Back to School in a Pandemic
August 18, 2021 7:47 AM Subscribe
I am once again sending my kids to school in the middle of a pandemic. We live in Iowa, a state that passed a law preventing schools from mandating masks. I don’t know the vaccination status of my kids’ teachers. Cases in Iowa are rising, and they are almost as bad as they were last August when school started. The state has a 50 percent vaccination rate. And in my county there is a 55 percent vaccination rate. Right now, the positivity rate in Linn County is 15 percent. Lyz Lenz writes about the powerlessness of parenting (not just during a pandemic) in the latest Men Yell at Me.
Legally, Iowa’s lawmakers have taken away school’s’ ability to enforce the one thing that we know prevents the spread of a deadly disease and have also prevented them from moving to online-only education, should an outbreak occur. So, here we are. Stripped of every enforcement tool to keep our kids safe from a deadly virus.
Other states are facing similar tensions and handling them differently. Some districts are fighting back—hiring lawyers, working around the laws. Already in Mississippi, 20,000 students are in quarantine from COVID exposure, five have died. Just days after restarting in-person learning, Louisiana has thousands of children in quarantine after positive tests.
I am more afraid this year than I was last year.
Legally, Iowa’s lawmakers have taken away school’s’ ability to enforce the one thing that we know prevents the spread of a deadly disease and have also prevented them from moving to online-only education, should an outbreak occur. So, here we are. Stripped of every enforcement tool to keep our kids safe from a deadly virus.
Other states are facing similar tensions and handling them differently. Some districts are fighting back—hiring lawyers, working around the laws. Already in Mississippi, 20,000 students are in quarantine from COVID exposure, five have died. Just days after restarting in-person learning, Louisiana has thousands of children in quarantine after positive tests.
I am more afraid this year than I was last year.
Great article; thanks for sharing. I don't even know what to say about the stupidity of Republicans over the pandemic.
posted by shoesietart at 8:11 AM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by shoesietart at 8:11 AM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
If someone wants to take risks with their own life, ok. But that so many people are willing to be cavalier about the health and lives of both their own and other people's children just boggles my mind. It's hard for me to even imagine the stress that the start of this school year is causing for so many families.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:18 AM on August 18, 2021 [30 favorites]
posted by Dip Flash at 8:18 AM on August 18, 2021 [30 favorites]
I think we're all just working with the assumption that every child in Iowa is going to get COVID. I don't know how this state is going to function when all the parents have to stay home from work to take care of their sick kids. The current plan, as best as I can tell, is that there will not be any quarantine, and kids will continue to go to school after they have been exposed until they experience symptoms. I guess they're hoping that a lot of kids will be asymptomatic and won't have to stay home? I honestly can't even wrap my head around what this state is going to look like in a couple of weeks.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:18 AM on August 18, 2021 [24 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:18 AM on August 18, 2021 [24 favorites]
I think a certain segment of politicians (and business people and pundits and…) have gotten so used to getting away with just saying shit and not being called on it that they have forgotten that there is a reality apart from what they say. If they just deny COVID long enough, they will get their way. At the least, they are counting that those who reality and COVID hurt won’t have the will or opportunity to come at them. Too bad about the sick children.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:30 AM on August 18, 2021 [28 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:30 AM on August 18, 2021 [28 favorites]
I am more afraid this year than I was last year.
Spot on. Last year at this time we were filled with uncertainty and dread at the prospect of trying to navigate schooling our kids from home, but those were mostly fears around logistical challenges--no one was going outside unless they had to, and everywhere you went was filled with scant few mask-wearing people in a hurry to get out of there. Schools were entirely remote for at least the first semester, and many jobs were as well.
Now we're back to just as many new cases as last year, and these cases are mostly comprised of the strain that can break through the vaccine. But no one has the fortitude to enforce a mask mandate (even in very-blue Massachusetts we have a Republican governor, who I'm sure you're shocked to hear has come down on the "we'll leave it up to the towns" side), and without a state or federal mandate, no one can enforce much of anything without risking lawsuits from those goddamned mouthbreathing anti-vax yokels. Schools are set to go back in three weeks at full capacity, and Boston Public doesn't even have a contingency plan for remote learning, because the state assured everyone all summer that the numbers would keep going down, so it's a waste of time (read: you'll lose your job if you waste time on it) to plan for a worse outcome. So we'll cram 35 kids into each classroom, and then do a Shocked Pikachu face when the legion of unvaccinated kindergartners who don't follow mask protocols create superspreader events.
posted by Mayor West at 8:30 AM on August 18, 2021 [19 favorites]
Spot on. Last year at this time we were filled with uncertainty and dread at the prospect of trying to navigate schooling our kids from home, but those were mostly fears around logistical challenges--no one was going outside unless they had to, and everywhere you went was filled with scant few mask-wearing people in a hurry to get out of there. Schools were entirely remote for at least the first semester, and many jobs were as well.
Now we're back to just as many new cases as last year, and these cases are mostly comprised of the strain that can break through the vaccine. But no one has the fortitude to enforce a mask mandate (even in very-blue Massachusetts we have a Republican governor, who I'm sure you're shocked to hear has come down on the "we'll leave it up to the towns" side), and without a state or federal mandate, no one can enforce much of anything without risking lawsuits from those goddamned mouthbreathing anti-vax yokels. Schools are set to go back in three weeks at full capacity, and Boston Public doesn't even have a contingency plan for remote learning, because the state assured everyone all summer that the numbers would keep going down, so it's a waste of time (read: you'll lose your job if you waste time on it) to plan for a worse outcome. So we'll cram 35 kids into each classroom, and then do a Shocked Pikachu face when the legion of unvaccinated kindergartners who don't follow mask protocols create superspreader events.
posted by Mayor West at 8:30 AM on August 18, 2021 [19 favorites]
Yes, such dread about the school year. I live in a place that sounds like it's in better shape than Iowa - vaccination rates are higher and there are mask mandates in schools - yet the kids at school will be eating indoors unmasked in the cafeteria. They're all going to get COVID. Some of them will die. And there's nothing I can do about it.
posted by medusa at 8:36 AM on August 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by medusa at 8:36 AM on August 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
I'm hearing this from K-12 teachers and parents all over the country. Louisiana, Iowa, Ohio.
On the one hand, adults terrified of what might transpire as people come together with some significant number of them, even a majority, maskless and unvaccinated.
On the other, adults accepting the fall as is. Most emphasize personal freedom and decision-making. Some sound resigned to a world of danger.
posted by doctornemo at 8:37 AM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
On the one hand, adults terrified of what might transpire as people come together with some significant number of them, even a majority, maskless and unvaccinated.
On the other, adults accepting the fall as is. Most emphasize personal freedom and decision-making. Some sound resigned to a world of danger.
posted by doctornemo at 8:37 AM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
I get that I'm an outlier area but WRT:
I think we're all just working with the assumption that every child in Iowa is going to get COVID.
...AFAIK people outside the USA are assuming that every person in the USA is going to get COVID along with two or three vaccinations if they fancy them.
posted by pompomtom at 8:39 AM on August 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
I think we're all just working with the assumption that every child in Iowa is going to get COVID.
...AFAIK people outside the USA are assuming that every person in the USA is going to get COVID along with two or three vaccinations if they fancy them.
posted by pompomtom at 8:39 AM on August 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
I binged youtube yesterday and don't remember where I saw this but there was a blip on some show wherein they discussed why some republican pols/legislatures are reversing stance on vaccinations and it was a piece of reasoning that seemed sound. I think it must've been some msnbc show. Anyway the theory is, they were banking on Biden's various strategems working well enough and the thing blowing over--so the best stance was to pretend to believe the whole "it's the flu/it's a big hoax" thing and let Biden handle it assuming he'd at least do better than Trump and then say "wow, crappy job, Biden, look at your shit numbers plus all this is because of Trump's early excellent policies" no matter what happened.
But then Delta happened and when ICUs started to fill up in low-vaccination areas, they realized Biden's methods wouldn't work if they weren't adopted, so they pivoted to "OK now vaccines are good but it's still a personal choice and masks are still face panties for weaklings; if you get sick thanks to us you can get monoclonal antibody therapy like a BOSS."
So they've done an incomplete and useless pivot. Obviously they're still banking on it blowing over--possibly because England's quick bloom and crash with Delta? But we're so unlikely to experience what England did. We're a much much larger and more diverse mass of people, what with our fifty different states. It's unlikely to blow over conveniently quickly for them. I don't get, seriously, why I, a random youtube binger, know more than they do, still to this day, simply because I watched hospital footage from Wuhan and Italy and read the thing about aerosol transmission in that one restaurant.
Some of them clearly really are high on their own supply.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:42 AM on August 18, 2021 [25 favorites]
But then Delta happened and when ICUs started to fill up in low-vaccination areas, they realized Biden's methods wouldn't work if they weren't adopted, so they pivoted to "OK now vaccines are good but it's still a personal choice and masks are still face panties for weaklings; if you get sick thanks to us you can get monoclonal antibody therapy like a BOSS."
So they've done an incomplete and useless pivot. Obviously they're still banking on it blowing over--possibly because England's quick bloom and crash with Delta? But we're so unlikely to experience what England did. We're a much much larger and more diverse mass of people, what with our fifty different states. It's unlikely to blow over conveniently quickly for them. I don't get, seriously, why I, a random youtube binger, know more than they do, still to this day, simply because I watched hospital footage from Wuhan and Italy and read the thing about aerosol transmission in that one restaurant.
Some of them clearly really are high on their own supply.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:42 AM on August 18, 2021 [25 favorites]
Roughly twenty percent of "families" (definition in link) have children under 6.
...but I'll be stunned if any of this results in electoral swings, because when you really get down to it anyone that votes GOP already hates their children anyway.
posted by aramaic at 8:46 AM on August 18, 2021 [13 favorites]
...but I'll be stunned if any of this results in electoral swings, because when you really get down to it anyone that votes GOP already hates their children anyway.
posted by aramaic at 8:46 AM on August 18, 2021 [13 favorites]
Yes, such dread about the school year. I live in a place that sounds like it's in better shape than Iowa - vaccination rates are higher and there are mask mandates in schools - yet the kids at school will be eating indoors unmasked in the cafeteria. They're all going to get COVID.
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid. About 25 out of 400 did, and zero went to the hospital. (That's confirmed cases, so who knows on the asymptomatic cases)
So I was actually filled with dread about homeschooling again, and my kids losing another year of their life. My school has already started, and I've never seen them so excited, as both of my kids' mental health took a huge downhill slide dropping every activity and rarely seeing their friends for more than 18 months.
So for my family home school dread > covid at school dread. That's pretty much parenting. You are measuring dread and trying to make overarching decisions about which dread is the least dread.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:48 AM on August 18, 2021 [23 favorites]
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid. About 25 out of 400 did, and zero went to the hospital. (That's confirmed cases, so who knows on the asymptomatic cases)
So I was actually filled with dread about homeschooling again, and my kids losing another year of their life. My school has already started, and I've never seen them so excited, as both of my kids' mental health took a huge downhill slide dropping every activity and rarely seeing their friends for more than 18 months.
So for my family home school dread > covid at school dread. That's pretty much parenting. You are measuring dread and trying to make overarching decisions about which dread is the least dread.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:48 AM on August 18, 2021 [23 favorites]
Reading a post the other day regarding return to school in our local district... Parent had no choice but to send the kids for in person school. On the weekend, they had a family gathering for the first time since Covid started. Monday, they get a phone call that one of their kid’s classmates tested positive. Didn’t even make it a week. Annnnd now all the kids in the house are sick. And everyone at the gathering was likely exposed. Putting the kids in school with no precaution endangers the kids but it also endangers everyone else. Arizona districts are fighting back against the prohibition on mask mandates, but Ducey is becoming cartoon villain levels of awful now. Yesterday he announced $173 million in grants to school districts that did not have mask mandates or vaccine requirements... funded by federal Covid money. (This is likely not legal.) I’m convinced the red states are using return to school as a way to infect as many people as possible to get herd immunity and then claim success when unvaxxed areas have low numbers again. No other theory really makes any sense to me. Meanwhile, we’re putting teachers, parents, kids, and healthcare workers through utter hell.
posted by azpenguin at 8:50 AM on August 18, 2021 [20 favorites]
posted by azpenguin at 8:50 AM on August 18, 2021 [20 favorites]
Yes, such dread about the school year. I live in a place that sounds like it's in better shape than Iowa - vaccination rates are higher and there are mask mandates in schools - yet the kids at school will be eating indoors unmasked in the cafeteria. They're all going to get COVID.
