Little kids can be in pods. That doesn’t work in high school. Also, high school kids seem about as susceptible as adults (although less likely to be seriously ill).
I was listening to some guy on the radio ranting about the energy that’s gone into washing surfaces when it’s more important to open the windows. As best as i can tell, handwashing is generally good, but masks, distance, and ventilation matter more. And tell of those are really hard to achieve in many schools.
To me, it’s not about the kids. They’ll get sick (or not sick at all), and they’ll recover (in a super-Super-SUPER-majority of cases).
It is that they can be carriers for 14 days. To classmates, to parents, to friends of parents, to grandparents, etc., who WILL more likely get sick, but before that, will also carry it on to others for 14 additional days.
Kids in school has meant more limited interactions for the rest of, especially spending time with grandparents. Christmas was interesting as we were slowly passing a non-COVID virus through the house. I went for a brain stab a few days before and came back negative, consistent with prior tests of the others. Christmas was spent in their basement, for a shorter window of time, wearing masks, and staying mostly about 20 feet apart from the grandparents. I think without having the cold, my parents would have been less interested in the social distancing thing. They seem to think it is not necessary for family members.
Fortunately they are getting their second round of the vaccine this weekend and having ours kids in school should be less of a risk to them. But yes, there needs to be more to acknowledge that risk.
What communities around the country are things bad enough that kids can’t go back to school? Like I said. In my area we have had school open all year even when the surge happened. The spread has been no worse here than 2 miles away in Louisville where they have yet to go to school in person a single day. Seeing the Worldometer data below also tells me we have by and large reached a point where many people have Covid antibodies built up. There is no other reason the numbers are dropping off a cliff. It’s time for kids everywhere to head back to school.
I’m not sure those studies say what you think they say. For instance, the first ends saying
They said that reducing community transmission through public health measures such as restrictions on indoor restaurant dining is critical to stemming outbreaks in schools and that schools must also mandate the use of face masks, increase physical distancing through smaller class sizes, use hybrid attendance models, offer remote instruction, increase room air ventilation, and offer COVID-19 screening to quickly quarantine infected students and staff.
So… Restricting class size by using a hybrid model is part of “keeping schools open safely”.
The second paper gives three studies. Unless I’m reading it wrong, the first shows much higher covid rates at school than in the community. The second says not many kids died. Yeah, we know that. The risk of opening schools is mostly about increasing community spread, not about preventing kids from dying. Some of them do say that not many cases were proved to have been acquired at school, so that’s good.
I am not a teacher, and don’t have school-age kids, so I’ve mostly kept out of the “should schools be open” debate, except to want teachers high in vaccine priority. I certainly agree that schools should open before restaurants. Right now, restaurants are open at 25% capacity and schools at 50% near me. And I’m more concerned about the restaurants being open.
I dunno, I’m not seeing definitive indications, there. Maybe I’ll try again when I’m more awake.
We are to the point in most of the country where community spread is reduced to a point where schools can open. That number is dropping like a stone as well so it’s time to open now. If now is not the time, then what triggers that opening? The places that are still closed haven’t set guidelines for the most part, they’re just saying not yet. In Louisville the School Board meets every month and votes on whether to open. They literally have no plan.
Well, my husband and I have discussed guidelines for when we will resume some activities. We plan to start buying takeout restaurant food when the average daily new infections in our state drop to 29/100K and we plan to re-hire the cleaning lady (with everyone wearing masks) when the numbers drop to 15/100K. Looking at the trends, I’m hoping we can pick up some Chinese next week.
There’s an outside chance I can score a vaccine, and if that happens, my husband may choose to do either of those at a higher community spread, as he has more faith in his immune system than I have in mine. (This is real, he gets over colds quickly and I don’t.)
I am cool with people being as careful as you want to be with the virus, but I am curious about the above. Are you afraid of transmission from being in a place for a few minutes? Are you afraid of transmission via surfaces/food?
We have been having takeout more often than what we used to do for takeout+dine-in over the past year just due to the fact that we want to support our local places that have had no/limited seating.
