Althouse: "Nationwide, six teachers have died of Covid-19, reports Katie Shepherd in the Washington Post. 'It isn’t clear whether any of the teachers were infected at school,' she writes."

September 12, 2020

"Nationwide, six teachers have died of Covid-19, reports Katie Shepherd in the Washington Post. 'It isn’t clear whether any of the teachers were infected at school,' she writes."

"Actually, it is clear that only one of the six had any contact with students before becoming sick. In Mississippi, Nacoma James, 42, coached football over the summer till he developed coronavirus-like symptoms and went into quarantine. It’s not known how he was infected. Some of the others had attended a teacher work day at school or visited their classroom, but none had taught students face to face...."

Writes Joanne Jacobs (on her education blog).

Here's the WaPo article: "As students return, the deaths of at least six teachers from covid-19 renew pandemic fears."

Do you think WaPo readers were deceived into thinking going back to classroom teaching is killing teachers? Well, let's just check out the highest rated comments over there. Highest rated: "Trump fans sure picked a funny time to start pretending that they think it’s super important to attend school." Third highest rated: "The blood of teachers, staff, students, parents, and relatives are on the hands of Donald Trump...."

ADDED: That "blood" commenter gets the grammar wrong: "blood... are..."

77 comments:

doctrev said...: Six teachers died out of 180000 Americans. My God. How have we failed to put up a memorial to these heroes who suffer in silence? On September 11th, 2021, let us see a fifty-foot tall statue to these amazingly modest and dignified role models.; 9/12/20, 8:58 AM
Lucid-Ideas said...: "It isn't clear whether any were infected at school"

Too busy rioting.; 9/12/20, 8:59 AM
MadisonMan said...: Russian and Chinese operatives have a hard time with English Grammar.; 9/12/20, 9:00 AM
MadisonMan said...: Also -- six teachers out of how many nationwide; how does that compare to death rates in the overall population? Math is too hard for Journolists to figure that out I suspect.; 9/12/20, 9:01 AM
Scott Gustafson said...: 6 deaths out of about 3,700,000 total teachers. It would seem to be a lot more dangerous just driving to and from work.; 9/12/20, 9:04 AM
Sebastian said...: "Actually, it is clear that only one of the six had any contact with students before becoming sick"

But since we are dealing with the Party of Science, facts don't matter.

Women's Fears Matter.; 9/12/20, 9:07 AM
frenchy said...: Who has the blood of grocery checkers on their hands?; 9/12/20, 9:09 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I am confused. I see yard signs Thanking Essential Workers - are teachers essential or not so essential?; 9/12/20, 9:12 AM
Wince said...: Trump's opponents see keeping schools closed as essential to inflicting the economic disruption necessary for Biden to win.

Audio: LA County Health Director Says Schools Won’t Reopen Until After November Election

But I don't see how making Trump the symbolic impetus for school opening hurts him.; 9/12/20, 9:12 AM
MartyH said...: Six teachers out out 2.5 million. I'll be more have died in car accident is the same time period.; 9/12/20, 9:14 AM
Ampersand said...: Internet message boards are constant reminders of the scope of the problem facing sensible people who don't want to be governed by an alliance between manipulators and the manipulated; 9/12/20, 9:15 AM
tim maguire said...: So we're classifying by job now, instead of source of infection? Of course, public health be damned if it gets in the way of Trump bashing.

I understand the motivations of an Al Gore or a Michael Moore, who got very rich by lying to people who want to be lied to, but the owner of the WaPo is already rich, so what's the angle? Straight up America hate?; 9/12/20, 9:15 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Related:
Democrats have adopted the Palestinian strategy.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/democrats-adopt-destructive-palestinian-playbook-jake-novak/; 9/12/20, 9:18 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: Yeah, the WaPo's hiring of this so called reporter has been written about by Andy Ngo. Just another corrupt ideologue with no journalistic integrity.; 9/12/20, 9:19 AM
Temujin said...: I have to only listen to my family and friends in Michigan and California vs what I see here in Florida to know who is spreading excessive fear and who is working to get back to living. Of course WaPo's goal is to do anything that is anti-Trump. Come November 4, if Joe Biden wins, it'll suddenly be time for teachers to get back to teaching!

People have to be willing to listen to the fear and prefer to stay indoors, allow their businesses to fail, their children to lose, and their communities to die. Or they can get on with living.

What was that line from Shawshank Redemption? "Get busy living or get busy dying." To me it's at that point now. Under the guise of 'protecting the people' the governments of some of our states- with the help of our media- are fear pornographers. The science, which they always claim hangs out in their living rooms with them, does not match their actions.

