I emailed the principal, who sent the request to the health tech.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is this 90 day no PCR policy? It doesn't make sense.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html

Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can continue to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory specimens for up to 3 months after illness onset. However, replication-competent virus has not been reliably recovered and infectiousness is unlikely.

Can you find where this preliminary data has changed CDC guidelines? It is not clear that the people who still had detectable RNA were not symptomatic.

I know this seems off-topic, but I think it is relevant for people who may chose to opt-out of testing because of previous infection.

Ok, I found it! "For all others, a test-based strategy is no longer recommended except to discontinue isolation or precautions earlier than would occur under the symptom-based strategy."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is this 90 day no PCR policy? It doesn't make sense.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html

Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can continue to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory specimens for up to 3 months after illness onset. However, replication-competent virus has not been reliably recovered and infectiousness is unlikely.

Can you find where this preliminary data has changed CDC guidelines? It is not clear that the people who still had detectable RNA were not symptomatic.

I know this seems off-topic, but I think it is relevant for people who may chose to opt-out of testing because of previous infection.

Anonymous wrote:What is this 90 day no PCR policy? It doesn't make sense.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html

Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can continue to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory specimens for up to 3 months after illness onset. However, replication-competent virus has not been reliably recovered and infectiousness is unlikely.

At our school, PCRs are used for biweekly “pool” testing, and rapid tests are only given to students when they are sent to the health room with symptoms.

I think the PP misunderstood about kids being tested upon return to school. I *wish* that was happening, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no PCR testing going on in MCPS.

Magruder just informed us kids will be both PCR and rapid tested upon return.

That can’t possibly be true. Opt-in consent form covers surveillance PCR testing and rapid testing, so i suspect the messaging got bungled there. For one, there simply isn’t testing capacity to do 150,000 PCRs tests quickly.

Anonymous wrote:Just notify the school. They take them off the list. I’d that doesn’t work, they can just not show up for testing. They don’t come grab them out of class at our HS. Kids are told that they should report for testing at a certain time if opted in. Nobody notices if kids are missing.

This. I told my son to just not go for testing. Nobody hunted him down. It’s NBD.

Anonymous wrote:There's no PCR testing going on in MCPS.

Magruder just informed us kids will be both PCR and rapid tested upon return.

What is this 90 day no PCR policy? It doesn't make sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There's no PCR testing going on in MCPS.


Yes there is. You are wrong.

There is PCR testing. My elementary school student has had 3 PCR tests.

Am I going to sound like a crazy person if I ask if the PCR test is done in a well-ventilated room with a HEPA filter running and the kids are masked immediately before and after? Yes? I don't care. That needs to be standard.

Yep that’s crazy. Elementary kids each lunch and snack together without masks. They also play mask-free at recess. Also, masks don’t work unless you’re using a kn95, which would be crazy to expect a small child to wear all day long.

Just notify the school. They take them off the list. I’d that doesn’t work, they can just not show up for testing. They don’t come grab them out of class at our HS. Kids are told that they should report for testing at a certain time if opted in. Nobody notices if kids are missing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no PCR testing going on in MCPS.

Yes there is. You are wrong.

They use rapids at my kids schools.

For symptomatic kids, maybe. But the asymptomatic random weekly screening tests are PCR tests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no PCR testing going on in MCPS.

Yes there is. You are wrong.

They use rapids at my kids schools.

I emailed the principal and just received a response that they will take my kid off the testing list until I tell them to start testing her again. She had been getting weekly PCR tests at school, but tested positive at home just before Christmas, so we will pull her out of testing for 90 days, as recommended.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There's no PCR testing going on in MCPS.


Yes there is. You are wrong.

There is PCR testing. My elementary school student has had 3 PCR tests.

Am I going to sound like a crazy person if I ask if the PCR test is done in a well-ventilated room with a HEPA filter running and the kids are masked immediately before and after? Yes? I don't care. That needs to be standard.

You sure are. If you are that concerned, you should just opt your kid out of testing and test him at home yourself. Or utilize one of the free County sites.