With a lot of fanfare, it was announced that teachers would be able to get rapid tests if they were exposed or showed a symptom. The thought I and I am sure many had was this would allow for contact testing to begin immediately or if negative for teachers to return to work, inexplicably this is not the case.
Several teachers have told me and the union has confirmed that if a teacher gets a negative result on the rapid tests they are then instructed to get a more invasive test which can have a much longer turnaround time for results. The reason? The rapid tests can give a lot of false negatives. This means healthy teachers are sent home, and unhealthy teachers may be exposing the virus to friends and family. We don't know, it's all a guess at this point.
This also begs the question, why are we doing rapid tests again?
I think it is because the city and district want to be seen doing something while in reality, they aren't doing much. Plexiglass shields, masks, social distancing, what a joke, spoiler it is impossible, are a few other examples.
We do need testing, a lot of it, how staff and students were allowed to return without a test is negligent. The thing is we need reliable testing, not just something to throw money at to trick the public into thinking something is happening.
Several teachers have told me and the union has confirmed that if a teacher gets a negative result on the rapid tests they are then instructed to get a more invasive test which can have a much longer turnaround time for results. The reason? The rapid tests can give a lot of false negatives. This means healthy teachers are sent home, and unhealthy teachers may be exposing the virus to friends and family. We don't know, it's all a guess at this point.
This also begs the question, why are we doing rapid tests again?
I think it is because the city and district want to be seen doing something while in reality, they aren't doing much. Plexiglass shields, masks, social distancing, what a joke, spoiler it is impossible, are a few other examples.
We do need testing, a lot of it, how staff and students were allowed to return without a test is negligent. The thing is we need reliable testing, not just something to throw money at to trick the public into thinking something is happening.
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