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A reason why CDC, unlike researchers in Britain, Germany and Austria, can't determine that kids and school workers get COVID in school buildings. @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/Theresa_Chapple/status/1356791250901475328
This part, too...
@KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @DanWeisbergTNTP https://twitter.com/Theresa_Chapple/status/1356794288491921409?s=19
@KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @DanWeisbergTNTP https://twitter.com/Theresa_Chapple/status/1356794288491921409?s=19
Which leads to school buildings and other workplaces. @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum @DanWeisbergTNTP https://twitter.com/Theresa_Chapple/status/1356794680856485888?s=19
When school systems can't provide PPE, reopening school buildings, especially amid uncontrolled spread, endangers all who are in them.
@KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum
@KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum
By the way: This isn't just a U.S. problem. Consider Ireland... @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @arotherham @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/NICU_doc_salone/status/1356580530616029184?s=19
Which brings up to B. 117. Which isn't just more transmissible, it is also quicker to infect. @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @DanWeisbergTNTP @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1356902000714211328?s=19
Research already shows that COVID infection can happen within less than 15 minutes. So this is really bad news. @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @DanWeisbergTNTP @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1356902468018458624?s=19
One key step: Lowering the contract tracing thresholds below 15 minutes. Especially since folks are getting infected with B.117 way below 15 minutes (and that threshold leaves out a lot of contacts to start even with main COVID). https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1356902256126402561
As seen in Israel, vaccinations can work together with lockdowns, school building shutdowns, masks and other efforts to bring down spread. It is likely to even work with B.117. But right now, the U.S. isn't vaccinating fast enough - and B.117 is a killer.
This will require federal action. Because in many states, governors are either making dumb moves such as allowing indoor dining (Newsom in California and Hogan in Maryland), or in red states like Florida, tying the hands of municipal and school officials. https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1355912207209558019
BTW: B.117 is now creating problems for Australia, one of the few nations to successfully suppress spread. School buildings will remain closed in Perth and the rest of Western Australia for another week. https://twitter.com/dan_braith/status/1355769097586319365
Back in the U.S., Dr. Leana Wen was one of the first to point out that the mission-oriented view of school reopeners and reopeners to prioritize 'learning loss' over loss of life was terrible. She offers this reminder. https://twitter.com/DrLeanaWen/status/1356969636684783617
If youth are truly the priority of reopeners and politicians, reducing and suppressing spread is crucial. Vaccinating school workers and then, children, is one critical step. Reducing community spread outside of school buildings is another.
Especially since the reality is that schools also serve meals - and you can be infected with COVID in under five minutes while eating with others. Which is a thing youth and even teachers do in school buildings. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-09/five-minutes-from-20-feet-away-south-korean-study-shows-perils-of-indoor-dining-for-covid-19
Again, it isn't just a U.S. problem (though the U.S. is particularly egregious in doing nothing). Consider Canada, especially Ontario, its largest province. https://twitter.com/tylerwatt90/status/1354856868875796483
Back to the U.S.: Federal action is necessary especially given the fecklessness of governors such as Kristi Noem in South Dakota. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1356988789114232832
As well as the fecklessness of some school leaders, especially in mayoral-controlled settings. Like Chicago, which is trying to reopen school buildings even with high infection rates. https://twitter.com/CRitsem/status/1356715317108604929
Meanwhile in Washington, Education Secretary-Designate Cardona states that he wants school buildings open as soon as possible and to keep them open, too.
Thing is, that's only possible when you suppress spread and get everyone vaccinated. https://twitter.com/AliceJCain/status/1356994244733521920
Thing is, that's only possible when you suppress spread and get everyone vaccinated. https://twitter.com/AliceJCain/status/1356994244733521920
The experience around the world proves one thing: Mitigation isn't enough. As CDC itself notes in its guidance, mask-wearing and other mitigation won't work well once infection rates hit 10 percent and new cases per day hit 200 per 100,000. Therefore, suppression is critical.
The hard work the nation must do to suppress COVID and eventually reopen school building won't stop being before us because some people want to be believe in magic.
Magic won't lead to safe reopening of school buildings. Hard effort done properly does.
Magic won't lead to safe reopening of school buildings. Hard effort done properly does.