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid. About 25 out of 400 did, and zero went to the hospital.
Last year the Delta variant wasn’t running around. And last year we didn’t have states forbidding schools from taking basic protective measures.
posted by azpenguin at 8:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [55 favorites]
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid. About 25 out of 400 did, and zero went to the hospital.
Last year the Delta variant wasn’t running around. And last year we didn’t have states forbidding schools from taking basic protective measures.
posted by azpenguin at 8:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [55 favorites]
Today was the first day of school for my kid. Cases are higher than I'd like for my area, but our hospitals are not full, the schools have a mask mandate, and our school in particular is doing what it can to keep kids in cohorts to slow the spread. Our vaccination rate could be better, but we're over the 75% mark for adults.
And yet, it still sucks. Kids will get sick and their families will get sick. I signed her up for a vaccine trial, figuring that the 2/3 odds looked pretty good with no word on the timeline for availability in children. I signed myself up for a delta booster trial while I was there. We will see if either of us gets chosen.
I'm really grateful that my kid gets to go back at all. I talked to one of my friends yesterday and she was in tears because the city school district is planning to switch to a hybrid model if there aren't enough bus drivers, which would make life impossible for most two income households, not to mention parking Kindergarteners in front of screens for entire school days. It's too late to find alternatives, so most parents are at the mercy of what the school board ultimately decides. My friend is considering taking a leave of absence or quitting her job.
posted by Alison at 8:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
And yet, it still sucks. Kids will get sick and their families will get sick. I signed her up for a vaccine trial, figuring that the 2/3 odds looked pretty good with no word on the timeline for availability in children. I signed myself up for a delta booster trial while I was there. We will see if either of us gets chosen.
I'm really grateful that my kid gets to go back at all. I talked to one of my friends yesterday and she was in tears because the city school district is planning to switch to a hybrid model if there aren't enough bus drivers, which would make life impossible for most two income households, not to mention parking Kindergarteners in front of screens for entire school days. It's too late to find alternatives, so most parents are at the mercy of what the school board ultimately decides. My friend is considering taking a leave of absence or quitting her job.
posted by Alison at 8:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
My six year-old nephew, who was virtual throughout kindergarten (sidebar: virtual kindergarten was a travesty) made it two weeks into first grade before coming down with symptomatic COVID. Everyone in the house other than him is vaccinated, but his mom is immunocompromised, and they and my brother live with my Mom who is 72. This all sucks.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [35 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:52 AM on August 18, 2021 [35 favorites]
I'm in Texas, so...
Last year, with when the virus was having fairly limited impacts on kids, two of my children stayed home all year and the third went to a school that carefully enforced masking for everyone. This year, with a much more virulent strain causing many more children to become sick, everyone is in school and the governor won't let the district require masks. It's infuriating, but I also have to return to the office, after 17 months of remote work, so I don't really see another option. My two older kids were able to get the vaccine, but I don't know what to do with the 10-year-old except hope that when she gets it the case is mild and there's room at the hospital if she needs it.
This new wave didn't have to happen. It's here courtesy of anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, and pro-virus GOP governance. But the immune-comprised and under-12s are paying the price for their folly.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:54 AM on August 18, 2021 [43 favorites]
Last year, with when the virus was having fairly limited impacts on kids, two of my children stayed home all year and the third went to a school that carefully enforced masking for everyone. This year, with a much more virulent strain causing many more children to become sick, everyone is in school and the governor won't let the district require masks. It's infuriating, but I also have to return to the office, after 17 months of remote work, so I don't really see another option. My two older kids were able to get the vaccine, but I don't know what to do with the 10-year-old except hope that when she gets it the case is mild and there's room at the hospital if she needs it.
This new wave didn't have to happen. It's here courtesy of anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, and pro-virus GOP governance. But the immune-comprised and under-12s are paying the price for their folly.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:54 AM on August 18, 2021 [43 favorites]
Here in Arizona, we've gotten a small break: due to a legislative slight of hand in passing it, the measure banning schools from mandating masking has been declared by a judge not to take effect till the end of September, and our district immediately took advantage of this delay to mandate them for now. So we had "only" a week of not requiring masks. Every kid in Randomlet's third grade class was masked the whole time, but not all the teachers (and one in another grade reportedly is refusing to mask).
We remain stressed out with the dread, because for us too home school dread > COVID at school dread.
posted by Quasirandom at 8:54 AM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
We remain stressed out with the dread, because for us too home school dread > COVID at school dread.
posted by Quasirandom at 8:54 AM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
Our LO is in day care, and even though vaccination rates are good around here and the educators are vaccinated, we still worry a lot. I can't even imagine what parents of child having to go to those schools go through.
Kids needs to be in school for their own good and development, but banning schools from enforcing masks in low vaccination areas is just cruel, and obviously a political decision.
What happened to all those "think of the children" people? Where are they? Of course, it's much easier to demonize RPGs, music and video games than to task adults to take their responsibilities and actually protect children.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:59 AM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
Kids needs to be in school for their own good and development, but banning schools from enforcing masks in low vaccination areas is just cruel, and obviously a political decision.
What happened to all those "think of the children" people? Where are they? Of course, it's much easier to demonize RPGs, music and video games than to task adults to take their responsibilities and actually protect children.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:59 AM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
My Ohio school district sent us a weak-ass letter about "parent choice" and "encouraging but not mandating" masks. My village responded with an emergency meeting to pass an ordnance mandating indoor masks in places of public accommodation, which includes the village school, where my child will begin kindergarten tomorrow. I am proud of our mayor, who has a 2nd-grader at the village school and a preschooler at home.
Ten minutes ago I got an announcement that the preschool (where my kid is having her last day) is doing a partial lockdown because of a protest at the village office, across the street, against the emergency measure.
Parents are asking to transfer their children out of the school so they don't have to comply.
I hear from a fellow parent that the head of the PTO, at the meeting, in arguing against a mask mandate, said "my body my choice".
I can't really express my mental state right now. These are my neighbors that I will have to live with, these are my child's schoolmates.
In my email to the school superintendent I told him he was failing at leadership and that I wished we were starting our relationship with the district on a better footing. I asked him not to have our kids become enmeshed in arguments that their parents are having, and frankly, having badly. If we're not equipped to talk to each other, how will it play out at recess? The first kid to be mad at mine because I expressed a preference for community action over individual choice is going to make me cry, I can tell.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:03 AM on August 18, 2021 [20 favorites]
Ten minutes ago I got an announcement that the preschool (where my kid is having her last day) is doing a partial lockdown because of a protest at the village office, across the street, against the emergency measure.
Parents are asking to transfer their children out of the school so they don't have to comply.
I hear from a fellow parent that the head of the PTO, at the meeting, in arguing against a mask mandate, said "my body my choice".
I can't really express my mental state right now. These are my neighbors that I will have to live with, these are my child's schoolmates.
In my email to the school superintendent I told him he was failing at leadership and that I wished we were starting our relationship with the district on a better footing. I asked him not to have our kids become enmeshed in arguments that their parents are having, and frankly, having badly. If we're not equipped to talk to each other, how will it play out at recess? The first kid to be mad at mine because I expressed a preference for community action over individual choice is going to make me cry, I can tell.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:03 AM on August 18, 2021 [20 favorites]
We're in San Francisco schools, which is about as good a situation for trying in-person schooling as we have in the US. My older is in High School and in SF teens are vaccinated at very high rates (95%+). My younger is in 6th and so his cohort are NOT vaccinated (all 10/11) but reports that everyone is very good about masking and such. And while it came later than I would like the vaccine-or-onerous-testing regime is in place for teachers and staff.
So that's pretty good. And in terms of weighing dread, for us makes it the right choice to go in person. My younger is at the most COVID risk but also has had some struggles as a result of ... everything ... and we think being in school will help him a lot.
But that's the BEST case scenario out there in the US. My heart goes out to all the parents in Texas, Florida, etc. with much worse options. And even here, at a friend's school they already had to send one 1st grade class home due to an exposure.
(OTOH another friend got sent home the other dreaded notice -- lice exposure! Nature is healing.)
posted by feckless at 9:17 AM on August 18, 2021 [13 favorites]
So that's pretty good. And in terms of weighing dread, for us makes it the right choice to go in person. My younger is at the most COVID risk but also has had some struggles as a result of ... everything ... and we think being in school will help him a lot.
But that's the BEST case scenario out there in the US. My heart goes out to all the parents in Texas, Florida, etc. with much worse options. And even here, at a friend's school they already had to send one 1st grade class home due to an exposure.
(OTOH another friend got sent home the other dreaded notice -- lice exposure! Nature is healing.)
posted by feckless at 9:17 AM on August 18, 2021 [13 favorites]
Cases in Georgia (the state) as of yesterday: 538/100,000
Gov Kemp has always refused to have state mask mandates, and he let the state of emergency expire in June so that it can't be used as a justification for local mandates. So far, at least, he is not actively attacking jurisdictions and school systems that have their own mask mandate, but state agencies, including the University System of Georgia, can't have mask mandates. (Nobody is even talking about vaccine mandates). The hospitals are already full in Atlanta and Athens, and Ga Tech, GSU, and UGA have not even started fall classes yet.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:27 AM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
Gov Kemp has always refused to have state mask mandates, and he let the state of emergency expire in June so that it can't be used as a justification for local mandates. So far, at least, he is not actively attacking jurisdictions and school systems that have their own mask mandate, but state agencies, including the University System of Georgia, can't have mask mandates. (Nobody is even talking about vaccine mandates). The hospitals are already full in Atlanta and Athens, and Ga Tech, GSU, and UGA have not even started fall classes yet.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:27 AM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
I can't really express my mental state right now. These are my neighbors that I will have to live with, these are my child's schoolmates.
Isn't it creepy? My coworkers are masked up and working hybrid schedules partly from home, but they still send out these cattlecall emails about "painting with a twist." And have done throughout the pandemic so far. PWaT is where you pay more than reasonable to sit in a room with a bunch of other people and drink and paint something relatively hideous under instruction. Like, what part of that sounds fun in a pandemic? Can we go outside and paint? Can we paint the moon rising over the bouquet of flowers or whatever shit on zoom? Jesus.
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid.
Oh yeah, this attitude! My friend of many decades was weirdly unperturbed about her kid going to live in the dorm at the University of Florida. Kid caught covid last year because she snuck into a drag show. That was last year; this year the disease is harder on kids and more catching and all the rules at least for now are out the window (except public school masking is back for 8 more weeks thank god thanks to superhero superintendent thank you thank you thank you). But omg the university. They ditched their mask mandate, never had a vaccine mandate, and they no longer have a quarantine dorm--they made all these policies when the numbers were low and we looked like we were out of the woods. Now thanks to the governor they appear to be stuck like that container ship, so now it's "If you test positive, gtfo and go we know not where." So predictably kids will not report symptoms if they get sick and will avoid testing like the plague--what, they're going to get their parents to drive up and drag them back to Boca for two weeks and miss class and all the parties? Please. And they're all packed in together in these 4-kid suites in these giant ratwarren complexes. What the hell is going to happen to this poor town? The hospitals are slammed NOW and the kids only started moving back into the dorms and their giant dystopian apartment complexes yesterday. Repeat across redstate USA. Uh. Uh... Damn, this is kind of scary?
posted by Don Pepino at 9:29 AM on August 18, 2021 [21 favorites]
Isn't it creepy? My coworkers are masked up and working hybrid schedules partly from home, but they still send out these cattlecall emails about "painting with a twist." And have done throughout the pandemic so far. PWaT is where you pay more than reasonable to sit in a room with a bunch of other people and drink and paint something relatively hideous under instruction. Like, what part of that sounds fun in a pandemic? Can we go outside and paint? Can we paint the moon rising over the bouquet of flowers or whatever shit on zoom? Jesus.
