Bad News Thread

Schools are a lifeboat for our children.

Your idea of "efforts to reduce community transmission" is to close, shutdown and lockdown. It's the lazy and non-creative solution.

But, again if you didn't miscast others arguments you'd have very little to debate.

What would be a more creative solution?
 
The number one thing is moving risky things outdoors. That could have helped churches, gyms, bars, and restaurants. Schools, too.

For schools, why should a teacher have been willing to teach in person if the rest of the public isn’t willing to skip the restaurants or wear a mask? You were asking the teacher to accept an elevated risk, while you do absolutely nothing to help.

Yes, the risk to a teacher in a well ventilated room of masked kids is low. Now think about what happens as you relax those assumptions. The risk stops being low.

Suppose kids are refusing to wear masks. Is the teacher allowed to kick kids out for not wearing masks? Unless it is private school, probably not. So assume the kids, like their parents, skip masks.

The AAP assumed ventilation. Will anyone actually upgrade the ventilation system in each classroom? Don’t be silly. They can’t even keep the water faucets working. At most, they’ll send out an email asking teachers to open a window.

So, if you require teachers to teach in a well ventilated room of masked kids, you also require teachers to teach in poorly ventilated rooms of unmasked kids. It is no longer a low risk, but it is what will happen.

This is why I supported outdoor school, and school with each teacher teaching a single cohort. School is important, and moving class outside seemed the simplest way to make it safe.
Don't disagree with moving things outdoors, but for schools that's an extreme and impractical measure given the nominal risk. To be honest whether it's my plan or your plan, the argument is moot since the Unions wouldn't have allowed either.

Here is real life though. Our indoor youth club houses (that aren't on school property) have been open since June (all day since the schools were closed). Serving hundreds of kids, we had some infections among kids and staff, but zero outbreaks and no serious illnesses. Combine that with all the private schools that have operated safely since September. We can speculate all we want, but the proof is in the pudding.
 
Don't disagree with moving things outdoors, but for schools that's an extreme and impractical measure given the nominal risk. To be honest whether it's my plan or your plan, the argument is moot since the Unions wouldn't have allowed either.

Here is real life though. Our indoor youth club houses (that aren't on school property) have been open since June (all day since the schools were closed). Serving hundreds of kids, we had some infections among kids and staff, but zero outbreaks and no serious illnesses. Combine that with all the private schools that have operated safely since September. We can speculate all we want, but the proof is in the pudding.
Don’t forget the other schools around the country that remained open since Sept.
 
Don’t forget the other schools around the country that remained open since Sept.
Unless the schools had an effective way to detect asymptomatic transmission amongst the kids, the existence of open schools is no evidence one way or the other.

I suppose you could compare covid rates among teachers to covid rates among the general population in the same areas. Has anyone done that? If not, then all those open schools prove exactly nothing. Even then, you might prove nothing more than the fact that a lot of teachers are overweight, and thus more likely to show symptoms.
 
Don't disagree with moving things outdoors, but for schools that's an extreme and impractical measure given the nominal risk. To be honest whether it's my plan or your plan, the argument is moot since the Unions wouldn't have allowed either.

Here is real life though. Our indoor youth club houses (that aren't on school property) have been open since June (all day since the schools were closed). Serving hundreds of kids, we had some infections among kids and staff, but zero outbreaks and no serious illnesses. Combine that with all the private schools that have operated safely since September. We can speculate all we want, but the proof is in the pudding.
Given what we know about covid, why should I believe that sitting in a room with 30 people outside my family counts as “nominal” risk? Then repeat for 4 more groups. It’s a large gathering, extended time, indoor, poorly masked, poorly distanced, and poorly ventilated. What transmission risk factor are we missing?

Your indoor youth club houses probably contribute to community spread by having one asymptomatic youth transfer the virus to another asymptomatic youth. Unless you have awesome contact tracing, which you don’t, you do not know whether kids got covid at the youth center and brought it home to grandma.

Sad thing is, the same program held outdoors was actually pretty safe.
 
Unless the schools had an effective way to detect asymptomatic transmission amongst the kids, the existence of open schools is no evidence one way or the other.

I suppose you could compare covid rates among teachers to covid rates among the general population in the same areas. Has anyone done that? If not, then all those open schools prove exactly nothing. Even then, you might prove nothing more than the fact that a lot of teachers are overweight, and thus more likely to show symptoms.
My point being several other states across this country were able to effectively open schools for in person learning, so it isn’t impossible.
 
Given what we know about covid, why should I believe that sitting in a room with 30 people outside my family counts as “nominal” risk? Then repeat for 4 more groups. It’s a large gathering, extended time, indoor, poorly masked, poorly distanced, and poorly ventilated. What transmission risk factor are we missing?

Your indoor youth club houses probably contribute to community spread by having one asymptomatic youth transfer the virus to another asymptomatic youth. Unless you have awesome contact tracing, which you don’t, you do not know whether kids got covid at the youth center and brought it home to grandma.

