PackPA2015 said:
Wayland said:
PackPA2015 said:
Update on our county school system: They had made masks optional. We have a year round school in the county that positives and quarantines had been increasing steadily over the past couple of weeks. Now, we have 500 students positive or in quarantine. Staffing is again becoming an issue.
Emergency board meeting has been called for tonight to discuss options.
We need to stop quarantining healthy asymptomatic people. How many of the 500 are positive?
The masks thing gets you around the 'quarantine' part from the DHHS perspective since they exempt masked close-contact.
We are creating most of the problem with massive theatrical rules and complex quarantine guidelines.
Stay home if sick. That is all.
Our county has a 36% fully vaccinated rate and a 20% positivity rate for the last 14 days. No one masks. That is why so many are in quarantine. I do not know the exact number of positives, but I have heard it is rather high with students and staff.
I agree wholeheartedly, stay home if you are sick. But people in our county do not do that for whatever reason. Hence, why our office tests are increasing rapidly, our hospitals are completely full, and our school system is holding an emergency meeting.
As a healthcare provider, it is so frustrating to watch, but it is where we are. I don't know brother.
There are in quarantine not because they don't mask. They are in quarantine because it is the
POLICY to put them there if they don't mask. Quarantining healthy students is poor policy.
If they are sick. They should be home. If they are not sick, they should be in school.
Schools typically have a lower than community level of spread. Masked vs. masked optional schools showed no observable difference in case rates.
Kids don't just go into the closet when not in school, they will continue to be in the community, and likely at greater risk (as the past year's observational data has shown) of actually contracting COVID if they do not have it.
It sounds like public health messaging has failed and the greater public health and political leaders do bear some responsibility there, and sadly so do the individuals.
COVID isn't going anywhere, and I agree it absolutely sucks. And while I empathize, at this point, the train has largely left the station.
Hopefully in the meeting they can stress the importance of taking illness seriously and to remain isolated and home when sick. Since, largely, other than that, it is basically just a song and a dance.