Not just the teachers, though; it’ll have exponential effects on everyone that they end up inadvertently exposing/infecting.
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Yes. The vaccines that have been rolled out to elderly people have a ~95% efficacy in the population at large, but less so in those elderly patients. Is 15 out of every 100 grandparent an acceptable sacrifice? I guess so… But even then, the vaccines are potent stuff for preventing deaths. (Thanks for the correction, @jere7my!)
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The efficacy is 95% at preventing symptomatic disease. The vaccines are 100% effective at preventing hospitalization and death in the studies.
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Thank you. That’s a quality correction. I will edit my post while retaining the original text.
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Organizations have a choice, too. There’s nothing stopping them from finding out (and learning from) missteps made by other districts who reopened too soon, raising questions about the current health guidance, and passing that information along to the folks in their district. I would not be surprised if they also seek expert advice from their insurance providers and legal advisors, because their feedback has also been known to influence school districts’ decisions.
Saying after the fact that they chose to rely on another agency’s advice might not shield members of that district or board. I doubt any attempt to pass responsibility for negative outcomes to the CDC would work, because like many agencies it probably cannot be sued. Instead, a district could inform residents that based on legal (or insurance company) guidance, all schools will remain closed to prevent any student, teacher, or staff member from being exposed to the virus in areas under their jurisdiction.
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Just a reminder that death is not the only bad outcome. Long Covid effects and post-recovery organ/system damage are other reasons why it’s better to avoid exposure and infection in the first place.
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That part, right fucking there.
I’m already not loving how regular aging and the gradual fatigue from the wear and tear of everyday life is negatively affecting my body… so why the hell would I want to take the unnecessary risk of catching a disease that will likely exacerbate and compound any existing health issues?
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It’s relatively safe IF AND ONLY IF schools follow CDC guidelines. The CDC makes this clear. 6 feet, masks at all times, etc.
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#1 will never happen because reasons. Not enough money, classrooms too full, kids won’t properly wear their masks, etc, etc.
Vaccination is the ONLY way to ensure safety in the modern school environment. Until that happens, it simply is not ever going to be safe, as the numerous “school has now closed again because of Covid outbreak” reports show.
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Any data from outside the United States cannot be applied here, because they took far stricter measures to stop the virus spreading during the past year. Our government did not, and the outbreak has been far more severe.
When examining all the internal data, the CDC conclusions are very clear: if you follow the guidelines to a letter, you’ll be fine.
And the experience of teachers (and honest parents) are clear: the schools and the children will never be able to meet those guidelines. It’s simply not feasible. Therefore, vaccination remains the ONLY way of mitigating this so schools CAN open.
All the other arguments are arguments to have another day (parents having to work and not having daycare, etc). Right now, opening schools in most places is a stupid ass idea until vaccine distribution reaches 60% of the teachers and other staff (and given how many states are fucking up that as well, that’s not going to happen for some time).
EDIT: And I can add that I have first hand experience with what’s going on in schools. My wife is a high school English teacher and her school’s union representative. And the schools aren’t doing jack or shit to make sure all guidelines are met. Period. They can’t. There’s no money for it, and the governor here is pushing hard to get them to fully open at any and all costs.
Meanwhile, teachers are being required to enforce mask mandates, something the principles should be doing. And to top it all off, the fucking central office is CLOSED DUE TO PANDEMIC CONCERNS.
Fuck. Them.
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Apparently justified…
That’s not really accurate. Yes, many countries have been better than the US at controlling the virus, and obviously the US messed up BAD. But quite a few countries have had outbreaks as bad or worse than the US on a per-capita basis and still opened schools. For example, Italy, the UK, and Belgium have all had more deaths per capita than the US, and all have opened or at least partially opened their school systems. Sweden is pretty close behind the US in deaths per capita and they never closed their schools at all.
Whether or not you think those countries made the right decision, the data is absolutely relevant and it would be unwise to toss it out as meaningless. It’s absolutely appropriate for the CDC to study what’s going on in their schools to help understand how the virus spreads in those settings.
Sorry, man, I said that exact thing about Moderna and Pfizer vaccines prior to the data being released. The difference between that and the anti-vaxxer position is that the data they claim to want to see is publicly available and accessible, it just doesn’t say what they “know in their heart is true,” so they imagine some secret cache of data that proves them right. It doesn’t exist because it isn’t true, but they refuse to accept that and beat the drum for the release of the “actual data.” These positions are not in any way equivalent.
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Agree wholeheartedly. The Brazil variant scares the hell out of me, and a recent report from Japan suggests that tourists may have provided a medium for a blending of Brazil and South African variants. Add in that kids cannot be vaccinated at all yet, and truly this has the makings of a disaster. We are just coming down off a truly horrible peak, but numbers are still bad.
ETA: Long term effects on kids are still being sussed out, but these kind of studies are now being published. If this doesn’t give you pause, I don’t know what would.
(Full study https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2770645/L
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Former Bay Area, the So Cal, now Sacramento. It’s cheaper, the food isn’t QUITE up to SF but it’s getting there, and there’s a lot less meth if you stay in town.
Careful about the outlying counties though. They dive into State of Jefferson/MAGA-hood pretty quick.
In my experience, people who run for School Board are rarely interested in quality of education. They are either obsessed with one particular issue (creationism) or controlling taxes. When you realize the School Board is primarily an economic decision making body, their behaviors start to make a lot more sense.
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A high-level person at work is running for local school board. He’s been pretty clear that the reason he is running is to get kids back to school despite COVID.
On the other hand my brother in law is on a different school board because he wants a better standard of education for his kids and has enough time to devote to the task.
So in my anecdotal examples theres a mixed bag.
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I tried to phrase my original reply to not be an absolute statement. There definitely are people who are on School Boards because they care about education, but in my experience, they are very outnumbered and/or get discouraged and leave the Board rather quickly. Watching the sausage get made can discourage anyone.
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