So, how do you reopen schools? (Preschool to High School & even College)

[TheGoodBits]

2 hours ago, bearrock said:

 

 

 

All in all, it looks like kids are still much less likely to suffer serious consequences from the delta.  But different situations have different calculus when it comes to that few months of risk exposure of in person learning.  Had I been given a choice, I probably would've gone virtual till fully vaccinated in a few months.

Definitely. It still happens though. Seeing that video with the kid hooked up to the ventilator (believe it was posted in the other thread) is goddamn terrifying to me as a parent. 
 

We’ve been extremely diligent since last March to prevent our immediate family from getting sick, and also been doing a pretty good job of encouraging extended family to get vaccinated. Now we feel like we should be at the damn finish line, with the kids vaccines available soooo soon, yet faced with the reality that we are introducing new exposure risks to them just before we succeed in getting them through the pandemic without getting COVID. With delta surging, and vaccines offering less protection against contracting/spreading it, there’s a real feeling of helplessness that’s setting in.

 

Two of our regular contact family members who are vaccinated did get the J&J shot, which I am have seen speculation offers less neutralizing immunity than Pfizer/Moderna. One of those people takes care of my children and is in our house every day. Her husband is not vaccinated, nor is her son who will be in school next month. Like I said, it feels inevitable that covid will find a way into my house despite our best efforts for the last 18 months. And that ****ing sucks. 

[Ball Security]

My buddy is in GA.  His first grader had his first day of school on Wednesday.  He was told on Thursday to come pick him up because a classmate was positive.  Now he’s out for seven days.

 

Here in FFX Co, we had an open meeting with my first grader’s principal.  Their position is that there likely won’t be any kids sent home as close contacts because that’s defined as a sustained, close, maskless interaction for at least 15 minutes.  Since they are masked, they don’t think this will happen.  However, they will have lunch in the cafeteria together.  I plan to follow up.  My original question was what is the process for a close contact to return/what do they do when they are out.

[skinsmarydu]

47 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

My buddy is in GA. 

It's crazy down here.  No one cares about masking.  I'm super proud to wear my Caps and Team masks. 

[skinny21]

Texas has updated their guidelines, and now, in addition to schools not being able to require masks…

 

“Given the data from 2020-21 showing very low COVID-19 transmission rates in a classroom setting and data demonstrating lower transmission rates among children than adults, school systems are not required to conduct COVID-19 contact tracing.”

 

”Parents of students who are determined to be close contacts of an individual with COVID-19 may opt to keep their students at home during the recommended stay-at-home period.”

 

Schools may provide online learning during the stay-at-home period.

[PeterMP]

IU students appealing vaccine "mandate" to the Supreme Court.  (They lost at the appeals court.)  We'll see what the Supreme Court does.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/06/politics/indiana-university-vaccine-mandate-supreme-court/index.html

[bearrock]

The school systems are playing with fire imo.  The four criteria to lower risk of transmission in school was mask, distance, hand washing, and ventilation.  FFX (and I would imagine anywhere else with full capacity in person learning) has thrown distancing out the window.  Mask is not all the time because they won't require masks for lunch, outdoor recess, and PE (although that might have been outdoor PE?).  Lunch is the gaping hole in that policy.  Another elephant in the room is enforcement.  Are they sending kids back home if they won't wear a mask?  I don't know how much ventilation has improved.  I would imagine that's largely dependent on the school district.

 

I also have little faith in every parent being vigilant about testing their kids when symptomatic and keeping home kids who have signs that overlap between covid and other respiratory illness.  I think many parents will simply send their kids to school and cross their fingers (sometimes, because they quite frankly don't have another viable option).

 

And unless every kid is coming to school with N95s, the FFX policy on close contact is not designed to keep kids safe, it's designed to look the other way.  You sit next to a child with covid for the whole day, mask or no mask, that should be a close contact.  Doubly so if they are in cloth or dental masks.  Cloth mask, when done correctly and used appropriately can reduce up to 50% of transmission.  Great. So the kids both cloth masked can reduce transmission down to 25% of unmasked people.  In an hour, they've been exposed to the same amount of transmission that two unmasked individuals would have been in 15 minutes.  Both dental masked would lower transmission to as low as 4% of unmasked.  Over an hour, that's still 16% of unmasked in 15 minutes.  6 hours sitting next to a covid positive child, you've now been exposed to 96% of the transmission that you would've been if both of you were sitting next to each for 15 minutes without mask.  This is all assuming that everyone masked up 100% of time and masked correctly.

 

None of this is even considering that delta potentially poses a different ball game compared to the spring for even children.

