It’s back-to-school week for many families in the United States — just as coronavirus cases surge among children and teens. Weekly pediatric coronavirus cases surpassed 250,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to the most recent data published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Its data shows that more than a quarter of weekly reported coronavirus cases in the United States were among children for the week ending Sept. 2. And while most pediatric cases are not severe, nearly 2,400 children were hospitalized nationwide with covid-19 in the seven days ending Tuesday — more than ever before, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
Covid cases in children dipped early in the summer but quickly rose again, both with the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant and because coronavirus vaccines are not authorized for children under 12. Half of children ages 12 to 15 have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while that number climbs to 58 percent for 16- and 17-year-olds.
With the return to schools, experts fear the situation could worsen as battles over mask and vaccine mandates rage, although Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that is not inevitable. “We’ve got to get the school system masked in addition to surrounding the children with vaccinated people,” he told CNN on Tuesday. “That’s the solution.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But schools in the US must be open, Wall Street says. The push to reopen has been relentless. Case in point: California, where the Covid response has been an unrivaled success in the US; but it’s Governor is facing recall for his efforts. Inexplicably, even some in the medical community have been willing to add their voices;: “California’s children have been harmed by state and county COVID policies, enduring the longest social lockdown of any demographic group.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Is-it-safe-to-fully-reopen-California-schools-16224689.php
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Is it safe?
NO!
I know of no school in the country that is following ALL of the necessary health and safety precautions. If anyone knows of one please share.
All who push (yes, as in drug pusher) the opening of schools without all the proper health and safety protocols in place and enforcement of the protocols should sign the following pledge and then do the honorable thing:
Safe Open Schools Pledge
I,__________, will publicly commit seppuku or agree to be guillotined on the School House lawn when the first innocent childrens’ Covid deaths and co-morbidities obtain from the opening of schools without all of the proper health safeguards in place.
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The San Jose Mercury news has showcased leaders of the back-to-school movement since the very beginning. Their coverage is skewed horribly away from safety protocols. They discount the value of distance-learning out of hand. ”Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is also facing a recall vote this month, got the message and canceled online K12 classes, leaving only an “independent study” home-school option for those who didn’t want to send their kids back to class. In many districts, those programs now have long waiting lists.”
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Still true: “Ultimately, teachers want to teach and students want to learn, but not at the risk of their lives. Certainly, all Americans wish life would return to normal, but life right now is not normal. Pretending that it is puts our students’ and teachers’ lives in grave danger. We need compromise, and the only viable one at our disposal is remote learning.”
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“Pretending that it is puts our students’ and teachers’ lives in grave danger.”
Children are at very low risk of death from Covid.
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FLERP: “Children are at very low risk of death from Covid.”
But we are talking about risk to the community. Kids infect their families, and those families infect further families. Every single individual, child or not, is responsible for not to harm the community.
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Didn’t we go through this the other day? You’re talking about the community. But that quote is saying that students’ lives are in such “grave danger” that drastic control measures are necessary. Maybe such measures are necessary, but if they are, it’s not because Covid poses a high risk of death to students.
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Unless it is your own child.
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Even if it is your own child, the risk is extremely low.
Early in the pandemic we saw that people have a difficult time intuitively understanding the concept of exponential growth. The inability to grasp the exponential scale-up of Covid risk by age is similar.
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The risk is extremely low even if it’s your own child.
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No, FLERP, the risk is great: even if the infected child doesn’t get very sick, he can infect somebody who then gets very sick.
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Yes, and you continue hammer in your opinion about COVID not being too dangerous for kids, though we have established that this was besides the point. Indeed, it’s besides the point how dangerous COVID is for any particular group of people, because any particular group of people can spread the virus to those who are in greater danger. So every single person needs to make sure, she or he doesn’t infect anybody else, hence everybody needs to wear a mask and get vaccinated.
So please stop repeating irrelevant issues since they hide the main one.
