Letters to the editor: COVID-19 cases, school reopening plans, Postal Service
Rising cases
Graphs can show interesting coronavirus information. NPR regularly shows a graph with case counts vertically (100, 1000, 10000 count gridlines) and time horizontally (gridline days 10, 20, 30).
New York clearly flattened its case count curve. In contrast, California seems not to show continued improvement after initial progress, and seems not to have worsened because of reopening. Idaho had success like New York until matters deteriorated several weeks ago, while reopening.
CNN.com provides a similar graph, with added information about the case count doubling time. Idaho’s stated case count doubling time was a truly scary two weeks.
For example, the two-month doubling time sees 1,000 cases become 2,000 cases over two months. The two-week doubling time sees 1,000 cases become 16,000 cases over eight weeks (nearly two months). Worse, half of those cases come in the last two weeks, and 16,000 new cases are forecast during the next two weeks. That growth indicates serious trouble.
Idaho must reduce its case count growth and increase its case count doubling time, right away, lest we face a runaway train of cases and its carloads of COVID-related miseries.
Brett Crow, Boise
Reopening schools
How can we even think of opening schools when the virus is currently not under control!
Wearing masks and social distancing have been shown to work!
Everyone must wear a mask!
I came home from Vietnam, alive and with just a few holes! I refuse to let a person who refuses to wear a mask send me to the hospital, from which I would not return!
This applies to all of you young people out there who seem to think that you are not involved!
Odos Lowery, Boise
School plans
Boise students and teachers should not be used as kindling to reignite the economy.
The Boise School District is not doing enough to protect students, teachers and staff as Covid-19 cases continue to spike in Ada County.
As a Boise parent and former teacher in the district, I urge the Central District Health Board and BSD to place the district under Category 3 of BSD’s own re-opening plan and start the school year online.
All the data shows that we are experiencing the highest Covid-19 transmission rate we have ever seen in Ada County, yet the district has been silent in regards to how this might affect families as the school year begins.
Other school districts across the country are starting the school year online with far lower Covid-19 transmission rates than Ada County, such as in Houston, Atlanta and Sacramento.
Boise School District, stop stalling in denial and silence about what our surging Covid-19 numbers mean for reopening our schools. Start the school year online under Category 3 and give parents detailed transparent information that shows that you are in touch with what is going on in our community and care about our students and teachers.
Adriane Dellorco, Boise
Postal Service
When you use the U.S. Postal Service, you support the veterans who are now serving the people of America in a different kind of uniform to deliver the mail in these challenging times. Many of these veterans have families that support local businesses and have children in local schools. They support us in many different ways that benefit our communities. Let’s support them with continued employment by supporting voting by mail and using the USPS regularly. Congress can also help by providing a stimulus to keep the Postal Service financially stable that would benefit all of us.
John Paige, Pocatello
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 3:58 PM.