This pandemic has revealed the highs and lows of human behavior; this story spotlights the low. What a social paradox for those who represent and supposedly guide a school district to display willful ignorance and/or non-critical thinking and/or calloused sycophancy...
Even if the superintendent doesn't believe in evolution, one can hope he will evolve one day.
Meanwhile, sending supportive thoughts to your daughter and all the students and staff of the district.
So, here is the situation for my daughter who teaches music at a Texas elementary school near Austin.
Her district has 450+ cases of confirmed lab tested covid this week. We know there are any more than that out with covid because absences are huge and tests are hard to come by.
My daughter's school had over 150 students absent today, there are approximately 650 in her school. There were 9 teachers out with Covid. The district dash board only counts 31 students at her school as having covid and 5 teachers. My daughter has received MANY more confirmed covid positive notifications for students then the district has documented on their site for this week. She is seeing half of classes absent in multiple instances. Again there are 9 teachers out this week alone with Covid which is also off from the official n the district total.
One teacher she teaches with tested positive on Sunday. She still feels bad and has a temp just below 100 degrees. She was told by the principle she MUST come in or lose pay because her temp was under 100 degrees. The "5 days" is a new CDC thing now, but only if you are asymptomatic. The district new rules say a staff member must return to work 5 days after symptom onset occurs and with no fever for 24 hours. 99.8 isn't considered a fever.
So, the actual numbers the district is reporting on their dashboard are way under represented and still they are sky high. Teachers are being required to come back even if they don't feel well enough to do so. The superintendent refuses to close any school or have even a grade level go online.
My daughter is 50 - 50 at best on whether she will remain a teacher in the district next year or even if she will complete the year.
@lovendures I couldn’t even bring myself to “like” your post. That Texas school district is such a mess. I think there’s a concerted effort in many red states to suppress their Covid case numbers. Imagine being forced to come back into the classroom while still sick. Horrible decisions are being made and all because of our political divide. I wouldn’t blame your daughter for leaving.
I am having fantasies of off-the-record conversations with newspaper reporters. The Houston Chronicle is pretty liberal. I am unfamiliar with the main paper in Austin. They would jump on the story, I bet, but I wouldn't want your daughter in any sort of jeopardy; she has enough already.
@bluebelle Also a concerted effort to break things -- institutions, public education, a sense of civic-mindedness. So we all become one big Lord of the Flies-type society, except it's the adults acting like savages. It's such utter madness that it's hard to comprehend how long we can go on this way.
Sorry for everyone in the states where gov't is working against you. NY is a cluster-f of infection but at least there is some semblance of not-crazy leadership here. Everyone masking, even on the streets. (Masks, btw, also keep you face warm in the winter.)
@bluebelle @lynnventura @lovendures
I read an article recently about pandemic vs. endemic. One of the points discussed was how, essentially since the flu epidemic of 1918-20, we have remained in an "endemic pandemic" of flu. Up until that point in time, flu never spread worldwide. There would be local, regional outbreaks that would die off. But WWI was the beginning of an era of global travel. Up until then wars were restricted to one continent at a time, and people didn't travel abroad for pleasure at all (except the very wealthy in small numbers). Since then the flu has never really gone away. Every year various strains mutate, new ones emerge then mutate, etc. So it's been over 100 years of having to deal with influenza every winter globally.
The article then went on to predict that Coronavirus SARS (which COVID is a form of) will behave similarly to flu for the next several hundred years. Vaccination, much like for flu, will be key. Human nature being what it is, people will forget to take precautions. And much like flu, the elderly and those with fragile health will die.
@laura-f Thanks, Laura. That’s a good article indeed. Nearly two years ago, Lovendures introduced us to Dr. John Campbell of the U.K. on YouTube. He does a daily video international update on Covid and always presents good data and scientific research. He doesn’t anticipate Covid going away either. I can definitely manage with a yearly Covid vaccine.
It’s good to hear from you again, my friend!
@laura-f Nice to see you posting again. Yup, this things going to be with us for a long time, but the human body will come to recognize it enough that it won't kill nearly as many people as it is now. Like the flu, however, it will still be lethal to some. Yearly shots and anti-virals will become common for those who recognize the threat. The folks who refuse to admit reality will pay dearly.
Novak Djokovic.
Just wow!
What a nightmare and what a mess. Life will never be the same for him and I don't think he has won any fans in Australia. Or the world.
For me the worst thing is plain and simple. His blatant disregard for human life.
Dec. 18, he did a media interview and a photo shoot at his tennis center in Belgrade. He later said he knew he was Covid-positive, calling it an “error of judgment” to follow through with the interview but saying he had felt “obliged” to.
The journalists involved said they were never told Mr. Djokovic was positive.
Of all his actions, which include a history of other dismissive stances toward the pandemic and sometimes petulant outbursts on the court, his behavior after receiving a positive test seems to be what set the world on edge over his moral compass.
You DON'T knowingly put people at risk. Period! Error of judgement?
Nope, lack of moral compass.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/world/australia/novak-djokovic-australian-open.html
Australians generally are competitive and we here in NSW apparently are now beating USA infection rates on a per capita basis. Not sure I want that distinction. I guess we must have been feeling left out of what the rest of the world had happening.