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Mate, you can say that a thousand times, and you’re welcome to, but as long as people exaggerate the risk to children, I’ll keep hammering this fact.
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and how many preventable deaths are deemed acceptable
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Between March 2020 and February 2021 there were 3,105 deaths of children under the age of 18 in England. Of those deaths, 25 were attributed to COVID-19. See https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01897-w
Parents should worry for the lives of their children, but COVID-19 should not be at the top of their list of worries. Unintentional injury (636 children under the age of 12 died in automobile accidents in 2018, for example) should be the biggest worry, suicide next, homicide after that.
See https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/LeadingCauses_images.html
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TE, sadly a lot of people have a really difficult time comprehending this. It’s similar to the difficulty people have grasping exponential growth. The risk of serious illness from Covid is so stratified by age that, if you look at it by ten-year age gaps, it is essentially an exponential curve. A vaccinated 50 year old is many times at higher risk than an unvaccinated child. The median age of death from Covid is only a few years below the average life expectancy.
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The problem with focusing the attention on who is getting sicker is that people draw the conclusion that those who don’t get too sick need no protection. But, for example, children need to be protected because they will infect others, like those in their families who are over 50, but also, they infect other kids in school who then infect those over 50 in their families. No wonder that covid infection numbers shoot up when the school year begins.
When it comes to stopping the age of covid, it’s a side issue who gets how sick. Every single person needs to be protected equally.
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We still don’t know what the long term effects of covid on children will be. So even if your child doesn’t die from covid, he/she may have health related problems for who knows how long. Do you want to risk that?
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Risk it by doing what?
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FLERP!
A year ago Children were not transmitting the virus. Scratch that idea. !!
This is a virus that attacks multiple organs and systems . A novel virus of which we have no idea how it affects anybody long term. The existence of long Covid should be a warning of unknown consequences. We have no clue about the long consequences of pediatric Covid infection.
That said mask, vaccine mandates and social distancing are a no brainier.Till children under 12 can be vaccinated .
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Joel, if you think Covid is this serious a danger to the health of children, I’m surprised that you would even support schools being open. Surely open schools will cause at least some “unnecessary” child deaths, not to mention potentially astronomical long-term health problems.
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I think any parent who doesn’t think a rise in COVID rates would be a serious risk to their child is probably not smart enough to understand the bigger picture, or perhaps is banking on their own privilege to believe that if their child needs medical treatment, an overtaxed hospital system will always accommodate their child because of their privilege.
Children with any medical needs at all during a pandemic are at risk when the medical system is overtaxed.
Masks prevent spread. Children spread COVID. Wear a mask until COVID rates are way down.
How many saved lives does it take to want your child to wear a mask at a time when COVID is rapidly spreading?
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NYT Sept. 9, 2021
“Least Vaccinated States Lead Spike in Children’s Cases, Leaving Some Hospitals Stretched”
“Pediatric hospitalizations, driven by a record rise in coronavirus infections among children, have swelled across the country, overwhelming children’s hospitals and intensive care units in states like Louisiana and Texas.”
Parents who are nitpicking about how the rate of kids’ dying from COVID is not nearly as bad as the rate of older folks dying of COVID as a reason to oppose all mask or vaccine mandates seem to be trying to change the subject.
We have seatbelt laws and laws about infants being required to be in car seats. I can only imagine some right wing troll trying to make the argument that not too many babies die and I’m surprised anyone even allows babies to travel in cars at all given that there is no guarantee that a car crash won’t be dangerous to them.
This country has always made laws that lower risk and don’t eliminate risk. It is a no-brainer to lower risk during a pandemic. I wish someone who keeps arguing that children aren’t at risk would explain why they believe it is important NOT to lower risk during a pandemic instead of offering up the same tired trope that children aren’t dying at the same high rate as adults without explaining why that means they are fine with pediatric hospital beds being overwhelmed with COVID patients and not available for children with other illnesses.
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FLERP!
