Long COVID, Florida-style

Happy Labor Day to all of those who failed to absorb “The Work versus Welfare Trade‐​Off” (CATO, 2013). (Also, Happy Labor Day to those who are smart enough to refrain from labor!)

Part of an email from a teacher in the Palm Beach County Public schools:

… I have tested positive for Covid and was out of the classroom today [Monday]. I hope to be cleared for a return on Wednesday. Not my choice on how to start the school year but I’ll look on the bright side.

I checked in with her on Thursday:

Yes I am back and very happy to see my Fantastic First Graders again!!!

Compare to “1 in 5 Educators Say They’ve Experienced Long COVID” (EducationWeek).

So let’s celebrate those who continue to labor despite union contracts that would allow them to take a substantial amount of time off, at 100 percent pay, after a positive COVID-19 test.

As long as we’re talking COVID-19 and the Palm Beach County Schools… What’s the level of coronapanic as reflected in the Student & Family Handbook? The word “mask” does not appear. The word “COVID” appears only to provide historical context:

During the onset of COVID-19, in the Spring of 2020, the School Board supported the successful transition of instruction to Distance Learning. One of the supports for this transition was the implementation of a one-to-one student device initiative. Because of this, all School District of Palm Beach County students may be issued electronic devices. These devices are for instructional use to support curriculum goals and will be available for students to use at home or in school.

The corresponding document from our old suburb? The “top priority” is “Establish a culture that is built upon the intersectionality of social and emotional learning, Antiracism, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (AIDE), student and adult learning, and fostering strong connections”. However, the word “COVID” appears 20 times. The possibility of masks on buses and in the classrooms is explicitly discussed. Parents must swear a loyalty oath to Saint Fauci and Science:

Back to the topic of Labor Day… here’s a Florida native green anole taking a break from his/her/zir/their labors on our front door.

Let’s hope that this green anole wasn’t pushed out of his/her/zir/their tree. See “Densely packed invasive anoles outcompete natives”:

Invasive brown anoles might outcompete their native cousins in the southeastern U.S. merely by living more densely.

Brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) inadvertently came to Florida in the 1800s by tagging along on cargo shipments. Since then, the invasive species have moved steadily northward in the state, often taking over territories occupied by native green anoles (Anolis carolinensis). Researchers know that over time, the invasive Cuban anoles change the native species’ habits. After moving in, the newcomer species typically occupies the ground and lower parts of plants and trees, while the green anoles occupy an ecological niche higher up on trees and bushes. The native anoles also become less common once the brown anoles have established themselves in the new territory.

Instead, she speculated that brown anoles in the wild might be outcompeting green anoles based on sheer numbers. Brown anoles may lay eggs more often than green anoles. The Cuban newcomers also tolerate much denser living conditions, while green anoles don’t. This allows the invasive species to take over more territory.

In short, anole migrants have a higher birth rate and don’t mind living in squalid conditions that native anoles would consider intolerable…

8 thoughts on “Long COVID, Florida-style

  1. What happens if the parents/guardians/caregivers in Lincoln refuse to sign the “commitment”? Is that legally binding, and are their children booted from the public school system if they refuse to sign that document as a precondition for their children’s attendance? Does Holchul call them and tell them to “Get Out of Town?” Does Biden send them a Riefenstahl-esque dunning notice with a somber warning?

    • Addendum: we are doing exactly what we have every Labor Day for at least the past ten years or so: we are working. It’s rainy here in MA today and more rain is forecast for tomorrow. We’re going to grill some hot dogs and hamburgers later this afternoon, but that’s about it.

      It’s good! MA needs the rain, not so much the booze and essential marijuana (although I’m sure that’s not deterring anyone who had already made up their minds a month ago, they’ll just Party Hardy indoors instead – isn’t that what every ‘holiday’ really means now?) Outside it’s got that fresh, clean “just rained” smell in the air, about 71 degrees.

  2. The history of the brown anole is compelling reading for our time! All the past is present again!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_anole

    “The specific name, sagrei, is in honor of Spanish botanist Ramón de la Sagra.[14]”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_de_la_Sagra

    “Ramón Dionisio José de la Sagra y Peris (8 April 1798 – 23 May 1871) was a Spanish anarchist, politician, writer, and botanist who founded the world’s first anarchist journal,[1] El Porvenir (Spanish for “The Future”).”

    “n 1845 he founded the world’s first anarchist journal El Porvenir, which was closed by Ramón María Narváez, Duke of Galicia.[4] After the French Revolution of 1848, he created with Proudhon the Peoples’ Bank of France. In Brussels he met Heinrich Ahrens, disciple of Krause, whose doctrines he proclaimed in Spain before Julian Sanz del Rio. He continued to publish economic, geographic, political, social, and prison reform studies. In 1849 he was expelled from France, because he was spreading Socialist ideas. In 1856 he was expelled from Spain to France by Ramón María Narváez, because he was spreading radical ideas. In Paris he met Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. There he worked as the consul of Uruguay. He returned to Cuba between 1859 and 1860 and published numerous studies and essays there. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 he went to Switzerland, where he died on 23 May 1871 at the age of seventy-three.”

    So you have a Marxist Anarchist to thank, at least in spirit, for the invasive brown anole.

    “It is believed that these lizards were unintentionally brought to the area in cargo shipments for the Caribbean, as well as an intentional release of approximately 100 individuals in 1941.[19]”

  3. COMPLETELY off-topic, but it’s noteworthy enough:

    Prof. John Kelly at Weber Auto on YouTube has a wonderful series of videos about the Ford Mustang Mach-E. People with short attention spans or who have little interest in how things actually work should probably follow Jeffrey Toobin’s example.

    If this *is* the future and you’d like to know more about it from a technical point of view, you can do a lot worse than watching his six video series, published over the past month. He gets deep inside the Mach-E drivetrain in every way, from the batteries (including the cooling system) to the motors and the high-voltage system, etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/c/WeberAuto/videos

  4. You should check that Education Week reference.

    Here’s the survey detail: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/survey-shows-extent-of-long-covid-in-schools/2022/07

    “In a survey of educators conducted by the EdWeek Research Center last month, 20 percent of respondents said their school or district had “some” experience with long COVID among their employees. Two percent said they had “a lot.””

    In other words, 20% of teachers know of someone or had heard of someone.

    It doesn’t mean 20% are suffering from it or claiming they have it.

    • Those are two different articles, I think. The one that I referenced is from April. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/1-in-5-educators-say-theyve-experienced-long-covid/2022/04

      The one that you reference is from July and is about a “new survey”. It wouldn’t surprise me if these Scientific efforts have different conclusions since, of course, the Science is settled and we have a Scientific Consensus around anything regarding COVID-19.

      The April one says that 55% of teachers have at least one co-worker who has been struck down by Long COVID and that 19% of teachers say “Me” in response to “Who do you know personally who has contracted long COVID” (what happened to “Whom” for these educators?).

      I think the headline fairly characterizes 19% as “1 in 5”.

  5. I am curious just like Alex (1.0)! What happens if you don’t sign this? The government cannot compel speech. Why would you be forced into agreeing with anything?

    • @TS: Right! What the heck’s this “I commit….by agreeing to all of the above.” stuff? Do they send Children and Family Services after you if you don’t? Is that the “stick?”

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