A lot of my clients are California public funds - public pensions, public college endowments, etc - and the California public meetings act means it’s super hard to hold a board or investment committee meeting virtually. They have to publicly notice a week in advance where any decision-maker will be calling in from, and it has to be in a location that a member of the public could show up to participate if they wanted to. So it would be a big personal security risk for someone to participate from their home or office and publish that address. This policy was obviously not created for a pandemic.
There is a girl in DD’s class whose family is on a freaking cruise. I’m emailing the head of school and her teacher to ask what the hell they plan on doing about that. They got on the ship one day before the CDC said Americans should stay off cruise ships, but I feel like any moron with half a brain could figure out you shouldn’t get on a freaking ship during a pandemic when people on ships were being quarantined.
I don’t want the kid near my kid for 14 days after she gets off the ship. That’s the bottom line.
My college alma mater just told students to move out of the dorms. It’s in New England, and the university shut down for exactly one day when I was there. And my friends were from all over the world - definitely all over the US, but I also had friends from London, Antwerp, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, etc. So that should be interesting...
DH has to fly across the country next week. He’s an independent consultant, and while the companies that hired him have grounded all travel, they expect him to fly.
mae0111, he should ask. Don’t assume. I’ve told my team not only are we not flying if we can help it, we aren’t bringing anyone in who has to fly. Not only for their health but for ours. His client might be kind of irritated if he shows up.
mae0111, he should ask. Don’t assume. I’ve told my team not only are we not flying if we can help it, we aren’t bringing anyone in who has to fly. Not only for their health but for ours. His client might be kind of irritated if he shows up.
One of our auditors have said the same thing. They are grounding their employees both because of CDC warnings and because about 75% of companies don’t want the auditors showing up after air travel and exposing their staff.
So apparently the school (or at least lunch duty staff) started instituting a "kids must use hand sanitizer before eating lunch" policy this week. But didn't tell any of the parents. So DD was freaking out hysterically crying this morning because we don't have any and apparently yesterday she got in trouble for asking a friend if she could use theirs. And it's not like we can just go to the store and buy hand sanitizer anymore...
Post by covergirl82 on Mar 11, 2020 9:56:36 GMT -5
k3am, makes no sense. If they're going to "require" clean hands before lunch, then they should just have the kids go wash their hands right before lunch. Or provide hand sanitizer that everyone can use (e.g., lunch staff walk around and give each kid a squirt of hand sanitizer).
Post by sandandsea on Mar 11, 2020 10:06:39 GMT -5
It’s definitely closer to home now. My coworker/friend’s husband has a coworker who tested positive. And of course DS2 starts coughing today after his teacher told me yesterday several kids in the class are coughing. No fever though so I’m not too concerned yet but watchful.
covergirl82, my thoughts too.. just load them up. I also get that they don't want kids having to use their personal sanitizer for other kids, but as a parent.. heck, if keeping another kid from getting sick keeps MY kid from getting sick? SHARE THAT SANITIZER!
After prodding her, according to her (I mean she's 7 and not the most reliable reporter) they have to wash hands or sanitize before lunch, but they don't have time to wash hands, there is only 3 sinks, and the bathroom is crowded and too far away. (I mean she also tells me she doesn't have time to eat half the time.)
I am quite sure a lot of it is her not wanting to leave her friends and go wash her hands, but at the same time.. whatever scare mongering may have happened scared the shit out of her.
That being said, DH has been to three stores, and there's no sanitizer. I'm probably going to have to go to Target at lunch and see if they have supplies for a DIY batch. And even that is unlikely.
I was going to come on here this morning and ask you all WWYD about my scheduled air travel the next couple weeks (to Dallas and San Jose). But then my co-CEO stopped by and said they're considering asking everyone not to fly at all. So we'll see if it's even an issue.
My sister and her two older kids (8 and 6) are coming out for spring break - so flying cross-country - in a few weeks. They'll stay in my parents' condo, so the risk will just be the flights. I wouldn't give it a second thought except her husband is immune-compromised (rheumatoid arthritis). I selfishly hope she still comes, which she's planning to do at this point, but of course I won't interfere if she decides to cancel.
mustardseed2007 we are supposed to do a sort of one-night babymoon next Saturday night about an hour away. I did switch our hotel from a larger one with international travelers to a smaller, local property with mostly staycationers, but as of now we're still planning to go. I need to take advantage of my parents being willing to watch the 3 kids, since when #4 arrives it will likely be a long time before anyone is willing to watch all of them.
I hate the fact that I don’t have a kitchen during this mess. We are ordering out more, but trying to be healthy so lots of salads (and raw food is tough during flu season anyway). The. There’s the fact that I don’t have a dishwasher or a kitchen sink, so I feel like any dishes that we do use just aren’t getting clean when I wash them in the bathroom sink.
We are using a ton of disposable stuff (which I hate), so the stuff I’m washing is more like cutting boards or bowls that held goldfish or something. DH and I have our own coffee/tea mugs that we wash. But I’m grossed out that I feel like I can’t get the kids’ bento boxes or water bottles really clean.
Well I have 2 sad kids. Our overnight field trip got canceled for Tuesday and Wednesday. I was the chaperone. Oh well. I guess I'll at least get my $300 back.
DH opined this morning that the kids won’t go back to school after Spring Break. We have a ton of universities in the area, and they’ve almost all announced they’re moving to on line format after Spring Break. That’s fine for us since DH is a SAHD, but I have no idea what most people are going to do. At the same time, I’m glad people are finally acting like this is a real thing.
