Thank you. It is a great article. Well reasoned. It dies surprise me that it doesn’t mention long covid. But I’m just waking up so may have missed it
Thanks TK.
According to WHO, worldwide pandemic not ending any time soon, if at all. 🙁
link?
I’m repeating this from last night. It clearly is why many countries closed schools for two weeks after Christmas break. Is is clearly why we should have. I thought maybe the numbers per day might go up to 3,000ish from the 2,000 the week prior. I never would have guessed 10,220 per day. I guarantee that number is lower than the actual figure
Positive cases were 38,887 students 12,213 staff from 12/23-1/5. 51,100 total
In many cases this was four days. Although DESE is calling it two weeks. There were at least five days of vacation in that span and in many cases six or six and a half days.
If five is the total days for n school, the number of positive cases in school PER DAY is 10,220.
For the ENTIRE three ish months leading up to Christmas vacation the total positives were 60,293
We now have over 100,000 children and staff in schools who have had covid.
I’m hoping mama will copy her post on long covid to today’s blog.
I posted this late evening, but will repost again.
A 15 year old Gloucester high school student died of Covid-19.
Kurt Ryan, a sophomore, died unexpectedly on Tuesday.
Horrific story. My heart aches for his family and his friends.
So sad. I wonder if he and his parents were vaccinated?
You know, covid is not serious for young people so we can
keep the schools open.
I think it was something else. It was just a brief sound bite I heard over the radio this morning by a newsreader. Not certain if it was somewhat related to your link though.
OMG, how could anyone enact a policy like this?
Do they want to kill all of the residents????
I don’t understand that policy at all. BEYOND stupid if you ask me.
I seriously think that old saying that I’ve never particularly liked applies here ……. The inmates are running the asylum.
On Wednesday, Boston School Superintendent Brenda Casselius was a substitute teacher for a 4th grade class.
I listened to school committee meeting number four last night. I’ve yet to find one where anyone says things are going even fairly well. When superintendents say it is a disaster, I suspect it means it is far past that.
I was interested to hear this town discuss the need for a reading specialist which Deb mentioned yesterday. The superintendent stressed it is a highly specialized field and neither they nor surrounding towns have had one all year. That is not close to the only specialty but just caught my attention
Go on indeed and look for schools asking ….begging really…for teachers. SCs are discussing all sorts of perks to offer to find them.
Do you think there may be hiring of substitute teachers who may not have been qualified in the past? It’s something I’ve been wondering about.
No I don’t think so. There is just an enormous shortage of teachers. Some have covid. Some do not want to be in the position they are being forced into. Some are simply retirement age. It is the perfect storm.
I know teachers who would remain teaching if they could do so via zoom. Why is DESE not capitalizing on that. My guess is most parents want kids in school. Remote numbers I suspect would be smaller and easier to accommodate.
There have always been substitute teachers who are not certified as teachers and don’t intend to become teachers. There’s no real qualification needed–it varies from district to district. My daughter did it for a short time and she had no intention of going into education. Sometimes, they are recent college grads and it’s a way to make a little money. It used to be that substitute teaching was a good stepping stone into a district; I don’t know how many people still do that. The pay is low; you have to be ready to go in the morning, knowing that you may not get called; and it is not an easy job, especially if you don’t know the building, staff, kids. My favorite person for a sub was a former teacher, either a retiree or someone looking to jump back in.
Right, they’re called baby sitters
They are probably looking for a special ed reading specialist, which are hard to find. They are usually certified in a specific program like Orton-Gillingham or Wilson. Some of them are certified as dyslexia therapist or dyslexia practioner. It’s not a generic reading certificate–it’s beyond that. It’s what I have, and it takes a nice long time to get it and it is expensive. Some districts pay for the training.
Absolutely. I understood that from the discussion and the list of qualifications the principal gave. It was clear after your description yesterday that was exactly what they and many other schools cannot find. It is why it caught my attention. I know other specialized teachers are also not available as well.
Yes, Vicki. The reading specialist problem has been a problem for years and years. The standard in Massachusetts is that you have to be certified. If you are certified, you are considered qualified. There are reading certificates and special ed certificates. But the teacher prep programs rarely include the more advanced training needed to effectively teach kids with significant reading disabilities–even at the master’s level. And there are plenty of people who disagree with me on this–some people believe that the advanced training is nice, but not necessary, and some actively oppose it. This has been going on for years and years.
