4 minutes ago, DBW said:

Absolutely!  The technology for remote learning is there, every student will have a chrome book, etc, but teachers have not been trained well enough or at all to teach remotely for an extended time.  It’s not the same as being in the classroom and many teachers are older (potential at risk age) and are "dinosaurs” really.  They don’t want to be in school but also can’t teach effectively from home.  Parents want choice, but how can you have some kids home some in school, etc.  

if a Teacher gets sick, they will struggle To find subs who are willing to come in for very little pay with zero Health benefits.  Transportation is a major issue.  Buses are crowded as is.  If drivers get sick who drives?  They’ve been talking about leasing more buses and hiring retired truckers.  That sounds safe.  😟 

like I said, a Fing mess.

My kid is taking the semester off because they want to go remote. Not a fan of finishing the last semester that way.

3 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

My kid is taking the semester off because they want to go remote. Not a fan of finishing the last semester that way.

College I think is a little different...by that time many students don’t wanna sit in lecture halls and are more adaptable to remote learning.  It will prepare them for the outside world.  Especially junior and seniors. Freshman and sophomores might still want that college life.   So I can’t say I blame them.

 

 

My wife’s school decided to push back opening by 3 weeks. Not sure 3 weeks will make much of a difference but we’ll see. They are expecting about 60% will be virtual when it does start.

14 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

My wife’s school decided to push back opening by 3 weeks. Not sure 3 weeks will make much of a difference but we’ll see. They are expecting about 60% will be virtual when it does start.

We have a 3 pronged system prepared where could be 100% in school, hybrid of 50/50 or 100% remote.  And it could change at any moment given the circumstances.  
 

my personal approach would have been do 100% remote until winter break.  Then reassess.  Simple cut and dry plan, none of this phasing and moving targets.  

1 hour ago, Lloyd said:

Hey, a plan would be lovely. Without a plan, it all sounds like "LIBERATE MICHIGAN" "REOPEN THE ECONOMY" all over again. Which is, rushing towards an end goal (getting people to spend money again, or getting kids in school so parents can go to work and spend money again) without considering the necessary steps to EARN that end goal.  It's almost like the MLB and NFL trying to start up again...ya know, like we know how this story is gonna end. So can we at least pretend to be smart and cautious as we inevitably keep ourselves buried in this pandemic until scientists bail us out with a vaccine?

Yea, although, I do think there are a lot of people out of work and really suffering right now.  These bailout bills are printing absurd sums of money and they aren't really very effective at getting it to the people that need it.  I'm pretty bullish on opening the economy, but we can agree that the school opening plan is a mess.  And one thing has a lot to do with the other. 

48 minutes ago, DBW said:

College I think is a little different...by that time many students don’t wanna sit in lecture halls and are more adaptable to remote learning.  It will prepare them for the outside world.  Especially junior and seniors. Freshman and sophomores might still want that college life.   So I can’t say I blame them.

 

 

At that age they're also more prone to infection and infecting others than the younger kids are.  Also, college kids are stupid animals and can't control themselves.  Probably a no brainier to close colleges. Feel bad for college kids though...sucks for them. 

57 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

My kid is taking the semester off because they want to go remote. Not a fan of finishing the last semester that way.

Probably smart, this really sucks for high school and college kids.  Can't believe we're about to go into another school year of this ****. 

42 minutes ago, DBW said:

We have a 3 pronged system prepared where could be 100% in school, hybrid of 50/50 or 100% remote.  And it could change at any moment given the circumstances.  
 

my personal approach would have been do 100% remote until winter break.  Then reassess.  Simple cut and dry plan, none of this phasing and moving targets.  

Well the largest teachers union sued the Governor so no idea what will come with that. They were getting ready for the hybrid or all online route but pivoted to all in or all out of school. I agree though, spending the summer preparing for all online and seeing where you are at around winter break would be my ideal situation.

