Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: insurance, home, school districts)

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Huh? Schools have been online for awhile. It was authorized awhile back and frankly at least on a high school level it works. My girlfriend is a teacher and she's teaching a few summer classes online. So I don't know what you are thinking as if there's no education at all. The debate is in person or online. Many districts have provided chrome books and there's discounted high speed internet. There was no coup by teachers unions...No one is advocating that schools totally shut down all forms of education (including online).

As linked by another poster above, the Massachusetts Teachers Association in association with several other unions announced yesterday that they have ‘won’ the concession of having the required learning days reduced from 180 to 170 for the upcoming school year. They termed this reduction of 10 days as “a huge victory”.

Many districts are planning on using these days to delay the start of the upcoming school year. During this time all forms of education will be shut down. Another 10 days the kids will not be learning from their teachers.

Originally Posted by mdovell

Some of this really gets old.

Agreed, our children getting the short end of the stick definitely gets old.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by robr2

I'm still worried that a vaccine will be announced in October under pressure from the administration.

+1


It’s more than just a worry. It’s pretty much a sure thing that mass inoculations will be available before the election. There will be less than 90 days of data on the 30,000 people in Phase III trials. That’s not enough time to determine safety and effectiveness. I made the comment a couple of pages back that I’d probably try to get my vaccine in Canada if they have a different answer. My sister owns all the blood and immune science in Canada and is in the middle of all of it as chief scientist. I’ll do what she recommends. My knowledge is insufficient other than the sure thing that Trump will say anything, do anything, and corrupt any process to get elected. I don’t trust the Trump FDA at all. The most recent things out of the CDC are massively politicized. I’ll watch Germany. I’ll watch Japan. I think there will be a good vaccine option next winter but there won’t be the data on Election Day to pick the best one.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

You could for instance delay the school year by two+ months and just have no summer 21. The teachers union would go nuclear over that.

You can have classes, but if you do distance learning kids aren't going to learn anything. This will be especially bad in poor districts where the teachers/administration/parents have zero accountability.

Are you going to install air conditioning in all the schools? Imagine what a classroom would be like today.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Are you going to install air conditioning in all the schools? Imagine what a classroom would be like today.

+1

Some schools don't even have opening windows. They can get pretty unbearable in early Sept, let alone July. Now try sitting in that heat with a mask on all day long.

[Urban Peasant]

Our nation's schools all need some rethinking. Pupils in Aristotle's Lyceum moved around quite a lot and lectures were given by their teachers walking around an open courtyard with them. They did not sit glued to their seats for hours on end.

To encourage social distancing, our schools should also experiment with open classes like that, at least on days when the weather is good. Then do virtual education on days that are not.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

+1

...My sister owns all the blood and immune science in Canada and is in the middle of all of it as chief scientist. I’ll do what she recommends. My knowledge is insufficient other than the sure thing that Trump will say anything, do anything, and corrupt any process to get elected. I don’t trust the Trump FDA at all. The most recent things out of the CDC are massively politicized. I’ll watch Germany. I’ll watch Japan. I think there will be a good vaccine option next winter but there won’t be the data on Election Day to pick the best one.

I look forward to your posts about this.

I don't personally think that a vaccine in any acceptable form will be available before the election, plus I imagine an awful lot of people would refuse to get it in that period of time. I personally am happy to take vaccines, but not something that has been politicized and rushed through. I am also waiting to see what other countries do.

[BostonMike7]

I don't think a vaccine will trickle down to me for some time. I'm not in a high risk group, don't partake in high-risk activities/jobs, and don't live with anyone deemed high risk.

That means i'll likely be waiting on the sideline for some time so hopefully some good data and feedback can be obtained well before it's my turn. I'm not anti-vaccine, but I do like to see such things properly vetted out and not rushed.

[sawyer2]

Originally Posted by sawyer2

On a positive note, Moderna has started dosing patients in its Phase 3 study. They also announced an additional $0.5B in gov./BARDA funding.


https://investors.modernatx.com/news...-against-covid


https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/27/healt...e-3/index.html

.....and Pfizer/BioNTech just announced the intiation of their Phase 3 trial .....messenger RNA approach, like Moderna's

- 30,000 patients in 120 countries
- Regulatory review as early as October
- Plan to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-re...ne-candidate-0

https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/27/...pivotal-study/


The U.S. government has already placed an initial order of 100 million doses for $1.95 billion with Pfizer/BioNTech, and can acquire up to 500 million additional doses

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by porterhouse

As linked by another poster above, the Massachusetts Teachers Association in association with several other unions announced yesterday that they have ‘won’ the concession of having the required learning days reduced from 180 to 170 for the upcoming school year. They termed this reduction of 10 days as “a huge victory”.

Many districts are planning on using these days to delay the start of the upcoming school year. During this time all forms of education will be shut down. Another 10 days the kids will not be learning from their teachers.


Agreed, our children getting the short end of the stick definitely gets old.

Yeah, I thought the tone was really off in that announcement. Granted, I'm not the target audience, but still. "When we fight, we win" is nothing I want to read when they are making cuts to children's education.

I understand their safety concerns. The better solution would have been to further develop last year's online offerings and promote that as the best solution right now, not spin some BS that they need ten extra days to figure that out.

In contrast, my wife teaches at a private school. She's been involved in meetings throughout the summer to come up with the best plan. And they moved the start of school up, not back.

Very disappointing from the MTA.

[BostonMike7]

Wife’s school district has told the teachers that they won’t be doing full-time, 5 days a week. They are debating a week of half-days or a hybrid program. This hasn’t been relayed to parents just yet.