Coronavirus

My wife's a SPED teacher at the high school level and the whole thing is just an epic cluster. She was really surprised at the number of teachers who either have health conditions themselves (cancer survivor, CPOD, or something else that could make contracting COVID dangerous) or live with someone who has health conditions. Of course, people don't normally discuss health problems with their coworkers so she thought there would be some, but it was far more than she expected.

The school board is refusing to enforce mask wearing for students on the grounds that they don't want to get sued. Which is stupid; the school could just make it part of the dress code. The teachers want mandatory mask wearing as a minimum requirement for teaching on campus. So it's looking like distance learning again. Which is probably safest, since even with a mask policy as part of the dress code, horny teens aren't going to socially distance.

For my wife's students, distance learning is very bad -- many children in the special education system are there because of a horrific home life. Maybe it caused emotional problems, or maybe mom drank during pregnancy and never stopped. But sending them home is not a solution and will make it worse.

Sagrilarus wrote:
I'm half expecting to see a circus tent go up on the baseball field.

When I first saw this, I thought it was from THE ONION. It’s not.

www.chron.com/local/article/Outdoor-tent...RMJUTFLweZurauJimLho

Houston, August, outdoor tent.

This entire situation is so jacked up. The comic is pretty cutting, but like most of the discussion it's still focused on kids and not the teachers and support staff that are the highest risks here.

At some point it all becomes clear that "just pay people to stay home, or hazard pay if they're doing essential work" is the solution, and nobody wants to say that out loud because it's "Un-American" or some bullshit.

Instead, we're going to feed people to the virus. Start with teachers and kids, because we hate education and kids don't vote.

Not Sure wrote: At some point it all becomes clear that "just pay people to stay home, or hazard pay if they're doing essential work" is the solution, and nobody wants to say that out loud because it's "Un-American" or some bullshit.

Regarding the extra $600 of UI that's about to expire for millions of Americans, I've had it asserted to me by my father-in-law and a few right-leaning friends that they're fine if it stops, because it's just disincentivizing work for people who are making more on UI than they were while working.

Are these people reading the news....at all? Precisely which unfilled jobs are out there that these people should be going and taking? What if they lost health coverage along with their job? What if they have a health risk that makes them terrified of working a job that would put you in a lot of contact with people? I can think of so many reasons why people legitimately need this money AND why it could be better for them to not be in the labor force at the moment. Meanwhile a lot of people are just pulling the old "the unemployed are lazy, leeching bums" canard off the shelf.

Anyone calling for schools to reopen can fuck off and die themselves. I don’t care if that’s “wrong” to think that.

Also, anyone not wearing a mask in public at this point needs to have their jaw broken on the spot. Yes, that’s advocating violence. But these anti-mask people are the bad guys here folks- they are potential murderers that have zero conscience or sense of responsibility. There are no valid excuses. If for whatever reason you can’t wear a mask or have some kind of aversion to it...you don’t fucking go out.

My county health department’s current guidelines are to wear masks if indoors in a public place, but it is optional if you are outside and are able to maintain a 6’ distance from others. So I have not been wearing a mask when I walk my dog through the nearby woods with my 5yo. I would be sad if someone broke my jaw for following the official guidelines. I would be really sad if someone broke my daughter’s jaw.

ubarose wrote: I saw this. It's for Maryland. I don't know if the numbers are accurate or not.

Read this and things get real fast. Even if your kid doesn't get sick, they are going to have to deal the trauma of death.

Two of my kids are in Anne Arundel. We've been kicking around that 132 number for about a week.

New record infections today, so nobody's going to school. I think everyone in the school system has to go through the exercise, but like we all said last Spring, the virus decides.

It's highly likely I'll be home-schooling my kids this Fall. I'm not throwing them (and me) to the wolves.

Being outside and in open air is not the same as going to the grocery store or any other indoor public place where you are breathing the same air as however many people are there, Dysjunct. Outside, you also aren’t right up on people. The guidelines and science support what you are doing and that’s not what I’m talking about at all.

I’m talking about all of these smug ass boomers who think they are epidemiologists because they can use Google and ask bullshit open-ended questions about the efficacy of masks. And the people that think that wearing a mask is somehow “political” or an infringement of their rights. Or the people that think this is a hoax. I’m not wishing someone to punch your daughter, obviously.

