Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[diehardlionfan]

1 minute ago, MookieMonstah said:

So who gets the short end of the stick and works 1-6? What about after school activities?

If you’re looking for perfection you will never be accepting of much. 

[Shanedorf]

2 minutes ago, diehardlionfan said:

I would like to see them open the patent up. Global production could help supply the U.S.A. as well. Not to mention stockpiles in case of a second wave.

I don't think they'll go that far and part of the reason is that it may have future efficacy against other non-pandemic diseases. It was originally developed vs Ebola or MERS, I can't remember which but it didn't work great and those diseases petered out. If it shows efficacy against RSV or another virus, they'd want to have the ability to sell it. So what might happen is they allow others to make Remdesivir for the specific use vs COVID19, but retain rights for other indications

And yes, stockpiles are a great idea and WHO would be a part of that, but we're moving toward not being a part of WHO...
Damn, I think I just bit my tongue.

[Shanedorf]

4 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

I mean realistically an EU company is going to distribute more of it to EU countries, especially given that those are going to be the wealthiest areas.

Agreed.
Drug distribution is a hornets nest of international rules and regs - but I'm pretty clueless in that arena
But if those EU countries are members of WHO -  they have an obligation to help the poorer countries and that might have been part of the agreement
(pure speculation)

[MookieMonstah]

11 minutes ago, diehardlionfan said:

If you’re looking for perfection you will never be accepting of much. 

I'm not asking for perfection. Are you a teacher? I'm a teacher and that proposal would not sit well with me for a myriad of reasons.

[Daniel]

2 hours ago, acowboys62 said:

Can't they setup partitions?  Limit reported access and just film everything?  I have been in a few court rooms in my day and I feel like if they wanted to they could figure this out. 

Jury selection, inability to meet with incarcerated defendants, and prisoner transports were the most difficult thing to do within the guidelines for covid and without bringing up fair trial issues.  That's the worry, even if you pull it off, there's inherently a constitutional claim, which means it gets appealed, sent back, and retried at a later date in all likelihood.

And partitions are out because apparently construction companies locally can't get more plexiglass right now.  It's backlogged and supplies are out and slow to ship.

[TVScout]

[diehardlionfan]

31 minutes ago, MookieMonstah said:

I'm not asking for perfection. Are you a teacher? I'm a teacher and that proposal would not sit well with me for a myriad of reasons.

No. I’m a retired air traffic controller that retired from a national level management position. I’ve also been a labour activist, I’m not a teacher. Frankly the individual opinions of teachers and their unions isn’t my concern. These are trying times and it calls for flexibility, cooperation and community spirit. Our medical professionals, pharmacists, grocery stores, transportation workers, postal employees, waste collectors,  sanitization companies etc, have had their worlds turned upside down. We need to get kids back to school but only through risk mitigation for the kids and staff. If part of that mitigation forces teachers to assume a far more flexible work environment. So be it. 

Its well within the teachers professional associations ability to make proposals. They can certainly propose a solution with a real safety management plan, including hazard identification, risk assessment and full mitigation strategy. It’s well within the teachers ability to collectively reserve required daycare or through the association open their own. 

Frankly this isn’t a time for roadblocks. It’s a time for solutions and a proper step by step plan to as near normalcy as we can get. I can tell you that where I live regular school openings would see a record surge in home schooling. It’s a non starter. 

The teachers here have been involved, provided criticism and demonstrated flexibility. The Government has openly called for suggestions as have the teachers. So, you don’t like my plan. Fair enough. Some might like it. Some might cherry pick items from individual plans and create a great, safe, workable solution. 

I guess my point is the road through this is by everyone going an extra mile to make things work. Talk to friends, imagine solutions, cooperate, look at proposals and think of what steps we individually can make to help. 

We are each part of the solution or part of the problem. Sorry if this seems abrupt. I’m so tired of hearing I can’t or I won’t. It’s time for can do attitudes. 

 

[diehardlionfan]

35 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Jury selection, inability to meet with incarcerated defendants, and prisoner transports were the most difficult thing to do within the guidelines for covid and without bringing up fair trial issues.  That's the worry, even if you pull it off, there's inherently a constitutional claim, which means it gets appealed, sent back, and retried at a later date in all likelihood.

And partitions are out because apparently construction companies locally can't get more plexiglass right now.  It's backlogged and supplies are out and slow to ship.

Trials are a huge issue here as well.

[vikesfan89]

41 minutes ago, TVScout said:

Doesn't this still depend on how many tests that states are running?

[squire12]

3 minutes ago, vikesfan89 said:

Doesn't this still depend on how many tests that states are running?