Have I ever said that schools should not open. Repeat after me. Vaccine mandates to attend or work at a school, for all eligible for the vaccine. Coupled with public health measures like masks, ventilation, and distance.
I would add a few more suggestions for how to deal with right wing politicians endangering children and families but it might affect my TSA status.
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I didn’t say you said schools shouldn’t open. I asked you why you think schools should be open, given that you believe there are extreme risks to children’s lives and long-term health. Certainly it would be safer to have them closed, no? Why don’t you think schools should be closed?
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Look! Over there! Squirrel!
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Anyone notice that FLERP! is once again asking all sorts of questions to other people while refusing to offer his own opinion.
Is FLERP! opposed to mask mandates right now as COVID cases are rising? FLERP! hasn’t actually offered an opinion on that.
Instead, FLERP! just keeps repeating over and over again that children don’t die of COVID as frequently as adults — despite people already acknowledging that fact! Who is FLERP! replying to who has posted that children are dying at the same rate as adults? No one.
FLERP! everyone stipulates that children don’t die of COVID as frequently as adults and yet you still keep posting that over and over again rather than to either offer your own defense of why you are so opposed to any mask mandates for students in school.
You simply ignore all the other reasons that people support mask mandates and go back to saying what people already know — that children don’t die of COVID as frequently as adults do.
If that is the only reason you have for being such an anti-masker, that speaks for itself.
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Has anyone noticed that NYCPSP is once again talking about people in the third person rather than asking them directly? And that she is putting words in their mouth? Nice to know somethings never change…
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dienne77,
Are you and FLERP! the same person, or are you just kindred spirits?
I don’t respond directly to FLERP! at FLERP!’s request, as FLERP! has made it clear he does not read my replies, but other people may.
On the other hand, I readily acknowledge I read your replies and respond directly to you, as I have here.
I don’t understand why you need to be so gratuitously nasty, but if it gives you pleasure to direct your anger at me instead of someone else, please go ahead. I can take it and won’t whine about how you are being so mean to me and putting words in my mouth.
Carry on, dienne77! FLERP! needs BFFs like you to keep changing the subject.
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The Erie County Executive mandated the correct protocols in all schools – public, private, and charter.
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And all of the ventilation systems have Covid killing filters/capabilities, the rooms are sanitized in between classes, everyone actually wears masks and practices social distancing, they have contact tracing set up and follow through immediately when a case of Covid obtains??? And there are proper hand sanitizing stations, adequate new air flow to all areas, etc . . . ??
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You are right Duane, some schools are better equipped than others, plus we are talking suburban, urban, and rural schools. Another issue is the shortage of bus drivers. My grandson who is a cancer survivor gets driven to and from school.
Duane, there is no perfect world, but at least there is some sort of effort by our local leaders in the Buffalo area to do the right thing (vs actively putting obstacles in the way). Teachers are also required to be vaccinated (or have weekly Covid tests). I personally don’t want my family members exposed daily to people who will inevitably get the disease.
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I have to give six standardized tests to my English classes this year, not including tests for ELLs. Math classes at my school alao have six tests. On Tuesday, my school board is about to approve backpacks full of cash, voucher funding within the district. Then, they will apply for a Title 1 funding waiver. Billionaires still gotta hustle. Meanwhile, we argue in circles about the covid disaster. It’s called disaster capitalism, folks. They take advantage of our weakness. While we are divided on masks, shots, curriculum, and other squirrels, we are being robbed by Goliath. Collective action is needed to fight long term battles, but we allow ourselves to be divided by short term distractions and interpersonal conflicts.
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But squirrels are very entertaining and good for hours, days, weeks and even years of debate.
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Sorry, I was distracted chasing that doggone squirrel. So, as I meant to say…damn, wait a minute, another one! Back soon.
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Okay, look, all you have to do to get rid of the squirrel addiction is get to know the squirrel better so he’s not such an unfamiliar stimulus. Try the following conversation starter for squirrels. When you see a squirrel bury a nut in your yard, replace the nut with a grilled cheese sandwich and blow his mind.
