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As we start to "re-open"

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by ThatBoyNick, Apr 24, 2020.

  1. Wattafan

    Wattafan Member

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    Record spike in Coronavirus cases in Japan, Phillipines and Poland linked to relaxed social distancing according to NBC.
     
  2. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    This is how you do it. Abbott should pay attention, and do the same for Texas. Australia is doing all it can to stop the spread, instead of pushing into opening and getting back to work and school.

    Australia has a 7 day moving ave of 476 new cases and a total of 208 deaths. Meanwhile. Texas has an ave of 8,154 new cases and 7,266 dead.

    Victoria declares 'state of disaster,' locking down millions in Melbourne to fight a soaring coronavirus outbreak
    By Rob Picheta, CNN
    Updated 7:45 AM EDT, Sun August 02, 2020
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/02/australia/victoria-coronavirus-state-of-disaster-intl/index.html

    Victoria 6.359 million / 64 per sq mile
    Melbourne 4.9 million / 1,316 per sq mile
    Harris County 4.8 million / 2,302 per sq mile

    Victoria has 6,322 active cases and 123 dead
    Harris County has 29,414 active cases and 748 dead.

    If Abbott took the Covid-19 spread as serious as Australia we would have a whole lot more Texans alive today, tomorrow, and in the future.
     
  3. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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  4. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    Why he even said that is just a stupid guess. He hadn't even taken into consideration the effects all the rush to reopening too quick would have. They just wanted to pretend it was over.
     
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  5. wompwomp

    wompwomp Member

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    Its impossible to compare the US response to australia's. When the virus started gaining traction globally, an austrailian friend of mine, her husband and her child, were living in thailand. Their luck was terrible since they had moved there in January. They decided it was best to go back with everything going on. As soon they landed, the whole family were put in a hotel for quarantine with their amenities taken care of for the full 2 weeks of quarantine. She showed me video of the room and it was unbelievable. They are back in melbourne now and as soon as the spike happen everything was lock down again. They have their naysayers of the virus as well but its not like anything here.

    Compare that to another friends older aunt and uncle from florida. They were on one of those later cruises prior to everything shutting down. They were in limbo for a week till they were finally put in barracks and they said it was the most unorganized thing they ever seen. To make things worse, they got mixed in with new people near the end of their quarantine which force them to redo and start over their quarantine again. The uncle was a republican and he was so turned off by the ineptitude of the whole experience that it made him agree with democrats about trump. Imagine that....

    Of course, these are just anecdotal experiences about the handling of the virus but there have been nothing in these 7 months to suggest these experiences were the outliers and not the norm in regards to the national response.
     
    #2905 wompwomp, Aug 3, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
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  6. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    Thousands of Texans are getting rapid-result COVID tests. The state isn’t counting them.

    Wow. What **** heads we are.

    @bigtexxx @deb4rockets
     
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  7. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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  8. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    From Arizona ...

    Voices from the Pandemic

    ‘I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy’
    Jeff Gregorich, superintendent, on trying to reopen his schools safely

    This is my choice, but I’m starting to wish that it wasn’t. I don’t feel qualified. I’ve been a superintendent for 20 years, so I guess I should be used to making decisions, but I keep getting lost in my head. I’ll be in my office looking at a blank computer screen, and then all of the sudden I realize a whole hour’s gone by. I’m worried. I’m worried about everything. Each possibility I come up with is a bad one.

    The governor has told us we have to open our schools to students on August 17th, or else we miss out on five percent of our funding. I run a high-needs district in middle-of-nowhere Arizona. We’re 90 percent Hispanic and more than 90 percent free-and-reduced lunch. These kids need every dollar we can get. But covid is spreading all over this area and hitting my staff, and now it feels like there’s a gun to my head. I already lost one teacher to this virus. Do I risk opening back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? Or do we run school remotely and end up depriving these kids?

    This is your classic one-horse town. Picture John Wayne riding through cactuses and all that. I’m superintendent, high school principal and sometimes the basketball referee during recess. This is a skeleton staff, and we pay an average salary of about 40,000 a year. I’ve got nothing to cut. We’re buying new programs for virtual learning and trying to get hotspots and iPads for all our kids. Five percent of our budget is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where’s that going to come from? I might lose teaching positions or basic curriculum unless we somehow get up and running.

