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Anonymous wrote:Wrong PP

Schools are open. Students may attend if they wish and simply need to wear a mask

Teachers per recent stats have been present save for this past week and an occasional miss.

But yes, let us all shut down because a small but vocal minority of parents want everyone to wait while they get comfortable with numbers.

Nope, not again, not another long shutdown that hurts the mental well-being of students.

Many of my kid's teachers got covid. That, plus sick kids, plus missing buses made for chaos. 2 weeks virtual would have been fine and helped stem the wave of omicron. No one is suggesting close schools.

Now, I agree that it is too late for a couple weeks of virtual to really help. But, kids should have the option to go virtual for the next few weeks to lessen the density and help resolve the omicron wave.

Half my kids teachers are out with covid so they spend most of the day in the cafeteria with 20% of the schoolmates doing worksheets. Virtual may have its drawbacks but seems preferable to this.

maybe for you, but half in person is better than 100% virtual, IMO.

Also, we are probably now on the downward trend of omicron. Maybe I could see going virtual for the two weeks after winter break, but it's too late now. Even if they made the decision, it would take a week or so to pivot to virtual for everyone. By that point, we will be at the tail end of omicron surge.

Half in person is better? Exactly how stupid are you? Teachers arent teaching new material BECAUSE half are out. They would have to re-teach. So the kids sitting in school are not benefiting because they are just doing busy work. How do you not understand this yet? How many people have to tell you this before you get it?

Let me spell it out for the "my child has had covid four times and they're fine" people.

I trust masking and outdoor eating. It's served us pretty well. We don't go to restaurants, but my child attended school all through the fall surge and was fine. My husband goes to the office in a mask. Also fine.

That doesn't mean I want to send my child back to sit in an auditorium with a hundred other kids. That's not learning. That's an infectious cluster. Not worth it.

When schools have the staff to teach we will be back. That could be Wednesday. It could be February.

To add onto this-I am a para. My job has been regulated to literal babysitting kids in an auditorium. There is no learning. For parents arguing, BUT SCHOOL IS FOR SOCIALIZATION! No kids are socializing. They are glued to their phones. It's actually eerily silent in there BECAUSE they aren't socializing. They arent learning. They arent socializing. They are potentially infecting other students and staff. At what point do you stop and say, "What are we doing here?" It is a disaster and people need to realize that. It's infuriating that people refuse to listen to people actually in the school buildings, who know what is going on. People keep trying their tired "teachers want to teach in jammies and not do their job". You couldnt be further from the truth, but I guess if that helps you sleep better at night.....

I am sorry for your experience. My child is in middle school with ball his teachers. No one is using phones or being herded into the cafeteria. Aside from one cancelled bus line it has been business as usual.

It’s also been business as usual at my kids high FARM, majority minority middle school…all her teachers are present and teaching and everybody in her friend group is in school. Hoping that it remains this way. She has taken the test several times and so far has always tested negative.

Anonymous wrote:Shame on us that we can't make test-to-stay happen, vaccination required happen, distanced/outdoor lunch happen, proper ventilation & filtration happen, full-content virtual for those that need it happen...

I get the general exhaustion, but it's a bit of an indictment that they could make no-work-over-winter-break happen instead of hey-this-omicron-thing-looks-a-bit-out-of-control-so-we-might-want-to-take-that-expected-to-be-planning-time-and-actually-make-a-robust-plan happen.

They improved ventilation/filtration. Requiring vaccines under EUA is a non-starter, and most kids 12 - 17 in MCPS are already vaccinated. Lunch is very dependent on individual schools and their circumstances. Test to stay, yes, they should have done more on that, for sure. "Virtual for those that need it" should only refer to those quarantined, not those who were nervous about Omicron. Nervous isn't a "need."

But really, she's right.

Anonymous wrote:McKnight is meeting with the County Council live right now. She just said, “Two years, shame on us if we can’t make in person happen.”

I’m liking her more and more.

It’s great that she can say the right things but unfortunately she has proven herself to be incompetent. As a result she cannot actually do what is needed to execute.

In-person or virtual, I don’t care. What I do care about is competence. She needs to go.

Shame on us that we can't make test-to-stay happen, vaccination required happen, distanced/outdoor lunch happen, proper ventilation & filtration happen, full-content virtual for those that need it happen...

I get the general exhaustion, but it's a bit of an indictment that they could make no-work-over-winter-break happen instead of hey-this-omicron-thing-looks-a-bit-out-of-control-so-we-might-want-to-take-that-expected-to-be-planning-time-and-actually-make-a-robust-plan happen.

McKnight is meeting with the County Council live right now. She just said, “Two years, shame on us if we can’t make in person happen.”

I’m liking her more and more.

