NYC DAILY POSITIVITY RATE FOR COVID-19 GOES ABOVE 3% BUT UFTERS STILL BEING SENT INTO SCHOOL BUILDINGS

The NYC COVID-19 daily positivity rate is up over 3% so there is significant community spread of the coronavirus at the same time as public schools started today in NYC for elementary and K-8 school students. Maybe, that rising  number is an aberration but probably not.

This is from Gothamist:

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said that New York City's daily testing positivity rate for COVID-19 had reached 3.25%, a jump of more than a percentage point over the previous day.

In a cruel irony, the sudden rise in the city's positivity rate comes on the first day of in-person instruction for about 300,000 children attending K-5 and K-8 schools across the city. Prior to Monday, the number of people testing positive has hovered around 1 percent for around two months.

De Blasio attributed the uptick to 9 ZIP codes in Brooklyn and Queens, which are home to significant numbers of Orthodox residents. While health officials have targeted outreach to those communities, the mayor has refrained from citing a specific source for the infections. He said that health officials would work to expand testing and strengthen enforcement, but that schools would in all neighborhoods continue to reopen.

But in a sign of a possible pushback from educators, Michael Mulgrew, the head of the teachers union, on Tuesday expressed concern about reopening schools in Brooklyn neighborhoods with covid clusters.

“We are very concerned with Brooklyn and those (zip) codes in Brooklyn. If we don’t see those numbers start coming down by the end of the week we are going to get much more aggressive with City Hall,” he said.

He later added: “Everything goes on the table. I know that makes people uncomfortable when we say those things but it’s a fact. We cannot, cannot allow politics to get in the way of our safety concerns at this point in time.”

At the end of July, the mayor had said that schools would not reopen if the positivity rate on a seven-day rolling average rose to 3%.

That seven day average now stands at 1.38%.

If you are waiting for Michael Mulgrew to look out for your health, you are most likely going to be waiting a while. When Mulgrew talks these days, I usually shake my head or scream out loud in disgust.

Remember, if you do not pass the daily health screening test, you are mandated to stay home. If it is COVID-19  symptoms, you can stay home for two weeks, even if it isn't COVID-19, without any days taken from your Cumulative Absence Reserve.

Please note you can take the days with COVID-19 symptoms that can be as simple as a runny nose causing you to lose some sense of smell. In addition, if God forbid you later come down with COVID-19, you are still covered without any loss of CAR days. 

If the NYC positivity rate stays where it is for a week, you won't be able to use those ten free days because the system will go all remote. Go get a telemedicine medical note if you are a worrier.

I put out the theory on Saturday that many UFTers have been beaten down so much by the hostile DOE and their own dues first union so they have been rendered incapable of fighting back. We termed it mass learned helplessness.  Former UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez used to term rank and file lack of resistance to the DOE "Battered Staff Syndrome."  She of course only blamed the DOE. I feel the UFT is a big part of the problem. We need to restructure our union representation so that it serves the rank and file as its main objective, not itself.

It is a personal decision on entering school buildings. If you believe the DOE-UFT reports are legitimate and that your building is safe, then by all means go in.  If you think you have to be there for the children, they are in most cases probably safer at home. Still, we truly respect everyone's dedication whether working in person or remotely.

I do recommend that everybody listen to experts on the seriousness of the possible second wave of coronavirus and don't take my word for it as I am no scientist, doctor, or epidemiologist. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb,who was on CNBC this morning, is an expert. 

As we head into the fall and winter, the conditions are right to see continued, more aggressive spread of this virus,” Gottlieb said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He urged Americans to adhere to public health measures aimed at mitigating the spread such as wearing masks and social distancing.

"Kids are back in school, kids are back in college campuses. Work is trying to restart. People are becoming more complacent and tired of the restrictions, and so all of those conditions are going to set up a fall and winter that, I think, is going to create a lot of risk,” he added. 

Gottlieb’s comments came one day after global deaths from Covid-19 topped 1 million, and one week after the U.S. eclipsed 200,000 deaths. 

Please stay safe.