John Ogozalek teaches in rural upstate New York.
He writes:
Let’s hope we dodge this bullet as a nation.
But it sounds like the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to go sideways.
What if schools close for weeks -if not months?
What will teachers do during this time off? (Assuming we’re not taking care of family in our own homes.)
And, let’s face it, the idea of teaching online just isn’t going to last long if at all for many K-12 schools. Seriously.
Here’s the thing…
Teachers represent an already organized, very locally based force -across the entire nation.
Instead of waiting for the federal government’s response to get organized (which under Trump’s leadership seems like a disaster in the making as valuable time slips by) perhaps our unions and school districts can get moving on this challenge right now.
Hopefully, we won’t be needed. But why not get ready to help?
I do not want to sit around my house if school is closed.
Could I volunteer with a local doctor? Check on shut ins?
At the minimum, schools can have meetings right now to make sure teachers and staff have accurate contact information including alternate means to communicate in case the internet is stressed. What happens to families who are lacking child care? And, those kids who rely on school lunch?
We can start to organize and at least offer our volunteer assistance to the government. A sort of “Teacher Force” at the ready for those of us who can lend a hand.
By moving forward without fear and working together maybe we can create a model for other groups? And, most importantly, offer some help to the children in our communities.
You have contact with people in charge of things in this country, especially union leaders.
I think this idea might get off the ground pretty quickly if an organization like NYSUT, for example, gets local presidents on it. Of course, we’d include administrators and anyone else in the school who wants to pitch in. We’d need a thoughtful template to respond effectively…a plan informed by public health experts. A package of possible options that local schools can consider and perhaps choose from.
Just an idea, Diane. Maybe the higher ups somewhere are already thinking in this direction?
If not, maybe we should….
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good for John.
I am in a small way educating service workers about sanitary practices at home and other places.
We all have to contribute in ways we can. We are public school teachers.
Teachers are generally excellent planners. We spend our entire careers doing it. Planning for contingency measures and figuring out ways to be helpful in a crisis make perfect sense in this national emergency.
I don’t understand the panic over this epidemic. SARS was much more serious and we didn’t panic to this extent. My understanding is that COVID-19 is pretty much like flu and kills at roughly the same rates and among the same populations as flu. It is estimated that about 70% of people will get it, the vast majority will asymptomatic to mild. Even most serious to severe cases will recover.
As with flu, the people most at risk are the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. Also, as with flu, by the time you might know you have it, you’ve already exposed other people (you are most contagious before you are symptomatic), and the best way to reduce transmission is for everyone to wash their hands with soap frequently.
To my way of thinking, the best way of dealing with any epidemic, like the best way of dealing with terrorism or any other threat, is to keep your affairs in order, make sure your loved ones know you love them, get right with your creator to the extent you believe in such things, and otherwise live your life as if any day could be your last but probably won’t be.
It appears that this outbreak is much worse than the ones you mention.
The director of the World Health Organization recently said that the death rate is 3.4 percent, which is substantially higher than for the flu, and for the flu, we have a vaccine. We also don’t have enough test kits, and many who carry it are asymptomatic. I suspect that this is going to be very bad indeed.
https://time.com/5798168/coronavirus-mortality-rate/
I would think that WHO took the factors discussed in this article into account in coming up with its estimate. At any rate, in such matters, the precautionary principle applies. Hiding one’s head in the sand and pretending that nothing is happening and that it will all just go away is not good private or public, individual or collective policy.
https://www.livescience.com/new-coronavirus-compare-with-flu.html
Was an interesting discussion about the Covid 19. It was a lot more serious than the song I composed about it. I tend to mirror your own nonchalance when it comes to diseases.
This one seems to have a higher dead rate than flu at first glance, so adding another almost flu to the mixture of malady that is the basket of deplorable viruses we have does not seem desirable. It does appear, however, that the cat is out of the bag.
