A School Reopens, and the Coronavirus Creeps In

We knew it had to happen in Indiana sooner or later, for one of its school districts opened too early, and students are suffering the consequences.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/us/schools-reopening-indiana-coronavirus.html

@angeldeb82: link not working

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/us/schools-reopening-indiana-coronavirus.html they forgot the l at the end.

Thanks. I fixed the link at my first posting.

Isolate close that room for 14 days, those kids exposed and move on.

The classrom itself? Just give it a round of cleaning.

If students have to move between different classrooms for different classes the amount of people you suddenly can come in close contact with rises quickly. A few positive cases and half the school is in quarantine.

@horgen: if there was confirmed covid, the room

Has to be shut down for 14 days per cdc.

Ah. Here it would only be cleaned/disinfected I think.

So the student was tested before the school year and came to school prior to receiving his or her results?

That's what happens in the US as well.

@horgen: yeah it also depends on exposure

@LJS9502_basic: ?

Reopening schools is a bad idea. Schools are germ boxes in the first place and sending kids to school during a pandemic is practically asking them to bring coronavirus home. It's long past due for America to get serious on this. Just hold class remotely. Once we have a vaccine, make it mandatory in order to go back.

@YearoftheSnake5: You need a liberal in office for that, conservatives will never take this seriously.

the average turn around time for tests in the US is something like 7 days... pretty dismal

@comp_atkins: Ya, I just dont understand why someone felt the need to be tested and decided to go out before results were back.

This is sad.

No disrespect to all the hardworking teachers and school staff, but American education k-12 is sort of bad for the most part. It's certainly not worth dying over lol.

I've read that testing results take upwards of 1-2 weeks to receive now, which essentially defeats the entire purpose of testing since you are supposed to be quarantined for that long if infected anyway.

Yeah I don't get it either. I'm assuming there were remote options in place as well or, you know, do what we used to do and just get your friend to bring you the assignments. Though we didn't have internet back then, I'm sure you don't even need a friend grabbing stuff for you these days haha.

1-2 weeks? Either the labs doing the testing are overworked or not properly staffed.

I just don’t understand why Trump and the Republican Party is doing this. At every turn, at every decision they make the wrong one.

@horgen: Just depends where you get it done. Wife went to hospital couple weeks ago and had her results after two hours.

@thegreatchomp: And that's sad because public health shouldn't be a partisan issue. I mean, it doesn't get much easier than this to do the right thing. Option A will get more people sick. Option B might be a little inconvenient, but it'll save lives until we can safely return to normal.

The GOP is afraid of waning power which is why they politicize this. Us v them for their base. It's why they gerrymander, attack the press, use false alarms over mail in voting etc. We are seeing the GOP in their death throes.

Reopening schools is going to be a disaster. We had the chance to lock down, get testing strategies, contingencies, and operational details done, but our administration f*cked it up so badly we don't stand a chance.

Instead we had Jared Kushner mulling plans on letting blue states suffer to help the elections come November.

@horgen: I got my results in 24 hours.

@n64dd: It was a Junior High School, so the student would have been in around 5 different classrooms, with around 20 or so other people in each of the rooms; so all of those (100+) would need to be isolated too.

The problem with an actual true lock down was that each state was different in its needs. Places like Montana, N/S Dakota, Wyoming, etc.., did not need the same actions as a New York or Florida or New Jersey. Now I would never argue for the feds receiving positive marks but our states also receive failing marks IMO. A segment will argue that we have never experienced such a problem (which isn't true) before so does that mean I should expect chaos the next time and the time after and the time after that......when "uncharted waters" comes our way?

That was quick. But different methods have different prep time or whatever it is called.

Doesn't matter. The entire country should have been locked down but we have no central leadership.

@horgen: It is was with Kaiser Permanente. They do it in house for their customers only, so it’s faster.

Saying that each state would have different needs is stating the obvious. States could deal with it as they saw fit, given they stay within 'guard rail' policies set forth by the federal government and managed their hospital infrastructure and infection rates on a needs basis. However, individual states don't have the real ability to shut down borders between others in lieu of an absence of country wide responses. If half of the states can't handle their sh*t the others that aren't hit as hard are put at a much greater risk. It's a basic collective action problem. The same example can be seen by people refusing to wear a mask, where it really takes all parties to act in unison to be most effective.

Additionally, many governors don't have the resources at their disposal to mount a truly effective plan like the president does. Trump had the ability to lead via top down directives and example but blew it. Instead he's casting blame on local leaders that have far less weapons at their disposal to fight this threat. So while you can fault many governors for mistakes and the choices they've made, this problem lacked a spear headed effort from the federal government to start.

In short, it's classic Trump shifting blame as per usual.

Each state having different needs is obvious but you still say to lock it all down? Many years ago the SCOTUS ruled (on at least three different occasions) a state could shut down its own borders for disease/disaster, etc.., . No one wanted a complete lock down even for a few weeks. The SAHO here in my state, as an example, was a epic joke. Could a more thorough solution been enacted? Absolutely. Our states are not as impotent as you want to suggest when it comes to resources. Recall what happened when (early on) Trump wanted to lock down and quarantine a hot spot aka NYC. Cuomo and his pals went ballistic talking about the act being illegal, unconstitutional, etc.., but lets do it on a nationwide level? The five boroughs was bad but nationwide good?

This is so stupid there's not even a vaccine out what are people thinking? that it's going to magically disappear? I say by October Schools will start shutting down again. This country never learns I feel bad for the kids growing up in this pandemic era.

Unfortunately the trumpers and the wealthy that CAN stay home want everything open. trumpers because they sadly believe it's not real and the wealthy for their money.

CDC wants schools open and everybody in charge of education. So you're mindless rabble is just that.

The CDC wants schools open safely!

@thegreatchomp: ‘You need a liberal in office for that, conservatives will never take this seriously.‘

The same Democrats that told people to party it up in California/NY, and told everyone it’s ok to mass protest/riot because somehow the virus was immune to anti Trump demonstrations? Those liberals?

@Sevenizz: LMAO. Ok Trumpkin.

Anti trump? I guess you mean he's against equality for minorities. Finally a trumpkin admitting trump is racist.

Closing schools has far more dangerous impact than many people realize. To many families, that provides their daily meals, child care, structure, etc. I have no problem with schools re-opening and neither does Dr. Fauci.

Fauci says safely.....and not in hotspots.

Aren’t classes rather large in US? Like up to 40 students per classroom?

Sometimes more, often packed in like sardines.

Also, that bus ride home. Good luck with social distancing there.

Also interesting https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/children-often-carry-more-coronavirus-than-adults-study-67785

Weird. I wonder if it's something to do with bacteria. Kids tend to consume more sugar, which would presumably lead to a boom in bacterial populations.

It's probably irresponsible to be speculating, but it's hard not to when you get unexpected results like this. I remember reading somewhere that people who used mouthwash appeared to be less susceptible, but maybe that was just a marketing thing.

Half the kid on top of the bus. Since safety is not a concern.

Less developed immunesystem which is slower to react I guess.

Would that affect their oral viral load, or rather the extent of infection? In my head it was a strong immune system which protected them from symptomatic infection, even under exposure to increased viral load. Not sure about this ofc.

I have no idea.

I'm guessing the extent of infection relies on how big the viral load is as well as the extent of well the virus can enter the cells through the receptors it uses.

Kids are not "miniature adults". They react differently to a lot of stuff.

@horgen: True. Probably immunity is nowhere near as one dimensional as I'm imagining.

I think it has to do with the Thymus. It atrophies at puberty.

Everyone does realize closing schools will place more parents out of work, right?