The Times headline screams there's ramped-up testing, but the devil is in the details, and they aren't pretty. Evidently, classrooms will no longer be closed. Instead, the students will be given at-home tests. If they come in and say they are negative, that's good enough for the current mayor, the future mayor, the governor, and the NY Times.
The remarkable thing here, unnoticed by the ace Times reporter who can't be bothered talking to teachers, is that at-home testing is not acceptable for the much-vaunted Situation Room. If I say I tested positive, I have to run out, sneeze on a rich person, and get a PCR test. That's the gold standard for proving you're sick. Proving you're well is just a matter of saying, yeah, I took the test and I'm fine. That's a preposterous double standard, expressly designed to make it look like there's less COVID than there actually is.
Now I'm not a fan of Eric Adams, as he's bought and paid for by charter interests, but I had hoped, on public safety at least, that he'd take a more reasonable stand than our current ostrich-in-chief, Bill de Blasio. However, his statement here has me quite concerned:
“Your children are safer in school, the numbers speak for themselves,” Mr. Adams said.
The numbers are supremely juked, and anyone who doesn't know that isn't paying attention at all. Testing 10% of unvaccinated students who give permission is an absurd standard. The fact is, vaccinated students can get and transmit the virus. The fact is many parents who don't want their kids getting the vaccination may not believe in vaccination, or masks, or COVID, or public safety. There's no way they are giving permission for their kids to be tested for this mythical affliction. t
I don't see anything in the piece about testing for staff, but I'm gonna take a leap of faith and predict the percentage of eligible staff will also jump to 20%. That's not a big commitment for the city, especially if it continues its policy of only testing staff after all eligible and willing students have been tested. In my school, the 20% figure is meaningless, since all eligible and willing students were well below the 10% threshold.
By making staff wait until the last possible moment, there's no way they'll have to test 20%. By the time they get to 10%, or before, it will be time to run back toward the Situation Room, or wherever they come from, before their cars turn into pumpkins. Make no mistake, this entire thing is a nothing burger, and it's endorsed by the useless current mayor, the useless future mayor, the useless governor, and the beyond useless NY Times.
If you work in a city school, spend all that teacher choice money on quality masks and let the Christmas elves decorate your classroom. Because otherwise, you'll be depending on Christmas elves to keep you safe, and you sure as hell don't want to do that.
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