The graph is showing the % of tests that are returning as positive.    Lower number of tests would cause bigger "swings" in the %, but when you are talking in the 1000's of tests in each state, the % is a better assessment of the issue vs the raw number of positive tests (cases)

[MookieMonstah]

26 minutes ago, diehardlionfan said:

No. I’m a retired air traffic controller that retired from a national level management position. I’ve also been a labour activist, I’m not a teacher. Frankly the individual opinions of teachers and their unions isn’t my concern. These are trying times and it calls for flexibility, cooperation and community spirit. Our medical professionals, pharmacists, grocery stores, transportation workers, postal employees, waste collectors,  sanitization companies etc, have had their worlds turned upside down. We need to get kids back to school but only through risk mitigation for the kids and staff. If part of that mitigation forces teachers to assume a far more flexible work environment. So be it. 

Its well within the teachers professional associations ability to make proposals. They can certainly propose a solution with a real safety management plan, including hazard identification, risk assessment and full mitigation strategy. It’s well within the teachers ability to collectively reserve required daycare or through the association open their own. 

Frankly this isn’t a time for roadblocks. It’s a time for solutions and a proper step by step plan to as near normalcy as we can get. I can tell you that where I live regular school openings would see a record surge in home schooling. It’s a non starter. 

The teachers here have been involved, provided criticism and demonstrated flexibility. The Government has openly called for suggestions as have the teachers. So, you don’t like my plan. Fair enough. Some might like it. Some might cherry pick items from individual plans and create a great, safe, workable solution. 

I guess my point is the road through this is by everyone going an extra mile to make things work. Talk to friends, imagine solutions, cooperate, look at proposals and think of what steps we individually can make to help. 

We are each part of the solution or part of the problem. Sorry if this seems abrupt. I’m so tired of hearing I can’t or I won’t. It’s time for can do attitudes. 

 

What bothers me about this whole thing is that you seem to be implying in your first paragraph that teachers haven't had their worlds turned upside down. Remote learning was not some easy transition. Turning around and asking schools to have the buildings open for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week is insane. Administrators now have to work 12 hour days? Or do you not have the Principal in for half the day? Extra-curricular activities would be non-existent in this proposal. How are parents supposed to deal with these odd hours and on and off days? Its a huge, probably impossible ask for a lot of parents. What about the kids who need bus transportation? Buses now have to run twice as much, on already tight budgets how are some schools supposed to afford that?

I get that sacrifices will be made by everyone involved to get schools back up and running, but your plan just sounds wildly unrealistic to me. I work in a small rural town and I don't see how we could possibly do what you proposed, maybe its different for the schools in your area but just tossing out "Its gonna suck but you gotta live with it!" might not get people to buy in.

[naptownskinsfan]

3 hours ago, MookieMonstah said:

As a teacher, this is a great idea in theory but how is that even remotely practical for parents? How many parents are going to have the ability to make such a drastic change to their work schedule? Or is this only at the high school level?

As someone whose family is involved in teachers, this process is going to be very interesting and I think kids are going to get left behind regardless of what we do.  

At my job, we had some people who took FMLA to stay home with their kids.  Going back to this fall, I am not sure how sustainable it is to do so again.  But I understand the challenges of this and we need to find something that works.  

One of the things I've talked about with some of my teacher-friends, and I think it was also mentioned on here many pages ago, would be to have middle and high school students distance-learn.  Meanwhile, K-5 would meet every day in a socially distanced environment, using middle and high school rooms to ensure that there is enough space for everyone to be spread out.  This does leave out middle and high school students from getting taught in-person, but it gives the younger kids the much needed social interaction, and older kids can stay at home on their own and allow parents to work.  

None of this is going to be perfect.  In my county here in Maryland, which includes the state capital, 3500 kids were left out from distance learning because they don't have internet connections that are reliable.  So every student got a Chromebook, but I guess they have to figure out how to get internet, whether through Mi-Fis or other devices to them, because 3500 kids in each county adds up pretty quickly across the country.  

The other elephant in the room is how many teachers will actually go back?  Talking to my mom and dad, neither of them would have gone back at the end of their teaching careers.  My dad actually had enough leave to take a year off after 20 years, and would have done that.  I am very close to my music teacher who taught me for five years (the 8th grade was at the high school when I went there), we go to the same church and I sponsored his middle child in Confirmation, and while he is retired, his wife is on 34 years.  They are very much on the fence about her going back.  A close friend's wife, who was a teacher of the year finalist a few years ago, is immunocompromised and may not return to the classroom either.  In many places, we are at a shortage of teachers and have large class sizes.  With class sizes having to be reduced for social distancing, I don't know if that will work.  Even if we split who goes to school when, there may still be a shortage of teachers if they don't feel their districts are doing enough to keep everyone safe.  