    I’ve been in the building every day, sanitizing doors and measuring out space in classrooms. We still haven’t received our order of Plexiglas barriers, so we’re cutting up shower curtains and trying to make do with that. It’s one obstacle after the next. Just last week I found out we had another staff member who tested positive, so I went through the guidance from OSHA and the CDC and tried to figure out the protocols. I’m not an expert at any of this, but I did my best with the contact tracing. I called 10 people on staff and told them they’d had a possible exposure. I arranged separate cars and got us all to the testing site. Some of my staff members were crying. They’ve seen what can happen, and they’re coming to me with questions I can’t always answer. “Does my whole family need to get tested?” “How long do I have to quarantine?” “What if this virus hits me like it did Mrs. Byrd?”

    We got back two of those tests already — both positive. We’re still waiting on eight more. That makes 11 percent of my staff that’s gotten covid, and we haven’t had a single student in our buildings since March. Part of our facility is closed down for decontamination, but we don’t have anyone left to decontaminate it unless I want to put on my hazmat suit and go in there. We’ve seen the impacts of this virus on our maintenance department, on transportation, on food service, on faculty. It’s like this district is shutting down case by case. I don’t understand how anyone could expect us to reopen the building this month in a way that feels safe. It’s like they’re telling us: “Okay. Summer’s over. It’s been long enough. Time to get back to normal.” But since when has this virus operated on our schedule?

    I dream about going back to normal. I’d love to be open. These kids are hurting right now. I don’t need a politician to tell me that. We only have 300 students in this district, and they’re like family. My wife is a teacher here, and we had four kids go through these schools. I know whose parents are laid off from the copper mine and who doesn’t have enough to eat. We delivered breakfast and lunches this summer, and we gave out more meals each day than we have students. I get phone calls from families dealing with poverty issues, depression, loneliness, boredom. Some of these kids are out in the wilderness right now, and school is the best place for them. We all agree on that. But every time I start to play out what that looks like on August 17th, I get sick to my stomach. More than a quarter of our students live with grandparents. These kids could very easily catch this virus, spread it and bring it back home. It’s not safe. There’s no way it can be safe.

    If you think anything else, I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy. Kids will get sick, or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die.

    Mrs. Byrd did everything right. She followed all the protocols. If there’s such a thing as a safe, controlled environment inside a classroom during a pandemic, that was it. We had three teachers sharing a room so they could teach a virtual summer school. They were so careful. This was back in June, when cases here were starting to spike. The kids were at home, but the teachers wanted to be together in the classroom so they could team up on the new technology. I thought that was a good idea. It’s a big room. They could watch and learn from each other. Mrs. Byrd was a master teacher. She’d been here since 1982, and she was always coming up with creative ideas. They delivered care packages to the elementary students so they could sprout beans for something hands-on at home, and then the teachers all took turns in front of the camera. All three of them wore masks. They checked their temperatures. They taught on their own devices and didn’t share anything, not even a pencil.

    At first she thought it was a sinus infection. That’s what the doctor told her, but it kept getting worse. I got a call that she’d been rushed to the hospital. Her oxygen was low, and they put her on a ventilator pretty much right away. The other two teachers started feeling sick the same weekend, so they went to get tested. They both had it bad for the next month. Mrs. Byrd’s husband got it and was hospitalized. Her brother got it and passed away. Mrs. Byrd fought for a few weeks until she couldn’t anymore.

    I’ve gone over it in my head a thousand times. What precautions did we miss? What more could I have done? I don’t have an answer. These were three responsible adults in an otherwise empty classroom, and they worked hard to protect each other. We still couldn’t control it. That’s what scares me.

    We got the whole staff together for grief counseling. We did it virtually, over Zoom. There’s sadness, and it’s also so much fear. My wife is one of our teachers in the primary grade, and she has asthma. She was explaining to me how every kid who sees her automatically gives her a hug. They arrive in the morning — hug. Leave for recess — hug. Lunch — hug. Locker — hug. That’s all day. Even if we do everything perfectly, germs are going to spread inside a school. We share the same space. We share the same air.

    A bunch of our teachers have told me they will put in for retirement if we open up this month. They’re saying: “Please don’t make us go back. This is crazy. We’re putting the whole community at risk.”

    They’re right. I agree with them 100 percent. Teachers don’t feel safe. Most parents said in a survey that they’re “very concerned” about sending their kids back to school. So why are we getting bullied into opening? This district isn’t ready to open. I can’t have more people getting sick. Why are they threatening our funding? I keep waiting for someone higher up to take this decision out of my hands and come to their senses. I’m waiting for real leadership, but maybe it’s not going to happen.

