Does the coronavirus merit investment, or personal, concern or consideration?

Sounded more like you were making sure blame was properly assigned for why it hadnt happened before now. And ignoring the fact that in April, numerous experts were advising that wide-spread mask usage was not necessary and the available supplies of masks should be reserved for health care workers.

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Seriously, when are the schools going to start up again? I saw some stats that delinquency rates were double or higher for remote school.

Meanwhile several large teachers unions are busy stalling or refusing to work in person, while still getting paid.

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There would be no question schools would be safe if there weren’t widespread virus across the country.

You wouldn’t be some science hating extremist for contradicting our betters at the CDC would you?

I mean, someone is wrong here and either it’s the CDC or the teachers and either way the kids are suffering. Many private schools have resumed without obvious ill effect in the same areas the public schools are in lockdown because the unions are trying to extract more money, vaccine priority, etc, while holding the kids’ futures hostage to their incompetence.

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Key is with the listed practices. Which no schools are actually complying with 6ft on all sides, masks, ventilation, etc, all while simultaneously running at 100% on-site capacity.

It could be theoretically done, with much additional funding the schools have NOT received. More manpower needed and staggered scheduling, etc, to decrease density.
Staggered schedule of course doesn’t help those wanting/ needing the “free” babysitting services.

It’s also relatively safe given the absurd current contagion environment. People with bargaining power can choose to better insulate themselves and their families from unnecessary risks. Be that rich people, tech workers who can wfh, etc. Or in this case, also unions can protect their members.
That’s how a free market works. Do you want a communist country where they’re not allowed to use bargaining power?

Well Chicago says they have, but the teachers are striking illegally for extra precautions that are not on the CDC list.

The Chicago Teachers Union argues the district hasn’t gone far enough in its safety plan, despite installing thousands of air filters, deep-cleaning schools and offering limited COVID-19 testing. The union wants widespread vaccinations, better metrics and more testing to protect teachers.

Unions as a collision to monopolize labor are very much the opposite of a free market. I’m not sure generally, but in education I am pretty sure they have done way more harm than good for the next generation. Union leader attributed quote below

When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.

The monopoly of public schools by the teachers unions has been the cause for huge failures in accountability, performance, and anti-competitive and politically motivated actions taken against charter schools, vouchers, and similar free market approaches that have been proven to help poor students achieve much better than their current failed public schools in several major cities.

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Where does that say they have a mechanism for feasible mask enforcement or to actually maintain 6ft on all sides between students (or otherwise significantly reduce density)? It says they put in filters in some hvacs and offer limited testing…

As these new variants take hold, the old density guidelines may also have to be reassessed.

The state and local elected governments is the parents’ “union”. They should negotiate on behalf of the parents.

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The local government politicians are elected by union contributions and votes. They don’t care about the parents anymore than they care about the kids in a lot of these cities.

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I really hate to say this, BUT why wouldn’t some teachers, (maybe not all) rather enjoy staying home. No lesson plans to prepare & STILL get paid their monthly check. It’s a racket!

Some of you may remember the story I told about a young boy while at home during this school year committed suicide. His sister was in another room working on computer assignments when this tragedy happened. Right here in my city a short time ago…

Some children cannot handle remote learning. They desperately need to see that teacher & fellow students 5 days a week. Many parents leave the kids home to manage, while they must go to work.

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This interview with several teachers (UK, CA) got into the costs and risks associated with schools being closed / remote learning, including in addition to poor academic learning, issues of reporting child abuse, increasing mental health stress on the children, remote attendance, and others.

Like much of the pandemic, one theme that continues here is that many governments are focusing solely on covid related health impacts (cases, deaths) while ignoring or not prioritizing significant economic, social, or psychological costs incurred by lockdown and related policies.

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This was a good long article on the mental health costs to kids that very much supports your take on the situation.

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Is there any evidence they arent safe now? Because all the fear mongering I’ve seen has been of the “What if?” theoretical variety, absent any actual evidence of anything at all.

None at all. All the deaths and long term health effects are a hoax. Librals trying to make Drumpf look bad.

The 25year olds would have needed double lung transplants anyways, and the 80year olds would have died in only ten years anyways.

…and more fear mongering. And you wonder why so many people do dismiss it all,with asinine claims like that.

I in no way even came close to implying it was a “hoax”. I asked if there is any evidence schools are unsafe. Of course there is a risk going to school - but that risk is incurred by walking out your door, regardless of where you are going or what you are doing. There is no evidence that going to school is any more dangerous than anything else you might choose to do during the day. It’s always “what if an infected kids goes to school and spreads it to all his classmates and they all go home and kill their grandma’s?!”. Despite zero cases of anything close to that happening. It’s always
based on theoreticall worst cases, not realistic probabilities.

The point being, any teacher claiming school is too dangerous better be making that claim over a zoom call from their underground bunker where they’ve been isolated for the past 11 months. Otherwise, they’re hypocrits.

I’ve seen this locally, since our schools reopened in August. Every school board meeting, the district health staff have said things are going well and we need to stay the course and not panic. And every single meeting, county and state health officials have said we’re on borrowed time and won’t make it staying open, and the in-school plans should be rolled back. And wouldn’t ya know, 6 months later and there’s yet to be a single outbreak in a single school in the county. Every student and teacher who has had a positive test has been isolated cases, even in classrooms with 20+ students daily; there’s no indication anyone has been infected at school.

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In Oregon…

This is just one data point, of course…

A main issue I see is that small children might have more difficulties following strict recommendations on social distancing, properly wearing face masks, not hugging friends they haven’t seen in months, and so on. In the confined space of a classroom, it’s more likely a contagious person will spread the virus to others.

Yes, I’ve got a rock hanging outside my house that keeps tigers away. It’s 100% effective at repelling tigers. Since I haven’t noticed any tiger in my front yard, that means it’s working.

Oh right. If you don’t test people you can’t track the spread pathway. That means there isn’t one. “So I told my people: SLOW THE TESTING DOWN, PLEASE.”

Community spread just means it just happened spontaneously, not in businesses or schools. It’s just an “act of god dog Trump”, nothing to see here, it couldn’t have been prevented.

But they just got the sniffles and were all fine. And their families just got sick through “community spread” and their parents and grandparents just die completely coincidentally. No one got sick from the school. You can’t prove it.

Studies in Europe showed the rate of school teachers getting infected were lower than typical people in their communities, which presumably meant schools were not high risk.

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