The New York Times reports that scientists are converging on a consensus that it is safe for young children to return to school.
After a summer of uncertainty and fear about how schools across the globe would operate in a pandemic, a consensus has emerged in recent months that is becoming policy in more and more districts: In-person teaching with young children is safer than with older ones, and particularly crucial for their development.
On Sunday, New York City, home to the country’s largest school system, became the most high-profile example of that trend, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that only elementary schools and some schools for children with complex disabilities would reopen after all city classrooms were briefly shuttered in November. There is no plan yet to bring middle and high school students back into city school buildings.
It was an abrupt about-face for the mayor, who had for months promised to welcome all of the city’s 1.1 million children — from 3-year-olds to high school seniors — back into classrooms this fall.
But the decision put New York in line with other cities around America and across the world, which have reopened classrooms first, and often exclusively, for young children, and in some cases kept them open even as they have confronted second waves of the virus.
In-person learning is particularly crucial for young children, who often need intensive parental supervision to even log on for the day, education experts say. And mounting evidence has shown that elementary school students in particular can be safe as long as districts adopt strict safety measures, though it’s an unsettled question for older students.
“With younger kids, we see this pleasant confluence of two facts: science tells us that younger children are less likely to contract, and seemingly less likely to transmit, the virus,” said Elliot Haspel, the author of Crawling Behind: America’s Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It. “And younger children are the ones that most need in-person schooling, and in-person interactions.”
Districts including Chicago, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia have either begun to bring back only young children or have plans to do so whenever they eventually reopen classrooms.
In Rhode Island, Gov. Gina Raimondo, a strong proponent of keeping schools open, recently asked colleges to shift to all-remote learning after Thanksgiving, and gave districts the option of reducing the number of high school students attending in person. But she asserted that middle and elementary schools were not sources of community spread.
That model of giving priority to younger students has been pioneered in Europe, where many countries have kept primary schools open even as most other parts of public life have shuttered during the continent’s second wave.
Italy has kept its primary schools open but kept teaching remote for middle and high schools. All schools in Germany are open, and discussions about possible closures have focused mainly on high schools.
And in America, more and more districts have begun to prioritize elementary school students for in-person learning.
In urban districts that have been slow to reopen, that has meant making plans to bring back the youngest students. In parts of the Midwest where school districts were more aggressive about reopening, and where there has been a huge rise in cases in recent weeks, public health officials have prioritized keeping elementary schools open even as they have closed high schools and in some cases middle schools.
“The data is becoming more compelling that there is very limited transmission in day care and grade schools,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s coronavirus task force, in a recent interview.
“I keep telling people, ‘Stop talking about kids — talk about those younger than 10,’” he added. “We’re seeing a very different epidemiology in that group than we’re seeing, for example, in high school students.”
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2020/12/children_account_for_more_new_COVID_19.html
Less likely isn’t comforting to families who have lost children or adults working in elementary schools. Again, how many associated deaths or long-term health problems are acceptable?
As of mid-November the loss of school related personnel was about 300 reported cases. While it is not a huge number overall, it is a tragic loss for the families that have lost their loved one. Nobody knows about what the long-term residual damage will be to those that have survived Covid, Scientists are studying people that are considered “long haulers.” They are those that had a serious case of Covid, but survived. https://apnews.com/article/teachers-coronavirus-300-dead-us-5473efa14f6b801bc16a0e6b5c094313
essentially said: “less likely” doesn’t console ANYONE who loses a family member
Well, we’ve argued a lot, over the years, about the relative merits of in-person and virtual learning. The Education Deform crowd would have us believe that virtual learning is just great, despite its repeated and dramatic failures. Years ago, I read a piece by Bill Gates in which he argued that the two biggest costs in education were facilities and salaries for teachers and that both could be dramatically reduced by going virtual. I suspect that he funded the creation of the execrable and puerile Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] so that there could be one national bullet list to key educational software to.
Well, here is what the CDC is saying about virtual learning, now that Trump has lost the election and is no longer dictating science from his gut:
“To be sure, the best available evidence from countries that have reopened schools indicates that COVID-19 poses low risks to school-aged children – at least in areas with low community transmission. That said, the body of evidence is growing that children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and, contrary to early reports, might play a role in transmission.
“The many benefits of in-person schooling should be weighed against the risks posed by COVID-19 spread. Of key significance, in-person learning is in the best interest of students, when compared to virtual learning.”
At the very least, today’s Covid-19 kids (2020) have text books, newspapers, internet, radio, television and remote learning options. 😐🔔
The Spanish Flu kids (1918) only had text books and newspapers. ☹️🔔
Well observed, Eddie!
1st off let’s all acknowledge that the way Europe did their school re-openings is because they payed adults to continue to seclude. And the rates of seclusion and isolation are much higher there than here. But that is never discussed, only that they “kept schools open” somehow makes the printed page. Our Super (OUSD) just issued a plan for opening last night, and submitted it to the county, which has agreed to a tentative date of Jan 25th for K -2nd grade, dependent on rates. Was this plan submitted AFTER they had negotiated with the union. NO. Parents of HS are angry, they are not included, parents of POC are saying no way, not my kid. The information about the preparedness of each site is provided in cumulative numbers for the district. It’s a laughable plan at best, and a ridiculous plan with potentially deadly consequences at worst. What can’t we comprehend as a society that this is an epidemic? There is no normal.
Isn’t this what I was saying six months ago when you all were attacking me for wanting teachers to die?
As a retired teacher I find it glaringly hypocritical that government entities and their representatives are vehement about small children returning to schools.
1. Not that long ago I remember reporters interviewing “the man/woman” on the street and these individuals pummeling teachers for being so demanding and strict with children with side comments about online learning being so liberating and open to flexible learning. We, teachers, were the wicked pen and paper police of education in their judgement.
2. The Public School buildings in large urban areas are falling apart and have been for decades due to a lack of funding. These children get to go back to schools with poor air circulation and questionable clean sanitary conditions ( the expose on Detroit public schools come to mind immediately). The business investment class wants the working class to get back to consistent work schedules and it can’t happen until the employees have a place to put their small children. The only variable work schedule accepted by this business class is one where the employer can arrange the hours so the health benefits are not required to be provided. The current situation is cutting into the profits still attainable in these times. It’s not about education.
3. Public School funding has been rerouted by Betsy DeVoss to private and charter schools. If you want teachers to faithfully return to in person schooling the funding needs to be reestablished to public.
