me and my wife are in close proximity to different people many of whom are not wearing masks almost every single day. In the Chicago metro area. That's skin in the game. So yeah, yes send in the teachers.
Is it that hard to answer a question honestly? Are you sending your kids or wife to work in a school with the numbers as they are in Dade county? It's no mask in Florida as of right now.
I do have skin in the game, my own! I need these kids to be educated, contributing members of society so in 40 years I’ll have someone to be paying for my social security! /S Just flinging poo, but I suppose that Dr. Fauci's opinion on the matter is also irrelevant, since he only looks at hard data. He has no "skin in the game" since he is without young children or spouse in the education system. On a serious note, I am concerned for our youth's mental health. I volunteer at a few youth programs in my church, and I try to keep in contact with some of the kids. Most are starving for human interaction, We have had tighter restrictions here in PA than some other parts of the country. A good number of these kids are telling me they haven't left their houses or seen anyone outside immediate family in several months. I am sure you have seen similar things since you run a basketball camp correct?
I run the same ten kids on Fridays and Wednesdays at a gym I rent for them. The reason was for mental health and our county is averaging under 1 case a day. Now that being said I just got the alert from are school that an athlete at conditioning tested positive for COVID 19 and was at conditioning this week(gave a date). I just sent an email to the AD asking what sport because of 10 of my guys all but 1 are playing a fall sport. We were not given the information of what sport. I am supposed to drive 3 of them and my son in a car. Oh lord now what. 1. How many parents cancel before we leave at this late afternoon in 2.5 hours. Over and under 3 I'll take the under with this group.
I'll chime in since I have 2 kids in grade school right now, plus another that is supposed to be starting pre-K this fall. We live in the suburbs of Chicago and are averaging 20-30 cases per day in our county. To date, we've had 103 deaths in the county, 79 of which were associated with long term care facilities. We have had one person in the 40-49 age group that has died. Nobody under 40 has died. Schools are supposed to open on 8/13 with the option of going back in person or e-learning. Those attending school must wear a mask all day and will have dividers in between desks, lockers and anywhere else they can put them. Teachers will likely be wearing face shields in lieu of masks so that students can see their faces and mouths as they teach. Students will be having more frequent recess breaks, although shorter in duration, where they can go outside and get their mask off for a few minutes. Playgrounds will be closed, so I guess they're just going to mill around and stare at each other from 6 feet away? Maybe talk about Pokemon or Minecraft or something. I am 100% okay with my children going back to in-person learning even though my wife is a stay-at-home mom. I firmly believe the quality of education they receive in person is far and away better than remote learning - especially at a young age. The interaction they get with other kids is priceless and vital for their development and mental health. Hell - we've been letting them play with the neighborhood kids all summer long. It's good for them. I also believe the risk to my kids, the teachers, and our family is remote enough that I'm not going to lose sleep over it. As a responsible adult, I understand that they may bring it home, I may get sick, and I may even be hospitalized or die. I also understand that when I climb into a treestand, drive a truck at 80 mph on the highway, or get pulled on a tube behind I boat I also may get hurt or die. Much like the Covid, the risk to me is small enough that I don't let it stop me from partaking in those actions. If God decides it's my time, I don't believe I'm going to do much to change that. Now, I will say that in spite of my feelings, we may still be keeping our kids home for e-learning. Not out of fear of anyone becoming ill or dying, but rather, out of the feelings of guilt that my wife's friends and teachers are putting on everyone. They're acting like being a teacher is no different than a soldier on the front lines in Afghanistan. Some of them are still too scared to leave their homes. They're nervous, anxious, and even depressed. Some of their kids are so scared they won't even come out and throw a baseball around. It's out of control. My wife wants to send the kids back to school, but is too afraid to speak up to her friends, lest she gets beat down for being selfish, ignorant, and disrespectful of other people's lives. To Germ's question - if we were in Dade County and there were no mask mandates or precautions in place within the schools - I would not be sending them back. IMO that's just foolish. The fact that people are making a big deal out of wearing a mask when you're in an enclosed space with a lot of other people for an extended amount of time blows my mind.
So I just listened to two coworkers discuss a person who confronted another in Home Depot about wearing a mask, The two were like Germ calling people not wearing masks science deniers, and selfish etc. I had heard enough and walked out of my office, looked at them and where is your mask, neither was wearing one. If you feel so strongly about it practice what you preach otherwise you are just a hypocritical D bag.
So went to the Dr. today, i had planned to ask about getting an antibody test when I have blood drawn for my September check up. Ends up I had to have blood drawn today for pre-op screening. Asked him if he could add an antibody test on it. He said if I was talking about to whether I have had the Covid virus or not it was useless to have done. There is no way to differentiate why the antibodies are there. Said people who had common viral colds were being given false positives by having antibodies from it. Said it has mutated so many times that antibody tests are useless to detect it.
let's just say this- a kid in Chicago has about a 1000% higher chance of being shot and killed than by dying from Covid- better to get them off the streets and back in school.
Thanks Justin for a well thought out answer. I am in the same boat with my son. The school has a good plan for in person learning so I don’t have an issue sending him to school. Plus he’s in HS and hopefully he can think a little bit, but I am not holding my breath. For the question Germ and Justin is a no, dnoodles and his imganary kids is a yes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We think at this point the kids are going to distance learn. For the first quarter at least. Then we will reassess. I’m with the science so far. This stuff just doesn’t effect kids like it does the old and sickly
