Public schools have to reopen at this point in the US. We've went all in for reopening without controlling the virus. We lost. We can't fall too far behind the rest of the world in education, however. At this point, we need to protect the vulnerable (elderly folks and those who are immune-compromised) but we really can't protect everybody. That ship has sailed for the US and for Brazil, the UK and Sweden. Sorry Libs, you were right (and me, but the anti-science religious fundamentalists drowned me out), but it's too late now...
So, just toss our children into it? Yeah, putting our literal future at risk seems a good idea...
Pretty much. I don't think there's going to be much of a choice at this point. We'll have to trust our school superintendents to open them up safely. Would be nice to get them some relief money too, but I'm not holding my breath...
There are about 50 million public school age children in the US at this point. Even assuming the mortality rate for this age group is as tiny as .01%, you are still talking 5000 dead children if the disease spreads. That's obviously probably a high number, but let's say even a small fraction of that takes place. If you think there is an uproar now, wait till about 100-200 parents of dead kids are on the Today show telling their story. To say nothing of the families of the teachers.
I saw someone mention the other day that many parents are terrified of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) even though the percentages wouldn't indicate there is much to worry about. This is no different. If there is even a 1/10,000 chance your kid's case could be the one that turns tragic, many, many parents will not take that risk. Anything above zero in their mind's eye is too much.
There's no helping people like that. Barring a miracle-cure or a vaccine, we're going to be living with risk for quite a while. How did we ever survive before vaccines?
We didn't. Dead children. Millions of dead children. Basically your odds of living to 15 or so was probably about 40%. It's the real anchor as to why life expectancy was so low.
Good news, after that point, you were probably going to outlive the average life expectancy.
Well I was thinking about the late 19th, early 20th century, not the Middle Ages so I don't think it was quite that bad, but point taken.
It didn't really change much from then until about the 1920s.
Preventing child mortality from infectious disease is one of, if not THE greatest reasons for the population boom of the 20th century. Reducing maternal mortality, improving agricultural production efficiency, and overall better living conditions helped, but the fact that you had a roughly even chance of dying before reaching breeding age is what slowed down population growth.
A 3 month study of Covid-19 patients by King's College London showed significant drops in antibody levels over that time. This is further evidence that it is unlikely that natural herd immunity to the disease will develop - something that was never particularly probable anyway given that this does not happen with any of the 6 other coronaviruses known to infect humans.
This also reduces the prospects for a long-lasting vaccine, though that may still be possible as a result of the various novel approaches being explored to make vaccines.
You don't have to be in a specific building to obtain what passes for education here in the US. There is zero reason to not use at home curriculum. Cane be done by computer or booklet, I've done both. There's already gobs of homeschool curriculum and resources available. The only reason to put children back in school during the pandemic is if you think socializing only counts if its in person, and that its more important than life.
I halfway disagree with that. Online education and work has definitely it's perks and for those who can handle it there is no reason not to do it, but people are simply not the same.
Each student regardless of age learns at their own speed with their own educational tools for help, and this is for content as well as for social interactions. Some need more attention by a teacher, some parents just cannot explain the material well enough. Some learn from their fellow students, some need to learn how to function by themselves or in a group. In a class the teacher can dynamically check with their students if the material sticks or not while online you miss the behavioural clues. The aspect of personalised learning is definitely important.
This is not to say that we should abolish studying from home altogether but we should find a healthy mix and give students the opportunity to customise their mix.
A person needs to learn social aspects from both teleconferencing as well as physical interactions. I see plenty of people wither away while they work at home while at work they were vibrant and contributing. Talking to a screen makes them feel too isolated to care or they feel helpless that they cannot interact well.
I see quiet people now overperform compared to the past years because the social pressure (needing to speak up in meetings or simply even in presenting) is so much lower. One example someone whom we hired with a teleconference interview who underperformed at the office tp our regrets but who is now doing exceptionally well, so we are considering to have a discussion with her to determine the most efficient way forward for when more people come back to work (to have for her the most effective home office split).
In my country schools (below the age of 12) are open since mid June. No kid has been infected since and no extra breakouts have occurred. Numbers are going down continuously. End of August highschool and universities will go open again.
The 1.5m society seems to hold up with the exception of some illegal parties here and there.
Return to school or work is fully optional. Should you be part of a risk group or just be concerned then you are allowed without judgement to keep your kids and yourself at home.