 

AAP has called on the FDA to scrap the plan for 6 months of follow up safety data as opposed to 2 months for under 12.  Their position is that given everything they know about how vaccines work in kids and how the vaccines performed in adults, getting the emergency use authorization out the door quickly is more important than adding another 4 months of data.  FDA has stated that they feel that 4 months of additional data would make more parents feel at ease (I doubt it.  I think the ratio of parents who would vaccinate today and ratio of parents who would vaccinate after 4 more months of safety data is going to be largely the same.  I'm not sure 4 more years would make much of a difference).  

[China]

First week of school: 185 COVID cases in Cobb, 166 in Gwinnett

 

Two of Georgia’s largest school districts are reporting dozens of COVID-19 cases within the first week of school.

 

The Cobb County district reported 185 active cases in schools since classes began Monday, according to the district’s website. Masks are optional in Cobb schools though “strongly encouraged.”

 

The Gwinnett County School District, which requires masks, reported 166 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and Thursday, the first two days of school. The Gwinnett cases involve 147 students and 19 school district employees, according to reports posted on the district’s website.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[skinsmarydu]

Yep, I'm in Gwinnett.  This place has gone nuts.

[Xameil]

My daughters school district has already said they are going to follow CDC guidelines and looking for masks whether vaccinated or not.

 

Let's see if they are still doing that when school starts in a few weeks

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

My son, 14, hates needles.  But we didn't have to prod him much to get the vaccine, because we sold it as him not having to wear a mask at school when he goes back.  At this pace, it's looking like we are liars.  I expect masks to be mandated in schools within the next few weeks, in a predominantly red county/state, should be a s*** show.

[tshile]

Basically all of northern Virginia is in the highest category of community spread according to the cdc

 

so. 
 

That’s great timing….

[China]

4 hours ago, tshile said:

Basically all of northern Virginia is in the highest category of community spread according to the cdc

 

so. 
 

That’s great timing….

 

Not sure what that means.  This map (from the Mayo clinic) shows Viriginia:

 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/map/virginia

 

Whereas this map shows Florida:

 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/map/florida

 

They're not even close.  So if Virginia is in the highest category, pretty much everywhere is.

[tshile]

1 minute ago, China said:

They're not even close.  So if Virginia is in the highest category, pretty much everywhere is.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/coronavirus/cdc-says-three-dc-area-counties-are-high-covid-19-transmission-areas/2766931/
 

it’s just about the level of transmission going on. It’s not some ranking compared to the rest of the county. 
 

we’re as severe as it gets in terms of how they classify an area and the transmission rates. 
 

that’s not to say other places aren’t worse off than us. That’s as high as the chart goes. 
 

which means it’s obviously the best time to open up schools and refuse to implement a mask mandate. 

[China]

2 minutes ago, tshile said:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/coronavirus/cdc-says-three-dc-area-counties-are-high-covid-19-transmission-areas/2766931/
 

it’s just about the level of transmission going on. It’s not some ranking compared to the rest of the county. 
 

we’re as severe as it gets in terms of how they classify an area and the transmission rates. 
 

that’s not to say other places aren’t worse off than us. That’s as high as the chart goes. 
 

which means it’s obviously the best time to open up schools and refuse to implement a mask mandate. 

 

You're post was a bit misleading.  The article you posted lists two counties in Maryland and Prince William county in VA.  That's not "Basically all of northern Virginia" as it excludes Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

[bearrock]

17 minutes ago, China said:

 

You're post was a bit misleading.  The article you posted lists two counties in Maryland and Prince William county in VA.  That's not "Basically all of northern Virginia" as it excludes Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

 

Yeah, lot of NOVA is currently at substantial.  But with trend and positivity rate going the way it's going, hitting high pretty soon seems likely.  Possibly before schools even start.

 

Anyone have any info on how much work has been done on ventilation in FCPS?  

[NoCalMike]

My oldest will only be 10 in January. Youngest just turned 6.  They return to school in person on the 17th.  Masks on in classrooms.  My main question is what happens if a student or teacher tests positive? WIll they be sent home to quarantine, also what happens to any students considered in close contact?  How do they even determine that when masks won't be required during recess.  (Not sure about cafeteria, besides when actually eating).

 

There are going to be so many parents that are just happy to get their kids out of their house 24/7 that I have a sneaking suspicion they are going to want to fight any situation of the kids being sent home for whatever reason.  Keeping sick kids home before the pandemic was already a big issue in itself, but I imagine that a lot of parents are going to view children back in school as one of the more late-stage "back to normal" conditions and will resist any pushback on it regardless of safety of other students.

 

Living where I do, I am not overly concerned about the families being unvaccinated, more those that are too young to even get the vaccine and the actual protocols for when a positive case turns up in school.  I also am interested to see if/what funding went to modernizing classrooms for a pandemic and post-pandemic teaching environment.  

