What are you going to do?

The truth is, normal immunity and vaccines make the seasonal flu a much smaller threat to everyone. Mostly elderly people, those with pre-existing conditions, and very young die from the flu. You are right, those deaths are tragic and we do not pay attention to them. However, the flu is not normally a large danger because, relatively speaking, very few people get it. 

If we do not take precautions, estimates are that 40-70% of our country could contract the coronavirus. It currently is showing a mortality rate of 3.5 %. The normal seasonal flu is 0.1%. Because you cannot have immunity and there is no vaccine, people are much more likely to contract COVID-19 and much more likely to die. You are right, that the majority will ultimately be fine. However, if it gets widespread, we could see deaths in the 100s of thousands. 

The other major issue is that our health care facilities get overwhelmed like Italy and other places. Not only does this put those with severe cases of the virus in greater jeopardy, but many will not be able to get their cancer treatment or whatever they need to survive. Be prepared for life to be substantially different for the next couple weeks, months.

Our Principal is phenomenal and our admin is doing a great job in dealing with this.

I am also finishing up my masters and administrative certs and so I have had to do internship hours and be a quasi-administrator and it has been a great experience, especially with such a good group of administrators.

We closed today for teacher planning. Not officially closed for next week yet but the groundwork is in place. We are ready to do lessons online. Teachers must have work hours that they are "available" and accessing their emails for any questions. I am not too concerned and it is a reasonable solution that will be as productive as possible.

Pretty pleased with how our admin has handled it.

My 6th period AP Econ class though is legitimately my favorite class that I have ever taught and I will miss them. And that subject is a little more difficult to teach online, like the maths and sciences.

Haha yes! I know him very well. 
Actually went to the high school that he taught at.

I show his videos after I present material as review. But I use so much of the terminology and methods that he shows just by how I was taught. They are such a good resource though.

Why on this, though? We have had diseases before and governments did not do this, nor did broadway, NCAA march madness, NHL, MLB, NBA, theme parks, etc all shut down.

And, fear and panic never stopped greedy businesspeople from keeping the show going. If they thought this illnesss was no big threat, they would not be shutting all this down, which means either:

A) It actually is a big deal and they know it

B) There is something nefarious headed our way, for example a totalitarian crackdown with this as the prelude to martial law (If you or anyone else would suggest that the idea of this happening in America is absurd, just remember that this has happened elsewhere in human history, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes currently, away from the public eye, and that there basically already is martial law-like conditions in Italy, albeit ostensibly because of COVID-19)

I was responding to your response: "Fear and panic."

Let's take this to PM, then.

I'll respond in PM since they want this thread to get back on topic

If it's not safe for kids to be in a classroom together, it's okay for them to be in daycare together so their parents can go to work?

I have a 100 acre plus farm that will keep my busy.

I’ll go and disinfect and clean the weight room and organize equipment.

Study ways of modernizing a dinosaur offense

Work like hell on football!  Film work on opponents, breakdown key College & Pro games from 2019, work on football calendar, communicate with a lot of coaches I know, update playbook materials, ETC.  "Football Junkies" will not consider this a "bus-man's holiday".

Just ordered a chainsaw so I can do some clearing at the house, hike around the neighborhood and woods with the family/dogs, turn my 4 y/o into a tee ball pro, and study up on some football/Netflix when the weather doesn’t cooperate.

I spoke w/ my superintendent on Friday and he said that he was closing schools due mostly to public pressure & we have no cases. It is prob inevitable that in the next 2 weeks we will have several confirmed cases.  So his mindset is how does he justify reopening schools with confirmed cases when we closed w/ none.

He wanted to wait. 

All this is to say, at least in our area, I expect this to be quite a bit lengthier then most expect. 

Saw an expert (don't recall her name but she had impressive credentials) on CNN yesterday who said that closing schools would not have much effect on stopping the spread of the virus.