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Shotguns and .22 are quite effective on squirrels. Make some squirrel stew or some squirrel tacos-delish!
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FLERP,
Sign the pledge and then follow through since you choose to believe that Covid isn’t that deadly/dangerous and wish to see face to face instruction.
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Of Squirrels and Nuts
Squirrels and nuts
And gopher guts
Ifs and buts
And wait!’s and what?’s
Here you’ll hike the blogging ruts
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The definition of being in a rut: making the same argument over and over on a blog and expecting different results .
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Also the definition of SomeDAMity
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Two squirrels at play
In a yellow wood
And I
I shot them both and made squirrel pie
And that has made all the difference
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SomeDAM is a mirror, not a nut. Poet reflects our comments in song. Sometimes, looking in the mirror is highly entertaining. Definitely comedic in this conversation thread.
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I’m wondering if fans of the AA Richmond Flying Squirrels ever actually watch a game.
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The public’s failure to understand exponential growth is certainly an issue.
But the most significant issue stemming from public failure to grasp exponential growth is actually not the misunderstanding of which age group is most at risk from Covid.
The most significant issue (by far) is public misunderstanding of the basic fact that the spread of Covid is itself exponential. Most people — even many of our leaders — perceive it as a linear process, which is why they generally don’t act anywhere nearly as quickly as they need to and why so many of them don’t consider mitigation measures like vaccines, social distancing and masking important.
Of course, the single most effective way to control community spread is through vaccination , but lots of people (including millions of school children) are still not vaccinated so social distancing and masking still have an important role to play.
But some people would undoubtedly prefer to focus on squirrel multiplication.
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Correction
Should have been
The public’s failure to understand exponentials is certainly an issue.
But the most significant issue stemming from public failure to grasp exponentials is actually not the misunderstanding of which age group is most at risk from Covid.
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Should have specified
Spread of Covid (number of cases) in a particular region is exponential early on and for some time thereafter.
It eventually departs from exponential, but the key is to impact the early spread where the behavior is exponential.
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The Mask of Death
The danger from the mask
Is greater than disease
And hence, the vital task
Is ban it, if you please
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Los Angeles is poised to become the first major school district in the United States to mandate coronavirus vaccines for students 12 and older who are attending class in person.
The district’s elected Board of Education will meet 9/9/2021 Thursday afternoon to vote on the measure, which is expected to pass with broad support. The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest in the nation, serving over 600,000 students, and the mandate could set an important national precedent.
Students would need their first vaccine dose by Nov. 21 and their second by Dec. 19 to begin the next semester fully inoculated. Those who turn 12 after those dates will have 30 days after their birthday to receive their first shot.
Students participating in in-person extracurricular activities will need both shots by the end of October. The resolution mentions “qualified and approved exemptions,” but does not offer details.
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They just now did it. LAUSD students will be vaccinated by mid-January.
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But teachers don’t have to be vaccinated: https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/los-angeles-school-district-drops-mandatory-vaccination-requirement-months-after-being-sued/article_e983a43a-fc5b-11eb-865e-9bc35cbf463e.html
No, not hypocritical at all…
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Teachers in LAUSD must be vaccinated by October 15.
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No, I do not think that is correct.
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bb-la-school-district-abandons-mandatory-vaccination/
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Dr. Fauci is being logical, unlike a significant fraction of the country.
And getting ” the school system masked in addition to surrounding the children with vaccinated people” really has to be done with mandates because the voluntary system simply does not work thanks to the science deniers.
And absurdly, in many districts, there are not even vaccination mandates for teachers and school staff.
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“Face masks protect against COVID-19. That’s the conclusion of a gold-standard clinical trial in Bangladesh, which backs up the findings of hundreds of previous observational and laboratory studies.”
Critics of mask mandates have cited the lack of relevant randomized clinical trials, which assign participants at random to either a control group or an intervention group. But the latest finding is based on a randomized trial involving nearly 350,000 people across rural Bangladesh. The study’s authors found that surgical masks — but not cloth masks — reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in villages where the research team distributed face masks and promoted their use.”