4. If you are a teacher in the current pandemic it is often more prudent to quit than exposed yourself and your family to COVID-19 by teaching. The pay in most areas is abysmal. Consider the fact that these employees have a four year degree in education at minimum. Most have a M.A. or even a PhD after a few years. It is possible to get a different job in their field of expertise. The current average of pay make it possible to simply take a job as a shift manager at a restaurant. This is why 35% of the teaching force at the start of this pandemic have either quit or retired.
I agree on 2). 😐🔔
Well stated @Eva Belek!!
Rough napkin estimate for CPS is that each elementary school should get about $250K in January to hire up to five extra staff in the schools to deal with entry, washroom, lunch in class, etc. A seven hour day here, not like in France. That comes to about $120 million. A good place to get this cash would be 1) cutting budgets of top and mid mangement (teachers are essential, coaches and other consultants no) 2) cutting budgets of High Schools (building ops, security, extra curriculars, sports) and 3) from a check cut by our new DOE in time for the 4th QUARTER in mid April. Our CPS leaders JJ and LL say we elem teachers should “rise to the occasion” of returning to work in late Jan. Excuse me? No. There better be lots of help and I see nary a mention in their plan. And this notion off some arbitrary cut-off age of COVID spread risk has to go. Are twelve year olds more like two year olds or like seventeen year olds vis-a-vis covid transmission? I take no comfort in “experts” telling me that there’s some big drop off in risk. So everyone who just turned 13 this year has a new COVID transmitter, Baloney. Nature works in gradients.
The NIH estimated that in March and April alone, based on huge drops in reporting of abuse, school closures resulted in 40,000 additional instances of child maltreatment.
The maltreatment was based on job loss, not school closures in the article I found. I’m sure you must have misread the attribution rather than falsifying it, right?
Admittedly, I skimmed the article that I believe you are referring to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7472978/#:~:text=001%2C%20or%20physically%20abused%20their,001.&text=Whereas%2C%20for%20parents%20who%20did,37.21%25%20physically%20abused%20their%20children.
No, was referring to this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7441889/
“While it will take some time to understand whether this rate of substantiation remained relatively constant throughout March and April 2020, these figures suggest that, nationally, roughly 40,000 additional instances of child maltreatment would have been confirmed were it not for school closures.”
This is based on statistical modeling and extrapolations, so there are a number of caveats, of course.
FLERP attributes to NIH a claim/estimate that they actually did not make (or even imply). Namely, that “school closures resulted in 40,000 additional instances of child maltreatment.”
And, curiously, he quotes what NIH actually said to (supposedly) support what he said
“roughly 40,000 additional instances of child maltreatment would have been confirmed were it not for school closures”
While it is certainly a bad thing that a lot of child maltreatment is likely going unreported because of school closures, “would have been confirmed” does not mean “resulted in”.
You are correct, thanks for the clarification, was sloppy on my part. They estimate that there were 40,000 cases of child abuse in those two months that, because of school closures, went unreported.
As I posted some weeks ago, opening K-6 seems like a reasonable move. It is the lowest risk age group for in class education and the age group likely to benefit the most from in class education.
Anybody else notice: all the happy talk about OK to re-open for elementaries includes 5th graders, who are 10 turning 11 during the school year – while all the research says kids UNDER 10 contract it less/ have mild cases etc. ?
Tho I agree with MSS above: the suggestion that under-10 OK/ over-10 notOK sounds ridiculously unscientific.
And of course, my usual beef: none of this talk is about ADULT STAFF– despite that each report says um I dunno about whether the under-10’s spread it or how much…
I’ve noticed in my town that every time ANYone in a school comes down with covid, they’re quick to assert that there’s “no evidence” they got it at school. Including when they had to shut down the townwide K school [hint hint all kids 5-6y.o.] for 2 wks because 2 teachers caught it…
Children generally get over Covid easily, and many remain asymtomatic. However, scientists are finding that children are efficient spreaders of the virus since they can carry a large viral load. It is a testament to diligence of the teachers and schools that numbers of cases remain fairly low in public schools. Sadly, many of the teachers that have passed away had preexisting conditions.https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/children-often-carry-more-coronavirus-than-adults-study-67785
This might be a comfort: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02973-3
I saw a fascinating interview on CSPAN of an epidemiologist (perhaps practicing in a pediatric hospital?). He said that the young children w/compromised immune systems– the ones they were most worried about– had fairly mild cases & recovered quickly. Counterintuitively kids w/severe complications (even death) had no immune-sys issues. They’re expanding studies ofc, but the tentative theory: the former were protected by their malfunctioning immune-sys, which was incapable of mounting a life-threatening over-the-top immune reaction. In other words the opposite of what happens in adults. The difference appears to be between developing & mature immune systems.
European nations have been able to open schools because they value children, teachers and education. They shut down their economies so that children can remain in school. That will never happen here in “Capitalism is King” USA. Americans want to have it all. Dr. Fauci said in an interview last week that schools could open with safety measures in place if the economy would shut down. It just goes to show what matters most to Americans…..shopping for cheap crap at Walmart (and other stores) and grabbing an overpriced $20 burger and fries with a $7 craft brew at the local sports bar. Children in this country are treated very poorly because they don’t spend money and they don’t vote, yet they are expected to buck up and obey so that they can become good little widgets for the future workforce and respect their Masters who will pay them peanuts for wages.
It seems because some scientists, school boards, unions and educators (no offense) say so, parents should allow their kids’ return to public school. 🤔
Some kids have dropped out, being legal age. Some kids have transferred to a private school. Some kids are enrolled in online schools. It’s life. 😐
My 2nd child goes to a private HS (that we pay for). They are attending hybrid, have installed air filters, moved some classes into their event tents outdoors, all wear masks and social distancing is enforced. My son doesn’t like that he’s not with all his friends, but it’s better than all virtual. There have been no Covid cases in school because children are told to stay home if they feel unwell. If he went to any one of our local public schools, I would be pushing to keep it all virtual as they have done nothing to decrease the over crowding situation, they have not invested in the filters, there would be no action taken for not wearing a mask and social distancing could/would not be enforced. Where there is a will, there is a way….BUT it’s about sacrifice and need vs. want. As a family, we are NOT eating in restaurants, shopping at the mall, going to movies, hanging out with friends indoors etc.