The Diamond Princess was carrying 3,711 passengers and crew. All were exposed to the virus. 696 were infected and 7 of those died for a death rate of about 1% of all infected people and far smaller percentage of all exposed people. All of the deceased were over 70.
Axios
Italians with masks
Photo: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Monday that the government has extended internal travel restrictions to the entire country, after initially locking down the country’s northern region in an effort to contain the coronavirus.
Why it matters: It’s an extreme measure that effectively locks down 60 million people in one of the most populated countries in Europe, where more people have tested positive for the coronavirus than any country outside of China. Conte also announced that all public gatherings and sporting events would be banned.
The big picture: More than 9,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Italy, with more than 450 deaths recorded as of Monday — up from 97 on Saturday.
In Italy, 9K people are infected, 450 died. That’s 5%. Darn high. Just a week ago, the number of infected in Italy was just a few hundred.
That’s just one controlled experiment w/a relatively small number of participants—essentially, anecdotal. Meanwhile we have stats from China of much greater order of magnitude, so far showing 3.4% mortality (well over 3x seasonal flu). Just using raw numbers in US so far, also looking like 3.4%.
Also, I don’t quite get the emphasis on mortality rate, & the consequent focus on ‘most vulnerable’ [to mortality], i.e., boomers. This is a disease that moves quickly to lower lungs, often involves pneumonia—i.e., it is putting people in the hospital whether 29 or 60 y.o. That means any sort of epidemic stresses available hospital beds/ healthcare personnel. Lack of hospital beds is why Italy is in lockdown. Why are we minimizing?
Not sure where you’re getting that.
Per WHO Director 3/3: “Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% infected.” This would be the most pertinent difference, & relates to covid bringing on more severe illness involving lower lungs/ pneumonia.
Other differences [paraphrasing]: both spread by nose & mouth droplets but covid so far appears to spread less efficiently; flu is driven by those infected but not yet symptomatic – covid apparently driven by the symptomatic. There is insufficient testing & testing results to state that “the vast majority will be asymptomatic to mild.” At this point data is based on reported cases: in China so far, only 1% of those are asymptomatic, most of whom develop symptoms within 2 days after reporting.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/dont-panic-the-comprehensive-ars-technica-guide-to-the-coronavirus/2/#h4
Thanks, Dienne, that’she most thorough piece I’ve read on this.
The head of Natl Assoc of Counties Health Dept on CSPAN the other day had a good piece of advice. Anxious callers-in were wondering what they could do to prepare. He said: besides frequent hand-washing (soap&water 20 secs), a good step at the moment is to start teaching yourself how not to touch your face with your hands. It takes time to develop such habits.
Dienne, to the best of my recollection, SARS didn’t make it over here in a big way, if at all. & the same for other countries (Italy, for example, where covid-19 is widespread & has put the entire country in quarantine.
&–what Bob says, below, at 1:32 PM. I suspect so many who got the flu had never been vaccinated (esp. kids), & that many elderly people who were stricken had gotten the wrong strength (my pharmacist made sure to tell me I was getting the vaccine formulated for 65 & older).
Also, we never before had an idiot leader who has kneecapped the CDC & disbanded the pandemic experts.
I have a mini-cargo van. I’ll deliver meals to hungry kids missing their school lunch.
Awesome!!!
A new study from Johns Hopkins finds that kids are just as likely as adults to get COVID-19, but they get less sick. They might not even seem sick but nonetheless be carrying it. Some show no symptoms at all, even though they are carrying the virus. So, kids can be unknown, unrecognized vectors. This is a strong argument for closing schools until this disease is dealt with.
Also problematic: all infected persons can spread the disease before they have any symptoms. Elderly persons are particularly at risk. What kills, in this disease, is not the initial infection but, rather, a second round of inflammation in the lung caused by the body’s immune response. Ironically, having that older, adult immune response appears to be the culprit.
Until this is over, it’s a really good idea to avoid crowds of all kinds to the extent possible. And it’s a good idea to close schools and have kids work from home.