My second granddaughter and second grandson are blessed to each have exceptional women with work with them. After this ends …..whenever that might be…, I’ll say more 😉
I’m working on finding out if we have had difficulty in this area of the state finding reading specialists in the past. I know that the vast majority of schools, if not all, are having trouble maintaining teaching staff due to covid.
Here is my post from last night re: elephant in the living room – i.e. Long Covid. The smallest number I’ve seen tossed around currently of the percentage of omicrom cases – all cases including light/asymptomatic- that develop into long covid is 10 percent. But many think it’s more like 30 percent. Our trademark as a society lately is to kick the can on anything tough that we want to avoid/can’t figure out how to fix (see debt ceiling or 90 percent of Congress’ approach in the past many years.). But if we completely let omicrom burn through us we are creating an absolute nightmare – I think phase 2 of the pandemic might be the fallout from Long Covid.
—————-
2 articles re: my new primary concern that we are overlooking the risk of long covid in our new acceptance of “everyone will get it eventually…”
If it’s 30 percent of Omicron patients who develop long covid (or anything even close to that percentage) YIKES!! It will be a sh*t show in 2 months…
“ Kavanagh writes for ICT® that “much of the abandonment of public health measures has been spurred by a massive disinformation campaign which has successfully convinced a relatively large portion of our population that as long as one lives through COVID-19 all will be well. The young and healthy have especially embraced this narrative.”
It is a false narrative, Kavanagh warns, because “the premise that mild infections do not carry significant risks is false. In part this belief is driven by those who have not died from COVID-19 being counted as ‘recovered’ as opposed to ‘survived’. SARS-CoV-2 causes a system infection and is commonly detected in the heart and brain, exemplified by the loss of smell from brain tissue destruction and loss of cardiac function from myocarditis. Even those who develop ‘mild’ COVID-19 can develop long COVID-19 which in many cases lasts for a year or longer.”
Simply chilling. I may have mentioned last night that one son in law is very well read when it comes to covid and was not sure what I meant when I mentioned long covid. We indeed have a massive disinformation campaign.
But Riley knows this. Baker knows this. And crickets.
Thank you, Mama.
Deb, I can understand a certificate required for special ed, but not so for reading. When I was a kid, the teacher just taught reading like any other subject. Enough said.
As for substitute teaching, thanks for the explanation! Just curious only, can conceivably someone with just a high school diploma become a substitute or is some sort of a college degree required as a minimum qualification?
I found this. I might help and Deb may have more info
Nationwide, 2,143 reported deaths yesterday. ICU units being used for those with Covid is at 21,500, highest number in more than 4 months (peak of Delta wave). Hospitalizations to go over 130k today. The decoupling that other countries are seeing just isn’t happening to the same degree here. Yes, Omicron is less severe. And yes, fully vaccinated folks who get hospitalized have much less of a chance of dying. But, the U.S. is underperforming ALL of its peers – where decoupling is clear and unambiguous.
I had to look up “decoupling”. Is that to mean social distancing?
I keep meaning to ask the meaning. And then I forget. Thank you, Philip
I think it means Deaths from Hospitalizations.
If there is a decoupling then deaths are not going up
as fast as the hospitalizations which is a good thing.
It Means the virus is less severe.
Perhaps I have it backwards??? You get the idea, I think.
Thanks Mama for those articles about “Long Covid”…frightening to say the least! All the more reason not to get Covid-19 in the first place. Unfortunately, even among the fully vaccinated, it can’t be helped.
Covid-19 actually affects the “brain”, which leads to everything else…interesting.
Daughter tested negative after being exposed.
That’s good news JPD, but should she get exposed again in the future, will she be as lucky?
I don’t like it that these schools are loaded with sick students and staff. I agree with Joshua, the schools need to break for a couple weeks.
Thanks Philip and of course the schools should have remained
closed after the vacation, but I think we don’t have any
visionaries making these decisions.
Well then I will volunteer since I’ve been harping on it since June. And I have written politely to those who are responsible more times than I can count. It is not rocket science. It never was.