Our town has been doing hybrid (2 days half-cohort in person) since September [85% families participating]. In the 6 1st-5th elementaries & the 2 middle schools, there have been no closures. The townwide K had to close for 2 wks in Oct when 2 staff became ill. The high school however has barely had 3 wks’ school, & had to close for 4 wks (just re-opening now) because of too many cases.
The super has published high praise (passed along to her from teachers) for the surprising & gratifying observation of protocols by the elem & middle school students, saying they’re taking it all very seriously and cautiously. The hisch cases seem to have originate from sports (which they’ve stopped now) & gatherings outside of school. I’m thinking it’s toughest to comply for that age-group, given the ‘invincible’ mentality that sprouts then & extends into 20’s– but could it just be that that’s the biggest gathering of students? They have about 1400.
Well, my sped kids certainly would be better back in school and so would my eyes!
We’re all going to need new glasses when it’s safe to go back to the optometrist, no? I’m not teaching now (did some online work in spring), but find I’m online more than I used to be. I’m taking an online class, & my extracurriculars meet online– & it provides regular human communication that I used to get just from my old in-person routine.
We can thank Trump for the stupidity that is killing people. There is no fixing stupid.
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Rural Virginia county officials pass resolution rejecting ‘tyranny’ of governor’s coronavirus restrictions
RUSTBURG, Va. — Nearly 100 people gathered in the Campbell County Board of Supervisors chamber outside Lynchburg this week, took off their face coverings and applauded an official resolution rejecting Gov. Ralph Northam’s coronavirus restrictions.
“Free people have a duty to push back against these restrictions,” County Supervisor Charlie A. Watts II said during the Tuesday night hearing. Northam’s executive orders mandating the wearing of masks during the deadly pandemic, ordering restaurants to stop serving alcohol at 10 p.m. and limiting public gatherings to 25 people or fewer are “simply not the role of government in a free society,” Watts said.
The board in this deeply red county then voted unanimously in favor of a resolution declaring Campbell a “First Amendment sanctuary” — referring to the Bill of Rights guarantee of the freedom of assembly — and ordering local authorities not to enforce the Democratic governor’s mandates.
Campbell became the first Virginia locality to pass what some call a “nullify Northam” measure, but the idea is sweeping rural governments the way the “Second Amendment sanctuary” movement against gun control spread a year ago. Nearby Bedford considered a resolution last week that would have punished officials who tried to enforce the restrictions, including withholding funding from the sheriff and ordering the arrest of state agents…
In Virginia, reported cases of the coronavirus are climbing back toward levels not seen since spring. Rural areas have been hit particularly hard; Campbell County’s seven-day average infection rate of 32.2 cases per 100,000 people as of Wednesday was higher than the overall state average of 27.1, according to Virginia Department of Health figures….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-county-rejects-coronavirus-restrictions/2020/12/02/fd1ded56-33e9-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html
There is not growing consensus that younger children in schools are safe. Rather, there is growing consensus that younger children in schools are safer than older children. That’s a pretty low bar for reopening schools during a wave. We’re nowhere close to the numbers in other countries, and even if we were, we’d still be excluding important data in our unscientific, public, billionaire owned media-based debate. We’re willing to open schools, but we’re not willing to stop ordering Chia Pets from Amazon warehouses or stop watching football on TV. We’re spoiled, so we’re in danger.
Quite a number of elementary schools in Utah have had to close because there have been too many cases of Covid in those schools, and that’s just the ones who have been tested.
So I don’t think opening, even younger grades, is such a great idea, particularly in a place with high Covid case numbers and outrageous class sizes.
And what about the staff? The “only” 300 number is just from cases reported to a teacher doing this on her own; there is no official count of how many staff have actually gotten ill or died.
Well, in most schools many kids are remote so we don’t have the number of people in the school that we had before. If we were at full capacity in schools, we would have a conflagration of the virus even with distancing (which there isn’t any in hallways) and masks. Meanwhile, I bought a new parka, long underwear, gloves, hat and scarves because all my classroom windows are open. I open all the windows in the student bathrooms and copier room. I rarely go in the faculty room or walk the halls. I diffuse my essential oils, stay out of all public places except to go to the store once a week. I don’t trust the school or Cuomo or anyone else to “keep me safe” (which actually doesn’t exist). Now Cuomo is changing the parameters of testing in schools so we can’t even count on that anymore. 😦
After hospital and EMS staff, and the elderly in group living, teachers, teachers need to be at the front of the remaining line for the vaccine. School closures need to end as soon as possible.
agreed!
I agree w/most of the order, but I wish that essential business workers, such as those people at grocery & hardware stores, get the vaccine. It bothers me, enormously, that, once again hard-working people (who probably make minimum wages) are not even mentioned/in the mix.
This is an area where enough is not yet known. In conditions of such uncertainty, when the cost of being wrong is so high–oh, don’t worry; it’s perfectly safe)–the precautionary principle applies.
My prediction: In time we will have learned that reopening schools in the middle of an airborne disease pandemic was a tragic mistake, leading to a lot of unnecessary deaths. And then there will be the soul-searching articles about the dangers of wishful thinking.
from the article:
“where school districts were more aggressive about reopening, and where there has been a huge rise in cases in recent weeks”
Gosh. What a surprise.
This couldn’t possibly be related to there being hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren in these states who a) are not being tested, b) are carrying the disease, c) are asymptomatic, and d) are transmitting the disease to others. LOL.
One has to laugh to keep from crying.
Let me ask an obvious question: under such conditions, where kids aren’t being tested and are commonly (as adults are) asymptomatic, and community transmission is rising, how would one know that the kids aren’t transmitting the virus? Well, the answer, clearly, OBVIOUSLY, is that YOU WOULDN’T. These people are claiming what they don’t know. And why do people do that? Well, wishful thinking.
Unless someone can record Covid-19 by video and/or audio, how would anyone know for sure where covid was acquired? I’ve already mentioned across the alley or street as possible places before and those aren’t definite either. ☹️
If a school is suspected of having covid (real or perceived), watch lawsuits fly exponentially. 😐
Great points, Bob. 🤔
Let’s look at a couple scenarios.
Little Johnny in South Bend, Indiana, contracted Covid-19 at school. He was asymptomatic. He gave it to his parents, Charley and Chandra, who were asymptomatic. His father gave it to his boss, Elaine, who was asymptomatic. Elaine gave it to a flight attendant, Muriel, who was asymptomatic, but gave it to Shirley from El Paso, who have it to her sister Betsy. Shirley died, and Betsy survived, but with debilitating cardiovascular disease.