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid.
Oh yeah, this attitude! My friend of many decades was weirdly unperturbed about her kid going to live in the dorm at the University of Florida. Kid caught covid last year because she snuck into a drag show. That was last year; this year the disease is harder on kids and more catching and all the rules at least for now are out the window (except public school masking is back for 8 more weeks thank god thanks to superhero superintendent thank you thank you thank you). But omg the university. They ditched their mask mandate, never had a vaccine mandate, and they no longer have a quarantine dorm--they made all these policies when the numbers were low and we looked like we were out of the woods. Now thanks to the governor they appear to be stuck like that container ship, so now it's "If you test positive, gtfo and go we know not where." So predictably kids will not report symptoms if they get sick and will avoid testing like the plague--what, they're going to get their parents to drive up and drag them back to Boca for two weeks and miss class and all the parties? Please. And they're all packed in together in these 4-kid suites in these giant ratwarren complexes. What the hell is going to happen to this poor town? The hospitals are slammed NOW and the kids only started moving back into the dorms and their giant dystopian apartment complexes yesterday. Repeat across redstate USA. Uh. Uh... Damn, this is kind of scary?
posted by Don Pepino at 9:29 AM on August 18, 2021 [21 favorites]
Mod note: Couple comments deleted; please avoid ironic racism or ableism. It's also better to avoid a string of one-liners that end up looking like fight-picking; just talk about your own experiences in a more straightforward way if you want to.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:29 AM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:29 AM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
America is where we care more about guns that children. I wish there was a form of Covid that could infect guns. I really feel for parents and teachers right now. Every teacher I know is exhausted and frustrated. Strike that, every person I know is exhausted and frustrated.
posted by misterpatrick at 9:35 AM on August 18, 2021 [25 favorites]
posted by misterpatrick at 9:35 AM on August 18, 2021 [25 favorites]
now it's "If you test positive, gtfo and go we know not where." So predictably kids will not report symptoms if they get sick and will avoid testing like the plague--what, they're going to get their parents to drive up and drag them back to Boca for two weeks and miss class and all the parties? Please. And they're all packed in together in these 4-kid suites in these giant ratwarren complexes.
Elementary school kids vs college kids is very different and should be treated so. Elementary school kids can't just leave town, need a parent to attend to them if they are even slightly sick, and require notes if they miss more than a few days of school or they will be questioned by the truant officer. As such quarantine dorms, regular testing, and sporadic and temporary on-line schooling choice is appropriate for college students.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:01 AM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Elementary school kids vs college kids is very different and should be treated so. Elementary school kids can't just leave town, need a parent to attend to them if they are even slightly sick, and require notes if they miss more than a few days of school or they will be questioned by the truant officer. As such quarantine dorms, regular testing, and sporadic and temporary on-line schooling choice is appropriate for college students.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:01 AM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Iowan here, and it all just feels so hopeless sometimes. There are so many good people in my city, and they're in danger. My son's former junior high (6-8) has ~1000 students in a building designed for, at most, two-thirds that figure. The district is offering on-site vaccinations for eligible students, which is a good thing, but if they aren't vaccinated yet, I don't see that happening.
I have in my pocket right now an Iowa state quarter with the slogan, "Foundation in Education," which feels like a cruel joke lately, for lots of reasons.
posted by Caxton1476 at 10:02 AM on August 18, 2021 [19 favorites]
I have in my pocket right now an Iowa state quarter with the slogan, "Foundation in Education," which feels like a cruel joke lately, for lots of reasons.
posted by Caxton1476 at 10:02 AM on August 18, 2021 [19 favorites]
My son will be moving into a dorm at Rutgers next week. He spent his freshman year struggling at home with remote learning--he has dyslexia and reading huge blocks of text online was extremely difficult for him. He's excited to get on campus. Rutgers requires all students to be vaccinated and they all had to upload proof, and masks are required for all indoor shared spaces. The number of parents complaining on social media when the mandatory vaccination policy was announced was really disheartening, but at least their unvaccinated kids won't be anywhere near mine.
posted by ceejaytee at 10:03 AM on August 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by ceejaytee at 10:03 AM on August 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
There is a perceived need by Trumpoids to 'prove' once and for all that they were right and the left and the media were wrong about COVID all along.
There is a perceived need by many other people, not just Trumpoids, to declare that enough is enough about this pandemic and accept the current level of mitigation and vaccination as all that we're going to get, and to get back to normal already.
Both camps worry me.
On the (not particularly positive but) plus side, I suspect that many schools that open up in problematic ways will not remain open for very long.
posted by delfin at 10:04 AM on August 18, 2021 [14 favorites]
There is a perceived need by many other people, not just Trumpoids, to declare that enough is enough about this pandemic and accept the current level of mitigation and vaccination as all that we're going to get, and to get back to normal already.
Both camps worry me.
On the (not particularly positive but) plus side, I suspect that many schools that open up in problematic ways will not remain open for very long.
posted by delfin at 10:04 AM on August 18, 2021 [14 favorites]
America is where we care more about guns that children.Where vocal Republicans care more about guns than children. Polls consistently show most Americans support school mask mandate – even something like 40-50% of self-identified Republicans, despite the constant propaganda barrage in right-wing media — and it’s really important not to let that highly visible minority leave you feeling helpless. There’s a big problem here but it’s winnable if we don’t give up.
posted by adamsc at 10:08 AM on August 18, 2021 [22 favorites]
It's also a prime opportunity to destroy public education by ensuring that schools get disrupted:
"BREAKING: Arizona Governor Doug Ducey just announced a program allowing families to take their children's education dollars elsewhere if their public schools close, mandate masks, or subject children to other COVID-19 constraints." — https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1427741804619763719
posted by Therapeutic Amputations at 10:30 AM on August 18, 2021 [35 favorites]
"BREAKING: Arizona Governor Doug Ducey just announced a program allowing families to take their children's education dollars elsewhere if their public schools close, mandate masks, or subject children to other COVID-19 constraints." — https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1427741804619763719
posted by Therapeutic Amputations at 10:30 AM on August 18, 2021 [35 favorites]
I'm worried about the kids going back to school and I'm no less worried about the prospect of another lost year. That's what it was for so many of them: a lost year, where they got lost, and so much lost hope. I attended a memorial service for a wonderful young guy who should have graduated from high school and ended up taking his own life. This has been a hard time, and I damn to hell the people who have contributed to making it unnecessarily harder. Damn them all to hell.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:31 AM on August 18, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 10:31 AM on August 18, 2021 [13 favorites]
DELTA!:Response to COVID-19 Part 2
The sequel is never as good as the original.
posted by Billiken at 10:39 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
The sequel is never as good as the original.
posted by Billiken at 10:39 AM on August 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
A snapshot: I'm in a small school district just outside of Austin that is not affected by Austin or Travis County's mask mandates. Austin, as you may have seen in recent news stories, is one of the Texas areas that's been pretty much out of ICU beds for awhile now. The Governor has ruled that you can't ask kids to mask up at school and virtual schooling is not being funded at the state level, so only some of the more well-off districts have been able to offer it on their own dime. Our wonderful but tiny little district just absolutely can not afford it.
My now-2nd grader came home from kindergarten for spring break one Friday in March 2019, and there he's stayed ever since, basically. Never met his first grade teacher in person or saw inside her classroom. He's been so lonely despite my best efforts, and is super excited to finally go back in person. I've been having stress dreams about it for a month, trying to pick the least damaging option between sending him to school with masks optional or unenrolling him to home school until the vaccine is ready for his age group.
On Monday night, there was a school board meeting in the next district over about masks at schools. It started at 5:30pm. The public comment portion of the meeting finally wound down around midnight; the meeting concluded around 2:30 am. I stayed up to watch the whole thing because I figured there was no way my small rural district would get a mask mandate passed if this larger & generally more liberal district couldn't. They eventually passed a limited (4 week, automatically expiring, only applies in certain circumstances) mask mandate... but with a no-questions-asked opt-out for both staff and students. The county attorney had released a statement right before the school board meeting identifying what laws someone could theoretically be charged under for requiring someone to wear a mask on a public school campus...
Tuesday was the first day of school in our district. Kiddo went, with a mask on his face and spares in his backpack, and came back the same way. Had a great first day - I really love the staff & teachers in our district - but came back to report that maybe about half the kids were wearing masks. The district called an emergency school board meeting last night about the district's safety plan with about an hour's notice. No email to parents, just posted it on their website and then one of the school board members "leaked" it to Facebook. "We welcome public comment," they said. No streaming, much less an option to comment virtually for folks who couldn't rearrange work/childcare/etc. obligations in an hour or less. Nothing has been announced yet, but rumor is that they voted to require a mask mandate in some form by the end of the week. Praying it's in a useful form.
Just being a human during a pandemic is challenging and wrenching. Then we add in trying to keep your littlest loved ones safe, when it seems a good portion of the adults in power in your area either don't believe they are in danger or actively and aggressively don't give a hoot... it feels pretty dark some days, y'know?
posted by Ann Telope at 11:00 AM on August 18, 2021 [20 favorites]
My now-2nd grader came home from kindergarten for spring break one Friday in March 2019, and there he's stayed ever since, basically. Never met his first grade teacher in person or saw inside her classroom. He's been so lonely despite my best efforts, and is super excited to finally go back in person. I've been having stress dreams about it for a month, trying to pick the least damaging option between sending him to school with masks optional or unenrolling him to home school until the vaccine is ready for his age group.
On Monday night, there was a school board meeting in the next district over about masks at schools. It started at 5:30pm. The public comment portion of the meeting finally wound down around midnight; the meeting concluded around 2:30 am. I stayed up to watch the whole thing because I figured there was no way my small rural district would get a mask mandate passed if this larger & generally more liberal district couldn't. They eventually passed a limited (4 week, automatically expiring, only applies in certain circumstances) mask mandate... but with a no-questions-asked opt-out for both staff and students. The county attorney had released a statement right before the school board meeting identifying what laws someone could theoretically be charged under for requiring someone to wear a mask on a public school campus...
Tuesday was the first day of school in our district. Kiddo went, with a mask on his face and spares in his backpack, and came back the same way. Had a great first day - I really love the staff & teachers in our district - but came back to report that maybe about half the kids were wearing masks. The district called an emergency school board meeting last night about the district's safety plan with about an hour's notice. No email to parents, just posted it on their website and then one of the school board members "leaked" it to Facebook. "We welcome public comment," they said. No streaming, much less an option to comment virtually for folks who couldn't rearrange work/childcare/etc. obligations in an hour or less. Nothing has been announced yet, but rumor is that they voted to require a mask mandate in some form by the end of the week. Praying it's in a useful form.
Just being a human during a pandemic is challenging and wrenching. Then we add in trying to keep your littlest loved ones safe, when it seems a good portion of the adults in power in your area either don't believe they are in danger or actively and aggressively don't give a hoot... it feels pretty dark some days, y'know?
posted by Ann Telope at 11:00 AM on August 18, 2021 [20 favorites]
This whole position (no masks in schools/no vaccines req'd) just boggles my mind. Here in the SF bay area the situation is pretty good at the start of the school year. But at least in CA schools have always (mostly) required the students to be vaccinated.*
Schools have long been the default govt enforcer of vaccination requirements. I remember measles/mumps/rubella shots for my kids. As long as it was vaccinations for (my) kids' safety & health, no-one complained. NOW that its THE ADULTS TOO, parents are protesting.
And masks? I've experienced the issues w/ teaching a room full of masked students, and its not great. But for kids this age (ie- under 15, or too young for a shot)- there are already a bunch of rules on what they can wear and not wear in class- baseball hats, sunglasses, skimpy tops anyone? -- masks are just another thing to add to the list.
What happened to "no shirt/no shoes/no service" ?