But facts never did have anything to do with any of this.; 9/12/20, 9:20 AM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: This one is good:

“A week before virtual classes were set to start in Des Moines, a teacher died after testing positive for the virus, sparking additional fears in a district that has been battling with state leaders over a statewide mandate requiring at least 50 percent of classes to involve in-person instruction,” writes Shepherd. The teacher, who’d recently traveled out of state, had not been in a school for months.

The first to go in a pandemic is common sense.

Sweden’s schools have been open for a month with restrictions, except for high school equivalent, which has been closed and gone virtual the whole time, and there is no detectable increase in COVID. Nobody should be asked to return to a pre-COVID environment, but it is possible to open schools and there is not another planet we can live on where COVID is not a fact of life at this point. It was important for us to learn more last spring, but I am with the “Let’s get on with life” people at this point. We know a lot more. And there will be hotspots where school will have to close again, and some people are going to die or be saddled with potentially life long conditions, but here we are. If a teacher can’t live with that, he or she should be allowed to retire, or they should just move on.

I do worry that as the cold weather comes, and the sniffles and sneezing start, which they do just due to cold air, that the contagiousness of this virus is going to go way back up, but like I said, there isn’t another planet for us to live on that doesn’t have COVID.; 9/12/20, 9:21 AM
Fernandinande said...: BLS says there are 1,579,800 elementary school teachers (containing 15,798,000 pints of blood), for a death rate of 0.0038 per 1,000 teachers.; 9/12/20, 9:22 AM
Francisco D said...: My wife is a HS Art teacher here in suburban Tucson. Our concern is that her classes are typically very crowded - more than 30 students. It is very difficult to socially distance under those circumstances and these are teenagers we are dealing with.

The School District is trying to figure out how to reopen next month and not lose a lot of teachers to early retirement or sick outs. Some teachers, like my wife, want to open but in a safe way because there are a lot of older vulnerable teachers here. Of course, the union is basically an arm of the Democrat party and uses gossip to deride the Republican governor. They do not want to let a crisis go to waste.

As a side note, my stepson contracted COVID at home in Iowa. His moderate symptoms are flu-like, but without the temperature spike. He was weirded out that his sense of taste was lost for several days. He is recovering without medical intervention.; 9/12/20, 9:22 AM
MartyH said...: I heard Gavin Newsom's kids will be able to start school shortly. In Sacramento County, nineteen private schools have received waivers to reopen, and apparently his kids attend one of them. Only four public schools from one district have even applied.

Because teachers have a 6 in 2,500,000 chance of dying from Coronavirus.; 9/12/20, 9:24 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: BUT -- what about the super volcano under Yellowstone?
Polar magnetic shift? Incoming meteor? Ice caps melting? ETC., ETC, (post your favorite); 9/12/20, 9:24 AM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: Yes. They were deceived. In order to still vote Democrat at the national level, you have to be easily deceived.; 9/12/20, 9:30 AM
Ken B said...: It doesn’t need to be true. All it needs to be is published. Then it’s a reference, a talking point.; 9/12/20, 9:33 AM
Diogenes of Sinope said...: The Washington Post is trying to make people think that teachers who return to the classroom are in deadly peril. It's political propaganda, pure and simple and not a mistake or misreading of the facts by WaPo. Remember there's only a very loose relationship between good propaganda and facts.; 9/12/20, 9:34 AM
chuck said...: The Washington Post is garbage, but the commenters are scary.; 9/12/20, 9:40 AM
Michael K said...: I understand the motivations of an Al Gore or a Michael Moore, who got very rich by lying to people who want to be lied to, but the owner of the WaPo is already rich, so what's the angle? Straight up America hate?

What do you think the effect on Amazon has been with millions of small stores closed ?; 9/12/20, 9:41 AM
Madero said...: The media's entire business model is based on fomenting TrumpHate and profiting on the results. Facts and logic don't factor in.

Think about that. They profit on hate.; 9/12/20, 9:43 AM
GingerBeer said...: The party of scienceish.; 9/12/20, 9:44 AM
Goddess of the Classroom said...: My school (junior high) and the senior high have adopted a 2/3 day hybrid. Students have been divided into two groups based on their last initial. Group A attends in person M-T; Group B attends in person Th-F. The other group attends synchronously via Google Meet; Wednesdays everyone is virtual but synchronous. Sixth graders attend MTTfF because they are the youngest and more vulnerable if they have to be home alone when parents are at work. Elementary students are in classes 5 days a week--the district hired extra temporary teachers to reduce class sizes in order to maintain distancing.