Today the criminal governor of GA made it illegal for municipalities to pass laws requiring masks...after most cities in Metro Atlanta have. He’s sucking up to fucking Trump while the numbers just keep going up.

We went through the schools thing down here. Some of the arguments.... shit. The worst one was this advice from the health department that schools were safe. If you read it, it was saying, they'd be safe if all these measures were in place. Staggered start times, staggered classes (i.e., kids having their breaks at different times) 2 metre separation of students. All of it was completely impractical on any level. But it was all "no, the health department says schools are safe". And underlying that, it was very very clear, was this idea that if you shut schools down it sends a message that the businesses should too (or will need to). That's it. That's why they have to be open.

We are very very fortunate here and I really feel for all you guys. We're in winter and the second wave is potentially on the way, just waiting really, but our rates are so low comparatively. But, with schools having been shut down previously, and then reopened again, I have already started to see the message from our politicians - "no, schools won't be shutting again no matter what, because we just can't afford to do this stopping and starting again".

JoelCFC25 wrote:

Not Sure wrote: At some point it all becomes clear that "just pay people to stay home, or hazard pay if they're doing essential work" is the solution, and nobody wants to say that out loud because it's "Un-American" or some bullshit.

Regarding the extra $600 of UI that's about to expire for millions of Americans, I've had it asserted to me by my father-in-law and a few right-leaning friends that they're fine if it stops, because it's just disincentivizing work for people who are making more on UI than they were while working.

Are these people reading the news....at all? Precisely which unfilled jobs are out there that these people should be going and taking? What if they lost health coverage along with their job? What if they have a health risk that makes them terrified of working a job that would put you in a lot of contact with people? I can think of so many reasons why people legitimately need this money AND why it could be better for them to not be in the labor force at the moment. Meanwhile a lot of people are just pulling the old "the unemployed are lazy, leeching bums" canard off the shelf.

There are some essential jobs that require people to show up in person to do the work. I work for an agricultural operation that raises live pet food for birds and reptiles, and we have been struggling to stay staffed at our Minnesota location. Some of our employees quit or deliberately got themselves fired shortly after the $600 bonus unemployment started up, but we were able to defeat all but one of those claims. We also increased starting pay by $2.00 an hour, though we would need to increase it by more like $7.50 an hour to compete directly with the extra unemployment pay. We try to hire but, we are getting more no-shows, even from people who accepted an offer and then just don't show up for work. Some people are understandably nervous about getting back to work, and some might be lazy, but either way, that extra $600 works out to the equivalent of an extra $15,000 a year in income. Our competitors are struggling with the same issues, so the pet stores are having trouble staying in stock and people's pets are probably not getting fed as often.

Here, I will show my math. We will hire an unskilled laborer with some work experience for $15.00 per hour, or about $30,000 per year. Normally, if they were unemployed and their previous job paid $15.00 per hour, they would collect about $7.50 per hour, which would be $15,000 per year except that unemployment pay is only available for up to six months. So normally there is a big incentive to find a job. But with the extra $600 per week, that same worker could get $22.50 per hour, equivalent to $45,000 per year, as long as they at least go through the motions of trying to find a job. So now they have an incentive to not work, while our essential business struggles along understaffed and overworked.

There is an argument to be made for paying people to stay home right now. But we have already undermined that by letting most businesses re-open already. Either do another shutdown with a better plan for handling unemployment pay, or make the masks absolutely mandatory and seriously enforced.

The jobs aren't coming back anytime soon so you either fight to get what's available now (like Shellhead's company) and get a steady job or you live off unemployment for a few months and then be fucked for the following year with no job, no income, no insurance, no prospects. Or to put it another way, that extra $15k is possibly next years salary you're choosing to get now. If we're starting The Great Again Depression a lot of people won't see jobs for years.

All of this is an academic exercise, because the answer is straightforward -- eliminate the virus. This is a national embarrassment. We have become the country that is pitied in the world because of incompetent leadership.

Sorry to get all political, but all of this boils down to a single phrase -- eliminate the virus. Everything else magically goes away if that happens. Until it does, we're a failed state.