Keeping kids in school is crucial for any economic recovery. If parents can't rely on schools for day care (and good meals for many), then they won't be back in the office, or the store, or the restaurant, same as a year ago. Now it seems we won't get out of this until the vaccine is approved for children. Since we're headed for more economic chaos as the school year falters, I predict that approval will come by the end of the year.
*...and the whole anti-vax movement of a few years back just seems quaint now....
posted by TDIpod at 11:42 AM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
Schools have long been the default govt enforcer of vaccination requirements. I remember measles/mumps/rubella shots for my kids. As long as it was vaccinations for (my) kids' safety & health, no-one complained. NOW that its THE ADULTS TOO, parents are protesting.
And masks? I've experienced the issues w/ teaching a room full of masked students, and its not great. But for kids this age (ie- under 15, or too young for a shot)- there are already a bunch of rules on what they can wear and not wear in class- baseball hats, sunglasses, skimpy tops anyone? -- masks are just another thing to add to the list.
What happened to "no shirt/no shoes/no service" ?
Keeping kids in school is crucial for any economic recovery. If parents can't rely on schools for day care (and good meals for many), then they won't be back in the office, or the store, or the restaurant, same as a year ago. Now it seems we won't get out of this until the vaccine is approved for children. Since we're headed for more economic chaos as the school year falters, I predict that approval will come by the end of the year.
*...and the whole anti-vax movement of a few years back just seems quaint now....
posted by TDIpod at 11:42 AM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
Serving on a school board, and working in a public university, in a purple state with an R governor. Vaccine mandates are banned; mask mandates have been left up to local districts. We voted to have one, but the governor decided to throw the local districts under the bus, as he has all pandemic--he had a press conference last week where, after extolling the virtues of local control, he was asked if he would express support for districts opting for mask mandates, instead went on about parent choice and how they were the best ones to decide. Cue emails to the board from angry parents saying that they would follow the governor's lead and chose not to mask their children. I'm expecting we'll have a police presence at our meeting next week, which, I know, don't call the cops, but we've already had a situation. No death threats yet, at least, which some board members in neighboring districts have gotten.
University is going to have weekly testing (2x if you haven't submitted proof of vaccine) plus mask mandates, at least.
posted by damayanti at 12:03 PM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
University is going to have weekly testing (2x if you haven't submitted proof of vaccine) plus mask mandates, at least.
posted by damayanti at 12:03 PM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
I don't know if we have any lawyers here who might be able to answer this, but what does the case law look like on mandating what children wear to school? If a school can require uniforms at the most extreme (only kahki's and polos of X, Y, or Z colors), or at the most permissive end, no underwear showing at no midriff tank tops...
Well, can't a school make a mask part of it's school "uniform"? If you can tell a young woman the straps on her shirt have to be at least two inches wide, how is requiring a mask that much different (legally, not politically, which we all know is a whole other beast)?
posted by sharp pointy objects at 12:10 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
Well, can't a school make a mask part of it's school "uniform"? If you can tell a young woman the straps on her shirt have to be at least two inches wide, how is requiring a mask that much different (legally, not politically, which we all know is a whole other beast)?
posted by sharp pointy objects at 12:10 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid. About 25 out of 400 did, and zero went to the hospital. (That's confirmed cases, so who knows on the asymptomatic cases)
Not knowing what Delta is compared to regular COVID is probably a much more relaxed way to live.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:12 PM on August 18, 2021 [12 favorites]
Not knowing what Delta is compared to regular COVID is probably a much more relaxed way to live.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:12 PM on August 18, 2021 [12 favorites]
Homeschooling is going to expLODE if it isn't already. That will have some intriguing repercussions starting in about 10-15 years.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:30 PM on August 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:30 PM on August 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
Re. The suggestion to make mask part of the dress code: Paris ISD in Texas just implemented that this morning, so I guess we'll see!
posted by Ann Telope at 12:30 PM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by Ann Telope at 12:30 PM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
Well, can't a school make a mask part of it's school "uniform"?
Paris ISD — a 3,800-student district located 100 miles northeast of Dallas — amended its employee and student handbooks, adding masks as part of the school’s dress code “to address health issues in light of [the] pandemic.”
posted by Monochrome at 12:31 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
Paris ISD — a 3,800-student district located 100 miles northeast of Dallas — amended its employee and student handbooks, adding masks as part of the school’s dress code “to address health issues in light of [the] pandemic.”
posted by Monochrome at 12:31 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
Illinois checking in, we have a K-12 mask mandate. A "Christian Academy" announced they would not be requiring masks, but make them optional, and our state board of education pulled their certification as a school -- when meant they lost their tax-advantages, could not issue state-approved HS diplomas (students would have to take a GED to apply to colleges), and COULD NOT PLAY HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS, because only recognized schools are permitted to be part of the state high school athletics association.
Took less than 24 hours for them to go crawling on their knees to the state board with promises to mask up forever and ever, as long as they got to play football this year.
I feel about as good as I can feel about sending my kids to school; my town is over 90% vaccinated (we were the first in the state to top 90%, and very proud of it), which means basically the only people who aren't are the kids under 12 who can't be. Our local government has coordinated its responses across the town, the schools, libraries, parks, etc., and worked closely with the chamber of commerce and childcare providers and the local hospital. We get e-mail updates every two weeks with the latest local info, all vetted by the infectious disease team at the hospital. Our district as been aggressive in getting staff vaccinated and then in getting students vaccinated as soon as it was available to 16-year-olds, then 12-year-olds. I'm hoping when they approve for 5-11s, I just go to school one Friday afternoon and they jab my two little ones and that's that.
But transmission is high statewide ("moderate" in my local area) and Delta gives no shits about your vaccines. I think my community's response has been exemplary overall, but I also know people are tired. And people are traveling. And people aren't as careful as they were. And I think probably 80% of the parents at my kids' school are still taking Covid very seriously -- masking, distancing, quarantining after travel -- just based on what I see in parks and grocery stores and so on. But that 20%, man. They make me nervous.
My kids all did distance learning last year. they're really excited to get back to school. But they're scared too, and anxious about the virus. My kindergartener sighs and says, "I hate cowonaviwus." She does not remember having ever been in a store.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:42 PM on August 18, 2021 [45 favorites]
Took less than 24 hours for them to go crawling on their knees to the state board with promises to mask up forever and ever, as long as they got to play football this year.
I feel about as good as I can feel about sending my kids to school; my town is over 90% vaccinated (we were the first in the state to top 90%, and very proud of it), which means basically the only people who aren't are the kids under 12 who can't be. Our local government has coordinated its responses across the town, the schools, libraries, parks, etc., and worked closely with the chamber of commerce and childcare providers and the local hospital. We get e-mail updates every two weeks with the latest local info, all vetted by the infectious disease team at the hospital. Our district as been aggressive in getting staff vaccinated and then in getting students vaccinated as soon as it was available to 16-year-olds, then 12-year-olds. I'm hoping when they approve for 5-11s, I just go to school one Friday afternoon and they jab my two little ones and that's that.
But transmission is high statewide ("moderate" in my local area) and Delta gives no shits about your vaccines. I think my community's response has been exemplary overall, but I also know people are tired. And people are traveling. And people aren't as careful as they were. And I think probably 80% of the parents at my kids' school are still taking Covid very seriously -- masking, distancing, quarantining after travel -- just based on what I see in parks and grocery stores and so on. But that 20%, man. They make me nervous.
My kids all did distance learning last year. they're really excited to get back to school. But they're scared too, and anxious about the virus. My kindergartener sighs and says, "I hate cowonaviwus." She does not remember having ever been in a store.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:42 PM on August 18, 2021 [45 favorites]
If you're interested in what an Iowa public school district has decided it can mandate re: what students can/cannot wear, check this out.
This was implemented (in a much shorter form) the year my oldest started 1st grade...so, 2005? Every year they move the goal posts, and its implementation is, predictably, uneven across every slicer you can imagine - building, grade, gender, race/ethnicity, etc. Note that this is district-wide, not a condition of attendance at some magnet school or something.
posted by Caxton1476 at 12:53 PM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
This was implemented (in a much shorter form) the year my oldest started 1st grade...so, 2005? Every year they move the goal posts, and its implementation is, predictably, uneven across every slicer you can imagine - building, grade, gender, race/ethnicity, etc. Note that this is district-wide, not a condition of attendance at some magnet school or something.
posted by Caxton1476 at 12:53 PM on August 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
I feel pretty good about my daughter starting her senior year at Loyola Chicago, given that the university is requiring vaccines (and those who get exemptions - honest to goodness exemptions, not just I DON'T WANNA - will be subjected to regular testing) and masks in all campus buildings/classrooms.
What I don't feel good about are my teacher friends who don't work for sane districts. I'm terrified for them and their children. And now I have to go back to not seeing those particular people in person because they work for assholes.
posted by cooker girl at 12:53 PM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
What I don't feel good about are my teacher friends who don't work for sane districts. I'm terrified for them and their children. And now I have to go back to not seeing those particular people in person because they work for assholes.
posted by cooker girl at 12:53 PM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
I'm pretty sure it's going to go like this: first month back to school, second month OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT, third month virtual, fourth month back to school, and repeat.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:03 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:03 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
She does not remember having ever been in a store.
Hurray for silver linings!
posted by aniola at 1:06 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
Hurray for silver linings!
posted by aniola at 1:06 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
It's also a prime opportunity to destroy public education by ensuring that schools get disrupted
Bingo.
posted by 41swans at 1:14 PM on August 18, 2021 [15 favorites]
Bingo.
posted by 41swans at 1:14 PM on August 18, 2021 [15 favorites]
Sending kids to school right now is condemning the nation to months more grief and pain. The projections of pediatric ICU beds is dismal at best, and taking no action is signing up for the worst.
I have no idea how state government buildings are not on fire right now. For people who claim to do a lot of things "for the sake of the children," they seem pretty keen on murdering a shedload of them for political points.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:19 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
I have no idea how state government buildings are not on fire right now. For people who claim to do a lot of things "for the sake of the children," they seem pretty keen on murdering a shedload of them for political points.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:19 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
Last year, Gov. Kim Reynolds didn’t make reporting cases in schools mandatory and teachers told me there was a lot of undertesting and underreporting. This year, Reynolds has refused to admit that children can contract and spread COVID. A reality that has been proven over and over again. She refuses to admit that masks work.John Oliver was talking about climate change when he said this, but it’s still highly applicable: “You don’t need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?’”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:35 PM on August 18, 2021 [30 favorites]
Another Iowan here. We are super fucked!
Liz Lenz though is a state treasure.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:52 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
Liz Lenz though is a state treasure.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:52 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
If you're interested in what an Iowa public school district has decided it can mandate re: what students can/cannot wear, check this out.
My takeaway from trying to read that thing was that you might be better off sending your kid to school without a stitch of clothing to begin with and it would be less of a dress code violation.
No mandate for masks in the SD this year, just "strongly encouraged based on direction from Children's Hospital". Kiddo is not yet old enough for the vaccination and is showing resistance to masking indoors. His resistance compounded by the fact that the SD does not have enough bus drivers means we may be pulling him completely and making him learn remotely. Which would be a huge hit to his mental health.
Every day I grow a little bit more tired and enraged at the "we need to get back to normal for the kids!" argument. This is the new fucking normal!
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:39 PM on August 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
My takeaway from trying to read that thing was that you might be better off sending your kid to school without a stitch of clothing to begin with and it would be less of a dress code violation.
No mandate for masks in the SD this year, just "strongly encouraged based on direction from Children's Hospital". Kiddo is not yet old enough for the vaccination and is showing resistance to masking indoors. His resistance compounded by the fact that the SD does not have enough bus drivers means we may be pulling him completely and making him learn remotely. Which would be a huge hit to his mental health.
Every day I grow a little bit more tired and enraged at the "we need to get back to normal for the kids!" argument. This is the new fucking normal!
