Coronavirus (appointed, how much, live)

[DriveNotCommute]

Originally Posted by joosoon

With flu (that was the gist of that post)? I'm on the fence with that one. Maybe.

But with respect to covid, the reason for keeping mask protocols in schools here revolves around how close contacts are defined, not particularly to combat outbreaks. The actual language is from the CDC, but it's reinforced and adopted by state guidance and the local one written by the UCSD team that our district has been following. It's phrased as an 'exception' to their close contact definition: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting or a structured outdoor setting where mask use can be observed (i.e., holding class outdoors with educator supervision), the close contact definition excludes students who were between 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinical diagnosis) if both the infected student and the exposed student(s) correctly and consistently wore well-fitting masks the entire time.

In other words, schools don't have to send home pockets of children from classrooms where another student tests positive if both/all were wearing masks. That's a departure from last April's rules.

Close contact is correlated with transmission, so when it comes down to drawing clear lines, I guess it makes sense to use "close contact" as one major defining criteria. Is it the only criteria called out in your district's protocols? I'll also point out that an outbreak is still an outbreak regardless of whether or not kids get sent home or not.

The two new studies called out in the article that I linked are broad but there's a pretty clear trend. If the UCSD team is still assembled and monitoring this, they'd be reviewing the reports, checking the numbers and math. It would probably be an administrator who makes the call though on whether or not policies need to change and I'm sure they have non-science factors to consider in their decision.

To summarize, the first article collected data about 999 schools in two Arizona counties for cases from mid-July through the end of August - one and a half months. That number excludes an additional 21 schools that had outbreaks within the first week of reopening classes. The schools were divided into 3 pools: no mandate, late mandate, and early mandate. There was a clear difference in the number of schools with Covid infections in each of these groups.

The second study is a broader one covering two months, basically July and August (and a few days into September). They tried to figure out if counties with clear school mask mandates would see fewer pediatric Covid cases. Some noticeable differences were found.

Being observational data, both have their limitations and the authors call them out.

With Pfizer's vaccine coming close to approval for younger patients it would be nice if the mask question becomes less important. The game changes again when a newer, more dangerous Covid variant appears though.

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

In Florida, the new surgeon general, who will pull in $500 K per year, is against masks and vaccine mandates. Florida has a COVID-19 death rate per 100 K for the past 14 days of 23.5 (California's rate is 4.3).

Deaths are a lagging indicator. Florida cases are down 46% over the last 14 days and per capita cases are now under the national average. Don't you hate it when facts don't align with a narrative that you created based on an emotional viewpoint?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...vid-cases.html

[tikkasf]

According to CDC, California seems to be quite well compared to other states........ CA is the only state in the orange level. See link


"Maps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updated Mon-Sat by 8 pm ET†"



https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra...ases_community

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11

Don't you hate it when facts don't align with a narrative that you created based on an emotional viewpoint?

Don't you hate it when someone calls you on the labels you slap on anyone who doesn't agree with your viewpoint?

And no one was discussing Florida's confirmed virus cases being "under the national average."

[sav858]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Don't you hate it when someone calls you on the labels you slap on anyone who doesn't agree with your viewpoint?

And no one was discussing Florida's confirmed virus cases being "under the national average."

What “label” did they “slap on”?

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Perpetual masks and lockdowns...great...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxTZ_DKARzQ

[tikkasf]

Originally Posted by Exitus Acta Probat

Perpetual masks and lockdowns...great...


Perhaps you can enlighten us all with what is the best way to slow transmission of the virus



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxTZ_DKARzQ

A booster is needed and that is what is taking place in Israel

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by DriveNotCommute

Close contact is correlated with transmission, so when it comes down to drawing clear lines, I guess it makes sense to use "close contact" as one major defining criteria. Is it the only criteria called out in your district's protocols? I'll also point out that an outbreak is still an outbreak regardless of whether or not kids get sent home or not.

An outbreak is defined as: [T]hree or more laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 among individuals who live in different households within a two-week period who attend or work at the same school/location. The way they break down positive cases are those discovered through on-site tests and the rest, all other sources. The unstated purpose for the mask rules is to simplify contact tracing. Since it applies indoors and outdoors, the only exception being lunch/snack, the idea is that no student is exposed unmasked to another within <2/6 ft. for a period greater than 15 minutes which happens to be the close contact definition. It's also the reason for keeping the steady groups/cohort rules (i.e. there's minimal cross-class contact). Add to that, the Co2 monitoring, the filtration retofits and the portable air purifiers, it's a good system. But all of this was mostly intended to get schools back to full capacity/normalcy, which wasn't possible until the state removed their own distancing requirements, etc.

The two new studies called out in the article that I linked are broad but there's a pretty clear trend. If the UCSD team is still assembled and monitoring this, they'd be reviewing the reports, checking the numbers and math. It would probably be an administrator who makes the call though on whether or not policies need to change and I'm sure they have non-science factors to consider in their decision.

To summarize, the first article collected data about 999 schools in two Arizona counties for cases from mid-July through the end of August - one and a half months. That number excludes an additional 21 schools that had outbreaks within the first week of reopening classes. The schools were divided into 3 pools: no mandate, late mandate, and early mandate. There was a clear difference in the number of schools with Covid infections in each of these groups.

The second study is a broader one covering two months, basically July and August (and a few days into September). They tried to figure out if counties with clear school mask mandates would see fewer pediatric Covid cases. Some noticeable differences were found.

Being observational data, both have their limitations and the authors call them out.

With Pfizer's vaccine coming close to approval for younger patients it would be nice if the mask question becomes less important. The game changes again when a newer, more dangerous Covid variant appears though.

This is the original document from which they established the protocols. Also, to be clear, I'm not disputing the CDC's study of masks in AZ. I'm only pointing out that the mask rules serve more than one intended purpose. Also, I agree completely with all of this becoming less important once vaccination is an option for all age groups. Unfortunately, there's going to be a lot of resistance to it.

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by tikkasf

According to CDC, California seems to be quite well compared to other states........ CA is the only state in the orange level. See link


"Maps, charts, and data provided by CDC, updated Mon-Sat by 8 pm ET†"



https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra...ases_community

CDC orange is > CA purple tier by a few factors.
Orange is 50-99.99 cases per 100k according to the CDC.



We'd be in complete lockdown prior to June 15th with our numbers. Apparently the state changed the laws of physics and the meaning of "science" though.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Exitus Acta Probat

Perhaps you can enlighten us all with what is the best way to slow transmission of the virus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxTZ_DKARzQ

This pretty much explains what's happened in Israel.

Highly Vaccinated Israel Is Seeing A Dramatic Surge In New COVID Cases. Here's Why:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...ases-heres-why