Michael Mulgrew thanks all of you over and over in his latest email (see below). The UFT is pushing for more testing and a threshold for absences of staff that would lead to an operational closure. When are they going to get this agreement? After Omicron has peaked and when the infection rate goes way down?
Dr. Michael Osterholm in his latest Osterholm update podcast calls what we are going through presently a viral blizzard. On schools he says, "Transmission is rampant in schools right now." He adds that we are in for a bumpy ride the next three or four weeks and then Omicron cases should fall precipitously. He concludes by saying he wants his grandkids in school and soon thereafter states, "But when I see politicians saying schools are the safest place for kids to be, we're not going to close them, you might as well say a category 5 hurricane is coming, school is the safest place for kids to be right now. That's crazy, that's crazy; that's not a scientific position to take. You can't guarantee safety right now with Omicron." It's the next few weeks Osterholm is talking about, not the rest of the school year.
Mulgrew does not even use the term Omicron variant in his email or acknowledge that we are in the midst of a surge. Omicron does look like it is milder than earlier variants but it is so much more contagious. If it is half as likely to lead to hospitalization but twice as contagious or more, you do the math. Vaccines work against Omicron but they are far from perfect as there is waning immunity and most elementary school students aren't yet vaccinated. Attendance in NYC was way down in NYC all week. Add to Covid a snowstorm and we had a 44.5% attendance rate in NYC on Friday. What is Mayor Adams doing for hundreds of thousands of kids who are home? Even those who went in on Friday didn't get much instruction. My daughter stayed home from her middle school. Her friends reported that the entire sixth and seventh-grade student body spent the day in the auditorium because there were so few teachers. Her situation was not unique even before the snow as Chalkbeat reports.
I did not hear a word from Mulgrew on the absurdity of keeping schools open in a snowstorm or the fact that many schools were mostly empty this past week due to COVID and then snow and only students out with COVID or officially isolating are required to get any instruction.
He claims the message he received from teachers was: "If the kids are here, I want to be here." All the UFT President has to offer is a few thank yous for risking your health and assurances that he is pleading with the Chancellor and the State for some more testing and a threshold to close schools. They don't appear to be listening much.
Dear ________,
It’s hard to believe that our winter break was just a week ago after the week we just had. Two big issues on Monday and Tuesday were clarifying the testing protocols and making sure that all of our schools had access to supplies. At this point, we think we’ve mostly ironed out those issues, but we are dealing with the DOE so there will always be something it does that astounds us. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us with your concerns and feedback; it’s this constant communication that keeps us strong.
The public needs to see the level of instruction and care that all of you are delivering to our city’s children, even under these trying circumstances. Despite the staff shortages and the conflicting and changing safety protocols, all over the city I saw students happy to be in schools. Over and over again, I heard from members: if the kids are here, I want to be here.
But we cannot let our guard down. We have to keep fighting for what we believe is best at each moment in this ever-changing situation. Access to more testing and KN95 masks is a step in the right direction. Now, we are pushing the governor and the state legislature to mandate testing for all students. Finding substitutes continues to be a problem, and I’ve been in constant talks with the chancellor to figure out how to get more substitutes. We are also pushing the city and the DOE to create a threshold of absences for staff that would cause a school to go into an automatic operational closure, and those conversations have moved forward quickly. We’ll keep you updated.
Public health experts believe that we will have to live with this ever-evolving virus for the foreseeable future. Vaccination, booster shots and access to testing will help us get through this new wave. But it doesn't make our day-to-day jobs any easier; we all know how much more work it is to fill the gaps for sick colleagues and those who are out to take care of sick family members.
But what I saw this week was a truly dedicated group of professionals showing up when they were healthy and doing their best under the most challenging circumstances. The city should be thankful for you, and we should hold our heads up and be proud.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
34 comments:
The fact that upcoming town hall meeting is not till Wednesday proves that Mulgrew is not pushing for a temporary remote option at all. Where in the hell was he on Friday? His ass should be in schools every single day if he practices what he preaches.
Is Chicago on strike? No pay. No medical benefits?
Some teachers and students are not being informed properly about being exposed as a close contact knowing the criteria has been met.
The form letter says, "someone in our school community has tested positve"..,"You or your child MAY have been exposed" then business as usual.