Endorsements by 2 former BOE members, Durso & Dixon, who were principals, as well, are laden with excuses about difficult times and play the race & gender cards. McKnight is being supported by insiders, and while she may be the right person for the job (jury's still out on that), that kind of insular positioning spells a stay-the-course future.

If there is to be change that gives families agency in the public education of their kids -- transparency of data, engagement prior to decisions, actionable communication, reduction of autocracy, etc. -- whatever contract is offered (to whomever, not just to McKnight) needs to have teeth (incentives/disincentives with regard to the above) and needs not to have the kind of golden parachute that would make a dismissal too burdensome. The last thing we need is for the BOE, already low on oversight for the benefit of the public, not to have any levers to pull if performance is lacking or direction is misguided.

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Let's see if that's true in two weeks. I pray that it is.

Look. you kind of have to stop saying that.

The "just wait 2 weeks; you'll see!" doesnt hold any water anymore.

Every time some sort of children's activity has resumed, it's always been "just wait 2 weeks!"

And we always do....and we still havent had those bodies piling up in school hallways.

We're at the point, after almost 2 years, we need to put our heads down and muscle through this winter. With limited closures for classrooms or schools. You guys need to accept that. There will not be a system wide school closure.

And to be frank, the chicken little sky is falling routine is part of the reason people are so willing to tune you out now. You've cried wolf too many times.

(and I know what the response is going to be this post: "you think 800k dead is crying wolf?!?!", but we're talking about schools and students in a highly vaccinated environment. the biggest mistake we made to this pandemic was that we didn't target our mitigations. Right now, our seniors should be under lock and key and our children should be free to live their lives)

And, btw, here's the latest from NYC. 25% of its students aren't going to school


https://www.fox5ny.com/news/nyc-schools-remote-option

Before the Spanish flu mutated into an endemic virus that didn't kill or disable its host it had already mutated several times into other variants of itself that did kill or disable. The question is, do you feel lucky? Or would it behoove you to avoid getting sick?

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Anonymous wrote:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/but-i-just-had-covid-why-omicron-is-driving-up-reinfection-rate-1.4777988

that's what happens when the virus mutates, and this virus will continue to mutate. That's what happened with the Spanish flu - it mutated, became less lethal as it mutated, and is part of the influenza family. But, we don't shut down due to influenza.

That's the endemic game for covid. It will be around forever, in some way, shape or form.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/1918flupandemic.htm

Descendants of the 1918 influenza virus still circulate today, and current seasonal influenza vaccines provide some protection against the 1918 virus.

There's no magic guarantee that a virus will mutate into something less lethal. All the virus wants to do is reproduce. Populations tend to somewhat select for less lethal variants... as the more damaging ones tend to kill them or render them too disabled to function. Therefore they either die out or start avoiding the infection. But there's no evolutionary imperative for the virus to become less lethal.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/but-i-just-had-covid-why-omicron-is-driving-up-reinfection-rate-1.4777988

that's what happens when the virus mutates, and this virus will continue to mutate. That's what happened with the Spanish flu - it mutated, became less lethal as it mutated, and is part of the influenza family. But, we don't shut down due to influenza.

That's the endemic game for covid. It will be around forever, in some way, shape or form.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/1918flupandemic.htm

Descendants of the 1918 influenza virus still circulate today, and current seasonal influenza vaccines provide some protection against the 1918 virus.

Anonymous wrote:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/but-i-just-had-covid-why-omicron-is-driving-up-reinfection-rate-1.4777988

This article has no data or studies cited. No reinfection statistics for context. Just a doctor talking about how there are higher reinfection rates with omicron. What is its purpose other than to make people hysterical? It’s all the school closers have.

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Anonymous wrote:Also, "taking a week to pivot to virtual" isn't going to stop the omicron surge. In fact, it will probably further spike it as infectious kids at all the schools continue to spread covid to their peers.

All those kids who had it over Christmas are about to catch it again .

Really? All of them?
This is why people tune you out. It’s like you’re hysterical. Reinfection is not that common.

Can you show us the data?

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2108120

We don’t have any omicron studies. This is the best we have right now.
And I 100% guarantee you there will never be research that shows ALL people who had omicron will be reinfected, as PP said.

I believe the Imperial College London study, which looked at South African cases, estimated about 10-15%. It's hard to know what that means in the abstract and so I turn to the ancedotal: I know several people who've already had covid twice since November. That isn't a very long time and that concerns me.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Also, "taking a week to pivot to virtual" isn't going to stop the omicron surge. In fact, it will probably further spike it as infectious kids at all the schools continue to spread covid to their peers.

All those kids who had it over Christmas are about to catch it again .

Really? All of them?
This is why people tune you out. It’s like you’re hysterical. Reinfection is not that common.

Can you show us the data?

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2108120

We don’t have any omicron studies. This is the best we have right now.
And I 100% guarantee you there will never be research that shows ALL people who had omicron will be reinfected, as PP said.