Washington Post: "Three reasons a negative coronavirus test doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not infected"

"Three reasons a negative coronavirus test doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not infected"

 

"Rampant community transmission of the coronavirus and a crippled vaccine rollout have boxed people into a corner: Many are relying on negative test results, inherently limited in usefulness, as a certificate of clearance to see family and friends.

While testing is critical to containing the outbreak, a negative test result is not a free pass to forgo social distancing, mask-wearing and other mitigation measures. Here are a few reminders about what a negative coronavirus test means and doesn’t mean."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/13/false-negative-covid-test/

Town of Franklin's COVID-19 Information Portal

https://www.franklinma.gov/home/pages/coronavirus-information-portal

 

 

FM #432 Talk Franklin - 1/08/21 (audio)

FM #432 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 432 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares my "Talk Franklin" conversation with Town Administrator Jamie Hellen and Marketing and Communications Specialist Anne Marie Tracey. We had our conversation via conference bridge to adhere to the ‘social distancing’ requirements of this pandemic period.

We talk about: 

• Town Council recap
• Hazard plan
• Beaver St interceptor authorization
• Playground donation

Pandemic

• Updated COVID-19 dashboard
• Restrictions extended 2 weeks – Jan 24
• Vaccine for first responders, handling the media

Looking ahead

• Listening session – Jan 13
• Council preview items
• storm water
• complete streets

Links to the key topics covered here are included in the show notes. 

The recording runs about 32 minutes, so let’s listen to my conversation with Jamie and Anne Marie.  Audio file = https://player.captivate.fm/episode/6b4b58ab-ae0d-4a59-84e0-0147680b0c03

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Agenda document (and released supporting materials in one PDF)
https://franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/agendas/01-06-2021_town_council_agenda.pdf

Hazard Mitigation presentation doc  https://franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/mai/files/8a._hazard_mitigation_presentation_2020_update_presentation_handout.pdf

Hazard Mitigation Plan
https://franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/mai/files/10a._hazard_mitigation_0.pdf

Beaver St summary document  https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/mai/files/10b._21-02_beaver_street_interceptor.pdf

My notes from the meeting
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/01/town-council-meeting-jan-6-2021-recap.html  

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm).

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.
 
How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.
 
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ 

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters" 

FM #432 Talk Franklin - 1/08/21 (audio)

School Committee: Budget Sub Committee Meeting - Jan 14, 2021

Budget Subcommittee Meeting

Jan 14, 2021 - 4:30 PM 

 

Virtual Meeting (Link in agenda)

A G E N D A 

"The listing of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law." 

      
-FY 21 Budget Discussion
-FY 22 Budget Development

Agenda doc and connection info

https://www.franklinps.net/sites/g/files/vyhlif4431/f/agendas/agenda-bsc_1-14-20-revised_0.pdf

 

School Committee: Budget Sub Committee Meeting - Jan 14, 2021

Franklin Public Schools: Jan 12, 2021 Re-opening Update on Pool Testing

January 12, 2021

Dear Franklin Families and Faculty/Staff,

 

On Friday, Governor Baker and Commissioner Riley announced a new testing pilot for K-12 public schools that screens asymptomatic individuals for the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This relatively new testing format is an effective, lower-cost solution to individual tests. It is intended to provide an additional layer of prevention within the school and community. This testing pilot is offered at no cost to districts for the first six weeks, after which districts can use federal stimulus funding (or other resources) to continue the testing program.

 

I will be speaking further about the testing opportunity at the School Committee meeting this evening. The effectiveness of the program is dependent on two things:

1.    A relatively low rate of COVID-19 within the community and

2.    A relatively high participation rate of faculty, staff, and students.

 

The Superintendent’s Report at School Committee tonight will form the basis of an educational slide show that will be shared with you to explain more about this “pool testing”. We will send a survey to families and to faculty/staff to gauge interest in participation. Formal consent forms are part of the testing program and would be completed later on.

 

I will send the slide show and survey tomorrow. To assist you in completing the survey, the district will hold a webinar on pool testing for families on Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 7:00 PM. A Q and A session for Faculty/Staff will be held on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 at 3:00 PM. Links will be shared when the survey is sent out. In the meantime, please read the additional information at the end of this document.

 

We are enthusiastic that testing, along with the rollout of vaccines, will provide two important tools that assist us with having instruction in our school buildings. These should offer additional reassurance that COVID-19 is being contained in our school community to both faculty and families alike.

 

Sincerely, 

 

Sara Ahern

Superintendent of Schools 

 

Read the full memo, pages 2-3 contain additional info on the pool testing process 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s3EKa7HViWSOtO9J-SFwVGiK-_K91a46/view?usp=sharing

Franklin Public Schools: Jan 12, 2021 Re-opening Update on Pool Testing

Both FHS swim teams top King Philip on Tuesday

From HockomockSports.com and Twitter, we share the FHS sports results:  

 

Boys Swimming = Franklin, 82 @ King Philip, 62 – Final

Girls Swimming = Franklin, 93 @ King Philip, 75 – Final

 

FHS Girls Hockey (@fhsvgockey) tweeted on Tue, Jan 12, 2021:
🎉Big win for JV!! 🎉Final score 7-4 vs Canton. Goals by Dennett (2), Greco (2), Ford, Puleo, and Iannuzzi. Great work girls!

 

Shared from Twitter:  https://twitter.com/fhsvgockey/status/1349115174733672449

Follow the Girls Varsity Ice Hockey game at KP live: https://t.co/bT8W1VNPMQ @FHSGirlsPuck

— FranklinAthletics (@FHSSports) January 13, 2021

 

For other results around the Hockomock League 

https://hockomocksports.com/tuesdays-schedule-scoreboard-01-12-21/

 

Both FHS swim teams top King Philip on Tuesday

Franklin Public Schools, MA: School schedule reminders

Franklin Public Schools, MA (@FranklinPSNews) on Tue, Jan 12, 2021:

Please make note of the upcoming schedule for FPS.  

You can always find the  20-21 school calendar on our website at https://t.co/pFrWeBYdv8 

Shared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/FranklinPSNews/status/1349053181632929792

Franklin Public Schools, MA: School schedule reminders

"systems couldn’t tell when words in a sentence were jumbled up"

From the MIT Technology Review, we find that while Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to make strides, it also contains a significant flaw.

"Many AIs that appear to understand language and that score better than humans on a common set of comprehension tasks don’t notice when the words in a sentence are jumbled up, which shows that they don’t really understand language at all. The problem lies in the way natural-language processing (NLP) systems are trained; it also points to a way to make them better.

Researchers at Auburn University in Alabama and Adobe Research discovered the flaw when they tried to get an NLP system to generate explanations for its behavior, such as why it claimed different sentences meant the same thing. When they tested their approach, they realized that shuffling words in a sentence made no difference to the explanations. “This is a general problem to all NLP models,” says Anh Nguyen at Auburn University, who led the work."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/12/1016031/jumbled-up-sentences-ai-doesnt-understand-language-nlp-bert-fix/

 

From the MIT Technology Review, we find that Artificial Intelligence (AI) contains a significant flaw