10405 replies to this topic

[BobPhelan]

Regarding the impact of being vaccinated vs not:

https://twitter.com/...v8Ycz1icFg&s=19

Wow.

Just found out today my wife’s unvaccinated sister and her family tested positive and are very sick. It’s just not worth putting your head in the sand…

[You Play to Win the Game]

Wow.

Just found out today my wife’s unvaccinated sister and her family tested positive and are very sick. It’s just not worth putting your head in the sand…

It’s also not worth putting your friends and loved ones through the anxiety. I am so thankful my immediate family got vaxxed. My cousins are all completely distraught over my aunt. They took a scan today, and lesions cover her lungs and she still needs oxygen. It’s such a nasty disease. It’s heartbreaking to see.

[RShack]

3 NYC subway lines had to shut down today due to lack of available staff..

 

We don't want hospitals to get to that point...

[Old Man]

Fauci just said kids over 5 should be vax'd. 

New study shows it's incredidly safe for kids 5 and up.

Only 14% 5-11 vax'd.

Huge diff in in outcomes between kids vax'd vs. not.

Not sure how much faith I have in Fauci these days.

[JeremyStrain]

It’s also not worth putting your friends and loved ones through the anxiety. I am so thankful my immediate family got vaxxed. My cousins are all completely distraught over my aunt. They took a scan today, and lesions cover her lungs and she still needs oxygen. It’s such a nasty disease. It’s heartbreaking to see.

The ones that have really been getting to me lately are the ones that are fully vaxxed, and because of it, have zero worry about catching and spreading it. "With the vax it's only like a bad cold" or "they need to be in school, who cares that they could get it, school is more important".

 

I snapped at someone the other day, and said that's nice, good for you, we are fully vaxxed too, EXCEPT for the 3 year old at home that isn't old enough, and you not giving a shit if you get it and spread it to us is a real dick move.

 

People's inability to see the world past the little bubble they live in is both sad and exhausting.

[Russ]

The ones that have really been getting to me lately are the ones that are fully vaxxed, and because of it, have zero worry about catching and spreading it. "With the vax it's only like a bad cold" or "they need to be in school, who cares that they could get it, school is more important".

I snapped at someone the other day, and said that's nice, good for you, we are fully vaxxed too, EXCEPT for the 3 year old at home that isn't old enough, and you not giving a shit if you get it and spread it to us is a real dick move.

People's inability to see the world past the little bubble they live in is both sad and exhausting.

This virus has been politicized and propagandized to the point where people don’t know what to think or believe anymore.

[You Play to Win the Game]

The ones that have really been getting to me lately are the ones that are fully vaxxed, and because of it, have zero worry about catching and spreading it. "With the vax it's only like a bad cold" or "they need to be in school, who cares that they could get it, school is more important".

 

I snapped at someone the other day, and said that's nice, good for you, we are fully vaxxed too, EXCEPT for the 3 year old at home that isn't old enough, and you not giving a shit if you get it and spread it to us is a real dick move.

 

People's inability to see the world past the little bubble they live in is both sad and exhausting.

The government and world have moved on. Even with Omicron, there isn't a sporting event you can turn on that isn't completely packed to the brim with fans (excluding Jacksonville Jaguars and WFT games of course). Bars & restaurants near us are constantly packed, needing reservations to even get in. Schools are back in session today. I mean to a degree, if you're going to have schools open in a time like this, what difference does it make? Why should people even sacrifice further when so much systemically makes their micro efforts moot anyway? Like, me choosing to be safe (which we're still doing) seems somewhat silly when Mandy is in school every day with unvaxxed children who don't follow masking instructions. Just playing devil's advocate a bit.

 

But in general, I agree with you. I think it's the wrong mindset to have and it's dangerous. And if it were up to me, we'd still be using mitigation efforts at every level. Not full-blown March 2020 lockdown, but not nothing either. There should still be financial relief for those who have to go on unpaid leave to isolate. When school's have major outbreaks, numbers shouldn't be fudged (like they are consistently at MCPS), they should go virtual for a week to stop the spread in it's tracks. Etc., there's just so much more we could be doing, but since we're not - I think most people are just over it.

[mweb08]

Regarding schools, there's an argument to be made that virtual for a stretch (hopefully a short one) is actually the better way to go in terms of pure education.

I know virtual didn't work for many (in person doesn't work for some btw), but that was over the course of most to all of the school year where the ability to build relationships and culture was exclusive to online. In this case, that building happened in person.

Anyway, the bigger part of this argument is simply attendance. If teachers and students are going to quarantine for having covid, there's going to be an unprecedented level of absences. Plus some parents will keep kids at home rather than exposing them.

You can't educate students at school if they aren't there. And for those that are there, having subs in a third of classes is very detrimental.

Virtual allows for those with mild or asymmtomatic covid to continue to teach and learn along with those that would like to wait this out while not being in large gatherings in small rooms.