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:39 PM on August 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
The kid starts school two weeks from today, and, y’all, I’m just so damn tired.
posted by RakDaddy at 2:46 PM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by RakDaddy at 2:46 PM on August 18, 2021 [7 favorites]
I personally think the evidence of this is kind of weak. My school went back last year- not every kid got covid. About 25 out of 400 did, and zero went to the hospital.
...
both of my kids' mental health took a huge downhill slide dropping every activity and rarely seeing their friends for more than 18 months.
How many kids were in school? All of them but yours?
posted by bashing rocks together at 2:57 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
...
both of my kids' mental health took a huge downhill slide dropping every activity and rarely seeing their friends for more than 18 months.
How many kids were in school? All of them but yours?
posted by bashing rocks together at 2:57 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
I just can't square not protecting children from potentially catching a possibly deadly virus with something so simple as a mask mandate. Like, that's baseline. That's not hard. And when you have politicians and parents opting out of protecting whom I would assume are the people they care about most, I find I have difficulty believing they love their children.
posted by Kitteh at 3:07 PM on August 18, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 3:07 PM on August 18, 2021 [12 favorites]
Homeschooling is going to expLODE if it isn't already.
It is, much to the dismay of our (pro-STEM, secular, vaccinated) homeschooling household. The local homeschool facebook group is having lots of new members join, and it feels like 9 times out of 10 when you look at their profile, they are anti-mask, anti-vax, or both. And this is in northern NJ. I can't imagine how bad it must be in other states.
posted by fings at 3:25 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
It is, much to the dismay of our (pro-STEM, secular, vaccinated) homeschooling household. The local homeschool facebook group is having lots of new members join, and it feels like 9 times out of 10 when you look at their profile, they are anti-mask, anti-vax, or both. And this is in northern NJ. I can't imagine how bad it must be in other states.
posted by fings at 3:25 PM on August 18, 2021 [9 favorites]
I'm pretty sure it's going to go like this: first month back to school, second month OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT, third month virtual, fourth month back to school, and repeat.
Given the articles I've seen so far, it's first WEEK back to school, first WEEK OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT.....
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:56 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
Given the articles I've seen so far, it's first WEEK back to school, first WEEK OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT.....
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:56 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
My son goes to a small, out-of-district special ed school (you know what means if needs must). They were great about COVID-19 last year, but they are small. This year, with Delta, I'm just throwing my hands in the air and hoping for the best.
posted by mollweide at 4:07 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by mollweide at 4:07 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
> So they've done an incomplete and useless pivot. Obviously they're still banking on it blowing over
In addition, I'm pretty sure they're banking on the fact that the people who will care the absolute most of this will be (literally) dead. Anyone left will be more in the "whelp it wasn't so bad after all was it" bandwagon.
That sounds like the cynical approach and I am pretty convinced it is. It's just a calculus, "What if we take X approach then what will be the results?"
"Well, the people most mad about this will be literally dead. The next most made will be all disabled and stuff and so don't vote too much. And the ones who are left will be totally in our camp - 'it was nothing, you are exaggerating, I'd rather take freedom and danger than safety [easy enough when by pure luck the danger you experienced was nil', etc.'"
I swear that is just how calculating, and cynical, and political, they think when coming up with these stances.
"Well the majority of the population is taking a normal, reasonable over here, so if we just plant our pole firmly in the anti-reason camp we'll have 20-40% of the population join us and they'll be hopping mad, which is what we need. And anyone who finds out differently will be dead. Hooray!!!!11!!"
posted by flug at 4:19 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
In addition, I'm pretty sure they're banking on the fact that the people who will care the absolute most of this will be (literally) dead. Anyone left will be more in the "whelp it wasn't so bad after all was it" bandwagon.
That sounds like the cynical approach and I am pretty convinced it is. It's just a calculus, "What if we take X approach then what will be the results?"
"Well, the people most mad about this will be literally dead. The next most made will be all disabled and stuff and so don't vote too much. And the ones who are left will be totally in our camp - 'it was nothing, you are exaggerating, I'd rather take freedom and danger than safety [easy enough when by pure luck the danger you experienced was nil', etc.'"
I swear that is just how calculating, and cynical, and political, they think when coming up with these stances.
"Well the majority of the population is taking a normal, reasonable over here, so if we just plant our pole firmly in the anti-reason camp we'll have 20-40% of the population join us and they'll be hopping mad, which is what we need. And anyone who finds out differently will be dead. Hooray!!!!11!!"
posted by flug at 4:19 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
Caxton1476...
Apparently I cannot abide by that dress code. Holy shit that is insane.
posted by Windopaene at 5:14 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Apparently I cannot abide by that dress code. Holy shit that is insane.
posted by Windopaene at 5:14 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Washington state’s governor just brought back a statewide mask mandate and is requiring vaccines for all school employees.
posted by skycrashesdown at 5:22 PM on August 18, 2021 [16 favorites]
posted by skycrashesdown at 5:22 PM on August 18, 2021 [16 favorites]
There is a reason Washington is 47th on the list of cases per million. Thank you Gov. Inslee.
posted by Windopaene at 5:27 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 5:27 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
For people who claim to do a lot of things "for the sake of the children," they seem pretty keen on murdering a shedload of them for political points.
I'm pretty sure they at least half-heartedly believe - because this is one of the common Fox/OAN/Facebook right-wing talking points - that kids either can't really get it or don't get it bad. So they don't think they're really putting kids in danger.
And unfortunately they might kinda have a "stopped clock is right twice a day" point. While nobody wants to see kids dying from COVID-19, or having long-haul problems, it does seem from what I can tell that (very generally) younger people have a higher survival rate.
The BIG problem is, from what my non-medical, non-epidemiologist ass can tell, is that having the virus circulating and recirculating - being transmitted back and forth to people via the unvaccinated (like, y'know, kids who can't get the vaccine yet) is a big factor in the virus mutating and creating variations.
It's less that the kids are in direct danger, and more that - through, obviously, no fault not their own - the kids are gonna be a major vector for more adults getting sick and dying, and for a continuing cycle of viral variations.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:34 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
I'm pretty sure they at least half-heartedly believe - because this is one of the common Fox/OAN/Facebook right-wing talking points - that kids either can't really get it or don't get it bad. So they don't think they're really putting kids in danger.
And unfortunately they might kinda have a "stopped clock is right twice a day" point. While nobody wants to see kids dying from COVID-19, or having long-haul problems, it does seem from what I can tell that (very generally) younger people have a higher survival rate.
The BIG problem is, from what my non-medical, non-epidemiologist ass can tell, is that having the virus circulating and recirculating - being transmitted back and forth to people via the unvaccinated (like, y'know, kids who can't get the vaccine yet) is a big factor in the virus mutating and creating variations.
It's less that the kids are in direct danger, and more that - through, obviously, no fault not their own - the kids are gonna be a major vector for more adults getting sick and dying, and for a continuing cycle of viral variations.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:34 PM on August 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
Sending kids to school right now is condemning the nation to months more grief and pain. The projections of pediatric ICU beds is dismal at best, and taking no action is signing up for the worst.
I'm a pediatrician. I'm also a parent of a young child who is about to go to school for the first time.
Throughout the entire pandemic, the children's hospital I work at has admitted a total of eight kids for acute COVID infection. Eight in seventeen months. No deaths, no subsequent long COVID as far as I'm aware. We've actually had more adults than kids admitted with COVID, because during the worst of the third wave when the adult ICUs were full to bursting we accepted adult patients for the first time in the history of our institution. Even though Delta is the dominant variant in our community now, our last pediatric COVID admission was in the springtime.
Nevertheless our hospital has been at or over capacity for at least the last year. Not with COVID and not with the other infectious diseases that usually fill us up (because the kids aren't catching colds and gastro from each other like they usually do), but with the knock-on effects of anguish and alienation.
(cw. self-harm, abuse)
Self-injury, assaults, motor vehicle collisions with an intoxicated teenage driver, overdoses both accidental and intentional, one after the other, way beyond anything we've previously seen. Many of these children have not survived to discharge. Many survivors are left with permanent deficits. Our eating disorders program is 'operating' at 300% capacity and our inpatient psychiatry unit is broken. Our child abuse specialists are overwhelmed. I spent a month working in our PICU the month after schools closed again during the third wave, and I had five or six awful stories. And this is leaving aside many hospitalizations for less dire indications like malnutrition, somatization syndromes, and treatment plan nonadherence (the average blood sugars of kids with diabetes have gone through the roof).
As with natural disasters and climate change, I can't definitively pin any particular one of these cases on school closures and the social deprivation these kids are facing, but at the end of the day you look at the overall pattern and there is no way around it. A lot of hands have been wrung throughout the pandemic about kids' mental health; nobody seems to talk about the fact that it is literally killing them. Another lost school year will kill more of them.
All is not lost. Student-to-student transmission is pretty rare, especially among pre-pubertal (ie vaccine-ineligible) kids. If the adults around them are vaccinated and wearing masks, if the classroom is well-ventilated, if the community rates are kept low by mask/vaccine/capacity limit policies, then the kids will be okay. Even with Delta, even before we can mass-immunize them. We can get them through these few months. But school shutdowns have to be the absolute last resort and any authority that wants to shut them down without doing everything in their power to achieve basic safety practices has blood on their hands. I don't want to watch another healthy 16-year-old die of loneliness.
My city is 67% vaccinated — better than most, not as good as some — and my local government in its infinite wisdom has decided to "strongly recommend" vaccines for teachers and students rather than actually doing anything. But my daughter will be going to kindergarten next week, in her little rainbow unicorn mask.
posted by saturday_morning at 5:34 PM on August 18, 2021 [79 favorites]
I'm a pediatrician. I'm also a parent of a young child who is about to go to school for the first time.
Throughout the entire pandemic, the children's hospital I work at has admitted a total of eight kids for acute COVID infection. Eight in seventeen months. No deaths, no subsequent long COVID as far as I'm aware. We've actually had more adults than kids admitted with COVID, because during the worst of the third wave when the adult ICUs were full to bursting we accepted adult patients for the first time in the history of our institution. Even though Delta is the dominant variant in our community now, our last pediatric COVID admission was in the springtime.
Nevertheless our hospital has been at or over capacity for at least the last year. Not with COVID and not with the other infectious diseases that usually fill us up (because the kids aren't catching colds and gastro from each other like they usually do), but with the knock-on effects of anguish and alienation.
(cw. self-harm, abuse)
Self-injury, assaults, motor vehicle collisions with an intoxicated teenage driver, overdoses both accidental and intentional, one after the other, way beyond anything we've previously seen. Many of these children have not survived to discharge. Many survivors are left with permanent deficits. Our eating disorders program is 'operating' at 300% capacity and our inpatient psychiatry unit is broken. Our child abuse specialists are overwhelmed. I spent a month working in our PICU the month after schools closed again during the third wave, and I had five or six awful stories. And this is leaving aside many hospitalizations for less dire indications like malnutrition, somatization syndromes, and treatment plan nonadherence (the average blood sugars of kids with diabetes have gone through the roof).
As with natural disasters and climate change, I can't definitively pin any particular one of these cases on school closures and the social deprivation these kids are facing, but at the end of the day you look at the overall pattern and there is no way around it. A lot of hands have been wrung throughout the pandemic about kids' mental health; nobody seems to talk about the fact that it is literally killing them. Another lost school year will kill more of them.
All is not lost. Student-to-student transmission is pretty rare, especially among pre-pubertal (ie vaccine-ineligible) kids. If the adults around them are vaccinated and wearing masks, if the classroom is well-ventilated, if the community rates are kept low by mask/vaccine/capacity limit policies, then the kids will be okay. Even with Delta, even before we can mass-immunize them. We can get them through these few months. But school shutdowns have to be the absolute last resort and any authority that wants to shut them down without doing everything in their power to achieve basic safety practices has blood on their hands. I don't want to watch another healthy 16-year-old die of loneliness.
My city is 67% vaccinated — better than most, not as good as some — and my local government in its infinite wisdom has decided to "strongly recommend" vaccines for teachers and students rather than actually doing anything. But my daughter will be going to kindergarten next week, in her little rainbow unicorn mask.
posted by saturday_morning at 5:34 PM on August 18, 2021 [79 favorites]
All three of my children's schools (elementary, middle, high) reported new cases today. Overall, our district has seen 640 cases since school began one week ago. Not great, Bob.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:20 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:20 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Caxton1476...
