Parents, you want public schools to open in Aug if cases are still spiking in Ms or

[Jack Lambert]

We can't shut down. That's the point. If we don't learn to manage this as a "slow burn" we'll have to shut down again. And that will be 100% the fault of the "fully open, no mask, don't care, economy first" crowd. We have to manage the gas and the brakes. No groups of more than 50, or 25 or 10. LOCAL mandates to wear mask in public settings when the virus is present. Etc... I WANT FOOTBALL and everyone seems intent on screwing it up!!! If bed space in hospitals, ICUs PPE or medical treatments become scarce we have to shut down. This is a manageable situation that we've refused to manage. It's maddening. If we have to actually "shut down" again, it's the fault of the federal government.

I think just what happened this past school year is going to affect the kids. Many will struggle going forwards. Social learning was a joke. I saw it with my two kids. They go to Rankin County Schools. Hell in some school districts kids did not have the means to distant learn. My understanding was parents were sitting out side McDonalds using thier wi fi. Watching my two kids and what they had to do. They improved their grades but I just don't think they learned anything. Just doing the work and getting an 80% got you one extra point on your final grade plus the grade average in. You could retry over and over until the window was closed. If you did not do the work or fail it or it would hurt your grade, nothing. If did not hurt you or help you. My son has friends who did nothing. Took their grades the way they were. They lost two and one half months of school. That is going to hurt all of them.

[Political Hack]

I think just what happened this past school year is going to affect the kids. Many will struggle going forwards. Social learning was a joke. I saw it with my two kids. They go to Rankin County Schools. Hell in some school districts kids did not have the means to distant learn. My understanding was parents were sitting out side McDonalds using thier wi fi. Watching my two kids and what they had to do. They improved their grades but I just don't think they learned anything. Just doing the work and getting an 80% got you one extra point on your final grade plus the grade average in. You could retry over and over until the window was closed. If you did not do the work or fail it or it would hurt your grade, nothing. If did not hurt you or help you. My son has friends who did nothing. Took their grades the way they were. They lost two and one half months of school. That is going to hurt all of them.

I agree. I will send my children to school given the choice that Georgia has granted parents. I do hope a decent portion stay home and I also hope that we can stay home a distance learn some days and attend some days. However, they'll need to manage that carefully so I doubt there will be a great deal of flexibility to just hop back and forth.

Kids have to go to school so parents can go to work. If we were reacting to the clusters correctly, we could take preemptive steps even within the school system thought. E.g., "Parents, we've had a recent spike in covid cases and we are asking as many students as possible to stay home the next two weeks. The ones who report to school will be required to wear masks when not seated at their desks." But we're not really managing it that way.

[Political Hack]

I don't disagree. I guess the question is whether that stuff is going to get scarce even with spikes in cases. In MS at least, that doesn't appear to be the case with this spike in cases we've seen the last few weeks.

Some areas it will and some it won't. But we've depleted the Strategic National Stockpile already and we haven't even gotten through the first wave. States have a surplus of PPE now, but some key drugs (like remdesiver) are going to run out by the end of June. The death rate is so low now, that the treatment options across the board are working. So it won't be too bad from a treatment standpoint, but any effectiveness we lose treating the disease and freeing up hospital bed space is significant. Not to downplay the deaths of so many Americans, but the mortality rate is incredibly low compared to most pandemics. Death isn't the issue. That's sad, but we can't shut down the world because people are dying. However, maintaining a operational health care system and being able to protect our nationally significant critical infrastructure is a huge issue. And this pandemic could impact both significantly. And for whatever reason, politics has muddied that picture. It's sad.

Soap box moment aside, and back to your question, some places will be fine with capacity and some won't. Regardless, if we get close to capacity, local leaders will have no choice but to cancel games, events, public gatherings, etc... I wish people would do their part to help stop that. I want to play ball with my kids and watch college football and the Saints. Every time I see someone shaking hands, not wearing a mask, and not respecting social distancing guidelines I immediately think "thanks for helping shit on football season." That's my selfish goal, but it should all be our collective goal.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

I?m all for doing away with brick and mortar schools as we know it...go to elearning, we wouldn?t need any school supers, admins, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, coaches, janitors, replace teachers with an IPad.....would save the state a ton of money on salaries, retirement, utilities, maintenance etc..and we can put it in infrastructure and attracting industry.

If you don?t want that, figure out how to have School with butts in the seats and teachers in the class room.

[99jc]

Some of you may start to figure out this virus is here for a while our spoiled lives as we know it is over. Suck it up

[Jack Lambert]

I talked to a Principle from one of the Brandon Elementary Schools. Her son and my sons are friends. She said as of now the plans are to go as normal requiring the students to wear mask.

[InTheIttaBenaHotSun]

Yes

[Schultzy]

Every mutation LESSENS severity according to the epidemiologists; do not forget this.

[Political Hack]

Every mutation LESSENS severity according to the epidemiologists; do not forget this.

West coast strain was less severe than the east coast strain.

[msstate7]

Liverpool's house

I love this post

[msstate7]

West coast strain was less severe than the east coast strain.

If there are different strains already, how can we possibly get a vaccine?

[RiverCityDawg]

West coast strain was less severe than the east coast strain.

Link?

[Political Hack]

Link?

https://www.contagionlive.com/news/a...ns-of-sarscov2

Plenty of other good articles on it out there.

The vaccine is not trying to kill the virus, it's killing the transmission of the virus. The strains are similar enough that they transmit the same way generally on the same receptors. Based on what we know about the way it transmits, there's a high level of confidence we will have an effective "vaccine" (or pretreatment) fairly soon. Probably early spring timeframe. That's why there's no point in taking the "hands up, screw it" approach yet. Be responsible and contribute to a slow burn and then we cure it. Move on. It's really not that difficult. We all just have to quit arguing over common sense stuff like masks and social distancing. If we had went to work in Jan/Feb on this, we'd be on the tail end of it during the fall/winter flu season. Not an option now, but if we make it through this winter I suspect all of this will fade relatively quickly.

[SheltonChoked]

Did you really expect people to sit in their houses til we have a vaccine? I mean how asinine and na?ve are you to believe that was a possibility. A rise in cases was going to happen, it was inevitable. We're testing at a rate that is triple most other countries. It's past time to get back to living life. Let people make their own choices regarding they and their family's safety. No one is forcing parents to send their kids back to school in the fall just as no one is forcing people to go to a ballgame. Most administrators I've talked to have plans in place to handle any type of situation. If you want to hole your kid up for the rest of time, then I'm sure the school will be more than accommodating towards distance learning.

Places that have mandatory mask orders have had caseloads shrink 25%, Those without mandatory mask orders are up 85%...

Seems like you are in the "cannot follow basic instructions" Group.