Science isn't always right but it has the ability to learn and adapt. Advices will constantly change due to new revelations. Should the 1.5m fail then the country will quickly revert back to the previous stage without issues.
I am truthfully more concerned going to the grocery than going to work or to have my kids in school. It is like real life pacman sometimes. People either wait 5m away from you and create a full aisle blockade or they don't do the 1.5m, come in together with one cart each to buy one loaf of bread and they consider it a nice trip outside our something.
I don't think people can fully appreciate how much stupider things are in the US than anywhere else. We haven't done ANY of the legwork of other countries to make going back to school viable. We have an absentee federal government at best. At worst, you could make a serious argument that one of our political parties is working FOR the virus.
The discourse is this:
"We need to reopen schools!!!!!"
"Ok, great, what's the detailed plan on how we're going to do that safely??"
"We don't have one, but they need to be opened anyway!!!!!"
I don't think people can fully appreciate how much stupider things are in the US than anywhere else. We haven't done ANY of the legwork of other countries to make going back to school viable. We have an absentee federal government at best. At worst, you could make a serious argument that one of our political parties is working FOR the virus.
The discourse is this:
"We need to reopen schools!!!!!"
"Ok, great, what's the detailed plan on how we're going to do that safely??"
"We don't have one, but they need to be opened anyway!!!!!"
That's where we are.
Betsy DeVoss = totally brain-dead puppet
I watched her floundering through that debacle of an interview on Sunday. One of the worst performances in an interview I've ever seen.
Btw: I didn't vote for her asshole husband 'Amway Boy' when he ran for governor either. They're like the Royal Family of Western Michigan.
This shit-show is probably going to cost my daughter her basketball season. She was just starting to take it seriously and was starting to enjoy playing, too...
I don't think people can fully appreciate how much stupider things are in the US than anywhere else. We haven't done ANY of the legwork of other countries to make going back to school viable. We have an absentee federal government at best. At worst, you could make a serious argument that one of our political parties is working FOR the virus.
The discourse is this:
"We need to reopen schools!!!!!"
"Ok, great, what's the detailed plan on how we're going to do that safely??"
"We don't have one, but they need to be opened anyway!!!!!"
That's where we are.
Betsy DeVoss = totally brain-dead puppet
I watched her floundering through that debacle of an interview on Sunday. One of the worst performances in an interview I've ever seen.
Btw: I didn't vote for her asshole husband 'Amway Boy' when he ran for governor either. They're like the Royal Family of Western Michigan.
This shit-show is probably going to cost my daughter her basketball season. She was just starting to take it seriously and was starting to enjoy playing, too...
Sending kids back to school may or may not be safe depending on the location. Having Betsy DeVoss ostensibly "in charge" of this operation is going to make anyone who watches her think "holy shit, if this woman is at the helm, I think we're keeping the kids home". At this point, they've lost legitimacy with portions of the public.
Personally, if Erik Prince's (Blackwater CEO) sister (which Devoss is) is saying it's safe to go back, I'm instinctively assuming she has a nefarious motive. My guess is the apple doesn't fall far from the war criminal tree.
At this point, it's hard to tell if this refusal to do anything at all to combat the virus at the federal level is just paralyzing incompetence or part of a darker motive.
You are looking at it at the macro level, when the micro is more appropriate.
Just like how different governors, Republican and Democrat, handled their own states coronavirus response responsibly, each parent should be looking at what their school board is doing to prevent the spread and not what DeVoss is saying.
There were guidelines released by the CDC for school openings. Yes Trump panicked and had them lessened, but it is still a minimum guideline parents should be looking for before sending their kids back to school.
And if they are not following the guidelines, or aren’t doing something that you personally think should be done. Speak up, contact them and have every parent that you know contact them.
You all should look into implementing them. I use to think it was just more bureaucratic rot but recent circumstances dictate they may have a purpose after all.
@lroumen "Each student regardless of age learns at their own speed with their own educational tools for help, and this is for content as well as for social interactions. "
Well they definitely aren't getting that at public schools. Here in the US, the private and homeschool systems exist because public schools DON'T mark each child's needs. Its all standardized and every child has to learn the same things, the same way, and at the same speed.
I refuse to believe that teachers in the US are drones. Then you might as well fire them all because education is one of the main pillars in what children can and cannot achieve later in life.