Our administrators PERSONALLY measured each classroom to be sure that desks could be placed 6 feet apart. Teachers have been supplied with masks, hand sanitizer, and wipes.

It's been a real struggle to juggle (yes, it rhymes) teaching the kids in my room and the kids online at the same time, but this is so much better than what we had to do last spring.

I pray that we'll be able to return to our traditional classes after this quarter (Nov.) or at least by the second semester.; 9/12/20, 9:46 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: None infected by students! I wonder if six is the lowest death total ever for teachers or what? Out of how many nationwide? Sounds like they weren’t distancing and hand washing like they should. In fact it sounds like, unlike the millions who continued working nationwide in Wal-Mart and CVS and all the pot shops? Do these scared little teachers not see how cowardly and politically craven their weak argument is?; 9/12/20, 9:51 AM
James Graham said...: "That "blood" commenter gets the grammar wrong: "blood... are...""

Incorrect grammar?

Whom cares?; 9/12/20, 9:54 AM
stlcdr said...: It would be interesting to know the professions of the 1.9 million people who have died in the US, this year.; 9/12/20, 9:57 AM
rhhardin said...: Notional plural.; 9/12/20, 9:58 AM
bagoh20 said...: Did they die of Covid, becuase there is no such standard being recorded. They died WITH Covid. How many teachers died in the same time period of all causes? These six just happened to also catch Covid. That's the standard, and since over 10% of the public has caught it, of course some teachers who died also had it. That's all this means. Even if they died from Covid, those numbers are indicative of something not very dangerous. Six nationwide who had it when they died demonstrates no real threat exists. The facts indicate the opposite of the narrative.

It's a common thing in reporting now to say something like "5% of all people who smoke get killed in car accidents", implying that's a problem and a causation, when the real story is that 95% do not. Nearly all Covid reporting is in that vein.; 9/12/20, 10:06 AM
Jeff Brokaw said...: A LOT of teachers are in very poor physical condition. It would be nice if these “oh noes the kids are going to kill all the teachers” yahoos could step back and see what the real risks are for teachers instead of these manufactured fake risks.

HAHAHAHA just kidding, like *that* could ever happen.

==> Uncomfortable conversations, we need more of them.; 9/12/20, 10:06 AM
bagoh20 said...: 'I do worry that as the cold weather comes, and the sniffles and sneezing start, which they do just due to cold air, that the contagiousness of this virus is going to go way back up,

That's why we need to hug a Covid. Get it now, get your immunity before the holiday rush.; 9/12/20, 10:08 AM
William said...: Who has the most dangerous job in the pandemic? From what I've read, it appears that people in the meat packing industry are the most vulnerable. Teachers should use their free time to organize a movement to get Americans to become vegans. More vegans = less covid infections. People who eat hamburgers have the blood of not just cows on their hands.....Supermarket workers show up for their jobs not because of their love of humanity but in order to receive a paycheck. I've no objection to teachers staying home, but I don't like their staying home and getting a paycheck and bragging about their dedication and idealism.; 9/12/20, 10:09 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Francisco your teenagers experience was typical. They get a mild case and move on to be VIRUS KILLING Kids. They can’t spread it. They can’t get it again. They can’t “give it” to teachers once the sniffles are over. Instead your kid is no contributing to our overall health by not wearing a mask and breathing as much as he can. This, the science, is why no one should fear students being back in school. As a modest suggestion I think Trump should make HCQ and zinc available to all teachers as a prophylactic along with vitamin D. You know, as a comfort and preventative measure.; 9/12/20, 10:14 AM
PJ57 said...: Media pandemic panic porn. In support of the ffellow traveling teachers unions.; 9/12/20, 10:28 AM
Jupiter said...: Pretty good indication of what sort of people are still reading Bezos' propaganda sheet.; 9/12/20, 10:30 AM
wild chicken said...: This morning I heard a guest on Fox and Friends say he never should have went to college (instead of trade school).

I had to change the channel.; 9/12/20, 10:32 AM
Birkel said...: Those people should create a keyboard macro to save time typing OrangeManBad.; 9/12/20, 10:36 AM
Balfegor said...: Japan and US aren't apples-apples, both because of differing cultural attitudes towards cleanliness and because their case load is significantly lower than the US, but they've had students back in schools for a while now without classroom transmission as far as I am aware. They've had a big school cluster with 90+ cases, but that seems to have involved a soccer team who were all living together in a dorm, rather different from a classroom situation.

