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3 hours ago, southsideirish71 said:

I want an actual education for my kids.  Not a fucking once a week zoom with homework that lasts 30 minutes.  If this is more of the same in the fall.  Then there is zero point.  The same elderly teachers that are at risk to get covid and have secondary issues also have a non-existent grasp of how to use technology.  So this will be another round of "we are not ready for this".   Then more once a week zooms.  

I feel your pain. Thing is I think we're all doomed to stop life again until probably next summer. We're hearing about spikes in Covid anywhere people gather. What's going to happen is schools would open and kids are going to have the virus, give it to a teacher and all hell is going to break loose. Part of me says just ignore Covid and let it do what it must do. The other part of me says I don't want to get it, be on a ventilator and also have to pay exorbitant fees for medical care. I feel for kids. They belong in school. It's very serious keeping them out of class this long. I heard one district is saying the child can go to school two days a week or stay home for an all online option. What a choice. I'd probably choose the all online option.

BTW if it's true that 70 percent of American families are living paycheck to paycheck like I heard un fact checked on TV tonight, God help us all. This really could be the end.

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5 hours ago, spiderman said:

Why so defensive? If you can't make a logical argument, that's ok, I get it, but hopefully I can help educate you vs. your last reply and you can walk away with more knowledge vs. your talking points which are a nice try at distraction, but not accurate. 

Both of my comments on testing/masks were both in reply to your comments and both are not accurate.

You took Trump's on testing to imply that he's directing his government to do less testing. Is that accurate? If so, can you explain why literally everyone in the involved has publicly stated that they have never been directed to do so? Can you explain why we just tested 750K people on 7/9?  Not a good argument.

Even Fauci doesn't want a federal government mandate on masks. He prefers state/local mandates. How would you actually enforce a national mandate on masks? Again, as mentioned, there are federal guidelines. More states are adding additional regulations on masks. 

Exactly what is Trump doing to make the US citizens safer re Covid 19?
 Once the calendar turned to May 1, he gave up and went with whatever Fox News personalizes working from home told him. Now he insists schools be open. Not because Kids need an education but because if they aren’t open their parents won’t be back at work, therefore the economy won’t be back to the level he needs for re-election. The countries he whines that opened their schools didn’t listen to Drs. Hannity and Carlson and Ingraham. That is why it is safer for them to open. Ignoring science is pretty ignorant, and that is exactly what the WH has done. 
 

What happened to the virus is going to go away when it gets warm?  You would think a self described germaphobe would wear a mask. Even that claim is fake. Listening to the WH will literally get you sick and maybe killed.

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8 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Without adding too many details, how much have you followed the recent results on the virus and pregnancies?

She has been following it more closely than I have, but what should I know? Any questions about the virus or the pregnancy are going straight to the doctor but I could always use more information to consider. It’s hard not to worry but we can’t do anything with worrying and have to take things a day at a time.

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10 hours ago, spiderman said:

Percentage of positive cases remains under 3% in the state. Illinois tested over 36K people today. As the state re-opens, there will be more cases.

Positive test ratio lets you know if you're testing enough, but it doesn't tell you overall what shape you're in.

What are we doing to stop the growth of new cases? Have we implemented robust contact tracing? How do we make sure that 500 daily cases doesn't turn into 1000 daily cases (oops) doesn't turn into 5k+ daily cases?

And how much of that is largely outside of Illinois' control thanks to policy failures in other states and especially at the federal level?

Oh and by the way, we're running out of PPE again. How, exactly, are we going to safely staff schools with no PPE available?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/health/coronavirus-masks-ppe-doc.html

We've wasted the last several months. Complete and utter failure by our federal government. And now they're cutting back federal testing sites in areas that need it most. Shameful.

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10 hours ago, southsideirish71 said:

I want an actual education for my kids.  Not a fucking once a week zoom with homework that lasts 30 minutes.  If this is more of the same in the fall.  Then there is zero point.  The same elderly teachers that are at risk to get covid and have secondary issues also have a non-existent grasp of how to use technology.  So this will be another round of "we are not ready for this".   Then more once a week zooms.  

We should all be furious at the political leadership that has failed us nearly every step of the way. There's no reason we couldn't look like Germany right now. We could be talking about a few thousand cases per day across the country, and the potential for having to do temporary shutdowns of schools on district or county basis if there's an outbreak. Instead, we have an out-of-control pandemic raging across nearly the entire country.