You don't have to be in a specific building to obtain what passes for education here in the US. There is zero reason to not use at home curriculum. Cane be done by computer or booklet, I've done both. There's already gobs of homeschool curriculum and resources available. The only reason to put children back in school during the pandemic is if you think socializing only counts if its in person, and that its more important than life.
2 words: (mandatory) Lab Courses. Namely science labs, but arguably anything that needs hands-on experience.
My mother is and has been a chemistry professor at a university for more than 40 years. Her lecture has been reasonably converted to online in a crunch because of COVID, but dry-lab is no replacement for actual presence in labs.
She has told me that the tentative plan in the future (Summer 2/Fall/Spring) is to basically hold half-capacity labs done in groups so that the group members alternate doing each lab in person.
I refuse to believe that teachers in the US are drones. Then you might as well fire them all because education is one of the main pillars in what children can and cannot achieve later in life.
Welcome to America. Teachers that actually get to properly teach are the minority. (Its not their fault, they aren't happy with it either.) That's why private schools and homeschooling are such big industries here.
@Quickblade "2 words: (mandatory) Lab Courses. Namely science labs, but arguably anything that needs hands-on experience.
My mother is and has been a chemistry professor at a university for more than 40 years. Her lecture has been reasonably converted to online in a crunch because of COVID, but dry-lab is no replacement for actual presence in labs."
That's university though. Those students are adults and can decide for themselves.
Some interesting and promising initial results from the Oxford vaccine trial. If it continues to work in the manner stated in that article, it is potentially really good news.
I worked on antiviral agents and clinical trials before so I'll give my thoughts on the trials.
It is a bit sketchy how they do it.
I did not see a phase 0, micro dose body kinetics responses, which is always good practice because then you know how the body interacts with it.
They seem to do phase 1 (safety in humans, side effects and dose ranging) and phase 2 (actual biological effect, meaning the thing they create works, and toxicity) together, BUT they only report phase 1, so safety. I'll give that the benefit of the doubt.
Looking at the study the dose ranging is simply a singular or double dose, which means ranging is poorly investigated. Maybe I can accept that they took a guess based on whether this is a known drug because then one can extrapolate, but this is sketchy. Phase 1 is usually done at several different doses with much larger ranges than a factor 2 (think factor 100 or more). So they don't convince me that dose ranging is investigated well.
I guess for the doses they investigate they look at efficacy immediately. Here it is a comparison to meningococcal vaccine and paracetamol if I understood well, both not antiviral corona agents, so it is easy to get the okay that their antiviral agent is equal or better than other known agents. This bit is doubtful at best.
Toxicity results, we will need to see.
I read that they have already a started phase 3 testing on people in Brazil without published results of phase 1+2. So without knowing what dose is safe and without ideas about side effects and toxicity. That does not seem scientifically ethic.
Theoretically PhDs can be stripped of title if they seriously malpractice. I am curious what happens if the Oxford vaccin turns out to be a dud because it is seriously rushed in order to 1) get publicity, and 2) get funding
Just what I was afraid of. A means of testing large groups of people simultaneously by 'pooling' (that should have been utilized months ago in the US) is pretty much off the table for now due to the surge of cases. So much for quick and reliable testing...
Covid19 awareness in my country has dropped to very low levels. People are tired of wearing masks, complain about having their freedom restricted (of course, the sacred right to party in a huge club ...) and believe the most incredible crap they read anywhere.
I'm starting to leave the area when such discussions begin, and it happens even among hospital staff!
Free tests for anyone who deliberately went on a holiday into an area with high or moderate risks, paid by the government (our taxes), but we who are handling Covid patients haven't been tested once.
And I'm so freaking mad at people who break the rules and are proud of it and complain about the "stupid, useless masks". After a long and unpleasant 24h shift last week I had to buy some groceries and had to literally bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming "I put a man your age on a respirator this night because of the disease that you're claiming doesn't exist, and the virus doesn't care if you believe in it!"
Our ICU nurses have offered their shifts on the Covid ward to colleagues who think that "it's just a common cold". All been refused. Just because disaster hasn't hit as hard here in Germany as in some places, people stop caring. And numbers are rising again.
I'm so. freaking. angry. Wear your freaking masks and keep your freaking distance.
