COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Horus]

Sorry for the double post:

The right is screaming about Biden being "beholden" to the teachers union. The left is pissed Biden is sending teachers back into "dangerous" environments.

I do not envy the tight rope Biden has to walk on this issue. Hopefully all schools are opened by September.

It's been almost a year. Numbers are way down. The vaccines are doing marvelously. Kids need to be back in school. I could've accepted the safety argument in September but not now, it's time to go back.

I understand that argument, but I still feel that it's too early. We're making incredible progress, and I'm wary of doing anything that might jeopardize that. I say keep things remote for the rest of this school year, and then reopen fully at the beginning of next year, when the vats majority of US adults will have been vaccinated, and cases will probably be extremely low.

You do realize a ton of school districts are already open, right? There wasn't a huge spike in cases where schools were reopened. I would be beyond pissed if I were a parent and I was paying my taxes for horsecrap virtual schooling. Get my children in school. The social costs to virtual schooling is very high. We're hurting kids just to stop a little bit of spread? I think instead, we should be investing in our future.

I worry a lot about the social development of kids in say NYC who will likely be going a full year and a half with no in person schooling. Young people need social interaction. I can only imagine how much worse my barely average social skills would be if I'd spent say half of my second grade year and my entire third grade year in front of a laptop.

[gerritcole]

Regardless if we got back to in-person this school year or wait till the fall, this year has been a wasted year of education for many schoolkids and this gap imo will prove to be nearly impossible to make up

[emailking]

Biden's goal was to reopen schools within the first 100 days. There's still time for that to happen.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Sorry for the double post:

The right is screaming about Biden being "beholden" to the teachers union. The left is pissed Biden is sending teachers back into "dangerous" environments.

I do not envy the tight rope Biden has to walk on this issue. Hopefully all schools are opened by September.

It's been almost a year. Numbers are way down. The vaccines are doing marvelously. Kids need to be back in school. I could've accepted the safety argument in September but not now, it's time to go back.

I understand that argument, but I still feel that it's too early. We're making incredible progress, and I'm wary of doing anything that might jeopardize that. I say keep things remote for the rest of this school year, and then reopen fully at the beginning of next year, when the vats majority of US adults will have been vaccinated, and cases will probably be extremely low.

Largely agree, but I think prepare to go back for May/June to wrap up the school year and give kids some sense/preview of normalcy to get them through the summer. It would be a test run for fall and also help to mitigate the psychological damage, especially for the graduating kids.

[BudgieForce]

I think if everything goes well, schools should be mostly opened in the coming months. I'm just getting frustrated with the bad faith arguments, mostly from the right.

It seems like people have a hard time understanding that neither Biden nor The CDC control if a school is opened or closed. All they can do is provide guidance. I doubt most school districts will even use that guidance when determining how they open.

It's my fault for continuing to follow these people but it's gotten ridiculous.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I think if everything goes well, schools should be mostly opened in the coming months. I'm just getting frustrated with the bad faith arguments, mostly from the right.

It seems like people have a hard time understanding that neither Biden nor The CDC control if a school is opened or closed. All they can do is provide guidance. I doubt most school districts will even use that guidance when determining how they open.

It's my fault for continuing to follow these people but it's gotten ridiculous.

There's no bad faith argument from the right. We just want our kids back in school FFS. We've destroyed so many kids development for a virus that (STATISTICALLY, ON AVERAGE) doesn't have much impact on children....

[TJ in Oregon]

My mom and sister are public school teachers in Ohio and have been teaching in-person classes wearing masks to students (also wearing masks) kept 3 feet apart with plastic dividers between them since September. I was initially skeptical they would be able to contain the virus from running rampant in the schools, but they have actually done pretty well at keeping things under control. Most of the cases they have had came through known spreading events outside the school walls.

In Ohio, these policies have been left up to the school district thus far; however, the state has allowed teachers priority in vaccination in order to reopen all schools in the state for 100% in person teaching by March 1st. I agree with these policies and believe that if done properly the virus can be contained that way. It's time to get aspects of life 'back to normal' in a mask wearing, socially distanced kind of way.

[BudgieForce]

I think if everything goes well, schools should be mostly opened in the coming months. I'm just getting frustrated with the bad faith arguments, mostly from the right.

It seems like people have a hard time understanding that neither Biden nor The CDC control if a school is opened or closed. All they can do is provide guidance. I doubt most school districts will even use that guidance when determining how they open.

It's my fault for continuing to follow these people but it's gotten ridiculous.

There's no bad faith argument from the right. We just want our kids back in school FFS. We've destroyed so many kids development for a virus that (STATISTICALLY, ON AVERAGE) doesn't have much impact on children....

"Teachers unions have compromised The CDC and The Biden Administration, thereby preventing schools from opening"

Thats a bad faith argument.

