Teachers Are Getting COVID in Anti-Mask States: ‘I Could Have Lost My Life’ “I’m angry I could have given it to my husband, or my children. I don’t know if I want to teach in this state anymore.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3x...covid-anti-mask-states-florida-oklahoma-texas
"I don’t know if I want to teach in this state anymore.” then quit and leave, save your whining for ridiculous emotion based, fact-ridden articles from Salon and Vice.
Even accounting for differences in school system size and community spread the differences after three weeks in North Carolina are stark. In school systems that started with masks -- not a single school needed to shutdown and the number of students in quarantine are generally near 1% In school systems that did not start with masks -- many schools had to be closed and most school systems had over 10% of students out on quarantine. Many of these schools systems reverted to requiring masks.
the differences are random. Its simply not enough time to make any analysis - which you would say if the results went the other way. This isn't a binary equation, my one brain celled friend. There are many variables out there you have to consider.
Sadly the difference is stark and the clear results speak for themselves. This has been gone over in great detail in local newscasts in N.C. The bottom line is that it is in the best interest of students to keep them in school for in-person learning rather than going remote. If masks allow this to happen then it is in the best interest of students to mandate masks in communities with high Covid spread (which is every county in N.C.).
I'm sure you're plugged into the television news 24/7 - Lord knows you post here 24/7, but that doesn't make it fact. the media is only slightly better at analyzing data than you.
What. A . Shock. The teacher's unions leading the CDC. sCiENcE! CDC tightened masking guidelines after threats from teachers union, emails show The Biden administration tightened its masking guidance after a prominent teachers union threatened White House officials with publicly releasing harsh criticism, internal emails show. The National Education Association sent a draft statement to White House officials that included harsh criticism of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's masking guidance, the emails show. But the teachers union ultimately published a version with a much softer tone, and the CDC clarified its guidance to indicate that everyone should be masked in schools, regardless of vaccination status. The new emails show further coordination between the White House and teachers unions just months after reports highlighted the extent the unions had influenced the administration's messaging on school reopenings. The watchdog group Americans for Public Trust obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided them to Fox News. The CDC announced on May 13 that fully vaccinated Americans could stop wearing masks indoors and outside, which sparked confusion about how this policy would apply to schools. LA TEACHERS UNION BOSS SAYS CHILDREN LOST NOTHING DURING PANDEMIC, NOW KNOW WORDS ‘INSURRECTION’ AND ‘COUP’ One day later, on May 14, Erika Dinkel-Smith, the White House director of labor engagement, said she stopped the NEA from releasing a critical statement that had called for immediate clarification. "Would you know when Dr. Wolensky would be able to call NEA-Pres. Becky Pringle?" Dinkel-Smith wrote in the email. "They've gotten significant incoming and are getting targeted for a response from the media. I've gotten them to hold on their statement calling for clarification." That same day, Dinkel-Smith received the NEA's draft statement, allowing them to weigh in on it. "We appreciate the developing nature of the science and its implications for guidance, but releasing the guidance without accompanying school-related updates creates confusion and fuels the internal politicization of this basic health and safety issue," the draft statement read. "CDC has consistently said, and studies support, that mitigation measures, including to protect the most vulnerable, remain necessary in schools and institutions of higher education – particularly because no elementary or middle school students, and few high school students, have been vaccinated." "This will also make it hard for school boards and leaders of institutions of higher education to do the right thing by maintaining mitigation measures," it continued. "We need CDC clarification right away." Following discussion and coordination with the Biden White House, the NEA released a statement with a much less critical tone. The emails also show the White House and the CDC had extensive contact with union leadership. On May 14, Dinkel-Smith asked CDC chief of staff Sherri Berger to connect NEA President Becky Pringle with the CDC director. Berger responded to the request by writing "will do" and that the CDC director was "connecting w/ Becky now." Less than 30 minutes later, Berger sent an update saying she had spoken with Pringle and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. The next day, on May 15, the CDC updated its masking guidance to indicate that all people should wear a mask at school regardless of vaccination status. "This batch of emails came just weeks after we already exposed the teachers unions influenced the CDC on school openings," Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News. "Lo and behold, less than two weeks later, they're at it again, but this time in relation to mask guidance." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The New York Post reported on emails the watchdog group obtained earlier this year showing coordination between the Biden White House and influential teachers unions on school reopenings. In at least two instances, suggestions offered by the American Federation of Teachers were "adopted nearly verbatim" in the final text of a CDC document on reopening guidance released in February, according to the Post. The White House and NEA did not respond to a Fox News request for comment.