We could attempt to just open schools up, 5-days-a-week in-person instruction as if it were last February, but I think we all know that can't possibly last. How long until multiple teachers in a single school all get Covid and have to isolate for 14+ days? Oh and most districts in Illinois have been struggling to find subs in normal times for years. Now you've got decimated budgets and unsafe conditions and probably lots of positions to staff with subs in schools across the region.

I get where you're coming from. My kid's only 3 so we're not concerned about the education yet, but we're starting to worry about the socialization aspect. She hasn't been around other children (aside from her infant brother) since March. It's extremely frustrating to be unable to plan ahead, to have any sense of what things will look like in a month or two or three. Online education *is* a joke compared to in-person instruction.

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I posted before about my daughter working at a restaurant where two co-workers tested positive for the virus. The restaurant manager went into complete denial.

This restaurant is part of a corporation and is not locally owned. My daughter called Human Resources to tell them she didn't feel comfortable about returning to work and to talk about the situation as a whole. She said HR talked down to her and didn't want to address the situation. She was tempted to go to the media because she didn't think that people should go to what could be a hot spot. Then it was reported in the media that the place was closing down for a time in order to sanitize the place. They claimed all of their employees have been tested which is a lie. My daughter will be tested on Monday.

I think think this symbolizes the whole situation. The business wanted to stay open, but it was becoming an increasing danger to its employees and the general public. There is no other solution until a treatment and or vaccine is developed. The only way to stop this thing is stop the spread. And opening up and pretending everything is all right will not solve anything. No, it is not going away. No, the summer heat is not killing it. No, Trump's suggestions for treatments will not work.  So the country needs to face it. We need to social distance and wear masks. We will also need to do some painful things.  Things are just not normal now.

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11 hours ago, spiderman said:

Why so defensive? If you can't make a logical argument, that's ok, I get it, but hopefully I can help educate you vs. your last reply and you can walk away with more knowledge vs. your talking points which are a nice try at distraction, but not accurate. 

Both of my comments on testing/masks were both in reply to your comments and both are not accurate.

You took Trump's on testing to imply that he's directing his government to do less testing. Is that accurate? If so, can you explain why literally everyone in the involved has publicly stated that they have never been directed to do so? Can you explain why we just tested 750K people on 7/9?  Not a good argument.

Even Fauci doesn't want a federal government mandate on masks. He prefers state/local mandates. How would you actually enforce a national mandate on masks? Again, as mentioned, there are federal guidelines. More states are adding additional regulations on masks. 

The problem with Trump is he's the boy who cried wolf. He's done and said so many ridiculous things that he's lost all credibility & trust. And once that's gone it's hard to "lead" effectively. If we did this like a blind fantasy baseball test -- Player A did this. Player B did this. Who do you like? I have a sneaking suspicion that more people would be actually okay with the moves that Trump has made. The problem is he's made everything around him (by choice) a traveling circus. 

I remain in the camp that there are too many people in the US for a single president to actually make a difference - presidents are more the PR for country. Just guiding the ship gently and as a calming driving force, hopefully moving it forward. We could use that in time of a pandemic more than ever. 

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8 hours ago, greg775 said:

I feel your pain. Thing is I think we're all doomed to stop life again until probably next summer. We're hearing about spikes in Covid anywhere people gather. What's going to happen is schools would open and kids are going to have the virus, give it to a teacher and all hell is going to break loose. Part of me says just ignore Covid and let it do what it must do. The other part of me says I don't want to get it, be on a ventilator and also have to pay exorbitant fees for medical care. I feel for kids. They belong in school. It's very serious keeping them out of class this long. I heard one district is saying the child can go to school two days a week or stay home for an all online option. What a choice. I'd probably choose the all online option.

BTW if it's true that 70 percent of American families are living paycheck to paycheck like I heard un fact checked on TV tonight, God help us all. This really could be the end.

My district announced yesterday the exact plan you mentioned; 2 days in person supplemented by online learning or you can do full online. I believe the plan is for them to have half of the people who elect to do the in-person hybrid program (2 in person & some form of online supplement) are going to go Mon/Tues; Wed the school will be closed and than Thurs/Fri the other half of children in the hybrid program will go to the school.  