[TJ in Oregon]

It's a jump to blame changes in guidance specifically on teacher's unions, but one of the problems seen around the country has been for schools to accept vaccinations for their teachers and then renege on their promise to reopen.

[ꙮ]

Schools need to reopen. Either education is important or it isn't. I am of the opinion that it is, and that getting students back into classrooms would be worth it even if there still is some risk of transmission. We cannot have a whole generation of students with stunted educations and social skills, who are ill-equipped to go to college or the workforce.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I think schools should have reopened long ago. 

But I don't understand why all teachers and school staff wouldn't have already had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and thus there should really be no issue whatsoever.

Are they really states where they haven't been vaccinated yet?  Shouldn't they be the frontest or frontline essential workers?

[Dr. Arch]

I think schools should have reopened long ago. 

But I don't understand why all teachers and school staff wouldn't have already had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and thus there should really be no issue whatsoever.

Are they really states where they haven't been vaccinated yet?  Shouldn't they be the frontest or frontline essential workers?

I'm an educator, and I don't even come up for vaccine consideration until March in WI, while a friend of mine in NY and in a similar position just got his second dose last week.

You're right; there shouldn't be a reason, yet here we are.

[Inmate Trump]

I think schools should have reopened long ago. 

But I don't understand why all teachers and school staff wouldn't have already had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and thus there should really be no issue whatsoever.

Are they really states where they haven't been vaccinated yet?  Shouldn't they be the frontest or frontline essential workers?

I think schools should reopen only when educators are vaccinated.

[Del Tachi]

Biden's goal was to reopen schools within the first 100 days. There's still time for that to happen.

Biden's "goal" of opening a *majority of K-8 schools within the first 100 days (right in time for summer vacation!) is not very aspirational

[Not Me, Us]

I think schools should have reopened long ago. 

But I don't understand why all teachers and school staff wouldn't have already had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and thus there should really be no issue whatsoever.

Are they really states where they haven't been vaccinated yet?  Shouldn't they be the frontest or frontline essential workers?

I think schools should reopen only when educators are vaccinated.

I would agree with this. While online school is obviously not ideal for kids, I don't think endangering the teachers, who make extremely little money, is worth the benefit of in-person school. Not to mention many kids live with their grandparents or otherwise vulnerable people that they could COVID back to, even if the kids aren't at much risk.

[BudgieForce]

Biden's goal was to reopen schools within the first 100 days. There's still time for that to happen.

Biden's "goal" of opening a *majority of K-8 schools within the first 100 days (right in time for summer vacation!) is not very aspirational

Under promise and over deliver.

A hard learned concept from the Obama years.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The new case count for the U.S. on Worldometer today collapsed to 52,785.

[Hammy]

Something to consider with the schools reopening, especially with more contagious forms of COVID springing up, is the children taking it home to their parents, or in some cases grandparents, and possibly ending up homeless, along with the problems with HVAC spreading it from room to room.

[Hammy]

Something to consider with the schools reopening, especially with more contagious forms of COVID springing up, is the children taking it home to their parents, or in some cases grandparents, and possibly ending up homeless, along with the problems with HVAC spreading it from room to room.

Schools have been open in communities across the country for months. There is no epidemic of children being made into orphans because they brought covid home to their parents, and the most rigorous examinations of their role in spreading the virus have turned up little indication that schools have increased risk.

Read what Emily Oster and other actual experts have been writing about reopening schools instead of subjecting the forum to your ridiculous fear-mongering. People have enough fear in their lives without you layering on speculation in the most ridiculous, melodramatic fashion possible.

There's a difference in stating this is a possibility with schools reopening, as I did, and your claim that I said there's an epidemic of it going around.

The pandemic deniers here are getting desperate to twist people's words rather than face reality.

[Horus]

Something to consider with the schools reopening, especially with more contagious forms of COVID springing up, is the children taking it home to their parents, or in some cases grandparents, and possibly ending up homeless, along with the problems with HVAC spreading it from room to room.

Schools have been open in communities across the country for months. There is no epidemic of children being made into orphans because they brought covid home to their parents, and the most rigorous examinations of their role in spreading the virus have turned up little indication that schools have increased risk.

Read what Emily Oster and other actual experts have been writing about reopening schools instead of subjecting the forum to your ridiculous fear-mongering. People have enough fear in their lives without you layering on speculation in the most ridiculous, melodramatic fashion possible.

There's a difference in stating this is a possibility with schools reopening, as I did, and your claim that I said there's an epidemic of it going around.

The pandemic deniers here are getting desperate to twist people's words rather than face reality.