Okay, I needed to vent. I hope you're all safe out there. I've been very quiet lately, for various reasons, but I keep thinking a lot about how people are affected, like @Skatan whose love is on another continent, like @BelgarathMTH and so many others who can't or couldn't do their job and earn money, like those who fear for their own and their loved ones' health and life. Like those whose access to mental health care is limited now. Like those who are afraid to leave the house, or those whose children are freaking out during a summer without camps or public pools.
Stay alert. It's not gone. And even if you don't believe it's dangerous, show some solidarity. And look at data, not propaganda.
I had the “freedom” conversation with a customer the other day. The answer to that is simple:
Freedom means you are free to live your life however you like as long as you don’t negatively affect others with you actions.
By not wearing a mask, or by not social distancing, you have the potential to not only take away another person’s freedom, but also their life.
And for the ‘useless’ masks comment, I stumbled upon this meme which explains how they work nicely:
~
COVID is far from over and everything that you are describing is pretty much how a second waves starts. The areas that will be the hardest hit are those that were able to negate the first wave quickly because they didn’t see the repercussions of the virus getting out of control.
So my advice. Yell at the idiot in the supermarket who isn’t wearing a mask. Tell him that only two types of people don’t require to wear masks, those with an underlining health issue and assholes. One of those groups shouldn’t be allowed out of the house, the other has health issues. What are they going to do? Not like they are going to be able to identify you, you’re wearing a mask.
Mask requirements being an infringement on "freedom" and the mindset behind it is truly the most juvenile collective temper tantrum I have ever seen in my life. People bitched about seat-belt laws, and they bitched about not being able to smoke indoors, but this is taking things to a completely different level. As I have said before, it's SLIGHTLY more inconvenient than putting on a sock. You can take the damn thing off when you leave the store and get in your car. At MOST, you are wearing it for 15-30 minutes at a time. I understand you may be seeing signs of this behavior in other countries, but in the US, it's absolutely rampant.
The 30% who fall into this category are negating the efforts of the other 70% of the population. It is an absolute tyranny of the minority, except this is the most extreme example, because it's life and death. Maybe not for you, maybe not for anyone in your house, but for SOMEONE who could have survived if you'd just put a fucking covering on your face. That is how rampant the selfishness in this country has gotten. It's a cultural sickness and makes me wonder if a quarter of the population are borderline sociopaths. The pedantic nonsense American citizens will come up with to claim their "rights" are being violated is outright pathetic. You would think they've been asked to sacrifice their first born child on an altar. Of course, what they are really doing is saying they are perfectly willing to sacrifice someone else so they aren't MILDLY uncomfortable for a half-hour. And yes, I will judge the person who makes that choice, and I will call them horrible. Because they are. But I won't waste my breath confronting one. Because unlike their attitude towards others, I actually give a shit and would feel guilty about possibly contributing to the agonizing death of someone else I don't know.
The only moral and ethical behavior to exhibit in the world we are currently living in is to keep your interactions with others to an absolute minimum and take all precautions available in public spaces you must go into. No, they are not "fun". Yet the vast majority of the world has figured out what to do and is generally fine with it. So someone needs to explain why those nations who HAVEN'T gotten the virus under control aren't amoral societies who value money and property more than life. But who the fuck am I kidding?? This is a country where the National Enquirer is staring you in the face every time you go through a supermarket line.
I'm starting to think people would be complaining about being forced to stay in a cellar if someone was bombing their town. We're so spoiled in Western Europe, with two generations growing up without war or natural disasters. And our individualism is killing us. Is the insight that you can't control everything that happens in your life really so frightening?
And I hate it when people go
"of course you believe everything they say, you're a doctor! I have my alternative sources of information!" Right, so you show the sources who confirm what you want to believe the same scepticism?
I want to emigrate to Vulcan.
Edited: Okay, Vulcans would kick me out because of my temper, but you know what I mean, logic and science...
I'm starting to think people would be complaining about being forced to stay in a cellar if someone was bombing their town. We're so spoiled in Western Europe, with two generations growing up without war or natural disasters. And our individualism is killing us. Is the insight that you can't control everything that happens in your life really so frightening?
And I hate it when people go
"of course you believe everything they say, you're a doctor! I have my alternative sources of information!" Right, so you show the sources who confirm what you want to believe the same scepticism?
I want to emigrate to Vulcan.
Edited: Okay, Vulcans would kick me out because of my temper, but you know what I mean, logic and science...
