A friend of mine from graduate school just got diagnosed with post-viral fatigue three+ months after beating COVID. He’s a smart, careful, athletic dude who got unlucky and now feels tired almost all day. We’re hopeful he’ll still make a full recovery, but he’s still fired up about taking to the streets if November goes bad.
Cool dude. Deserves better. Be careful.
So I dug heavily into my savings to enroll my 5 year old in a small private school (23 students total, 5 in her kindergarten class including her) figuring that would be safer than a larger public school. The 5 desks are all like 8 feet apart, have built in partitions, and everyone wears masks at all times. Anyway, we are now in week 3 and her kindergarten teacher just tested positive and she’s now in mandatory quarantine for two weeks. Took her to the pediatrician yesterday and he said she was one of 5 teachers across the county to have tested positive that day, leading to a lot of quarantined kids. I do not live in a large county.
I now have a friend whose parent is in the ICU with Covid. Him and his wife are on vacation and not of the safer variety and were when they announced it asked for prayers on FB yesterday. They are still posting vacation pics today. Makes me wonder if they realize shit like they are doing is indirectly to blame.
I’m beginning to suspect that there are more students with covid in my school than the teachers are aware of.
I have several classes where there have been students out for over a week with an illness but nobody knows what it is. Last year that was extremely rare even during flu season. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if some of those students have covid but haven’t been formally diagnosed. A colleague and I had to be fucking Woodward and Bernstein to get the information that could pressure the school administration to address some potential covid problems that were on the DL.
Anyway, the government is continuing to play it down by saying that the wave is slowly descending. They point out the decline in the reproductive rate and how schools closing won’t actually have any impact (though they are vague on the study that mentions that). The new guy in charge of the covid response in the CR might be an epidemiologist but he’s still talking like a politician.
I mean ultimately, everything being done is denying the truth which is that another lockdown is the only way to really stop this pandemic from continuing to get worse.
Just got my flu shot, all of you guys should get one and do your part to limit the spread of this disease that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. Plus, the more you get your flu shots, the more robust your immune system will be when you are old and feeble and the flu comes after you.
Is it possible that those students are perfectly healthy but decided it’s smarter to stay home?
In places where public schools have been doing distance learning, I have heard of parents enrolling their kids in private schools that are OFB with the intention of going back to public schools in a year or two. I’m not sure how many of those parents are being safe at home, so I am not convinced that private schools are going to be safer.
Wow that’s a KITN. Hope all goes well.
Apologies if the thread already exists, or if it’s been discussed a lot already, or if I should just google for myself, but I wouldn’t mind a thread debunking the reasons not to get a flu shot. I work at an organization with a lot of smart people, but even a lot of them are pretty skeptical. For example, one argument I hear is that the flu shot weakens your immune system, at least for while your body is dealing with the flu shot, which could make you more vulnerable to COVID?
Is there anyone on the board who is still a flu-shot skeptic and willing to discuss it?
I never got a flu shot until a couple years ago, but that was entirely from ignorance. That is, I thought the flu shot was just for me, and if I didn’t get one and I got the flu, well, that was on me. Now I think I have a pretty good understanding of the community responsibility aspect, but every once in a while I hear smart-people skeptics that still make we scratch my head.
I should probably just listen to the Today, Explained podcast that first convinced me.
IANAD, but I guess if you say „puts stress on“ instead of „weakens“ your immune system for a time, you will be correct. However getting the flu is going to put a lot more stress on your immune system and there is no reason why you cannot catch both at the same time.
If attendance wasn’t compulsory, I’d say that it was possible.
I’m about an hour north of Atlanta right now at an apple orchard. Was just at a pumpkin patch, both places crowded. Single digit percentage mask usage at the pumpkin patch. My son and I were in line to get something to drink and we were the only two with masks out of 30+ people. Nobody manning a cash register wore one.
In a ridiculously long line at the orchard now and it’s better. Might be over 50%.
Of course, the mom of the other kids we’re with has hers in her pocket.
Smart people in what field? We’ve learned that Economists make terrible epidemiologists. Lots of doctors make horrible legislators. Engineers make terrible human beings…
ER nurses hate the flu shot and it befuddles me honestly
It’s pretty remarkable how people can do the same activities yet how different places are. We went to an orchard today that I’d guess gets well over 5,000 people, prolly closer to 10k, over the course of a nice weekend day in the fall like it was today. Literally every single person had a mask on and was wearing it properly, including the toddlers/little kids I saw. Even in the 100s of acres where people were picking their own, people were very respectful of distancing and mask compliance was at 100%. The workers in their booths that weighed the apples/pumpkins all were wearing gloves/masks, had plastic guards up, and sanitizer out for use.
The orchard was a lot better. Still only maybe 60% masks tops, but there’s a lot of room to roam. I even took mine off a few times if we were in an area by ourselves. The store was really crowded and there was no social distancing, but masks were required.
and so it begins
The one with the swimming pig races?