A quarter of Italy is now under quarantine.
As of this afternoon, it’s the entire country. No travel. No public meetings. Italy is being serious about this. When will we?
Bob, the reason Italy quarantined the entire country is that, when word got out yesterday that they were going to completely lock down parts of the north, a lot of people rushed to take trains out of the region!!!
The Chinese people are much more accustomed to complying with government orders (see the movie American Factory if you haven’t). The methods that were used in China will not work in the West because of millions of “entitled” individuals in our culture. I’ve been doing all of my tutoring work exclusively via Skype for 2-3 weeks already. They are NOT going to stop this.
You are right about that, David. Unfortunately.
That said, I expect that I will get it at some point and pull through despite being 66. It’s the nursing home patients that we really need to be concerned about.
When the young opthamologist in Wuhan died several weeks back, that was the one news item that really got my attention, but there are other possible explanations for that sad event as I detailed in my blog article.
This is the article I wrote five days ago on this topic:
https://eduissues.com/2020/03/04/these-are-some-of-the-questions-that-i-want-answered-about-coronavirus/
Thanks, Diane, for posting my comments. To all of my friends on here as well as your families and friends, take care.
Let’s hope that we can quickly pull together as a nation. We’ve done it before.
The fact that you have been contemplating what you can do to help while I have been composing a silly song about the matter makes me blush. Your thoughtful nature is appreciated.
Thanks. Though I think hanging on to our sense of humor whenever possible will really matter, too. Humor and especially music have always been things that have helped get me through. Take care.
If people are truly concerned about massive death and devastation, you could throw your energy into stopping the U.S.-backed Saudi war in Yemen, which has killed a conservative estimate of 100,000 people, compared to about 4,000 world-wide deaths attributed to coronavirus.
But, but we’re bringing FREEDOM to those Yemenis.
How well I remember the 1960s cartoon of LBJ in military garb, with a rifle, standing amid a pile of bodies, with the caption, “Another village saved from Communism.” The ore things change. . . .
On the upside…even though a pandemic has no upside….this will hit right at the big “testing season” for K-12. I wonder what all the testing companies will do?
Hopefully go bankrupt!
I just checked on the plan for Cincinnati Public Schools. So far there are no documented cases of the Covid-19 virus in Ohio. The CPS district published the following about four days ago and there are extra efforts in sanitizing surfaces–whatever that means.
https://www.cps-k12.org/news/whats-new/information-about-coronavirus
I am tutoring kids in China currently in reading and literature. They are getting cabin fever working on the online lessons exclusively. None of them like it but they’ve been doing it for several weeks now. It may continue another 3 weeks. Another girl in Hong Kong has not left her family’s apartment since February 9th. Amazing, when you think of it. It is a great educational problem: how do you maintain education standards in this environment?
No need to maintain education standards. Now is the time to get rid of them!
LMAO! The best medicine!
As usual, thanks, Senor.
Robert, that’s a good point. Exactly. The last few days I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how a prolonged school closure will work for students, teachers and families.
In a rural area like where I teach there are some people who do not have a reliable internet connection Then there’s the issue of access to computers.
I think I’m going to ask my high school students this morning what solutions they can come up with.
Thanks for getting me thinking more. And, best of luck with your efforts.
These are precisely the same problems we face. While most students hae phones and data plans, they do not have access to devices that are electronically coordinated in ways conducive to continuing education in a setting out of school.
A teachable moment. Great idea, John, & thanks for your post.
As for myself, I will be out on election day working on voting protocols & such–poll watching & surveying judges (we have new machines).
Hopefully, people won’t be frightened into not voting (polling places w/many people clustered together).
Hopefully, more people will vote on Election Day–& use paper ballots
(no reason to use touch-screens).
Here’s a little sampling of Trump talking about the Coronavirus. But, of course, what he has to say isn’t actually about the virus. Whatever the topic, even one this serious, Trump can only talk about himself.