“This really should be the end of the debate,” says Ashley Styczynski, an infectious-disease researcher at Stanford University in California and a co-author of the preprint describing the trial. ”
But it won’t be, of course, because the “debate” has nothing to do with science.
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From “Face masks for COVID pass their largest test yet” (Nature, Sept, 2021)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02457-y
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It’s a very interesting study. Pre-delta data but that doesn’t mean it’s not meaningful. No meaningful effect found for cloth masks, which are the most popular type of mask. Nobody should be using cloth masks. Significant effects found for surgical masks, but not for people under 50. Children not part of the study.
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People under 50 need to wear mask because otherwise they pose a danger to all others like those over 50. There is no need for a study for that.
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Get vaccinated.
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Even if you are vaccinated, you need to wear mask so you won’t infect others in case you get infected.
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You can (and undoubtedly will) believe it has no relevance to children and schools.
But a principal investigator in the study (Styczynski) had this to say
“I think that this what we’ve been able to show is that this is a really important tool to be used globally, especially as countries have delays in getting access to vaccines and rolling them out,” she said.
Styczynski said masks will continue to be important even in countries such as the United States, where vaccines aren’t stopping transmission 100% and there are still large portions of the population who are unvaccinated, such as children.
“If we want to reduce COVID-19 here, it’s really important that we consider the ongoing utility of masks, in addition to vaccines, and not really thinking of them as one or the other,” she said.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210907/masks-limit-covid-spread-study
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But hey, she’s just a scientist compared to a brilliant lawyer.
Ha ha ha
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I know you don’t believe it and that’s fine, but it doesn’t change the reality that the vaccinated can still get and spread the virus.
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Vaccination dramatically reduces the risk of serious illness.
Covid is likely here forever. We will probably all get it, maybe multiple times. Go lock yourself in a vault.
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You are free to go on believing you are invincible because you are vaccinated.
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Go cower in your vault for the rest of your life, safe from the disgusting disease-vectors of other people’s children.
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Yes, FLERP!, people who are afraid of COVID are cowards. Brave people don’t wear mask so that they can infect others, many of whom are similarly brave.
The real choices are: play by rules, so wear mask, get vaccinated, stay away from crowds for a year or allow covid to be around for the rest of our lives, have children learn remotely, small restaurants and shops go bankrupt and ensure big companies and billionaires rule our lives forever.
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It appears that if you refuse the vaccine, it’s only a matter of time before you get Covid. I can’t wait until my grandsons are eligible for the vaccine. I don’t want them to be a statistic.
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Yes, I plan to spend the rest of my life in a hermetically sealed bubble and plan to have my food and water irradiated to kill all disease causing bacteria and viruses.
Seriously.
Ha ha ha.
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There are people who seem to believe that we have only two choices — refuse to wear masks and just accept the inevitability that our children will only have access to medical care if there happen to be any beds that aren’t taken by COVID patients, or “cower in our vaults” until there is no disease anywhere.
There is a 3rd choice but those who prefer to divide us instead of working together to minimize the harm a pandemic causes refuse to acknowledge that 3rd choice.
Because the act of wearing a mask in consideration of other people to reduce the spread of COVID and flatten the curve until there are better treatments is not a choice to some very selfish people.
It is the most minimal thing to wear a mask. Pediatrician practices require children to wear masks when they visit their offices. Pediatricians support mask-wearing in school.
How many private schools are making masking optional? There is a lot of hypocrisy from parents who are anti-mask but send their kids to a private school that requires masks — like Ted Cruz.
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More about the mask study
“The researchers found that among the more than 350,000 people studied, the rate of people who reported symptoms of COVID-19, consented to blood collection and tested positive for the virus was 0.76% in the control villages and 0.68% in the intervention villages, showing an overall reduction in risk for symptomatic, confirmed infection of 9.3% in the intervention villages regardless of mask type.”
