"Short-staffed NYC schools are asking teachers with mild COVID symptoms to return to the classroom"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.businessinsider.com/teachers-can-return-to-classroom-after-positive-covid-test-mild-symptoms-2022-1

As students return to school amid a record-breaking spike of COVID-19 cases in New York City, some might be taught by teachers who tested positive just five days earlier.

The latest protocols now say that teachers and school-based staff who have tested positive but are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms can return after five days instead of 10, according to an email from the Department of Education to teachers, which was viewed by Insider. The DOE did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The new protocol stems from guidance issued by the state that says essential workers can return after five days of isolation when there are "critical" staffing shortages, and applies to fully vaccinated people who have had two shots of the mNRA vaccine or one shot of J&J at least two weeks prior to their positive test. In August, former mayor Bill de Blasio mandated that all teachers get at least one shot by the start of school, which 96% of teachers did.

It's the latest group of workers to be told to return to the workplace after contracting COVID-19 — and another situation that illustrates the new pandemic workplace normal as some essential workers might head back earlier than their peers. The new protocol says that non-school based staff should still quarantine for 10 days.

*snip*

[Enter stage left]

1. It sounds to me like these teachers are due

Huge pay raises

[littlemissmartypants]

2. I'll have ways to prolong a pandemic for $1000. nt

[Initech]

3. What could go wrong?

[tblue37]

4. If they feel well enough to teach, keep the kids home & let the covid infected teachers teach

remotely from their homes. It's outrageous to deliberately expose kids and school personnel.

[SheltieLover]

6. Absolutely!

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Quite A Bad Idea

I get they're desperate, but bringing in people sick is a dumb idea, almost no matter the illness.

[madville]

7. Some places are letting COVID-positive nurses work as well

They are mostly restricted to working only with patients who are also positive for COVID from what I have read.

[Golden Raisin]

8. Sounds safe, smart and sensible to me.

[Nictuku]

9. Good Grief!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Lots of problems here.

For one thing, what constitutes "mild" Covid symptoms? I mean, how hard will it be for the teacher to stand up in front of the classroom for however many hours? What if the symptoms get worse in the middle of the day and the teacher can no longer stand up?

I mean, really. What idiocy. Even if the teacher with "mild" symptoms isn't spreading the disease, which they probably are, what idiocy to encourage teachers to go back to school when they are sick? Or restaurant servers? Or flight attendants? Or nurses?

Working while sick is totally stupid, and unfortunately our culture has long encouraged that for lots of mostly stupid reasons.

[Solly Mack]

11. Wait. They have to move themselves away from students/teachers if they eat or drink while working?

And they are confined to their home unless working?

Why?

If they can go to work, they will be in contact with other people along the way - or are they supposed to get to work without stopping anywhere, avoiding people, and not using public mass transit, to include carpools, cabs and uber?

Or is it OK to potentially infect people on their way to and from work? As long as they make it to work. But not OK if they are not working - under the premise that at least they will potentially infect less people that way?

Isolate yourself, presumably for the common good - but don't isolate yourself when it comes to getting to work and while at work?

Speaking as a former Head Start teacher, it is impossible to isolate yourself from your students while in the classroom and at school in general.

Speaking as a former student, we always had direct contact with our teachers. Talking face to face, handing the chalk off, turning in papers and tests, in hallways, the teacher walking around the classroom while talking - all kinds of contact in many ways.

I get it is important to keep kids in school but isn't it also important to keep them safe while in school?

A mask can only do so much. Close contact is close contact, even with a mask.

I don't know the answer. I freely admit that.

But I do know stark contradictions when I see them.