“I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors say, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president. . . . The tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect.”
This is beyond simple narcissism. This is psychopathy.
“I like this stuff.”
He’s talking about discussions of a possible pandemic that could kill millions.
I have two words for federal, state, and local officials attempting to deal with this:
Precautionary principle
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/exponential-outbreaks-the-mathematics-of-epidemics/
I’ll tell you what definitely will NOT do to prepare: I will not consider putting my classes online, I will not consider requiring temperatures be taken or other private medical information be given for admittance (as already happened in China and the KTLA morning news said is happening at some restaurants here in L.A.), I will not stock up on paper products made by Koch Industries or stock up at Walmart, I will not stop attending political rallies and meetings, and I will not live in the fear that lends itself to allowing the growth of police and surveillance states.
I will wash my hands. I will keep them from my face. I will carefully read the accurate information my great local teachers union is providing.
Why not consider temperatures be taken? Just curious. At two of the 5 PreK’s where I am a wkly special it is OK for kids to come in sick– apparently they care more about pandering to parental $ concerns than protecting staff & other kids– & most of the parents have babysitters/ nannies! Those schs are virus petrie dishes: why is that OK?
Any word about the NPE Conference?
Duane,
We are making a decision about whether to go forward with the NPE conference or cancel it, based on a survey of those who have registered.
Diane, you are in the at-risk demographic and too important to this movement to expose yourself to people traveling from all over the country. The right decision for you is clear.
Please stay safe by continuing your blogging from home!
Thanks for the info! I know you all will let us know as soon as you determine the status.
I’m with David on this. Please consider limiting your exposure to large groups, Diane.
Thanks. I’m in the highest risk group.
The virus seems to go for old folks like me and mostly to spare the young, thank goodness.
Everything I planned to do has been canceled except for a whirlwind trip to Texas in late April, speaking in Houston, Dallas and Austin, three cities in three days. I’m keeping an eye on government advisories, assuming Trump doesn’t censor them. My sponsor is Pastors for Texas Children.
Very, very happy to hear this, Diane!!! You are needed, and we love you!!!
Thank you, John Ogozalek, for these excellent ideas.
And count me in.
I have no idea of what teachers should do. Malaysia has now got 99 cases, the highest in Asia. Thailand has warned its citizens to NOT travel to Singapore.
………………………………..
Officials: 2 new COVID-19 cases in Indiana, state now has 4
Monday, March 9, 2020
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two additional cases of the new coronavirus have been diagnosed in Indiana, including one in a suburban Indianapolis elementary school student, bringing the state’s COVID-19 tally to four, the state’s health commissioner said Monday.
Indiana’s other new case of COVID-19 was confirmed in an adult in northeastern Indiana’s Noble County and that person is hospitalized, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said at a news conference announcing the two additional presumptive positive cases of the virus.
The infected student is enrolled at Hickory Elementary School in Avon, and a second student in the same school district, the Avon Community School Corporation, is displaying symptoms, said district Superintendent Maggie Hoernemann.
The district is working closely with the Hendricks County Health Department “to determine the web of individuals who have had direct contact with these two students,” Hoernemann said.
The district canceled classes Monday and closed all its schools until March 20, at which time the district’s spring break will be underway. All practices, extracurricular activities and other school events were also canceled. Classes were scheduled to resume April 6…
https://www.sfgate.com/news/education/article/Officials-2-new-COVID-19-cases-in-Indiana-state-15117555.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Desktop)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email
This message was sent via sfgate.com.