The results of the study are “probably a low estimate of the effectiveness of surgical masks in community settings,” Styczynski said. The fact that the study was conducted at a time when the rate of transmission of COVID-19 in Bangladesh was relatively low, that a minority of symptomatic people consented to blood collection to confirm their disease status, and that fewer than half of the people in the intervention villages used facial coverings means the true impact of near-universal masking could be much more significant — particularly in areas with more indoor gatherings and events, she noted.
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-masks-covid-19.html
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Another key factor is that the researchers only tested 40% of those who experienced and reported symptoms which means the number of infected is probably an undercount (since it would have missed asymptomatic cases of COVID-19). Also, covid tests can exhibit significant false negative rates, which would also lead to an undercount of infections.
These would in turn lead to an underestimate of the effectiveness of the masks.
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This study is hardly the first to show that mask wearing can reduce the spread of disease causing germs (bacteria and viruses)
It’s been known for a very long time, which is why surgeons, nurses and others in hospitals wear masks (to prevent spread both from patient to doctor and from doctor to patient).
The general idea of covering ones mouth and nose so that virus and bacteria carrying droplets will be stopped when one sneezes , coughs or even simply breathes out is NOT particularly profound or controversial (at least not among thinking people).
It’s actually absurd to claim that masks don’t don’t do anything to help reduce the spread of diseases through the air.
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“It’s been known for a very long time, which is why surgeons, nurses and others in hospitals wear masks (to prevent spread both from patient to doctor and from doctor to patient).”
Let’s add to this that they wear mask not to protect themselves but the patient. Maks is not about protecting the wearer.
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Hopefully, parents will draw sensible conclusions from the study like switching from cloth to surgical masks or even better, n95.
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Having said that, it’s worth pointing out that the study finding that the 5% reduction in confirmed covid cases from cloth masks was “not statistically significant” does NOT necessarily mean “cloth masks are useless against SARSCOV2”, as some already seem to be implying.
That’s simply not a valid conclusion to draw from the study and indicates a lack of understanding of very basic statistics.
That one fails to reject the null hypothesis at a chosen confidence level does NOT necessarily mean the null hypothesis is true — in common parlance, that the effect (in this case reduction in confirmed cases) is not real/does not exist.
All it actually means is that one can not conclude from the available data and the chosen statistical confidence that the effect is different from zero. That’s ALL one can legitimately conclude. Nothing more, nothing less. One can’t say the effect is real but one also can’t say it isn’t.
The implication that a lack of statistical significance shows that “the effect is not real (in this case that “cloth masks don’t work at all against SARSCOV2”) indicates only the ignorance of the person drawing the conclusion.
Not incidentally, Stanford’s Dr. Luby who was an investigator in the study highlights the valid takeaways:
. “Our study provides strong evidence that mask wearing can interrupt the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. It also suggests that filtration efficiency is important. This includes the fit of the mask as well as the materials from which it is made. A cloth mask is certainly better than nothing. But now might be a good time to consider upgrading to a surgical mask.”
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I suspect based on common sense about the way masks function that Lubys statement that “a cloth mask is certainly better than nothing” is probably correct, but the real question is “how much better? and Luby actually is not justified in drawing the conclusion from this particular study that “a cloth mask is better than nothing”(as per the above reasoning)*
But his other takeaways are valid.
*as i indicated above, one can also not draw the conclusion that “a cloth mask is NOT better than nothing.
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SomeDAM Covid Coward
A Covid coward
Is what I am
Afraid of covid
Afraid SomeDAM
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Cowering Covid Cowards
Covid cowards
Cower in closets
Cowering hoards
In clothes deposits
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Crouching Covid Cowards
Covid cowards
Little flowers
Slouching towards
Gomorrah’s Towers
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Coughing Karen
Coughing Karen
Coughs and coughs
Breathin’, bearin
Covid drops
Tells at people
In her paths
“You are sheeple!”