Then the form letter talks about vaccination status, symptoms and what to do.
Communication to parents is deceiving and confusing for those who actually read correspondence sent home.
Also, Jillian Jorgensen, NY1 Spectrum News, did an interesting study uncovering the deceitful testing routine's in our schools. (Link also on Class Size Matter's Blog)
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/01/07/at-many-schools--the-city-is-testing-fewer-kids-for-covid-than-you-might-think?cid=id-app15_m-share_s-web_cmp-app_launch_august2020_c-producer_posts_po-organic
20% of students are NOT being tested. The formula the DOE uses informs about results in only about 5% or less of kids being tested.
They are testing only unvaccinated students who's parents have consented not all students or pool of vaccinated students. So you have a school with a total of 250 students, of those children let's say 100 are vaccinated and 50 families of the unvaccinated only have consented to testing. That means 20% of 50 children are being tested = 10 students out of 250 not 45 kids as DOE would have the public and staff believe. Mulgrew must know and agree to this sham as well, is very disappointing and deceitful to membership putting their ass on the line every day.
*New CDC exposure guidelines announced yesterday
Scary to think but only hope is the parents, caregivers and older siblings or the students themselves.
Keep the kids home or keep yourself home kids. Make your own zoom chat, talk about plans for spring, fun book you are reading. Cook a meal together over zoom or even together. If you're already constantly exposed to your buddy or GF study for SAT together. Just don't get pregnant.
As with much of the last two years the words and actions of most govts medical overlords don't help much.
Tests are in such short supply might just have to get this version of the virus. I hope not but I don't know how I survived this week apparently.
Sick kids sent in those next to them all day not given kits, only the ones exposed to kid day before...hmmm. thanks for nothing.
I always find it funny that Mulgrew uses we instead of you. When is he every is a classroom for 7 hours a day, freezing because the windows have to be open? He shows up at a school for a short time, takes a picture and returns to his home or well ventilated private office. Adams does the same.
James never goes into the heart of the issue these faulty tests he just loves to fear porn with the CNN PEDO network.
Nobody talks about how faulty the PCR tests are and they are the driving force. THis is the flu. PCR tests can easily be manipulated when run at high cycles. PCR test can show positive results for as many as 12 weeks, meaning they’re not practical for releasing patients from isolation."
Dr. Kary Mullis, Nobel Laureate and inventor of the PCR process said several years ago that “the PCR is a process. It does not tell you that you are sick.” It was never meant to be a Covid test.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/new-test-to-replace-rt-pcr-to-detect-influenza-virus-along-with-covid-19/ar-AAStNfl
https://nypost.com/2021/12/29/cdc-keeps-sowing-more-confusion-and-distrust-it-must-do-better/
Mulgrew has been in the schools every day.
Not participating in a Sick Out, was going to join this week, but now I will be home with Covid!!! Many of my students sent me evidence that they are also positive. I wear 3 masks, 1 is 95, a medical gown, and 2 pairs of gloves when I am in the building. I don't even eat and drink. I had 5 students in class all week and 1 on Friday. Students are asking why they are getting failing grades because their parents want them to stay home. My response to them is school is in session and you are required to attend. Grades will fall and people will get sick. Thanks Mayor. I bet he would not even send his own kids.
Anon 2323,
Thank God most cases are mild to moderate. But we still don't know exactly why some get extremely ill or die.
My husband had a bad case with long covid. Every time you say that covid is the flu, it is incorrect. Why do you continue to say this?
Anon 2323,
Do you actually teacher all day in a classroom?
Retired? UFT full time employee?
Even the ultra liberal Krystal from Breaking Points has said ENOUGH with the school closures. Omicron is not a risk to healthy children. You’ve lost the libs on school closings. Cry baby CNN brainwashed teachers are turning everyone against teachers and teachers unions. Stop.
12,000-52,000 flu deaths a year in the USA and over 800,000 COVID deaths since March 2020. COVID is much deadlier.
https://www.familiesfightingflu.org/flu-deaths-vs-covid-19-deaths/
My doc office our of raid tests, says they are scarece right now.the per test they do includes a respiratory panel.so if u have flu, u will have positive result.however, the test will differentiate for fly, covid strains, and more.i was told that many docs do not do the panel.so a positive for another virus allows u to get a note stating that although your test reads as positive. U are cleared to work.maybe this is what anon2323 listed?or something similar..
