Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An APS parent and doctor on masks. Start speaking up, people! It’s insane to me that the school board just assumes the community wants mandatory masking. That might be true for right now but they should be surveying before they make these assertions.

https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/

Oh a non-practicing INTERNIST with medical degree from Missourah.

https://www.emporiaindependentmessenger.com/news/article_500ec634-156c-11ec-a883-fbd7a2e2a3b9.html

Attacking the messenger without addressing the message or the truth of the matter asserted? You are lazy and wrong, PP.

DP. The author is the one who put her medical credentials at issue by relying on them to try to give herself the air of greater authority on the issue. It is absolutely appropriate in that context to scrutinize her credentials in order to evaluate how much direct insight they actually give her.

Riiiight because she's sharing such a fringe view, lol. Do people on hear read the news? Basically the entire medical community is calling for masks to come off the kids including ultra cautious Dr. Leana Wen. The CDC is a farce, sadly, that can we should stop following.

Not true, and I really can’t understand why people don’t get this. It’s like saying because many people don’t use car seats correctly, we should just stop requiring them altogether. Throw out the cloth masks and replace them with real surgical masks, knotted or covered with a cloth mask for fit, or an n-95. All of which are in ample supply these days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An APS parent and doctor on masks. Start speaking up, people! It’s insane to me that the school board just assumes the community wants mandatory masking. That might be true for right now but they should be surveying before they make these assertions.

https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/

Oh a non-practicing INTERNIST with medical degree from Missourah.

https://www.emporiaindependentmessenger.com/news/article_500ec634-156c-11ec-a883-fbd7a2e2a3b9.html

Attacking the messenger without addressing the message or the truth of the matter asserted? You are lazy and wrong, PP.

DP. The author is the one who put her medical credentials at issue by relying on them to try to give herself the air of greater authority on the issue. It is absolutely appropriate in that context to scrutinize her credentials in order to evaluate how much direct insight they actually give her.

+1 NP - agreed. Does she even live in Nova? It sounds like she lives in Norfolk - or does she commute every day? I could see Norfolk populations wearing only cloth masks to meet the requirement; at our APS elementary & preschool I pretty much only see n95 style masks. Saying that they shouldn’t be usedbc they aren’t 100% effective is like making the argument that birth control is only effective if you take it consistently - people still use it though. I will also say, I find the message confusing. The argument is that masking is detrimental to kids under 5 so elementary kids should not wear masks? Also, i keep seeing that Europe doesn’t require masks, but then in actual news I read that the schools DO mask. So are they arguing for no masks among non-vaccinated preschoolers? And a lot of the argument for elementary through high school seems to be, we let our kids unmask and party outside school, so why bother masking?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An APS parent and doctor on masks. Start speaking up, people! It’s insane to me that the school board just assumes the community wants mandatory masking. That might be true for right now but they should be surveying before they make these assertions.

https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/

Oh a non-practicing INTERNIST with medical degree from Missourah.

https://www.emporiaindependentmessenger.com/news/article_500ec634-156c-11ec-a883-fbd7a2e2a3b9.html

Attacking the messenger without addressing the message or the truth of the matter asserted? You are lazy and wrong, PP.

DP. The author is the one who put her medical credentials at issue by relying on them to try to give herself the air of greater authority on the issue. It is absolutely appropriate in that context to scrutinize her credentials in order to evaluate how much direct insight they actually give her.

Riiiight because she's sharing such a fringe view, lol. Do people on hear read the news? Basically the entire medical community is calling for masks to come off the kids including ultra cautious Dr. Leana Wen. The CDC is a farce, sadly, that can we should stop following.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An APS parent and doctor on masks. Start speaking up, people! It’s insane to me that the school board just assumes the community wants mandatory masking. That might be true for right now but they should be surveying before they make these assertions.

https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/

Oh a non-practicing INTERNIST with medical degree from Missourah.

https://www.emporiaindependentmessenger.com/news/article_500ec634-156c-11ec-a883-fbd7a2e2a3b9.html

Attacking the messenger without addressing the message or the truth of the matter asserted? You are lazy and wrong, PP.

DP. The author is the one who put her medical credentials at issue by relying on them to try to give herself the air of greater authority on the issue. It is absolutely appropriate in that context to scrutinize her credentials in order to evaluate how much direct insight they actually give her.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not even debating the merits of this article until I know who is the messenger. There have been a ton of “concerned mom with kids in area schools” articles lately, all following the same sad tired talking points about how masks are worthless chin decorations and there are tons of not-yet-proven-but-sure-to-exist harms to our children. You don’t have to dig hard to find that they are partisan hacks astroturfing. This one has the “trust me I’m a doctor” flavor, with a nice snide at MONA, but I can’t figure out her angle. Conservative, obviously- Youngkin appointee? Spouse work for Heritage?