And the images I've seen in the news of in-class measures look distinctly low tech -- it's basically just masks, disinfection and handwashing, and setting students' desks apart a bit, rather than anything revolutionary. Students assigned daily cleaning duties are supposed to be supervised more closely and there's guidelines about what to use when cleaning, guidelines about ensuring airflow in the classroom, etc., but I don't think they spent billions upgrading their physical plant for this. And that physical plant is mostly pretty dated. On the other hand, they mostly didn't have air conditioning in classrooms until the past ten or twenty years, I understand, so those aging school facilities were probably already set up to rely on air circulating in from outside, which might help in the current circumstances. Anyhow, basically everywhere in the US would fit into the highest risk category in Japan's current framework, so what works for them might be insufficient for us. But so far, it doesn't look like grade school is triggering explosions in cases.

Those college students though . . .; 9/12/20, 10:39 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Democracy Dies in Darkness!; 9/12/20, 10:46 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Panic porn.

Early last March, when the modellers- the experts we were told- were predicting 2-11 million dead Americans, what was the right approach- give in to the panic, or try to tamp it down?; 9/12/20, 10:51 AM
ga6 said...: Ed degrees, no math required other than the inch worm song.; 9/12/20, 10:54 AM
buwaya said...: The general opinion here is that the risks that teachers are being asked to take are reasonable and necessary acts of selfless patriotism, or whatever it is when one risks ones life for humanity and civilization, as patriotism towards a particular polity is a bit complex in Spain.

Very much like that which prevailed at the height of Covid, when doctors and nurses (of which many died) were seen in the same light as soldiers at war. The public support was intense. I recall a case where the Foreign Ministry went to extraordinary lengths to recall and assist the return of Spanish medical personnel abroad. And these doctors and nurses were grimly determined to do so as their duty called them. The tele often covered these cases.

Rather like all those Israeli reservists scrambling home on the outbreak of war.

It is now the time for the teachers to follow their fellow civil servants out of the trenches, over the top, and into no mans land. They have even organized pools of reserves to replace casualties.; 9/12/20, 10:55 AM
Narayanan said...: Francisco D said...
....
As a side note, my stepson contracted COVID at home in Iowa. His moderate symptoms are flu-like, but without the temperature spike. He was weirded out that his sense of taste was lost for several days.
....
?also sense of smell?
can you lose one without the other?; 9/12/20, 11:15 AM
Original Mike said...: "BLS says there are 1,579,800 elementary school teachers (containing 15,798,000 pints of blood), for a death rate of 0.0038 per 1,000 teachers."

Given 38,800 traffic fatalities last year in a population of 280,000,000 US drivers, the death rate was 0.14 per 1,000 population. So 220 deaths in a population of 1,579,800. I did that without paper and pencil so I invite people to check my math.

Maybe a journalist could do it. Then again, maybe not.; 9/12/20, 11:17 AM
MD Greene said...: Also this: "It isn't clear whether any of the teachers WAS (not were) infected at school."

Ms. Shepherd previously reported for a left-leaning Portland weekly paper, where she was seen as a homer for the local antifa affiliate. As recently as 10 years ago, that would have been a disqualifier for a move up to the big leagues.; 9/12/20, 11:21 AM
Jersey Fled said...: If you start with the premise that every word in the WAPO is a willful lie you won't go far wrong.; 9/12/20, 11:25 AM
Jersey Fled said...: How many teachers died last year from venereal diseases. Or drug overdoses. Or DUI. Or homicide. In Chicago alone.

Inquiring minds want to know.; 9/12/20, 11:32 AM
JAORE said...: Cut them some slack.... I'm sure, just oh so sure, the unfair implication against Trump was accidental.

How many percent at the voting box do you think the steady deluge of media distortion draws from Trump and adds to Biden?

And the left bemoans how well Trump is featured in the press.; 9/12/20, 11:34 AM
JAORE said...: BUT -- what about the super volcano under Yellowstone?
Polar magnetic shift? Incoming meteor? Ice caps melting? ETC., ETC,

Damn that Trump!; 9/12/20, 11:38 AM
Achilles said...: The WaPo is staffed by evil people.

Bezos allows this to continue.

He is complicit.