Decoupling is when you see distinct differences between the slopes of case, hospitalization, and death curves. Here, case curve is steepest, followed by hospitalization, and then death. Without vaccines the case, hospitalization, and death curves have similar, if not identical, slopes. But, a combination of a less severe variant, vaccination, and natural immunity cause the slopes of the three curves to diverge. The problem is there is less decoupling in the U.S. than there is in peer nations. This is because of lower vaccination and booster rates, but also relatively poor underlying health conditions. Hopefully, this clarifies the word decoupling.
In the U.K. and Denmark you see clear decoupling, by the way, especially between cases and deaths. The death curve is relatively flat, while the case curve is very steep.
Apologies if it’s been discussed here before, but I’ve been wondering if the “close contact” parameters should be revised for Omicron since it’s more transmissible? Reason I ask, a visiting speech therapist tested positive for COVID today and was in my daughter’s daycare room with another child on Wednesday for ~45 mins. My daughter was apparently not a close contact but I know this child is one of my daughter’s favorites and they are always close. Chances are they were close even for a moment during their session. I really don’t know how they can accurately determine close contact in a room full of 18 toddlers and 2 teachers.
Ace my daughter is here. She is a school committee vice chair. I showed her your comment. She said the problem is that to properly space the number of kids has to be cut. We know three feet and 15 minutes makes no sense. But basically everyone is a close contact now as we have it set up. Your listen sentence says it all. And it stinks. Hugs to you as i know how difficult this is.
Thanks Vicki! And thanks to your daughter for the input. Another variable is most of the kids in her classroom are not masked. They try, but 2.5 year olds don’t keep them on long.
Daughter mentioned that also. Even in elementary and into grades after that, keeping a mask on is difficult. It is also difficult for special Ed students.
There isn’t any excuse for this. The Biden Administration is at fault. The state governments are at fault. Think of it this way, almost all nursing homes get some degree of federal aid, in addition to state funding. That aid should be conditioned upon them complying with healthcare orders to boost all nursing home residents. Yet, still, to this day, ~38% of nursing home residents in America are not boosted. Why? I say, Biden Administration, cut off aid to nursing homes that don’t comply with an order.
Many are now recommending an initial throat swab for at home tests (in addition to nasal) as omicron may not be picked up as quickly in nasal swabs – and if your vaccinated vaccines often create earlier symptoms in breakthrough infections (your immune system is better trained to launch a counter-attack earlier – ie symptoms start earlier with/at lower viral loads that the tests aren’t picking up) so there’s an issue with more false negatives for at home tests now.
One thing I have noticed is that almost no-one is attributing some of the blame to our dysfunction, fragmented healthcare system. I definitely do. Testing alone is so dysfunctional here – getting PCR test results 6 days after the test was taken, if you were lucky to actually get a PCR test!
Philip, to answer your reading question–we actually don’t know why anyone reads. Most kids will learn to read no matter what we do; a smaller number need some kind of phonics instruction and then an even smaller percentage need structured, explicit instruction. This smaller percentage includes kids (and adults) who are considered to be dyslexic–a language-based learning disability that affects primarily reading, but can also impact written expression.
If you are interested in seeing how much controversy there is in reading instruction, google “reading wars” or “a flawed approach to teaching reading”.
Qualifications for substitute teachers vary by district; DESE has minimal requirements and districts can have additional requirements. But the quality of the subs also depends on the job market; in times when jobs are scarce, there are better trained subs.
Schools have come a very long way in working with kids who struggle in one, two or many areas. Surely they have come a long way since my daughter was in first grade. We were fortunate to have a pediatrician who had us move her from school extra assistance to a private tutor. In that era kids who were pulled from class were stigmatized. We have come leaps and bounds since then …except in one area Often it is far more than reading that causes the problem. Self confidence is something that a really good special Ed teacher will understand needs to be bolstered. Once that happens, other areas of struggle fall into place.
