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Anonymous wrote:Go to Rio in Gaithersburg MD the restaurants are packed with HS and College kids. It is outdoor but no one really social distancing - so why no school?

College kids usually aren’t in school by June.

In this area, seniors stop attending in May.

School is over on one week for K-11 anyway.

You missed the point the pp was making. They aren't distancing anyway so there is no reason for school not to start back in the fall.

My daughter said only Average Joe’s had seating everywhere else long lines tonight! Heck NYC opened today so folks can ride subway to work but we can sit in a class room with a face mask on

The subway in NYC never shut down. You have to wear a mask everywhere in New York, including subways and private businesses. The governor passed an executive order that businesses can deny you entry or ask you to leave if you’re not wearing a mask. New York is only “open” in the sense that manufacturing and construction are back in business. Retail stores can only open for curbside pickup, and many stores are not reopening now at all for this reason. Restaurants are still shuttered except for takeout. Gyms are closed. “Open” is relative.

They cannot shut the subway down as that is how essential workers, especially health care workers get to work. Most people don't have cars and uber/cabs are insanely expensive for long commutes.

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We should make a decision in August based on August rates of infection, what school systems have managed to do in terms of precautions, and above all else science. Not what humans impulsively do because they are bored, anti-science, or making a political statement.

You can’t wait to make a decision until August because plans need to be made and items purchased that are different they open F2F vs DL. For example, for DL teachers needs to be better trained on being effective at DL, laptops purchased for every student, WiFi hotspots given out, etc. for F2F there needs to be purchases of cleaning supplies, PPE, hire additional bus drivers, etc.

There is not enough money to pursue both options, and the scale at which either of these options needs to be deployed makes getting started sooner critical.

Waiting to see how this plays out will mean that no approach is well planned or well-executed. Unfortunately, this is what I think will happen.

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Anonymous wrote:Even Fauci said today it’s time to open schools.

Of course he means with proper precautions in place - social distancing, masking, etc. Not overcrowded, urban schools with class changing and crowded busses. There is an in-between. The rush to normalcy when NOTHING has changed about the disease baffles me.

School systems that are actually urban school systems typically don't have school buses for general-ed students. MCPS's huge school bus fleet is one of the ways you can tell that MCPS is not an urban school system, it's a suburban one.

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Anonymous wrote:Even Fauci said today it’s time to open schools.

Of course he means with proper precautions in place - social distancing, masking, etc. Not overcrowded, urban schools with class changing and crowded busses. There is an in-between. The rush to normalcy when NOTHING has changed about the disease baffles me.

Are you mind-reading now? The man can speak for himself. He said what he said. And one of the things he said is, "In some situations there will be no problem for children to go back to school. In others, you may need to do some modifications."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/us/fauci-schools-reopening-coronavirus/index.html

Anonymous wrote:Even Fauci said today it’s time to open schools.

Of course he means with proper precautions in place - social distancing, masking, etc. Not overcrowded, urban schools with class changing and crowded busses. There is an in-between. The rush to normalcy when NOTHING has changed about the disease baffles me.

Thank you. This kind of information is certainly important, scientists have to sort it out, and they will sort it out eventually. But irrespective of that, schools have to start. The implications of extended school closure are far more reaching educationally, socially, financially, emotionally, mentally. It affects directly and indirectly almost every aspect of the society.

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You can’t leave kids home alone for indefinite periods until 8 legally, so yes, low income people with little kids who count on daycare and school ARE suffering. But more importantly, their kids, who arguably benefit from school and count on school enrichment in the way UMC kids don’t have to, suffer.

Why is this okay with people? And why are we closing schools to protect a small fraction of people while the rest of population - an overwhelming number - are losing jobs, education, and suffering from other illnesses - some serious ailments - that are actually INCREASING because of the covid19 hysteria.

When nigh on 110,000 Americans have died from covid19 in just a few months, it's actually kind of despicable to refer to it as "covid19 hysteria".

Because the are 21 million (yes, million) unemployed people in the US right now.

That makes it "hysteria", how?

Covid is serious and it can be deadly for a subset of those who contract it. 100,000 people dead is a big deal. But so is the health impacts of rampant unemployment and poverty - which will grow. So are the health issues that come with increased poverty and the limitations that are taking place across the healthcare system to defer to covid. So are the societal impacts of no school. Schools need to reopen.

