Is Keeping School Closed "Useless"?

[Brian Essi]

We can be reasonably confident of all of the following long before this pandemic is over:

1. Schools will reopen for in person classes with various protocols and with varying degrees of success, failure and hysteria.

2. Millions of Americas will be vaccinated with the vaccine(s) that will be approved by the FDA, some percentage will have side effects and may die from the vaccine itself, but many more will be "saved".

3. Many school aged kids will contract Covid whether in school or out of school and the current state of our testing, tracing and reporting of data together with predictable human behavior and variables will not be reliable for formulating policy.

4. The combination of flawed data and misguided public pressure lacking reliable scientific basis will continued to be be used to formulate public policy.

The NYT article cited above is a good example of how poorly our nation is dealing with the pandemic ---it conflates some available "numbers" and information to support one "narrative" while omitting many other "numbers", facts and/or even obvious unknowns that could easily have been "reported" in the same article but would not necessarily support the "narrative". By way example, how many of the 1,193 "quaratined" students had symptoms of covid? If all classes were online, wouldn't all 1100 of the students have been effectively "quarantined" anyway? Without knowing how many students were actually sick, the "number" 1193 really doesn't help readers understand just how bad the re-opening was. The students who tested 'positive" in the first days of school likely did not contract covid at school--but it does underscore that parents will inevitable send infected kids to school. How many total students and schools are in the school system?

I found the author's use of the phrase "a bucolic and politically conservative stretch of suburbs north of Atlanta" to be very helpful in evaluating Bari Weiss' take on the editorial process at one of the most reliable news sources in the US.

Here's a good example of my own conflation: It has not been publicly reported that one of our major healthcare systems in Cuyahoga County has had as many as 1,000 employees who have tested positive for covid. I have not heard that any health system has been closed to kids and teachers. So when you go to your doctor at one of our major systems, ask yourself if your visit is more "essential" than a child's in class education?

[Dan Alaimo]

Brian, FYI

CantAnybodyHerePlayThisGame.jpg (22.01 KiB) Viewed 8958 times

[Stan Austin]

best manager ever---Casey Stengel

[Stan Austin]

BTW I saw a Tribe Yankees game in July of 1960 at the Stadium when Maris and Mantel were chasing Babe Ruth's HR record (with my pals from Long Island who came in on the NYC train)

[Dan Alaimo]

That book was one of my favorites. I hope Brian fixes the quote.

I saw quite a few Mets games at the Polo Grounds, and the first years at Shea Stadium.

[Dan Alaimo]

best manager ever---Casey Stengel

Managing the Yankees in those days was easy. Selling the expansion Mets to New York took genius.

[Bridget Conant]

So when you go to your doctor at one of our major systems, ask yourself if your visit is more "essential" than a child's in class education?

Yes.


Yes again.


Yes. Yes. Yes.

The idea that learning only takes place in a classroom, with children seated in rows, for six hours a day, is horribly mistaken.

Throughout history, the norm has NOT been the system we currently use. In the future, I highly doubt it will continue.

So again, my answer is YES.

[Brian Essi]

So when you go to your doctor at one of our major systems, ask yourself if your visit is more "essential" than a child's in class education?

Yes.


Yes again.


Yes. Yes. Yes.

The idea that learning only takes place in a classroom, with children seated in rows, for six hours a day, is horribly mistaken.

Throughout history, the norm has NOT been the system we currently use. In the future, I highly doubt it will continue.

So again, my answer is YES.

So, if I understand your argument correctly, "Education is Changing"--No more need for the "Bricks and Mortar" that the Lakewood BOE just poured millions of our tax dollars into. Schools (other than virtual schools) are obsolete. This makes the Lakewood BOE and tax payers look like total fools!

Perhaps you should contact Jenn Pae, Mike Summers and Sam O'Leary to enlist their help in selling off the "Bricks and Mortar" to developers. Also, follow up with Sean Juris to develop plans for the Lincoln Holiday Inn, Hayes Hampton Inn, Horace Mann Hilton...

When we "Reimagine Schools" in this way, I'm sure the NEA will willingly climb aboard and cut the need for teachers to 25% of current levels.

If you are successful, I may even be able to afford my greatly reduced Lakewood real estate taxes and retire here.