This really concerns me that many places go back to school in a month or less, and not one state has any sort of plan.  At least in Maryland, kids don't go back until after Labor Day, so we have time, but many colleges and public schools are back a month earlier.  I don't want to cancel school, but from what I am seeing (as are other people) there is no great option.  

[naptownskinsfan]

1 hour ago, MookieMonstah said:

What bothers me about this whole thing is that you seem to be implying in your first paragraph that teachers haven't had their worlds turned upside down. Remote learning was not some easy transition. Turning around and asking schools to have the buildings open for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week is insane. Administrators now have to work 12 hour days? Or do you not have the Principal in for half the day? Extra-curricular activities would be non-existent in this proposal. How are parents supposed to deal with these odd hours and on and off days? Its a huge, probably impossible ask for a lot of parents. What about the kids who need bus transportation? Buses now have to run twice as much, on already tight budgets how are some schools supposed to afford that?

I get that sacrifices will be made by everyone involved to get schools back up and running, but your plan just sounds wildly unrealistic to me. I work in a small rural town and I don't see how we could possibly do what you proposed, maybe its different for the schools in your area but just tossing out "Its gonna suck but you gotta live with it!" might not get people to buy in.

I am not sure how I would consider extra-curricular activities important, aside from allowing some individual or small group study sessions (which might be much needed in a Covid-influenced education plan) but everything else, I agree with.  Teachers already have a lot to worry about and burnout is high, and administrators, who already work well-beyond their contracts, have more hours dumped on them.  Maybe they rotate with the others on a schedule, but someone will always get the short end.  Even if teachers work half a day, someone gets the later shift, and there will be much more work that they have to take home, including virtual time with individual students.  Teachers already take home a ton of work.  

To get everything sanitized, that is also adding more labor to the custodian force, which means more money.  You already identified school bus drivers as one.  Sure, this creates jobs, and some people will need them, but where does the money come from, especially after likely spending money to get technology for distance-learning?  

Like I said in my other most-recent post here, there isn't going to be a great job. I don't even know if we have a good option.  But lengthening the days and adding all of that expense is not going to be something that many are going to be able to work out.  

Also, I don't think we can lose sight of the people being affected here.  Everyone has a story in the pandemic time.  We can't treat everyone like robots and not factor humanity into things.  Teaching especially.  It is not an easy profession in the slightest.  

[MookieMonstah]

23 minutes ago, naptownskinsfan said:

I am not sure how I would consider extra-curricular activities important, aside from allowing some individual or small group study sessions (which might be much needed in a Covid-influenced education plan) but everything else, I agree with.  Teachers already have a lot to worry about and burnout is high, and administrators, who already work well-beyond their contracts, have more hours dumped on them.  Maybe they rotate with the others on a schedule, but someone will always get the short end.  Even if teachers work half a day, someone gets the later shift, and there will be much more work that they have to take home, including virtual time with individual students.  Teachers already take home a ton of work.  

To get everything sanitized, that is also adding more labor to the custodian force, which means more money.  You already identified school bus drivers as one.  Sure, this creates jobs, and some people will need them, but where does the money come from, especially after likely spending money to get technology for distance-learning?  

Like I said in my other most-recent post here, there isn't going to be a great job. I don't even know if we have a good option.  But lengthening the days and adding all of that expense is not going to be something that many are going to be able to work out.  

Also, I don't think we can lose sight of the people being affected here.  Everyone has a story in the pandemic time.  We can't treat everyone like robots and not factor humanity into things.  Teaching especially.  It is not an easy profession in the slightest.  

Completely agree. I was trying to help him, from a teachers perspective, see some of the flaws in his proposal.

A big issue my school would have is were in a low income community with only 340 students. I’m the only teacher in our department, we have one art and Spanish teacher as well. So do kids only take those classes in one 6 hour chunk, or do you have to work the full 12 hours if you’re the only one in your department? We have one principal and assistant principal, having one of them in the building while the other isn’t isn't practice. 
 

I agree sacrifices will have to be made for school to happen, but just expecting teachers to “suck it up” when it’s already a job with a massive burnout rate like you mentioned is setting up the education system to fail. Who cares if kids are in school if teachers are completely burnt out by November? 
 

The reason I mention extra curriculars is because that’s the main reason some kids go to school/pass classes. If you take them out of the picture, that kid who only shows up to school so he can play sports or go to theatre might not show up. Or might not give any sort of effort in classes. It’s obviously a really difficult decision, and like you said... I work in a state that’s going back the first week of September and we don’t even know what the “guidelines” are yet.

[Jakuvious]

5 hours ago, ET80 said:

Dammit! 

@Jakuvious, get the surveillance van out of here. We'll have to go with fake prostitute @Forge tomorrow.

What? When did Forge quit his day job?