Medical staff get to wear PPE. As for grocery workers:
My wife's a teacher. She was back in school for a day last week, with a much smaller class of children. The first thing one of her children tried to do on seeing her was give her a hug. I doubt this happens to many grocery workers.
In September she'll spend about six hours a day in a poorly ventilated and inadequately sized classroom with 30 children. Neither she nor the children are allowed to wear masks or gloves. From the single days she has been in each week, she's watched children unable to maintain social distancing in the classroom or the playground. They cough, sneeze and wipe their noses on their hands and then touch everything. That's what kids are like.
Because if they didn’t, they’d get pushback from teachers unions demanding schools provide masks (and soap, sanitizer, etc.). What most of America does not realize is how little money American schools on average spend on school supplies. Most teachers pay out of pocket for the majority of school supplies (on top of their already low pay). So as with most things that make no sense, it’s enforceable because there are people with significant sway up top that realize how much more money will be needed if they didn’t enforce it.
I get it too. I used to teach, albeit in a different country. Several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins are teachers too. My answer was more geared towards everyone else who had the same question you had but can't see how upper management would logically justify such a response.
The crux of your question, though, is an ethical one and I think everyone knows the answer - it's not OK.
Sadly, money often trumps ethics in America and my response was an explanation as to why that happens. You will also see the very same people trot out ethics as justification for their actions when it benefits them (case in point, one reason for re-opening schools).
Your comment and question is a great one that everyone should be wondering. The next step is to get people to understand why the illogical is happening and who are making those decisions. That will point people towards confronting the right people in power with the right arguments to push for change.
My god thinks mouths and noses are ugly, hideous things that must not be seen. As such our religious cannon/traditions require the wearing of masks over the mouth and nose at all times.
Join us @ Maskbeterian.org (I only bought the domain today, give me a minute to stand up a shitty wordpress site)
This isn’t going to solve the problem entirely, but what about moving most instruction to the outdoors? Is this being considered anywhere?
I went to a private school for 1st+2nd grade (this is Michigan, in the 90s), and we were allowed to roam around unsupervised in the woods during recess. That includes the dead of winter. We built forts out of tree branches, constructed igloos and snow tunnel, etc. Occasionally we did outdoor lessons, like making a to-scale model of the solar system.
I’m not suggesting those activities necessarily, but it seems to me that there is the possibility of moving outdoors for a significant portion of the day. Even in the absence of a lesson plan, kids still get the benefit of social interaction, experiential learning, etc.
Having three young kids myself and a parent who is a teacher, I know how "gross" kids are first hand.
>Neither she nor the children are allowed to wear masks or gloves.
I understand why the children won't be wearing any PPE - my 3yo would never keep a mask on for more than 15 minutes. Why is your Wife not allowed to at minimum wear a mask?
Has there been any districts/states/counties that have strictly forbid teachers from choosing to wear a mask?? I'm unaware of this but would find it terribly cruel.
At the start of the pandemic, there were hospitals that explicitly forbid doctors from wearing masks, going so far as to fire them. There was one just up I-5 from me which did just that.
When an idiot with authority decides to flex their bureaucratic muscles, the cruelty is the point.
Nurses largely have the PPE needed to deal with covid and have been trained to do so. Store workers have far less exposure than a teacher trying to wrangle 30 kids for 8 hours a day.
Thus far, surface transmission seems to be low. If you're not licking the payment terminal, you're likely OK in that regard.
Length of exposure to an infected person matters a lot. Spending a day in a room with an infected person is riskier than a 60 second interaction with one as you ring them up.
> What bothers me the most is that just like retail / grocery store workers we put people with the lowest earning potential and generally worst benefits directly in the path of this. I don’t want to get COVID but unless I convince my wife to quit her job my odds of getting it greatly increase due to situations out of my control.
Transmission is largely by aerosol over long periods of time, not fomites.
Store workers are relatively distant and contact with any one person is brief. With teachers, every surface is constantly touched and they spend all day with the children.
Store workers are also dealing with adults rather than children. Most adults know how to conduct themselves in a pandemic, most of them...
Grocery store workers don't spend 8 hours a day in a crowded room with kids who won't keep their PPE on, won't adequately wash their hands, want to give their teachers hugs / high fives, etc. Cashiers get to stand several feet away from those checking out, can put up plexiglass barriers, can slow down the checkout process a bit to sanitize between customers.
Hospitals are designed to prevent infectious disease spread. They plan for mass sanitation, employees wearing PPE, minimizing disease vectors. My wife's hospital has changed their policy to no outside visitors even on non-COVID floors. You can't do that in a school.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to downplay the sacrifice essential employees are making right now; they absolutely deserve hazard pay among so much else for putting themselves at risk for the benefit of everyone else. I asked my wife at the beginning of this if she wanted to quit, and we'd find a way to make it work, and she said "I'm a nurse, I signed up for this." That's just her mindset; she's been trained to work in a contagious environment and her hospital has many ways to help keep her safe. Asking teachers to take on that responsibility in addition to what we already ask of them, while being inside a petri dish of disease spreading is 100% irresponsible to everyone involved.
Well I would say even a grocery worker is safer because
* They are generally working in a much larger space like a big store, so not confined into a small classroom
* The small space teachers are in are filled with kids that are obviously the most unhygienic. Try as they will, it's way more risky than being filled with adults(ok lots of adults that are less responsible than a 5 year old, I know) who are wearing masks and attempting to keep distancing
I don't know if they're at more or less risk and I don't know the stats on how many of them have chosen not to work, but if I had to guess I'd say that nurses feel a sense of duty as part of their chosen line of work and that grocery workers are easier to replace for those that chose not to work.