People have no sense of scale with risk. The health risk from everyone staying home and gaining ten pounds probably dwarfs COVID in terms of numbers.

Kids can learn at home. People can exercise at home. You know what we can’t do? Resurrect the dead who were killed by COVID.

Anonymous wrote:You can’t leave kids home alone for indefinite periods until 8 legally, so yes, low income people with little kids who count on daycare and school ARE suffering. But more importantly, their kids, who arguably benefit from school and count on school enrichment in the way UMC kids don’t have to, suffer.

Why is this okay with people? And why are we closing schools to protect a small fraction of people while the rest of population - an overwhelming number - are losing jobs, education, and suffering from other illnesses - some serious ailments - that are actually INCREASING because of the covid19 hysteria.

You “can’t” do so legally, but people often poor people certainly do. Why don’t you freak out about this every summer, spring break, and even holidays? My guess is because it diesn’t impact you if a poor 8 year old sits at home all day on a Saturday or even New Year’s day because both parents have to work. You only care about the ability to send your child to school. So transparent.

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You can’t leave kids home alone for indefinite periods until 8 legally, so yes, low income people with little kids who count on daycare and school ARE suffering. But more importantly, their kids, who arguably benefit from school and count on school enrichment in the way UMC kids don’t have to, suffer.

Why is this okay with people? And why are we closing schools to protect a small fraction of people while the rest of population - an overwhelming number - are losing jobs, education, and suffering from other illnesses - some serious ailments - that are actually INCREASING because of the covid19 hysteria.

When nigh on 110,000 Americans have died from covid19 in just a few months, it's actually kind of despicable to refer to it as "covid19 hysteria".

Because the are 21 million (yes, million) unemployed people in the US right now.

That makes it "hysteria", how?

Covid is serious and it can be deadly for a subset of those who contract it. 100,000 people dead is a big deal. But so is the health impacts of rampant unemployment and poverty - which will grow. So are the health issues that come with increased poverty and the limitations that are taking place across the healthcare system to defer to covid. So are the societal impacts of no school. Schools need to reopen.

People have no sense of scale with risk. The health risk from everyone staying home and gaining ten pounds probably dwarfs COVID in terms of numbers.

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Anonymous wrote:WHO just announced that asymptomatic spreading of CoronaVirus "Very Rare". This sure seems like it should be a part of the decision making process.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/08/asymptomatic-coronavirus-patients-arent-spreading-new-infections-who-says.html

Thank you for posting this. There have been similar results from different research organizations, but WHO announcing it is still important. This will be a game changer.

That's actually not what WHO announced. What WHO announced is that contact tracers traced most infections to people who eventually showed symptoms. If you infected somebody before you showed symptoms, and then you showed symptoms, you weren't asymptomatic, you were presymptomatic.

Read it one more time. It literally says that both asymptomatic and presymptomatic infection is rare. Furthermore, we also know that majority of infected youth is asymptomatic.

No, that's what the CNBC report says. And there's a lot of dispute about it.

You may dispute all you want. But WHO says that asymptomatic and presymptomatic infection is rare. The fact that WHO says this is an indisputable fact. This may not be what you want to hear, but WHO literally said it. Read the link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/world/coronavirus-updates.html#link-452d2061

The W.H.O. walked back an earlier assertion that asymptomatic transmission is ‘very rare.’

A top expert at the World Health Organization on Tuesday walked back her earlier assertion that transmission of the coronavirus by people who do not have symptoms is “very rare.”

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who made the original comment at a W.H.O. briefing on Monday, said that it was based on just two or three studies and that it was a “misunderstanding” to say asymptomatic transmission is rare globally.

“I was just responding to a question, I wasn’t stating a policy of W.H.O. or anything like that,” she said.

Dr. Van Kerkhove said that the estimates of transmission from people without symptoms come primarily from models, which may not provide an accurate representation. “That’s a big open question, and that remains an open question,” she said.

Scientists had sharply criticized the W.H.O. for creating confusion on the issue, given the far-ranging public policy implications. Governments around the world have recommended face masks and social distancing measures because of the risk of asymptomatic transmission.

