WEBVTT - Good So Far, NYC Schools Keeping Coronavirus Cases Low 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.120 It's Wednesday, October one. I'm Oscar Emiraz from the Daily 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:08.440 Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:11.760 Some initial results from coronavirus testing in New York City 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.040 schools is showing a surprisingly small number of positive cases. 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.320 About half of the city students have opted for hybrid learning, 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.880 which is helping them keep class sizes as small and 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:25.320 allow for more social distancing between desks. David Goodman, reporter 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.920 at the New York Times, joins us for the testing plan, 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.760 aiming to test ten of the school population at least 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.720 once a month. Thanks for joining us, David, I'm sure 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.559 thanks for having me back to school in the country. 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.120 This year took on many different forms. There was schools 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.080 that we're doing only remote learning, there was schools that 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:45.920 we're doing some type of hybrid, and then there was 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.680 these other schools that we're doing in person instruction. In 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.880 New York City, they were one of these school districts 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.319 that we're trying to do these in person classes. And 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.040 right now we have some early data from the city's 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.480 effort to test a lot of the students and faculty 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.280 that are running the schools, and we're seeing a surprisingly 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.840 small number of positive coronavirus cases, which is very good news. 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.440 So David tell us what we're learning about this as 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.720 kids are starting to go back to school. So in 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.960 New York City they're doing but they're calling a blended model. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.360 So you know, half of the students have opted or 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:20.960 actually half of the families have opted to keep their 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.480 students at home and do remote learning, and half have 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.440 opted for in person classes that are done in a 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.640 kind of split schedule, so you're in school some of 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:30.959 the time and then you're at home for some of 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.600 the time. And I think what we're seeing now the 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:35.800 data that's come out so far is from the first 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.240 round of random testing that they've done in a small 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.680 number of schools. I mean small number of New York City. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.679 They're about eighteen hundred schools in New York City's public 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.080 school system, and they're testing about fifty at a time, 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:49.880 which is a lot for any ordinary school system, but 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.040 here it's they've done about three or four days of 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.440 testing that we have the data for, and what we've 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.800 seen is that the rates are not any different in 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.200 schools than they are anywhere else in the city, and 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.840 in fact, compared to hotpot locations in the city right now, 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.480 they're lower. And what that signals, I think is that 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:07.720 some of the fear that had really attended the opening 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.480 of schools in New York City, you know, it just 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.840 hasn't been worn out. This is a place that had 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.960 the worst outbreak back in March and April at the 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.320 most depths of any part of the United States, and 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:19.480 going back to school was seen as a big risk 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.480 that the mayor had taken here. And so far it 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.960 hasn't proved any riskier going to school than is doing 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.200 any other activity in the city, which is to say, 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.200 not risky at this time. So what is the plan 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.680 in New York My understanding is that they want to 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.520 test about ten of the school population at least once 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.040 a month. Depending on the location, size of the school, 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.560 they might want to do more than that twice a month, 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.080 I've seen. So what's that plan? And then beyond that, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.280 when they get a positive test, how do they react. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:50.679 At the moment, the plan is like you said, do 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.840 once a month. There's the union and others are pushing 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.440 for them to do it more frequently, primarily because when 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.520 you talk to public health experts, they'll tell you that 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.359 once a month is really not enough to actually keep 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.600 an outbreak from spreading. What it does is tell you 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:07.920 you know that you have an outbreak happening, and so 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.400 you can sort of act on it. But a lot 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.280 of folks have looked at this and said, really, to 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.720 be effective at this, they need to test a larger 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.960 portion of the population, some think, and you need to 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:19.840 do it more frequently, And that's what you see in 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.280 some places, you know, like small college campuses around the country, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.399 where they're testing folks twice a week, and that way, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.560 you really are using the test as a way of 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.000 sort of intervening and catching someone even before they know 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.640 that they're sick, so you keep them at home. But 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:36.160 right now, the city is moving forward with this and 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.880 see this as the best option. So when they get 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.720 a positive test, and they're getting it two ways, they're 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.240 getting it from this random testing. But short of that, 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.160 someone who works in the school or a family can 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:46.960 go to any number of testing sites in the city 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.080 and get tested, and they're meant to tell the school 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.280 when that happens, and once they alert the school, the 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.160 school immediately closed down the classroom that the person is in. 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.640 If it's just one positive test, they'll send everybody home 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.520 from the classroom, assume everybody had been exposed was and 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.600 those folks will quarantine for fourteen days, and what they'll 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.960 do as an investigation within the school to find out, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.200 you know, where those people have been. The design of 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:10.920 the program is such that really the students and the 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.920 teachers for each classroom are meant to stay pretty much 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.000 within that small group. There's not supposed to be too 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.680 much cross pollination to keep these exposures at a minimum. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:21.359 If there's more than two people that are found to 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.760 be positive in a school and they can't connect them 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:25.160 to each other, so they don't know how these two 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.120 people are both in the class or hoy, this teacher 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.599 went to the faculty lounge and and spose someone else 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.679 that way, they can't make a connection, then they'll close 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.240 the whole school down for a time and while they 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.720 do an investigation, and if they can't figure out how 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.400 multiple people are getting sick, they'll keep that school closed 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.440 for fourteen days and assumed if everybody is exposed. And 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.640 that struck a lot of people as overly cautious when 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.080 it was announced, but in reality it seems to be 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.040 working relatively well for the school system. You know, they've 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.200 been you know, at the forefront and trying to open 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.800 a very large school system, being aggressive that way, but 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.080 then being very conservative on the side of closing down 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.680 when even a single case emerges in a school population. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.920 One of the interesting things about this, though, is for 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.719 this testing program to work, it really depends on parents 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.120 consenting to have their kids being tested. So I know 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.320 that's kind of a hurdle to get over. Also, to 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.720 get with a school population as big as New York 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.080 City has to get that many parents to sign off 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.200 on it has also been an issue. Yeah, that's absolutely right. 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:24.760 I mean, right now they have about I think it's 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.120 fifteen percent. It's changing all the time, but about fifteen 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.479 percent are contended to be tested. But what the officials 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.800 will tell you, and even some public health officials with 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.440 the city is that they really look at the teachers 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.440 and the staff as the main sort of vector of 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.040 bringing the disease into the school, bringing the virus, I 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.839 should say, into the school, and that all those folks 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.080 are sort of automatically consenting as part of their job, 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.080 they want to come to work, and so they're getting 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.200 over sort of sampled, so to speak. Right now, and 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:55.240 the city doesn't see that as too much of a problem. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:57.360 They'd like to test the students as well, but as 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.599 long as they're getting the adults that are in the school, 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.040 they think they can still stay on top of any 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.240 sort of emerging outbreak. Well, good news so far on 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.760 all this. Hopefully this all continues and maybe other districts 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.920 can uh take this model or I mean we're kind 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.159 of learning constantly as we go through this, So a 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.279 good news for now on it. David Goodman, reporter at 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.320 the New York Times, thank you very much for joining us. 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:24.640 Oh thanks again. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.239 reopening America. Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.240 you can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.719 every Monday through Friday. So'll follow us on I Heart 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:34.880 Radio or wherever you get your podcast.