Cont: The all-new "US Politics and coronavirus" thread pt. 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
From the NYT link:
A March survey found that partisanship was the biggest predictor of whether Americans regularly wore masks
This is yet more evidence Trump is directly responsible for extent of this mess.

The WA Po headline is we've soared past 5 million cases. (from CSPAN this morning)
 
From the NYT link:This is yet more evidence Trump is directly responsible for extent of this mess.

The WA Po headline is we've soared past 5 million cases. (from CSPAN this morning)

#FakeNews from Jeff Bezos' failing Washington Post.

The only reason that the US has so many cases is that they test so many people. Not only that, but the US is leading the world for the best deaths per number of cases. :rolleyes:
 
Regarding schools opening.....

While schools reopening is being hotly debated in the UK, it's also a contentious issue in the United States. There's disagreement over whether it's safe for schools to re-open - and balancing the need to educate students, and slow the spread of the virus, is tricky.

For example, a secondary school in Georgia was recently caught up in controversy after a photo showing dozens of students crowded in a corridor went viral. Now, the school has closed temporarily after nine students and staff members tested positive for Covid-19, local media report.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/wor...31413e3f73b506635e1cfe&pinned_post_type=share
 
Who could have known school kids and teachers would have to use the corridors in a school!

One of our friends is a teacher in an English secondary school (I was going to make a joke about her being an economic migrant, living in Wales working in England but it's "worse" than that. She's actually South African with a German passport married to another South African with a British passport).

Their approach is that the students will stay in their classrooms and only the teachers will move from room to room. This will have implications for classes with specific room requirements (science, food science, design technology, computing and so on) and there is limited movement of students to toilets and so on.

The hope is that this will keep students in their bubbles - at least until they leave school grounds - and minimise infection risk.
 
Listened to some of the House hearing on opening schools this morning.

Republican legislators: Kids are at greater risk from flu :rolleyes: and a long list of everything from opioid overdoses, child abuse and nutrition deficiencies. Not one word about funding schools or for that matter 'food' in general. Nothing about the risk to kids with COVID risk factors, teachers or other adults in the community.

Nothing about the need to control the spread in the communities first. Did point out all the countries where they are opening their schools. Nothing about the disaster of a POTUS we have that has sabotaged efforts to control the virus, of course.

Democrats pointed out all those things. We all want schools to open. We need to control the virus in communities, properly fund the schools so they can open safely, and so on.

Can we get any Republican leaning folks to discuss the lack of leadership and funding of schools?
 
One of our friends is a teacher in an English secondary school (I was going to make a joke about her being an economic migrant, living in Wales working in England but it's "worse" than that. She's actually South African with a German passport married to another South African with a British passport).

Their approach is that the students will stay in their classrooms and only the teachers will move from room to room. This will have implications for classes with specific room requirements (science, food science, design technology, computing and so on) and there is limited movement of students to toilets and so on.

The hope is that this will keep students in their bubbles - at least until they leave school grounds - and minimise infection risk.

I'm not sure what ages are meant by "secondary school", but this wouldn't work in American high schools. (In most states, starting 9th grade, 14 years old.) The students don't all take the same classes.

For younger grades, that would mostly work.

In Michigan, there were guidelines published for how to minimize interaction, and it involved staggering the class change times. There were also guidelines about who had to quarantine after a positive test. There were guidelines about how much cleaning had to be done at what intervals. The end result was that our local school district decided it was impossible to operate under those guidelines. The two biggest issues were it wasn't realistic to expect distance to be maintained in the halls, and the number of quarantines required in the event someone in the school tested positive would make staffing and access to substitute teachers impossible, so we're online for the fall.

I'm heavily involved in extracurriculars, as a robotics mentor at the school, and we looked at the guidelines and decided that even if school goes back to in person instruction, we wouldn't be able to adhere to the guidelines, so this activity will be conducted entirely online at least through the end of the calendar year. Our big activity season normally starts the first weekend in January, so we will reassess whether or not we will be able to compete this year.

