Thursday, June 25, 2020

Day 106

The pandemic continues to be mysterious and unpredictable in some ways (infecting  mostly adults rather than children, infecting men more than women) and yet we have learned how it is transmitted and understand the preventative measures to thwart the virus.  Today in a virtual meeting with several specialists teachers in Aurora Public Schools we discussed the scenario of going back under some severe protocols.  In this instance, students would not move throughout the building, but instead staff would come to them.  They would remain inside their classrooms six feet apart for the whole of the day and specialists would bring their lessons to the room.  Lunch would be served and eaten in the room too.  This is a nightmare scenario for everyone involved.  It stifles movement and keeps children sedentary for most of the day.  Even the moments of brain breaks and classroom physical education the movement is limited.

I do not think this is the way things will end up, but we have to prepare for every contingency. 

A Denver Post guest commentary argues for children to have in-person learning because it is what's best for children. The article touches on mental health, physical activity, nutrition and social interaction as positive resources children are missing when not in school.  And utmost on everyone's mind is the achievement gap and it's impact. You can read the article in it's entirety here: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/24/colorado-schools-reopen-coronavirus-guest-commentary/

"There is no evidence that people can contract COVID-19 from food or from food packaging.", but the FDA was busy today helping get information out to people as they started a podcast known as "FDA Insight" and posted a youtube video of a 25 minute speech from Dr. Hahn at the Brussels Forum.  Hahn is a commissioner at the FDA.   The numbers concerning the virus continues to rise with nearly 175,000 new cases worldwide putting the overall total at 9.6 million.  Brazil exceeded the U.S. in new cases yesterday and reported over twice as many deaths as the U.S. 

And that is with the U.S. reporting the most new cases in a single day since April 24, two months ago.  Experts are blaming the fast-track reopening phase, but keep in mind testing has become more available.  It should be noted here that when it comes to total cases CDC Director Robert Redfield said Thursday: “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections.    We did get some good news when MLB announced it would begin a shortened 60 game season on July 24th.  Batter up!


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