In everything that is happening right now.; 9/12/20, 11:44 AM
Scott Gustafson said...: If we include preschool and special Ed teachers there are 4.2 million according to BLS (OES 25-2000.) The average death rate for 25 – 64 year old’s is right at 400 per 100,000. So we should have about 16,800 teachers die this year. Compare that to 6.; 9/12/20, 11:49 AM
bobby said...: Teaching is not going to come out of this episode as a noble profession.; 9/12/20, 11:49 AM
Quaestor said...: Sometimes called paltering, the artful use of small truthful statements to convince people of a much grander lie. is a common propaganda technique. WaPo readers, or at least the ones who comment on the WaPo site, are evidently much easier to palter than the average American.

"...blood...are"
For many years I've held that good grammar is an aid to clear thinking. The evidence mounts that my thesis is correct.; 9/12/20, 12:17 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Six out of 3.6 million. (Google: <>3.6 public and private school teachers.)

Guessing about the same fatality rate as blood poisoning from paper clip/staple wound.; 9/12/20, 12:20 PM
JAORE said...: "I invite people to check my math.

Maybe a journalist could do it. Then again, maybe not."

Most could not.
The few that can would, mostly, skip the effort.
The tiny fraction left would look at the results and say, "Doesn't fit the narrative" and hit clear entry on the calculator.

Layers and layers of gossip mongers.; 9/12/20, 12:21 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: They are losing customers before they even realize they are in the service sector. Capitalism is about to teach a harsh lesson to teachers unions because the market is voting with their feet. Once they go Pod or parochial they won’t be back. Layoffs coming. Learn to code assholes. I taught in gang infested SoCal for ten years. I know most teachers are assholes. And the union is worse.; 9/12/20, 12:23 PM
Quaestor said...: So we should have about 16,800 teachers die this year. Compare that to 6.

Apparently, Scott Gustafson thinks dead is dead. Poor Scott, he's not as well-informed as WaPo readers who know that death from COVID-19 is a special kind of death, more tragic and final than death by cancer or coronary thrombosis.; 9/12/20, 12:28 PM
cubanbob said...: Teaching is obviously important but not immediately critical for the sustaining of society. The Instacart delivery guy and the Amazon drones are. The real pyramid of essential workers would be an inverted pyramid. Cops and firemen are not essential workers in Democrat run cities and counties. Thugs, arsonists and rioters are essential workers in Democrat run cities and counties which is why they aren't being prosecuted.

Has society always had this proportion of assholes and they simply weren't noticed in the past because the internet and social media didn't exist or is this a new creation spawned by the net?; 9/12/20, 12:52 PM
n.n said...: Of, from, or with?

The WaPo is staffed by evil people.

Bezos allows this to continue.

Diversitists, yes. Pro-Choice, on principle. That said, Amazon has profited from the spread of social contagion that accompanied the perception and actual risk of viral contagion. They also stand to lose with confrontation of China and other free trade partners that benefit from environmental, labor, and regulatory arbitrage. Not to mention immigration reform, which compensates for Planned Parenthood, and progresses local market potential where they compete with established services.; 9/12/20, 1:01 PM
mikee said...: I, for one, recall the thrill of wondering exactly how HIV was transmitted for a year or three back in the early 1980s, when suspicions about non-sexual transfer via aerosol or touch were high. No classes were canceled.; 9/12/20, 1:35 PM
5M - Eckstine said...: Going back to work and to school should be treated like getting a vaccine. A few people are going to die from it but we should still take the vaccine as a group.

anti vaxxer, anti worker; 9/12/20, 2:10 PM
Quaestor said...: I did that without paper and pencil so I invite people to check my math.

Only white supremacists use the tools of white supremacy like mathematics. Consider yourself canceled, Original Mike. No more "reasoning with numbers", Mikee, if you like your house unburnt.; 9/12/20, 2:20 PM
effinayright said...: wild chicken said...
This morning I heard a guest on Fox and Friends say he never should have went to college (instead of trade school).

I had to change the channel.
**************

I once heard Mara Liasson say "I should have took" on Fox.

I clutched my pearls and swooned.; 9/12/20, 2:23 PM
Gahrie said...: I used to be a regular commenter over at Joanne's blog, but she got infested with trolls pretty badly.

She posts here fairly often.; 9/12/20, 2:35 PM
bagoh20 said...: "This morning I heard a guest on Fox and Friends say he never should have went to college (instead of trade school)."

Well, that's after going to college, so...

Would you rather pay for the less than perfectly spoken services of a skilled tradesman building your house, or a well-educated NYT reporter lying to you in perfect English.; 9/12/20, 2:47 PM
stevew said...: Used to be a bunch of assholes that lived in this part of the blog, but we systematically removed them like you would any kid of termite or roach. Via moderation.