This hard work includes improving broadband infrastructure and providing Black, Latino, Indigenous and low income communities with free high-speed broadband and technologies. So that families can learn and work safely. https://twitter.com/BmoreDoc/status/1357005613537120258
Back to DC: Cardona and Sen. Mitt Romney are debating the academic impact of small class sizes when that no longer matters.
The case for small class sizes has been made by COVID. In other words, large class sizes are bad for public health. https://twitter.com/matt_barnum/status/1357011167747653636
The case for small class sizes has been made by COVID. In other words, large class sizes are bad for public health. https://twitter.com/matt_barnum/status/1357011167747653636
Large class sizes means no social distancing. They also mean higher risks of spread within school buildings.
Even with vaccinations and suppression, small class sizes also reduces risk of spread of other diseases, including influenza.
Even with vaccinations and suppression, small class sizes also reduces risk of spread of other diseases, including influenza.
The lack of small class sizes was cited by the UK scientific advisory group SAGE as a factor in rampant spread within British schools. While masks will help keep spread low, you still need some social distancing, even with vaccinations and suppression. So small class sizes.
BTW: The Republicans on the Senate HELP Committee are making the case for why Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian and even many White families prefer all-virtual instruction. The bigotry that happens in many schools also happens in the halls of Congress. https://twitter.com/afhyslop/status/1357016815264817153
Back to COVID and schools: Given the virulence of B.117 and other variants, the solution isn't to do piecemeal measures and reopen school buildings. The solution lies in... https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1346899021621813249
This reality, by the way, isn't acknowledged by @EdTrust and its coalition in a letter it sent out today calling for Education Secretary Designate Cardona to require states to conduct standardized testing. https://twitter.com/EdTrust/status/1357046894569132033
Given the reality that online testing is hot garbage - a point that I've discussed in earlier threads - the only way states can conduct summative tests this year is by reopening school buildings. Which isn't a good idea during a raging pandemic. https://twitter.com/dropoutnation/status/1357052928440340486
Not knowing how well kids are doing is terrible. Bringing them into buildings when this nation still hasn't done what it takes to bring down and suppress community spread is worse.
Another reminder of the nation's failure to build a robust virtual ed infrastructure.
Another reminder of the nation's failure to build a robust virtual ed infrastructure.
Lunchrooms, along with ventilation and transportation, are the single-biggest in-school barriers to reopening. Given that you can contract COVID within five minutes when eating (which is always unmasked), doing in-person or even hybrid becomes a challenge. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357112686711091201
You can't do half-days, as some hybrid plans suggest. It's not so much that students can't get enough learning; in reality, under in-person, kids spend a lot of time moving around, doing recess, and doing physical ed anyway. It's about transportation. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357116388733837318
Half-days means kids on buses running four times a day bringing in groups of kids for day and afternoon classes. Which also adds to the issues of spread. Because social distancing on buses outside of public transport isn't really a thing.
By the way: Eating outdoors can be done during summertime. But you need way more social distancing that the six fee guidance. Which means fewer kids eating outdoors. If at all. A real problem given that kids get hungry and like to eat junk food on the regular.
Keep in mind that six feet was always inadequate. Now B.117 makes it folly. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357108948508299265
Meanwhile in San Francisco: Mayor London Breed, who has done little to help Latino residents and neighborhoods hit hard by COVID is suing the school district because it won't endanger the lives of those very families. https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1356975260495532032
This shouldn't be a surprise. Neither Breed nor the district see eye-to-eye on much of anything. She already criticized the district for renaming 44 school buildings named after problematic and often outright White Supremacist folks.
Breed is Black. https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1356975262450110467
Breed is Black. https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1356975262450110467
As I noted last week, while San Francisco's overall infection rate is around four percent, the infection rate for Latino residents, whose kids make up the plurality of SF Unified enrollment, is around 12 percent, or three times higher.
Also... https://twitter.com/dropoutnation/status/1354841786313805831
Also... https://twitter.com/dropoutnation/status/1354841786313805831
Breed herself has done little to expand testing to Latino communities in San Francisco. The city itself (along with California) is allowing outdoor dining (which ends up being covered indoor dining), despite Breed's proclamations about reopening school buildings.
I'd expect San Francisco Unified to countersue Breed and the city. They would have good reason to do so.
Honestly, school districts everywhere would be right to sue state and municipal governments for not shutting down dining or doing any real lockdowns.