The one area where we have not advanced as far as we should is with Dyslexia. I’ve spent my entire life steeped in steps or lack of steps to advance in that area. Too long a story to bother with
We settled in Sutton because of its excellent reputation in regard to special Ed. The teacher makes a huge difference. But the entire systems approach does as well. This may sound silly, but it extends to even the special folks who drive the bus
On a different topic …or sort of the same….I talked to a few friends today but have plans to connect with another tomorrow just as a weekly chat. I have learned some about our earlier discussion, Deb
The consensus so far is that the lack of special Ed teachers is a serious problem because of covid. And that is worrisome for our kids since so many now have IEPs.
Yes, and here we have a question–are there more kids with disabilities, or are they “curriculumly disabled”. I think another consideration is that there is a lack of respect for special educators. I once had an asst super ask me if any of my sped teachers were ready to move up to regular ed. Hmm…..
A long time ago, someone told me the difference between regular and special education is that regular ed is worried about the what, and special ed is worried about the how.
Wilson reading is based in Oxford, MA, which I believe is in your neck of the woods.
GREAT post. I firmly believe there are more special education needs being now recognized and accepted rather than being pushed to the outer edges. That, I believe goes hand in hand with your comment, “ A long time ago, someone told me the difference between regular and special education is that regular ed is worried about the what, and special ed is worried about the how.”
It won’t surprise you that I have more thoughts, but I have to make a few calls. This is maybe outside the topic of this blog….we can just blame Philip 🙂 😉
Jimmy James, when I told my daughters this today, they just sat in absolute silence and stared at me
Interesting. When my mom was hospitalized with COVID in April 2020 she was transferred to a long-term care facility set up specifically for this purpose to alleviate the hospital surge at the time. It was a small nursing home in New Bedford. She was still positive, but maybe since the area of the nursing home was in a separate area it was ok?
Maybe. You make good points. I hope you are right. I wonder if nursing homes have separate areas and staff to dedicate to them. Covid is more contagious now but still.
I was very disappointed with Wachusett today. The last time I went skiing the evening/night time after a snowfall earlier in the day, Wachusett was very nice no long lines etc and this was on a Friday night as well.
They are supposed to have a cap for how many people can be in the lodge and slopes at a time due to covid.
they are suppose to have every other lift chair off the lift to create more distance.
They have kept the lifts every other like they are suppose too but instead of limiting the number of ticket holders like they are supposed to it was the most crowded with the longest lift lines I have seen at Wachusett. Its as if they are allowing the old numbers back without putting all the chairs back on the lifts.
Lift lines for the top of the Mountain was stretching to the bunny hill.
The lines to get the tickets went down the side of the building.
It was aweful, my brother, dad and I decided to just go on Wednesday which will allow my other brother to tag along as well.
PS seeing the mountain as busy as it was in normal times I would wait for another day as it would have been like 4 maybe 10 runs which is not worth it. I usually get some where in the range of 25-40 runs in general. My highest number of runs at Wachusett is 57 runs.
PS for Wachusett I generally go some time from Sunday evening through Wednesday night. I try and avoid the Fridays and Saturdays but with covid protocols and the snow conditions I was thinking it would have been better than it was.
That is just a shame. Sure seems as if their hard good procedures in place. Not following them is a shame.
Are masks required or is that not needed outdoors!
C-19 for 1-8 is ready.
Comments are closed.
Your no-hype southeastern New England weather blog!
Thanks TK!
Quite a wintry sight this morning in Quincy!
Sorry, the snow got me so excited, I posted on the wrong page.
Here’s an interesting article in today’s Globe:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/07/opinion/omicron-gives-new-meaning-calculated-risk/?p1=HP_Feed_ContentQuery
Sorry Amy, unable to read unless I subscribe.
ditto
Thank you. It is a great article. Well reasoned. It dies surprise me that it doesn’t mention long covid. But I’m just waking up so may have missed it
Thanks TK.
According to WHO, worldwide pandemic not ending any time soon, if at all. 🙁
link?
I’m repeating this from last night. It clearly is why many countries closed schools for two weeks after Christmas break. Is is clearly why we should have. I thought maybe the numbers per day might go up to 3,000ish from the 2,000 the week prior. I never would have guessed 10,220 per day. I guarantee that number is lower than the actual figure
Positive cases were 38,887 students 12,213 staff from 12/23-1/5. 51,100 total
In many cases this was four days. Although DESE is calling it two weeks. There were at least five days of vacation in that span and in many cases six or six and a half days.