Child Covid-19 hospitalizations reach a new high as schools reopen. That's not the only reason to protect kids from Delta, doctors say https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/health/delta-variant-in-kids/index.html Just as doctors feared, more children are getting hit hard by Covid-19 as the Delta variant tramples across the country. And the school year just started. "What we're seeing now is extremely concerning," said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, associate professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. "This virus is really going for the people who are not vaccinated. And among those people are children who don't qualify for the vaccine and children and teens who qualify but are choosing not to get it." Among the latest sobering statistics: -- A record-high 2,396 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. -- An average of 369 pediatric Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals every day during the week ending September 6, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. -- More than 55,000 children have been hospitalized with Covid-19 since August 2020, according to CDC data. Many of those children had no known preexisting conditions. -- While childhood Covid-19 deaths are still rare, that number is increasing. As of Wednesday, at least 520 children have died, according to CDC data. Doctors say it's critical to protect children against the Delta variant -- not just for the sake of their health, but to preserve in-person learning and help prevent more aggressive variants from setting the entire country back. 252,000 new pediatric cases in one week Since the last school year, a more contagious variant -- Alpha -- has been replaced by an even more contagious variant -- Delta -- as the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US. Now, "child cases have increased exponentially, with over 750,000 cases added between August 5 and September 2," the American Academy of Pediatrics said. "About 252,000 cases were added the past week, the largest number of child cases in a week since the pandemic began." Children now make up more than 26% of new Covid-19 cases, the AAP said. And more pediatric cases has led to more kids hospitalized with Covid-19, said Dr. Jon McCullers, pediatrician-in-chief at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis. "We have seen a significant surge in cases roughly for the last four weeks, roughly corresponding to the time when school got in," McCullers said Wednesday. "Interestingly, we're seeing aboutthree times the number of hospitalizations that we saw during our during our peak during the winter." It's not just kids with preexisting conditions getting hospitalized Almost half -- 46.4% -- of children hospitalized with Covid-19 between March 2020 and June 2021 had no known underlying condition, according to CDC data from almost 100 US counties. And the Delta variant is further annihilating the myth that healthy kids can't get hit hard. Previously, "the majority of kids that I've seen get really sick (with Covid-19) have been kids with other illnesses or comorbid conditions," said Dr. Susannah Hills, a pediatric airway surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center. "But now, the difference with this Delta variant is that we're seeing kids who may not necessarily have comorbid conditions also end up in the hospital." More children are getting MIS-C In some cases, children who start with mild or no symptoms from Covid-19 end up hospitalized weeks or months later with a condition called MIS-C -- multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. MIS-C is "a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19 in which different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs," the CDC says. It happens when "the virus induces your body to make an immune response against your own blood vessels" -- which can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, said pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. At least 4,661 cases of MIS-C had been reported, including 41 deaths, the CDC said. Many of the children with MIS-C don't start off very sick with Covid-19. "Usually children are picked up incidentally as having (coronavirus). Someone in the family was infected, a friend was infected, so they got a PCR test. And they're found to be positive. ... Then they're fine," Offit said. "Then a month goes by, and they develop a high fever. And evidence of lung, liver, kidney or heart damage. That's when they come to our hospital." The CDC said 99% of MIS-C patients had tested positive for coronavirus, and the other 1% had contact with someone with Covid-19. The median age of patients with MIS-C was 9 years old. "CDC is working to learn more about why some children and adolescents develop MIS-C after having COVID-19 or contact with someone with COVID-19, while others do not," the CDC says. "Based on what we know now about MIS-C, the best way you can protect your child is by taking everyday actions to prevent your child and the entire household from getting the virus that causes COVID-19." The best steps parents can take include getting vaccinated and vaccinating children ages 12 and up, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. And