Sad thing is, the same program held outdoors was actually pretty safe.
No, the sad thing is your proposed treatment of children and your denial of reality. Casting aspersions on our clubhouses that serve underprivileged kids that have nowhere else to go or can only go to other places that are less safe is incredibly arrogant. Sorry but you crossed the line. You know nothing about our programs and stop trying to hide behind the no contact tracing and asymptomatic spread speculative bullshit.
 
The reason Patient A is "counted as covid" is because the hospital must follow covid isolation and testing protocols that result in increased costs for the hospital and therefore qualify for the higher reimbursement levels.
Common sense, and that ain’t to common in here.
 
Have you seen any major news stories over the past 12 months of massive breakouts in schools and people dropping like flies because they were catching Covid while in school?
We aren’t talking about a massive breakout of kids getting visibly sick. We are talking about asymptomatic kids giving covid to other asymptomatic kids, who then bring it home to grandma. The only visible link is the last one. We had the news articles about grandma dying.

What makes you think a journalist would be able to do the contact tracing to link it to the school? (as opposed to the dinner party, the restaurant, or the casino.)
 
The reason Patient A is "counted as covid" is because the hospital must follow covid isolation and testing protocols that result in increased costs for the hospital and therefore qualify for the higher reimbursement levels.
I actually agree with you in regards to reimbursement. But I don't agree that it should be counted as a Covid hospitalization. As the article clearly states it grossly exaggerates the threat to children.
 
You seem to be trying for a “this isn’t really happening” story.

Overall deaths worldwide are up by about 10 million compared to expected values. It is happening. At most, you are arguing about which people died from covid, not whether people died from covid.
Starts with the use of PCR testing. Wrong test for determining presence of Corona. Right test for finding corona genetic sequences. Wrong test for determining how long those sequences have been in your boogers.
 
We aren’t talking about a massive breakout of kids getting visibly sick. We are talking about asymptomatic kids giving covid to other asymptomatic kids, who then bring it home to grandma. The only visible link is the last one. We had the news articles about grandma dying.

What makes you think a journalist would be able to do the contact tracing to link it to the school? (as opposed to the dinner party, the restaurant, or the casino.)
Cause Grandma was in quarantine, separated from her grandkids because she’s high risk….
 
We aren’t talking about a massive breakout of kids getting visibly sick. We are talking about asymptomatic kids giving covid to other asymptomatic kids, who then bring it home to grandma. The only visible link is the last one. We had the news articles about grandma dying.

What makes you think a journalist would be able to do the contact tracing to link it to the school? (as opposed to the dinner party, the restaurant, or the casino.)

Can we drop the asymptomatic spread theory now that we’re we know that is not a factor... pre-symptomatic yes, so still isolate/quarantine known exposures.

 
Can we drop the asymptomatic spread theory now that we’re we know that is not a factor... pre-symptomatic yes, so still isolate/quarantine known exposures.

Do we believe that 14 year olds typically display more than mild to moderate flu symptoms?

If no, then please replace the word "asymptomatic" with "sniffly". The basic argument is the same:

One moderately sniffly kid gives covid to a second kid, who gives covid to grandma just before he realizes that he has the sniffles.

Same problem for grandma.
 
Cause Grandma was in quarantine, separated from her grandkids because she’s high risk….
Wishful thinking.

Can you name anywhere which successfully used quarantine to protect the elderly from a high rate of community transmission? Anywhere on the planet with high cases, no vaccine, but low deaths.....

If the answer is no, then maybe grandma wasn't quite so safe as you imply.
 
Do we believe that 14 year olds typically display more than mild to moderate flu symptoms?

If no, then please replace the word "asymptomatic" with "sniffly". The basic argument is the same:

One moderately sniffly kid gives covid to a second kid, who gives covid to grandma just before he realizes that he has the sniffles.

Same problem for grandma.

Nice hypothetical, sans the real world.

You’re assuming student A is sent to school with the ‘sniffles’, that the school does not notice and isolate the child and their cohort. Also, that they don’t notify student B of an exposure when they quarantine the cohort. Further that student B’s family still is in close contact with grandma in the midst of a pandemic when they shouldn’t be. Not to mention that you’re not considered contagious immediately after exposure.

The ‘basic’ argument is assuming the worst possible outcome with the least likely probability. Aka false.
 
Wishful thinking.

Can you name anywhere which successfully used quarantine to protect the elderly from a high rate of community transmission? Anywhere on the planet with high cases, no vaccine, but low deaths.....

If the answer is no, then maybe grandma wasn't quite so safe as you imply.
Name somewhere that took the policy to shelter the elderly…..isn’t that what we’ve learned so far with the vaccine roll out….start with protecting the vulnerable and move on from there. Doesn’t the numbers reflect the benefits of that strategy?
 
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