My sister tells me that science doesn't have all the answers then proceeds to tell me the truth lies within this elaborate conspiracy involving all of the world's governments (except Donald Trump, of course), nearly every educator, rich liberals, pedophiles, the Catholic Church, Muslims, CERND, the UN, the WHO, Hollywood and basically everybody with more than an Associates Degree in any science. She won't tell me anything more about it because she doesn't want to argue with me. I'm arrogant, you see. I feel like slitting my wrists with Occam's Razor sometimes... ?
I'm starting to think people would be complaining about being forced to stay in a cellar if someone was bombing their town. We're so spoiled in Western Europe, with two generations growing up without war or natural disasters. And our individualism is killing us. Is the insight that you can't control everything that happens in your life really so frightening?
And I hate it when people go
"of course you believe everything they say, you're a doctor! I have my alternative sources of information!" Right, so you show the sources who confirm what you want to believe the same scepticism?
I want to emigrate to Vulcan.
Edited: Okay, Vulcans would kick me out because of my temper, but you know what I mean, logic and science...
My sister tells me that science doesn't have all the answers then proceeds to tell me the truth lies within this elaborate conspiracy involving all of the world's governments (except Donald Trump, of course), nearly every educator, rich liberals, pedophiles, the Catholic Church, Muslims, CERND, the UN, the WHO, Hollywood and basically everybody with more than an Associates Degree in any science. She won't tell me anything more about it because she doesn't want to argue with me. I'm arrogant, you see. I feel like slitting my wrists with Occam's Razor sometimes... ?
How are the Catholics involved?? I also love this idea that parents and teachers are all involved in some massive plot to hurt Trump. Here's why it's impossible. No matter how gung ho you are about your politics, almost NO one is dedicated enough to their ideology to completely uproot their daily life on an indefinite basis to spite the other side. This theory that Democratic parents are willing to sit at home with their 7-year old for another 4 months simply to tank Donald Trump's poll numbers is total lunacy. See Michael J. Fox to Michael Douglas in "The American President" when he said "people don't give a damn about your life, they give a damn about their own".
I'm starting to think people would be complaining about being forced to stay in a cellar if someone was bombing their town. We're so spoiled in Western Europe, with two generations growing up without war or natural disasters. And our individualism is killing us. Is the insight that you can't control everything that happens in your life really so frightening?
And I hate it when people go
"of course you believe everything they say, you're a doctor! I have my alternative sources of information!" Right, so you show the sources who confirm what you want to believe the same scepticism?
I want to emigrate to Vulcan.
Edited: Okay, Vulcans would kick me out because of my temper, but you know what I mean, logic and science...
My sister tells me that science doesn't have all the answers then proceeds to tell me the truth lies within this elaborate conspiracy involving all of the world's governments (except Donald Trump, of course), nearly every educator, rich liberals, pedophiles, the Catholic Church, Muslims, CERND, the UN, the WHO, Hollywood and basically everybody with more than an Associates Degree in any science. She won't tell me anything more about it because she doesn't want to argue with me. I'm arrogant, you see. I feel like slitting my wrists with Occam's Razor sometimes... ?
Druids, man. "I shall be like the bamboo and flex". Knew he was up to something.
A typo, of course, but I couldn't resist. It's not like the intended entry makes any more sense.
There's a fundamental truth of human nature: large-scale conspiracies and cover-ups don't work. The more people involved, the faster they fall apart as someone talks.
And from where I'm sitting ... I've heard the ambulances go by. There was a second-wave cluster in the frat houses right here within a block or two from where I live.
Druids, man. "I shall be like the bamboo and flex". Knew he was up to something.
Thanks for making me laugh. Better for my nerves, certainly.
@Balrog99 , your sister sounds exactly like some of the people around here who make me want to bang my head against the wall. It's amazing how unreasonable people can be. Also, imagine what humanity would have achieved if so many organizations were really capable of working together on such a global level just to fake a disease...
This has been exceptionally easy for introverts like myself on the boredom front. Been training for it for 10 years it seems. Much of the population can't seem to handle it.
Comments
It didn't really change much from then until about the 1920s.
https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality
https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/06/Mortality-rates-of-children-over-last-two-millennia-800x533.png
Oh, and guess what? 1920s is when the majority of vaccines started getting developed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_vaccines
Preventing child mortality from infectious disease is one of, if not THE greatest reasons for the population boom of the 20th century. Reducing maternal mortality, improving agricultural production efficiency, and overall better living conditions helped, but the fact that you had a roughly even chance of dying before reaching breeding age is what slowed down population growth.