Little Gian in Palermo, contracted Covid-19 at school. He was asymptomatic. He gave it to his parents, Marcello and Octavia, who were quarantined at home. It stopped there.
It would work well if everyone–E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E. did what the epidemiologists told us to do–but, in America, it, unfortunately, doesn’t work this way. Also, it depends on the schools. In a normal circumstance (at least in CPS) the schools are not adequately cleaned–understaffed janitorial services (thanks, Sodexho) & maintenance crew bringing their own cleaning supplies, pre-pandemic.
So now there’s money to have everything that’s needed? Old buildings w/inadequate circulation, cold water & toilets w/o lids (it has been found that flume can spread covid) used by multiple students or adults? And much more…
Again, a 6-year-old neighbor was being babysat by a friend, who is in her late 70’s or early 80’s (as is her husband). The girl developed a fever & a sore throat, & tested +. The granddaughter also became sick. The grandma & grandad & girl’s father all tested +. Luckily (& it IS absolutely the luck of the draw–their covid experience was being extremely exhausted & sleeping, almost consistently, for almost 2 weeks.
Again, they were very, very lucky. Maybe they’ll have after/longterm effects…who knows?
&–I’ve said this before & I’ll say it again–even ONE death is too many. What if it were your mother, your father, your daughter, son, sister, brother, grandparent…you?
When it’s my time to die, I’ll die. 😐
Whether it’s COVID-19, being hit by a car or whatever, I’ll die one day. 😐
If Bible days count, it has been this way since Adam and Eve ate the apple.🍎😐
If Bible days don’t count, I have to make room for a newborn coming in anyway. Earth 🌎 can’t hold everyone forever. It’s just how life is. 😐
To summarize: “Young children are unlikely to spread the virus” -via the journal “Nature”.
How does it follow that we should open schools now? Especially on the cusp of (but before) the availability of an effective vaccine? Cui Bono? Wall Street.
The Nature article was based on one study. Others, and CURRENT CDC guidance, differ. Just last week, a senior CDC official told the press that children certainly are transmitters of the virus.
Children can transmit the virus. So can the shoppers in a grocery store, the passengers on the bus, the patients in a hospital, and the caregivers in a nursing home. That is not a reason to close grocery stores, eliminate bus travel, and close hospitals, however.
The decision to close or keep open any facility has to trade off the risks involved with the benefits created. Because the risk of young children transmitting the disease appears to be low and the benefit of young children attending school in person appears to be high, it seems reasonable to open the younger grades for in person attendance. For older students, the risk of transmission appears higher (though compliance with mask wearing and social distancing is probably easier with older students. My students were all masked and socially distant in the classes I taught in person this fall) and, I would argue, the benefits from in person instruction are lower. Those perhaps you keep closed.
Stark appraisal in concurrence (with me): “But if you want the hoi polloi to go back to work, well the schools have to be open, because schools are primarily childcare. Note that high end workers are still isolating at home: the City of London is still effectively shuttered. Our lords and masters sure aren’t putting themselves at risk if they don’t need to.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/schools-and-covid/
NYT Breaking news: New York City’s average positive test rate rose above 5 percent for the first time since May.
Young children can safely return to school? Wonderful! Is it safe for their teachers, too, or are we advocating for kids to sit alone in Covid infested buildings? Because that seems a lot worse than remote learning to me.
Bottom line: we don’t know if it’s safe for kids to return to school FOR THE KIDS. We do know it is not safe FOR THE ADULTS. Hundreds of school staff are dead nationwide because of this virus. It is irresponsible to keep repeating the claims of economists, billionaires and corporate school reformers who want the schools open no matter what. I really expect better from this site.
Just as clearly we don’t know if keeping Giant Eagle open is safe for the customers or for the staff. We don’t know if keeping Presby open is safe for the patients or the staff.
Actually we do know. Neither is safe. Should we require Giant Eagle to close? AHN an UPMC to close to protect their staff? I look forward to your thoughts about this.
TE, so what? Are you advocating we just give up and give in to the virus? You first.
We CAN do things to make supermarket shopping safer. Customers can call in their orders and have them delivered to their waiting cars. But we can’t do much about hospitals more than we’re already doing.
The point is we should take all precautions we can. And teaching in-person is not something we have to do. It is not worth the risk as the virus runs rampant.
stevenmsinger: I’m with you on this. ONE needless death or ONE person who is disabled for the rest of their life is not acceptable.
Where is the financing that should be given to public schools? It simply isn’t a priority for the billionaires and millionaires who are in Congress. They are doing fine and don’t care about the rest of us. Too bad McConnell wasn’t replaced. What is wrong with Kentucky to inflict such a person on the whole nation? He and his millionaire wife are screwing this country.
Schools all over the nation are closing down due to teachers and students who are either sick or have been exposed and are in quarantine.
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Mitch McConnell’s Wife Elaine Chao Comes From An Extremely Rich Family
By Amy Lamare on September 28, 2019
Leave it to Mitch McConnell to get richer in the middle of the global financial crisis, but that’s exactly what he did. His 2009 financial disclosure showed an enormous jump upward while his colleagues in the senate were losing money like most Americans at the time. McConnell had the good fortune to receive a multimillion dollar gift from his father-in-law, James Chao, to him and his wife Elaine Chao. McConnell’s 2009 disclosure jumped from a range of $3.1 million to $12.7 million in 2007 to $7.3 million to $33.1 million in 2008. The gift he and his wife received from his father-in-law was listed as between $5 million and $25 million. It was in memory of Elaine’s mother Ruth who passed away in 2007 at age 77.
Ruth Chao was the matriarch of a family of eight. Forty years earlier, she and her three oldest daughters made the journey from Taiwan to the U.S. by ship. They were joining her husband John in New York City. By the time Ruth died, she had nearly $59 million in assets in her name. Her will laid out the terms for the maximum amount of money that could be given free of the estate tax be split evenly between her six daughters. In 2007 that was $2 million. The rest was left to her husband James, who is 91 today. James decided to pass even more along to his daughters. It is estimated that Elaine received about $9 million from her dad.
Since that time, the personal fortune of McConnell and Chao has grown thanks to their six figure government salaries – she’s Donald Trump’s Secretary of Transportation – as well as Elaine’s career in the private sector – to $30 million. But where did all that Chao money come from? Back in 1964, James Chao founded a shipping company called Foremost Maritime Group. Today, it is an international giant worth hundreds of millions of dollars. With her father in his 90s, part of the enormous family fortune of the Chao’s will be passed to her in the next handful of years.
