Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk • Hacker News Board

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#421

Post by s5300 » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

ghufran_syed wrote: post #297

not2b wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this is a consequence of ideologies that have become popular in the US both in politics and in business. Having government direct a mobilization is not acceptable. A mandate that people wear masks is not acceptable. Having manufacturing capacity to make low-value products in large numbers in the US is bad business when poorer countries can do it for less. Having spare inventory is bad, because just-in-time man…

So you think it would be better under a different political leader? I think it’s great that you’re still such an optimist

Well, the last administration literally made something called

“Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.”

AKA how to handle a pandemic for dummies

What did our current administration do? Claim it at first did not exist, and then definitely didn't look at it when they were informed it did exist.

Really, you're not putting any effort in your trolling/cynicism

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#422

Post by gorbachev » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:43 PM UTC

QuercusMax wrote: post #311

In Santa Clara County, CA (Silicon Valley), a group of 40 principals got together in person a few weeks back to discuss reopening plans. And they got COVID. Is it any wonder that teachers don't trust that they will be kept safe?

Israel was forced to close their schools again after infections skyrocketed with schools opened. One school had 114 students and 14 teachers get infected.

This is exactly what's going to happen in the US as well, especially in the states that are seeing explosive infection rates at the moment.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#423

Post by RestlessMind » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:43 PM UTC

cool_dude85 wrote: post #172

eaandkw wrote: post #150

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

Not sure where you're from, but in many places, "society and government" has not failed people the same way it has in the US. Even within the US there are some places where local and state government have performed much better than places like Florida or NYC. That is to say, the problem is not, conceptually, "society and government", but instead, the American society and American government we have today. Don't give…

Let's see - US government instituted reasonably prompt lockdowns. They mailed one-time stimulus checks to everyone, gave 600$ unemployment insurance boosts, ramped up hospital capacities, opened up other support measures for businesses and allowed 50 parallel experiments (at state level) to see what works and what doesn't.

Was the response perfect? Certainly not. Did some other countries do better? I'm sure we could find a handful. Does this make the US a "totally failed shit-hole state"? HELL NO!!

And in case you think that the US is indeed one, it just means that you have only been exposed to Scandinavia and/or Singapore, or you have consumed too much of biased media which wants to maximize your anxiety and partisanship for their profits, or you are just trolling here to intentionally sow divisions. Assuming you are not in the last category, please go and learn about how things are in Brazil or India or sub-Saharan Africa. You will realize that the US is in a much better shape and things are handled far better than the media narratives.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#424

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:43 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #220

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the things that has been so disheartening to me about the pandemic is that it has shown how we just can't really do anything anymore in the US. I mean, just look at PPE. I understand being a little flat footed when the pandemic first started, but it's been nearly 6 months now. I would have expected mass mobilization to pump out N95 masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, etc. by the millions. I mean, look…

If you want an increase in mask supply, you have to either allow the pricing mechanism to do its job, or force people to make masks. Given the (very popular) laws against price gauging, it seems like the only viable option is to force some companies to manufacture more masks. Production capacity is available, but at a higher cost than is currently economical. All that being said, your second point seems correct to me…

[deleted]

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#425

Post by spideymans » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #209

eaandkw wrote: post #150

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

I think one of the things that has been so disheartening to me about the pandemic is that it has shown how we just can't really do anything anymore in the US. I mean, just look at PPE. I understand being a little flat footed when the pandemic first started, but it's been nearly 6 months now. I would have expected mass mobilization to pump out N95 masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, etc. by the millions. I mean, look…

The United States government is completely and utterly dysfunctional when it comes to serving the needs of its citizens. The government rarely goes out of its way to help its citizens, and the rare times it does something to help, it does so incredibly begrudgingly, intentionally making the process as painful as possible.

The pandemic payouts are a wonderful example of the government going out of its way to make helping its citizens as painful as possible. Millions of people still haven’t received their one-time payment of $1,200. Meanwhile in Canada, it took their government only two weeks to develop the infrastructure to send monthly payments of $2,000 to every Canadian.

The incompetence displayed by the American government isn’t because they can’t do better - it’s because they don’t want to do better. The same government was able to send massive financial assistance to huge corporations with very little delay.