Honestly, school districts everywhere would be right to sue state and municipal governments for not shutting down dining or doing any real lockdowns.
Breed, by the way, lacks credibility on anything regarding COVID. https://twitter.com/MaggieEThornton/status/1357133461576900610
Also keep in mind that for Breed, it is also a likely move towards making the case for mayoral control of the district. Breed currently appoints just two seats on SF Unified's board. She likely wants to have full control like her counterparts in New York, Chicago, and DC.
By the way: It doesn't have to be this way. Anywhere. https://twitter.com/saribethrose/status/1357058217214414849
It really doesn't. https://twitter.com/jarredamato/status/1357073739003924484
Problem is that school funding formulas don't really work to make summer school scalable. Also, most parents, including Black and Latino families as well as White households, would rebel against it. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357135912539463680
Sure, there is a case for 'summer schools' (fear of misnamed 'learning loss' or lack of acquisition of knowledge). But what most families want during summer are reductions of spread, plans for hybrid instruction in fall, better ventilation and more-robust virtual just in case.
Pardon the interruption: COVID ain't nothing to f--k with. https://twitter.com/KFF/status/1357143591563513856
Back to schools: France, which has worked to keep school buildings open during the pandemic, hopes it can keep them open by doing one million tests every month along with other protocols. https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1356997967681478658
At the same time, France may end up extending school holidays in order to reduce community spread. In other words, a short shutdown. https://www.thelocal.fr/20210128/france-considers-extending-school-holidays-to-counter-covid-spread
By the way: For kids, COVID is also nothing to f--k with. https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1357003439046156291
Whether or not France's measures are enough is an open question. Why? Here we go... https://twitter.com/Ecole_Oubliee/status/1357061284743766016
Scotland is looking to reopen school buildings in three weeks. But both the government and the teachers' union is pointing out that a lot depends on spread being significant reduced (if not suppressed). And there seems to be no mask requirements, either. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-55904466
Which brings us to the need for the U.S. to use high efficacy vaccines and not any low-efficacy jabs (like the one from Astra-Zeneca, which struggles to fight off the variants). https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1356986511552466947
Especially in light of South Dakota, where the governor is a feckless evil moron. https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1356989379986796548
Meanwhile Sarah Rasmussen notes something that myself and others smarter than I have said for a while: That the number of kids infected with COVID (especially in school buildings) has been undercounted from the beginning. https://twitter.com/SarahDRasmussen/status/1356601079614603273
Dr. Zoe Hyde has noted this in her threat about COVID and school buildings and folks like @Theresa_Chapple and @MaggieEThornton have also been pointing this out for quite a while... https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1336612124835995648
Back in September, Rasmussen found issues with one of the first studies of COVID and schools, which helped set the stage for the 'kids don't get COVID' and the reopening debate. It greatly understated the benefit of school building closures. https://twitter.com/SarahDRasmussen/status/1309437229622865920
The major point Rasmussen makes (trying not to oversimplify) is that initially, schools may not contribute to community spread or infections among kids. But eventually, once spread goes exponential... https://twitter.com/SarahDRasmussen/status/1356302433237008391
Researchers didn't notice this for a few key reasons. One big one: School buildings were among the first places to close at the beginning at the pandemic. So spread didn't happen. A point made in one early study in JAMA. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2769034
As the old saw goes, absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.
Recent studies such as CDC's on Wisconsin's infection rate increases in the last months of the year show this pattern: Almost no infections attributable to schools - until they reopen. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7004a2-H.pdf
Recent studies such as CDC's on Wisconsin's infection rate increases in the last months of the year show this pattern: Almost no infections attributable to schools - until they reopen. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7004a2-H.pdf
One key point: Reducing and suppressing community spread is critical. But it may not be enough. Because school buildings could have infection rates and spread that are higher than in the community. https://twitter.com/SarahDRasmussen/status/1356302460663586816
In other words, the U.S. has a lot of work to do. And it won't be easy. [We know!]