**Coronavirus: Malaysia has 99 cases, second highest in South-east Asia after Singapore; cruise liner docks in Bali*
MAR 8, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA – Malaysia on Sunday (March 8) confirmed six new coronavirus cases, bringing the number of infections to 99 – the second highest number in South-east Asia after Singapore.The jump in local cases in the last week has led to the country issuing a blanket ban on all cruise ships from docking, in a bid to concentrate medical resources on hospitals.”The entry and transit of cruise vessels, passengers and crew members require considerable medical resources to be made available at ports for screening and treatment purposes,” said Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager Captain K. Subramaniam in a statement on Sunday…
https://str.sg/JxGw
Here is information from the CDC. [Why in the world would the Director praise Trump for his excellent leadership? That is grotesque. Do we now have Trump lackeys in every level of government?]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
People at Risk for Serious Illness from COVID-19
If you are at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19, you should:
Stock up on supplies
Take everyday precautions to keep space between yourself and others
When you go out in public, keep away from others who are sick, limit close contact and wash your hands often.
Avoid crowds as much as possible
During a COVID-19 outbreak in your community, stay home as much as possible.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html?deliveryName=USCDC_2067-DM21539
Yes, we do “have T lackeys in every form of government.”
Thank G-d for Dr. Anthony Faucci, all the truth telling scientists & Physicians for Social Responsibility!
Those who tell Trump what he does not want to hear may be gone soon. The truth is not as important as loyalty, or being his lackey.
Satire from The Borowitz Report
Betsy DeVos Says She Was Planning to Close All Schools Anyway
By Andy Borowitz
March 9, 2020
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—As an increasing number of schools and universities closed down because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, revealed on Monday that she had been planning for years to close every school in the country anyway.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, DeVos said, “When I took over as Education Secretary, I came with a simple mission: to shut down all of the nation’s schools. It turns out that I was just ahead of my time.”…
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/betsy-devos-says-she-was-planning-to-close-all-schools-anyway?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker
Borowitz is a riot–LOVE him!
But, in reality, I could picture/hear DeVos actually saying this.
Am I the only one who has noticed that the spread of this plague is a function of those of us who are capable of travel? Banning cruise ships means cutting off the wealthy. In Tennessee’s county of great wealth there have appeared two Covid diagnoses. Singapore is a wealthy place. Only the wealthy can travel.
If the wealthy do not travel, we do not have trade and the world economy goes to the dogs. An economics lesson?
Hungarians travel much more than Americans. Does it mean, they are wealthier?
Some people are willing to live in small apartments, perhaps live with parents, use public transportation, so that they can travel.
That is a good point. I feel that travel is perhaps the most essential part of civilization, especially where learning and trade is concerned. In history, however, it has produced medical and environmental problems from the great plague to the aspects of the Columbian Exchange. How we deal with this shrinking world and its propensity for viral infection is a matter of great concern.
It seems the best thing to do is stay home as much as possible (besides washing hands). Unfortunately, many people must go to work so that they can eat. And it’s not clear, if the government will foot medical bills associated with corona.
The East and West coasts already close some schools, and here in TN, Vanderbilt just announced that their classes will all be online.
I am quite sure, this is what my university will do too. We are on spring break, and I think this would be the perfect time to prepare for online teaching.
If all classes can be easily done online, why go back to brick and mortar schools???
There are many reasons not to go totally online.
Online charters are the worst performing schools in the nation.
Kids lose group in reading and math when they take all their courses online.
Motivation is a huge problem.
Online charters have the lowest test scores, the lowest graduation rates, and the highest attrition of any schools.
In many or most states, the online charters are the lowest performing of any schools.
See my posts tomorrow on this very subject.
I just talked to my daughter who is a sophomore in college and an Anthropology major. She is very unhappy about the prospect of possibly going online for the rest of the semester, plus there are classes which simply cannot be done online, like osteology, where the students have to study and identify bone segments. You can imagine how online classes would work in medical school.
In any case, we are not talking about the usual pretaped online classes, but classes which would be live and through skype or similar, so for example, students can ask questions and can even have discussions with each other. Still, they are a far cry from a regular brick and mortar class.
In K-12, especially in low grades, the situation is even worse because somebody would have to take care of the child while at home.
Oh, I know. Just playing Devil’s Advocate! 🙂
For all the reasons Diane mentions, online schooling is a terrible idea as a general policy. However, in this circumstance, it’s the least bad alternative. Kids touch freaking everything. Schools need to be closed until this thing is under control.
