Coronavirus (Nice: baseball, traveling, terminal)

[Mike930]

Originally Posted by joosoon

All the reopening plans I've seen include all those precautions and more. The reason it won't happen is because it's too much trouble to maintain that level of a safe environment without significant effort. So now it's back to more fake school (aka "distance learning"). It's the cheap/lazy approach because education isn't valued. This will only get worse as bigger districts adopt and finely hone these online "distance learning" models, as is happening right now. None of it is a substitute for real school though. We've essentially cancelled the 2020-21 school year.

A friend of hours has a sixth grader. She said they have google classroom with a live teacher actually providing lessons. They have time to ask questions, do their work and ask more questions before the end of class. She said it’s much better than what they were doing at the end of the last school year.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by wac_432

"We believe that most of these earlier cases are the result of community transmission, which further highlights the need for all community members to adopt and practice recommended safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus because schools will only be as safe as the community in which they operate,"

Where else did you think students and staff would be getting infected? And then they transmit it more easily to those at school.

Originally Posted by wac_432

Anyone else raising an eyebrow at their fake school schedule? Our teachers are only scheduled to deliver 45 minutes to 1.5 hours of online instruction per day. What are they doing with the 25 extra hours per week they now have, that used to be in-person instruction?

Your school district, like all others in California, will soon be required to increase instruction time per state requirements. The extra time is undoubtedly spent in online instruction meetings, online curriculum meetings, online counselor meetings, etc, etc.

[wac_432]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Where else did you think students and staff would be getting infected? And then they transmit it more easily to those at school.

Maybe. Maybe not. We STILL do not know if children can transmit it to each other or adults at the same rate as adults transmit it. Most studies indicate children under 10 are not a significant vector. We'll know for sure a month after elementary schools open in other states. School openings where the virus was controlled went just fine. We failed to care enough to control the virus here.

Your school district, like all others in California, will soon be required to increase instruction time per state requirements. The extra time is undoubtedly spent in online instruction meetings, online curriculum meetings, online counselor meetings, etc, etc.

We shall see. Our school is spending the first TWO WEEKS "distributing materials". Of the state-mandated 3 hours and 50 minutes our school system is "delivering", they list that time as being covered by teaching time as well as any at-home assignments. The schedule they have published has as few as 30 minutes of live instruction scheduled per day.

More instruction may be provided (probably depending on how motivated our teacher is), but we will have to wait until September to see if that actually happens. I'm not optimistic.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by wac_432

We STILL do not know if children can transmit it to each other or adults at the same rate as adults transmit it. Most studies indicate children under 10 are not a significant vector.

The fact that they transmit it at all is where the concern lies.

Children Often Carry More Coronavirus than Adults Do: Study:
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-o...ts-study-67785

What Do We Know About Children and Coronavirus Transmission?
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covi...-transmission/

Derek Cummings, an emerging pathogens expert at the University of Florida, says he’s not convinced by the evidence that children are less likely to transmit the disease. His work with the endemic coronaviruses, relatives of SARS-CoV-2, shows that children are infected with their first coronavirus by three and get all four of the common coronaviruses by 20. “Every other coronavirus infects kids and transmits among kids,” he adds, “so why would we assume this one doesn't?”

Hartert says that the research indicating children may not as often transmit the virus would, once again, make SARS-CoV-2 an outlier. She noted that studies show children are shedding a similar amount of COVID-19 virus as adults, which would suggest they were equally capable of transmittal. “So there are a lot of things that would make it surprising if we find out that children are less likely to transmit the virus,” she adds.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...-19-180975396/

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by wac_432

Maybe. Maybe not. We STILL do not know if children can transmit it to each other or adults at the same rate as adults transmit it. Most studies indicate children under 10 are not a significant vector. We'll know for sure a month after elementary schools open in other states. School openings where the virus was controlled went just fine. We failed to care enough to control the virus here.

If spreading it is based on viral load it sure looks like kids can spread it:

"We found that children under 5 with COVID-19 have a higher viral load than older children and adults, which may suggest greater transmission, as we see with respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV," says lead author Taylor Heald-Sargent, MD, PhD, pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Lurie Children's and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "This has important public health implications, especially during discussions on the safety of reopening schools and daycare."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0730141324.htm

In Germany, 47 children between one and 11 were found to have viral loads as high as those in adults. Among 438 children in France, CT scores were similar between asymptomatic children and those with obvious symptoms, supporting the idea that children can harbor high amounts of the virus without becoming visibly ill. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-o...ts-study-67785

Originally Posted by wac_432

We shall see. Our school is spending the first TWO WEEKS "distributing materials". Of the state-mandated 3 hours and 50 minutes our school system is "delivering", they list that time as being covered by teaching time as well as any at-home assignments. The schedule they have published has as few as 30 minutes of live instruction scheduled per day.