It should keep numbers down and allow for better sanitation and at this point, presuming they can do it safely, 2 days in person is better than none. I hope they shift the cadence for how they do the in person to ensure they maximize in-person time and than allow the at home to really be a facilitation of what was learned in person.  I can not handle more zoom - it was the most worthless experience I've ever seen at my kids ages (5 & 6).  

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12 hours ago, southsideirish71 said:

Its real simple.  If antibodies do not have a long term cycle of protection and people can get this more than once.  Then all of this is for naught. A vaccine will not work then.  

It's possible to get chicken pox twice and we have a vaccine for that now. But most people don't.

Could be the same thing here. I've heard of people getting covid twice but I don't think it's that common.

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1 hour ago, NWINFan said:

I posted before about my daughter working at a restaurant where two co-workers tested positive for the virus. The restaurant manager went into complete denial.

This restaurant is part of a corporation and is not locally owned. My daughter called Human Resources to tell them she didn't feel comfortable about returning to work and to talk about the situation as a whole. She said HR talked down to her and didn't want to address the situation. She was tempted to go to the media because she didn't think that people should go to what could be a hot spot. Then it was reported in the media that the place was closing down for a time in order to sanitize the place. They claimed all of their employees have been tested which is a lie. My daughter will be tested on Monday.

I think think this symbolizes the whole situation. The business wanted to stay open, but it was becoming an increasing danger to its employees and the general public. There is no other solution until a treatment and or vaccine is developed. The only way to stop this thing is stop the spread. And opening up and pretending everything is all right will not solve anything. No, it is not going away. No, the summer heat is not killing it. No, Trump's suggestions for treatments will not work.  So the country needs to face it. We need to social distance and wear masks. We will also need to do some painful things.  Things are just not normal now.

We have a super similar situation happening in my home town.  They closed down on 4th of July weekend, which is one of their busiest weekends of the year out of "precaution" to deep clean for 5 days, yet are denying that they had any positive tests, even though employees are saying 3 of them tested positive.

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1 hour ago, BrianAnderson said:

The problem with Trump is he's the boy who cried wolf. He's done and said so many ridiculous things that he's lost all credibility & trust. And once that's gone it's hard to "lead" effectively. If we did this like a blind fantasy baseball test -- Player A did this. Player B did this. Who do you like? I have a sneaking suspicion that more people would be actually okay with the moves that Trump has made. The problem is he's made everything around him (by choice) a traveling circus. 

I remain in the camp that there are too many people in the US for a single president to actually make a difference - presidents are more the PR for country. Just guiding the ship gently and as a calming driving force, hopefully moving it forward. We could use that in time of a pandemic more than ever. 

I think it would be the opposite. I think if you lined up his Presidency and put OBAMA everywhere TRUMP is, the right wing would lose their minds.

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FL governor: If we can open Home Depot, we can open schools

CNN's Bianna Golodroya reports on Florida Gov. Ron Desantis pushing to reopen schools in the fall despite health concerns from other local leaders amid the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/07/10/schools-reopening-guidelines-governors-pkg-golodroya-vpx.cnn

 

Govs. DeSantis and Kemp...what’s next, pushing for 100% attendance at the GOP Convention in Jacksonville and The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party aka the Georgia/Florida game?  

It’s somehow not much of a surprise that one of the Florida counties is now at a 33% positive rate and growing.

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3 hours ago, The Beast said:

She has been following it more closely than I have, but what should I know? Any questions about the virus or the pregnancy are going straight to the doctor but I could always use more information to consider. It’s hard not to worry but we can’t do anything with worrying and have to take things a day at a time.

The simple version is "we don't know everything but it looks like pregnancies are at high risk of some damage". In other words, Mike Trout has a kid due in a couple months, and he'd be very much justified in sitting out this season given the risks. There's a bunch of things that have come out over the last month about placental damage and infections being transmitted that you really don't want to risk.

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1 hour ago, Chisoxfn said:

My district announced yesterday the exact plan you mentioned; 2 days in person supplemented by online learning or you can do full online. I believe the plan is for them to have half of the people who elect to do the in-person hybrid program (2 in person & some form of online supplement) are going to go Mon/Tues; Wed the school will be closed and than Thurs/Fri the other half of children in the hybrid program will go to the school.  