If five is the total days for n school, the number of positive cases in school PER DAY is 10,220.
For the ENTIRE three ish months leading up to Christmas vacation the total positives were 60,293
We now have over 100,000 children and staff in schools who have had covid.
I’m hoping mama will copy her post on long covid to today’s blog.
I posted this late evening, but will repost again.
A 15 year old Gloucester high school student died of Covid-19.
Kurt Ryan, a sophomore, died unexpectedly on Tuesday.
Horrific story. My heart aches for his family and his friends.
So sad. I wonder if he and his parents were vaccinated?
You know, covid is not serious for young people so we can
keep the schools open.
Yesterday’s Covid Dashboard and my updated graph
Dashboard
https://ibb.co/47PTxGT
Graph
https://ibb.co/wpDbqyh
Philip, is this what you meant above? Or something else?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/12/22/who-covid-pandemic-countries-hoarding-vaccines/8995307002/
I think it was something else. It was just a brief sound bite I heard over the radio this morning by a newsreader. Not certain if it was somewhat related to your link though.
Ok, thanks.
This is absolutely maddening! We haven’t seen this before?? I mean what could go wrong?! Seriously!
https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-nursing-homes-covid-admissions-20220106-5dtye3pl4fhnddydmchlefb4q4-story.html
OMG, how could anyone enact a policy like this?
Do they want to kill all of the residents????
I don’t understand that policy at all. BEYOND stupid if you ask me.
I seriously think that old saying that I’ve never particularly liked applies here ……. The inmates are running the asylum.
On Wednesday, Boston School Superintendent Brenda Casselius was a substitute teacher for a 4th grade class.
I listened to school committee meeting number four last night. I’ve yet to find one where anyone says things are going even fairly well. When superintendents say it is a disaster, I suspect it means it is far past that.
I was interested to hear this town discuss the need for a reading specialist which Deb mentioned yesterday. The superintendent stressed it is a highly specialized field and neither they nor surrounding towns have had one all year. That is not close to the only specialty but just caught my attention
Go on indeed and look for schools asking ….begging really…for teachers. SCs are discussing all sorts of perks to offer to find them.
Do you think there may be hiring of substitute teachers who may not have been qualified in the past? It’s something I’ve been wondering about.
No I don’t think so. There is just an enormous shortage of teachers. Some have covid. Some do not want to be in the position they are being forced into. Some are simply retirement age. It is the perfect storm.
I know teachers who would remain teaching if they could do so via zoom. Why is DESE not capitalizing on that. My guess is most parents want kids in school. Remote numbers I suspect would be smaller and easier to accommodate.
There have always been substitute teachers who are not certified as teachers and don’t intend to become teachers. There’s no real qualification needed–it varies from district to district. My daughter did it for a short time and she had no intention of going into education. Sometimes, they are recent college grads and it’s a way to make a little money. It used to be that substitute teaching was a good stepping stone into a district; I don’t know how many people still do that. The pay is low; you have to be ready to go in the morning, knowing that you may not get called; and it is not an easy job, especially if you don’t know the building, staff, kids. My favorite person for a sub was a former teacher, either a retiree or someone looking to jump back in.
Right, they’re called baby sitters
They are probably looking for a special ed reading specialist, which are hard to find. They are usually certified in a specific program like Orton-Gillingham or Wilson. Some of them are certified as dyslexia therapist or dyslexia practioner. It’s not a generic reading certificate–it’s beyond that. It’s what I have, and it takes a nice long time to get it and it is expensive. Some districts pay for the training.
Absolutely. I understood that from the discussion and the list of qualifications the principal gave. It was clear after your description yesterday that was exactly what they and many other schools cannot find. It is why it caught my attention. I know other specialized teachers are also not available as well.
Yes, Vicki. The reading specialist problem has been a problem for years and years. The standard in Massachusetts is that you have to be certified. If you are certified, you are considered qualified. There are reading certificates and special ed certificates. But the teacher prep programs rarely include the more advanced training needed to effectively teach kids with significant reading disabilities–even at the master’s level. And there are plenty of people who disagree with me on this–some people believe that the advanced training is nice, but not necessary, and some actively oppose it. This has been going on for years and years.