It’s become totally evident that the United States government exists solely to serve its corporations, not its citizens. Anything it does to actively help it’s citizens is, at best, incidental.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#426

Post by charwalker » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

eaandkw wrote: post #150

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

A uniquely American view of independence and rights has become a uniquely american problem with helping our neighbor, unfortunately. Nations with more collective oriented values appear to have done much better.

Just sucks to not have a solution for people who spend their lives teaching (and babysitting, managing, mentoring, and more) our youth.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#427

Post by mistermann » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

dlivingston wrote: post #318

cool_dude85 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you're from, but in many places, "society and government" has not failed people the same way it has in the US. Even within the US there are some places where local and state government have performed much better than places like Florida or NYC. That is to say, the problem is not, conceptually, "society and government", but instead, the American society and American government we have today. Don't give…

What we need is a plan and a leader that will pull us out of this gridlock and death spiral that we're in. We need a diagnosis of what exactly is going wrong, a concrete plan of action, and mass participation. My diagnosis: - Hyper-partisanship is causing politicians and the electorate to harden into uncompromising tribes. This hyper-partisanship also serves to increase the size and scale of the fringe wings of both…

> I think exploring the idea of a crowd-sourced website listing these reasons and proposed solutions would be quite valuable.

100% agree...a crowd-sourced website that does this and a whole bunch of other things is desperately needed.

I believe with strong certainty that the current state of affairs (in Western countries at least) is that our political, corporate, and media structures, combined with the "collective consciousness" of our population, have basically brought us to a point from which these same organizations haven't a hope in hell of undoing the mess they've put us in. I think something outside the current system, a completely new grassroots approach to decision and sense making is required to get us back onto a sustainable path.

How might we get such an initiative underway?

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#428

Post by rpiguy » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:45 PM UTC

soared wrote: post #349

rpiguy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is ridiculous fear mongering. There are 5.1 million people working in hospitals. https://datausa.io/profile/naics/hospitals 800/5100000 = .00016 They are therefore three times less likely to die from Covid than the general population. Schools across Europe have opened. Children rarely spread the disease. Doctors recommend schools open. Twenty times as many children died of the flu last year than from COVID. Deat…

You can't honestly be saying that we're overreacting to COVID? I would hope someone in full PPE everyday has a much lower rate of COVID deaths. The US alone has more than 25% of global cases - comparing Europe to the US doesn't really make sense. They largely beat covid, the US obviously hasn't (see 70k new cases yesterday) More people die in car crashes than the flu - doesn't mean we don't spend trillions on road sa…

There is no science behind the lockdowns. There is no logic in keeping Walmart open but closing Sears for safety. Yes I believe it is absurd the level to which we have locked down the country.

Some of the states that had the strictest lockdowns, NY, NJ, also had the worst outcomes.

The purpose was never to stop the virus but to slow it.

Growing cases does not concern me. Death rate has blipped up a little but no where near in proportion to the cases.

This is no Tuberculosis, or even Measles.

Time to cautiously carry on and stop cowering.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#429

Post by vkou » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:45 PM UTC

mikeg8 wrote: post #398

vb6sp6 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because masks are now a political statement and some administrators are republicans

Has there been any districts/states/counties that have strictly forbid teachers from choosing to wear a mask?? I'm unaware of this but would find it terribly cruel.

At the start of the pandemic, there were hospitals that explicitly forbid doctors from wearing masks, going so far as to fire them. There was one just up I-5 from me which did just that.

When an idiot with authority decides to flex their bureaucratic muscles, the cruelty is the point.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#430

Post by rpiguy » Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 8:46 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #175

rpiguy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is ridiculous fear mongering. There are 5.1 million people working in hospitals. https://datausa.io/profile/naics/hospitals 800/5100000 = .00016 They are therefore three times less likely to die from Covid than the general population. Schools across Europe have opened. Children rarely spread the disease. Doctors recommend schools open. Twenty times as many children died of the flu last year than from COVID. Deat…

>> Schools across Europe have opened. Children rarely spread the disease. Doctors recommend schools open. False on all three counts. Stop spreading misinformation and propaganda, thanks.

All three are true, you are denying science. I am very tired of this anti-science crowd peddling fear.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...