Carol,
Several months ago, the New York Times reported that Elaine chai—Mitch’s wife—uses her position as Secretary of Transportation to help her family shipping business.
TE is teaching in person, I believe.
I take the subway to work and back home every day. (I’ll take my medal now.)
NIH estimated that there were 40,000 cases of child abuse that went unreported in March and April because of school closures. That’s just two months. Student anxiety and depression have been rising during shutdowns. The other day an 11-year old blew his brains out on a Zoom class. Fauci, the guy everybody loves to cite when they agree with his conclusion and ignore when they don’t, says that schools should reopen and that the risk of spread in schools is not very large.
There are risks of opening schools and there are risks of not opening them. You have to weigh the risks. You have to say out loud that any number of teachers who get ill and die is unacceptable, no matter what happens to students. Maybe, contrary to what experts are saying, you’re right and the risks to teachers are too high to open any schools for the rest of the school year. But you can’t just pretend nothing had is happening to students. You have to weigh the risks and conclude that one is not as serious as the other.
Steven,
Who is giving up? We CAN do things that make school safer. I taught classes this fall with students socially distant and masked.
We should balance the risks of staying open against the benefit from keeping open. Keeping Giant Eagle open, keeping AHN and UMPC hospitals open, will result in their staff dying from covid. It appears that you think that the benefit to the public of keeping the food supply chain and healthcare network is worth the death of some of the people who bring you food and will care for you when your ill. Is that correct?
FLERP, mental health does not take precedence over life and death. If something kills you, it doesn’t matter how you feel about it. You’re dead. Moreover, imagine the mental health consequences for kids knowing that they may have contributed to the death of a loved one because a loved one may have caught the virus from them.
When it comes to facts, they are much more on my side than yours. the argument that we should keep schools open as Covid infections rise out of control comes from economist Emily Oster. TE is championing her because she’s his home team. Why Diane or Carol or anyone here would champion this point of view is beyond me. It is the view of Mike Pence and Donald Trump.
Oster started an unofficial crowdsourced COVID-19 School Response Dashboard. She is a pro-open activist – NOT an epidemiologist, virologist or public health expert. She even said herself it was “bananas” that the CDC was relying on her database.
There are numerous problems with Oster’s data. As of Oct. 25, only about 1% of schools in the country were reporting, according to a Prospect article. (SOURCE: https://prospect.org/coronavirus/why-reopening-schools-has-become-the-most-fraught-debate-of-the-pandemic/)
At the time her widely publicized Washington Post op-ed declaring schools safe was published, her database had only 550 schools, including 200 that were FULLY REMOTE. Reporting data from remote schools and using that to proclaim schools are safe is rather deceptive. Don’t you think?
Her database included no urban traditional public schools in 27 states and a disproportionate number of private schools. According to Prospect, her tracker had 20 states with zero traditional public schools reporting. ZERO.
Meanwhile, Rebekah Jones, a Florida data scientist, has her own database (@thecovidmonitor) that includes 6,000 school districts. She offered to share her data with Oster, “But she basically decided to just pick what data she wanted, not what’s available,” Jones said.
Moreover, Studies have shown that opening schools increases the R rate, the number of people that one infected person will, on average, infect. (SOURCE: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/coronavirus-r-rate-school-closures-lockdown-lancet-study-b1251617.html)
There is plenty of evidence that schools are a source of community spread. Jones’ COVID Monitor has found that case rates for school districts are often much higher than case rates in the community. (SOURCE: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-12-02/shut-them-down-why-schools-might-not-be-safe-during-covid-19)
US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT concludes:
“Our data demonstrates that schools are not the safe havens or silos some believed they would be, and that they in fact contribute to the spread of COVID-19.”
If we have to report on the supply side fools who want us all to march to our deaths for the economy, we should at least be critical of their claims.
I think you’re in the minority position on school safety, based on contact tracing work that’s been happening since at least March.
The question as I understand it isn’t whether having schools open “increases the r,” but rather whether it increases the r more than the r is increasing in the general community. Cuomo said yesterday (I’m not sure if it’s true, he lies all the time) that 70-80% of the spread in NY is happening through private gatherings.
Your “death is worse than mental illness” logic doesn’t hold up when any pressure is placed on it. To use the old flu example, some number of teachers every year catch the flu at school and die. Should schools be shut down forever? Of course not. Why not? Because some things are worse outcomes than however many teachers die of the flu every year. What you probably mean to say is that there is a risk that lot of teachers will die from Covid if schools are open, far more than from the flu, and that risk outweighs the risks of learning loss, student drop-outs, depression, anxiety, and child abuse. That may be correct, although it requires an accurate assessment of the real risk of all of these outcomes (death from Covid, and all the negative student outcomes), and the risk of those outcomes is very much debatable. Note also that those negative student outcomes (including suicide, obviously) do have (strong) correlations with length of life. So there is a case to be made that negative student outcomes may result in a loss of more life-years than Covid will cause.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion.
I think it is very telling who is arguing to keep schools buildings open while the virus is out of control and who is arguing for temporary remote learning. The same folks on this site who constantly defend charter schools and high stakes tests think classes should be running in-person during the worst of the pandemic. The same folks who argue against school privatization and standardization argue that this is recklessly unsafe. The difference is clear. The grassroots heart of the movement is against needlessly endangering human life here. The policy makers and the corporate education reformers aren’t. Beware which side you choose. There will be consequences when the danger has passed. The grassroots will not trust people who refuse to stand up for their right to life.
I don’t think the ad hominem argument is helpful. But I do agree a lot of trust has been and will continue to be lost in this debate.
Carolmalaysia,
The problem is that there will be deaths because schools are closed and there will be deaths because schools are open. Needless deaths either way.
Teachingeconomist: The numbers of confirmed cases and deaths is rising continuously due to no leadership. Wearing masks has become a political decision. Why make these numbers worse?
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The Daily Beast reports:
August 17th, 2020
But in Mississippi, the results have been remarkably dire. By the end of its first week, the Corinth School district had been forced to quarantine over 120 students and staff. Later that week, a longtime football coach at Lafayette High School died after quarantining with coronavirus symptoms. And on Monday, just as another group of school districts opened their doors, the state confirmed COVID cases in 22 schools. One day later, Gulfport High School sent 100 students to quarantine at home after a teacher there reported symptoms. On Wednesday, the Rankin County School District, which will begin holding in-person classes next week, announced its superintendent had tested positive for COVID-19.
