trump And His Push To Open Schools This Fall

[Tennesseer]

These two images were on CNN about thirty minutes ago. Does anyone else see a problem here?

First trump's tweet from this morning was shown:
:



And then a chart with the number of new virus cases in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United States reported for Tuesday:




I took the pictures with my cell phone and forgot to turn off the flash. So excuse the white 'dot' in the pictures.

[thyme4change]

Sweden is probably problematic, but I don't think 10 cases in Norway is a reason to say they opened irresponsibly. Germany has a lot of people, maybe 75M, so them being in the hundreds is still pretty low compared to virus central, usa.

[oped]

Yes. That is the point. The reason those countries can go back to school is because they have control of the virus. We, do not. 

[pulmonarymd]

Control? We are actively helping it spread, and it never needed our help in the first place.

[dondub]

That Trump is politicizing schools opening is so typical. Anything to aid re-election regardless of the death and destruction.

[anciana]

When is the first day of school for his youngest son? Let's see if he goes back 

[weltschmerz]

Trump keeps bragging that they're doing more tests than any other country on earth, both in raw numbers and per capita. He doesn't shut up about it.

During Wednesday's briefing, Vice President Pence said more than 1.2 million tests have been performed on Americans.

Meanwhile......

 “There have been 105 935 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 8,693 deaths. 66% of people have now recovered. Labs across Canada have tested over 2,975,000 people for COVID-19 to date. Over the past week, an average of 38,000 people were tested daily, with 1% testing positive.

www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2020/07/statement-from-the-chief-public-health-officer-of-canada-on-july-7-2020.html

1.2 million vs almost 3 million, in a country with one tenth your population.

Hmmm...who to believe? Trump and Pence, or the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I wonder if non-educators realize the stress that educators are under right now. 

[djAdvocate]

Jul 8, 2020 14:11:22 GMT -5 dondub said:

That Trump is politicizing schools opening is so typical. Anything to aid re-election regardless of the death and destruction.

when schoolkids bring the virus home to grandma, guess who is not voting for Trump this Fall?

[kadee79]

Jul 8, 2020 15:05:07 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

I wonder if non-educators realize the stress that educators are under right now. 

Some of us do.  If I were a teacher & could afford it, I wouldn't go back.  ALL the teachers should refuse...then what could they do?

[kadee79]

I found this while ago...really puts some perspective on DT's words....

All right, you little whippersnappers, listen up. I’ve had it with all the whining and griping about the “coronavirus pandemic” and the “debate over whether to open schools in the fall” and all that lily-livered blah-blah.

You brats are going to listen to me and to your president, Donald J. Trump, and you’re going to march your little rear ends off to school come fall. I don’t care if you have to wade through 5 feet of coronavirus to get there, you’re going!
As the president said Tuesday: “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”

He drove that point home Wednesday morning, tweeting the smartly incomplete sentence: “May cut off funding if not open!” 
Also Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said on a conference call with governors from across the country that she expects schools to be “fully operational” in the fall and that anything less would be unacceptable.

That, children, is a little thing we used to call “toughness.” Not that you or your latte-sipping, America-hating parents would understand the concept.

www.chicagotribune.com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-coronavirus-schools-trump-reopen-devos-florida-texas-covid-huppke-20200708-eeb6di3ml5cilk35hzl5ix5l6m-story.html

[happyhoix]

Jul 8, 2020 14:34:55 GMT -5 anciana said:

When is the first day of school for his youngest son? Let's see if he goes back 

Sure why not? Trump won't have a problem quarantining his son someplace else. Ship him off to Tiffany's house for a month or twelve, till this whole thing blows over. 

[happyhoix]

Jul 8, 2020 14:11:22 GMT -5 dondub said:

That Trump is politicizing schools opening is so typical. Anything to aid re-election regardless of the death and destruction.

Yeah funny how everything links back to the only thing that matters to him, getting elected. 

Couldn't be that school systems are concerned about the well being of their students and the families of their students - that's crazy talk. 

[anciana]

Jul 8, 2020 18:17:38 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Jul 8, 2020 14:34:55 GMT -5 anciana said:

When is the first day of school for his youngest son? Let's see if he goes back 

Sure why not? Trump won't have a problem quarantining his son someplace else. Ship him off to Tiffany's house for a month or twelve, till this whole thing blows over. 