“Scaredy cats!”
https://www.newsweek.com/maskless-woman-coughing-nebraska-fired-sap-covid-19-virus-mask-1627321
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I agree that the most important role of a mask from the standpoint of preventing disease spread in a community is that the mask catches the virus laden drops sneezed , coughed or breathed out by an infected person because that one person has the potential to infect many people.
Easy to see that by imagining the following situation: you have a bunch of uninfected people indoors who have to share the space with a single infected person BUT you just have one mask. Whom do you give it to? Obviously, from the community protection standpoint, the best approach by far is to give it to the infected person (assuming they will wear it!)
But if a mask works in one direction (to block droplets from a sneeze from getting out) it necessarily also works in the other (to block droplets in the air from getting in to an uninfected person’s airway). So it does provide some level of protection for the person wearing it.
Surgeons generally wear surgical masks to protect the person they are doing surgery on (so the surgeon is not coughing or breathing out germ laden droplets into the open patient).
But doctors and nurses also wear masks (preferably N95 or better) around patients with infectious diseases (even patients who might be masked) to protect themselves (and their own families) from airborne virus or bacteria laden droplets.
And in many cases, you don’t know who is infected and who is not, at any rate, so you generally can’t only mask the infected person.
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If there is one mask in a room, it then protects as many healthy people as are in the room, which could easily be 100 if the room is a lecture room. So in general, the importance of a mask protecting others is multiple times more important than protecting the wearer. So we are not talking about 10% or 90% but could be 10,000% more important. The governors in FL, TX or TN all claim, the wishes of a single person is more important than the others’. This is not surprising in a country where the 1% rules over the 99%.
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Of course, in the above scenario with a bunch of people in a room, better than giving them a mask is to ask the infected person to leave immediately.
And if they won’t, to run like hell yourself.
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Especially if they have ebola.
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Ebolas not a good example.
Not transmitted through the air.
And lest anyone get too excited by my run like hell statement, it was a joke, son.
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“As Schools Reopen, COVID Rates Rise for Children”
That’s a NSS! statement.
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El Paso continues to do a super job keeping schools open with very few infections. The three largest school systems in El Paso County report that they have had only 36 cases. They have been open since the end of July. El Paso has now required masks despite Abbott’s mandate. My local North Florida school district has been open for three weeks, and they have a total of 525 confirmed cases. https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNDI1YzdkNDYtNWNkOS00NzgwLThhZjAtMjhhYjAzMWFhZThlIiwidCI6IjQ0NTFkMmNkLWQ5Y2YtNDkwMS1iZDkwLThiNTk2MmNkYWY3ZSIsImMiOjF9
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El Paso school attendance is still below pre-pandemic levels; they are considering re-instituting a remote learning option. Meanwhile, At least 45 small school districts across Texas have been forced to temporarily stop offering in-person classes as a result of COVID-19 cases in the first few weeks of the new school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
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I cannot imagine what this blog would look like if 45 had been re-elected and he was the one re-opening schools (not to mention everything else in the country) with COVID numbers spiking four times higher than last year at this time.
Okay, I can imagine. Endless variations of “DONALD TRUMP IS KILLING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS!!!!” But since you’re all convinced Biden has “a plan”, somehow it’s all okay that his plan involves sending unvaccinated children back into tightly packed schools.
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Au contraire
I think it’s also a mistake for kids to be going unmasked and unvaccinated to schools. But Biden, not Trump, really has control over that. It’s states and the Trump governors banning mask mandates
5 states, including Utah, are being sued by the US Department of Education because they won’t require masks, making it impossible for many kids with disabilities to get needed services without sacrificing their health. DeVos’ ed department wouldn’t have done that.
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I meant Biden NOR Trump. Neither had a lot of control over what states do in their schools.
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More contagious virus variant, claims of unknown horrifying long-term risk from “long Covid,” headlines about increasing case counts and higher hospitalizations among children, full classrooms with CDC guidance of only feet of distance, aerosolized virus — all that but it’s ok as long as children are wearing cloth masks.
