NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that he was delaying the planned resumption of indoor dining at restaurants in the city out of fear it would cause a spike in coronavirus infections.
Yep, indoor dining is obviously infectious. On the other hand, outdoor dining and outdoor gathering seems not to be, as long as basic precautions are taken.
The big question is what to do about schools. One of the obstacles, in this regard, is the widespread somewhat hysterical misconception that the children themselves are at mortal risk. Whereas the COVID mortality risk for those under 19 and under (worldwide) is 0%.
Large gatherings of people indoors with lots of loud talking, extended contact, regular mixing of the population, and daily vectoring back into the community. I guess that seems fine?
I loathe the argument that it’s safe to open schools because children aren’t too affected by the virus. What about the teachers and staff? Also, those kids go home to adults. It’s just mind-boggling. Also, I thought Republicans hated public education, so why the shift?
I think this is the right call.
My guess is no school until a reliable vaccine is available.
Maybe so, but those that do get it face a risk that adults generally don’t:
If M & D are stuck at home with the kids, then the economy continues to go subterranean. Neither morality nor philanthropy have nothing to do with it.
It’s not an easy problem. It’s just a problem that is made more difficult by misconceptions about the danger the children are in.
Speaking as a school parent, I consider the provision of education to children to be essential. We might need more imaginative solutions. In wartime Britain, the young were packed off to the countryside and makeshift schools.
How’s that go? “Better safe than sorry”, or is it “We don’t wanna look like the sand states.”
It’s not a Republican thing. School districts in Deep Blue Dallas County are, as of this moment, planning to open as scheduled next month. Getting kids back in school is a big, big deal, for both the kids’ education and development and their parents’ own job security. But nobody seems to have any proposals for how to make it relatively safe.
My proposal: Standardized testing. 
OT / Cars! They eat oxygen. And, they’ll eat … you! Autos extremely frightening late 19th century internal combustion power technology.
The children themselves are not in any huge danger. It’s their family members and teachers who are going to end up hospitalized and dead.
Re: schools, seems requiring masks (and being very strict about them), seating every other desk, alternating which grades are in school vs. distanced learning, is going to have to be the norm for the next couple years.
You would have to weigh those 300 cases against the risks posed by locking up kids at home for another year or so, if that’s even feasible. Again, not an easy exercise.
Umm…hybrid tech? Tesla? Prius?
i have a 16 month old… there’s no social distancing those little creatures. daycare, even though small, is still opening us up to about 10 other families (i have no idea who’s riding the subway, who’s a front line worker etc among the other families we share with). I’m really not interested in getting COVID through this exposure, so i guess even if day care opens up, we’ll be keeping the little one home trying as best we can to work remotely while splitting day care. there just doesn’t’ seem to be a safe other way. we also have some contact (remote, but not zero) with vulnerable people, and i wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we brought this into their lives.
My brother is in education, teaches high school. His fear is 3rd and 4th graders. Hitting a bump at this level can do permanent damage.
Great ad. Love the Dutch.
Denmark and Finland have reopened schools. There is lots of hand-washing, division into play groups of just four, and social distancing. Class size is limited to 10, which was not much of a problem as lower grades tend to have small classes. The problem in the US is simply the failure to invest enough in the K-12 system. Class sizes in e.g. New York could exceed 24 even in lower grades. Large class size was the reason the UK’s education restart failed just three weeks ago. That is a structural defect that could be accommodated and slowly repaired. For example, open lower grades, say through middle school, to 50% capacity, and keep the other half at home on remote learning until more capacity is in place. Even in a second wave, you could safely have three-quarters of kids back in school. For the the high schoolers, same routine, but social distancing and masking rules might have to be more severe. Politico had anarticle on Denmark school reopenings. The crunch point for the UK, and very likely the US, is small class size. No money for stuff like that, but billions for weapons systems.
At the start, Danish parents were as anxious as their British counterparts, fearing that their children were being used as “guinea pigs,” said Lange. But these fears were assuaged when schools reopened and parents saw that all the precautionary measures were kept in place.
Smaller groups of children, social distancing and shorter school days are some of the measures being implemented.
The children may be safe for the most part, but what about the teachers. And that kids are well-known disease vectors even in normal times, spreading it around each other and taking it back home to the family.