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How Covid-safe can schools be?

caption: Second-grade student Nelly, second from left, watches a video about social distancing and other safety precautions along with her classmates on Thursday, January 21, 2021, as second-grade students returned to in-person learning at Somerset Elementary School in Bellevue.
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Second-grade student Nelly, second from left, watches a video about social distancing and other safety precautions along with her classmates on Thursday, January 21, 2021, as second-grade students returned to in-person learning at Somerset Elementary School in Bellevue.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

Vaccine updates, school safety in the time of Covid, and a pod of grey whales take temporary residence in Puget Sound

What is the safest way to open schools during the pandemic given that most teachers, staff, and students have now been vaccinated? KUOW education reporter Ann Dornfeld shares where the state is at in reopening efforts, and then Dan Klein from the Institute for Disease Modeling shares a model that assesses the risk and how to minimize it. Also, gray whales are going way out of their way to visit Puget Sound. John Calambokidis from the Cascadia Research Collective discusses why. King County Executive Dow Constantine answers listeners' calls.

Individual segments are available in our podcast stream or at www.kuow.org/record

King County Executive Dow Constantine 03.02

King County Executive Dow Constantine joins Bill Radke to discuss Covid case rates, vaccination updates, reopening schools, and more.

An Update on the Reopening of Schools 03.02

KUOW education reporter Ann Dornfeld joins Bill Radke to discuss the latest developments in reopening schools across Washington.

A Model for Minimizing Risk of Covid at Schools

Seattle's Institute for Disease Modeling has come up with a model that gets at how to reopen schools and minimize risk of Covid transmission. Dan Klein, a senior researcher at the Institute for Disease Modeling, talks with Bill Radke about the model and what it can predict.

The Mystery of the Grey Whale

In recent decades, an adventurous group of gray whales have made their way into Puget Sound, but until recently, researchers didn't know why. Cascadia Research Collective senior research biologist John Calambokidis talks with Bill Radke about what he's learned.


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