Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:schools - which are essential - should be the last to shut down to in-person.

non-essential businesses should be the first to close.

the public should be irate if schools shut down before non-essential businesses.

It's OK.

Schools, non-essential businesses and even essential businesses are probably going to shut down due to lack of staff within the next three to four weeks, but it won't be forever. Just until staff get better!

I doubt it. MCPS has been clear they will not shut down except if Hogan shuts them down.

Hogan is full steam ahead. Sorry ladies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for MCPS. I was sweating bullets. Glad Dr. McKnight has the courage to do what’s right for the kids for once.

+1
thank goodness mcps is at long last doing what's right. those who are too afraid should stay home or take their kids out during lunch.

It is not what is right. What is right is doing more in terms of testing, social distancing and caution. Parents like you are to blame for this being out of control as you don't care.

Be quiet and sit down lunatic. We’ve done our part. Be scared for life. Stay home, forever. Lock yourself away. You won’t be missed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:schools - which are essential - should be the last to shut down to in-person.

non-essential businesses should be the first to close.

the public should be irate if schools shut down before non-essential businesses.

It's OK.

Schools, non-essential businesses and even essential businesses are probably going to shut down due to lack of staff within the next three to four weeks, but it won't be forever. Just until staff get better!

I doubt it. MCPS has been clear they will not shut down except if Hogan shuts them down.

Anonymous wrote:If the schools open when community spread is so high and just after people get back from holiday travel and gatherings, couldn’t this lead to staffing issues and temporary closings as more students, teachers and staff test positive and get sick? I am looking at the same data that has been posted, along with the regional and Baltimore area hospital alerts. I’m not sure so many people getting ill so quickly is a good idea. The denominator is huge, even if severity for vaccinated/boostered is lower.

Just today, I talked to two local businesses with half their staff out sick. Obviously, I don’t want schools to close, but it seems they could quickly reach the metric for closing. I would be curious if the health department predicted odds and timing on that scenario.

Wouldn't it be great if parents volunteered to fill in.

Parents wanted no virtual, MCPS promised that and is now honoring their promise.

Anonymous wrote:schools - which are essential - should be the last to shut down to in-person.

non-essential businesses should be the first to close.

the public should be irate if schools shut down before non-essential businesses.

It's OK.

Schools, non-essential businesses and even essential businesses are probably going to shut down due to lack of staff within the next three to four weeks, but it won't be forever. Just until staff get better!

Anonymous wrote:If the schools open when community spread is so high and just after people get back from holiday travel and gatherings, couldn’t this lead to staffing issues and temporary closings as more students, teachers and staff test positive and get sick? I am looking at the same data that has been posted, along with the regional and Baltimore area hospital alerts. I’m not sure so many people getting ill so quickly is a good idea. The denominator is huge, even if severity for vaccinated/boostered is lower.

Just today, I talked to two local businesses with half their staff out sick. Obviously, I don’t want schools to close, but it seems they could quickly reach the metric for closing. I would be curious if the health department predicted odds and timing on that scenario.

I'm not the health department, but I predict if kids go to school Monday, many will be sick by Friday.

Teachers who are able to eat and drink in well ventilated areas on their own but otherwise keep good KN95 or N95 masks on all the time will be less likely to be infected BUT if they have their own kids in schools, their kids are likely to get sick and then infect then the next week or two.

This is the kind of explosive spread we saw happening in DC and PGCPS the last week before Christmas Break. It just hit us a bit earlier than it hit you.

It's not the end of the world. But it will probably unnerve some parents as I don't think they are expecting this. The kids will mostly be fine, especially if they are vaccinated. The people I've heard of who are getting very sick are more the overweight adults and of course, anyone unvaccinated or without a recent booster.

schools - which are essential - should be the last to shut down to in-person.

non-essential businesses should be the first to close.

the public should be irate if schools shut down before non-essential businesses.

If the schools open when community spread is so high and just after people get back from holiday travel and gatherings, couldn’t this lead to staffing issues and temporary closings as more students, teachers and staff test positive and get sick? I am looking at the same data that has been posted, along with the regional and Baltimore area hospital alerts. I’m not sure so many people getting ill so quickly is a good idea. The denominator is huge, even if severity for vaccinated/boostered is lower.

Just today, I talked to two local businesses with half their staff out sick. Obviously, I don’t want schools to close, but it seems they could quickly reach the metric for closing. I would be curious if the health department predicted odds and timing on that scenario.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good for MCPS. I was sweating bullets. Glad Dr. McKnight has the courage to do what’s right for the kids for once.

+1
thank goodness mcps is at long last doing what's right. those who are too afraid should stay home or take their kids out during lunch.

It is not what is right. What is right is doing more in terms of testing, social distancing and caution. Parents like you are to blame for this being out of control as you don't care.

Anonymous wrote:On a day that we had the most number of cases reported in the county ever -- over 2,000.

Should be an interesting ride.

Lol cry about it !!!! Hahahaha

I wished they arranged testing for MCPS students similar to what they are doing for teachers. They encourage testing prior to return to school but every where I check says no tests available.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't have time to read through it all after all the other related threads. If they are keeping the 5% unrelated positive rate rule, and if some aren't testing or reporting, then they need to ask an epidemiologist and a statistician to quickly come up with a proxy for the 5% based only on those that DO report so that the system can't be gamed to keep a school open when it shouldn't be (or game the system the other way, either).

Statistician here. Testing needs to be mandatory. Sample is currently biased. Either get fully vaccinated or do on-site testing weekly. Those are the choices in most of corporate america now; not sure why it cannot happen in schools.

It can happen but they were hoping parents would voluntarily sign up. Those who know their kids could be positive are not signing up. They should have a weekly test to stay program. Don't test, your kids stay home that week. Simple. Assume everyone is positive until they provide a negative result.

Fully vaccinated is silly. Majority here are fully vaccinated. And, we are still having a large spread of covid. A lot of the positives are in the high schools where they are fully vaccinated.

Anonymous wrote:Good for MCPS. I was sweating bullets. Glad Dr. McKnight has the courage to do what’s right for the kids for once.

+1
thank goodness mcps is at long last doing what's right. those who are too afraid should stay home or take their kids out during lunch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's sad when DCPS has a better plan than MCPS on returning to school. MCPS won't even have tests available for a couple of weeks and does not accurately report cases anyway. Why can DCPS require testing and vaccination, while MCPS is still asking nicely to test if you feel like it and vaccinate if you're willing? Que Sera, Sera.

I agree vax should be mandatory to enroll in public school. We have a pretty high vax rate in this county among adults..don't you think most parents will vaccinate their kids anyway?

Most people in this county and we are talking MCPS are vaccinated so mandating vaccines is silly. Plus, its pretty useless as many are getting covid who are vaccinated. Vaccines help with symptoms. But, they don't make you invincible.

Parents need to be responsible. If you are traveling, dining out, doing things indoors, then don't complain.

Anonymous wrote:It's sad when DCPS has a better plan than MCPS on returning to school. MCPS won't even have tests available for a couple of weeks and does not accurately report cases anyway. Why can DCPS require testing and vaccination, while MCPS is still asking nicely to test if you feel like it and vaccinate if you're willing? Que Sera, Sera.

I agree vax should be mandatory to enroll in public school. We have a pretty high vax rate in this county among adults..don't you think most parents will vaccinate their kids anyway?