With accurate information, Rapp can stop the spread of COVID-19
On Friday morning, scrolling through the online Rappahannock News, I saw an eye-catching and inaccurate headline indicating we were at an alltime-high number of quarantines at Rappahannock County Public Schools. As your readers know, I have followed the numbers with great concern since the start of school activities on Aug. 9, and knew that although the numbers had increased in the past week, they were still well below the 29 active COVID-19 cases and the more than 140 quarantines we had before our schools shuttered their doors for a week on Aug. 20, a er less than 2 weeks of classes. The article included a bar graph, pulled from the school’s COVID-19 dashboard page, and I immediately understood why one would think we were at our highest levels. The rst date on the graph was Aug. 30, when the dashboard was rst published and our schools were about to reopen for the second time; numbers were relatively low.
I contacted the editor, Ben Peters, explaining the error and asking him to correct it. He thanked me and apologized a er quickly updating the online story to include accurate numbers. I also contacted our Superintendent Dr. Shannon Grimsley and explained what had happened, and how the data over time didn't give an accurate picture of how our school year has progressed and the distribution of COVID-19 cases we have had. She also thanked me and attended to the matter. By the end of the day, the COVID-19 team had provided one additional data set, from Aug. 25, which was added to the graph.
I commend both Peters and Grimsley for their quick, mature, and congenial responses as well as their e orts to provide our community with accurate and current information during the ever-changing pandemic. It takes the important leadership qualities of honesty and humility to do a good job leading a newspaper or a school system, and I am heartened to know that we have people with these qualities working for us here. Anyone with concerns should not hesitate to contact either one of them.
The dashboard graph now shows our peak number of cases and quarantines, which happened a er a week and a half of holding school without many people masking. With just this much more data, we can clearly see that our post-reset mitigation strategies — including masking while inside and distancing — are working to signi cantly decrease our numbers of cases and quarantines. Our data concurs with many scienti c studies that show that masking in schools, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends, is the best way to stop the spread of COVID-19. We can do more to stop the spread during this high transmission time by masking and distancing in other indoor public places, and following the rule that kids with symptoms should stay home. As a community, we can all help by following health guidelines and getting vaccinated as soon as possible.
Rappahannock is a special place, but we are all just humans who sometimes make mistakes. We can catch COVID-19 like anyone else, sometimes with dire consequences. We also can learn from our local experience. With accurate information and a community working together, we can Stop the Spread and end the pandemic. I just know we will, because We Are Rappahannock!