More instruction may be provided (probably depending on how motivated our teacher is), but we will have to wait until September to see if that actually happens. I'm not optimistic.

That's unfortunate, the school my grandson attends distributed supplies and chromebooks all of this week, school starts on Aug. 13th. I was pleased that they are sending home all of their textbooks, they didn't do that in the Spring. The schedule is for 230 minutes per day. If it doesn't work out we will just homeschool him, he's a smart kid and enjoys learning.

[goodheathen]

Finally an acknowledgement by government that people who think they might be sick are going out anyway because they feel they must and a way to reduce that.
https://abc7.com/health/county-passe...-home/6358199/

[wac_432]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

If spreading it is based on viral load it sure looks like kids can spread it:

438 children in France, CT scores were similar between asymptomatic children and those with obvious symptoms, supporting the idea that children can harbor high amounts of the virus without becoming visibly ill. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-o...ts-study-67785[/i]

And yet open schools in some countries haven't affected transmission rates. Thorough contact tracing shows children are rarely the index case. Also, unlike other human coronaviruses, children are rarely symptomatic.

We shall see what happens to the virus rates in communities when schools open where there is widespread transmission. It will be abundantly clear by mid-September. I will admit that I am okay with us not opening up first.

That's unfortunate, the school my grandson attends distributed supplies and chromebooks all of this week, school starts on Aug. 13th. I was pleased that they are sending home all of their textbooks, they didn't do that in the Spring. The schedule is for 230 minutes per day. If it doesn't work out we will just homeschool him, he's a smart kid and enjoys learning.

And we're just leaving. But what about the vast majority of children who don't have our resources?

Also, is nobody bothered by the fact we have NO IDEA how many cases we have in California?

"Science-Based"

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by wac_432

And yet open schools in some countries haven't affected transmission rates. Thorough contact tracing shows children are rarely the index case. Also, unlike other human coronaviruses, children are rarely symptomatic.

We shall see what happens to the virus rates in communities when schools open where there is widespread transmission. It will be abundantly clear by mid-September. I will admit that I am okay with us not opening up first.

And we're just leaving. But what about the vast majority of children who don't have our resources?

Also, is nobody bothered by the fact we have NO IDEA how many cases we have in California?

"Science-Based"

I understand what you're saying but what are the schools in other countries doing? Do they have more fresh air in their classrooms, social distancing, masks? Because we have a really bad experience so far with pre-schools, summer camps and now elementary schools that just opened. I understand that very few kids get seriously ill, but they have siblings, parents and grandparents who might not get off so easy.

I never said anything about leaving, I said that my son would most likely home school his son if the distance learning doesn't work out, I would help when he's working. It's not that difficult here, even for a low income family because the district gives homeschooling parents $1800 every school year for books and supplies, and I know how awful this is for working parents, I was a single working parent when my kids were young, and it's never easy but parents have always had to find solutions for school holidays and summer vacation so it may take them enlisting neighbors and family members to watch their kids.

I'm bothered by not knowing how many cases we actually have in the state, but what can I do about it?

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by wac_432

is nobody bothered by the fact we have NO IDEA how many cases we have in California?

I can't imagine anyone not being bothered by it.

SACRAMENTO — The breakdown in California’s coronavirus test reporting system is disrupting pandemic response efforts across the state, leaving local officials in the dark about the spread of COVID-19 and blocking the ability of counties to get restrictions lifted until the system is fixed.

State officials have not yet provided details on when fixes will be made to the electronic system, called CalREDIE, that reports coronavirus test results to the state’s disease registry system. California, as a result, lacks an accurate count of coronavirus infections, leading health officials to freeze the state’s watchlist, with no counties added or removed.

“CalREDIE has broken,” said Peter Beilenson, director of Sacramento County’s Department of Health Services. “The bottom line is we don’t know the real caseload.... We don’t know if we are missing 250 cases [a day] or 50 cases,” he said of his local numbers. “We have no idea.”

The flawed picture has cast into serious doubt California’s pandemic outlook. On Wednesday, the state counted 5,300 new coronavirus cases, down from a peak of nearly 13,000 reported about two weeks ago. But the steep drop relies on the underreported data, and health officials remain unsure about the actual caseloads.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...nia-undercount

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by saibot

The premise is right, but it's really annoying when people compare raw data like "number of new infections" from one country to another, when the population is not comparable in any way.

Population of Israel: 8.8 million
Population of the US. 330 million

Agreed. That is extremely irritating. If they insist on sharing the raw numbers, they need to add cases per million for context.