31 thoughts on “January 12, 2022: WgOmRDLE”

  1. In the last 2 hours I have learned of 2 covid exposures and 2 people who are getting tested that would be exposures. Might be time for our town to shut it down for a bit.

    1. The boss was feeling fine until last night when he got hit; he called to say our department head just wants everyone to stay home for a few days. Luckily, I didn't actually cross paths with him.
      All our guys who were out at startup meetings last week are dealing with crud of one sort or another.

      My kids are home with the district temporarily distance learning, so I was going to be biased towards WFH anyway. Wife is trying to keep her composure, but is fending off the accumulated frustrations of our debacle distance learning over the last two years, and she is bristling heavily at the sympathetic tones of private school parents who just hate to see the district doing this to everybody again.

      1. We got lucky that the virtual learning the kids did last year was reasonably well thought out and effective. I expect they'll be doing it again by the end of the month.

      2. Z - Not that it will make your bride feel better, but my kids are in private school and will be schooling at home until next Tuesday (at least). School has gone full distance learning due to the skyrocketing COVID (exposure/positives/quarantine/etc. ) amongst students, faculty & staff.

        1. Thank you. Yeah, that’s why the district is doing it and we’re crossing our fingers it’s short term as planned.
          The private school stuff was just one part of bigger frustrations about a lack of control among all the pressures and circumstances coming at her that make breaking out of SAHM life a tall task.

          1. My son did K-8 at a Catholic school. Entered public high school in 2020 with distance learning.

            The passive-aggressive "We're so glad we're in person. How's your son doing with school?' just pissed me off.

            1. This, too, for sure.
              A little bit of jealousy mixed in for good measure about the circumstances, about the casual private school enrolling for convenience, frustration that some of the private schools around here could just “ignore” covid, mostly, even when staff and families were being affected.

    2. My institution’s school of medicine & public health has apparently indicated to its staff that all meetings are to be virtual until further notice. No word from campus leadership about modality changes for instruction or non-instructional activities.

    3. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to flying to Orlando and working in a resort hotel at the end of the month. Nothing risky there.

      1. Thinking ahead, I just ordered 10 N95 masks because I'm not finding them in stock at stores. Delivery will take nine days.

        1. You might want to order multiple brands. N95s are finicky to fit correctly; especially for those of us with glasses. You need to try multiple styles until you get the one that fits your face well. Our first order fit me pretty well but I haven't been able to keep my glasses from fogging. We now have a second style and I plan on purchasing a third soon.

    4. I'm done with shutdowns. The risk to those that have gotten boosted is very low.

      The best thing we could do right now is get everyone vaccinated. I don't know how to convince those that haven't.

      1. If it were up to me, we'd shut down high schools entirely for three weeks and extend their school year by the three weeks. We'd then use the high school teachers as substitutes for middle and grade school, as needed.

        We need to keep as many young kids in school as we can.

        1. I like the idea, but this would absolutely blow up first year student registration programs in higher education. Based on what I know about licensing, it’s also probably not compatible with many states’ teacher certification regulations.

            1. Depends on the sub’s license, at least in this state. Five-year long-term sub licenses require a license in the subject or grade level. Three-year short-term (no more than 45 days per assignment) licenses do not. Essentially conscripting teachers at the secondary level to teach elementary or middle school students would require the state superintendent to grant blanket provisional short-term licenses to anyone with an initial or professional educator license. Many of those conscripted will not have had appropriate training in child development at levels of instruction below secondary, Special Education or ESL training, and so on.

              That’s not to say it’s not an option. It’s just a fairly desperate one — and one that things are unfortunately trending toward.

              1. Yes. I would think a temporary change in licensing would be better than most of the alternatives.

      2. A major problem with the unvaxxed is that part of the population becomes a breeding ground for variants and mutations. I had my annual cardiologist visit Monday and asked him if COVID-19 is a vascular disease. He said it's really a system disease and he likened it to sepsis in that way. Apparently one of the biggest clinical problems with severe COVID is that acute systemic inflammation triggers formation of blood clots in the vascular system, sometimes lots and lots of them. They can form anywhere in the body, the lungs, the heart, the brain, the limbs. Nasty stuff.

        1. It sucks.

          I just don't see shutdowns are effective at this point.

          The virus isn't going away and the vaccine reluctance doesn't seem to be, either.

          1. We only did shutdowns for a short time in the beginning and haven't since. There was also almost no support to help people and small businesses survive those shutdowns. Our cars have redundant safety features: seat belts, airbags, crumble zones, stability control, etc. We need similar for dealing with a pandemic: masks, vaccinations, easy testing, and when absolutely necessary, targeted shutdowns with support for those affected.

            It's a total systems failure and pinning this on individuals is a way for the system to escape responsibility.

              1. This shutdown is because the district has been crippled from a staffing perspective. They reported some 17% of staff out last week and wasn't better on Monday when they called the emergency board meeting.
                Activities are still on, where staff permits.

                1. That's why I think they should suspend high school for three weeks and use those teachers to keep the younger kids going. High schoolers can stay home without parents so less disruptive.

  2. Our first trip away from the kids in more than two years, and MPS shut down while we were in the air. My poor parents are now young to have to teach virtual first grade in Friday. (At least Papa Young is. Grandma Young was in Minneapolis for jury duty today, and I haven't heard yet whether she's been picked.)

    1. Also, Delta switched us to a longer plane at the last second which reduced the number of seats and caused them to bump Garrett Bradbury down to coach. Poor guy.

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