Oh, and guess what? 1920s is when the majority of vaccines started getting developed.
Edward Jenner anyone. Mind you I have every sympathy for the 8 year old boy he tested his theory on.
TR
This also reduces the prospects for a long-lasting vaccine, though that may still be possible as a result of the various novel approaches being explored to make vaccines.
Each student regardless of age learns at their own speed with their own educational tools for help, and this is for content as well as for social interactions. Some need more attention by a teacher, some parents just cannot explain the material well enough. Some learn from their fellow students, some need to learn how to function by themselves or in a group. In a class the teacher can dynamically check with their students if the material sticks or not while online you miss the behavioural clues. The aspect of personalised learning is definitely important.
This is not to say that we should abolish studying from home altogether but we should find a healthy mix and give students the opportunity to customise their mix.
A person needs to learn social aspects from both teleconferencing as well as physical interactions. I see plenty of people wither away while they work at home while at work they were vibrant and contributing. Talking to a screen makes them feel too isolated to care or they feel helpless that they cannot interact well.
I see quiet people now overperform compared to the past years because the social pressure (needing to speak up in meetings or simply even in presenting) is so much lower. One example someone whom we hired with a teleconference interview who underperformed at the office tp our regrets but who is now doing exceptionally well, so we are considering to have a discussion with her to determine the most efficient way forward for when more people come back to work (to have for her the most effective home office split).
In my country schools (below the age of 12) are open since mid June. No kid has been infected since and no extra breakouts have occurred. Numbers are going down continuously. End of August highschool and universities will go open again.
The 1.5m society seems to hold up with the exception of some illegal parties here and there.
Return to school or work is fully optional. Should you be part of a risk group or just be concerned then you are allowed without judgement to keep your kids and yourself at home.
Science isn't always right but it has the ability to learn and adapt. Advices will constantly change due to new revelations. Should the 1.5m fail then the country will quickly revert back to the previous stage without issues.
I am truthfully more concerned going to the grocery than going to work or to have my kids in school. It is like real life pacman sometimes. People either wait 5m away from you and create a full aisle blockade or they don't do the 1.5m, come in together with one cart each to buy one loaf of bread and they consider it a nice trip outside our something.
The discourse is this:
"We need to reopen schools!!!!!"
"Ok, great, what's the detailed plan on how we're going to do that safely??"
"We don't have one, but they need to be opened anyway!!!!!"
That's where we are.
Betsy DeVoss = totally brain-dead puppet
I watched her floundering through that debacle of an interview on Sunday. One of the worst performances in an interview I've ever seen.
Btw: I didn't vote for her asshole husband 'Amway Boy' when he ran for governor either. They're like the Royal Family of Western Michigan.
This shit-show is probably going to cost my daughter her basketball season. She was just starting to take it seriously and was starting to enjoy playing, too...
Sending kids back to school may or may not be safe depending on the location. Having Betsy DeVoss ostensibly "in charge" of this operation is going to make anyone who watches her think "holy shit, if this woman is at the helm, I think we're keeping the kids home". At this point, they've lost legitimacy with portions of the public.
Personally, if Erik Prince's (Blackwater CEO) sister (which Devoss is) is saying it's safe to go back, I'm instinctively assuming she has a nefarious motive. My guess is the apple doesn't fall far from the war criminal tree.
At this point, it's hard to tell if this refusal to do anything at all to combat the virus at the federal level is just paralyzing incompetence or part of a darker motive.
Just like how different governors, Republican and Democrat, handled their own states coronavirus response responsibly, each parent should be looking at what their school board is doing to prevent the spread and not what DeVoss is saying.
There were guidelines released by the CDC for school openings. Yes Trump panicked and had them lessened, but it is still a minimum guideline parents should be looking for before sending their kids back to school.
And if they are not following the guidelines, or aren’t doing something that you personally think should be done. Speak up, contact them and have every parent that you know contact them.
I am also guessing the US doesn’t have school board trustees eh? https://elections.ontarioschooltrustees.org/WhatDoTrusteesDo/SchoolBoardTrustees.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
You all should look into implementing them. I use to think it was just more bureaucratic rot but recent circumstances dictate they may have a purpose after all.
