23 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – March 26 2021”

  1. My work place is now 99.9% vaccinated (so in essence 100% since those who are not are the very few who opted not to be). We continue to keep most restrictions in place (masks, limits, etc.) with just a gradual easing, and we continue to be tested for covid once per week until we are sure we get to a point where we can start to advance toward post-pandemic practices. This is the cautious optimism that the country as a whole should be practicing.

    1. That’s great and yes cautious optimism is just what the country should be practicing, but given the uptick in cases we are now seeing again I’m afraid that may not be the case.

    2. Wonderful news. Your last sentence is 110 percent accurate and sad. It really is just common sense

  2. TK, it’s great that your workplace is pretty much all vaccinated. And yes, cautious optimism is the operative expression. I think your workplace is doing the right thing by keeping mitigation practices in place until a larger portion of the general population is vaccinated.

    Massachusetts case numbers in recent days give pause. It’s a virus that clearly `knows’ hot to find hosts. Its survival `instincts’ are impressive.

  3. For the month from February 25 to March 24, 2021, these are the numbers for school positives.

    Students 1,856
    Staff 675
    Total 2,531

    And many schools have yet to go back

    An interesting aside and there is no science to this …

    Sutton has, with rare exception, been in the red. Neighboring Uxbridge has, with rare exception, been out of the red. Sutton has been three feet in many instances because that was the number in its contract.

    Both schools as well as a handful of others I’m aware of are sending more notices of positives in the past several weeks than they have from the start of this school year.

    1. There is no science to it and like Joshua said above “It’s a virus that clearly knows how to find hosts. ” It will be interesting to see the State try to talk around this. You can’t ignore the numbers.

  4. We were very critical of Trump with regard to covid. It was justified. He literally did nothing. But I am not impressed with Biden either. He is doing something ….but in doing so is pushing for a one size fits all solution for our children. He is touting the vaccine yet a comparatively small portion are fully vaccinated. We also have variants breathing down our necks from countries have have preceded us in the past with surges. I pray daily that I am wrong and we won’t see what Europe is seeing.

    I trust the CDC no more under him than I did under trump. Kids no longer have restrictions on buses. What kind of lunacy is that?

  5. This is a podcast from yesterday’s NPR Here and Now. It says pretty much what I….and many others….have said all along. One size does not fit all. But more importantly, it emphasizes the positives of remote learning along with negatives. That is something very very few have done. It also illustrates why remote has worked. The outlook of these two school professionals made the absolute difference.

    PLEASE Start at 10:57 End at 21:40

    I do not intend for this to focus on the opening segment with regard to gun control. My focus is on the discussion with regard to schools with Ger Vue, a high school guidance counselor in a diverse MN school. AND also the discussion by HS senior, Ginnelle Oleysaya (spelled phonetically), and her English teacher and how they worked through the challenges.

    https://podcast.app/future-of-education-gun-owners-for-responsible-ownership-co-founder-e132334197/?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=share

  6. I don’t understand why there is no real push to get children under 16 vaccinated. It’s like the medical community is hesitating in doing so. I have been hearing “maybe” sometime in the summer or even early fall. I highly doubt the vaccines will be outright harmful for younger ages. If we expect 2-years olds to wear masks, we should expect them to be vaccinated just like adults…NOW!!

    I don’t get it.

    1. Too risky. I would never recommend my child or grandchild be vaccinated until a whole lot more research has been done.

      My question is why aren’t we waiting the few school weeks that remain to keep kids safe

  7. Vicki, thank you for sharing the podcast. Really interesting.

    Philip, they need to test the vaccines in children first. You may recall that emergency use authorization is only granted for ages 16, and, in some cases, 18 and above. I’m sure they’re working on this.

    My biggest fear right now is that the novel coronavirus morphs into something that is equally if not more lethal to children and young adults. We see some evidence of this for the P.1 variant, though children have mostly been spared. Generally, viruses weaken over time. The novel coronavirus, however, has not done this. This does keep me up at night. I fear that with increased numbers of cases worldwide – we’re heading back to our January peak globally (more spread of more cases across more countries; with the U.S. proportion diminishing in size) – mutations will not only be the norm, but some of them could be really bad. I don’t believe Baker and others fully appreciate this possibility.

    Wishful thinking in February 2020 got us into this mess. Remember, I was one of the persons doing the wishful thinking. Let’s not repeat that mistake. Let’s be cautiously optimistic, continue to vaccinate but also be super vigilant.

    1. You’re welcome. I liked the positive perspective

      Worrying about where we are headed and whether the virus will move to children now since older folks are no longer as accessible also keeps me up at night. It’s like the darned thing has a mind or its own….or a brain

      Wishful thing sure as heck did get us into this mess. How did we not see the potential for it to follow the same path it has several times already.

        1. Joshua mentioned February so he may be better with an answer. We have loosened restrictions too fast…..even in MA. We did this in the fall. We saw another wave coming. Europe is a good barometer. And we let our guard down. And we paid the price.

Comments are closed.