Apparently I cannot abide by that dress code. Holy shit that is insane.
Indeed. Among the things strictly proscribed: “any item that may be used as a weapon.” I am certain at some point belts, ties, shoelaces, and bras have all been used as garrottes. And even if we can find no evidence that they have been, they certainly could be.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:21 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
Apparently I cannot abide by that dress code. Holy shit that is insane.
Indeed. Among the things strictly proscribed: “any item that may be used as a weapon.” I am certain at some point belts, ties, shoelaces, and bras have all been used as garrottes. And even if we can find no evidence that they have been, they certainly could be.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:21 PM on August 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
Native Iowan/current Chicagoan here. All sympathy to my former state and its psychotic leadership; I have a (vaccinated) teacher friend with medical complications, and an immunocompromised sister whose oldest child starts kindergarten next week, and I'm worried for them.
Chicago Public Schools starts on 8/30 this year with masks mandated for everyone; looks like the Chicago Teachers Union is asking for more definition on what the infection rate threshold would be to go back to remote learning; there's a vague plan for kids in quarantine to do remote learning, but no word yet on how this will be accomplished.
My neurodivergent kid loved remote learning and is pretty bummed about going back in person, though I'm sure he's in the minority there. I'm really torn - I found supervising remote learning to be incredibly stressful and I feel pretty guilty about looking forward to in-person school, since I'm not convinced it's safe enough - kiddo is too young for vaccinations yet, unfortunately.
posted by sencha at 7:55 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
Chicago Public Schools starts on 8/30 this year with masks mandated for everyone; looks like the Chicago Teachers Union is asking for more definition on what the infection rate threshold would be to go back to remote learning; there's a vague plan for kids in quarantine to do remote learning, but no word yet on how this will be accomplished.
My neurodivergent kid loved remote learning and is pretty bummed about going back in person, though I'm sure he's in the minority there. I'm really torn - I found supervising remote learning to be incredibly stressful and I feel pretty guilty about looking forward to in-person school, since I'm not convinced it's safe enough - kiddo is too young for vaccinations yet, unfortunately.
posted by sencha at 7:55 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
Another Iowan reporting in. I started my student teaching assignment today. At the staff meeting in the auditorium, I’d guess maybe 10% mask-wearing. Same for the cheerleaders and show choir students rehearsing inside. This is in the largest school district in the most liberal county in the state.
Later, at the smaller department meeting, it was probably more like 50%.
Now, remember that the state GOP (they control all branches of government) banned masks in cities, schools and counties. Only the governor can make that determination, and she ain’t gonna.
From what I have been told, staff vaccinations are over 75% (maybe higher?). So maybe teachers feel secure among their (mostly vaccinated) colleagues and will mask up when students show up on Monday? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 9:10 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Later, at the smaller department meeting, it was probably more like 50%.
Now, remember that the state GOP (they control all branches of government) banned masks in cities, schools and counties. Only the governor can make that determination, and she ain’t gonna.
From what I have been told, staff vaccinations are over 75% (maybe higher?). So maybe teachers feel secure among their (mostly vaccinated) colleagues and will mask up when students show up on Monday? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 9:10 PM on August 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
I had a breakthrough infection with Delta. In normal times as sick as I was, I would not have hesitated to go to the hospital. Here’s the thing, Delta is not the only nasty variant we have to think about. Lambda anyone? My state’s governor just reinstated mask mandates. We had idiots demonstrating against vaccines and mask mandates. 100 screaming idiots at one place. Both my grown kids have had COVID, before shots were available. I had something which was probably COVID original flavor early, before tests or vaccines existed. Got my shots. Got the breakthrough with the Delta. The thing with Delta is it’s meaner. If I had NOT been vaccinated, I am pretty sure I would have died an ugly death. Mr. Roquette was spared. I had Pfizer and he had Moderna. I think about all the people with kids too young to get a shot. There is no way I’d want a child who could not be vaccinated in a school with no masks or quarantine.
I think a certain group in the Republican Party want to destroy public education and replace it with charter schools and religious schools, specifically Christian religious schools. If a bunch of poor people’s kids get COVID and die, they are fine with that result.
The extremist side of the Republican Party is trying to take over small rural towns and small cities. They play really dirty. We are in real trouble right where I live. I’m sick of it. At my age, I wonder if I’ll live to see the end of it and I feel sorry for young kids and their parents.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 9:13 PM on August 18, 2021 [17 favorites]
I think a certain group in the Republican Party want to destroy public education and replace it with charter schools and religious schools, specifically Christian religious schools. If a bunch of poor people’s kids get COVID and die, they are fine with that result.
The extremist side of the Republican Party is trying to take over small rural towns and small cities. They play really dirty. We are in real trouble right where I live. I’m sick of it. At my age, I wonder if I’ll live to see the end of it and I feel sorry for young kids and their parents.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 9:13 PM on August 18, 2021 [17 favorites]
As far as I can tell, despite stuff about bullying, vaping, new hires, literacy, athletic boosters, non-discrimination notices, etc., there is not a single word about covid, masks, or vaccines on the entire website of my small rural Iowa school district. Not even a token "we strongly encourage." Not even an uncaptioned, unexplained photo of a child wearing a mask. Nothing.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:05 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Spathe Cadet at 10:05 PM on August 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
I mentioned above my nephew has COVID now. His dad, my brother, who was fully vaccinated, now has a breakthrough case. The symptoms are not currently bad, but this sucks.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:38 AM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:38 AM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
They eventually passed a limited (4 week, automatically expiring, only applies in certain circumstances) mask mandate... but with a no-questions-asked opt-out for both staff and students.
That's .... Not a mandate
posted by Mitheral at 6:33 AM on August 19, 2021 [5 favorites]
That's .... Not a mandate
posted by Mitheral at 6:33 AM on August 19, 2021 [5 favorites]
There is a reason Washington is 47th on the list of cases per million. Thank you Gov. Inslee.
There are so many ways that people are tracking and comparing between states, but right now on the NY Times' list of states showing cases/100,000, Washington is right in the middle of the pack, where it has sat for most of the pandemic. I hope the new mandates can make enough difference before hospitals get overwhelmed.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:36 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
There are so many ways that people are tracking and comparing between states, but right now on the NY Times' list of states showing cases/100,000, Washington is right in the middle of the pack, where it has sat for most of the pandemic. I hope the new mandates can make enough difference before hospitals get overwhelmed.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:36 AM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
How many kids were in school? All of them but yours?
By the end of the year about 80%.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:17 AM on August 19, 2021
By the end of the year about 80%.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:17 AM on August 19, 2021
Throughout the entire pandemic, the children's hospital I work at has admitted a total of eight kids for acute COVID infection. Eight in seventeen months. No deaths, no subsequent long COVID as far as I'm aware.
That's wonderful and I hope it continues like that for your hospital. Meanwhile, five children have died from Covid-19 complications in Mississippi since March. The CDC demographic trends aren't good for children.
From the American Academy of Pediatrics: Since the pandemic began, children represented 14.4% of total cumulated cases. For the week ending August 12, children were 18.0% of reported weekly COVID-19 cases.
From Reuters: The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States hit a record high of just over 1,900 on Saturday, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
And then let's talk about Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The CDC reports that "As of October 1, 2020, the number of patients meeting the case definition for MIS-C in the United States surpassed 1,000. In 2021, this number surpassed 2,000 as of February 1, 3,000 as of April 1, and 4,000 as of June 2."
Mask mandates. Mandatory vaccines for teachers (unless they cannot get them for legitimate medical or religious reasons). That's the bare minimum that should be occurring right now in every damned school in the country.
posted by cooker girl at 8:08 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]
That's wonderful and I hope it continues like that for your hospital. Meanwhile, five children have died from Covid-19 complications in Mississippi since March. The CDC demographic trends aren't good for children.
From the American Academy of Pediatrics: Since the pandemic began, children represented 14.4% of total cumulated cases. For the week ending August 12, children were 18.0% of reported weekly COVID-19 cases.
From Reuters: The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States hit a record high of just over 1,900 on Saturday, as hospitals across the South were stretched to capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
And then let's talk about Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The CDC reports that "As of October 1, 2020, the number of patients meeting the case definition for MIS-C in the United States surpassed 1,000. In 2021, this number surpassed 2,000 as of February 1, 3,000 as of April 1, and 4,000 as of June 2."
Mask mandates. Mandatory vaccines for teachers (unless they cannot get them for legitimate medical or religious reasons). That's the bare minimum that should be occurring right now in every damned school in the country.
posted by cooker girl at 8:08 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]
Brian Kemp, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, et al., are menaces to society. They should be removed from office.
I am so sick of the pushback on masks. You know how many kids died of flu last winter in the United States? ONE. Instead of the usual dozens. Not wearing a mask is reckless endangerment at this point.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:31 AM on August 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
I am so sick of the pushback on masks. You know how many kids died of flu last winter in the United States? ONE. Instead of the usual dozens. Not wearing a mask is reckless endangerment at this point.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:31 AM on August 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
To clarify, five children in Mississippi have died since the pandemic was declared in March 2020 (out of approximately 58,000 children diagnosed). Three of the deaths occurred between March 2020 and and March 2021, then another two in July and August since Delta became the dominant strain. Clearly enough to justify a vaccine mandate for school employees and students 12+, as well ask masks, in my opinion.
posted by skewed at 8:36 AM on August 19, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by skewed at 8:36 AM on August 19, 2021 [6 favorites]
Mask mandates. Mandatory vaccines for teachers (unless they cannot get them for legitimate medical or religious reasons). That's the bare minimum that should be occurring right now in every damned school in the country.
I remain dumbfounded that this isn't obvious to all. I am very, very lucky that the university system I teach in (Cal State) has a vaccine requirement for anyone physically on campus (or weekly testing for those who cannot legitimately get vaccinated), effective Sept. 30. (On-campus mask requirement has been in place since last fall, was never lifted.)
But that's not safe enough: as of last week, we are delaying repopulation and start of in-person classes until Oct. 1, after that requirement is in effect. Regular instruction starts this Monday 8/23, but all online. Which means that anyone planning to teach in-person or hybrid (like all of us in the performing arts) are now scrambling to move to online modalities--likely for the rest of the semester, let's be real--but that's better than any, more risky alternative.
It's been bewildering to me that so many people have been so foolhardy and reckless with their own lives through this pandemic, but my mind is just overwhelmed seeing how cavalier so many are with children's lives (their own and others). We really do not, collectively, care about each other very much in the United States.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:37 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]
I remain dumbfounded that this isn't obvious to all. I am very, very lucky that the university system I teach in (Cal State) has a vaccine requirement for anyone physically on campus (or weekly testing for those who cannot legitimately get vaccinated), effective Sept. 30. (On-campus mask requirement has been in place since last fall, was never lifted.)
But that's not safe enough: as of last week, we are delaying repopulation and start of in-person classes until Oct. 1, after that requirement is in effect. Regular instruction starts this Monday 8/23, but all online. Which means that anyone planning to teach in-person or hybrid (like all of us in the performing arts) are now scrambling to move to online modalities--likely for the rest of the semester, let's be real--but that's better than any, more risky alternative.
It's been bewildering to me that so many people have been so foolhardy and reckless with their own lives through this pandemic, but my mind is just overwhelmed seeing how cavalier so many are with children's lives (their own and others). We really do not, collectively, care about each other very much in the United States.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:37 AM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]
but my mind is just overwhelmed seeing how cavalier so many are with children's lives (their own and others). We really do not, collectively, care about each other very much in the United States.
