tube fanatic Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 This article highlights some of the concerns and risks: https://www.nj.com/news/2020/07/from-lunch-to-buses-ranking-the-risks-nj-students-face-for-coronavirus-exposure-when-schools-reopen.html Sensibly, concerned parents will be permitted to keep their kids home and use total remote learning: https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/07/nj-to-allow-all-remote-learning-option-for-students-when-schools-reopen-in-the-fall-murphy-says.html What’s going on where you live? Maynard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 A bit of confusion for me. For work, I travel to about 10/11 counties. I help state employees negotiate their 401K's and I go over their state pension benefits. So I cover state employees, county employees (that have adopted the states retirement plan) and virtually 100% of the K-12 teachers (as well as several schools of higher learning) I'm currently disallowed to have any (as in 100% zero) face to face meetings. School is spooling up and tomorrow, I have my first In-Service where the new teachers are coming in for their orientation, including a presentation (me) of their retirement benefits. We're doing this via video-remote. Company took a survey a couple months ago, telling us that we can't do anything until at minimum AFTER Labor Day. They expect to go back about 1/3 then, with another 1/3 maybe in November and the last portion December. My boss & I were talking other day, we both have a gut feeling that we'll ultimately be locked up until at least the first of the year and they'll postpone the rollout. As best I can tell, the schools are either planning on opening up or maybe these benefit meetings are just that....and they'll start teaching remotely. I have no clue yet. Some local governments are rotating. Is it 50/50 or some other ratio, I have no idea. Some of them show up at the location of work today, some of them stay home (ostensibly working remotely but again, no clue) The next day, they swap and the first group is at home and the second group is at work. We (my company) recently had one of our field reps (what I do) leave. They split the territory between about two of us. Most of his eastern territory borders my western territory so it was a bit of a natural to give it to me. We're working remote so this is fine. Very easy to deal with someone two hours away when I can do a phone call with them or a video meeting. Problem is, we are under contract with the State to have 15 reps and his leaving drops us to 14 so we are contractually bound to find someone (done) train them (being done now) and he gets to sit on his butt at home trying to meet people he's never met with, no clue as to who they are, where they are AND since there are many small details to know, he's going to be doing a ton of "I'll have to get back with you about that" to go find the answer. My honest opinion is if that little virus is slithering around at all when we get the orders to return to the field, I really don't see any way that it won't bite me just because I hit so many areas. It would be terrible to be "that person" who carried it to multiple locations.... maybe I'm just being fatalistic but unless they get a vaccine for it (I'll be first in line to take it!) I can't see how I won't be in proximity of where it resides. I did get two new face masks, provided by the company..... one with their logo. Whoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco-d-gama Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Some perspectives on the issues.... https://abcnews.go.com/Health/seniors-put-risk-children-return-school/story?id=71879021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco-d-gama Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Don’t know where to post useful covid19 information..... so I’ll do it here for the time being (if that’s alright). https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-21/first-covid-vaccine-may-be-approved-in-2020-eu-regulator-says?utm_campaign=pol&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 tick, tock, tick, tock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 What about the risks of not opening them? I read somewhere (don't crucify me if I'm wrong) that the US was one of the few countries not fully opening schools? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 We are also the country most banned from travel around the globe. Maybe there is a link between the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjimbo Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Once again, the decisions being made around opening schools are founded in politics and not based in science and the current serious spike in cases. Sure, I would love for my FOUR young grandkids to go back to school (who we take care of every day), but to me, it's like asking them to go out and stand in the middle of the street and see which drivers can avoid them. If you actually think that a 5, 7, 8 or 9 year old is going to wear a mask all day, and keep 6 ft. from other kids all day, every day, you apparently have never had children. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 10 minutes ago, jimjimbo said: Once again, the decisions being made around opening schools are founded in politics and not based in science and the current serious spike in cases. Sure, I would love for my FOUR young grandkids to go back to school (who we take care of every day), but to me, it's like asking them to go out and stand in the middle of the street and see which drivers can avoid them. If you actually think that a 5, 7, 8 or 9 year old is going to wear a mask all day, and keep 6 ft. from other kids all day, every day, you apparently have never had children. I believe your risks of having a problem is greater than theirs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I believe that is what they call "community spread" when the children bring it back home to their elders. