Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

I think before we have these data about students and teachers, it was reasonable to be cautious and close schools. With an increasing amount of data like this and with the known disadvantages of distant learning, there's really no reason to keep schools closed anymore.

 

absolutely

 

The U.S. paid a Texas company nearly $70 million for ventilators that were unfit for covid-19 patients.
The SAVe II ventilator was designed for battlefield use on wounded soldiers. Studies found it unsuitable for treating the kind of respiratory problems created by the coronavirus.
To start, the deal was for an upgraded version of the SAVe II that hadn’t even been designed yet, according to the company’s chairman. In addition, the existing $6,000 SAVe II machine, developed with military backing as a lightweight ventilator to keep wounded soldiers alive while being transported from the battlefield, had specifications far below the other three ventilators the Pentagon purchased. In a research study conducted for the Pentagon years earlier, the SAVe II had been declared unfit for use in a respiratory pandemic.

Defense Department medical workers who had been told to use the existing SAVe II device on covid-19 patients quickly came to the conclusion that it was ill-suited for the coronavirus pandemic, and began to voice their consternation to each other in emails that were shared with The Washington Post. One of the workers, who had been instructed to use the device if there were a surge of coronavirus patients, described it as “awful and under-powered.” Another raised concerns that using an ill-suited ventilator would “kill [covid-19 patients] just as fast as no ventilator at all.”

 

I'm hopeful that we won't get to 5k dead in a day any time soon. Our daily new cases would have to go up a lot more. These deaths are from our previous peak of 256k. Our current peak is 279k. That would be expected to get us to about 4500 daily deaths two to three weeks later. To get to 5k dead in a day the daily new cases would need to be somewhere over 300k, and we have to not develop any new treatments. Fortunately we are still developing new treatments, so our death rate continues to fall.

A sobering thought is that if our treatment hadn't developed, that 256k peak in daily new cases from a couple weeks ago would have resulted in closer to 20k daily deaths this week. The researchers deserve a lot of credit for improving the survival rate here.

 

There was data in late spring/early summer that kids didn't transmit covid like adults. But the teachers unions don't give a crap about kids. That's apparent. What we are doing to kids NOW with all the data available is borderline criminal.

 

Hope you are right. But with such an extended period of high case numbers, there's a cumulative effect on deaths. Some people get sick and die within a couple of weeks. Others are sick for much longer before they die. So there is a buildup of sick people in the system. Also, at least in Florida and probably in all states, deaths that get reported today may have actually occurred weeks ago. So some of the people reported as deaths today may have actually gotten sick a couple of months ago.

 

I don't agree with you often, but if a person really believes in science, then his views need to change with new data. I don't know if I'd necessarily blame the teachers' unions, they're not scientists, but I do want to call on the top scientists in the country to take up this matter and press for change. I don't have kids and I'm not close to any teachers, but I realize the importance of education, and it is indeed borderline criminal that we're not, IMO, providing our kids with the best education in the safest way possible.

 

Kids may not transmit the virus like adults, but all teachers, administrators, and custodial staff in every school are adults. And even if kids transmit COVID at 1/3 the rate of adults, in a classroom with 24 kids and 1 teacher, that's equivalent to 9 adults.

Schools don't contribute to a rise in cases when they are open, but no studies show the rate of transmission falls significantly when schools are open either. If 80% of cases are transmitted at hotels, restaurants, bars, gyms, and churches, then schools are a part of the other 20%. In areas where case numbers are low, then it makes sense to keep schools open, because low chance of transmission in a low case area barely moves the risk needle at all. But in areas with high number of cases, the risks of keeping schools open will move the needle and result in more cases, and subsequently, more deaths.

 

We've been over this. Go look at the data. Teachers in studies are LESS likely to get Covid and 57% less likely to go the ICU. Stop parroting Teacher union BS. Schools should be open. The debate is over. It's like someone still defending our idiot president.

 

What do you make of this data on the vaccine issues?



My view is anyone that is over 65 should get the vaccine as well as anyone who has pre-existing conditions. If anyone else wants to get it go ahead. Strongly against making people get the vaccine when it's not even FDA approved yet.

 

No.

I haven't looked at the numbers in a few years, but as of 2016-ish, if Florida Virtual School was a school district, it would be the largest in the state, and depending on which metric for achievement you wanted to use, it would be first, second, or third in the state in student achievement.

 

Do you put them in your butt or inhale them?

 

It's not about harm reduction, it's about maximizing benefits. If schools being open does not increase harm, and we know that for most kids in-person classes are superior, then we should maximize the benefits by keeping schools open.

For most people. I talked to a colleague of mine living in Lafayette in Easy Bay, she was incredibly surprised by how much better the teachers became in online teaching over the summer. For those who aren't familiar with the Bay area, the median listing price of a house in Lafayette is $1.8 million.

For the rich, it doesn't seem to affect them as much, but many kids in this country don't even have reliable access to computers, so I suspect the experience for many is very, very different. Continuing to shut down schools IMO will only exacerbate inequality in this country.

 

The poorer kids are failing epically. They do not have the support systems at home. Shameless

 

Maybe for the wealthy, but lets not pretend this isn't a disaster for children. Look at the data.

COVID online school means students are behind, but lack tutoring plan

 

Sure would like to see Sweeden not perform a study when their apparent community spread was virtually nil. Would love to repeat the study for the October through December quarter before we declare something is or is not safe.

 

yes.especially when we wait until 15 minutes before a college final, curtis.

 

I would prefer my kids in school. My wife is an essential worker in the food supply chain, but I've been working from home since March. Having my kids home is not conducive to their learning, nor me working. But the lives of teachers are more important than my kid's education. And here's a school district in Iowa that had 12 teachers die this year. This only adds to the list of 210 union members who had died according this article dated a month before the Iowa article.

Teaching in person school may be safer than other professions, but still not as safe as staying at home. Again, when community spread numbers are low, the impact of having all kids at school is minimal. But when community spread numbers are at all-time highs, it is simply not safer for teachers to be in a classroom full of kids. And schools will contribute to the spread of the disease.

The question you need to ask as a parent is, if you had a crystal ball and saw that keeping schools open right now would lead to at least one teacher in your district dying, would you fight to keep schools open? Or is your kid's education worth increasing the risk of teachers? Teachers may go to the emergency room less than other working adults if they are in the classroom. But at home, that number of ER visits drops even lower.