At the risk of a derail, the moment it became clear to me that politicians on the right gave exactly zero fucks about anything except getting re-elected and appearing tough was Sandy Hook. When the government did NOTHING about 20 murdered first-and-second-graders, I knew we were morally bankrupt as a country. They only care about embryos and fetuses, apparently. God forbid we infringe upon their fucking freedoms, real or imagined.
posted by cooker girl at 8:45 AM on August 19, 2021 [23 favorites]
At the risk of a derail, the moment it became clear to me that politicians on the right gave exactly zero fucks about anything except getting re-elected and appearing tough was Sandy Hook. When the government did NOTHING about 20 murdered first-and-second-graders, I knew we were morally bankrupt as a country. They only care about embryos and fetuses, apparently. God forbid we infringe upon their fucking freedoms, real or imagined.
posted by cooker girl at 8:45 AM on August 19, 2021 [23 favorites]
The level of vaccine resistance in the US (and yes, other countries too) guts me because these anti-vax, no lockdowns folks are trying desperately to get back to normal in their stupid ass ways, not realizing that these shots are how we get there. If it continues like this, I told my mom, "well, guess what, we're gonna live in a fucking pandemic state for the rest of our lives."
Add the COVID tests and vaccine passports to the security theater we still have from 9/11 just to travel and I'm already exhausted thinking about this present nightmare.
posted by Kitteh at 8:56 AM on August 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
Add the COVID tests and vaccine passports to the security theater we still have from 9/11 just to travel and I'm already exhausted thinking about this present nightmare.
posted by Kitteh at 8:56 AM on August 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
People in general, and Americans in particular -- we do not have a monopoly on this by a long shot, but we are really freaking good at it -- are rarely politically, socially or morally aware unless something is going on that affects them directly. They, their family, their close friends, their coworkers, their neighbors, or some group that they consider allies must be either directly benefitting in some way or being hit in the state of health, wallet, job, privileged state, civil rights or other category of note by a proposed action or law. The more direct or significant the effect is, the more they may choose to wake up.
And, thusly, as long as white Anglo-Saxon-heritage Christian heterosexual cisgender conservatives are being told repeatedly and loudly by their separate-but-equal media sources that they are the Real Americans, that they are privileged, that they are God's Chosen, that they are the rightful princes and princesses of the universe but that is being stolen from them by THEM, anything unpleasant is painted pink and has a Somebody Else's Problem field projected over it. No one in my family has COVID? No one in my family will ever get COVID or be harmed by it even if they do, because it's S.E.P. So I do not need to change my behavior (putting on masks, distancing, getting vaccinated, not standing in rooms with hundreds of other maskless unvaccinated people) because someone else may or may not be vulnerable.
Same logic applies to so many other causes, in their minds. I've never shot a toddler, so no guns should ever be banned, much less kept out of my hands. I've never been racially abused, so racism doesn't exist. I've never been infected by a deadly disease, so my family and I are immune until proven otherwise. And anyone who says otherwise (that I should take precautions) is TELLING ME, one of the SPECIAL ONES, what to do and that cannot be allowed.
It's arguable how many of the right-wingers elected at various levels truly believe that ridiculous mantra... but they know that their voter base does. And they know that because the media machine specifically taught them to believe that. And they know that if they step away from that line of thinking, someone else who adheres to it will primary-challenge them at the first opportunity.
And so we spiral.
posted by delfin at 9:43 AM on August 19, 2021 [19 favorites]
And, thusly, as long as white Anglo-Saxon-heritage Christian heterosexual cisgender conservatives are being told repeatedly and loudly by their separate-but-equal media sources that they are the Real Americans, that they are privileged, that they are God's Chosen, that they are the rightful princes and princesses of the universe but that is being stolen from them by THEM, anything unpleasant is painted pink and has a Somebody Else's Problem field projected over it. No one in my family has COVID? No one in my family will ever get COVID or be harmed by it even if they do, because it's S.E.P. So I do not need to change my behavior (putting on masks, distancing, getting vaccinated, not standing in rooms with hundreds of other maskless unvaccinated people) because someone else may or may not be vulnerable.
Same logic applies to so many other causes, in their minds. I've never shot a toddler, so no guns should ever be banned, much less kept out of my hands. I've never been racially abused, so racism doesn't exist. I've never been infected by a deadly disease, so my family and I are immune until proven otherwise. And anyone who says otherwise (that I should take precautions) is TELLING ME, one of the SPECIAL ONES, what to do and that cannot be allowed.
It's arguable how many of the right-wingers elected at various levels truly believe that ridiculous mantra... but they know that their voter base does. And they know that because the media machine specifically taught them to believe that. And they know that if they step away from that line of thinking, someone else who adheres to it will primary-challenge them at the first opportunity.
And so we spiral.
posted by delfin at 9:43 AM on August 19, 2021 [19 favorites]
I’m late as usual to this thread because I’m a burned out parent working a full-time job remotely while caring for a bored kid who never stops asking for food/conversation. I've got one of those high risk, medically-complex kids with a preexisting condition you've never heard of before (I certainly hadn't when I got that scary newborn screening phone call and the doctor told us to immediately pack up and return to the hospital). He will 100% end up in the hospital if he gets COVID, just like he ends up in the hospital if he catches a particularly nasty cold virus or the flu. Pre-pandemic, I could not get his 1st grade teacher to understand the gravity of his health condition - I could barely get her to follow the 504 plan we set up with the school nurse. Watching the shitshow that has been the American societal response to the pandemic taught me that the odds of the community protecting my kid during a pandemic were nonexistent. I mean, his own grandparents barely understand his medical condition, why would people who don't know him care?
So it's been eye-opening to see other people finally begin to experience the dread that we've felt with every single virus my kid has been exposed to his entire life. The constant anxiety in the back of your mind that asks, "Is this the one? Is this the virus that is going to result in the catastrophic illness the university doctors have warned you about since he was 5 days old? Will he survive? Will he be incapacitated for the rest of his life?"
Needless to say, there was no temporary mask-less "re-opening" for our family over the summer. While we briefly entertained the idea of him going to in-person school in the fall, by July it was obvious that wasn't going to happen. We all looked at the color-coded COVID maps together and registered for the district's new online school option for elementary school kids (because they refuse to implement anything at individual elementary schools). My kid, who has suffered a lot mental health-wise over this pandemic but miraculously has not been hospitalized in 2 years (!!!), used data to make an emotionally-difficult decision. I used to joke that he should be in charge of state-level pandemic decision-making, but it's not a joke anymore. He would literally be better than the majority of governors in the United States, including our own (do better, Tim Walz).
Sending socially-distanced elbow bumps of solidarity to the other Mefite parents who are struggling out there - you are not alone in this impossible situation.
posted by Maarika at 3:14 PM on August 19, 2021 [27 favorites]
So it's been eye-opening to see other people finally begin to experience the dread that we've felt with every single virus my kid has been exposed to his entire life. The constant anxiety in the back of your mind that asks, "Is this the one? Is this the virus that is going to result in the catastrophic illness the university doctors have warned you about since he was 5 days old? Will he survive? Will he be incapacitated for the rest of his life?"
Needless to say, there was no temporary mask-less "re-opening" for our family over the summer. While we briefly entertained the idea of him going to in-person school in the fall, by July it was obvious that wasn't going to happen. We all looked at the color-coded COVID maps together and registered for the district's new online school option for elementary school kids (because they refuse to implement anything at individual elementary schools). My kid, who has suffered a lot mental health-wise over this pandemic but miraculously has not been hospitalized in 2 years (!!!), used data to make an emotionally-difficult decision. I used to joke that he should be in charge of state-level pandemic decision-making, but it's not a joke anymore. He would literally be better than the majority of governors in the United States, including our own (do better, Tim Walz).
Sending socially-distanced elbow bumps of solidarity to the other Mefite parents who are struggling out there - you are not alone in this impossible situation.
posted by Maarika at 3:14 PM on August 19, 2021 [27 favorites]
>It's arguable how many of the right-wingers elected at various levels truly believe that ridiculous mantra
One thing to remember is that trumpers & conservative talk show hangers-on are only a percentage of people who are not vaccinated - unfortunately, often the noisiest minority but relatively small minority nonetheless. The majority of the unvaccinated are people who don't have transportation, can't afford time off work (even a couple of days for vaccine reaction), have exaggerated concern about medical risks but are open to reason, etc. Something like 50-70% of unvaccinated fall into these categories, rather than hard-core trumper or whatever.
(Speaking of which - the vaccine program was one of Trump's actual successes as president. I can't figure out why Trump & the right don't glom onto that as one of his Genius Masterstrokes (tm) and then when all their minions get vaccinated with the Trump Vaccine and that makes the pandemic a lot better, helps open up businesses, etc then they claim all the credit to Trump for his foresight. But I guess their imaginations don't run in that direction . . . )
I'm a pediatrician. . . . our hospital has been at or over capacity for at least the last year. Not with COVID and not with the other infectious diseases that usually fill us up (because the kids aren't catching colds and gastro from each other like they usually do), but with the knock-on effects of anguish and alienation.
One of the side effects of our toxic political culture is that when the other side makes a point of any kind, we dismiss it as a matter of habit.
Conservatives/Trumpers have made a big deal of "open everything up, businesses & schools can't be closed" and such. Even though they, obviously, take this to the nth degree, there certainly is a grain of truth in it and we are well advised to not forget that.
We do in fact know how to open up schools quite safely now. It is good for kids, good for families, good for teachers and school staff.
Do open schools safely, you have to do all the things we have learned, from good ventilation to masking to testing/quarantining and so on. But it can be done and we know how.
And saturday_morning reminds us of the importance of doing that very eloquently. People really do suffer when schools are closed. We should open them up, safely, whenever possible.
posted by flug at 5:21 PM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
One thing to remember is that trumpers & conservative talk show hangers-on are only a percentage of people who are not vaccinated - unfortunately, often the noisiest minority but relatively small minority nonetheless. The majority of the unvaccinated are people who don't have transportation, can't afford time off work (even a couple of days for vaccine reaction), have exaggerated concern about medical risks but are open to reason, etc. Something like 50-70% of unvaccinated fall into these categories, rather than hard-core trumper or whatever.
(Speaking of which - the vaccine program was one of Trump's actual successes as president. I can't figure out why Trump & the right don't glom onto that as one of his Genius Masterstrokes (tm) and then when all their minions get vaccinated with the Trump Vaccine and that makes the pandemic a lot better, helps open up businesses, etc then they claim all the credit to Trump for his foresight. But I guess their imaginations don't run in that direction . . . )
I'm a pediatrician. . . . our hospital has been at or over capacity for at least the last year. Not with COVID and not with the other infectious diseases that usually fill us up (because the kids aren't catching colds and gastro from each other like they usually do), but with the knock-on effects of anguish and alienation.
One of the side effects of our toxic political culture is that when the other side makes a point of any kind, we dismiss it as a matter of habit.
Conservatives/Trumpers have made a big deal of "open everything up, businesses & schools can't be closed" and such. Even though they, obviously, take this to the nth degree, there certainly is a grain of truth in it and we are well advised to not forget that.
We do in fact know how to open up schools quite safely now. It is good for kids, good for families, good for teachers and school staff.
Do open schools safely, you have to do all the things we have learned, from good ventilation to masking to testing/quarantining and so on. But it can be done and we know how.
And saturday_morning reminds us of the importance of doing that very eloquently. People really do suffer when schools are closed. We should open them up, safely, whenever possible.
posted by flug at 5:21 PM on August 19, 2021 [3 favorites]
Throughout the entire pandemic, the children's hospital I work at has admitted a total of eight kids for acute COVID infection. Eight in seventeen months.
Here in Missouri, where we are now leading the nation in dimwittedness, that is what we saw during the early portions of the pandemic, too. But for whatever reasons, these recent surge appears to be somewhat different:
“In prior surges, we had very few children, if at all any admitted,” Lipscomb said. “During this surge, we are now seeing children admitted at the rates of zero to five per day.”
A lot of that has got to be, because around May or so everyone around here said, "Whelp we've got a vaccine so looks like this pandemic is over." And went right back to business as usual.
That is a spokesperson for hospitals in Springfield, MO, population 167,000 - so just a fraction of what you see in Ottawa (though to be fair Springfield services a much wider surrounding area this maybe 6-8X the population of the city itself - and many, many of the cases came from that wider rural area).