Nah, I don’t see the boy’s mom going for it. I wonder what measures she’ll require from the school. And then let’s follow her lead and make all the schools in the country do the same. They’re the leaders, right? So, let them lead by example.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jul 8, 2020 17:46:24 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

Jul 8, 2020 15:05:07 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

I wonder if non-educators realize the stress that educators are under right now. 

Some of us do.  If I were a teacher & could afford it, I wouldn't go back.  ALL the teachers should refuse...then what could they do?

I had a 15+ minute chat with my daughter's music teacher yesterday.  He really wants to teach from, if they're not going to have the kids in school.  His reason - the equipment he owns is superior to the equipment in the school and he'd rather use his stuff for better quality. 

[irishpad]

If we are going to open schools in the fall, we must do it as safely as possible.   But even that is hard to do in this current cultural / political environment.    People need to be smart about protecting themselves and others with this virus.   Some are:  90% + are wearing masks and keeping good social distance at our daily and weekend Masses.   And then,,,,,a wedding last weekend, 140 + guests.. I and the other priest had masks, just one other person in the whole congregation had a mask....... I wanted to scream!!!!!   Wake service tonight .........  44 year old who died....... less than 1/2 the people had masks.   We have plenty of masks / sanitizer available at all entrances so they could be wearing them.     Wake up people!!   I'm going to call the bishop tomorrow asking for permission to make mask wearing mandatory.   I know he won't like it but shit, people need to get real about this.   

[dondub]

Jul 8, 2020 20:45:14 GMT -5 irishpad said:

If we are going to open schools in the fall, we must do it as safely as possible.   But even that is hard to do in this current cultural / political environment.    People need to be smart about protecting themselves and others with this virus.   Some are:  90% + are wearing masks and keeping good social distance at our daily and weekend Masses.   And then,,,,,a wedding last weekend, 140 + guests.. I and the other priest had masks, just one other person in the whole congregation had a mask....... I wanted to scream!!!!!   Wake service tonight .........  44 year old who died....... less than 1/2 the people had masks.   We have plenty of masks / sanitizer available at all entrances so they could be wearing them.     Wake up people!!   I'm going to call the bishop tomorrow asking for permission to make mask wearing mandatory.   I know he won't like it but shit, people need to get real about this.   

Father....what city are you in?

[irishpad]

Jul 8, 2020 20:50:53 GMT -5 dondub said:

Jul 8, 2020 20:45:14 GMT -5 irishpad said:

If we are going to open schools in the fall, we must do it as safely as possible.   But even that is hard to do in this current cultural / political environment.    People need to be smart about protecting themselves and others with this virus.   Some are:  90% + are wearing masks and keeping good social distance at our daily and weekend Masses.   And then,,,,,a wedding last weekend, 140 + guests.. I and the other priest had masks, just one other person in the whole congregation had a mask....... I wanted to scream!!!!!   Wake service tonight .........  44 year old who died....... less than 1/2 the people had masks.   We have plenty of masks / sanitizer available at all entrances so they could be wearing them.     Wake up people!!   I'm going to call the bishop tomorrow asking for permission to make mask wearing mandatory.   I know he won't like it but shit, people need to get real about this.   

Father....what city are you in?

Moorhead, MN, next to Fargo.   Metro area of about 250,000 people

[Tennesseer]

A friend of mine'parents are both sick with virus, one being hospitalized and not doing well. 

Both of them caught the virus at church.  No one wearing masks or attendees in number limited. 

Evangelicals-the couple don't believe the scientists and doctors.  And according to my friend,  her parents believe trump would not lead them astray.

[irishpad]

Jul 8, 2020 20:54:45 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

A friend of mine'parents are both sick with virus, one being hospitalized and not doing well. 

Both of them caught the virus at church.  No one wearing masks or attendees in number limited. 

Evangelicals-the couple don't believe the scientists and doctors.  And according to my friend,  her parents believe trump would not lead them astray.

Proves how dangerous he is as a "leader"

[irishpad]

Ok, my rant is done.   Guess you all know i'm a bit frustrated.    

[thyme4change]

Jul 8, 2020 20:54:45 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

A friend of mine'parents are both sick with virus, one being hospitalized and not doing well. 

Both of them caught the virus at church.  No one wearing masks or attendees in number limited. 

Evangelicals-the couple don't believe the scientists and doctors.  And according to my friend,  her parents believe trump would not lead them astray.

Now that they are sick, have they changed their tune? Or do they still think this is bull or whatever?