It should keep numbers down and allow for better sanitation and at this point, presuming they can do it safely, 2 days in person is better than none. I hope they shift the cadence for how they do the in person to ensure they maximize in-person time and than allow the at home to really be a facilitation of what was learned in person.  I can not handle more zoom - it was the most worthless experience I've ever seen at my kids ages (5 & 6).  

What's the plan "When" one/multiple people come down with it? 

This is an airborne virus. "Sanitation" does a little bit, but if you have a bunch of people in a room for hours at a time, then sanitizing the surfaces the next day doesn't matter.

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Just now, Balta1701 said:

What's the plan "When" one/multiple people come down with it? 

This is an airborne virus. "Sanitation" does a little bit, but if you have a bunch of people in a room for hours at a time, then sanitizing the surfaces the next day doesn't matter.

I don't know yet - they are supposed to send that out in detail in the next couple of days. My view is they should just have everyone have class outdoors and just put tents up in the grass areas, etc (just so people aren't sitting in the sun all day). Big open space, ability to social distance, and if weather is bad, you pivot. It could work in California (obviously doesn't work so well if you are in the midwest during the middle of winter).  

But smaller class sizes is obviously one aspect and I believe the intent is no rotation, so any teacher comes to the same class (that way you don't have cross contamination from a student perspective - the teachers still could be cross contaminators though).  

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1 minute ago, Chisoxfn said:

I don't know yet - they are supposed to send that out in detail in the next couple of days. My view is they should just have everyone have class outdoors and just put tents up in the grass areas, etc (just so people aren't sitting in the sun all day). Big open space, ability to social distance, and if weather is bad, you pivot. It could work in California (obviously doesn't work so well if you are in the midwest during the middle of winter).  

But smaller class sizes is obviously one aspect and I believe the intent is no rotation, so any teacher comes to the same class (that way you don't have cross contamination from a student perspective - the teachers still could be cross contaminators though).  

You're right that doesn't work everywhere (Texas in August wouldn't be pleasant either) but that's about the only workable idea I've heard for any schools anywhere. 

The Texas agency is saying "We'll close down and sanitize a wing if a student tests positive" and every time I hear that I think "so, they got infected 4 days before they were tested in order to show symptoms, they had a test done, they waited 6 days for the result, they've had 10 days to spread it around and you still don't know where they got it, and so your solution is to sanitize a wing of the school" and I just think "Good luck". 

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5 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

You're right that doesn't work everywhere (Texas in August wouldn't be pleasant either) but that's about the only workable idea I've heard for any schools anywhere. 

The Texas agency is saying "We'll close down and sanitize a wing if a student tests positive" and every time I hear that I think "so, they got infected 4 days before they were tested in order to show symptoms, they had a test done, they waited 6 days for the result, they've had 10 days to spread it around and you still don't know where they got it, and so your solution is to sanitize a wing of the school" and I just think "Good luck". 

What disappointing me is there hasn't been more research done on the youth and impacts of the youth, both from an infection rate, symptoms, and their ability to pass on the virus. From what I have read, at younger ages, it seems to be far more likely to be no symptoms, but once you start getting into high school age, for whatever reason, the risks start to increase.  That said - everything has been limited and I don't get it - schools are vastly important in this country and the health of the students and teachers (which to be honest - I think that is where the real risk is and its why I'm surprised i haven't heard of Teacher Unions pushing back heavily) is key to that success and it seems like there has been so little effort done. 

I also am honestly am surprised there hasn't been a big private institution who has totally monopolized and came up with an absurdly better and more interactive way to teaching remote and just charged a flat fee for it (very on demand reading, writing, etc - and than create little pocketed portals where a child could discuss and share their work live with a licensed teacher - ensures a real efficient use of a teachers one-on-one interaction with the students).  I know at this point I'm evaluating all options for my kids because the experience I had with remote was just so poor. And I don't blame it on anyone - but it was the reality and from what I've heard from friends who teach in my district (or neighboring districts) it doesn't sound like there really is going to be a wholesale change to the approach.  