I posted something at the old AO that showed that younger kids (elementary age) just don’t seem to spread the virus much at all due to their biological development.
Small sample size, but I know of 2 elementary aged kids who tested positive but their parents tested negative multiple times.
Our kid is going back in march, finally. She probably should have gone back sooner, being pre-k, but whatever.
I agree, generally that the infection rate is dropping so fast that schools should open very soon. It’s only been a month and we’re already getting back to where we were in October. That is we’re dropping 2x or 3x as fast as we climbed in the fall/winter.
Some of that dropping is a return to social distancing, but a lot of it must be part of the immunity that we’ve reached (both through infection and vaccine). Which means a lot of the ‘dropping’ is baked in, no matter how much we open.
If we opened completely today they might go up a little for a while, before continuing to drop as vaccine rates continue to increase. Or they might not rise at all. Either way, I don’t think we will ever be back to where we were over the winter.
What communities around the country are things bad enough that kids can’t go back to school? Like I said. In my area we have had school open all year even when the surge happened. The spread has been no worse here than 2 miles away in Louisville where they have yet to go to school in person a single day.
I don’t know if communities are so closed that you could reasonably expect to see a difference? Much of transmission that occurs in your town is probably shared with Louisville and vice versa.
As cleaning ladies???
In my ZIP code we’re down to about 21 daily new cases per 100,000 (average over 14 days). Still too high. This average was up to 36 at one point.
Thing is, if my town’s restaurants open up, but the surrounding towns’ don’t, two things happen:
Do I need to spell out " I’m hoping we can pick up some Chinese FOOD next week. for you to understand me?
Both.
China, which is vigorously fighting the reputational “this isn’t a Chinese problem” war, has been testing much the food coming into the country, and has rejected quite a lot of frozen food for carrying coronavirus. I’m not certain whether they have traced any actual cases to that or not. But the human gut is full of the receptors the virus needs to enter a cell, and my stomach lacks the acid that probably protects many people.
And yes, I don’t want to be going into more indoor places than I need to.
Thank you for doing your part to keep restaurants alive.
Do I need to add even more question marks for you to understand me??? ? ? ?
Aside: Interesting, more than three question marks is declared redundant by the software here. I’ve typed six in a row, but only three are shown, so I added more, with spaces.
As a former educator, I was fascinated by this so when the district put out a “Healthy [Mascot]” plan on their website and everyone was discussing it on Nextdoor I read the whole thing.
They’re guaranteeing 3’ distancing everywhere and trying for maximum distancing practicable wherever they can. And minimum 6’ in the cafeteria.
Added more filtration to HVAC systems, increased cleaning of common areas, directional arrows in hallways directing traffic, no use of lockers at all (I’m a little fuzzy on what happens with hats & coats this time of year, especially in high schools where kids move around), staggered class changes in jr high & high school, no class changes in elementary. (Specials teachers push carts around and go from class to class.) Jr High & high school have A days and B days with double periods / half as many classes each day, so less books to carry around and exposure to fewer people each day.
There’s probably more, but that’s what I recall. A bunch of changes to bussing and food service that I paid less attention to.
Oh, and obviously everyone wears masks at all times.
I should add that the district gave parents a fully virtual or fully in-person option (no hybrid option).
They’re having larger-than-normal classes for virtual & smaller-than-normal for in-person so that they can space out more for in person. The classrooms not in use due to the virtual kids have become storage for extra desks.
Last I checked it was about 2/3 in-person and 1/3 virtual.
Oh yeah, that was part of the local district’s plan: if community cases exceed a certain threshold then everyone goes virtual until cases fall. Neighbors that we hang out with mentioned that as a precaution schools temporarily went virtual after Thanksgiving. I assume they did after Christmas / New Years as well.
My cousin is a high school teacher at a private school in New York City and mentioned that she is required to keep the windows open any time there are students in her classroom, even in the dead of winter. She teaches in her winter coat all day every day! I can’t imagine what that must do to the school’s heating costs and that this is actually cheaper than upgrading their ventilation system.
My neighbors opted for in-person, along with 2/3 of the district, and alternate taking vacation days on virtual days. But at least most days they can both work. 