[Brian Essi]

When facing a real crisis, such as a very real and deadly pandemic, it is hard to resist panic and caving in to "political" pressure.

Here is one professional study from 2009 study concerning the 1957 virus--a virus that has many similarities to Covid (there are many other studies regarding how to respond to pandemics).

http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/website ... _1957.html

"Measures were generally not taken to close schools, restrict travel, close borders, or recommend wearing masks. Quarantine was not considered to be an effective mitigation strategy and was ‘‘obviously useless because of the large number of travelers and the frequency of mild or inapparent cases.’’4(p36)

Closing schools and limiting public gatherings were not recommended as strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s impact, except for administrative reasons due to high levels of absenteeism.7 For example, ASTHO noted that ‘‘in some instances there may be administrative reasons for closing schools due to illness of teachers, bus drivers, large absentee rates, etc.’’7(p2)

Measures were generally not taken to close schools, restrict travel, close borders, or recommend wearing masks. Quarantine was not considered to be an effective mitigation strategy and was ‘‘obviously useless because of the large number of travelers and the frequency of mild or inapparent cases.’’4(p36)"

Cashiers, grocery store workers, healthcare workers, first responders and many others are putting themselves at risk.

Will keeping schools closed accomplish the safety concerns for our children and teachers?

Are the reasons for differentiating teachers from these other workers and professionals valid considering history and available science?

As the evidence comes in day after day, week and after week, we can now look back in shame at what we have done to our children through misguided policies based upon fear and misinformation.

It is clear that keeping schools closed caused foreseeable and and potentially irreversible damage.

[Brian Essi]

When facing a real crisis, such as a very real and deadly pandemic, it is hard to resist panic and caving in to "political" pressure.

Here is one professional study from 2009 study concerning the 1957 virus--a virus that has many similarities to Covid (there are many other studies regarding how to respond to pandemics).

http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/website ... _1957.html

"Measures were generally not taken to close schools, restrict travel, close borders, or recommend wearing masks. Quarantine was not considered to be an effective mitigation strategy and was ‘‘obviously useless because of the large number of travelers and the frequency of mild or inapparent cases.’’4(p36)

Closing schools and limiting public gatherings were not recommended as strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s impact, except for administrative reasons due to high levels of absenteeism.7 For example, ASTHO noted that ‘‘in some instances there may be administrative reasons for closing schools due to illness of teachers, bus drivers, large absentee rates, etc.’’7(p2)

Measures were generally not taken to close schools, restrict travel, close borders, or recommend wearing masks. Quarantine was not considered to be an effective mitigation strategy and was ‘‘obviously useless because of the large number of travelers and the frequency of mild or inapparent cases.’’4(p36)"

Cashiers, grocery store workers, healthcare workers, first responders and many others are putting themselves at risk.

Will keeping schools closed accomplish the safety concerns for our children and teachers?

Are the reasons for differentiating teachers from these other workers and professionals valid considering history and available science?

As the evidence comes in day after day, week and after week, we can now look back in shame at what we have done to our children through misguided policies based upon fear and misinformation.

It is clear that keeping schools closed caused foreseeable and potentially irreversible damage.

[ryan costa]

The kids can stay home and read old encyclopedias. Hauling encyclopedias around is also good exercise: those things are heavy.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hBl5TcTtdl0

[Dan Alaimo]

For the purposes of context, and only that, this thread is from last August.

[Jim O'Bryan]

For the purposes of context, and only that, this thread is from last August.

At the same time, they are finding more troubling news for kids. All new variations seem to affect kids at a higher rate. Also as I mentioned in another thread, there seems to be more long haulers in the kids class that other variations. This includes long term symptoms including lung damage, tiredness, confusion, loss of smell and or taste.

The problem is science has only learned 7 months of knowledge since this post. That is not a lot of time for a virus that changes as fast as this one does.

Speaking of changes, it was thought at one time this was a military disease gone rogue. This is for various reasons but one reason was that it gets worse as it mutates. This theory has been proven wrong as 99.9% of variations seem more benign which is the sign it has not been weaponized.

Which brings us to the common cold, COVID and our future. Medicine and labs have been working on using the common cold virus to carry life saving medicine, treatment and proteins to the body. This is also how the new group of vaccines were developed. Johnson and Johnson vaccine was developed and is delivered the old way.

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