acceptance of risk. Based on watching the BOE meeting earlier this week, I'm skeptical MCPS will even be open to this should it be possible.
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At a certain point though, they can't just continue keeping kids out of school because they simply don't want to take on any risk. I think probably a whole academic year with the hybrid option will be OK (I mean it's not great but it's something) but anything longer than that is going to break the entire educational system. Kids will be at least a year behind and it's just going to be absolutely terrible. [/quote]

Really, kids will be a year behind? They will learn absolutely nothing during DL? All these parents criticizing DL probably just never had much insight into how much their children learned or didn’t learn in regular school. All of a sudden their lives will be ruined by a year of substandard learning, justifying the need to risk the lives of teachers, parents, grandparents, and yes also some children. The selfishness of people is beyond belief. Get your childcare another way without endangering others. [/quote]

Stupid tw*t, my kid is 15 years old and needs zero child care but an EDUCATION. [/quote]

And they are getting one to the best of the public school system’s abilities and in consideration of public health. Your child is in more need of a parent who cares about needs other than their own and doesn’t call people names on the internet. Be a role model instead of throwing tantrums. [/quote]

NP. Since you mention caring about the needs of others - there are millions of kids and families in this country who are not in a position to provide either the educational support or the - yes - childcare schools are expected to provide. This isn't about DCUMers' "tantrums", this is about policy and the social ramifications of prolonged school closures, which are grave for millions, and likely are not outweighed by the actual benefit they have for stemming the pandemic and "saving lives". This is what is so infuriating about how this is being approached, if you think beyond your own little privileged world. Aside from that, though, it's also legitimate even for privileged parents to be concerned about the effects of this on their own kids, especially if you don't believe that school closures will have a significant impact on overall mortality.[/quote]

You mean those millions who also are more likely to live with elderly relatives that will get infected when kids are back at school? Anyway, since you don’t *believe* that school closures have any effect, there is nothing to discuss. You should really have led with that. [/quote]

Reading is fundamental. I did not say they don't have any effect. I said that their beneficial effects likely don't outweigh their negative effects in the long run. There are many experts who have raised this concern by now, and their voices will only grow louder. It's the conversation we need to have.

Just as an example, IF the early estimate by the Imperial College (who generally issued dire predictions) is correct that opening schools might increase overall deaths by 2-4% (we don't know if that's the case, but say it is), does such an increase in mortality warrant the enormous costs of school closures to millions of kids and society? Especially if the vast majority of those deaths would be among the elderly and already ill? That is a question for bioethicists that is not easy to answer.[/quote]

Yeah,[b] “no significant impact on mortality” is not the same as saying that the benefits don’t outweigh the costs.[/b] Also, this is not what bioethicists do, they research the ethics of bio research, e.g. stem cells etc. I just hope you are not in a position to influence things as you seem to be ready to condemn the elderly and the already ill to not just any, but a horrible death. [/quote]

Right, those are two separate parts of the argument. But "no significant impact on mortality" doesn't mean the closures have "no effect", which is what you claimed I said. It means that the effect will likely not be large, and probably not big enough to justify the overall harms. We can debate whether they will or not, and then whether the benefits outweigh the harms, but the fact is, nobody knows what impact school closures have in THIS pandemic. Experience from past flu pandemics (where schools were closed for much shorter periods of time) is of limited value, because the flu is much more transmissible by children and affects the age groups who generally populate schools more severely.[/quote]

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