[Tennesseer]

Jul 8, 2020 22:09:36 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Jul 8, 2020 20:54:45 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

A friend of mine'parents are both sick with virus, one being hospitalized and not doing well. 

Both of them caught the virus at church.  No one wearing masks or attendees in number limited. 

Evangelicals-the couple don't believe the scientists and doctors.  And according to my friend,  her parents believe trump would not lead them astray.

Now that they are sick, have they changed their tune? Or do they still think this is bull or whatever?

My friend's dad while sick but not hospitalized can only speak to friend behind house door. So little talk of he feels about it. More about how he is feeling.

Mom in hospital so unknown how she feels about it. That will come later. Mom is more concerned about getting enough oxygen at this time.

[busymom]

I've got a good friend who grew up in Fargo, irishpad.  Nice area (she drove me there for a visit many years ago).  


Sadly, my IL's live in a smaller community, and most of the people there have the same attitude. The "it's a small town, and that big city stuff can't happen here".  Drives me nuts.  Fortunately, they're both smart enough to actually wear masks everywhere, and they've cut way back on driving around town & visiting friends.

[justme]

Look, I do get reasons why people don't want the schools open. But what I don't get is why, at least the posts I've seen (mostly talking my social media) haven't addressed the very real problems not opening up the schools will cause. Give me useful solutions and I'll get behind you (though I'm still rather pissed at my friend saying she's not paid enough to be a frontline worker when 1) the increase in teachers salary just signed into law will help her and 2) she's making more than the person she's buying groceries from).

What will we do for kids who don't have a parent that can stay home and can't pay for daycare?

The kids whose parents can't pay for a laptop for each kid?

The kids that don't have access to high speed internet?

The kids with parents not knowledgeable enough to help them with their school work?

The kids with disabilities that need extra help or who may be deeply negatively impacted by all digital learning?

The kids whose teacher can't effectively teach digitally and therefore get a fraction of the learning they'd get in class?


These are very real problems and problems that will cause the gap between upper income kids and low income kids to drastically increase for possibly a generation possibly causing long lasting problems.

[NastyWoman]

Jul 8, 2020 23:46:31 GMT -5 justme said:

Look, I do get reasons why people don't want the schools open. But what I don't get is why, at least the posts I've seen (mostly talking my social media) haven't addressed the very real problems not opening up the schools will cause. Give me useful solutions and I'll get behind you (though I'm still rather pissed at my friend saying she's not paid enough to be a frontline worker when 1) the increase in teachers salary just signed into law will help her and 2) she's making more than the person she's buying groceries from).

What will we do for kids who don't have a parent that can stay home and can't pay for daycare?

The kids whose parents can't pay for a laptop for each kid?

The kids that don't have access to high speed internet?

The kids with parents not knowledgeable enough to help them with their school work?

The kids with disabilities that need extra help or who may be deeply negatively impacted by all digital learning?

The kids whose teacher can't effectively teach digitally and therefore get a fraction of the learning they'd get in class?


These are very real problems and problems that will cause the gap between upper income kids and low income kids to drastically increase for possibly a generation possibly causing long lasting problems.

Similarly, what will we do for the kid who brings the disease home and now his parents are in the hospital gasping for oxygen?
Who will pay for that child's care when mom/dad are to ill to move and can't pay for daycare?
Who will teach the kids face to face when the teachers get sick....

I could go on but my point is that these issues are not independent of each other. We can't solve one problem by ignoring the other. 

We do need a national approach with mandates that are effective such as everyone wears masks, social distancing for all, infection tracing etc. No more "pissing corners" in the pool. A full national approach. We might stand a chance that way but there is no way I see that happening with the man at the wheel only looking out for himself and those around him so deep up his ...end that they will not say anything to the contrary. We may join the great empires of the past that fell due to their inept leadership and hedonistic tendencies.

[justme]

Jul 9, 2020 0:43:02 GMT -5 NastyWoman said:

Jul 8, 2020 23:46:31 GMT -5 justme said:

Look, I do get reasons why people don't want the schools open. But what I don't get is why, at least the posts I've seen (mostly talking my social media) haven't addressed the very real problems not opening up the schools will cause. Give me useful solutions and I'll get behind you (though I'm still rather pissed at my friend saying she's not paid enough to be a frontline worker when 1) the increase in teachers salary just signed into law will help her and 2) she's making more than the person she's buying groceries from).

What will we do for kids who don't have a parent that can stay home and can't pay for daycare?