And these aren’t even schools in the region of the state with the highest rates of coronavirus infections. The governor ordered those middle and high schools to delay reopening until Aug. 17.
“What these numbers let me know is that we did it too soon. And it’s going to get worse,” said Erica Jones, president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, the biggest teacher’s union in the state. “All it takes is one student to come in with the virus and ‘boom,’ the spread is there.”
The end result is nothing short of panic on all fronts. Parents are worried. Teachers are scared, with many not in an economic position where they can refuse work.
Steven Singer I’ve reposed your comments to the Teachers Against Dyiinng. Facebook page.
“Reposted”
Thank you.
Cold fingers made it hard to type on my touch screen this morning. But thank you Stephen Singer! The Facebook website I would recommend to all is “teachers against dying”
Dear. Diane Ravitch, in the interest of a balanced dialogue, how about posting this article:
“Jamie Ewing longs for the day when he can return to teaching his fourth-grade class face-to-face, safely and permanently – but he is not confident that will be the case next week when he is due to go back to his school in the South Bronx.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-new-york-idUSKBN28C331
COVID-19 is thriving in this country. It will continue like this until we have some leadership. It certainly isn’t coming from Trump who is only concerned about trying to convince the nation that he won the election.
A friend of mine in Florida who works with customers, had a lady come into her store yesterday saying that Trump won the election.
The number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 hit an all-time high in the U.S. on Thursday at 100,667, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That figure has more than doubled over the past month, while new daily cases are averaging 210,000 and deaths are averaging 1,800 per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Schools that have in-person instruction are petri dishes for spreading the disease. Some churches are learning the hard way that staying open kills.
Pastor of California Megachurch That Defied Lockdown Order Dies of COVID-19
Rachel Olding
Breaking News Editor
Published
Dec. 04, 2020
12:46PM ET
Jason Cairnduff/Reuters
A California pastor has died from COVID-19, five weeks after his megachurch reopened in defiance of the state’s ban on indoor religious services. Bob Bryant, a 58-year-old associate pastor at the Water of Life Community Church in San Bernardino County, contracted the virus in November and eventually suffered severe pneumonia in his lungs, the Los Angeles Times reports. San Bernardino is one of the hardest hit regions in a state struggling to contain a vicious winter wave of the virus. But the church nevertheless ignored a mid-July order banning indoor church services. Church officials insisted to the Times that Byrant didn’t come to church after he developed symptoms but they weren’t sure when the pastor was last in the church.
Read it at Los Angeles Times
Why isn’t or Republican controlled Congress or Trump [HA] concerned about Americans starving? Why must the wealthy control our Senators and Representatives so that starvation and homelessness don’t matter? Why have to depend upon religious groups or businesses? The problem is too big for them to adequately handle.
The GOP dominated Congress only cares about giving to the wealthy. Trump doesn’t care or he’d be saying something on this topic.
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NYT:
In the United States, nearly one in eight households doesn’t have enough to eat.
Before the pandemic, Black and Hispanic households across America were already experiencing food insecurity at a significantly higher ratethan the national average of 10.5 percent. The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated hunger worldwide, and in the United States, nearly one in eight households doesn’t have enough to eat.
Since March, when the economy began to collapse and millions lost their jobs, families have turned to food banks and food organizations in record numbers.
Over the course of a few months, I spent time with the Capital Area Food Bank, Kingdom Fellowship A.M.E. Church, Rainbow Family Christian Center, Urban Outreach Inc., the Humane Rescue Alliance and the numerous volunteers who have been working to help address food insecurity in the Washington metropolitan area.
“We feel very humbled to be able to serve our brothers and sisters in this community who are dealing with food insecurity at a level that we’ve never seen before,” said the Rev. Matthew L. Watley, senior pastor of Kingdom Fellowship A.M.E. Church. “To see entire families on the brink and vulnerable really gave us a call to stretch out and to try to serve. We’re here until we believe we can make an impact for those who are really in need, and we’re hoping to increase our capacity even further.”
According to the 2020 hunger report by the Capital Area Food Bank, the group provided 30 million meals a year before the pandemic, directly from and through a network of more than 450 nonprofit organizations, to nearly 415,000 people in the Washington metropolitan region.
But this year, according to the report, the need is expected to more than double, with a surge of 48 percent to 60 percent in food insecurity.
Because of the pandemic, the Capital Area Food Bank has lost 50 percent of its partner organizations, such as shuttered restaurants, and donations are down.
Andy Burness, president of the Burness communications firm, is a co-founder of Business Leaders Fighting Hunger, a corporate coalition whose goal is to improve food security in Montgomery County, Md.
A volunteer at the Rainbow Community Development Center, he believes all residents should show up for the community.
“Every county in every city should have businesses coming together to do whatever needs to be done for equity in that county, or that city, and food security is the most basic things we can do,” Mr. Burness said. “I just want every place in America to have the business community involved. If we’re going to solve hunger it’s not just the government, it’s not just the food banks and other nonprofits, it’s not just the businesses, it’s the three working together that can make a difference. We really need public-private partnerships working together to fight hunger and everything else that’s needed to give people a chance at life.”
During the months I spent with the groups, I saw so many people in need. Many were seeking help from food banks for the first time in their lives.
I also saw resilience and faith-based organizations and groups offering resources without judgment. It made me think of the saying “He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.” They give me hope that when communities come together, there’s nothing we can’t do.
I think the regulars in Diane’s livingroom would agree with our host that public schools often form the heart of their community. So, if there is community spread of coronavirus, it would be imposssible to imagine the virus cannot be spread about in schools at a rate that endangers some community members.
Comparing teaching to other “essential” jobs doesn’t hold water. Yes, the grocery store clerk may interact with hundreds of customers during a shift, but the interaction isn’t at the level of intimacy ordinarily seen between teacher and student. It isn’t repeated, prolonged or in close contact for 6 hours or more daily, multiple times a week. Nurses do approximate these conditions, but their caseload isn’t 20 kids or for middle and high schools, more than a hundred. Nurses have protocols that are enforced by others; most have institutional protections, PPE, hot water for washing hands and colleagues who work by the same guidelines. No one in an ICU is prancing about in maskless covid denial.