I do think each district is hoping a large chunk opt for fully remote, because the more who do fully remote, the easier it is to do a hybrid program.  But this will skew / create more inequality because I guarantee the lower income schools will end up with higher in person attendance than those in more affluent eras.  For me my intention is, as long as I believe the risks are manageable, for my children to attend in person (but that also depends on level of infections in my area - and after months of that number being near non-existent, it is definitely not the case today as cases have been growing exponentially the past couple of weeks (and I live in a town that has had mask orders since May 4th).  

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I should point out - my son is actually in school right now. His school (Montesorri) reopened about 2 weeks ago.  He is in a class with 5 other students and each class (they only have 5 classes) is not allowed to co-mingle. So it is basically 5 students + his teacher and the only person who rotates is the aid who can help when a teacher needs a break (so someone is watching the kids at all times).  They all are required to wear masks when indoors and there is no sharing of the toys, so once a toy is used it is put in a bin where it has to be sanitized.  Desks, etc were all spaced out (so the relatively large Montessori set-up room that used to accommodate 20+ was cut in half.  But this is a pretty unique situation and even than, I know something could happen, but I know these teachers very well (my daughter went here from 2-6 and my son is going to be in his last year) and it kind of feels like a second family to me. 

But it isn't like you could roll out those type of class sizes and conditions nationally.  It also goes to show you, I am in the minority sending my child back since I believe they actually are limiting their class size to 7 but haven't been able to generate enough interest (and this was a school that was fully booked with a wait list prior to COVID).  

 

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And I should point out - California was not ran like texas, florida, and arizona, but despite all that - we are in the same spot as those three states despite having much higher mask adoption (albeit - it took a long time before Newsome made it mandatory in the state).  

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17 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

What disappointing me is there hasn't been more research done on the youth and impacts of the youth, both from an infection rate, symptoms, and their ability to pass on the virus. From what I have read, at younger ages, it seems to be far more likely to be no symptoms, but once you start getting into high school age, for whatever reason, the risks start to increase.  That said - everything has been limited and I don't get it - schools are vastly important in this country and the health of the students and teachers (which to be honest - I think that is where the real risk is and its why I'm surprised i haven't heard of Teacher Unions pushing back heavily) is key to that success and it seems like there has been so little effort done. 

I also am honestly am surprised there hasn't been a big private institution who has totally monopolized and came up with an absurdly better and more interactive way to teaching remote and just charged a flat fee for it (very on demand reading, writing, etc - and than create little pocketed portals where a child could discuss and share their work live with a licensed teacher - ensures a real efficient use of a teachers one-on-one interaction with the students).  I know at this point I'm evaluating all options for my kids because the experience I had with remote was just so poor. And I don't blame it on anyone - but it was the reality and from what I've heard from friends who teach in my district (or neighboring districts) it doesn't sound like there really is going to be a wholesale change to the approach.  

I do think each district is hoping a large chunk opt for fully remote, because the more who do fully remote, the easier it is to do a hybrid program.  But this will skew / create more inequality because I guarantee the lower income schools will end up with higher in person attendance than those in more affluent eras.  For me my intention is, as long as I believe the risks are manageable, for my children to attend in person (but that also depends on level of infections in my area - and after months of that number being near non-existent, it is definitely not the case today as cases have been growing exponentially the past couple of weeks (and I live in a town that has had mask orders since May 4th).  

I think right now, globally, there just aren't the resources to do this. You can't do it in places that got the virus under control because there aren't enough cases coming into schools to be able to assess "how likely is a super-spreading event". You can't do it in the US because we don't have nearly enough testing capacity for the adults, so a lot of kids may be getting it and even passing it along without it being noticed if their symptoms are weak enough. The only things we have are statistics saying "closing schools was not strongly correlated with decreasing viral spread", but we don't have any of the details to evaluate that.

I think the teachers unions were probably pretty smart in holding off on responding to plans until there was something to respond to out in the public, this isn't a case where you want all your teachers fighting publicly against kids going to school until they have specific details to fight against. They were probably working behind the scenes as much as possible - Texas, for example, had no desire to put out a mask mandate in schools and the unions basically said that was a non-starter, so the "re-opening plan" requires all students to wear masks. You're also starting to see some come out this week now that states are putting out their "School reopening plans". 

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I would happily offer my teaching skills for such an online program if one existed. I'm available. 

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