The other daycare location that shutdown has another confirmed case that they’ve confirmed is related.
I kind of want to call them up and tell them TOLD YOU SO. The first one was on campus while contagious, despite their trying to make it sound like she wasn’t.
They are now trying to make it sound like this teacher also wasn’t on campus while contagious and I’m guessing it’s not true either.
The virus has finally reared its ugly head in my city. We're sandwiched between two cities (each are about 300 miles away) who have had confirmed cases. My SIL lives in one of those cities and works for a university that has been shut down. She had to fill out a form just to come visit us on Saturday for DS2's birthday party. My city has cancelled the St. Patrick's parade on Saturday and all of the local universities are moving to online classes. I received word yesterday that the class I teach will be moving online, but there are no details yet on how. Luckily, the students were on spring break already. They pushed the start of classes back a week to figure all of this out. Now I am scrambling to figure out how to make my discussion based class virtual. Plus we will have to figure out how to do final project presentations efficiently.
And DS2's birthday party is Saturday. We're just having close family come over (<25 people). I already told people to not come if you are sick.
On top of all of this, DS1 is sick with something. He has a low fever, little appetite, and very tired, but perks up when the Tylenol kicks in. He has missed two days of school so far this week. I hesitate to take him to the dr who will probably tell me that it might be the flu or a random virus. I'll probably call his dr to see what they want me to do. I hope he kicks this very soon otherwise I don't know what will happen for DS2's party on Saturday.
I created our pandemic plan. I’m sending someone else to the meeting, so I’m no longer meeting with the big wigs. Someone called them levels, so I stole it that name. We are about a week behind the coasts in outbreaks.
We are approaching level 2- canceling all programs, outreach and meeting room reservations. Level 3 is close- no staff. Level 4 is lockdown basically pay people from home- the end.
Apparently the case at our school that is in the "extended community" that has coronavirus is one of the parents. Yesterday DD only had about 3/4 of the class there, and my guess is that number will get smaller daily but school will not officially close.
Two sets of close neighbors are self isolating since they have symptoms, so that's fun.
polecat8, that sucks on all fronts. I would honestly just.. Post Malone the party. No one (except probably your kid) will care much. But with DS1 sick, I don't think it's worth the risk. At the very least, you need to let everyone know DS1 is sick and what his symptoms are, and I think a lot of people may end up flaking anyways.
Post by covergirl82 on Mar 12, 2020 9:39:26 GMT -5
Colleges and universities state-wide (MI) are moving to online classes, starting yesterday. The governor gave a speech yesterday at 5 that basically told people to stock up with a few weeks worth of food and necessities, so my local grocery store was really busy for a weekday evening. I'm hoping to stop on my way home from work to grab a few things like peanut butter, flour and yeast for breadmaking, pasta sauce, and cereal.
DH is WFH tomorrow so his company can test bandwidth and network support for so many people working remote.
My manager hinted this morning that we might be told to WFH beginning on Monday, possibly lasting for a few weeks, and the official announcement could come later today or tomorrow.
Post by traveltheworld on Mar 12, 2020 10:14:59 GMT -5
So things just got real for me. Our nanny showed up this morning and said she has a cold and a cough. She came back 9 days ago from Mexico. I told her to go home and spent the last 2.5 hours disinfecting the house. She's been on the phone now, on hold, for over 2 hours, trying to get directions from our health authorities on if/where she should get tested. I'm WFH now and have kept both kids home until we find out more. But the reality is, if she has it, chances are she already spread it.
Luckily (?) she also has a runny nose, which apparently only appears in 5% of coronavirus patients...so hopefully it's just a common cold.
traveltheworld Mexico hasn’t had confirmed cases, has it? Not that she couldn’t have the virus, but I don’t think the fact that she had recently returned from Mexico would make me more concerned than if she had just been here in the US.
We were just asked to work from home as much as possible for two weeks starting tomorrow. I dislike working from home everyday. I need to get a landline for client calls because my home cell service is not great.
Well looks like we are getting ready to shut everything down here too. The local university just announced no in person classes until April 17th so my friend at the school is frantically trying to get her classes online and figure out how to do her in person lab finals via computer next week. We host the optional state gymnastic meet next weekend and am wondering if it will be cancelled. No session would have more than 250 people as they try not to run more than 60 gymnasts per session to keep the wait time down. It is a state gymnastic sanctioned meet so USA Gymnastics is the powers at be on cancelling. If it is cancelled I have no idea how our small gym will cover the cost of facility rental. Maybe the park district we are renting the building from will not charge us. We have 21 cases in 8 out of 36 counties in our state. None in our local county yet.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Mar 12, 2020 11:57:29 GMT -5
We are out for spring break at the end of the day today. Tomorrow is reserved for parent teacher conferences.
This morning our head of school said 50-50 chance that we will be out for at least one week after spring break. I know that she is underplaying the odds because a student at a special needs private school has a student whose sibling has tested positive for it. The rest of the family is waiting for results. There are siblings of students those school's students in both DS and DD's classes.
So we're 3+ degrees removed but I just think as testing increases we will find out that there are lots of people walking around with this that are asymptomatic and they'll be closing school.
DD2 has indoor soccer training on Sunday. We haven’t been able to attend yet, but I know the gym. There will be 40 kids and their parents jammed into a basketball court. We have several confirmed cases nearby and the governor declared a state of emergency earlier in the week. All universities have gone to virtual learning.