Testing pos with gown, gloves, and n95 and no eating is crazy.
Anon2323, not the flu Q
https://mobile.twitter.com/IanRicksecker/status/1478611650760437765
1028. not true. and if it was, do only healthy children matter? that's wild.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1479987781191487489
I wor multiple masks Including 95 mask, medical gown, 2 pairs of gloves, and a face shield. Put theon before I left to drive and only removed them when I got home. Tested positive Thursday. I'm 32 years old and no health conditions. Vaccinated and Boosted.
Our principal sent out an email 'be kind when entering Semester grades. Please consider only counting work students completed and did well on." Sorry, not doing!!! Most of my January Graduates will not Graduate. Thanks Mayor!!
Anon 2323,
I re-read your comment. I still disagree about covid not being the flu, but your comment seemed to focus on the PCR test.
My family was diagnosed with the PCR. You're right, after initial infection, you could still test positive for 90 days. When my husband was in the ICU, the hospital said that I couldn't visit unless I had a negative test. I had already been released from quarantine from my county health department and went back to the doctor for the test. It came back positive-so no visit. I asked the person who denied me at the hospital, that since the PCR tests positive for 90 days, will the hospital let nurses and doctors stay home for 90 days if they get infected? She said probably not, but those were the rules.
My family caught covid around the same time as the ex-president, so I was following this closely. After the ex-president recovered and went to rallys again, they asked Dr. Fauci if the ex-president tested negative. The doctor side-stepped the test question, but said the ex-president was fit to have rallys.
Teachers and the public have to stop fighting about this terrible virus. We have to fight the virus together. I believe that if we all fought the virus together, we might have had nuanced discussions about testing, masks, proper ventilation and all other things about how to defeat this virus.
Please stay well.
THis has been hid quietly.
https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html
Do you sheep even know if they run the PCR test cycles to 35 40 cycles they can easily detect a positive test and the opposite if lowered to 25 or less. It is made up and manipulated any way they want to.
According to scientific opinion:
“if someone is tested by PCR as positive when a threshold of 35 cycles or higher is used (as is the case in most laboratories in Europe & the US), the probability that said person is actually infected is less than 3%, the probability that said result is a false positive is 97% (Pieter Borger, Bobby Rajesh Malhotra, Michael Yeadon, Clare Craig, Kevin McKernan, et al, Critique of Drosten Study)
@9:52 because you do not know unless the test deciphers between the two. Yes we do know, older than 60, obese, heart issues give you the obvious bigger chance of passing.
15 plus in DOE.
@10:58 lol that pathetic dudes profile pic is him wearing a mask, go watch cuomo I mean Maddow, crazy.
Has anyone heard of people dying in their homes from quaratine? Sounds like most of the deaths are when they put you on a ventilator. Also, when 5 governors send sick elderly patients into nursing homes to kill thousands.
Anon2323, but did you read the papers in the thread Q? or was it too against your chosen narrative?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01693-6
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/even-mild-cases-of-covid-may-leave-a-mark-on-the-brain/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254347
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00606
fight for better testing and hold an accurate view of this virus, which is not influenza. it isn't hard, unless your motivation is just to wave fingers at politicians and talking heads. we already know they're useless to us.
2323, that is a public website. it isn't "hidden"
anon2323. nitpicking quotes is the height of disinformation. you're no better than cnn or fox. read the full study. false negatives are a greater risk than false positives. aka better safe than sorry.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8080131/
anon2323 complains about a profile pic because he cannot refute all the studies that person provided in their thread. but i guess that type of behavior should not be a surprise
We continue to test positive because the virus stays in the body for months.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/587391-study-suggests-coronavirus-lingers-in-organs-for-months
Hochul told people who are only experiencing mild symptoms to stay home amid concerns of overburdening New York’s healthcare systems. She said that nearly 5,000 New Yorkers in the past 24 hours alone went to emergency rooms for COVID-19 testing.
