Covid virus in phoenix (public school, teachers, privacy)

[move4ward]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

AZ and Maricopa County has been cited as an excellent real world test case for mask efficacy. Unlike Florida, the population is concentrated in one metro area rather than scattered around with varying degrees of regulation and enforcement. So just one county was able to pass a county wide mask mandate that applied to pretty much 80% of the population . Today rt.live has AZ second lowest in R0 in the country after being up near the top just a few weeks ago.

A hopeful anecdote: my daughter is back on "regular" patients after having been working covids for a few months . The number of covid patients has fallen dramatically. Several of the floors at her hospital that had been dedicated to covids are now, along with her, serving the general hospital population again.

And a sad one: The county medical examiner is using those refrigerated containers they rented "just in case".

I saw the update from the county about the refrigerated containers. It's the first time in at least 10 years, that they had to resort to rented space. The private funeral homes were out of space. They were left with no other choice. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

22 bodies moved into rented coolers as Maricopa County's climbing death rate puts stress on funeral homes
https://www.12news.com/article/news/...5-f120f6a26cd9

In mid-July, the county’s public health director said funeral homes were running out of morgue space.

“That just backs up the rest of the system,” director Marcy Flanagan told reporters, linking a surge in deaths to COVID-19.

The county has leased 14 walk-in, refrigerated storage units for bodies through the middle of January, at a cost of almost $16,000 each, according to the rental contract. The units are housed at a county garage near downtown Phoenix.

This is the first time in at least a decade that the medical examiner's office has had to obtain refrigeration space.

[Ztonyg]

I'm glad we're doing better. My fear is that once schools open up there will be another spike but hopefully we've learned something in this mess.

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by Ztonyg

I'm glad we're doing better. My fear is that once schools open up there will be another spike but hopefully we've learned something in this mess.

Yes, the school reopenings are a big wildcard. We all know how well kids follow instructions... aack, ahem

[asufan]

Chandler delayed school openings until at least October and Tempe immediately followed suit. I have a feeling it will be at least January, I know my kids aren't going back till at least then anyway. They started online education this week.

[NJUTP5]

Not having kids in school will decimate parents (but perhaps that is the goal).

We are now seeing suicides among young children increasing. That number will continue to increase. They need structure, and "online school" provides none (and frankly is a big joke). Online courses work for some college age students, and some high school age students, but very few in the 5-14 age range.

Single family households with a parent working will be destroyed.

Two parent households with both parents working will also be crushed.

The guidelines for opening schools just released by the state contain 2 excellent metrics and one that is absurd.

The absurd one is the % of positive cases falling to below 7% for two weeks. The ONLY way for that to happen is for a bunch of non-sick people to get tested. That isn't going to happen, but it's the only way to increased the denominator. So every mother who wants their children to go back to school needs to go get tested every day.

The other thing that would work would be cutting teacher's pay in half or even to zero unless they go back to school. Not comfortable with teaching in school? Fine, find another job.

Look, we all make tough decisions. I'm a pediatrician. I get paid if I go to work and see the kiddos. Teachers don't have to go to school, but they shouldn't be paid full wage to not teach. Eliminate the wage and we'd have teachers clamoring to go back to school to teach. Until then, no school.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by NJUTP5

Not having kids in school will decimate parents (but perhaps that is the goal).

We are now seeing suicides among young children increasing. That number will continue to increase. They need structure, and "online school" provides none (and frankly is a big joke). Online courses work for some college age students, and some high school age students, but very few in the 5-14 age range.

Single family households with a parent working will be destroyed.

Two parent households with both parents working will also be crushed.

The guidelines for opening schools just released by the state contain 2 excellent metrics and one that is absurd.

The absurd one is the % of positive cases falling to below 7% for two weeks. The ONLY way for that to happen is for a bunch of non-sick people to get tested. That isn't going to happen, but it's the only way to increased the denominator. So every mother who wants their children to go back to school needs to go get tested every day.

The other thing that would work would be cutting teacher's pay in half or even to zero unless they go back to school. Not comfortable with teaching in school? Fine, find another job.

Look, we all make tough decisions. I'm a pediatrician. I get paid if I go to work and see the kiddos. Teachers don't have to go to school, but they shouldn't be paid full wage to not teach. Eliminate the wage and we'd have teachers clamoring to go back to school to teach. Until then, no school.

I highly doubt you're a pediatrician based on the nonsense you just posted. Are you aware there's a pandemic going on or are you denying it exists?

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by asufan

I highly doubt you're a pediatrician based on the nonsense you just posted. Are you aware there's a pandemic going on or are you denying it exists?

I was thinking the exact same thing.

"but perhaps that is the goal"?? Whose goal would it be to decimate families? What a wild suggestion.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by NJUTP5

Not having kids in school will decimate parents (but perhaps that is the goal).