even if a parent is fully vaccinated, there's a small chance they could catch an asymptomatic breakthrough infection and unknowingly pass the virus to their children. That's why it's a good idea for all parents of young children to wear masks in public indoor settings, Walensky said. For kids too young to be vaccinated, it's important "to surround them with vaccinated people," she said. Long Covid can leave lasting impacts on kids Long-term Covid-19 complications can be significant for children -- even for some who initially had mild or no symptoms, the American Academy of Pediatrics said. All pediatric patients who tested positive should have at least one follow-up exam with a pediatrician, the AAP said. Pediatricians should watch out for residual or long-term Covid-19 problems such as respiratory symptoms, which can last three months or more; heart issues, including a type of heart inflammation known as myocarditis; cognitive problems such as "brain fog"; headache; fatigue and mental health issues, the AAP said. Children who had moderate or severe Covid-19 may be at greater risk for subsequent heart disease, the pediatrician group said. Protecting kids from Covid-19 is critical to keep them in schools With the highly contagious Delta variant, the CDC recommends students from kindergarten through grade 12, along with teachers and visitors, wear masks in school. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends masks in schools for everyone older than 2. "Our children deserve to have full-time, in person, safe learning with prevention measures in place. And that includes masking for everyone in schools," Walensky said. Some students are returning to schools for the first time in a year. But long-awaited classroom learning can be quickly derailed by an infection or outbreak. In Mississippi and Florida, thousands of students just starting their school year have already had to quarantine. And it doesn't take much for Covid-19 to shut down a school again. Even one case can have a ripple effect on students, faculty and staff. "We need adults to run schools, and if my adults are sick or needing to quarantine, I don't have adults present to provide the education," said Carlee Simon, superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools in Florida. "When we have families that don't want to have masks on their child, what they're doing is not only (increasing the) chance they will have to be quarantined," Simon said. If a student gets infected, "they will also have other students who did have masks on who would also need to be quarantined." "Everybody wants to move forward. Nobody wants to have masks forever," Simon said. But "we would like to be able to be safe and have instructional time with our students." In addition to masks in schools, the CDC recommends layering other strategies such as improved ventilation, physical distancing and testing on a screening basis. Children can accidentally help spur new variants Protecting children from getting Covid-19 can help everyone in the long run, doctors say. As coronavirus keeps spreading, replicating itself in new people, the more chances it has to mutate -- potentially leading to even more contagious variants or one that might evade vaccines. "That's, of course, the concern," Walensky said. Fully vaccinated people are less likely to get infected with the Delta variant. But unvaccinated people -- including unvaccinated children -- are more susceptible to infection. And they can unknowingly help with the creation of new variants, Offit said. "If we are going to continue to allow this virus to spread, we're going to continue to allow these variants to be created," he said. "We're not going to be able to stop this pandemic until we have a significant percentage of the population vaccinated." Covid-19 deaths in children shouldn't be ignored, CDC chief says While children are far less likely to die from Covid-19 than adults, the deaths are still significant, Walensky said. At least 520 US children have died from Covid-19, according to CDC data. For the 2019-20 flu season, the CDC reported 199 confirmed pediatric flu deaths and an estimated 434 pediatric flu deaths. One reason Covid-19 is deadlier for children than other infectious diseases is because many children are vaccinated against other diseases, said Dr. James Campbell, professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Nobody's dying of polio, nobody's dying of measles in the United States. Nobody's dying of diphtheria," Campbell said. But while children ages 12 to 17 can get a Covid-19 vaccine, many have not done so. And it's not clear exactly when a vaccine might be authorized for children younger than 12. Rebecca Calloway's 7-year-old daughter, Georgia, is one of thousands of young children testing various doses of Covid-19 vaccines to make sure they're safe and effective before they get authorized. Part of the reason Calloway enrolled Georgia in the pediatric vaccine trial is because she recently lost her 3-year-old daughter to another unexpected disease -- Type 1 diabetes -- and doesn't want any more families to lose a child to Covid-19. While childhood deaths from Covid-19 and Type 1 diabetes are rare, Calloway said, "You don't want to be that statistic."