Mamie, I can only speak for my field (foreign-language learning), & have been following stats on most efficient teaching methods since the ‘90’s. All indications are, things have not changed across the studies done since then: online lang-learning works for a very small %age of students: they are adult, highly-motivated, & already at least bilingual [more often multi-lingual]. That’s not to say that an online course couldn’t do a bit of teaching in a pinch [say, during school closures due to covid-19 outbreak]. Some advanced programs can help you with accent if you have the sw capacity. Many can help you memorize lists of unrelated words. A few can help you learn very basic phrase responses to routine questions, if you do the reps often enough. But—as in so many other fields of learning—the most efficient teaching methods require person-to-person input and feedback. That’s where we get the kind of motivation and stimulation needed to persevere to higher levels of achievement.
bethree5: “But—as in so many other fields of learning—the most efficient teaching methods require person-to-person input and feedback.”
I do not learn foreign languages easily. I went to Guatemala and studied Spanish for three weeks. It was one teacher for a small group of students.
I studied Bahasa Melayu [Malay] in Hawaii for three months in preparation for the Peace Corps. It again was one teacher for a small group.
There is no way in the world I could study a foreign language on a computer. The pronunciations are often not the same as english. [I was told by a Malay teacher that I have a strong American accent.]
Our major problem is that we don’t have a president with any leadership capability.
………………………………….
Trump Keeps Lying About the Coronavirus Outbreak: A Closer Look
Mar 5, 2020
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Seth takes a closer look at President Trump lying to millions of people about the coronavirus outbreak as his administration bungles its response to the crisis.
Well, Trump’s new pick for CDC boss is, wait for it, a Christian fundamentalist wacko. That should put your mind at ease regarding COVID-19. From CNN:
[Robert] Redfield’s early engagement with the AIDS epidemic in the US in the 1980s and 90s was controversial. As an Army major at Walter Reed Medical Institute, he designed policies for controlling the disease within the US military that involved placing infected personnel in quarantine and investigating their pasts to identify and track possible sexual partners. Soldiers were routinely discharged and left to die of AIDS, humiliated and jobless, often abandoned by their families.
In the 1980s Redfield worked closely with W. Shepherd Smith, Jr. and his Christian organization, Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy, or ASAP. The group maintained that AIDS was “God’s judgment” against homosexuals, spread in an America weakened by single-parent households and loss of family values.
Redfield wrote the introduction to a 1990 book, “Christians in the Age of AIDS,” co-written by Smith, in which he denounced distribution of sterile needles to drug users and condoms to sexually active adults, and described anti-discrimination programs as the efforts of “false prophets.”
We’re doomed.
Bob Shepherd: That explains why Fedfield was so ready to tell Trump that he showed great leadership. Trump really picks disgusting people. I’m getting sick of loyalty being the ONLY quality that his appointees show.
“First I want to thank you, for your decisive leadership … I also want to thank you for coming here today … I think that’s the most important thing I want to say”
–CDC Director Redfield
Cabinet meetings in the Trump Maladministration last about an hour. 55 minutes of praising Trump. 5 of business.
“Could I volunteer with a local doctor?”
This makes no sense. Is John an expert knowing the risks involved in this not exactly covert recommendation? Also, the whole article is guilting teachers’ into volunteering, as if they were a special class who have a special duty to help out in crisis situations.
Italy is under lockdown. The health experts there believe, the only way to prevent the infection to spread further is to make sure, people stay home.
Màté, as I said in response to one of Bob’s comments above, the government the day before was getting ready to expand the quarantine area in the north, word got out, and Italians started jumping on trains to go south before the ban went into effect. The implication is that they extended the ban to the whole country to try to stop this kind of behavior. Please see my comment above because I don’t want to start another sub-thread here on the same thing.