Schools weren't created with the idea of isolating students from each other. I think it's wishful thinking to try and adapt it to those conditions. I think we just have to assess the situation and decide if it's worth the risk. That's a tough pill to swallow, but I don't think anything else is realistic.
 
Republican legislators: Kids are at greater risk from flu :rolleyes: and a long list of everything from opioid overdoses, child abuse and nutrition deficiencies. Not one word about funding schools or for that matter 'food' in general. Nothing about the risk to kids with COVID risk factors, teachers or other adults in the community.

Very sad. This denialism makes it impossible to actually formulate a coherent plan to respond to the virus.
 
I'm not sure what ages are meant by "secondary school", but this wouldn't work in American high schools. (In most states, starting 9th grade, 14 years old.) The students don't all take the same classes.

For younger grades, that would mostly work.

In Michigan, there were guidelines published for how to minimize interaction, and it involved staggering the class change times. There were also guidelines about who had to quarantine after a positive test. There were guidelines about how much cleaning had to be done at what intervals. The end result was that our local school district decided it was impossible to operate under those guidelines. The two biggest issues were it wasn't realistic to expect distance to be maintained in the halls, and the number of quarantines required in the event someone in the school tested positive would make staffing and access to substitute teachers impossible, so we're online for the fall.

I'm heavily involved in extracurriculars, as a robotics mentor at the school, and we looked at the guidelines and decided that even if school goes back to in person instruction, we wouldn't be able to adhere to the guidelines, so this activity will be conducted entirely online at least through the end of the calendar year. Our big activity season normally starts the first weekend in January, so we will reassess whether or not we will be able to compete this year.

Schools weren't created with the idea of isolating students from each other. I think it's wishful thinking to try and adapt it to those conditions. I think we just have to assess the situation and decide if it's worth the risk. That's a tough pill to swallow, but I don't think anything else is realistic.

Pretty much the same age range, and usually with some choice of subjects around 13-14 (certainly Year 10... sometimes Year 9)
 
I'm not sure what ages are meant by "secondary school", but this wouldn't work in American high schools. (In most states, starting 9th grade, 14 years old.) The students don't all take the same classes.

Ages 11-18.

As jimbob says, there is choice of subject, certainly for ages 14-18 for GCSEs and A levels but there is probably a limited number of subject permutations.
 
I have now heard several Georgia state officials talking about "personal freedom" with regard to not forcing students to wear masks. I went to high school (30 years ago) in a pretty liberal place, and the teachers and administration were definitely not interested in our personal freedom in this way. We couldn't wear half-shirts (google 1980s fashion - not great), earrings on boys, certain gang-related colors, obscene t-shirts, etc., etc., but the freaking governor of Georgia is interested in "personal freedom" in terms of students wearing masks or not? Pull the other one; it's got bells on.
 
I have now heard several Georgia state officials talking about "personal freedom" with regard to not forcing students to wear masks. I went to high school (30 years ago) in a pretty liberal place, and the teachers and administration were definitely not interested in our personal freedom in this way. We couldn't wear half-shirts (google 1980s fashion - not great), earrings on boys, certain gang-related colors, obscene t-shirts, etc., etc., but the freaking governor of Georgia is interested in "personal freedom" in terms of students wearing masks or not? Pull the other one; it's got bells on.

I'm sure that school system has any number of personal freedom infringing rules. I can't understand what the **** these idiots are thinking, or any anti-masker for that matter. Is this really where you want to wear your stupid freedom hat? Is is because Trump is so lackadaisical about mask wearing? Are you just being contrarian/anti-science in the face of a global pandemic?

History is not going to be kind to America's response to this crisis. Other nations have their idiots to be sure, but not on this level, I think.
 
Last edited:
I have now heard several Georgia state officials talking about "personal freedom" with regard to not forcing students to wear masks. I went to high school (30 years ago) in a pretty liberal place, and the teachers and administration were definitely not interested in our personal freedom in this way. We couldn't wear half-shirts (google 1980s fashion - not great), earrings on boys, certain gang-related colors, obscene t-shirts, etc., etc., but the freaking governor of Georgia is interested in "personal freedom" in terms of students wearing masks or not? Pull the other one; it's got bells on.

