Early in the semester, one of my students got COVID. She returned to class after 10 days. About a week later, she disappeared again, a week after that I got an email explaining that she had caught something else that she couldn't shake & was in the hospital with lung problems. She returned last week, not wearing a mask, and this morning I awoke to an email from her that said she caught COVID again but would still be coming to class wearing a mask. Our public health system is an UTTER FAILURE.
@DrPsyBuffy I've had students simply drop whole semesters due to what are likely long COVID symptoms, and it's pretty obvious that our government failed them by not clearly and loudly getting out correct info about how COVID is transmitted and how to prevent said transmission, and all the damned disinformation that is viral in its own right on social media (and legacy mass media - I'm looking at you, Fox News). This was all so preventable.
@ajbenjaminjr Yes—I have had multiple students drop after COVID. One developed POTS symptoms and could no longer drive. And the impact isn’t just physical: Another student’s baby girl got it and she wound up in the hospital and he had to drop my class because he had to take on more hours at work to pay the hospital bills.
In Florida high schools when the kids can't keep up in class they're often placed in virtual school to get their credits. On the surface it's the right decision because they can work independently, they have access to teachers virtually, and they can work entirely at their own pace. If they need a year to finish a semester, that's fine. The problem is then they're really just forgotten about by the part of society they were in. Their classmates and in school teachers don't see them anymore. Out of sight, out of mind.
Anyway, my wife works on science classes with a lot of these kids and what they're often going through is devastating. Not just from a health standpoint, but with their families and friends who don't believe they're unhealthy. She gets a pretty significant number of kids just breaking down and crying these days. She deals with parents calling saying "My kid was doing great at school but then they got sick and now they're just lazy. I can't get them to get up and do anything." Because, you know, long COVID doesn't exist as far as they're concerned.
@DrPsyBuffy @BE Politicizing a pandemic was the stupidest thing that we as a civilization (since this was something of a global phenomenon) could do. It's done now, and real people are getting badly hurt in the process. Pisses me off more than a mere set of pixels on a screen can convey.
@ajbenjaminjr @BE JFC that’s infuriating. Even with their kid’s COVID consequences staring them in the face they won’t admit it.