The kids whose parents can't pay for a laptop for each kid?

The kids that don't have access to high speed internet?

The kids with parents not knowledgeable enough to help them with their school work?

The kids with disabilities that need extra help or who may be deeply negatively impacted by all digital learning?

The kids whose teacher can't effectively teach digitally and therefore get a fraction of the learning they'd get in class?


These are very real problems and problems that will cause the gap between upper income kids and low income kids to drastically increase for possibly a generation possibly causing long lasting problems.

Similarly, what will we do for the kid who brings the disease hoe and now his parents are in the hospital gasping for oxygen?
Who will pay for that child's care when mom/dad are to ill to move and can't pay for daycare?
Who will teach the kids face to face when the teachers get sick....

I could go on but my point is that these issues are not independent of each other. We can't solve one problem by ignoring the other. 

We do need a national approach with mandates that are effective such as everyone wears masks, social distancing for all, infection tracing etc. No more "pissing corners" in the pool. A full national approach. We might stand a chance that way but there is no way I see that happening with the man at the wheel only looking out for himself and those around him so deep up his ...end that they will not say anything to the contrary. We may join the great empires of the past that fell due to their inept leadership and hedonistic tendencies.

Well we're at minimum 6 months away from that.

Plus there seems to be evidence coming out that children are less likely to catch it and are not the spreaders of covid.

[Opti]

Jul 8, 2020 15:05:07 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

I wonder if non-educators realize the stress that educators are under right now. 

I think many essential workers do. While there was a lot of celebrating nurses and doctors during the beginning of this crisis, no one thought to celebrate the housekeeping and maintenance staffs now cleaning rooms containing Covid positive patients. The stress of cleaning around unmasked Covid patients day after day in nursing homes and assisted livings must be enormous. I know the virus killed some of them.

I would not want to be a teacher of young children at this time. They are disease vectors in the best of circumstances and they probably will be bad mask wearers unless their parents have trained them to wear them for long periods of time. Hopefully with all this time to plan school administration has come up with workable plans for schools. I hope they allow if not outright encourage cracking windows in the classroom for airflow. Consider adopting healthcare worker precautions. Make some footwear for school only and preferably change out of them in the parking lot, before driving home. Bag or wash your work outfit every day. Have more than one mask available every day in case you accidentally contaminate it by touching it inappropriately or dropping it on the floor. 

Do you know if any schools have plans yet for testing teachers and other school workers on a regular basis? I get tested weekly now. While no fun, it does take away the anxiety of the early weeks of the crisis wondering whether I was exposed enough to catch it or not. Good luck to you and all others who go back in the fall as the next round of guinea pigs. 

[Opti]

Jul 8, 2020 20:45:14 GMT -5 irishpad said:

If we are going to open schools in the fall, we must do it as safely as possible.   But even that is hard to do in this current cultural / political environment.    People need to be smart about protecting themselves and others with this virus.   Some are:  90% + are wearing masks and keeping good social distance at our daily and weekend Masses.   And then,,,,,a wedding last weekend, 140 + guests.. I and the other priest had masks, just one other person in the whole congregation had a mask....... I wanted to scream!!!!!   Wake service tonight .........  44 year old who died....... less than 1/2 the people had masks.   We have plenty of masks / sanitizer available at all entrances so they could be wearing them.     Wake up people!!   I'm going to call the bishop tomorrow asking for permission to make mask wearing mandatory.   I know he won't like it but shit, people need to get real about this.   

I'm sorry to hear that but not surprised. Some people simply don't feel they are at risk. Others feel if they do get the virus it will be a mild case. And because of the current political climate, more people than ever seem to not care about how their actions might hurt or damage other people. Good luck with the bishop, I 'd love to know what his response was.

[Opti]

Jul 8, 2020 14:11:22 GMT -5 dondub said:

That Trump is politicizing schools opening is so typical. Anything to aid re-election regardless of the death and destruction.

Correct, he's picking those countries because he thinks it makes him look reasonable. However, as pointed out we are doing worse than all of those countries.


www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Today the US has an overall case rate of 9,544 per 1 Million in population and 407 deaths.
Germany has 2,372 cases per 1 Million population and 109 deaths. Sweden is lower than us in current case count at 7,312 cases per 1 Million people but a higher death rate at 543 deaths per 1 Million people. I hate to think about what our death rate will be before the start of September, but I would not be surprised to see us at 500 or greater.