Trump trump trump. I could give a shit about Trump. I'm talking about you. You're trying to turn this around to the orange idiot, and I don't stand for him. YOU are wrong here. Trump may be as well, but YOU are on the wrong side. Have been for a while.
I would urge you and others to read every post of mine in this thread. I outlined the situation in North Carolina and concerns on both sides of the re-opening issue at the national level. Very balanced feedback and information. Tell us how Trump not "listening to the science and the experts" somehow makes him "right" on the re-opening issue. While you are at it -- point out specifically on this thread where I am on the wrong side of science and information on this issue from my posts in this thread. Bottom line: You cannot safely re-open schools without low community prevalence and proper safety measures in place. This has conclusively demonstrated in Europe -- we should follow their lead.
Urge me to read your posts? Please. Ive read them over and over. I've debated this with you over and over. I've not changed one single inch in my position. You continue to try to justify your stance, alter your position, make excuses, etc. That's how you know you're on the wrong side, chief.
I will allow others read through my posts in this thread if they are interested. It will be very apparent to any rational person that my perspectives are fair and balanced on the school re-opening issue. I stand by what I posted and make no excuses. I am quite on the right side.... and what I am saying now is the exact message that I have been providing all along. I have never altered my position. Here is my position once again - Schools can safely be re-opened with the following in place: The community spread rate as noted in positive COVID test rates is below 5%. Schools strictly adhere to safety and cleaning measures.
No one believes this but you. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-10#post-5163119 This one is my favorite, where you are telling us kids will be hurt by COVID. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-11#post-5164549 https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-13#post-5172553 Or we can open schools when the infection rate is below .8 and proper contact tracing is in place, but not before: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-13#post-5172629 Picture of the grim reaper for that "first day of school". what a bunch of horseshit: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-14#post-5173079 Fear porn on how "I truly wish we'd kept our children home": https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-15#post-5173893 More fear porn about two kids who died (out of how manY??) and we have no idea if they actually died from catching it in school... https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-16#post-5174095 "The toll on children is just beginning" Yeah sure: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-the-era-of-covid.347498/page-16#post-5174339 There are literally DOZENS MORE of these types of posts. Yeah, please encourage the "reader" to read the thread and see what you've been pushing this entire time.
Yes... and I stand by what was stated in these posts and all the other posts (which you did not link). Of course, you clearly demonstrated your bias with selectively linking. I would urge people to go read all of my posts in this thread. The bottom line remains: Schools can safely be re-opened with the following in place: The community spread rate as noted in positive COVID test rates is below 5%. Schools strictly adhere to safety and cleaning measures. As a follow-up to educate people - Europe has used a standard in some countries of the "infection rate is below .8 and proper contact tracing is in place" to re-open schools. Because in the U.S. we effectively do not have Contact Tracing and cannot determine the community R level --- our closest equivalent is a positive COVID test rate of 5% or below.
The reckoning over the nation's schools and Covid is coming https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/what-matters-january-26/index.html The national reckoning over where and how schoolchildren should be educated as the pandemic drags on is finally here -- or at least it should be. So far this week, major districts in Chicago and New Jersey have shelved plans to physically return to the classroom at the last minute in the face of opposition from teachers. On Tuesday, the CDC released a study that found the risk of Covid transmission in the classroom is minimal when paired with precautions like mask-wearing and social-distancing. We know that remote learning is failing Black, Hispanic and poor students. Schools, as we've written before, are also at the fulcrum of unlocking the economy to get past Covid. Here's more evidence from Gallup about how parents of remote learners are less likely to work full time. The CDC's study focused on 17 K-12 schools in rural Wood County, Wisconsin, during in-person learning last fall. What's below is from CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas, although the bolded words are mine: The study findings: Few cases of in-school transmission. The data: Of 5,530 students and staff, 191 tested positive for Covid-19. Covid-19 case rates in schools were 37% lower than the surrounding community. Who tested positive: Contact tracing and investigation determined that seven of those 191 cases, 3.7%, -- all among students -- were contracted in school. Three of the seven students who tested positive were from one elementary school class. The testing: The schools did not conduct routine Covid-19 screening, but they implemented mitigation measures. The precautions: Students were each provided with three to five double- or triple-layered cloth masks. Masks were required in schools and statewide, and more than 92% of students of all age groups wore them. The method for students: Cohorts of 11 to 20 students from the same grade level met for classes and lunch indoors, where students were often seated next to the same person. Cohorts were asked not to mix, and the researchers found no in-school transmission between different cohorts. The method for adults: Staff were told to mask, social distance and limit time in shared indoor spaces. If a student was out of school with Covid-19 symptoms, their siblings were also told to stay home. When a student or staff member tested positive for the virus, school officials used interviews to identify close contacts -- anyone who was within 6 feet