“We have capacity. We have 2,000 locations where people can get tested. So, please do not go to an emergency room and tie up the resources, those individuals, so you can get a test. And don’t come in if you have very mild symptoms, either,” she said. “I know you’re anxious, I really understand this, but if you’re an adult that has very minor symptoms, you can handle a runny nose. You can handle your throat being a little bit sore, a little bit of cough. Just treat it as if you would have the flu. Follow the protocols, but please don’t overburden our emergency rooms.”
Please teachers. Listen to Hochul. You can handle this. It’s ok to get sick in the winter. You will be ok. I believe in your immune system.
8:38-Why should we have to? Why should there not be every precaution taken to keep us safe?
I do not agree with discouraging going to the hospital. SO we should keep going to work in unsafe conditions but when we feel ill we should not seek medical treatment? Please with the vax and booster are still getting covid. People go to the emergency rooms because they feel sick and are worried about their health. If you don't feel good seek medical attention.
I just hope more and more parents choose to keep their kids home and keep them safe. Not enough 95 masks for teachers even though over 50% are out. Only 1 rapid test per teacher last week. Kids selling their rapid tests on the bus and subway. Glad my children have Remote for the next 2 weeks I would never send them to school.
Student walkout on Tuesday will do nothing as most students are not even coming to school. Why are these kids being cheated?? Why is money being wasted on Regents prep on Saturdays when it has been canceled??????? I hope teachers are getting a free pass on observations like our schools are.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/01/07/biden-vaccine-mandate-nurses/9093551002/
Why are we only getting 1 test and 1 95 Mask per week? Glad a kid tried to sell me on on the train!!!!
Simple. Follow the orders we were given. If you don't feel well stay home. Runny nose, ear ache, headache, sneezing, coughing, any of the above, no matter how mild. Stay home!!!!
Over half of my students in all of my classes are not attending class. Our school goal of having over 80% of students passing all classes is insane to begin with. I will be lucky if I have 40% passing my class. When I speak to a parent who says, "I do not think it is safe." I simply explain "There is no remote option to complete work from home."
To all the non critical thinking dummies who said there was 800,000 deaths from covid,
uh ohhhhhhhhh CDC director Walesnky admitted "overwhelming" number of covid deaths 75% had 4 or more comorbidities!!!!
James whole narrative has crumbled down. Vaccines suck, they are not safe and effective, you can get it super super easy and spread. So why are vaccinated nurses able to work and our other unvaccinated hero nurses not able to?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/cdc-director-walensky-distinctions-covid-related-deaths-data-forthcoming
NY Times:
Vaccination remains highly effective at preventing severe Covid illnesses. And Omicron is milder than earlier versions of the virus. The combination means that most Americans — including children and vaccinated adults — face little personal risk from Omicron.
The risk is not zero, to be clear, even among people who are generally healthy. But it is very small. Every day, people live with small risks, be they from the seasonal flu and other illnesses or from riding in a vehicle, playing sports or other activities.
For the unvaccinated, the situation is very different. Omicron is still severe enough that it will lead to debilitating illness and death for many unvaccinated people. In much of the U.S., a large number of adults — including older adults — remain unvaccinated:
Non critical thinking Anon2323, comorbidities are commonplace. they can include arthritis, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, sleep apnea. when a person dies, many of these conditions are present. you have not discovered any hidden secrets, nor have you revealed that covid didn't play a role in all of these deaths. you only showed how sick and unhealthy many Americans are, unfortunately. another reason why this country needs to avoid spreading viruses, no matter what virus it is.
How many NYC public school auditoriums, gyms, hallways, school cafeterias, student and staff bathrooms, classrooms, (Special Ed classrooms in particular) offices deans offices, nurses offices do not have windows? Do not have window poles to open them? Are windows locked/ stuck and do not open or staff forgets or refuses to open them because they claim they are cold? Custodians refusing to fix the problem? Problem not reported? Is there plexiglass in front of the teachers desk? Are there plexiglass partitions separating students desks and are they social distancing in the classroom? How can they social distance in any classroom with doubled up classes because shortage of staff? Substitutes are getting coverages without extra pay. Is UFT, the mayor and the chancellor really aware of what’s going on? Are there pictures of all of this from schools? Does every school have a blueprint of their school to show this? How about burned out air purifiers or staff not putting them on when they enter the classroom?
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