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 1 minute ago, oldtimer said: I believe that is what they call "community spread" when the children bring it back home to their elders. Yeah, I worry about going to the store for my mom, who is 80 yo. Jim is right in that kids aren't the cleanest, nor do they stay focused (distancing, stop messing with the masks and such). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjimbo Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 2 minutes ago, oldtimer said: I believe that is what they call "community spread" when the children bring it back home to their elders. And to teachers, coaches, administrators and others in their neighborhoods. Regardless of whether kids are somewhat less likely to become seriously ill, that's really not the point at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 34 minutes ago, CECAA850 said: What about the risks of not opening them? I read somewhere (don't crucify me if I'm wrong) that the US was one of the few countries not fully opening schools? https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-across-globe-suggest-ways-keep-coronavirus-bay-despite-outbreaks https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/how-sweden-wasted-rare-opportunity-study-coronavirus-schools <edit> - I forgot this one. https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-schools-sweden-denmark-5ff88c81-67e3-4c33-8b74-fe57b9555827.html 8 minutes ago, jimjimbo said: And to teachers, coaches, administrators and others in their neighborhoods. Regardless of whether kids are somewhat less likely to become seriously ill, that's really not the point at all. Keeping the kids home is bad, sending them to school is bad, then the P word gets tossed into the mix. So what's the solution? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 1 minute ago, Woofers and Tweeters said: So what's the solution? There is no "good" solution. Just the lesser of two evils. There are valid points for opening them and closing them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjimbo Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 2 minutes ago, Woofers and Tweeters said: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-across-globe-suggest-ways-keep-coronavirus-bay-despite-outbreaks https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/how-sweden-wasted-rare-opportunity-study-coronavirus-schools Keeping the kids home is bad, sending them to school is bad, then the P word gets tossed into the mix. So what's the solution? Obviously we're not talking about keeping kids home forever. But how about we all do our part in the short term to get this crisis under control as best we can. Perhaps then when science, and not "the P word" offers a possible solution we can begin to feel more comfortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbphoto Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I believe most schools should be open and there are ways to do it safely. Unfortunately, here in Chicagoland, politics has entered the decision and teachers unions and administrators are going to keep things closed up while they all get their full salaries "teaching remotely" from their basements. Kids under 20 rarely have severe covid cases, nor are they the super-spreaders to at-risk populations that we all worry about. Not every kid has a home situation that is safer than school, and I would argue that kids are much more at-risk staying home. And when they are home, don't assume they are following the rules just like we can't assume that if they go back to school - it's a normal Summer around here for the kids in my neighborhood. That said, there are multi-generational family situations and/or at-risk kids, teachers, administrators, etc, that schools need to have a flexible plan in-place to accommodate. I fall into this category. I just wish the default thinking was to get the kids back in school with a plan to handle the at-risk situations (and the inevitable uptick in covid cases) , rather than defaulting to 100% remote learning and maybe your kids can come to school one day every 2 weeks. There's no one-size-fits-all plan and each school or district will have to figure it out as they go, but I believe it can be done. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 my wife is a teacher. we are leaning toward hybrid schooling. Fortunately, the school/district is small [~20 students] and doesn't face the scale that large school systems have. A hybrid system will keep the head count to ~10 students in the building at a time. Pure remote schooling is a no go when you are teaching the kids to read and write. Worried? Oh, yeah. We are both in the high risk group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Send everyone back to work, school, other..... exponentially infect the entire population. 64% of the elderly crowd dies off.... social security problem fixed. Hmmmm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 6 minutes ago, Coytee said: Send everyone back to work, school, other..... exponentially infect the entire population. 64% of the elderly crowd dies off.... social security problem fixed. Hmmmm..... One of the doctors at the facility where I work in an evolutionary biologist. He has some interesting historical info about viruses and changes in the planet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.