Just for laughs. [Not really.] https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357019722240425986
Dido Harding, by the way, runs the UK's contact tracing program. Which is considered a dumpster fire (though better than what we have in the U.S., which just duct tape or something). https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/20000-people-per-day-ignoring-test-and-trace-isolation-instruction-harding-admits/03/02/
Meanwhile in Italy... @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @DanWeisbergTNTP @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1357188602275352576?s=19
Which brings up this point. @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @DanWeisbergTNTP @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/Dr2NisreenAlwan/status/1357045651322855424?s=19
This must be understood... @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @DanWeisbergTNTP @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357204055110676480?s=19
As well as this (it's been said before)... @KenyaBradshaw @ConorPWilliams @DanWeisbergTNTP @selmekki @karinchenoweth @jacobwaters @lutzfernandez @DanGordonDC @DataDrivenMD @ericlerum https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1346362176035020800?s=19
Meanwhile, a report from CRPE finds what we already know: Social-Emotional Learning is a cheap substitute for providing youth with mental health care. Which school systems wouldn't do anyway if we had community mental care systems. https://twitter.com/CRPE_UW/status/1357067722702557184
Many school systems originally decided to hold classes about emotional well-being. What happened is that the guidance counselors found that it was better to actually address individual student emotional challenges. Which was already hard to do before the pandemic.
I've said this before about SEL. I'll say it again... https://twitter.com/dropoutnation/status/1336758042575171587
Meanwhile, another reminder about why Black, Latino and Indigenous households prefer all-virtual versus in-person. [Hint: They are at the business end of the pandemic.] https://twitter.com/roderickgraham/status/1357330197352239105
This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]
![This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtY4EqoXIAAaOpI.png "This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]")
![This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtY4EqtWgAENSnn.png "This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]")
![This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtY4ErFXcAEH6YA.png "This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]")
![This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EtY4ErYXAAMvgVD.png "This from APM's Color of Coronavirus Project... [ https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race#counts-over-time]")
Folks such as @ABecenti and @Ruth_HHopkins, by the way, can provide important perspective on the how COVID is furthering oppression of Native nations. You should follow them. Also, here's the Guardian piece on Indigenous nations and COVID. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/04/native-americans-coronavirus-covid-death-rate?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Which brings us back to the whole thing about reopeners pushing for things without considering what Black and Brown folks may want... https://twitter.com/LadyTenn/status/1357337408333750280
As well as the reality that White folks are out here grabbing vaccinations, while Black and Brown folks (especially school workers and those in 'essential' jobs - who have kids) don't get any. https://twitter.com/DrBrittaniJ/status/1357069647191891972
Which reminds us that one-third of all COVID deaths among Black people are under age 65, including many Black mothers and fathers. Whose kids would be forced back into school buildings to be infected and then spread at home, if reopeners had their way. https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1357331446424342529
BTW: This. Is. No. Lie. https://twitter.com/DrBrittaniJ/status/1357069648043380741
Meanwhile in Philly: The school district's solution to poor ventilation: Basic fans.
https://twitter.com/RealgwenI/status/1356684831103606785
https://twitter.com/RealgwenI/status/1356684831103606785
As Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor wrote last month in the New Yorker, Motown Philly has a long history of sending Black and Latino youth into asbestos-laden and unsafe school buildings before the pandemic. A reality that isn't changing now with COVID. https://twitter.com/RealgwenI/status/1357146683512131584
Again, if you wonder why Black, Latino, Indigenous and even Asian folks are, by and large, prefer all-virtual, take a look at Philly. And Chicago. And a whole lot of urban and suburban districts where almost nothing has been done to make school buildings safer.
It's not just the teachers' unions. Not at all. Folks are voting with their feet. In light of the COVID variants now hitting the U.S., districts, states and the federal government should stop trying to reopen now and get ready to do so in the fall. https://twitter.com/MicheleCaracapp/status/1357130168565968899
Much of that work, by the way, begins with establishing and re-establishing trust with Black and Brown people - and by stemming and suppressing community spread so that reopening is possible by August and September. https://twitter.com/karinchenoweth/status/1357342629407510528
At the same time, school systems, states and the federal government should be using virtual as a tool for providing tutoring that can help kids catch and keep up. Look at what Italy is doing now. https://twitter.com/DurRobert/status/1356911790152708097
Back to Indigenous nations and COVID: Navajo Nation has seen some of the highest levels of COVID infection, death and debilitation. In some states, Navajo Nation has higher death tolls than the overall population. https://twitter.com/ABecenti/status/1357132348479967237