Mind you West Australia is still basically Covid free. They are staring down the barrel of borders opening early Feb and aren’t very happy with us in the Eastern states. Be interesting to see if McGowan baulks at the last minute and secedes from Australia and creates his own country. (Just joking)
On 8 December Perrottet gave a speech at the National Press Club in which he pushed for state and commonwealth reform “as we move beyond the pandemic”.
By mid-December though, as the highly-contagious Omicron variant led to mounting case numbers, the equation began to change. This week, as the premier marked 100 days in office, he finds himself beset by mounting crises including a failing testing regime, an overwhelmed hospital system, supply chain shortages and a skyrocketing infection rate which ranks among the highest in the world.
Oh well,
Regards to all
@lovendures Hi, what a stuff up all round.
According to court documents, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke decided to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa because the tennis star’s presence in Australia increases anti-vax sentiment and disregard for Covid-19 rules.
“Mr Djokovic’s presence in Australia may pose a health risk to the Australian community, in that his presence in Australia may foster anti-vaccination sentiment leading to other unvaccinated persons refusing to become vaccinated, other unvaccinated persons being reinforced in their existing view not to become vaccinated, and/or a reduction in the uptake of booster vaccines,” Mr Hawke wrote.
“There is evidence to suggest that Mr Djokovic has, in the past, shown an apparent disregard for the need to isolate following the receipt of a positive Covid-19 test result.
“Given Mr Djokovic’s high profile status and position as a role model in the sporting and broader community, his ongoing presence in Australia may foster similar disregard for the precautionary requirements following receipt of a positive COVID-19 test in Australia. In particular, his behaviour may encourage or influence others to emulate his prior conduct and fail to comply with appropriate public health measures following a positive COVID-19 test result, which itself could lead to the transmission of the disease and serious risk to their health and others.”
Will see what happens, definitely could have been handled far far better than it has been
Regards to all
@Lawrence et al, I was thinking exactly the way you were thinking about Covid, until I saw information which suggests that covid is not getting milder. On the contrary, some some scientists suggest that, except for Omnicron, Covid has been getting more virulent. Omnicron evolved from original Covid in 2020, not from Delta.
NPR published an interview with a Harvard scientist who said that the studies show that Alpha was 40% more likely to kill you than original Covid. And Delta was twice as likely to put you in the hospital.
It's true that Omicron is less severe, although still dangerous for the unvaccinated. But he said that Omicron did not evolve from Delta. It came from an earlier version of the virus that was circulating in 2020. But he also says something that doesn't make sense: that Omnicron was more severe than the original Covid. That statement clashes with information that Omnicron is less likely to infect the lungs.
So Omicron is less severe than Delta but it didn't evolve from Delta. Also Omnicron hit a largely vaccinated population and the vaccines have held up well.
It's the people who were unvaccinated who are the ones filling up and straining the hospitals now in NY and Boston, where the new surge is following a similar pattern that original covid followed through the country.
Fact check: The theory that SARS-CoV-2 is becoming milder
The good news is that we have vaccines that protect us from this thing. We also have masks that are excellent protection, provided you keep changing them and know how to wear them. But people need to remain vigilant, stay up to date with vaccines, and mask.
I am not going to appointments where I have to sit near unvaccinated people. I have a friend who attended a funeral home fully masked, although the deceased family was unmasked. She came down with Covid two days later after being careful for two years.
If you are unvaccinated, then stay away from people who are not wearing masks, wear a good well fitting mask, and change the mask regularly.
@lovendures, like @raincloud, I am also having fantasy conversations (promise I won't though) with Austin newspapers about that Texas elementary school principle.
Well this a surprise, there has been an upside to Covid here in Australia, our life expectancy increased by 8 months.
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7583417/life-expectancy-rising-through-pandemic/?cs=9397
Who would have thunk it,
Regards to all
Restoring these fun posts:
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01/25/2022 3:42 pm
Yesterday in the mail through the USPS I received my Government Covid tests! YAY!!! It arrived a day early!
On Saturday I received a package of masks shipped by the USPS. YAY!! It arrived 3 days early!Excited about my packages and excited they arrived early.
Wondering what the heck happened to the USPS???
Early?
Jeanne Mayell, Lauren, Vesta and 4 people liked
(@pegesus)
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01/25/2022 4:57 pm
@lovendures That's great! We have our covid tests ordered but I didn't know you could order masks through the mail. I will look into that!
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Yesterday in the mail through the USPS I received my Government Covid tests! YAY!!! It arrived a day early!
@lovendures we received ours yesterday. It was bitter cold outside but our local health department put out a message through every channel they could think of that the tests would still be good as long as you let them come to room temperature in your house before using: https://www.dhd10.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/DHD10_PressRelease_AtHomeTestColdTemps_1.27.2022.pdf
Sometimes there just aren't any words.
Five COVID-19 testing centers in Arizona and hundreds more across the country have shut down following accusations the owners spent millions on luxury items while test samples were stored in garbage bags, personal information was jeopardized, and sick patients received false negative results.
Illinois-based testing company Center for COVID Control and its primary laboratory, Doctors Clinical Lab, are now under investigation by the FBI and multiple states.
This is a link to a Grand Rounds talk (Grand Rounds are educational talk at medical institutions) at the Mayo Clinic on the Omicron variant. There is a sobering slide in this presentation on what it would take to end the pandemic. Spoiler alert: we are not doing any of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32IAD5NyqWg