We are now seeing suicides among young children increasing. That number will continue to increase. They need structure, and "online school" provides none (and frankly is a big joke). Online courses work for some college age students, and some high school age students, but very few in the 5-14 age range.

Single family households with a parent working will be destroyed.

Two parent households with both parents working will also be crushed.

The guidelines for opening schools just released by the state contain 2 excellent metrics and one that is absurd.

The absurd one is the % of positive cases falling to below 7% for two weeks. The ONLY way for that to happen is for a bunch of non-sick people to get tested. That isn't going to happen, but it's the only way to increased the denominator. So every mother who wants their children to go back to school needs to go get tested every day.

The other thing that would work would be cutting teacher's pay in half or even to zero unless they go back to school. Not comfortable with teaching in school? Fine, find another job.

Look, we all make tough decisions. I'm a pediatrician. I get paid if I go to work and see the kiddos. Teachers don't have to go to school, but they shouldn't be paid full wage to not teach. Eliminate the wage and we'd have teachers clamoring to go back to school to teach. Until then, no school.

This exactly. Teachers are essential, just like I and millions of others are. Put on a mask and get to work or stop paying them just like we do with healthcare workers. You don't work, you don't get paid.

Why does an essential teacher get to decide to sit home and get paid but the essential worker at wal mart, target, costco, fry's, fast food, healthcare, police, fire, bank, etc. have to mask up and go to work without any say?

I was never asked or had a say if I was going to show up to work. I was deemed essential so I was expected to be there every day.

Now, if the science says that schools should remain closed to stop the spread than that is a different argument which I'll listen to. Allowing teachers to whine and sit at home because they don't want to be at risk like the rest of us essential workers is BS.

[Sno0909]

Originally Posted by NJUTP5

Not having kids in school will decimate parents (but perhaps that is the goal).

We are now seeing suicides among young children increasing. That number will continue to increase. They need structure, and "online school" provides none (and frankly is a big joke). Online courses work for some college age students, and some high school age students, but very few in the 5-14 age range.

Single family households with a parent working will be destroyed.

Two parent households with both parents working will also be crushed.

The guidelines for opening schools just released by the state contain 2 excellent metrics and one that is absurd.

The absurd one is the % of positive cases falling to below 7% for two weeks. The ONLY way for that to happen is for a bunch of non-sick people to get tested. That isn't going to happen, but it's the only way to increased the denominator. So every mother who wants their children to go back to school needs to go get tested every day.

The other thing that would work would be cutting teacher's pay in half or even to zero unless they go back to school. Not comfortable with teaching in school? Fine, find another job.

Look, we all make tough decisions. I'm a pediatrician. I get paid if I go to work and see the kiddos. Teachers don't have to go to school, but they shouldn't be paid full wage to not teach. Eliminate the wage and we'd have teachers clamoring to go back to school to teach. Until then, no school.

I actually think suicides would be lower due to kids not being bullied in school anymore. No raw numbers to back that - just a thought.

And also, a lot of doctors are turning to virtual medicine now. No longer do we have to wait in a disgusting office for two hours for you to diagnose a runny nose. We can just log into Zoom and be done with it. So should those doctors doing virtual not get paid? Come on, it's 2020, we can adapt with our technology.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by NJUTP5

Not having kids in school will decimate parents (but perhaps that is the goal).

We are now seeing suicides among young children increasing. That number will continue to increase. They need structure, and "online school" provides none (and frankly is a big joke). Online courses work for some college age students, and some high school age students, but very few in the 5-14 age range.

Single family households with a parent working will be destroyed.

Two parent households with both parents working will also be crushed.

The guidelines for opening schools just released by the state contain 2 excellent metrics and one that is absurd.

The absurd one is the % of positive cases falling to below 7% for two weeks. The ONLY way for that to happen is for a bunch of non-sick people to get tested. That isn't going to happen, but it's the only way to increased the denominator. So every mother who wants their children to go back to school needs to go get tested every day.

The other thing that would work would be cutting teacher's pay in half or even to zero unless they go back to school. Not comfortable with teaching in school? Fine, find another job.

Look, we all make tough decisions. I'm a pediatrician. I get paid if I go to work and see the kiddos. Teachers don't have to go to school, but they shouldn't be paid full wage to not teach. Eliminate the wage and we'd have teachers clamoring to go back to school to teach. Until then, no school.

Where is the evidence that young children are committing suicide because of Covid? I was curious and tried to get some data on that but everything I looked at said youth suicides had increased dramatically before Covid and the trend was continuing.

If you're a pediatrician how in the world could you advocate for forcing teachers back into school or firing them? Every teacher has a family and more likely they or one of their close relatives have a high risk for covid. Of course schools should reopen, but only when it's safe. We don't open schools so that parents can avoid the expense of childcare, that's not the purpose of school. We open schools when the schools can open safely and if you've been following the news that's not as easy as it looks, school after school has opened only to reclose after a day or two because of covid cases.