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At least in France, I don't think this is what striking workers have in mind.  The Yellow Vest movement did morph into something akin to a club with social activities.
That was obviously manifestation, not a strike though.

I'm sure it's not - more of a wonder if having segments that are vital to society regularly airing their grievances and halting public life makes people more connected to their public life.  Like here strikes happen, though they don't tend to impact other people all that much and as such there is little reason for people to care.  

So, we've finished our two opening weeks where I teach high school.  Half the student body attending class each week, the other half staying home and doing nothing.  Supposedly, that was just so that we could get to know our students before we went the distance-learning (a stupid neologism, IMO) route.

This coming week will be all distance learning.  Then we have the 3-day Labor Day weekend.  And come back to full-on face-to-face, classrooms full school until further notice.

We were told that such a decision would be made after three consecutive weeks of lower COVID cases in our county.  But we have not had three such weeks.  And statewide, we are at record levels for deaths.

So, on 8 September, we'll be open for business with over 1,000 students in full classrooms rotating their germs and spit and slobber and sneezes from one classroom to the next, through the halls and bathrooms, at the end of every hour.  They'll be masked in classrooms, and are supposed to be masked in the hallways (although I've had to make some corrections), but not at lunch, so that they can eat.  And converse.  In close proximity.

As teachers, we feel somewhat lied to and not unlike guinea pigs.  I've not heard of any who think that this is a good idea or that it will hold up for very long.  But no worry!  We are told that if there is a severe COVID outbreak at our school we'll go back to the distance-learning model.  Back to it?  Yes, back.  Even though we've never done one day of full-student-body distance learning, we'll go "back" to it if there's a severe outbreak.

In the better--and far more important!--news, our 3-time-defending-state-champ football team stomped the #4 team in the next higher division last night.  And maybe that's what it's all about.  Maybe we couldn't play football if we were not actually holding class in the school building.

. . .

2. Good News on COVID

We had two really big pieces of COVID news this week that are very encouraging. The first is that the FDA has approved a new simple rapid test.  Here's how it works: You get a nasal swap. The provider rubs the swab on a piece of paper. Fifteen minutes later the paper either shows you 1 line (negative) or 2 lines (positive). This is a really big deal, for a few reasons. First, a test that requires off-site processing of one or more days is only marginally useful. Having a rapid test that can be conducted on-site is going change the game when it comes to test-and-trace. Second, because the test is so simple, it can be produced at scale cheaply. The manufacturer, Abbott Diagnostics, says that they plan on making 50 million tests a month. To date we've conducted 79 million tests in the United States. So this would be an evolutionary leap. Which brings us to the other bit of good news: The University of Arizona found a way to stop an outbreak before it started. I'm going to paraphrase the story as reported by Charles Fishman (author of one of the best books I've ever read about economics and business: The Walmart Effect): If you have the coronavirus, it sheds significantly in your stool. So your poop is a pretty strong indicator for infection. At the University of Arizona, they set up wastewater testing for on-campus dorms. The wastewater testing showed virus coming from one dorm (Likins Hall). The school did rapid tests (like the one we just talked about) on all 311 residents of the dorm. They caught two positives, who were asymptomatic. They moved these two cases to isolation and then traced their contacts. BOOM! That's how you do infectious disease management. (For a primer on how not to do infectious disease management, look at the University of Alabama, where faculty have been instructed not to talk about COVID and, if they become aware of infections, not to tell students.) Why is this good news? Well, this approach doesn't scale. You can only do it in relatively small closed systems. But America has a lot of relatively small closed systems. Like, for instance, universities. So this offers a path forward. But more important is this: It shows that we can fight the spread of the virus. We aren't fated to just sit here waiting for herd immunity. We don't have to keep silent about it and pretend it's not happening. We don't have to retreat to wishcasting about how if we don't test, then everything will be fine. If we are serious about managing this disease, then it can be done. Better late than never.

So, we've finished our two opening weeks where I teach high school.  Half the student body attending class each week, the other half staying home and doing nothing.  Supposedly, that was just so that we could get to know our students before we went the distance-learning (a stupid neologism, IMO) route.

This coming week will be all distance learning.  Then we have the 3-day Labor Day weekend.  And come back to full-on face-to-face, classrooms full school until further notice.

We were told that such a decision would be made after three consecutive weeks of lower COVID cases in our county.  But we have not had three such weeks.  And statewide, we are at record levels for deaths.

So, on 8 September, we'll be open for business with over 1,000 students in full classrooms rotating their germs and spit and slobber and sneezes from one classroom to the next, through the halls and bathrooms, at the end of every hour.  They'll be masked in classrooms, and are supposed to be masked in the hallways (although I've had to make some corrections), but not at lunch, so that they can eat.  And converse.  In close proximity.

As teachers, we feel somewhat lied to and not unlike guinea pigs.  I've not heard of any who think that this is a good idea or that it will hold up for very long.  But no worry!  We are told that if there is a severe COVID outbreak at our school we'll go back to the distance-learning model.  Back to it?  Yes, back.  Even though we've never done one day of full-student-body distance learning, we'll go "back" to it if there's a severe outbreak.

In the better--and far more important!--news, our 3-time-defending-state-champ football team stomped the #4 team in the next higher division last night.  And maybe that's what it's all about.  Maybe we couldn't play football if we were not actually holding class in the school building.

I think some of the schools around here are having food delivered to classrooms. Students at most schools are allowed to opt out for remote learning and I think the percentages of the remote learners are in the low to mid 20s.
I was told that we have 9 teachers in quarantine in our school district - it means they were exposed to someone who was positive, not necessarily that they are positive.
The #s of new COVID cases in our rural county are spiking, and the Dubuque TH newspaper says the State is suppressing the numbers by not counting anyone whose birth date has not been provided and some other issues. The TH says the true positivity test rate from their calculations for our rural county, Delaware County Iowa,  exceeds 16%, but they are not including the ones for which a birth date is not provided.
The TH has been on the IDPH for about 3-weeks having uncovered the fact that their test results appear to understate the positive tests. The TH noticed that positive tests were increasing for previous months like March and April. The IDPH finally admitted after the TH was questioning the numbers, that if someone tested negative in March, and took a 2nd test in August that was positive, the August positive test was recorded as a March positive test, not as an August positive test. Iowa's test results are spiking and the TH projects that in its circulation area that the State's #s are about 22% understated. If we were to compare to other countries, Iowa would now be near the top of the chart with true #s, and we are very high with false #s.

Seven day average in new cases reported in GA is 2219.  The peak was 3517 a month ago.

Back in April, the peak was only 820 or so, new cases reported, probably had deficient testing then.  Testing is widely available now and simply not being utilized, centers have no lines, nobody much wants to be tested.

As for sports, MLB seems to be managing thus far mostly.  College kids is a different story of course.

The only solid hope might be for this Abbott test to be used widely.

I think some of the schools around here are having food delivered to classrooms. Students at most schools are allowed to opt out for remote learning and I think the percentages of the remote learners are in the low to mid 20s. . . .

About 20% of the students in our district are opting out for remote learning.  No advanced classes (like AP or "Honors" classes) are available to them.
I'm going to emphasize to my students that, if they want a school year, they need to follow all the rules.

so as a side note I stopped shaving when this virus crap started and have grown a decent beard

so much so that yesterday my daughter started calling my Billy after Bill Gibbons of ZZ Top fame

I resolved not to shave until this thing is over so I will probably have a much longer one by then