2 hours ago, The Norseman said:

I really think you're wrong on this issue.  Most of the European countries have been back to school for months and the studies coming out of there show that the virus has an almost negligible communication rate in younger children (both kids to kids and kids to adults).  Check out the interview that NBC did with 5 top pediatricians last week.  All five of them said that they would send their own kids back to school with no hesitation.   Not to mention the fact that the statistics about abuse, suicide, drug use all suggest that statistically leaving kids home is far worse than sending them in this environment.  We need to follow the science on this. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/back-school-what-doctors-say-about-children-covid-19-n1233550

The "science" here unfortunately shows that that the age cut off is somewhere around 10 when they start to spread like adults. It's not the best data either. 

Nationals are trollin'

57 minutes ago, The Norseman said:

At that age they're also more prone to infection and infecting others than the younger kids are.  Also, college kids are stupid animals and can't control themselves.  Probably a no brainier to close colleges. Feel bad for college kids though...sucks for them. 

Very true!  

You can see a change in trajectory ever so slightly for Canada the last few days. I hate to think what it might look like a couple of weeks from now if it isn't just a blip...

I feel like another wave is coming. If cases were coming from one or two hot spots then I'd feel like it's a blip, but several provinces are seeing daily increases. Ontario has had more infections than recoveries the last 4 days in a row. 

42 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Well the largest teachers union sued the Governor so no idea what will come with that. They were getting ready for the hybrid or all online route but pivoted to all in or all out of school. I agree though, spending the summer preparing for all online and seeing where you are at around winter break would be my ideal situation.

The board voted to delay the first kids day until mid September.  That will give some more time to ramp up online education backup plans and out in more safety protocols, etc.  I’m still doubting that they’ll get back to school full time to start.  Starting to see sick kids across the country.  That wasn’t happening before because kids had been protected when they were sent home, but now that camps are in session and sports, you’re starting to see the spread among them.  

1 hour ago, Dawkins 20 said:

Nationals are trollin'

Only until after that pitch is thrown. 😂

50 minutes ago, DBW said:

The board voted to delay the first kids day until mid September.  That will give some more time to ramp up online education backup plans and out in more safety protocols, etc.  I’m still doubting that they’ll get back to school full time to start.  Starting to see sick kids across the country.  That wasn’t happening before because kids had been protected when they were sent home, but now that camps are in session and sports, you’re starting to see the spread among them.  

I forget an exact number but there was at least 5 teenage or younger deaths so far in Florida. Also the positivity rate in kids under 18 is around 30%. This, of course, is falling on deaf ears when it comes to state leadership. 

1 hour ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I forget an exact number but there was at least 5 teenage or younger deaths so far in Florida. Also the positivity rate in kids under 18 is around 30%. This, of course, is falling on deaf ears when it comes to state leadership. 

It’s disgusting behavior and ignorance!  They wanna play a political game, fine, don’t F with our kids!  

5 hours ago, Lloyd said:

But don't studies also show that most European countries actually did the hard work of lockdown in order to lower the spread of the virus and thus earn a return to semi-normal life? Are we not one of the leading nations in terms of the spread of the virus?

 

How the EU got back to somewhat, "Normal," was pretty simple.

Half of our population will never do some of these things so we are where we are.

1 hour ago, DrPhilly said:

Couple of close Trumpers I know now have it.  The kind of people that like to go wide on FB with pro Trump, virus fake, sort of stuff.  One an old high school friend and the other a current colleague (US guy).  They've since toned down their rhetoric.

Here in Sweden I know a LOT of people that have had it.  Our weekly deaths are now under 100 per week for the country.  The latest graph is below.  The horizontal access is "week #".  This week is #30.  This updated graph was published last week.  Week #11 was the week starting March 8th.  Weeks 28 and 29 are preliminary so not final official numbers yet.

No one is ready to give an official number yet but some Swedish govt officials are now starting to talk about Stockholm at 40% immunity.  Everything is open, no masks, social distancing of >1 yard in stores/restaurants is observed.  No fans at any games, no concerts, etc. and it is illegal to have a private gathering at >50 people.  Movie theaters are open with every other seat.  Hand cleanser is everywhere. All schools are now open.  preK-10 were always open and 11+ thru University reopened mid-June.