Lastly, since we've already done a lot of virtual and distributed technology to students, it's way easier to go virtual and hit the ground running than it was at first.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Regarding schools, there's an argument to be made that virtual for a stretch (hopefully a short one) is actually the better way to go in terms of pure education.

I know virtual didn't work for many (in person doesn't work for some btw), but that was over the course of most to all of the school year where the ability to build relationships and culture was exclusive to online. In this case, that building happened in person.

Anyway, the bigger part of this argument is simply attendance. If teachers and students are going to quarantine for having covid, there's going to be an unprecedented level of absences. Plus some parents will keep kids at home rather than exposing them.

You can't educate students at school if they aren't there. And for those that are there, having subs in a third of classes is very detrimental.

Virtual allows for those with mild or asymmtomatic covid to continue to teach and learn as well along with those that would like to wait this out while not being in large gatherings in small rooms.

Lastly, since we've already done a lot of virtual and distributed technology to students, it's way easier to go virtual and hit the ground running than it was at first.

Yeah... but... capitalism. If education was actually the goal, rather than babysitting, you'd be making a ton of sense here.

 

Does Baltimore have a virtual academy that offers virtual learning for families choosing to be safe right now? MCPS does, so that's at least something I guess.

[JeremyStrain]

This virus has been politicized and propagandized to the point where people don’t know what to think or believe anymore.

True story.

[JeremyStrain]

Regarding schools, there's an argument to be made that virtual for a stretch (hopefully a short one) is actually the better way to go in terms of pure education.

I know virtual didn't work for many (in person doesn't work for some btw), but that was over the course of most to all of the school year where the ability to build relationships and culture was exclusive to online. In this case, that building happened in person.

Anyway, the bigger part of this argument is simply attendance. If teachers and students are going to quarantine for having covid, there's going to be an unprecedented level of absences. Plus some parents will keep kids at home rather than exposing them.

You can't educate students at school if they aren't there. And for those that are there, having subs in a third of classes is very detrimental.

Virtual allows for those with mild or asymmtomatic covid to continue to teach and learn along with those that would like to wait this out while not being in large gatherings in small rooms.

Lastly, since we've already done a lot of virtual and distributed technology to students, it's way easier to go virtual and hit the ground running than it was at first.

Totally agree with you here. I think this stretch needs to burn itself out and then things would be back to being a moderate risk you can try to control. But even right before break you were having multiple kids in every single class go down with a positive test, and the outdated rules that were made before Delta are not stopping this thing. Much like symptoms for many are like a bad cold, it's spreading like one too, and the masks that aren't on for 1/4 of the day (breakfast in class and cafeteria where they are elbow to elbow) aren't gonna stop it.

 

THIS is when you suck it up, keep consistency by keeping them with their face to face teacher virtually for a couple weeks (currently in our county if you get quarantined or test positive you get assigned a random virtual teacher who doesn't know what you are doing, where you are or who you are, for 5-10 days and it's been going so poorly that most people just don't do anything until they get back to school). That is even changing, even last night we got an email saying they are no longer doing contact tracing, they aren't quarantining, and if the DOH steps in, then you listen to them for the 5 days or so and come back. This is all in response like you said, to the attendance. PLENTY of people, and teachers, are using the letter of the rule to their advantage as well and if they have a runny nose, or claim to have a runny nose, you TOLD them not to come to school, so they aren't. Then with the inability to get a test right now, they don't have a negative test required to come back, so they just take a mini vacation when they want. It was always going to be a loophole with this half assed plan, but I don't even have a better idea on that part of it...it's better than them coming in and spreading it like a stomach bug.

[JeremyStrain]

Yeah... but... capitalism. If education was actually the goal, rather than babysitting, you'd be making a ton of sense here.

 

Does Baltimore have a virtual academy that offers virtual learning for families choosing to be safe right now? MCPS does, so that's at least something I guess.

But does MCPS allow you to switch to the virtual school now that things are getting bad, or is it a one way street, they'll let you back out but not in?

 

Honestly, I can't remember, I could go upstairs and ask, but she's waiting on the results of her own covid test so I'm avoiding her at the moment. I know AACPS doesn't. They had to approve you going in to start, they didn't take everyone, so they kept numbers limited, and then if you came back in person, that's it, you couldn't go the other way. It was a token offering to seem like they were doing the right thing, but then designed to herd people back in person.

 

Again, I think the in person/virtual thing has gotten politicized like the rest of this crap. There are a TON of people who really thrived virtually, and you shouldn't take away any avenue that can help subsets of students, covid or not. I know a bunch of people who said their kids with attention disorders really did so much better in the virtual setting because it was broken up better, they didn't feel trapped, and for many of those kids the attention issues aren't that they can't pay attention and do things, it's that their brains are just TOO fast and they get bored too quickly. Having multiple things they can do helps them focus and get stuff done. Look up the difference between hyper taskers and multi taskers...and then think about both of them being forced to sit in a room and taught to the slowest focused people. It's gotta be torture. Kinda like the Bunny and the Sloth at the DMV in that Disney movie Zootopia.

