Coronavirus - COVID-19

[Magnetic]

Hell, I haven't even ordered delivery of food. All the grocery shopping is either contactless pickup or delivery. I haven't left the house much since mid-March.
As far as I can tell, this pattern will be continuing indefinitely. It really sucks, but I'm not taking chances.

[versusreality]

9,000 new cases in Florida today. holy shit.

[allegate]

so we're playing Uno now with these cards?

[zero]

My husband and I have eaten at outdoor restaurants “patio” type setups, with tables very distanced and everybody masked except for people who were seated. But we won’t be making it a regular practice, and we will NOT be going to an indoor restaurant once the re-open to minimum capacity here soon. Nope.

I really miss eating out, it's one of the few social things I do fairly often with my wife. But we just don't feel comfortable with indoor dining just yet. The world has changed. Every single journey away from home involves the decision making process which consists of: Is this activity which will expose me/us to the virus important/valuable enough to offset the (perhaps small) risk?

Both my wife and myself are reasonably good cooks, and the bathroom scale certainly indicates we are consuming more than enough nutrition! It's the social aspect of eating out that we miss. For now, we will abstain.

[Jinsai]

this is endless.

having lived in the worst part of it in NJ, right outside of NYC, we felt Florida was laughing at us, going to the beaches a couple months ago, outdoor at bars etc. a couple months later, now look at Florida.

..but now NJ is opening up. I see way less masks. MASSIVE outdoor gatherings. people at the beaches. we're doing what Florida was doing a couple months ago. we'll be right back where we were by September. justtttt in time for school to start.


NJ is supposed to come out with their school reopening plans today. as a teacher...I just don't feel comfortable with that thought.

Yeah... you could almost say it's because we have scrambled messaging from leadership as to how we should actually address this emergency in a serious manner.

[versusreality]

so the new rules of school in Sept in NJ...I do NOT feel comfortable at all as a teacher, and I'm young and healthy. after speaking to some of my co-workers, some who are older, they are REALLY not happy. honestly, I'm not happy either. long story short:
-Staff must wear masks
-Students have to be 6 ft apart in class (LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE. I work in the inner city and there are easily between 30-35 kids in a class with barely an inch to move now)
-Student mask is "encouraged" but not mandatory (WTF. students can get it and spread it to each other/to other adults!! )
-Students should "try" to practice social distancing on busses (again, we are so over crowded that students have (illegally) had to stand in school buses already)
-students are allowed to eat in a cafeteria together (MAJOR WTF...social distance in class but eat together at lunch!!?? )
- it's "possible" some districts will have alternate days for students, alternating between in person and remote learning (good luck with that)

I think it's just a major, major mistake. schools are part of the reason why things got so bad here in NJ in the first place.

[Magnetic]

I want whatever they're smoking. The delusion is strong there. I'm sorry...I can't imagine that work environment.

[chuckrh]

First person I knew directly to die from COVID-19. My high school band teacher. Made the paper because the county commissioner was a year behind me in the band. Mr Weaver was pretty old but still not a good way to go. RIP.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... lications/

[versusreality]

sorry to hear that chuckrh

[allegro]

[Jinsai]

I understand the vital social element to school, but in this scenario, there should at least be an option to remote learn from home via zoom conference or whatever. A friend of mine is a teacher and he was teaching the rest of this year's courses via remote lessons, and he actually said that for the most part it was a smooth enough roll out and manageable experience that you get used to.

[versusreality]

I wish we did remote learning too. we did it from March until June. the results were not so good. we had some students who did no work since they were physically last in school in March (they were ok too, there were multiple wellness checks) . what's worse is that we were basically mandated to make sure all our kids pass regardless. thing with remote learning in the fall is that, things will be back open, these parents will be at work, so then what? at least in March everything was shut down and the parents were home.

there really is no good answer. I WANT it to be remote learning for a multitude of reasons. even if the results were mixed at best from March-June, I'd still take that over RISKING THE HEALTH OF EVERYONE

[Jinsai]

everyone's mileage may vary; I'm sure it varies wildly depending on class size, age... there's a ton of potential factors, not to mention that it's a new approach to try to teach kids via video conference. I remember when I was in college, and for the first time in my life I had to use an online portal extension for the classwork, and it completely screwed me up, and I'm not really a luddite or a technically un-savvy person. And that was really just an email thing.

If we keep pushing for working solutions we'll figure it out. If we just pretend that the threat isn't real and it'll "fade and just go away" or whatever, we're in for a rough time... and I know I seem to keep coming back to this point, but Trump is politicizing our collective response to this in the worst way. Maybe it'll really depend on who wins the election.

[allegate]

[allegro]

I wish we did remote learning too. we did it from March until June. the results were not so good. we had some students who did no work since they were physically last in school in March (they were ok too, there were multiple wellness checks) . what's worse is that we were basically mandated to make sure all our kids pass regardless. thing with remote learning in the fall is that, things will be back open, these parents will be at work, so then what? at least in March everything was shut down and the parents were home.

there really is no good answer. I WANT it to be remote learning for a multitude of reasons. even if the results were mixed at best from March-June, I'd still take that over RISKING THE HEALTH OF EVERYONE

My neighbor is a teacher. We are in an upper-income school system, but we have a group of low-income kids. She says many of them don’t have the internet, let alone a computer. She says the kids who DO really struggle with virtual learning; they don’t stay engaged, their attention spans wander, they have a harder time grasping things. Even attempts to use props with younger students (like puppets and animation) doesn’t work. She’s a special ed teacher, she says that’s even worse.