of the person for longer than 15 minutes over the course of 24 hours. Those close contacts were required to quarantine at home, and if they developed symptoms during that time, officials investigated whether in-school spread was the cause. School may help kids distance: The team says their findings suggest that even with varying positivity rates in the community, students are not necessarily at increased risk for the virus if they attend in-person classes. In fact, they say that being in a monitored environment such as the classroom may increase adherence to public health measures. Where schools are out. Now square those CDC findings -- granted, for a rural Wisconsin district -- with what we're seeing come out of US cities. Here's a passage from a report by CNN's Elizabeth Stuart on Monday: Public schools in Montclair, New Jersey, were scheduled to reopen for hybrid learning for elementary school students on Monday, the first day of in-person learning for students since March 2020. But plans were scrapped at the last minute after the local teachers' union cited its safety concerns and its members refused to return to classrooms. Stuart, along with Mirna Alsharif, reported Tuesday the status of the 20 largest public school districts in the US: 9 are currently all online. (One district had briefly opened in the fall, but has been all online since the holidays.) 8 offer full in-person or a choice of full online (Several of these are in Florida, where the governor ordered brick and mortar schools to offer in-person learning) 2 have hybrid plans (some in-person and some online) 1 has a combination of plans (Hawaii's plans are based on island infection rates, so plans vary from island to island) Even in districts that are open, like New York, a large number of kids are still not in the classroom -- specifically middle and high school students. Spikes in positivity rates in places where schools have remained open or opened routinely led to heated debates about whether those schools should stay open. Schools scramble party lines. The two political figureheads for keeping schools open -- Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio -- are about as different politically as it's possible for two humans to be. It feels like schools are the only thing closed. In northern Virginia, you can throw back beers late at night indoors at a bar. You can send your kid in person to private school. You can shop indoors at pretty much every type of establishment. You can gather for coffee, go to the farmers market, get a parking ticket, pay a parking ticket and pretty much anything else you want, as long as you wear a mask and follow social distance guidelines. You cannot, if you're a kid, go to public school. My kids' district has set a mid-February target for younger kids who choose to return to the classroom. Schools have been completely closed since March. The number of children failing classes, particularly Black and brown kids, has skyrocketed. But the district has missed previous markers to put special needs kids back in classrooms. It has set metrics, based on the spread of Covid in the community. It seems very unlikely those metrics will be met. Parents are expecting a notice pushing off the mid-February delay. Vaccines were supposed to change the equation. At the same time, teachers in Virginia have been prioritized to receive Covid vaccines. In other states, like Florida, teachers have been specifically NOT prioritized for the vaccine, which seems criminal, but they have been in the classroom for months. All that makes the CDC's newly released report so maddening to parents wondering when their dual roles as full-time workers and daytime school aides and IT assistants will end. Biden's pledge. President Joe Biden has pledged to get American school kids K-8 back to school during his first 100 days in office. He talked on Monday about the need for better ventilation, testing and capacity at schools. "It's not so much about the idea teachers aren't going to work. The teachers I know, they want to work. They just want to work in a safe environment and as safely as we can rationally make it. We can do that. We should be able to open up every school kindergarten through eighth grade if, in fact, we administer these tests," he said. It's a bold promise, since the federal government does not currently -- nor will it soon -- control local school districts. Biden signed an executive order setting as policy his goal to help get kids back in school. Read it here. It's a policy to issue stronger and better recommendations -- direct guidance and advice for districts from the national level. It does not provide new funds to school districts that need to upgrade facilities and invest in tests and PPE for their students. He'll need Congress and the Senate to get those funds released. And he'll need the teachers' unions to get on board. Read more here. Educational models are all over the place. The pandemic is going to touch every American kid in some way. Last spring, when all kids were home, the concern was about how wealthier parents could afford the time or money to create pods or hire tutors. But now some American kids are going to school and a large portion are not. Some are following a hybrid model. Some are all virtual. Ten months after nearly every school kid spent some time out of the classroom, the nation's children are all over the place. Read the latest on how this missing year is making American inequality worse.
So funny to see your narrative change. Can't back peddle back enough. You were flat out WRONG in pushing fear for returning to school. Flat out wrong. Kids were never really at risk, despite all your claims - you could never prove they were and always refused to answer any numbers or percentages.
Good luck with your fantasies about a changing narrative. Kids are at risk... simply at less risk than staff members. Since no large scale comprehensive review of schools has been created -- it is difficult to provide statistics and figures for the U.S. In fact for the most part all we have are inaccurate, unproven claims pushed by politicians. The largest study of schools in the U.S. with statistics and data from more than 6000 school districts for the fall semester came to the conclusion that schools should not be open. Should Schools Stay Open? Not So Fast. Data on coronavirus cases in U.S. schools suggests in-person classes contribute to the virus’ spread. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-...why-schools-might-not-be-safe-during-covid-19