There are teachers that are worried about their health. Those fears are, according to the science, unjustified. Rather than educate and help them understand the truth of the risk, the Press, Democrats, and government officials inflame their fears. These people suck and are evil. The ones being harmed are the students; you are only a child once.; 9/12/20, 4:45 PM
reader said...: ...Central Coast Congressional Candidate Andy Caldwell reported to the Globe that the Santa Barbara Unified School District allowed the children of teachers and district employees to return to in-class learning, in a secret carve-out exemption at Franklin, McKinley, and other elementary schools in the district.

https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/two-californias-one-for-government-ruling-class-the-other-for-the-people/; 9/12/20, 5:51 PM
Josephbleau said...: "This morning I heard a guest on Fox and Friends say he never should have went to college (instead of trade school)."

He is right, he wasted his money going to college. 10 to 15% of the population benefit from higher education. For others it is a party before adulthood starts. Yet I am sure that everyone who goes absorbs some minimal amount of learning.; 9/12/20, 7:46 PM
Craig said...: Unknown at 9:15am:

Internet message boards are constant reminders of the scope of the problem facing sensible people who don't want to be governed by an alliance between manipulators and the manipulated

This is the greatest comment I have read on this or any blog. Perhaps an alliance between manipulators and the manipulated is the natural end to any democracy.; 9/13/20, 12:04 AM
DeepRunner said...: Ann Althouse asked the most important question...
"Do you think WaPo readers were deceived into thinking going back to classroom teaching is killing teachers?"

Deceived? No. The Post preaches to the choir of faithfully-faithless illiberal liberals. Trump would be responsible for these deaths even if he himself had been dead many years, according to Post readers.

I don't mean to downplay the deaths of six people, as it's sad most of all to friends and family of the decedent, but...it's six people among so many, across a wide area of the continent. One caught COVID at church. One had asthma. The Post wrote a story with only one common thread, an occupation in a seasonal moment. Did they do a study of prison guards? How about fast-food workers? Police? How about sanitation workers? And what of retail staff?; 9/13/20, 3:56 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “I don't mean to downplay the deaths of six people, as it's sad most of all to friends and family of the decedent, but...it's six people among so many, across a wide area of the continent. One caught COVID at church. One had asthma. The Post wrote a story with only one common thread, an occupation in a seasonal moment. Did they do a study of prison guards? How about fast-food workers? Police? How about sanitation workers? And what of retail staff?”

I will downplay their deaths. Just some quick back of the envelope calculations. 6 deaths works out to 2-3 per 100k. With teachers making up 1% of the working population in this country, and over 200k deaths, that works out to that teachers should have had maybe 2K deaths. Maybe half that if restricting ourselves to “working” teachers. Instead they only had 6. Boo Hoo. Who has the higher chance of dying from the coronavirus, a K-12 teacher, or a retired patent attorney? Face it, there are millions of teachers in this country, and they only had 6 deaths, and one or more appear to constitute dying while having or even having had COVID-19. I like their odds far more than mine.

This just strengthens my view that they are a bunch of self entitled whiners, which, of course, is why they are a critical Dem constituency. They have effectively shut down K-12 education across the country, greatly harming the kids that they are entrusted with, as well as the economy. And their real justifications seem to be that they would rather get paid and not have to go to work and deal with unruly kids, plus many of 5hem probably are quite happy to add to the National threat and insecurity in order to turn Orange Man Bad out of office.

Why is their average death rate so low? Likely, I think, because their population in front loaded - because the average age of K-12, and esp K-5/6, teachers is so low, and there appears to be an almost logarithmic relationship between age and susceptibility (the death rate is almost exponential based on age, and thus age can be correlated to the log of the death rate). Teaching, esp K-5/6, is comparatively a young person’s job, and old people are the ones dying the most. Of course, that means that the chance of their students catching the coronavirus, and dying of it, is extremely low, lower than almost any other in this country. Lower than the teachers.; 9/13/20, 7:37 AM
Sam L. said...: It's the WaPoo, WaPooping.; 9/13/20, 11:09 AM
hstad said...: LOL - WaPo kills their own narrative "...Nationwide 6 teachers die of Covit - 19..." Now let's see, there are 3.7 million teachers [nces.ed.gov]. That's an unbelievable minuscule death rate to make this headline 'tabloid froth' for the WaPo's click-bait strategy. I bet more then 6 teachers got killed in school violence last year?; 9/13/20, 3:03 PM