Sounds like the spouse is in the military and works at the Pentagon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I want schools to stay open and I want my child not to be excluded from schools over an exposure. In a few weeks we’re at test to stay, so that’s better.

Get your kid vaccinated or TTS.

Being vaccinated didn't prevent the recent surge.

+1

This is what has basically changed my mind in the masking issue. The rate of masking in Arlington is super high like almost 100% and still the spread happened.

It has nothing to do with masks in schools. Kids were going to indoor playdates and birthday parties unmasked. When one person in the house get it, so did fifty to 80% of the household. I’m not aware of any spread actually in schools.

This exactly. The spread occurred outside of schools when people were unmaksed. Our elementary school had one of the highest positive rates. Our principal sent an email that not a single case originated at the school and there was no evidence of any school spread, only siblings within a household. Majority of kids are eating outdoors every day, except when it’s pouring rain. They do not mask at outdoor recess.

or could it be that they were all in close quarters for a long time swapping spit ? Because that is far more likely how it was transmitted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not even debating the merits of this article until I know who is the messenger. There have been a ton of “concerned mom with kids in area schools” articles lately, all following the same sad tired talking points about how masks are worthless chin decorations and there are tons of not-yet-proven-but-sure-to-exist harms to our children. You don’t have to dig hard to find that they are partisan hacks astroturfing. This one has the “trust me I’m a doctor” flavor, with a nice snide at MONA, but I can’t figure out her angle. Conservative, obviously- Youngkin appointee? Spouse work for Heritage?

Something that disturbs me about some of these articles is that they are non-practicing doctors. Yes they have obviously have a degree, but they are not in practice right now seeing how patients are affected by Covid, hearing their stories, seeing the impacts on the Frontline healthcare workers, etc. they are backseat driving in, while posing as the chauffeur.

+1, exactly. And all the emphasis on death, while completely ignoring that COVID produces a lot of other pretty terrible and debilitating outcomes that are only beginning to be understood. We’re behind on vaccines, and our system is on the brink. Even if a mask only works 20% of the time, absent demonstrated harm, it’s worth it to keep another body out of the hospital.

For what it’s worth, polio was a pretty mild disease for most people, too.

To shield against ravenous accusation of being a crazy MAGA anti-science type, here are my deep blue credentials: lifelong democrat, north arlington resident, PhD in quantitative science, etc. etc.

And now truth about covid today: it is less of a risk, according to official and reliable government data, than many typical daily activities we engage in without fear. Per a recent NYT article:

"Once you get a booster, your risk of getting severely ill from Covid is tiny. It is quite small even if you are older or have health problems. The average weekly chance that a boosted person died of Covid was about one in a million during October and November (the most recent available C.D.C. data). That risk is not zero, but it is not far from it. The chance that an average American will die in a car crash this week is significantly higher — about 2.4 per million. So is the average weekly death rate from influenza and pneumonia — about three per million. With a booster shot, Covid resembles other respiratory illnesses that have been around for years. "

The Biden administration is blowing the messaging and losing the narrative. The only - and I mean only - number that matters is a numerator over a denominator that defines your likelihood of dying from covid. And if you're fully boosted, that number is now virtually 0.

Everything else is noise...mask quality, ventilation, social distancing, etc etc. It mattered early on, but not anymore. Cases don't matter, except as they might 'overwhelm' hospitals...though we cannot live under that threat forever.

Every credible expert outside of the administration is calling for rapid reduction of restrictions, starting with masks. I truly hope Biden's experts get control of the narrative - the economy is booming and the vaccines work, but no one feels better because we are still being told to hunker down. It's bad politics, and inconsistent with the science and facts on the ground.

And yes, it is why Youngkin won - democrats never offered an off ramp. Mask forever, school shutdowns no big deal, and so on. Should we rip the masks off kids now while omicron is still a threat? No. But where was/is the offramp metrics from Duran? APS? Arlington County? Democratic controlled Richmond?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An APS parent and doctor on masks. Start speaking up, people! It’s insane to me that the school board just assumes the community wants mandatory masking. That might be true for right now but they should be surveying before they make these assertions.

https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/

Oh a non-practicing INTERNIST with medical degree from Missourah.

https://www.emporiaindependentmessenger.com/news/article_500ec634-156c-11ec-a883-fbd7a2e2a3b9.html

Attacking the messenger without addressing the message or the truth of the matter asserted? You are lazy and wrong, PP.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not even debating the merits of this article until I know who is the messenger. There have been a ton of “concerned mom with kids in area schools” articles lately, all following the same sad tired talking points about how masks are worthless chin decorations and there are tons of not-yet-proven-but-sure-to-exist harms to our children. You don’t have to dig hard to find that they are partisan hacks astroturfing. This one has the “trust me I’m a doctor” flavor, with a nice snide at MONA, but I can’t figure out her angle. Conservative, obviously- Youngkin appointee? Spouse work for Heritage?