I’m definitely not an expert. But I do want to help. I’d go clean the bathrooms in my doctor’s office if there was no one else to do it. The country doctor I know is stretched thin on a good day. I owe that guy and his staff. But that’s me.
Key word is “volunteer”. I have no doubt some people are not able or willing to assist. (That could end up being me, too, if I get sick.). And, I am fully aware that sometimes well meaning people can make a situation worse. Absolutely. Don’t want to do that.
In terms of “special duties”, yes, I like to believe that teachers do have special duties. That’s the job I signed up for. If I didn’t believe I am part of a “special class” of people then I don’t know if I could walk into my classroom ever again.
Bernie Sanders; “Does anybody in their right mind believe that if you’re rich you should be able to afford a vaccine and save your life but if you’re poor you gotta die? Is that really where we’re at in the United States of America?”
FEEL THE BERN!
Amen to that!
Not mentioned anywhere here: as one who travels–& even before this pandemic–so devastating to see adults everywhere just sneezing & coughing into the air (even now, after all of this news) &–even worse–coughing & sneezing into their HANDS, & then, of course, touching EVERYTHING. School kids have been learning to cough/sneeze into the crook of their arms–even better than tissue because tissue is so flimsy that if one doesn’t wash one’s hands immediately, the germs probably still have gotten on those hands.
I retired in 2010, but a number of years before–when there was the threat of Swine Flu–the school nurse (yeah, 2 for 16 schools; an even worse ratio in Chicago Publics & around the country) came around & taught everyone to sneeze/cough into their arm crooks. Cut absences by at least 50%.
Lastly, found a wonderful sign at my eye doctor’s office (again, this was before covid-19) giving instructions for people to do this. I copied a bunch &, the next time I went to the airport, asked the service desks in our carrier’s area to put them up or ask their supervisors if they could: they all said no! At least I was able to get a cashier at the Hudson Store to put one up. I gave one to my friend, a New Orleans store co-owner, to put up, which she gladly agreed to, having just been hospitalized for an off-strain (vaccinated for a different one) of influenza (everyone in the area had been getting sick; numerous businesses temporarily closed because so many employees stayed home).
Yes, I’ve seen many of the PreK kids at schools I visit beginning to do this…
Forgive me if I’m repeating, but I got another tip this week from the doctor who leads up National Assoc of Community Health Centers. Anxious callers-in were asking what they could do to prepare. He said besides the good advice to wash hands frequently for 20secs w/soap & water, & alcohol-swabbing frequently touched items [doorknobs, toilet flush, cell phone, steering wheel etc]– start teaching yourself how to NOT touch your face with your hands. It will take weeks to correct the habit!
I hope we get a discussion going on here soon as to whether schools should CLOSE for a few weeks. So far I only see Bob Shepherd talking about this. There was a cogent article in the NYT about this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/opinion/coronavirus-schools-closed.html
as well as other opinion columns contra.
My story: I am a special to regional PreK’s, so I see 6 different groups a week. At this morning’s assnt, there was a new, older child present. Only after class did I learn that this was the class aide’s son: she learned in early am that his schdistr was in emerency closing – because a student there was the child of NJ’s 11th confirmed case of covid-19—so, lacking childcare plans, she brought him to her job [and my class] ?! I have no idea if this kid came into contact w/the covid-19 family child. He didn’t cough or sneeze on me, but he was only a couple of feet away for 45 minutes.
So now I’m on a self-imposed 2wk quarantine. Chances are slim enough that this kid exposed me [tho I’m protecting other seniors by staying home from my eve activities just in case]. My self-quarantine is mainly to protect me against the PreK’s where I teach, which clearly haven’t got any policy on the ground yet. Two of the other five schools are even less organized than this one– & routinely admit sick kids who expose me wkly to their cough, sneezes & fevers. My hopes are that they’ll get a clue & get some protocols in place over the next 2 wks: most of the schdistricts in my area are closing for a day in the coming week in order to make plans & establish policies; the PreK’s will follow their lead…