When I was in college in 2004-2007, we used Blackboard and online science sites a lot, and I excelled in that environment; and of course - in law and academia - I was online doing research literally all day long. But, I think you have to have a certain personality for that. I think because kids like video games or smartphones, it’s assumed they’ll excel in virtual learning environments. That’s turning out to be a false equivalence.

[Jinsai]

@allegro I don’t know; it might be too early to tell, but with special education yeah, I could see remote learning being a huge roadblock in a ton of potential ways

[allegro]

@allegro I don’t know; it might be too early to tell, but with special education yeah, I could see remote learning being a huge roadblock in a ton of potential ways

There are roadblocks in low-income and minority neighborhoods. Proven. We assume they have the internet. We assume they have computers. That’s not always the case.

Parents are filling the jobs of teachers in home-schooling. If parents have to go back to work, nobody knows who is going to teach these kids. You can’t have all-day virtual learning. As I said, my neighbor was speaking from the perspective of the problem the district is having with virtual classrooms - not just her as a special ed teacher.

Part-time, staggered schedules is probably going to be the way they have to go.

[versusreality]

there's really no easy answer to it.

[Jinsai]

No I guess not... I mean I could suggest that programs fund the feasibility of the concept, but who am I kidding

[allegate]

[ickyvicky]

Wow. Broadway to remain closed for the rest of the year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/t...ronavirus.html

[versusreality]

smart move.

[allegro]

there's really no easy answer to it.

It appears that most parents don't want to send their kids back to school, anyway.

My school district is HEAVILY funded (I posted a response to @allegate 's post in the Police thread), but that's not a real "fix" to this Covid issue, anyway.

[versusreality]

we were already facing layoffs and major budget issues before the crisis. some teachers had to spend hundreds of their own money for supplies. I really don't want there to be a second wave because I can't even think about how much more grim it can get in our district.

[allegro]

we were already facing layoffs and major budget issues before the crisis. some teachers had to spend hundreds of their own money for supplies. I really don't want there to be a second wave because I can't even think about how much more grim it can get in our district.

What City are you in?

[Jinsai]

I am really getting depleted reading posts from people who think that this is all a hoax. This ranges from Info-Wars style conspiracy to MAGA-hat stuff, but I'm REALLY tired of reading some craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy-sounding fantasy bullshit from actual real people. I'm not "friends" with these people, but people I'm friends with apparently are... and I don't get it. I literally just dropped out of a "debate" after someone REALLY implied that Bill Gates is behind all this and wants to put microchips in us.

I've met this person. You'd never suspect that they are that far OUT THERE.

[versusreality]

What City are you in?

Jersey City

[Sarah_Munn]

@Jinsai , In my experience people become radicalised, get drawn into extremes about almost anything. Fear plays into it too I suppose. At the moment it feels like it's all sides and battle lines. I think some people feel pushed to pin their flag somewhere.
Was the microchip idea to do with the covid test? I had a picture show up on my timeline from a friend of friend about the covid test in fact being the insertion of a microchip at the back of the throat.

[Jinsai]

@Jinsai, In my experience people become radicalised, get drawn into extremes about almost anything. Fear plays into it too I suppose. At the moment it feels like it's all sides and battle lines. I think some people feel pushed to pin their flag somewhere.
Was the microchip idea to do with the covid test? I had a picture show up on my timeline from a friend of friend about the covid test in fact being the insertion of a microchip at the back of the throat.

See, I'm not even sure what functioning method she believed Bill Gates had in mind. She was so paranoid that she wouldn't go into details about all these NWO plans, because she couldn't trust that I wasn't a "snitch for big pharma" and that the only reason I asked is because I intended to report her and get her banned for spreading misinformation... or at least, that's kind of how I eventually unpacked what she was trying to say... I think. It was a trip.

I'd laugh it off, but I'm seeing wayyyyyyyy too much of this bullshit, and I don't know how much of it might be bot misinfo campaigns, or real people actually buying into this stuff... but I can promise, this person I talked to today is a real person that I've met in real life.

[allegro]

Jersey City

This is the budget from 2019.

Holy moly, the police personnel budget omg.

But the tax levy for the school district is 24.18%. You can't tax residents to death, but you can lower costs and benefits and increase salaries. There definitely are areas that don't benefit residents or students.

We have this same issue in the City of Chicago.

My property taxes in Lake County are MUCH higher than property taxes in Cook County, or in Chicago. But, residents in poor areas of Cook County pay a proportionally larger property tax rate because property taxes are a regressive tax. In exchange for that, they get shittier schools and shittier city services and shittier policing and shittier healthcare and they're lucky if they have one grocery store.