HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-10-20 Public Comment - T. McFadden - Please support rapid testing in Bozeman and MontanaFrom:Chris Mehl
To:Agenda
Subject:Fw: Please support rapid testing in Bozeman and Montana
Date:Monday, August 10, 2020 4:02:24 PM
From: Tanner McFadden <tanner.mcfadden@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 3:36 PM
To: mehlchris@hotmail.com <mehlchris@hotmail.com>
Subject: Please support rapid testing in Bozeman and Montana
Dear Mayor Mehl,
I am writing to ask you to support the use of rapid tests to combat COVID-19 in Bozeman, and to ask Governor Bullock to authorize the use of rapid tests in Montana.
My name is Tanner McFadden. I am a Bozeman resident and a parent to two kids in Bozeman’s public schools. Until recently, I was an adjunct instructor at MSU.I suspect you’ve heard of rapid tests—they have received prominent media coverage, and I know information about them has circulated in the online ‘Bozone’ community. These are spit-on-paper tests for COVID-19 that use existing technology. They offer a rapid, inexpensive COVID-19 test that can be scaled and distributed easily. Creating a rapid testing program in Bozeman would allow daily testing of a large percentage of the population so that we could safely reopen schools and the economy.
If you are not familiar with rapid tests and would like more information about them, please see the links below. If you are already familiar with these tests, then I wish to urge you to do all you can to make them available in Bozeman. In particular:1. Please ask Governor Steve Bullock to authorize the use of rapid tests as a public health tool in Montana.
The FDA currently requires that any rapid test meet a strict sensitivity threshold, which excludes existing rapid tests. However, Governor Bullock can authorize the use of rapid tests
in Montana without waiting for FDA approval, and this would allow Bozeman to move forward with a rapid testing program.
2. Consider how the mayor’s office, the Gallatin County Health Board, and other resources or organizations in the community can support the production, distribution,and administration of rapid tests, as well as public education about their use.
I am contacting you concurrently with efforts to enlist support from a number of people in the
community and at MSU who may be able to help create an effective rapid testing program. However, I am simply a single concerned citizen. As a community leader and office-holder,
you have a far greater ability to help generate the political will and institutional support that an effective rapid testing program will require. I am happy to continue doing what I can to push
this program forward, but I know that creating an effective rapid testing program will require a coordinated effort from many contributors. Support from your office would be the most
effective catalyst in creating that coordinated effort. Please consider supporting this strategy to stamp out COVID-19 in Bozeman.
Thank you for your attention to my concerns, and for the vital leadership you’ve provided to
the Bozeman community during the last few months.
Sincerely,Tanner McFadden
A quick introduction to rapid testing as a public health strategy can be found this NYT story
Further information can also be found at https://secure-web.cisco.com/1RmVohSuTXe94U9CpjbwLN_MeQxtt_jKfvlXZ2nMYkpjDXWGz_raCXVe-pS0C38u_wO_Ehrdgs4aHhRmWDShZMRy8PSvhfvpWYZjd78BUop_6Ic83dvv9gESrGhgrKlTf92smvFTLhoAQ_HGnYpx3KePOSMJNLk7mwxRePmonRYBYPt2xWvX0jmTsGCALd1uihNj9eTBGEYM6HPc4GXUOMuOLLuG7TWQ-BgL7ieDvSIl4HivD-jwfieGWPCJAPDOULX9rM2HYd2tj47Ft000KiQ3BEM-ESGM4OfeHQnwQNxmw7gOnaMX14twbAdLbxnTgtgxm4YvZjNL6wMQGiq5reg/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rapidtests.org%2F
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In one month or less, we expect a number of schools operating in-person will experience
severe outbreaks and will have to implement quarantine procedures or close. Nearly
every school will either be forced to go virtual-only or will be pressured by members of
government and community members to continue in-person education, putting
students and teachers at direct risk. Periodic quarantines and school shut-downs and
re-openings will create child-care issues for most parents, putting additional stress on
businesses and their employees.
The purpose of education is to facilitate learning amongst students and teachers and
invest in humanity’s ability to grow in the future. This investment must be supported by
education policy that is premised on the concept that everyone is simultaneously a
teacher and a student in each interaction (whether in school or outside of school) - that
each individual wants to learn and has innate and indispensable information that they
must contribute to the world. Because educational policy, on any level, is not built on
this core concept, students’ educational environment is inflexible and their ability to
learn up to their capacity is limited. This is why, five months after schools have closed in
the US, our country still doesn’t have an effective, coordinated plan to safely reopen
schools.
We ask you now to provide your readers with on-the-ground examples of
the human experience of reopening schools, the questions that are being
asked by students, and their administrators, teachers, and parents. Please
include an unbiased analysis of any relevant plans from any available
source with the goal of facilitating education and safely reopening schools.
Our evaluation is that individual school districts need additional information and
funding to implement programs to provide for the unique needs of their students. In
service of this goal, we have put together a plan to Keep Teachers Teaching - and we
invite you to register to attend our upcoming webinar, scheduled on August 12 at 11 AM
PDT in which we will discuss our approach. Attached is a presentation summarizing our
plan for your review that will be referenced in our webinar.
This is us asking you to write what you want to write.
The Committee to Elect Chris Florquist PresidentKeep Teachers Teaching
Getting schooled… or not
School started a week ago and is already closed. Now what?
Multiple students and a teacher in my son’s middle-school tested positive for COVID-19, and the administration had to
shut down the school for two weeks to isolate the infected and exposed students and staff members. My wife and I
both work and have a third-grade daughter whose school is still open for now.
I’m asking myself… What if this happens again and it’s not just two weeks? What if someone in our family gets sick?
What if my daughter’s school closes? How are we going to get work done with our kids at home? How do we manage
if we have to go to work while school is closed?
What are we going to do now? How is this ever going to work?
I hope someone figures it out, and I just want things to go back to normal…
Schools around the country are beginning to reopen, and some have already had to implement quarantine protocols
under circumstances like those described. Without intervention, this will continue to happen in our communities.
Here’s our plan
1.Grades 4 -12 will transition to remote school using federal subsidies for virtual tools and remote education
resources with the same class structure and teacher
2.Grades Pre-K -3 and students with special needs of any age will attend in-person classes of no more than 5
students per class, using their existing locations and the now-empty 4th -12th grade classrooms
3.Students and teachers at high-risk of severe illness from COVID-19 will also convert to virtual classrooms, and in-
person coordinators will be hired to support Pre-K -3 classrooms with at-risk teachers who need to teach remotely
4.Parents who opt to leave work to monitor their own children who are learning remotely may receive
compensation to also e-monitor the grades 4 -12 virtual classrooms to maintain students’ focus and safety
How our plan will work
§Federal Funds will be made available to States and communities, so you can get back to work and your children will
be taken care of
§Funds will be made available to states and communities for technology/hiring solutions, implementation, and
ongoing support
§Using the Community Needs Assessment process
Here’s what we need you to do
§Email your Congresspeople to deliver funds to your community to Keep Teachers Teaching. Please see this page to
search for their contact information and forward them our plan.
§Follow us on Instagram and Twitter
§Share our posts with your friends and family to raise awareness
By helping us raise awareness, you’re doing your part to solve this problem with us.
What is the Community Needs Assessment?
§The Community Needs Assessment is a series of
questions that allows you and your community
leaders to identify areas where problems are
already being solved and where additional
perspectives and efforts are needed to help you
and your community achieve your goals.
§The questions range from demographic and
socioeconomic topics to education, healthcare,
and the economy.
Flows of Information & Funds
Federal
States
Communities
$CNA Information
& Funding Need
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