 

Dropping this in here as well.

Note: I do not wish to inject an opinion into how the US handles things (other than Trump is a full blown unmitigated disaster).  What I do wish to do though is to provide more information from other experiences with COVID.  I find the discussion very politicized in the US and more often than not lacking any shred of nuance whatsoever.

The bottom line is that we are in uncharted territory working with a dynamic situation and with extremely inexact science.  Erring on the side of caution seems to me to be a very prudent measure but let's make no mistake that every single situation (town, state, country, culture, etc.) is vastly different in nearly all parameters (population age/health/density/livingconditions/culturalpersonalspace/personalhygiene, etc. etc. etc.) and as such there is no single optimal process and/or policy that can be applied everywhere.

Such a shame that quarantine, contact tracing and social distancing just don't work in the USA.

 

COVID is shining a light on the failings our infrastructure, our system.

11 hours ago, DaEagles4Life said:

They should have been buying masks from the beginning and they told the ONLY US manufacturer to F off basically. They failed in late January and can't tell me differently "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/in-the-early-days-of-the-pandemic-the-us-government-turned-down-an-offer-to-manufacture-millions-of-n95-masks-in-america/2020/05/09/f76a821e-908a-11ea-a9c0-73b93422d691_story.html?outputType=amp

"We are the last major domestic mask company,” he wrote on Jan. 23. "My phones are ringing now, so I don’t ‘need’ government business. I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.”

Yeah this was shared a month or two ago as well. None of the Trumpbots cared to engage on it because it makes their savior look like a complete Loser.

Didn't buy from an American company. Undercuts to some extent the "we don't manufacture here in America" argument. Oh, and of course the whole "we need masks there's a pandemic" side.

This was a no brainer. Unfortunately we have no brain in the white house at the moment.

12 hours ago, The Norseman said:

Most of this wall of text didn't make much sense to me.  Here's what I got out of it:  

You do acknowledge that the beginning of this pandemic was a confusing mess due to the misinformation about the virus.  Thanks for the concession.  You're upset that Trump isn't encouraging people to wear masks.  Fair. You think we should have learned from H1N1 and blame Trump for that.  Ok, but don't Obama and Biden have some culpability there too?  You don't like Biden but you have "zero doubt" that he would be doing a better job.  Meh, ok. 

One of the things I find most interesting about the criticism of the Trump administration response to Covid is that when he stupidly said that he has "absolute authority" (or something like that) to manage the response to the virus in the states the anti Trump crowd went berserk.  They should have.  It was a dumb comment and it was totally inaccurate.  What I don't get is, if we all agree he was wrong there, how can you hold him souly accountable for the response?  Didn't we all agree that the State governors have more authority than the Fed?  

It wasn't that complicated. I think you're dealing with cognitive dissonance. 

Let's simplify this: I don't believe Trump has made a good faith effort to deal with this crisis. He's mostly tried to downplay and deny that it's a problem, stick his head in the sand, and hope the whole thing blows over. 

But this is an ACTUAL crisis requiring ACTUAL leadership. And he's failed miserably.

I can disagree with presidents like Clinton, Dubya, & Obama, and still get the sense that they're making a good faith effort to deal with problems. 

With Trump, it's all about how the crisis impacts HIM. Not about how the crisis impacts US.

 

Sure this was posted and only took him 4 months to come around. 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

 

That didn't last long. When they were briefly making their anti-mask stance,  management expressed their well-thought-out rationale 

"Our associates have seen that mask mandates are a highly charged issue with our customers. We do not want to put our associates in a position to navigate interpersonal conflict or prohibit customers from shopping in our stores,

Apparently protecting their associates from having awkward conversations with goobers was more important than protecting them from a virus during their work shifts. Anyway, Trump declared masks patriotic shortly thereafter, so it's politically acceptable to keep their workers alive now.

1 minute ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Sure this was posted and only took him 4 months to come around. 

 

 

I find it odd that he needed to add the descriptor "invisible" to the "China Virus", since - ya know - viruses tend to be microscopic. But hey, at least he's wearing one.