I could do without conservatives yelping "Cloth masks are useless, so we should unmask" every time masking comes up.

A. No, they're not. They're just not as good as other kinds of masks
2. "X doesn't work well, so let's give up" is not the triumph of logic and reason they seem to think it is.

If you want to announce that you're following the science, acknowledge that the science is changing. I'm all for that. Then give us hard numbers about what the response should be at various levels of infection, vaccination, etc., and how you plan to assess the success of responses and to keep up with the latest research.

I agree with people who say COVID is endemic and we have to figure out how to live with it. I think it's nonsense to equate "living with it" with "living the way we did in 2019."

Anonymous wrote:I’m not even debating the merits of this article until I know who is the messenger. There have been a ton of “concerned mom with kids in area schools” articles lately, all following the same sad tired talking points about how masks are worthless chin decorations and there are tons of not-yet-proven-but-sure-to-exist harms to our children. You don’t have to dig hard to find that they are partisan hacks astroturfing. This one has the “trust me I’m a doctor” flavor, with a nice snide at MONA, but I can’t figure out her angle. Conservative, obviously- Youngkin appointee? Spouse work for Heritage?

Something that disturbs me about some of these articles is that they are non-practicing doctors. Yes they have obviously have a degree, but they are not in practice right now seeing how patients are affected by Covid, hearing their stories, seeing the impacts on the Frontline healthcare workers, etc. they are backseat driving in, while posing as the chauffeur.

I’m not even debating the merits of this article until I know who is the messenger. There have been a ton of “concerned mom with kids in area schools” articles lately, all following the same sad tired talking points about how masks are worthless chin decorations and there are tons of not-yet-proven-but-sure-to-exist harms to our children. You don’t have to dig hard to find that they are partisan hacks astroturfing. This one has the “trust me I’m a doctor” flavor, with a nice snide at MONA, but I can’t figure out her angle. Conservative, obviously- Youngkin appointee? Spouse work for Heritage?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I want schools to stay open and I want my child not to be excluded from schools over an exposure. In a few weeks we’re at test to stay, so that’s better.

Get your kid vaccinated or TTS.

Being vaccinated didn't prevent the recent surge.

+1

This is what has basically changed my mind in the masking issue. The rate of masking in Arlington is super high like almost 100% and still the spread happened.

It has nothing to do with masks in schools. Kids were going to indoor playdates and birthday parties unmasked. When one person in the house get it, so did fifty to 80% of the household. I’m not aware of any spread actually in schools.

This exactly. The spread occurred outside of schools when people were unmaksed. Our elementary school had one of the highest positive rates. Our principal sent an email that not a single case originated at the school and there was no evidence of any school spread, only siblings within a household. Majority of kids are eating outdoors every day, except when it’s pouring rain. They do not mask at outdoor recess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I want schools to stay open and I want my child not to be excluded from schools over an exposure. In a few weeks we’re at test to stay, so that’s better.

Get your kid vaccinated or TTS.

Being vaccinated didn't prevent the recent surge.

+1

This is what has basically changed my mind in the masking issue. The rate of masking in Arlington is super high like almost 100% and still the spread happened.

The spread happened on sports teams where kids were not masked. Lots of students caught Covid while watching said games because they’re masks were pulled down. Others socialized or ate indoors without masks. Spread did not happen in classrooms where kids and teachers were masked.

LOL- no not even close and you saying this shows how seriously sad you and others have become. Do you even recognize how ridiculous it sounds to say this? You act as this is some fact that you can prove or that you have studied. This is based on nothing but stories you have cobbled together here and there.
I think you honestly believe this. As if kids have no other life but school, go no where else, don’t live in homes with families. That’s what you think.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I want schools to stay open and I want my child not to be excluded from schools over an exposure. In a few weeks we’re at test to stay, so that’s better.

Get your kid vaccinated or TTS.

Being vaccinated didn't prevent the recent surge.

+1

This is what has basically changed my mind in the masking issue. The rate of masking in Arlington is super high like almost 100% and still the spread happened.

It has nothing to do with masks in schools. Kids were going to indoor playdates and birthday parties unmasked. When one person in the house get it, so did fifty to 80% of the household. I’m not aware of any spread actually in schools.

The Hundreds of cases at wakefield during “third week of winter break“ largely stemmed from an unmasked indoor party, exacerbated by kids hanging out when school was canceled not knowing that they had Covid.