A range of scientists said Ms. Kerkhove’s comments did not reflect the current scientific research.

“All of the best evidence suggests that people without symptoms can and do readily spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19,” scientists at the Harvard Global Health Institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Communicating preliminary data about key aspects of the coronavirus without much context can have tremendous negative impact on how the public and policymakers respond to the pandemic.”

A widely cited paper published in April suggested that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of symptoms, and estimated that 44 percent of new infections are a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms.

Ms. Kerkhove and other W.H.O. experts reiterated the importance of physical distancing, personal hygiene, testing, tracing, quarantine and isolation in controlling the pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:

Covid is serious and it can be deadly for a subset of those who contract it. 100,000 people dead is a big deal. But so is the health impacts of rampant unemployment and poverty - which will grow. So are the health issues that come with increased poverty and the limitations that are taking place across the healthcare system to defer to covid. So are the societal impacts of no school. Schools need to reopen.

It's June 9. The last day of school in MCPS is June 15. Schools are not going to reopen right now. Will they open in the fall? We don't know yet. I sure hope so. But "hysteria"? Nope.

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You can’t leave kids home alone for indefinite periods until 8 legally, so yes, low income people with little kids who count on daycare and school ARE suffering. But more importantly, their kids, who arguably benefit from school and count on school enrichment in the way UMC kids don’t have to, suffer.

Why is this okay with people? And why are we closing schools to protect a small fraction of people while the rest of population - an overwhelming number - are losing jobs, education, and suffering from other illnesses - some serious ailments - that are actually INCREASING because of the covid19 hysteria.

When nigh on 110,000 Americans have died from covid19 in just a few months, it's actually kind of despicable to refer to it as "covid19 hysteria".

Because the are 21 million (yes, million) unemployed people in the US right now.

That makes it "hysteria", how?

Covid is serious and it can be deadly for a subset of those who contract it. 100,000 people dead is a big deal. But so is the health impacts of rampant unemployment and poverty - which will grow. So are the health issues that come with increased poverty and the limitations that are taking place across the healthcare system to defer to covid. So are the societal impacts of no school. Schools need to reopen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You can’t leave kids home alone for indefinite periods until 8 legally, so yes, low income people with little kids who count on daycare and school ARE suffering. But more importantly, their kids, who arguably benefit from school and count on school enrichment in the way UMC kids don’t have to, suffer.

Why is this okay with people? And why are we closing schools to protect a small fraction of people while the rest of population - an overwhelming number - are losing jobs, education, and suffering from other illnesses - some serious ailments - that are actually INCREASING because of the covid19 hysteria.

When nigh on 110,000 Americans have died from covid19 in just a few months, it's actually kind of despicable to refer to it as "covid19 hysteria".

Because the are 21 million (yes, million) unemployed people in the US right now.

That makes it "hysteria", how?

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I’m not dismissing it because he’s an oncologist. The site itself says the data wasn’t available to them. So how can they be doing an honest review of the underlying data?

Could you just read the piece, please?

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Anonymous wrote:

You can’t leave kids home alone for indefinite periods until 8 legally, so yes, low income people with little kids who count on daycare and school ARE suffering. But more importantly, their kids, who arguably benefit from school and count on school enrichment in the way UMC kids don’t have to, suffer.

Why is this okay with people? And why are we closing schools to protect a small fraction of people while the rest of population - an overwhelming number - are losing jobs, education, and suffering from other illnesses - some serious ailments - that are actually INCREASING because of the covid19 hysteria.

When nigh on 110,000 Americans have died from covid19 in just a few months, it's actually kind of despicable to refer to it as "covid19 hysteria".

Because the are 21 million (yes, million) unemployed people in the US right now.

And 55 million kids out of school for months.

Clearly, this virus is more deadly to the elderly and to people with certain underlying conditions than the flu, and the absolute number of deaths since February is larger than that of a typical flu season, due to the fact that the virus is new and nobody had immunity. But the number of fatalities is not magnitudes larger. Considering that we usually do NOTHING as a society to limit the spread of the flu (except trying to convince people to get the shot) and many people don't even bother to get vaccinated, there absolutely is hysteria at work right now, even if the initial shutdown was warranted.