There are three ubiquitous factors which are out of a teacher’s control outside the classroom: the behaviors of students, of their families and of colleagues.
Any of us who have taught for a long time has worked with someone most politely described as a “rogue”. One such colleague taught middle school a few doors down the corridor from me. His loud, bellicose manner hid the true affection with which he treated his students, but I do not doubt that in Trump times he would have worn his MAGA cap into his classroom and left it on his desk as he went about the day, oblivious to its impact on the multicultural group of economically distressed kids which comprised his classes.
George (to use a pseudonym) suffered from diabetes, which he refused to try to control; he was grossly obese, wouldn’t use insulin except in an emergency, and as result had been hospitalized several times. Over the course of a summer (without the regularity of a school day and colleagues to check on him, having long since become estranged from all family) his foot became gangrenous and his leg was amputated below the knee. He used a prothesis and got about on crutches, often removing the leg during lunch and leaving it leaning in a corner for the afternoon. After he retired, the foot on the other leg was also amputated. He was released to a nursing home, but signed himself out to go home alone. When a neighbor hadn’t seen him or his 3 dogs in a while, she called the police. They found George dead on the kitchen floor. His dogs, which he had fed by tossing them raw steaks, had begun to feed on his corpse.
Imagine what the consequences might be to have such a colleague – or someone far less extreme – in covid times!
Few, if any, teachers want to teach remotely. It’s too damn hard, and for a job which is all about the relationships it’s superficial. What teachers are giving to their students right now is an attempt to mitigate the failings of our society: to contain the virus, to render social justice, to address immigration, to provide our citizens with adequate food and secure shelter, to provide a clear outcome for our election, to move from chaos and crisis to order and nurture. Our children are right to feel anxious and depressed in the current environment, but opening schools merely shifts the responsiblities for these collective shortcomings to teachers and behind closed classroom doors, which lack adequate ventilation. I don’t see much clamoring for more funds for smaller classes, social workers, psychologists, trauma specialists, PPE, and extra cleaning protocols.
Out of sight, out of mind and all those low wage workers can get back to it pronto!
Teachers as martyrs is self-evidently an unsustainable course.
Christine Langhoff; Very intelligently written comment which is full of facts that those outside teaching too often don’t understand.
It’s easy to find MAGAts in the schools. How many of them will follow what is needed to help keep the virus under control?
Thanks, Carol.
Stay safe, be well!
From Twitter:
Christine Langhoff: This research is a little outdated, but Dr. Croll says that “both studies explained that they may be underestimating the true burden of COVID-19 on children because testing data reported by states often is not uniform or complete. Also, testing frequently was prioritized for people showing symptoms, and asymptomatic infection in children is common. More delayed reporting of children’s tests means the data could be lagging behind reality.”
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Research shows substantial increase in COVID-19 rates in children, especially adolescents
In April, children were about 2.2% of cases and 10% by September, a study found.
ByDr. Leah Croll
September 29, 2020,
Evidence is mounting that children may play a larger role in the community spread of COVID-19, according to two studies.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association published a study on Tuesday that showed that the number of children infected with COVID-19 rose sharply from April to September.
In April, children accounted for about 2.2% of all reported U.S. cases, but by September that figure had risen to 10%. By Sept. 24, according to the study, which used data from U.S. public health department websites, 624,890 cases in children had been reported.
And there’s emerging evidence that older children may be “approximately twice” as likely to test positive than younger children, according to research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Monday.
The study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, analyzed trends among 277,285 school-aged children with confirmed COVID-19 cases from March 1 to Sept. 19. During that span, adolescents aged 12 to 17 were found to have an average weekly rate of 37.4 new cases per 100,000 people, compared with 19 cases per 100,000 for ages 5 to 11…
Both studies explained that they may be underestimating the true burden of COVID-19 on children because testing data reported by states often is not uniform or complete. Also, testing frequently was prioritized for people showing symptoms, and asymptomatic infection in children is common. More delayed reporting of children’s tests means the data could be lagging behind reality.
“It is important for schools and communities,” the CDC researchers wrote, “to monitor multiple indicators of COVID-19 among school-aged children and layer prevention strategies to reduce COVID-19 disease risk for students, teachers, school staff and families.”
Leah Croll, M.D., a neurology resident at NYU Langone Health, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
https://abcn.ws/2Godogs
And there isn’t a peep out of the Orange One concerning the spread of this virus. Think he’s still on ‘hoax’ mode. He creates his own realities. Winning the election is the only thing he cares about, besides wrecking as much as possible before he has to leave the WH.
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Sunday, December 06, 2020 1:00 am
US virus cases climb during holiday season
Health officials urge protocols as hospitals fill up
Associated Press
Coronavirus infections across the U.S. continue to rise as the country moves deeper into a holiday season when eagerly anticipated gatherings of family and friends could push the numbers even higher and overwhelm hospitals.
Vast swaths of southern and inland California imposed new restrictions on businesses and activities Saturday as hospitals in the nation’s most populous state face a dire shortage of beds. Restaurants must stop on-site dining and theaters, hair salons and many other businesses must close in the sprawling reaches of San Diego and Los Angeles, along with part of the Central Valley, including Fresno.
Five counties in the San Francisco Bay Area were set to impose their own lockdowns today.
A new daily high of nearly 228,000 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases was reported nationwide Friday, eclipsing the previous high of 217,000 set the day before, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day rolling average of deaths attributable to COVID-19 in the U.S. passed 2,000 for the first time since spring, rising to 2,011. Two weeks ago, the seven-day average was 1,448. There were 2,607 deaths reported in the U.S. on Friday.
Johns Hopkins had reported Wednesday daily COVID-19 deaths at 3,157. That was later updated to 2,804 due to a change in numbers from Nevada, a spokeswoman said Saturday.
Much of the nation saw surging numbers in the week after Thanksgiving, when millions disregarded warnings to stay home and celebrate only with members of their household. Many in California anticipated tight restrictions on businesses and activities, sending people scrambling to shop or get haircuts while they could.
Arizona’s top public health official took on a blunt tone as she reported the state’s latest case numbers, a near-record of nearly 6,800 new infections, telling people to wear masks around anyone outside their household, “even those you know and trust.”
