The ventilation in buildings has concerned me a lot in regards to our city hall. In all of the reopening plans (which are on hold - only a few people in the building right now) there is a lot of talk about plexi glass and cleaning but I haven’t see the HVAC addressed. We don’t have the greatest system. Some areas don’t have enough air movement as it is and can get stuffy. Others too much. This conversation is spurring me to start asking questions. It’s possible this has been addressed, but I would like to know before we’re all called back to work.
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Has anyone looked at the Johns Hopkins C-19 site lately? I just looked, it’s been over a month since my last glance and there is NO other country that looks like the U.S. very sad.
Here is a birds eye view of what schools are doing in my area:
My kid’s school sent out a form for request for transportation a few weeks ago, and this past week offered virtual schooling for anyone and a request form if that is desired. I feel for the school administrations, I’m sure they have done the schedules then revised them many times each time a change is mandated by the state. I can only imagine how complex the HS scheduling is here as there are so many courses offered.
We’re not sad, we’re just ahead of the curve. Many countries are seeing a resurgence now that they’re opening, just like the US did.
There is absolutely no reason why any country will be spared unless they stay locked down forever, which they can’t do. Germany had a major protest today over COVID restrictions- they’re have lost 10 years of economic growth with the shutdowns.
(Notice the sentence about the “huge rise” in coronavirus cases).
It’s happening in Asia, too:
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When I look at this I am reminded we all started from the point of “let’s all do the same thing”.
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One thing I noticed in our province’s plan is they are saying teachers will get N95 masks, while students will have the non-medical ones. Providing teachers with medical grade PPE might alleviate a lot of teacher concern for returning.
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Providing N95s for teachers is a great idea! I suspect many (the younger ones) would pass and just wear the cloth ones. But having it available as a free option for those who want it would alleviate a lot of fears, even if the risk is not altered significantly. (The increased effectiveness of the mask could result in more relaxed behavior. Also if everyone is wearing a cloth mask the risk is reportedly already reduced significantly so may not be necessary to improve upon that.)
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To the point I made earlier in this thread, a prominent COVID modeler believes that as high a proportion of people in AZ and FL have now had COVID as in NY/CT/NJ. Hopefully the number of deaths comes in lower as a percent of infections when the final tally is done.
@youyanggu estimates that 22% of Arizonans got COVID at some point, as did 23% of Floridians. (A bit lower in Texas: 15%). While these states have also improved their mask-wearing, closed some businesses, etc., those steps came pretty late in the process.
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The tiny little sewing center in my town has produced masks for our local regional school district’s staff as well as many of the others around us. It’s really amazing how much they accomplished in a short period of time.
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We are not a large district (5000 students, 850 staff). We have been buying every single N95 we can get our hands on. We almost have enough for our nurses. We have purchased over 20k cloth masks, and 20k disposables. We also have wipes and hand sanitizer.
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Yup.
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Question about covid testing.
Is there a current scenario where a person feels crappy Friday, tests that day, and receives a positive result that day?
In my state you can get a 15 minute test but I think you need to plan to get into line first thing in the morning. My husband called his doctor at 8am and was tested by 9am, but results were by 8am the next morning.
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What is the 15 min test like? Is it the scary nose swab? Just curious in case I ever need to get tested…
My sister a couple of weeks ago arrived at a Houston clinic at 9 am was called back for her nasal swab test at 1:30 pm and had her results within half an hour.
I knew things were looking a little better when I heard that it was so easy since that hadn’t been the case for like a month prior.
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It is actually a throat swab around here.
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Locally - Dh’s co worker left work at 9AM and went to urgent care. At 7PM ish DH got text that he was negative.
I’m a teacher, so I’ve been watching this topic with interest the past month as people shifted to the current hot topic of education. Like most others in education, I haven’t slept well in months, and I largely avoid social media. This forum has been one of the “safer” ones I feel like I can escape to, and trip reports have been a savior.
In short, just to provide a teacher perspective, we want to return to the classroom. For those who argued (not on this forum) that teachers “weren’t working last semester,” we’re hurt. We worked through our spring breaks. We lost personal days that went unused because there are no substitutes available for distance learning. I’ve been teaching 20 years. The easiest way to do my job is to be in the classroom with my 35-40 students. My job is always challenging, but I get small rewards that feed my soul - students who respond to a lesson or show growth over a quarter or who laugh at my jokes. We lost all of that with Distance Learning. I knew my students well enough that I was able to connect with most of them by phone or message chains online once or twice in the quarter. But it was different. And I had to fully redo all my curriculum - I teach high school, and I’m a Schoology trainer for the district, so the technology piece wasn’t hard, but ensuring that all lessons can be fully online was challenging.
That said, I would not return to the classroom with full in-person classes right now, based on the virus’ spread in my community currently. It is clear that the U.S. does not have this virus under control yet in most communities. It is clear that there are people in this country who are actively working against any measures designed to slow or mitigate the spread of the virus. I teach their children.
Based on my governor’s guidelines (I teach in MN), my district would be eligible to have high schoolers in my community return to a hybrid schedule. I’m on board with that. I’ve looked at the governor’s guidelines and metrics, and I’m comfortable he used both science and feedback from parents/students to come up with his plan. I’ve been preparing since May to return to the classroom - I’ve invested at least $500 in PPE for myself and my classroom (I am glad that states and districts are trying to help, but we teachers all know it won’t be enough), and I’m eyeing a $200 HEPA air purifier on Amazon right now (each filter costs $65 to replace). I am committed to the education of people’s children.
However, we teachers are petrified. Not because we think the virus will be necessarily fatal or horrifying for us, but because we know that by opening schools, we’ll be in a situation where the virus can gain hold and spread community wide - will it impact our student’s grandma? Our student’s baby sister? Our spouses? Our parents? Obviously, putting hundreds of people into poorly ventilated buildings where they have to eat, talk, and be in close contact with others throughout the day will lead to more spread. Anyone who denies that has not been watching the science behind this virus.
But I’m still on board. And then these past few days, after the governor’s announcement, I am hearing family members AND friends say that they are just “not going to get tested” if they think they have COVID, so they can keep the “community numbers low” and therefore their kids can stay in school. In short, they’re willing to be accessories to murder by withholding important medical information. THIS is why teachers are worried about going back to the classroom. If we aren’t ALL making sacrifices and talking to our kids about the importance of wearing masks, if we aren’t ALL keeping kids at home and getting them tested if they’re at all symptomatic, then we’re putting everyone else at risk.
I am so sick of this country’s selfish behavior, and I am, frankly, so disappointed by people whom I love who seem to think that the whole world might be different, but that their children MUST be given normalcy at all costs. Sorry for the long, venting note.
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Thanks @PrincipalTinker, @ehsanchez, @qwerty6 and anyone I’ve overlooked.
Trying to make sense of a situation that came up Saturday evening at 10 pm. At the dojo: student’s father’s employee - part time outdoor work - tested positive Friday afternoon. Last day the employee worked was Wednesday. Which was the day the student was at the dojo.
Why word is going out Saturday at 10 pm is making me shake my head.
In my mind, the father is to quarantine. Not sure about the student. Given their house - he could easily isolate.
Thinking dojo is ok. Social distancing has been being practiced.
My main question is - was the guy sick on Wednesday?
Thank you for your post. This morning I was listening to someone from one of our state colleges. She was talking about that when states started underfunding state universities they forced them to depend on the higher out of state and overseas tuition. She is claiming that universities are now having to choose between opening and going out of business and they discussions are now “if we do this, how many deaths will we expect”. I know a lot of people see all of this as a “trade off”. I don’t think school employees ever thought they would be in the middle of something like this.
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