[tshile]

6 hours ago, China said:

 

You're post was a bit misleading.  The article you posted lists two counties in Maryland and Prince William county in VA.  That's not "Basically all of northern Virginia" as it excludes Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties.

um. Somethings wrong then. WTOP said it was 7 counties including Loudoun, fauquier, fairfax and Alexandria. I think the only immediate county in the area not at the highest level is Howard. I must have grabbed the wrong link…

 

[China]

Fake COVID-19 vaccination cards worry college officials

 

As the delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps across the United States, a growing number of colleges and universities are requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for students to attend in-person classes. But the new mandate has opened the door for those opposed to getting the vaccine to cheat the system, according to interviews with students, education and law enforcement officials.

 

Both faculty and students at dozens of schools interviewed by The Associated Press say they are concerned about how easy it is to get fake vaccine cards.

 

Across the internet, a cottage industry has sprung up to accommodate people who say they won’t get vaccinated for either personal or religious reasons.

 

An Instagram account with the username “vaccinationcards” sells laminated COVID-19 vaccination cards for $25 each. A user on the encrypted messaging app, Telegram, offers “COVID-19 Vaccine Cards Certificates,” for as much as $200 apiece.

 

An increasing number of inquiries to these sites and similar ones appear to be from those who are trying to get fake vaccination cards for college.

 

A Reddit user commented on a thread about falsifying COVID-19 vaccination cards, saying, in part, “I need one, too, for college. I refuse to be a guinea pig.”

 

On Twitter, one user with more than 70,000 followers tweeted, “My daughter bought 2 fake ID’s online for $50 while in college. Shipped from China. Anyone have the link for vaccine cards?”

 

According to a tally by The Chronicle of Higher Education, at least 675 colleges and universities now require proof of COVID-19 inoculations. The process to confirm vaccination at many schools can be as simple as uploading a picture of the vaccine card to the student’s portal.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[China]

Broward County Public Schools vote to maintain mask mandate despite Florida governor's executive order to leave masks up to parents

 

The Broward County School Board voted Tuesday to maintain the school district's mask mandate that was originally approved July 28.

 

After listening to 48 public speakers and reviewing more than 350 written comments from local residents, the board voted 8-1 to keep the mask mandate in place, allowing exceptions for health and safety concerns only, according to a news release from the school division. Broward County schools started school Tuesday.

"You can't ignore this pandemic. It's deadly, and it's getting worse instead of better and the more we don't use masks, the more we position the mutation of this virus to grow," said Rosalind Osgood, school board chair, during the special board meeting Tuesday.

She later told CNN she's not willing to "risk and play Russian roulette" with children who can't get vaccinated.

Requests to opt out of the mask mandate "will be considered due to medical needs, Individual Education Plans or Section 504 accommodations," the school division news release said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Ball Security]

On 8/9/2021 at 1:59 PM, bearrock said:

 

Yeah, lot of NOVA is currently at substantial.  But with trend and positivity rate going the way it's going, hitting high pretty soon seems likely.  Possibly before schools even start.

 

Anyone have any info on how much work has been done on ventilation in FCPS?  

From FCPS:

Ventilation

FCPS uses mechanical ventilation systems to provide classrooms with outside air. FCPS schools are designed to ventilate fresh outside air and mitigate the buildup of odors and pollutants. Fresh air is filtered and conditioned before it enters the space. This is in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus that advises windows be opened in the absence of outside mechanical ventilation.
 

Also, they state that 77% of students 12-17 have had at least one shot.

[China]

Threatening healthcare workers...sickening.

 

 

[bearrock]

7 hours ago, Ball Security said:

From FCPS:

Ventilation

FCPS uses mechanical ventilation systems to provide classrooms with outside air. FCPS schools are designed to ventilate fresh outside air and mitigate the buildup of odors and pollutants. Fresh air is filtered and conditioned before it enters the space. This is in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus that advises windows be opened in the absence of outside mechanical ventilation.
 

Also, they state that 77% of students 12-17 have had at least one shot.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't have much concern for middle and high school kids.  I wouldn't be much concerned for ES students once they are vaccinated.

[Barry.Randolphe]

I won't be surprised when covid comes knocking on their door....these last 5 years have truly been awful as an American.

[China]

California Becomes The 1st State To Require Vaccination For All School Staff

 

California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and staff in K-12 public and private schools to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday.

 

The statewide vaccine mandate comes as schools return from summer break amid growing concerns of the highly contagious delta variant.

 

The new policy will affect the state's 320,000 public school teachers, more than 250,000 support staff — from cafeteria employees to cleaners — and at least 80,000 private school employees, according to the California Department of Education and labor unions. It will also apply to school volunteers.

 

Click on the link for the full article