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FLERP! I appreciate your comments & your thoughts on COVID/school closings,
especially as you & your family had such a tough year, & our family did not go through such an experience, as we have an adult daughter. (Who, I must add, is medically vulnerable, anyway: had a blood clot between her brain & skull 3 yrs. ago, & is still on Eloquis & under the watchful eye of many doctors. She’s twice vaxxed, is in line to get the booster, & doesn’t get out much, but lives in CA, so can go to outdoor restaurants & for walks & drives to parks & other beautiful sites where there are few, if any, other people around.)That having been said, I have to respectfully disagree w/you (&, sorry, not do respectfully, TE, who ALWAYS shows up here to play devil’s advocate). Cases are on the uptick in Chicago Public Schools, & CTU is demanding truth in #s. Unfortunately, as well, so many people in the ‘burbs here saw fit to go on vacation recently, even after Delta was making it’s way. (I understand how hopeful we were in the beginning of the summer: I was out doing more, as well.)
TMI, but, all of that having been said: I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again…& again…
even ONE death is too much. Why wouldn’t we avoid risking the lives of people when we are clearly capable of so doing?
(BTW, New Zealand is on lockdown again. Smart leader & smart citizens.)
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Just a reminder: the CDC said that the unvaccinated are 11 times more likely than the vaccinated
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/10/1036023973/covid-19-unvaccinated-deaths-11-times-more-likely
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Good thing dienne77 doesn’t put words in other people’s mouths.
“Endless variations of “DONALD TRUMP IS KILLING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS!!!!”
It’s so refreshing to see someone who always offers the most thoughtful and non-hypocritical discourse.
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When was the last time that a “not dangerous to children” disease was filling up pediatric ICU beds in hospitals in places where many people were denying the severity of the illness? Polio? 1968 influenza?
Anyone know?
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Students masked, teachers and staff vaccinated, rooms ventilated, and desks spaced out. It’s not rocket science.it’s not even that difficult. While it’s sad when anyone gets Covid (heartbreaking if they suffer repercussions for refusing to be vaccinated), it’s inexcusable to endanger our children (personally, I consider it criminal)
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Interesting to read all this after being in my classroom yesterday. I got there around 6:30 a.m. and left 10 hours later, still feeling swamped. (This after decades of first weeks at school.)
We were talking in class about the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
These are high school seniors who had yet to grace the Earth on that fateful day. They’re wonderful kids.
How do I begin to explain what has happened to this country, this world since then?
I remember how so many people pulled together in those first few months after the 9-11 attacks. The sense of shared purpose and a willingness to sacrifice.
So many opportunities for the United States have been squandered since then…
I think Diane’s blog and its steadfast commentators have detailed, documented and thoroughly proven that America’s children deserve much better than what they’ve been getting in our society. Much, much better.
I’m going to ask the students this morning what they think of this huge mess called 2021..
I’m running late now.
Best to you all.
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And now there is this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/boys-more-at-risk-from-pfizer-jab-side-effect-than-covid-suggests-study
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How many boys died from the pfizer jab side effect compared to how many boys died of COVID?
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NYCPSP,
The article links to the study. You are free to read it.
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This is an article by a journalist analyzing the results of a study which has not been peer reviewed. We have to be careful where we find our information and how much we credit we give to the conclusions of the author.
Numerous studies are done in the US before a vaccine/drug is approved. In fact, the US has much more stringent requirement than other countries. That’s why it’s taking so long for kids twelve and under to get access to the vaccine. It’s also why many of us who live on the border to Canada used to drive up to get certain medications (some over the counter) which weren’t available at our local pharmacies. (Used to – because it’s not so easy to cross the border these days).
Sorry if I take most media reports with a grain of salt. Remember – some people have read that livestock medication cures Covid (and see where that got them).
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I read The Guardian for entertainment, not for factual information.
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