
Reopening Bars Is Easy. Schools Are Difficult - prostoalex
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/reopening-bars-easy-schools-are-difficult/613861/
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MiguelVieira
Re-opening is a knapsack problem.

Your budget is Rt (effective reproduction number) which has to stay at or
below 1.

All social and economic activities have a benefit to society and a cost in
terms of Rt.

The goal is to get to Rt = 1 while maximizing the benefits to society. The
problem is that covid is so contagious that many activities have a very high
cost.

Seen this way, maybe it makes sense to throw bars and indoor dining out of the
knapsack so we can put schools in.

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random42_
It’s really hard to believe it when you have parents saying crap like “my
daughter will never wear a mask and will hug her teachers and friends!”. That
was one of the comments made by a parent in a survey my school district sent
to help them understand how to proceed for the upcoming school year (we had
access to the answers; anonymized, of course). And there were a lot with the
same tone.

I don’t know, I’m afraid that even with all measures in place there are too
many people that don’t believe the pandemics is real and don’t try even a bit
to make their part as a member of the community.

Edit: typos.

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dirkf
Here in Belgium kindergarten and primary schools were reopened in June for
about 3 weeks until summer holiday started. The kids didn't have to wear
masks, nor the teachers while in front of their class. Teaching was more or
less like before, albeit with a bit more distancing between teacher and kids.

Outside the classroom the kids from one class were not allowed to mix with
kids from another. The playground was divided up in several areas and each
class was assigned one. Breaks were in two shifts and all toys were washed in
between (and rotated between areas). Dropping off and picking up the kids was
also in two shifts and spread over as much entrances as possible to reduce
contact with other bubbles. No parents allowed on the school premises.

As far as could be judged from those few weeks this didn't seem to impact the
infection numbers. Even better was that the kids could have a more or less
normal ending of the school year. If nothing changes my guess is that in
September schools will start again in the same modus operandi, which I'm okay
with.

But high school and up, that's a different matter...

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twic
The evidence is not rock solid, but points to schools being one of the more
low-risk things to reopen.

[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-
acro...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-across-globe-
suggest-ways-keep-coronavirus-bay-despite-outbreaks)

It's mistaken to be worrying about reopening schools if you are blithely
ignoring problems with care homes, diabetes sufferers, etc.

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DoofusOfDeath
The author's argument seems to be that sending kids back to school _can_ be
less risky than keeping them home, if appropriate measures are taken. And that
will require community support, funding, sacrifice, and creativity.

I wish the article had _also_ explored solving the problem by mitigating the
risks of staying at home. Perhaps applying the same level of community
support, funding, sacrifice, and creativity to stay-at-home strategies would
work even better.

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valuearb
I’m convinced, sending my kids to bars this fall instead oof schools.

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DoofusOfDeath
Bars are more dangerous than schools, so I think you have it backwards. We
need to convert school gymnasiums into speak-easies.

~~~
jmalicki
Isn't that basically what Pizzagate was about?

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nan0
The article's beginning and very ending was very informative and made clear
nuance of the situation of keeping kids/college young adults from school.

The author lost me completely when they started injecting in one sided
political perspectives and hindsight bias:

"...opposition to public-health guidance."

Which public-health guidance? Not all of the "opposition" was bad. Example:
Any guidance from the W.H.O early on in the pandemic [0]

"Had Trump implored his supporters to wear masks and be patient, case counts
might well be dropping across the country. "

Author chooses to show a particular political bias again and fails to mention
the other major event that caused a uptick in cases (nationwide protests).

This whole section seems very out of place with the rest of the article,
almost like The Atlantic had a requirement to show a left leaning bias to be
published...

0: [https://www.businessinsider.com/who-changes-timeline-
first-c...](https://www.businessinsider.com/who-changes-timeline-first-
coronavirus-report-from-internet-china-2020-7)

~~~
Klonoar
The protests largely included people wearing masks, and the hotspot
problematic areas are not those aforementioned protest hotspots.

You have a political bias and it is showing.

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rednerrus
There are tons of people in the protest not wearing masks. It's politically
dishonest not to assume some spread came from massive gatherings, especially
where protesters were gassed. I know it's dangerous to say anything negative
about protests but we need to be consistent and honest in order to maintain
our credibility.