My second granddaughter and second grandson are blessed to each have exceptional women with work with them. After this ends …..whenever that might be…, I’ll say more 😉
I’m working on finding out if we have had difficulty in this area of the state finding reading specialists in the past. I know that the vast majority of schools, if not all, are having trouble maintaining teaching staff due to covid.
Here is my post from last night re: elephant in the living room – i.e. Long Covid. The smallest number I’ve seen tossed around currently of the percentage of omicrom cases – all cases including light/asymptomatic- that develop into long covid is 10 percent. But many think it’s more like 30 percent. Our trademark as a society lately is to kick the can on anything tough that we want to avoid/can’t figure out how to fix (see debt ceiling or 90 percent of Congress’ approach in the past many years.). But if we completely let omicrom burn through us we are creating an absolute nightmare – I think phase 2 of the pandemic might be the fallout from Long Covid.
Also one more article
https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/-omicron-the-pandemic-killer-idea-ignores-dangers-of-long-covid
—————-
2 articles re: my new primary concern that we are overlooking the risk of long covid in our new acceptance of “everyone will get it eventually…”
If it’s 30 percent of Omicron patients who develop long covid (or anything even close to that percentage) YIKES!! It will be a sh*t show in 2 months…
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/23/omicron-covid-19-long-hauler
And Fauci from a couple weeks ago reminding us to remember light symptoms still can result in long covid –
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/12/29/fauci-interview-long-covid-still-a-risk-with-milder-omicron-cases
Great quote from first article –
“ Kavanagh writes for ICT® that “much of the abandonment of public health measures has been spurred by a massive disinformation campaign which has successfully convinced a relatively large portion of our population that as long as one lives through COVID-19 all will be well. The young and healthy have especially embraced this narrative.”
It is a false narrative, Kavanagh warns, because “the premise that mild infections do not carry significant risks is false. In part this belief is driven by those who have not died from COVID-19 being counted as ‘recovered’ as opposed to ‘survived’. SARS-CoV-2 causes a system infection and is commonly detected in the heart and brain, exemplified by the loss of smell from brain tissue destruction and loss of cardiac function from myocarditis. Even those who develop ‘mild’ COVID-19 can develop long COVID-19 which in many cases lasts for a year or longer.”
Simply chilling. I may have mentioned last night that one son in law is very well read when it comes to covid and was not sure what I meant when I mentioned long covid. We indeed have a massive disinformation campaign.
But Riley knows this. Baker knows this. And crickets.
Thank you, Mama.
Deb, I can understand a certificate required for special ed, but not so for reading. When I was a kid, the teacher just taught reading like any other subject. Enough said.
As for substitute teaching, thanks for the explanation! Just curious only, can conceivably someone with just a high school diploma become a substitute or is some sort of a college degree required as a minimum qualification?
I found this. I might help and Deb may have more info
https://www.teaching-certification.com/teaching/massachusetts-substitute-license.html
Thanks Vicki.
Nationwide, 2,143 reported deaths yesterday. ICU units being used for those with Covid is at 21,500, highest number in more than 4 months (peak of Delta wave). Hospitalizations to go over 130k today. The decoupling that other countries are seeing just isn’t happening to the same degree here. Yes, Omicron is less severe. And yes, fully vaccinated folks who get hospitalized have much less of a chance of dying. But, the U.S. is underperforming ALL of its peers – where decoupling is clear and unambiguous.
I had to look up “decoupling”. Is that to mean social distancing?
I keep meaning to ask the meaning. And then I forget. Thank you, Philip
I think it means Deaths from Hospitalizations.
If there is a decoupling then deaths are not going up
as fast as the hospitalizations which is a good thing.
It Means the virus is less severe.
Perhaps I have it backwards??? You get the idea, I think.
Thanks Mama for those articles about “Long Covid”…frightening to say the least! All the more reason not to get Covid-19 in the first place. Unfortunately, even among the fully vaccinated, it can’t be helped.
Covid-19 actually affects the “brain”, which leads to everything else…interesting.
Daughter tested negative after being exposed.
That’s good news JPD, but should she get exposed again in the future, will she be as lucky?
I don’t like it that these schools are loaded with sick students and staff. I agree with Joshua, the schools need to break for a couple weeks.
