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22 Apr, 5 tweets, 3 min read
We learned that teachers in APS are now allowed to remove Plexiglass barriers on desks because they muffle sound, make seeing kids harder.

Here are a few other reasons schools should remove this snake oil... Short 🧵.

📌 First, CDC deleted guidance to use them in March.
📌 Second, this, this, and this... examples where flimsy plastic barriers on didn't stop 🦠.







📌 Third, and this and this and this...




Oh, and a bioaerosol expert on a our leadership team also tested these in his lab and found them to be utterly ineffectual at doing anything to block small floating particles!
📌 So, to sum up: If teachers want to remove plastic cubbies, due to a negative impact to teaching/communicating — hearing kids — they should.

The barriers might block drops from a sneeze, but the major issue is small particles that float around these.

Take 'em down! Mask up.
📌 If we want to truly reduce risks (since particles can be recorded just flowing around these cubbies) add more True HEPA air cleaners that remove particles from the air, keep masks on 100% indoors, open windows, and don't put people so close together that they have to swap air.

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More from @smartrestartaps

@SmartRestartAPS Profile picture
23 Apr
1/ When faced w/ uncertainty in a crisis, assuming best outcome can be a mistake. As @dgurdasani1 noted: "It's not alarmist to be cautious. In the face of uncertainty, when the losses can be large, the best strategy is to reduce risk as far as possible."
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1384778…
2/ This is @APSVaSchoolBd's plan for fall: Normal. Full buses. Normal lunch. (Full cafeterias indoors?) APS hopes that CDC drops its 3' guidance so there won't be any distancing, even among unvaccinated younger kids. (Contingency is 3' distance.)

Or anyone can choose virtual. Image
3/ This is @FCPSSupt's plan: force most to in-person. Limit access to virtual accommodations. But have "large-scale" testing and purchase tents to take class activities outdoors — plan now to reduce risk until kids vaccinated. (Critics: not enough done.)

washingtonpost.com/local/educatio…
Read 5 tweets
@SmartRestartAPS Profile picture
22 Apr
arlnow.com/2021/04/21/two…
2/ Here's the breakdown of COVID-19 exposures and positive cases by school community as of the start of the week.
3/ The trend on youth cases in Arlington... via VDH data.
Read 20 tweets
@SmartRestartAPS Profile picture
22 Apr
1/ A big myth of the "return to school buildings" debate is that COVID-19 magically🧙‍♀️ doesn't spread in kids.

A preprint from an Omaha pilot project debunks this bigly (again).

Another 🧵 with evidence for TESTING to detect and 🛑🦠. #SafetyIsVITAL

abcnews.go.com/Health/study-s…
2/ University of Nebraska Medical Center found:

📌 Lots of asymptomatic COVID-19; testing caught cases MUCH higher than typical school reporting (self-reports and symptomatic).

📌 Staff: 2.5x more COVID

📌 Students: 6x more

📌 10x more 🦠 at school than in community stats
3/ Turns out schools may have missed up to 9 of 10 student cases and 7 of 10 staff cases — before better testing to detect and #StopTheSpread of COVID-19.

📌 District also mitigated risks:
✔️ hybrid
✔️ ¼ occupancy
✔️ 😷
✔️ 6 ft distancing

(HS & MS schools in study)
Read 23 tweets
@SmartRestartAPS Profile picture
20 Apr
1/ Study finds indoor sports most likely setting in our schools to spread COVID-19.

Secondary attack rates by setting:
📌indoor, contact sports like🏀, wrestling, cheer (23.8%)
📌staff meetings or lunches (18.2%)
📌elementary school rooms (9.5%)

academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…
2/ Tracked COVID-19 cases Dec 11, 2020, to Jan 22, 2021, in an Atlanta district that included 8 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and a high school. Students were in-person 4 days per week and wore masks, with desks spaced 3 to 6 feet apart. More kids in ES rooms than MS/HS.
3/ All cases confirmed by PCR testing. Secondary attack rate (SAR) — % of contacts who become infected— was calculated by setting (classroom, bus, indoor sports); student or staff; symptomatic or asymptomatic, and time of exposure.

Overall, 9% secondary contacts got sick.
Read 9 tweets
@SmartRestartAPS Profile picture
20 Apr
Ordering...
Read 7 tweets
@SmartRestartAPS Profile picture
19 Apr
1/ Really tired of reasonable, critical, school safety mitigations being mired in politics. Local "open schools/COVID just flu" groups are funded by GOP hardliners w/extreme views on masks, vaccines and need for public health regs.

(Lost an election? Try a recall.)
2/ And yet, we may have a lot of room actually for common ground and a return to reason, a return to a common set of working facts — sensible precautions to keep school buildings open.

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021…
3/ Concerns are heightened when people have more experience with COVID-19. We should be erring on the side of doing more for safety, not less.

@APSVirginia won't commit to masks or 3' distance in fall, but families must choose a fall learning model now!

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021…
Read 6 tweets

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