Well they definitely aren't getting that at public schools. Here in the US, the private and homeschool systems exist because public schools DON'T mark each child's needs. Its all standardized and every child has to learn the same things, the same way, and at the same speed.
2 words: (mandatory) Lab Courses. Namely science labs, but arguably anything that needs hands-on experience.
My mother is and has been a chemistry professor at a university for more than 40 years. Her lecture has been reasonably converted to online in a crunch because of COVID, but dry-lab is no replacement for actual presence in labs.
She has told me that the tentative plan in the future (Summer 2/Fall/Spring) is to basically hold half-capacity labs done in groups so that the group members alternate doing each lab in person.
Welcome to America. Teachers that actually get to properly teach are the minority. (Its not their fault, they aren't happy with it either.) That's why private schools and homeschooling are such big industries here.
@Quickblade "2 words: (mandatory) Lab Courses. Namely science labs, but arguably anything that needs hands-on experience.
My mother is and has been a chemistry professor at a university for more than 40 years. Her lecture has been reasonably converted to online in a crunch because of COVID, but dry-lab is no replacement for actual presence in labs."
That's university though. Those students are adults and can decide for themselves.
TR
It is a bit sketchy how they do it.
I did not see a phase 0, micro dose body kinetics responses, which is always good practice because then you know how the body interacts with it.
They seem to do phase 1 (safety in humans, side effects and dose ranging) and phase 2 (actual biological effect, meaning the thing they create works, and toxicity) together, BUT they only report phase 1, so safety. I'll give that the benefit of the doubt.
Looking at the study the dose ranging is simply a singular or double dose, which means ranging is poorly investigated. Maybe I can accept that they took a guess based on whether this is a known drug because then one can extrapolate, but this is sketchy. Phase 1 is usually done at several different doses with much larger ranges than a factor 2 (think factor 100 or more). So they don't convince me that dose ranging is investigated well.
I guess for the doses they investigate they look at efficacy immediately. Here it is a comparison to meningococcal vaccine and paracetamol if I understood well, both not antiviral corona agents, so it is easy to get the okay that their antiviral agent is equal or better than other known agents. This bit is doubtful at best.
Toxicity results, we will need to see.
I read that they have already a started phase 3 testing on people in Brazil without published results of phase 1+2. So without knowing what dose is safe and without ideas about side effects and toxicity. That does not seem scientifically ethic.
Theoretically PhDs can be stripped of title if they seriously malpractice. I am curious what happens if the Oxford vaccin turns out to be a dud because it is seriously rushed in order to 1) get publicity, and 2) get funding
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/trump-coronavirus-officials-testing-368441
I'm starting to leave the area when such discussions begin, and it happens even among hospital staff!
Free tests for anyone who deliberately went on a holiday into an area with high or moderate risks, paid by the government (our taxes), but we who are handling Covid patients haven't been tested once.
And I'm so freaking mad at people who break the rules and are proud of it and complain about the "stupid, useless masks". After a long and unpleasant 24h shift last week I had to buy some groceries and had to literally bite my tongue to keep myself from screaming "I put a man your age on a respirator this night because of the disease that you're claiming doesn't exist, and the virus doesn't care if you believe in it!"
Our ICU nurses have offered their shifts on the Covid ward to colleagues who think that "it's just a common cold". All been refused. Just because disaster hasn't hit as hard here in Germany as in some places, people stop caring. And numbers are rising again.
I'm so. freaking. angry. Wear your freaking masks and keep your freaking distance.
Okay, I needed to vent. I hope you're all safe out there. I've been very quiet lately, for various reasons, but I keep thinking a lot about how people are affected, like @Skatan whose love is on another continent, like @BelgarathMTH and so many others who can't or couldn't do their job and earn money, like those who fear for their own and their loved ones' health and life. Like those whose access to mental health care is limited now. Like those who are afraid to leave the house, or those whose children are freaking out during a summer without camps or public pools.
Stay alert. It's not gone. And even if you don't believe it's dangerous, show some solidarity. And look at data, not propaganda.
Freedom means you are free to live your life however you like as long as you don’t negatively affect others with you actions.
By not wearing a mask, or by not social distancing, you have the potential to not only take away another person’s freedom, but also their life.
