TimB

That’s exactly it. The kids who are suffering from this are not kids like I was, or kids like my hypothetical, not-yet-existent kids will be. Those kids will be fine regardless of how school is conducted. But there are a lot more places where kids will fall through the cracks as a result of this pandemic, and a lot more kids will fall through the cracks than otherwise would have.

Guilty as charged, unfortunately I’m a middle class white person working from home and ordering Uber eats. Hence the reason I had to remind myself why it won’t really work out to have kids of any age going to school virtually for any real length of time.

Though, admittedly, this is very dependent on location and socioeconomic status and things like that. Leaving a 15 year old at home to go to school while the parents go to work is a completely different ballgame in an low crime, upper middle class suburban neighborhood where everyone has internet access vs. a high-crime, poorer urban area where not everyone has internet access.

The pros outweigh the cons, at least from now until the end of the school year, when fewer people are vaccinated and as stated above, all that’s going on in high schools is state-mandated bull***t like standardized tests. I have a totally different opinion for the fall when the covid risk is (hopefully) much lower and there’s actual curriculum to be learned and not just end-of-year nonsense.

It would not surprise me at all if that evidence is true, my comment was more devil’s advocate. However, I still think that calculation is a little different for elementary/middle vs. high school. If high schools are still conducted virtually until it is safer (i.e. through the end of the school year, I’m hoping most of the population will be vaccinated before school starts up again), it doesn’t prevent the parents from working outside of the home if their job requires them to do so because a 14 1/2 to 18 year old can be left at home to learn virtually. Maybe even 7th-8th graders, isn’t 12 the age when kids are allowed to be left at home by themselves? This time of the school year, most of the instruction being done in middle and high schools is preparing students for, and taking, standardized tests and state-mandated bull***t anyway.

Remember, hail apparently counts as snow, as detailed on here a few weeks back. There’s a shot at snow in every month!

On the flip side of that coin, a quick Google search turns up the fact that as of January there were 530 US teachers who died as a result of covid (that we know of, so the number is likely higher). And the fact is, given that teachers are usually able to retire before the age of 60, very few of them are in the vulnerable age group. So there’s a delicate balance between death and how much we’re willing to let students “fall behind” their peers in other states and countries that are mostly doing the same thing.

But standardized tests and all that nonsense... how could we possibly cancel those?! /s

Ah yes, that’s a plus. Back before the pandemic and before I decided not another dime of my hard earned money was going into Bob Nutting’s pockets, I tried to go to one game in that opening series (not necessarily the opener itself, so an evening game) every year. I remember going to one in maybe 2016 where the high was in the low 40s and then skipping out on one in 2018 because it was too cold with snow flurries. (I’m admittedly conflicted because of my well documented position on cold weather.)

I honestly can’t remember. I think it’s probably a combination of that and the virus was still very new so we couldn’t treat it as effectively as we can now. Also testing (at least here, not sure about Italy) was abysmal, so the denominator of that fraction was probably much higher than on paper.

Indeed, we’re officially at 81 at PIT, which hasn’t been reached here since September 12th.

81. We made it. First time since September.

What was I saying the other day about this turning into something like SARS? Edit: not saying it will. But things like this at least raise the possibility that it could.

They’d be uninvited if I were vaccinated and hosting the gathering.

I also don’t. Fortunately I don’t associate with those parts of my extended family often if ever.

I think dta should test that theory.

No kids here, but I’m very much against kids playing sports wearing masks. If it’s so much of a risk that they have to wear a mask on the field/court, maybe the thought process should be more along the lines of whether or not sports should be played at all.

I think it’s time to make my exit for the day now that we’ve gone into full on typo police mode.

What agenda do “some of us” have? Are people going to think we’re cool? Are we going to get laid tonight? Are we going to get a raise? All because we posted some extremist pro-mask, pro-vax stuff on a weather forum?! Inquiring minds want to know! Edit: in a coronavirus thread on a weather forum.

I have an agenda? That’s news to me.

Like I said, I’ve come to agree to disagree with you. The difference between you and dta is you’re arguing in good faith.

Bacteria cause infections. A person wearing a dirty mask can cause an infection. The mask itself can’t.

But if your opinion is “guns don’t kill people,” the only logical conclusion is “masks don’t make you sick.” And vice versa. My opinion is masks don’t make you sick, so I can only logically say guns don’t kill people.

Okay fine, let’s split hairs. April. Is there really a difference between 12 vs 13 months of knowing something?

You didn’t answer the question, I compared it to something else that is very well documented but I’ll bet your opinion differs on that one.