Again, not saying you can't open up in the current conditions, or that you shouldn't. Schools certainly can and should with the proper precautions and procedures in place.
In fact it's possible & even probably that part of the current spread in younger people here is precisely because schools are not open. At school your day is structured and there are rules to follow (masks, etc). This summer I'm guessing every kid - in Missouri, anyway - went home and did exactly what they wanted with whomever they wanted. Families got together, camp and such activities resumed with little to no precautions, and so on.
posted by flug at 5:42 PM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
Here in Missouri, where we are now leading the nation in dimwittedness, that is what we saw during the early portions of the pandemic, too. But for whatever reasons, these recent surge appears to be somewhat different:
“In prior surges, we had very few children, if at all any admitted,” Lipscomb said. “During this surge, we are now seeing children admitted at the rates of zero to five per day.”
A lot of that has got to be, because around May or so everyone around here said, "Whelp we've got a vaccine so looks like this pandemic is over." And went right back to business as usual.
That is a spokesperson for hospitals in Springfield, MO, population 167,000 - so just a fraction of what you see in Ottawa (though to be fair Springfield services a much wider surrounding area this maybe 6-8X the population of the city itself - and many, many of the cases came from that wider rural area).
Again, not saying you can't open up in the current conditions, or that you shouldn't. Schools certainly can and should with the proper precautions and procedures in place.
In fact it's possible & even probably that part of the current spread in younger people here is precisely because schools are not open. At school your day is structured and there are rules to follow (masks, etc). This summer I'm guessing every kid - in Missouri, anyway - went home and did exactly what they wanted with whomever they wanted. Families got together, camp and such activities resumed with little to no precautions, and so on.
posted by flug at 5:42 PM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
The comment stream in the university faculty senate meeting was a wall of terrified parents. No mask mandate, no vaccine mandate, no requirement to test, no quarantine facilities, and classes must meet in person. School hasn't started, yet, but the libraries are open, and librarians are reporting barefaced students who decline offered masks.
No special provisions for people with children under 12 at home. No arrangements for childcare or leave, just "figure it out." If you get it from a student and your kid gets it from you and tests positive and can't go to school and you've used up all your sick days, hire a babysitter. (For your child shedding the highly contagious lethal virus currently disabling the entire globe? Sure, that ought to be a snap.) The clear if not clearly spoken hope of the administration is that it will be enough of a trainwreck to attract national attention and we'll finally get a national mask and vaccine mandate and the governor will be quelled.
Meanwhile, relax and come on back because we've bought disinfectant, hired more custodians, and put out hand sanitizer. This is precisely what Cracker Barrel et al. were saying to try to get people to relax and come on back in 2020 before researchers in respected universities like this one used to be discovered that it's airborne.
Oh, and we have Regeneron clinics, now.
posted by Don Pepino at 6:45 AM on August 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
No special provisions for people with children under 12 at home. No arrangements for childcare or leave, just "figure it out." If you get it from a student and your kid gets it from you and tests positive and can't go to school and you've used up all your sick days, hire a babysitter. (For your child shedding the highly contagious lethal virus currently disabling the entire globe? Sure, that ought to be a snap.) The clear if not clearly spoken hope of the administration is that it will be enough of a trainwreck to attract national attention and we'll finally get a national mask and vaccine mandate and the governor will be quelled.
Meanwhile, relax and come on back because we've bought disinfectant, hired more custodians, and put out hand sanitizer. This is precisely what Cracker Barrel et al. were saying to try to get people to relax and come on back in 2020 before researchers in respected universities like this one used to be discovered that it's airborne.
Oh, and we have Regeneron clinics, now.
posted by Don Pepino at 6:45 AM on August 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
Yeah, faculty here have been instructed to find someone who can cover their class if they have to be absent because they or their kid gets COVID. Which is kind of hilarious, because it assumes that your random colleagues have the expertise to teach your class, will be willing to do extra work in dangerous conditions without compensation, and will not also be sick. The whole point, I think, is to transfer responsibility away from the university and onto individual faculty-members.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:08 AM on August 20, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:08 AM on August 20, 2021 [9 favorites]
It is a strange experience to witness large groups of people experiencing reality so differently. It is like we are living in completely different but intersecting universes.
posted by clark at 8:10 AM on August 20, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by clark at 8:10 AM on August 20, 2021 [7 favorites]
It is a strange experience to witness large groups of people experiencing reality so differently. It is like we are living in completely different but intersecting universes.
This is what living in hyperreality is like. Its cause is that too much of people's experience/knowledge about the world is mediated rather than direct, which means that their experience of the world--because it is not primarily personally empirical--is vulnerable to fairly thorough manipulation.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:28 AM on August 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
This is what living in hyperreality is like. Its cause is that too much of people's experience/knowledge about the world is mediated rather than direct, which means that their experience of the world--because it is not primarily personally empirical--is vulnerable to fairly thorough manipulation.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:28 AM on August 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
One thing to remember is that trumpers & conservative talk show hangers-on are only a percentage of people who are not vaccinated - unfortunately, often the noisiest minority but relatively small minority nonetheless. The majority of the unvaccinated are people who don't have transportation, can't afford time off work (even a couple of days for vaccine reaction), have exaggerated concern about medical risks but are open to reason, etc. Something like 50-70% of unvaccinated fall into these categories, rather than hard-core trumper or whatever.
My spouse was doing work reaching out to some of these communities and trying to offer vaccinations in Texas. The biggest problem they had? Many of the folks they were visiting were undocumented and absolutely terrified of interacting with any institution that might alert ICE to their whereabouts. After five years of increasingly aggressive ICE incursions, their fear isn't unreasonable, but it's such that even using a Latino cop as a translator for health care worker teams who didn't speak Spanish created a noticeable dent in the number of people who would willingly receive vaccines--even though the initiative was very clear that: 1) the vaccine is free, 2) all we want from you is a name and an address to send a reminder card, 3) if it makes you feel better and more likely to get the vaccine, you are welcome and encouraged to lie in those fields.
The problem is often that people are afraid and do not know who to trust. US governments have burned through a lot of community trust among our most vulnerable populations in the past five years. The loud asshole white antivaxxing group is not the only group of people who are grappling with vaccine hesitancy, and it is really counterproductive with those other groups of folks to be forceful and angry. We are reaping the results of refusal to set fair boundaries and enforce them with people who habitually violate boundaries, and it is resulting in crumbling trust right as we need to be building trust and encouraging it the most.
I don't know what to do except continuing to have conversations with the people I meet and trying to do my best. And finding a place I feel a little safer--I am, shamefully, so glad to be somewhere else now. Everyone is strung out and exhausted and crumbling, and everyone is making mistakes and losing tempers and being less than their best selves, and still we continue to shamble forward.
posted by sciatrix at 9:30 AM on August 20, 2021 [18 favorites]
My spouse was doing work reaching out to some of these communities and trying to offer vaccinations in Texas. The biggest problem they had? Many of the folks they were visiting were undocumented and absolutely terrified of interacting with any institution that might alert ICE to their whereabouts. After five years of increasingly aggressive ICE incursions, their fear isn't unreasonable, but it's such that even using a Latino cop as a translator for health care worker teams who didn't speak Spanish created a noticeable dent in the number of people who would willingly receive vaccines--even though the initiative was very clear that: 1) the vaccine is free, 2) all we want from you is a name and an address to send a reminder card, 3) if it makes you feel better and more likely to get the vaccine, you are welcome and encouraged to lie in those fields.
The problem is often that people are afraid and do not know who to trust. US governments have burned through a lot of community trust among our most vulnerable populations in the past five years. The loud asshole white antivaxxing group is not the only group of people who are grappling with vaccine hesitancy, and it is really counterproductive with those other groups of folks to be forceful and angry. We are reaping the results of refusal to set fair boundaries and enforce them with people who habitually violate boundaries, and it is resulting in crumbling trust right as we need to be building trust and encouraging it the most.
I don't know what to do except continuing to have conversations with the people I meet and trying to do my best. And finding a place I feel a little safer--I am, shamefully, so glad to be somewhere else now. Everyone is strung out and exhausted and crumbling, and everyone is making mistakes and losing tempers and being less than their best selves, and still we continue to shamble forward.
posted by sciatrix at 9:30 AM on August 20, 2021 [18 favorites]
It is a strange experience to witness large groups of people experiencing reality so differently. It is like we are living in completely different but intersecting universes.
That is very true. Unfortunately COVID is not an equal opportunity disease and different race, age, and economic groups are experiencing it very differently. If you have less than average (or little) actual close interactivity with the various impacted groups, you could very well be personally unaware of situation, except via blanket statistics or breathless news reports. Honest to god it's comparable to a distant war.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:31 AM on August 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
That is very true. Unfortunately COVID is not an equal opportunity disease and different race, age, and economic groups are experiencing it very differently. If you have less than average (or little) actual close interactivity with the various impacted groups, you could very well be personally unaware of situation, except via blanket statistics or breathless news reports. Honest to god it's comparable to a distant war.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:31 AM on August 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
"Oh, hey, my kid has Covid, can you babysit?" Who's going to take that gig?
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:54 AM on August 20, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:54 AM on August 20, 2021 [4 favorites]
In Georgia, all age groups under 17 are posting record infection numbers, much higher than the previous peaks last winter. (scroll down to the age group line graph, and then choose "Children Only")
But Gov Shotgun remains convinced that the only way he will win re-election is if he keeps the people detached from reality on his side, so he is railing against cities and school systems instituting their own mask mandates instead of talking about protecting children from a deadly disease.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:15 PM on August 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
But Gov Shotgun remains convinced that the only way he will win re-election is if he keeps the people detached from reality on his side, so he is railing against cities and school systems instituting their own mask mandates instead of talking about protecting children from a deadly disease.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:15 PM on August 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
In Tennessee there are over 2000 new cases just today among school-age children, almost a third of all new cases.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 3:20 PM on August 20, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 3:20 PM on August 20, 2021 [4 favorites]
US governments have burned through a lot of community trust among our most vulnerable populations in the past five years
And remember that the US figured out where Bin Laden was via subterfuge with the polio vaccine. Right after Hitler's parents I'm handing out condoms to the parents of everyone involved with that decision when I get the kinks worked out of my time machine.
posted by Mitheral at 3:44 PM on August 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
And remember that the US figured out where Bin Laden was via subterfuge with the polio vaccine. Right after Hitler's parents I'm handing out condoms to the parents of everyone involved with that decision when I get the kinks worked out of my time machine.
posted by Mitheral at 3:44 PM on August 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
The result of the polio subterfuge to get at bin-Ladin is that the Taliban refuse vaccination and masks. You can pretty much tell which Afghans support the U.S. they are masked.
I used this fact to troll some of our local anti-maskers.
I have neighbors who fear vaccines. I tell them all that the vaccine probably saved my life. I just tell them to please just get the shot and mask up.
One neighbor who is African American was afraid to get her shots. I told her most of the African American part of my family work in health care, and they all got their shots and were glad to get them. Many of these people looked after grand kids. The only kids I regularly
hear in the halls now are the 2 - 3 kids who permanently live here. My grand kids are young adults now. I’ve physically seen them each only a couple times since the pandemic. It’s torn families apart around here.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:28 PM on August 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
I used this fact to troll some of our local anti-maskers.
I have neighbors who fear vaccines. I tell them all that the vaccine probably saved my life. I just tell them to please just get the shot and mask up.
One neighbor who is African American was afraid to get her shots. I told her most of the African American part of my family work in health care, and they all got their shots and were glad to get them. Many of these people looked after grand kids. The only kids I regularly
hear in the halls now are the 2 - 3 kids who permanently live here. My grand kids are young adults now. I’ve physically seen them each only a couple times since the pandemic. It’s torn families apart around here.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:28 PM on August 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
GODDAMMIT. Now my sister-in-law, in addition to my brother and nephew has COVID. And she's immunocompromised. They're figuring out a preemptive antiviral treatment right now. My 72 year-old mom is still huddled in that house.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:19 PM on August 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:19 PM on August 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
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