Who is denying the pandemic? Obviously safety is important but, now that we have a vaccine out and numbers are plummeting, it's even more important that we don't leave an entire generation socially inept and academically stunted. I have been very cautious about this stuff and consistently called out several posters who were trying to open up and return to normal way too soon, but the numbers really are improving, the vaccine is out, and schools are by and large safe.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

The new CDC Director was on Meet the Press yesterday, and she reiterated what all the research shows about covid within schools: transmission to or by children is very uncommon, and most transmission is staff-to-staff.  Once school employees are vaccinated, keeping schools closed any longer in unconsionable.

[Hammy]

Who is denying the pandemic?

The complete avoidance of the suggestion is no different than the climate deniers who turned "winters might be warmer" into claiming they said it would never snow again, and then using any instance of snow to demonstrate climate change isn't real. If people need to argue with things never said, then clearly they don't want to believe the possibility exists in the first place.

The new CDC Director was on Meet the Press yesterday, and she reiterated what all the research shows about covid within schools: transmission to or by children is very uncommon, and most transmission is staff-to-staff.  Once school employees are vaccinated, keeping schools closed any longer in unconsionable.

If these are validated peer-reviewed studies that say that transmission between children is rare, then I completely agree with the bold, though I wouldn't call it unconscionable.

The problem I have is that too many people seem like they're pushing to reopen now and vaccinate later, which doesn't seem too much different than Trump's push to reopen purely for the sake of the appearance of normal or boredom with an ongoing problem, cost to life be damned.

[lfromnj]

Biden's goal was to reopen schools within the first 100 days. There's still time for that to happen.

Biden's "goal" of opening a *majority of K-8 schools within the first 100 days (right in time for summer vacation!) is not very aspirational

Infact a majority of schools were open, his promise was to open 50% when something like 55-60% are open for 1 day a week. Its an obvious goal of setting low expectations that are actually a reversal and then clap in 2 months when it already happened.

[Dr. Arch]

The updated numbers for COVID-19 in the U.S. are in for 2/15 per: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

I'm keeping track of these updates daily and updating at the end of the day, whenever all states finish reporting for that day.

ΔW Change: Comparisons of Weekly Day-to-day Growth or Decline of COVID-19 Spread/Deaths.

• IE: Comparing the numbers to the same day of last week, are we flattening the curve enough?

Σ Increase: A day's contribution to overall percentage growth of COVID-19 cases/deaths.

• IE: What's the overall change in the total?

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2/7: <Sunday>

• Cases: 27,611,403 (+91,767 | ΔW Change: ↓9.58% | Σ Increase: ↑0.33%)
• Deaths: 474,933 (+1,405 | ΔW Change: ↓25.97% | Σ Increase: ↑0.30%)

2/8: <M>

• Cases: 27,700,629 (+89,226 | ΔW Change: ↓38.10% | Σ Increase: ↑0.32%)
• Deaths: 476,405 (+1,472 | ΔW Change: ↓23.89% | Σ Increase: ↑0.31%)

2/9: <T>

• Cases: 27,799,756 (+99,127 | ΔW Change: ↓14.53% | Σ Increase: ↑0.36%)
• Deaths: 479,772 (+3,367 | ΔW Change: ↓7.58% | Σ Increase: ↑0.71%)

2/10: <W>

• Cases: 27,897,214 (+97,458 | ΔW Change: ↓20.84% | Σ Increase: ↑0.35%)
• Deaths: 483,200 (+3,428 | ΔW Change: ↓15.86% | Σ Increase: ↑0.71%)

2/11: <Þ>

• Cases: 28,002,240 (+105,026 | ΔW Change: ↓14.91% | Σ Increase: ↑0.38%)
• Deaths: 486,922 (+3,722 | ΔW Change: ↓26.41% | Σ Increase: ↑0.77%)

2/12: <F>

• Cases: 28,106,704 (+104,464 | ΔW Change: ↓21.71% | Σ Increase: ↑0.37%)
• Deaths: 492,521 (+2,908 [+5,599] | ΔW Change: ↓14.90% | Σ Increase: ↑1.15%)

2/13: <S>

• Cases: 28,196,964 (+90,260 | ΔW Change: ↓19.63% | Σ Increase: ↑0.32%)
• Deaths: 496,063 (+2,272 [+3,542] | ΔW Change: ↓19.52% | Σ Increase: ↑0.72%)

2/14 (Yesterday): <Sunday>

• Cases: 28,261,470 (+64,506 | ΔW Change: ↓29.71% | Σ Increase: ↑0.23%)
• Deaths: 497,174 (+1,111 | ΔW Change: ↓20.93% | Σ Increase: ↑0.22%)

2/15 (Today): <M>

• Cases: 28,317,703 (+56,233 | ΔW Change: ↓36.98% | Σ Increase: ↑0.20%)
• Deaths: 498,203 (+1,029 | ΔW Change: ↓30.10% | Σ Increase: ↑0.21%)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/nycjim/status/1361344667405680646

The only good Republican is a Republican powerless to abuse anyone else.