    It’s me. It’s the biggest decision of my career, and the one part I’m certain about is it’s going to hurt either way.
     
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  9. superfob

    superfob Mommy WOW! I'm a Big Kid now.

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    Signups for covid testing have dropped this past week by about 30%. The drop was pretty sudden, so not sure what caused it.

    From mid June to mid July, signups for Harris County testing was "sold" out, usually within 30min of releasing slots.

    I have heard issues with our federally funded sites because the testing backlog is so bad, results aren't coming back until 14-20 days.
    That could be why people are doing the rapid tests instead.

    Sites we are supporting directly, we have partnerships with local labs giving us a 2-5 day turnaround.
     
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  10. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    This doesn't make sense. I can't help but wonder if our Governor has any say so in this. I am going to do more research on this, but if it's true, then who knows how high our daily cases are right now. Texas is already like 6th in the world as reported without those numbers. If this is a political attempt to mislead people into opening up and going back to school it seems criminal. People's lives are at stake here.

    I'm writing our Governor, Congressmen, and Senators about this. This is BS. The article also said the federal government is rolling out a program to use thousands of antigen tests in nursing homes across the country. Does this mean Texas won't report positive cases?

    Everybody should write our representatives on this. I wonder if schools will use these unreported tests as well for testing any employees with symptoms. Maybe I should write Biden about this or the Lincoln Project, and let them include this point in one of their ads.
     
    #2910 deb4rockets, Aug 3, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
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  11. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    It is a sad reality. I myself can't take the chance teaching right now because I live with my mother, who is at high risk. It's just a tough situation for everyone working for a school district, weighing the risk. It's especially risky in jobs like mine where close contact is necessary. School nurses will be having to make their educated guesses on the scores of kids each day who ask to go to the nurse because they don't feel good. It's just so risky and scary.
     
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  12. RayRay10

    RayRay10 Houstonian

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  13. RayRay10

    RayRay10 Houstonian

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    End of that thread:
    Craig Spencer MD MPH
    @Craig_A_Spencer

    13h

    To combat #COVID19, we need clear guidance, based on science and public health, from trusted authorities. And we must amplify the right voices. Because public health principles - not political bluster - will get us through this. And we will get through this. Be safe everyone.
     
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  14. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    If we combine this with what Jeff says... I'd really, really hope that something like that wouldn't be the case but I'd be an idiot not to expect it.

    It's going to be hard for us regular folks to tell what the hell is really going on, these tests not being reported is criminal either way, either by gross unplanned negligence or by ill intent, we NEED to have accurate data within the appropriate time table.
     
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  15. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    I'm just wondering who has the authority to make the decision as to whether the states report these tests or not. Whoever made that decision for Texas might have political reasons to make the numbers seem lower than they actually are.
     
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  16. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    Tests shouldn't even be given if they aren't reported. Seems like a waste of time, resources, and money if the results aren't deemed valid, for whatever reason.
     
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  17. sirbaihu

    sirbaihu Member

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    Sorry to inject this evil idea, but why isn't Bill Gates trying to be the mask king or PPE king? Instead of the vaccine king?
    Hey Elon Musk: rock some PPE, rock star.
    America can't make it's own PPE huh? We depend on China for that, but they are big meanies?

    Listen guys: we are the cannon fodder. We are the suckers, the rubes.
    They don't even want everyone to have a mask: they want everyone to get expensive vaccine shots. They're going to string this thing along all the way until someone has a vaccine to sell.

    We are the chumps needed to make the money flow for the people who are not on the front lines.
    It is known for a statistical fact that more people will die by opening schools. If you're involved, you're one of the suckers, the mass of fodder, grist for the mill, like me.
     
  18. vlaurelio

    vlaurelio Contributing Member

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    eureka!
     
  19. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    Masks aren't a cure. Masks while helpful but are only limited effectiveness. At the moment we don't have a cure or something that will actually prevent the disease. We have treatments and things that will slow it down. What might possibly stop the disease and allow us to return back to where we were at in 2019 is a vaccine.
     
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  20. sirbaihu

    sirbaihu Member

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    You are exactly right: at the moment, we don't have a vaccine. But we could have more PPE and masks. But we don't. This crisis started five months ago, and American manufacturing has proven limper than T-Rump without injections. We have no vaccine, yep, and no PPE and masks.

    Masks don't work so well? Still, wouldn't it be better if America were flooded with masks and PPE? Is anyone even trying to flood America with masks and PPE? Oh, Kushner wants in on that racket. I wonder why. . . .
     

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