Thanks Philip and of course the schools should have remained
closed after the vacation, but I think we don’t have any
visionaries making these decisions.
Well then I will volunteer since I’ve been harping on it since June. And I have written politely to those who are responsible more times than I can count. It is not rocket science. It never was.
Decoupling is when you see distinct differences between the slopes of case, hospitalization, and death curves. Here, case curve is steepest, followed by hospitalization, and then death. Without vaccines the case, hospitalization, and death curves have similar, if not identical, slopes. But, a combination of a less severe variant, vaccination, and natural immunity cause the slopes of the three curves to diverge. The problem is there is less decoupling in the U.S. than there is in peer nations. This is because of lower vaccination and booster rates, but also relatively poor underlying health conditions. Hopefully, this clarifies the word decoupling.
In the U.K. and Denmark you see clear decoupling, by the way, especially between cases and deaths. The death curve is relatively flat, while the case curve is very steep.
Apologies if it’s been discussed here before, but I’ve been wondering if the “close contact” parameters should be revised for Omicron since it’s more transmissible? Reason I ask, a visiting speech therapist tested positive for COVID today and was in my daughter’s daycare room with another child on Wednesday for ~45 mins. My daughter was apparently not a close contact but I know this child is one of my daughter’s favorites and they are always close. Chances are they were close even for a moment during their session. I really don’t know how they can accurately determine close contact in a room full of 18 toddlers and 2 teachers.
Ace my daughter is here. She is a school committee vice chair. I showed her your comment. She said the problem is that to properly space the number of kids has to be cut. We know three feet and 15 minutes makes no sense. But basically everyone is a close contact now as we have it set up. Your listen sentence says it all. And it stinks. Hugs to you as i know how difficult this is.
Thanks Vicki! And thanks to your daughter for the input. Another variable is most of the kids in her classroom are not masked. They try, but 2.5 year olds don’t keep them on long.
Daughter mentioned that also. Even in elementary and into grades after that, keeping a mask on is difficult. It is also difficult for special Ed students.
Every damn day I see multiple reports like this. https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-star-cirsten-weldon-who-said-only-idiots-get-vaccinated-dies-of-covid?ref=wrap
The problem of less decoupling in the US v. UK in a nutshell. https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1479461692006305794
There isn’t any excuse for this. The Biden Administration is at fault. The state governments are at fault. Think of it this way, almost all nursing homes get some degree of federal aid, in addition to state funding. That aid should be conditioned upon them complying with healthcare orders to boost all nursing home residents. Yet, still, to this day, ~38% of nursing home residents in America are not boosted. Why? I say, Biden Administration, cut off aid to nursing homes that don’t comply with an order.
Many are now recommending an initial throat swab for at home tests (in addition to nasal) as omicron may not be picked up as quickly in nasal swabs – and if your vaccinated vaccines often create earlier symptoms in breakthrough infections (your immune system is better trained to launch a counter-attack earlier – ie symptoms start earlier with/at lower viral loads that the tests aren’t picking up) so there’s an issue with more false negatives for at home tests now.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-swab-throat-covid-rapid-tests-guide-2022-1?amp
No shit, I’ve been saying this for weeks now. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/americas-omicron-wave-now-looks-more-severe-than-europes.html
Here’s my piece from several weeks ago. It never got much traction, which surprised me. But, I have no control over these things. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2021/12/22/the-omicron-variant-may-be-less-severe-but-higher-transmissibility-may-cancel-out-the-effect-especially-in-the-us/
One thing I have noticed is that almost no-one is attributing some of the blame to our dysfunction, fragmented healthcare system. I definitely do. Testing alone is so dysfunctional here – getting PCR test results 6 days after the test was taken, if you were lucky to actually get a PCR test!
Philip, to answer your reading question–we actually don’t know why anyone reads. Most kids will learn to read no matter what we do; a smaller number need some kind of phonics instruction and then an even smaller percentage need structured, explicit instruction. This smaller percentage includes kids (and adults) who are considered to be dyslexic–a language-based learning disability that affects primarily reading, but can also impact written expression.
If you are interested in seeing how much controversy there is in reading instruction, google “reading wars” or “a flawed approach to teaching reading”.