[JeremyStrain]

The government and world have moved on. Even with Omicron, there isn't a sporting event you can turn on that isn't completely packed to the brim with fans (excluding Jacksonville Jaguars and WFT games of course). Bars & restaurants near us are constantly packed, needing reservations to even get in. Schools are back in session today. I mean to a degree, if you're going to have schools open in a time like this, what difference does it make? Why should people even sacrifice further when so much systemically makes their micro efforts moot anyway? Like, me choosing to be safe (which we're still doing) seems somewhat silly when Mandy is in school every day with unvaxxed children who don't follow masking instructions. Just playing devil's advocate a bit.

 

But in general, I agree with you. I think it's the wrong mindset to have and it's dangerous. And if it were up to me, we'd still be using mitigation efforts at every level. Not full-blown March 2020 lockdown, but not nothing either. There should still be financial relief for those who have to go on unpaid leave to isolate. When school's have major outbreaks, numbers shouldn't be fudged (like they are consistently at MCPS), they should go virtual for a week to stop the spread in it's tracks. Etc., there's just so much more we could be doing, but since we're not - I think most people are just over it.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say or not, but there's a mechanic they put in place in MCPS to close entire schools if they have a certain % of people infected. I can't remember what the number is off the top of my head, like 5% maybe?

 

But to your point then comes the fudged numbers problem. They are REALLY poorly done here in AACPS. A couple of us tracked confirmed cases that were out for sure and the number out as close contacts a month or so ago, and it was SO far off from what was reported it wasn't funny. Then you have the people that catch it at home and don't report it. They just stay home a few days, and they come back when they want, whether they are still carrying it or not. (which is what I'm afraid of this 5 day crap, our family that came down with it recently tested positive and started showing symptoms on day 7, so what is 5 days going to do from the day of exposure? Send them back just in time for them to be shedding the virus like a snake and everyone is going to get it. And that's fully vaxxed and boosted people...where half of these schools are not)

[You Play to Win the Game]

I don't know if I'm allowed to say or not, but there's a mechanic they put in place in MCPS to close entire schools if they have a certain % of people infected. I can't remember what the number is off the top of my head, like 5% maybe?

 

But to your point then comes the fudged numbers problem. They are REALLY poorly done here in AACPS. A couple of us tracked confirmed cases that were out for sure and the number out as close contacts a month or so ago, and it was SO far off from what was reported it wasn't funny. Then you have the people that catch it at home and don't report it. They just stay home a few days, and they come back when they want, whether they are still carrying it or not. (which is what I'm afraid of this 5 day crap, our family that came down with it recently tested positive and started showing symptoms on day 7, so what is 5 days going to do from the day of exposure? Send them back just in time for them to be shedding the virus like a snake and everyone is going to get it. And that's fully vaxxed and boosted people...where half of these schools are not)

I can tell you at Mandy's school, one of the top performing schools in the county and the country, they have severely under reported cases. Severely. It's pretty sick.

 

Good luck with your wife - hope everything's all good.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Well, I managed to get COVID.  I'm double vaccinated and boosted, but I don't think that means much against catching omicron.  I guess I had a pretty mild case, but it still wiped me out for 2-3 days, and almost a week later I'm not quite 100%.  Everybody stay healthy out there.

[Old Man]

At this point, not sure anybody is safe from catching covid. eventually everybody is bound to have a case of it.

[Mackus]

Well no, you're not bound to get it, but omicron certainly is highly contagious and the vaccines aren't highly effective against catching it.  The vaccines do fortunately seem to be making a difference in how ill someone gets from catching it.  And the vaccines remain highly effective against the original strain and delta variant, which are still out there.

[BSLChrisStoner]

At this point, not sure anybody is safe from catching covid. eventually everybody is bound to have a case of it.

I agree with you. 

Believe only 62% of the country is vaccinated.  Too many people unvaccinated to avoid imo.

[Old Man]

I agree with you. 

Believe only 62% of the country is vaccinated.  Too many people unvaccinated to avoid imo.

Double vax and boosted are still getting it.

 

People are coming up with covid twice, when they said, once you get it, your internal immune should be built up.

 

I suspect that even if the USA was vax at 99.9%, mean we would actually be covid free.

[Nigel Tufnel]

People are coming up with covid twice, when they said, once you get it, your internal immune should be built up.

 

I don't remember anyone ever thinking that, except maybe for some herd immunity crackpots.  We've known for a long time that you're only protected for maybe a few months at best after having it.  But I do seem to be hearing about people who've caught delta and then omicron almost back-to-back, so that part is new.