“We must act as though anyone we are around may be infected,” Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, wrote on Twitter. Arizona’s intensive-care units are experiencing caseloads not seen since the summer, when the state had one of the worst outbreaks in the world. Just 8% of ICU beds and 10% of all inpatient beds were unoccupied Friday, according to state data….
https://journalgazette.net/news/health/20201206/US-virus-cases-climb-during-holiday-season
Oregon suspends anti-mask doctor
SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon Medical Board has suspended the medical license of a doctor who said at a pro-Trump rally that he doesn’t wear a mask at his Dallas, Oregon, clinic.
KGW-TV reported Friday that Dr. Steven LaTulippe also said at the November rally that he encourages others not to wear masks.
A state order requires health care workers to wear a mask in health care settings.
The medical board voted this week to suspend LaTulippe’s license immediately due to concerns about patient safety.
Is there some type of Karma involved?
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Giuliani has tested positive for coronavirus, Trump says
Rudy Giuliani, who has led President Trump’s legal challenges to try and overturn the election, has tested positive for coronavirus, the president said Sunday.
Indiana is looking for the perfect standardized test and when politicians find it, students will be taking a new test this year.
I doubt that many teachers are surprised that some students aren’t learning. Still,
in-person means kids and teachers getting sick.
This country wouldn’t be in such a mess if we’d had decent leadership. States who have followed procedures are getting illnesses from neighboring states that don’t. Ex: Idaho doesn’t do much for stopping COVID. Washington does. People from Washington state go to the neighboring Idaho panhandle for open recreation and restaurants facilities and bring back the disease when they return home.
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Schools confront ‘off the rails’ numbers of failing grades
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
today
The first report cards of the school year are arriving with many more Fs than usual in a dismal sign of the struggles students are experiencing with distance learning.
School districts from coast to coast have reported the number of students failing classes has risen by as many as two or three times — with English language learners and disabled and disadvantaged students suffering the most.
“It was completely off the rails from what is normal for us, and that was obviously very alarming,” said Erik Jespersen, principal of Oregon’s McNary High School, where 38% of grades in late October were failing, compared with 8% in normal times…
https://apnews.com/article/distance-learning-coronavirus-pandemic-oregon-7fde612c3dbfd2e21fab9673ca49ad89
From Axios:
U.S. sets new coronavirus records while Europe bends the curve
While the U.S. continues to set records for new coronavirus cases, European countries have managed to turn their own terrifying spikes around.
The big picture: As some states in the U.S. crack down to head off the worst, the debate in countries like the U.K. and France has shifted to whether and how to lighten their own restrictions before the holidays.
America’s surge lagged two to three weeks behind Europe’s, with a similarly worrying trajectory. However, responses in U.S. states have been uneven and generally less severe than in most European countries.
Daily case counts are already rising significantly in most U.S. states, and they’re likely to tick up further following Thanksgiving gatherings around the country.
Much of Europe returned to some form of lockdown in the fall, but the restrictions tended to be less restrictive than in the spring. They certainly haven’t been in place as long.
Many countries closed bars and restaurants, and nearly all at least limited their opening hours. Social gatherings were also limited — in Germany’s case, to groups of up to five from a maximum of two households (children are exempted).
But schools have remained open across nearly all of the continent, and the disruption to economic activity, while highly significant, hasn’t been quite as severe (though many governments have faced anti-lockdown protests)….
https://www.axios.com/us-europe-coronavirus-lockdowns-d2bb7b6c-a1c4-4a30-a4a3-8f564775dd74.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email
People from Iowa are infecting people in southern Illinois.
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The story of the coronavirus in the state is one of government inaction in the name of freedom and personal responsibility.
Updated on December 4, 2020 at 10:22 a.m. ET.
…The story of the coronavirus in this state is one of government inaction in the name of freedom and personal responsibility. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has followed President Donald Trump’s lead in downplaying the virus’s seriousness. She never imposed a full stay-at-home order for the state and allowed bars and restaurants to open much earlier than in other places. She imposed a mask mandate for the first time this month—one that health-care professionals consider comically ineffectual—and has questioned the science behind wearing masks at all. Through the month of November, Iowa vacillated between 1,700 and 5,500 cases every day. This week, the state’s test-positivity rate reached 50 percent. Iowa is what happens when a government does basically nothing to stop the spread of a deadly virus.
“In a lot of ways, Iowa is serving as the control group of what not to do,” Eli Perencevich, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, told me. Although cases dropped in late November—a possible result of a warm spell in Iowa—Perencevich and other public-health experts predict that the state’s lax political leadership will result in a “super peak” over the holidays, and thousands of preventable deaths in the weeks to come. “We know the storm’s coming,” Perencevich said. “You can see it on the horizon.”…
Read More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/12/how-iowa-mishandled-coronavirus-pandemic/617252/?utm_source=atl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share
Notice that S. Korea is recognizing that schools are contributing to the increase in COVID-19 numbers.
Can someone compare 5,300 infections in 10 days in S. Korea with a population of 51 million people to what is happening in the U.S.? I’m no good with numbers but my guess is that the U.S. is doing much worse.
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AP:
Asia Today: South Korean minister warns of virus ‘war zone’
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s health minister said Monday that the Seoul metropolitan area is now a “COVID-19 war zone,” as the country reported another 615 new infections and the virus appeared to be spreading faster.
The country has recorded more than 5,300 new infections in the past 10 days and Monday was the 30th day in a row of triple-digit daily jumps.
Most of the new infections were detected in the Seoul metropolitan area where health workers are struggling to stem transmissions tied to various places, including restaurants, schools, hospitals and long-term care facilities.
“The capital area is now a COVID-19 war zone,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said in a virus meeting, pleading for citizen vigilance.
He said the country may have to further increase social distancing to prevent the resurgence in the capital area from “exploding into a major outbreak nationwide and collapsing the health-care system.”
While South Korea managed to contain a major outbreak in its southeastern region in spring by channeling nationwide health resources and personnel, it’s less clear where the reinforcements will come if the virus wreaks havoc in the densely-populated capital area, where half of the country’s 51 million people live.
While President Moon Jae-in’s government had been eager to tout the country’s previous gains against the virus, there’s criticism that it gambled on its own success by moving quickly to ease social distancing restrictions to the lowest level in October even as the virus was still spreading.
Officials have moved to restore some restrictions in the capital area in in recent weeks, shutting down nightclubs, karaoke rooms and gyms, reducing in-person school classes and allowing restaurants to provide only deliveries and take-outs after 9 p.m…
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-coronavirus-pandemic-asia-seoul-eef2c5ad2ce84aade14ac3725ee931a5