Qualifications for substitute teachers vary by district; DESE has minimal requirements and districts can have additional requirements. But the quality of the subs also depends on the job market; in times when jobs are scarce, there are better trained subs.
Schools have come a very long way in working with kids who struggle in one, two or many areas. Surely they have come a long way since my daughter was in first grade. We were fortunate to have a pediatrician who had us move her from school extra assistance to a private tutor. In that era kids who were pulled from class were stigmatized. We have come leaps and bounds since then …except in one area Often it is far more than reading that causes the problem. Self confidence is something that a really good special Ed teacher will understand needs to be bolstered. Once that happens, other areas of struggle fall into place.
The one area where we have not advanced as far as we should is with Dyslexia. I’ve spent my entire life steeped in steps or lack of steps to advance in that area. Too long a story to bother with
We settled in Sutton because of its excellent reputation in regard to special Ed. The teacher makes a huge difference. But the entire systems approach does as well. This may sound silly, but it extends to even the special folks who drive the bus
On a different topic …or sort of the same….I talked to a few friends today but have plans to connect with another tomorrow just as a weekly chat. I have learned some about our earlier discussion, Deb
The consensus so far is that the lack of special Ed teachers is a serious problem because of covid. And that is worrisome for our kids since so many now have IEPs.
Yes, and here we have a question–are there more kids with disabilities, or are they “curriculumly disabled”. I think another consideration is that there is a lack of respect for special educators. I once had an asst super ask me if any of my sped teachers were ready to move up to regular ed. Hmm…..
A long time ago, someone told me the difference between regular and special education is that regular ed is worried about the what, and special ed is worried about the how.
Wilson reading is based in Oxford, MA, which I believe is in your neck of the woods.
GREAT post. I firmly believe there are more special education needs being now recognized and accepted rather than being pushed to the outer edges. That, I believe goes hand in hand with your comment, “ A long time ago, someone told me the difference between regular and special education is that regular ed is worried about the what, and special ed is worried about the how.”
It won’t surprise you that I have more thoughts, but I have to make a few calls. This is maybe outside the topic of this blog….we can just blame Philip 🙂 😉
Jimmy James, when I told my daughters this today, they just sat in absolute silence and stared at me
https://ctmirror.org/2022/01/06/ct-orders-nursing-homes-to-accept-covid-positive-admissions-from-hospitals/
One asked what happened to the hospital tents.
Interesting. When my mom was hospitalized with COVID in April 2020 she was transferred to a long-term care facility set up specifically for this purpose to alleviate the hospital surge at the time. It was a small nursing home in New Bedford. She was still positive, but maybe since the area of the nursing home was in a separate area it was ok?
Maybe. You make good points. I hope you are right. I wonder if nursing homes have separate areas and staff to dedicate to them. Covid is more contagious now but still.
I was very disappointed with Wachusett today. The last time I went skiing the evening/night time after a snowfall earlier in the day, Wachusett was very nice no long lines etc and this was on a Friday night as well.
They are supposed to have a cap for how many people can be in the lodge and slopes at a time due to covid.
they are suppose to have every other lift chair off the lift to create more distance.
They have kept the lifts every other like they are suppose too but instead of limiting the number of ticket holders like they are supposed to it was the most crowded with the longest lift lines I have seen at Wachusett. Its as if they are allowing the old numbers back without putting all the chairs back on the lifts.
Lift lines for the top of the Mountain was stretching to the bunny hill.
The lines to get the tickets went down the side of the building.
It was aweful, my brother, dad and I decided to just go on Wednesday which will allow my other brother to tag along as well.
PS seeing the mountain as busy as it was in normal times I would wait for another day as it would have been like 4 maybe 10 runs which is not worth it. I usually get some where in the range of 25-40 runs in general. My highest number of runs at Wachusett is 57 runs.
PS for Wachusett I generally go some time from Sunday evening through Wednesday night. I try and avoid the Fridays and Saturdays but with covid protocols and the snow conditions I was thinking it would have been better than it was.
That is just a shame. Sure seems as if their hard good procedures in place. Not following them is a shame.
Are masks required or is that not needed outdoors!
C-19 for 1-8 is ready.