And for the ‘useless’ masks comment, I stumbled upon this meme which explains how they work nicely:
~
COVID is far from over and everything that you are describing is pretty much how a second waves starts. The areas that will be the hardest hit are those that were able to negate the first wave quickly because they didn’t see the repercussions of the virus getting out of control.
So my advice. Yell at the idiot in the supermarket who isn’t wearing a mask. Tell him that only two types of people don’t require to wear masks, those with an underlining health issue and assholes. One of those groups shouldn’t be allowed out of the house, the other has health issues. What are they going to do? Not like they are going to be able to identify you, you’re wearing a mask.
The 30% who fall into this category are negating the efforts of the other 70% of the population. It is an absolute tyranny of the minority, except this is the most extreme example, because it's life and death. Maybe not for you, maybe not for anyone in your house, but for SOMEONE who could have survived if you'd just put a fucking covering on your face. That is how rampant the selfishness in this country has gotten. It's a cultural sickness and makes me wonder if a quarter of the population are borderline sociopaths. The pedantic nonsense American citizens will come up with to claim their "rights" are being violated is outright pathetic. You would think they've been asked to sacrifice their first born child on an altar. Of course, what they are really doing is saying they are perfectly willing to sacrifice someone else so they aren't MILDLY uncomfortable for a half-hour. And yes, I will judge the person who makes that choice, and I will call them horrible. Because they are. But I won't waste my breath confronting one. Because unlike their attitude towards others, I actually give a shit and would feel guilty about possibly contributing to the agonizing death of someone else I don't know.
The only moral and ethical behavior to exhibit in the world we are currently living in is to keep your interactions with others to an absolute minimum and take all precautions available in public spaces you must go into. No, they are not "fun". Yet the vast majority of the world has figured out what to do and is generally fine with it. So someone needs to explain why those nations who HAVEN'T gotten the virus under control aren't amoral societies who value money and property more than life. But who the fuck am I kidding?? This is a country where the National Enquirer is staring you in the face every time you go through a supermarket line.
And I hate it when people go
"of course you believe everything they say, you're a doctor! I have my alternative sources of information!" Right, so you show the sources who confirm what you want to believe the same scepticism?
I want to emigrate to Vulcan.
Edited: Okay, Vulcans would kick me out because of my temper, but you know what I mean, logic and science...
My sister tells me that science doesn't have all the answers then proceeds to tell me the truth lies within this elaborate conspiracy involving all of the world's governments (except Donald Trump, of course), nearly every educator, rich liberals, pedophiles, the Catholic Church, Muslims, CERND, the UN, the WHO, Hollywood and basically everybody with more than an Associates Degree in any science. She won't tell me anything more about it because she doesn't want to argue with me. I'm arrogant, you see. I feel like slitting my wrists with Occam's Razor sometimes... ?
We are a lot more similar than I thought.
How are the Catholics involved?? I also love this idea that parents and teachers are all involved in some massive plot to hurt Trump. Here's why it's impossible. No matter how gung ho you are about your politics, almost NO one is dedicated enough to their ideology to completely uproot their daily life on an indefinite basis to spite the other side. This theory that Democratic parents are willing to sit at home with their 7-year old for another 4 months simply to tank Donald Trump's poll numbers is total lunacy. See Michael J. Fox to Michael Douglas in "The American President" when he said "people don't give a damn about your life, they give a damn about their own".
The Pope is in on it...
What is "COVID-19"?
A typo, of course, but I couldn't resist. It's not like the intended entry makes any more sense.
There's a fundamental truth of human nature: large-scale conspiracies and cover-ups don't work. The more people involved, the faster they fall apart as someone talks.
And from where I'm sitting ... I've heard the ambulances go by. There was a second-wave cluster in the frat houses right here within a block or two from where I live.
It is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus sars-cov-2 - i.e. the current pandemic.
TR
Thanks for making me laugh. Better for my nerves, certainly.
@Balrog99 , your sister sounds exactly like some of the people around here who make me want to bang my head against the wall. It's amazing how unreasonable people can be. Also, imagine what humanity would have achieved if so many organizations were really capable of working together on such a global level just to fake a disease...
https://www.salon.com/2020/08/02/how-americans-inability-to-cope-with-boredom-is-spurring-the-spread-of-coronavirus/
This has been exceptionally easy for introverts like myself on the boredom front. Been training for it for 10 years it seems. Much of the population can't seem to handle it.