As @SFUSD school board debates how and whether to let kids in classrooms here are some sobering facts from @UCSFChildrens:
"The mental health crisis is severe
A 75 percent rise in children requiring immediate hospitalization for mental health needs 1/
2/ There's been a 130 percent increase in the number of children requiring hospitalization for eating disorders at @UCSFChildrens this year over last
2/
3/ @SFUnified, @UESF haven't presented a plan to get ANY 3rd graders, 4th graders, 5th graders, middle or high schoolers back in classrooms
@UCSFChildrens has seen a dramatic increase in kids, age 10-17, who say they've been thinking about suicide
4/ January 2021 showed the highest proportion of suicidal adolescents on record at @UCSFChildrens
@SFUnified/@UESF have presented no plan or timeline to get middle or high school students back into classrooms
5/ Dr. Jeanne Noble of @UCSF, SF's director of COVID, tells me the best way to help children is to get them back in school:
"The best therapy for the kid is going to be get out of the house and see other people and get out of the bedroom and house all day."
6/ Noble also points to this study, published by Duke researchers last month, which followed 100,000 students and staff for 9 weeks -- majority black/brown kids -- and found almost no COVID transmission in schools when kids wore masks
1/100 community organizations led by @CalReinvest back new bill from CA Asm @mgipson2014 to unmask the true owners of residential real estate being gobbled up by shell companies
Management tells front-line nurses at the VA hospital in Durham, NC:
"Effective immediately, staff will be issued (1) surgical mask per week."
Nationally, 9 VA staff are already dead of #COVID19 and 1,281 have tested ++
2/ @DeptVetAffairs has claimed that it has enough PPE and tests, but employees report widespread shortages of PPE, tests and have been told to come to work sick, potentially endangering both themselves and their veteran patients: revealnews.org/article/va-wor…
3/ The email @reveal obtained says VA hospital staff were "warned last week" of shortages & that masks are to be stored in brown bags which have themselves not yet come.