The school that got all the publicity said they couldn't require masks because they was no way to enforce it. But they managed to enforce against the student who posted the embarrassing picture by suspending her. Now they are closed due to a Covid outbreak.

I went to high school in the 1960's. Personal freedom did not extend to: Short skirts, long skirts, pants instead of skirts (all for girls), long hair, facial hair, no hair (for boys), etc.
 
This a interview with Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, a leader of WHO’s the organization’s coronavirus response team, discouraged countries from reimposing lockdowns. They are a “blunt, sheer force instrument” with severe social and economic consequences, she said.
Out of context quote. Neither the WHO not the doctor in question oppose lockdowns.
And Jean Castex, the French prime minister, said the country would never again “impose a lockdown like the one did last March
If they handle the situation properly they may not have too. We are not, however, talking about France we are talking about the US which has already botched it’s handling of the virus. If the US had more competent leadership, maybe it would also be in a position where it doesn't need to re-impose lockdowns.
On April 9, Canada’s mortality rate was 2.2 per cent. That number has gone up*5.5 per cent due to the spike in cases in long-term care settings.
Mortality went up because the people infected in March started dying in April.
 
I have now heard several Georgia state officials talking about "personal freedom" with regard to not forcing students to wear masks. I went to high school (30 years ago) in a pretty liberal place, and the teachers and administration were definitely not interested in our personal freedom in this way. We couldn't wear half-shirts (google 1980s fashion - not great), earrings on boys, certain gang-related colors, obscene t-shirts, etc., etc., but the freaking governor of Georgia is interested in "personal freedom" in terms of students wearing masks or not? Pull the other one; it's got bells on.

All this "personal freedom" crap is just an excuse being used by politicians to justify their partisanship and for Trump supporters/right wingers to justify their juvenile and selfish "you can't tell me what to do" attitude.
 
They are in reference to the lockdowns conducted in US

Why? The US is not in the same situation as these countries. It could have been if national leaders had done their job and States had actually seen their lockdowns though instead of baling half way and wasting all the effort they had already put in.

A former co-worker of mine had a saying he liked “So, we can’t afford to do it right, but we can afford to do it twice?” In the US to many places tried to cut corners and now they need to start over while most other countries got it right the first time.
 
All this "personal freedom" crap is just an excuse being used by politicians to justify their partisanship and for Trump supporters/right wingers to justify their juvenile and selfish "you can't tell me what to do" attitude.
Not just an excuse, more like a marketed narrative.
 
Think through the resources required, especially for public schools that already have crowded classes and fewer staff and less room per student than most private schools. One needs more rooms if one is going to spread out the same number of students, or to keep the school open much longer hours if room availability is limited. In either case one will need to hire more teachers or require the existing teachers to work much longer hours.

Basically anyway one spreads out the students or distributes them over space or time requires more staff and resources. Or to ask existing staff to work double time.

Creativity helps but money and other resources are at least as important.

This is true if you are not being creative. The govt here right now has sooo much space that they could host double the students even at 12 per class. Think of all the city and county space that is closed. Here it is the jr college, the State College, the cultural center, the senior center, the entertainment venues, museums, the arboretum, etc...

There is so much space, it is ridiculous not to use it for the younger kids

There are a lot of TA's here that would be available given our location. They go to the big State College abd would jump at the opportunity.

But that isnt the reason 'they' give for not opening. The Union wants things...as they always do. The kids are secondary to the perks of the teachers.
I havent heard of any of the private school teachers not returning. I'm sure some may not due to being high risk but they understand the kids come first.

Our school of 600 kids has been open since June for summer sessions. All the teachers came back.
 
And all the ancillary costs, like transporting students to these locations, securing access to the locations, ensuring these locations have the supplies needed.... that's a lot of money you're offering to outlay. Generous of you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom