@@ Covid week of 10/18

[formerlyak]

So my kid has had a terrible cold, fever and throwing up al weekend. We did test him for Covid and it’s negative. But he spiked a fever at midnight and is still congested so we are keeping him home today. But today is that stupid anti-vaccine walkout thing in CA and when I emailed the teacher I felt the need to tell her his absence had nothing to do with that. I hate that today is the day he has to be out sick!

[Velar Fricative]

I know it's early out there but I hope the walkout numbers end up being low.

[savan]

formerlyak, my DD also has a cold. We just had her tested yesterday so no results yet and she has to stay home today. I just saw that it was the walk out day and immediately worried that people would think we were participating. She’s vaccinated! We are being responsible.

[ssmjlm]

For the second week since school started, no positive cases last week. I just keep hoping we'll continue to stay low/zero until the kids EUA.

[pixy0stix]

Do y'all keep seeing the tweet meme that says, "We've lost 600,000 people to covid and that's why there are no workers" or something like that? It's highly inaccurate. If you crunch the numbers we've lost roughly 169,000 people between the ages of 18-64. Which is a lot of people, don't get me wrong. However, what really gets me mad is that once again we're (because it's been primarily my female liberal friends who are sharing this) ignoring the fact that 3 MILLION women left the workforce over the course of covid because of childcare issues. That's the real reason why no one can hire people now.

[Velar Fricative]

We had DD1's birthday party with classmates at a local park. 30+ total, half kids and half parents. I didn't know all the parents that came before the party but they all seemed like really nice people and expressed to me that they were grateful for a safer party option for their kids where they can run around and hang out. Some also appreciated me calling out BS in the local FB school parents group lol.

And the storms didn't come until an hour after the party, so it was perfect. And so easy! Forget paying a gazillion dollars for birthday parties in the future, pizza, snacks, and cake at a park was so easy and cost-friendly. My kids have June and October birthdays so we can definitely do this every year if necessary.

[abs]

Oct 18, 2021 9:22:53 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Do y'all keep seeing the tweet meme that says, "We've lost 600,000 people to covid and that's why there are no workers" or something like that? It's highly inaccurate. If you crunch the numbers we've lost roughly 169,000 people between the ages of 18-64. Which is a lot of people, don't get me wrong. However, what really gets me mad is that once again we're (because it's been primarily my female liberal friends who are sharing this) ignoring the fact that 3 MILLION women left the workforce over the course of covid because of childcare issues. That's the real reason why no one can hire people now.

Yes and we also don’t pay women shit or treat people well. Of course no one wants to work in the service industry right now.

DH and I were talking about this just over the weekend. When I was a retail manager over half of my team worked because they wanted to not because they had to. I had stay at home moms looking to get out of the house, lawyers that just wanted the discount, and others that stayed out of loyalty after graduating college. Absolutely no one is going back to that in current conditions.

[formerlyak]

When I filled out the absence form for school, there was a line about schools losing $35 a day for each absence and encouraging parents to make a donation on days absences are not illness related. I emailed the principal asking if we could make a donation for today, even though his absence is illness related, because we don’t want to be lumped in with the walkout absences.

[SusanBAnthony]

Oct 18, 2021 9:44:16 GMT -5 abs said:

Oct 18, 2021 9:22:53 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Do y'all keep seeing the tweet meme that says, "We've lost 600,000 people to covid and that's why there are no workers" or something like that? It's highly inaccurate. If you crunch the numbers we've lost roughly 169,000 people between the ages of 18-64. Which is a lot of people, don't get me wrong. However, what really gets me mad is that once again we're (because it's been primarily my female liberal friends who are sharing this) ignoring the fact that 3 MILLION women left the workforce over the course of covid because of childcare issues. That's the real reason why no one can hire people now.

Yes and we also don’t pay women shit or treat people well. Of course no one wants to work in the service industry right now.

DH and I were talking about this just over the weekend. When I was a retail manager over half of my team worked because they wanted to not because they had to. I had stay at home moms looking to get out of the house, lawyers that just wanted the discount, and others that stayed out of loyalty after graduating college. Absolutely no one is going back to that in current conditions.

Pixy, is that 3 million in the US? Any references? I ask because I want to share that with people and want to make sure I understand the number, not because I disagree.

[pixy0stix]

Oct 18, 2021 9:58:04 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Oct 18, 2021 9:44:16 GMT -5 abs said:

Yes and we also don’t pay women shit or treat people well. Of course no one wants to work in the service industry right now.

DH and I were talking about this just over the weekend. When I was a retail manager over half of my team worked because they wanted to not because they had to. I had stay at home moms looking to get out of the house, lawyers that just wanted the discount, and others that stayed out of loyalty after graduating college. Absolutely no one is going back to that in current conditions.

Pixy, is that 3 million in the US? Any references? I ask because I want to share that with people and want to make sure I understand the number, not because I disagree.

In the US.

Numbers at the height of the pandemic - www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-crisis-3-million-women-labor-force/

Numbers as they stand today, 1.8 million women still have not returned - www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1002402802/there-are-complex-forces-keeping-women-from-coming-back-to-work

[1confused1]

I’ll be staying off Facebook today because of all the “my kid walked out”/“my kid didn’t walk out” posts. Interesting to see who of my friends that screamed get my kid back in school are having them stay home today. ::eye roll::

[kdubs923]

Oct 18, 2021 9:23:00 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

We had DD1's birthday party with classmates at a local park. 30+ total, half kids and half parents. I didn't know all the parents that came before the party but they all seemed like really nice people and expressed to me that they were grateful for a safer party option for their kids where they can run around and hang out. Some also appreciated me calling out BS in the local FB school parents group lol.

And the storms didn't come until an hour after the party, so it was perfect. And so easy! Forget paying a gazillion dollars for birthday parties in the future, pizza, snacks, and cake at a park was so easy and cost-friendly. My kids have June and October birthdays so we can definitely do this every year if necessary.

We're doing something similar for DS' birthday party on Saturday. (as I obsessively check the weather this whole week)

The local YMCA has a big soccer field available to rent. There are picnic tables off to the side, underneath a canopy. Way cheaper than any other party place we've used over the years. Plus DS is in a soccer phase, so it works out well. I just did not want to get into it with school parents about masking if we had it indoors. 

DD's birthday is late November. I'm holding off on planning anything, with the hope her age group might be vaccinated if we celebrate a few weeks late.... otherwise sledding party? Ice skating party? Ugh pandemic parenting decisions are the worst.

[mskitkat]

Oct 18, 2021 9:22:53 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Do y'all keep seeing the tweet meme that says, "We've lost 600,000 people to covid and that's why there are no workers" or something like that? It's highly inaccurate. If you crunch the numbers we've lost roughly 169,000 people between the ages of 18-64. Which is a lot of people, don't get me wrong. However, what really gets me mad is that once again we're (because it's been primarily my female liberal friends who are sharing this) ignoring the fact that 3 MILLION women left the workforce over the course of covid because of childcare issues. That's the real reason why no one can hire people now.

I see it as at least partially related. Many lower income families relied on grandparents for care. A lot of those grandparents are part of the 600,000. Now women whose jobs don’t pay enough to cover daycare have to leave.

[waverly]

mskitkat , possibly. However, my kids didn't start full time school until February 2021. So I didn't have my traditional childcare for 11 months.

Summer camp did open, but we didn't take advantage of it because there was no pool time which is the main reason we did summer camp.

The only reason I didn't quit my job is that we were fortunate financially to be able to afford a nanny. And even with that fortune, we had to scramble for the funds because they were in public school that didn't require tuition, so it wasn't like we had that money put aside and planned for childcare like we did when they were attending daycare.

[pixy0stix]

Oct 18, 2021 12:36:17 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

Oct 18, 2021 9:22:53 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Do y'all keep seeing the tweet meme that says, "We've lost 600,000 people to covid and that's why there are no workers" or something like that? It's highly inaccurate. If you crunch the numbers we've lost roughly 169,000 people between the ages of 18-64. Which is a lot of people, don't get me wrong. However, what really gets me mad is that once again we're (because it's been primarily my female liberal friends who are sharing this) ignoring the fact that 3 MILLION women left the workforce over the course of covid because of childcare issues. That's the real reason why no one can hire people now.

I see it as at least partially related. Many lower income families relied on grandparents for care. A lot of those grandparents are part of the 600,000. Now women whose jobs don’t pay enough to cover daycare have to leave.

Which is covered in my original statement. Doesn't matter how those women left, they left. It's not an add-on.

[pixy0stix]

Politico parsed out the numbers a little more in July - www.politico.com/news/2021/07/22/coronavirus-pandemic-women-workforce-500329

ETA: Newer article from October suggesting that the labor loss is staying steady - www.reuters.com/business/women-left-us-workforce-last-month-fewer-numbers-than-year-ago-2021-10-08/

[pixy0stix]

WaPo has an article which has global numbers - 58 million worldwide left the workforce - www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/coronavirus-women-work/

[formerlyak]

As follow up to my post about my kid actually being sick and hating that it was the same day as this anti-vaccne walkout ...

I emailed our principal to explain that he was actually sick and we don't support the walkout and could we make a donation in the amount equal to what the school loses for his absence today. The principal called back and said that my email was the best email he received today and that we shouldn't feel the need to make a donation, but that they all truly appreciated our support.

Also, we got a call from the school nurse. Apparently they have had a very high number of "sick" calls today, so they have to call everyone who turned in the sick form online to ask about symptoms. If you say yes to any of the list, you have to either show a negative PCR test or a note from the doctor confirming an alternate diagnosis with a date you are allowed to return or quarantine for 10 days. We went at 10 am and got the PCR test and are awaiting results.

[hermione]

My county is the only one in our metro area without a mask mandate. We also lead the state in school outbreaks by a lot. The parents on the school pages do not see a connection. I don’t understand the willful ignorance.

[timorousbeastie]

My county is one of the few in the area not requiring masks. And as of a couple weeks ago, they now no longer require quarantines - exposed kids are free to come to school with no masks and no testing. Yesterday, the state released their weekly data on school outbreaks for last week. My county had 56% of school-related COVID cases. And even better, I just realized the numbers that the school is reporting on their dashboard for cases in the district are 4 times less than what is being reported by the news, who get their data from the state health department. (And if anything, the district’s dashboard should be reporting *more* cases than what’s in the news, because they should have every case listed, whereas the news is only reporting on outbreaks of 3 or more linked cases.) But no changes are expected to be made to how the district or county are doing anything.

[timorousbeastie]

Oct 19, 2021 6:25:51 GMT -5 hermione said:

My county is the only one in our metro area without a mask mandate. We also lead the state in school outbreaks by a lot. The parents on the school pages do not see a connection. I don’t understand the willful ignorance.

I was typing at the same time as you. I am getting so close to pulling DD until the vaccine is out.

[hermione]

Oct 19, 2021 6:45:08 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

Oct 19, 2021 6:25:51 GMT -5 hermione said:

My county is the only one in our metro area without a mask mandate. We also lead the state in school outbreaks by a lot. The parents on the school pages do not see a connection. I don’t understand the willful ignorance.

I was typing at the same time as you. I am getting so close to pulling DD until the vaccine is out.

I'm glad we went private this year.  Still the same bad policies but I am confident we are told about every case in the building (3 so far this year) - mainly because, like you, I will pull her if need be.  

[sillygoosegirl]

Oct 19, 2021 6:42:42 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

My county is one of the few in the area not requiring masks. And as of a couple weeks ago, they now no longer require quarantines - exposed kids are free to come to school with no masks and no testing. Yesterday, the state released their weekly data on school outbreaks for last week. My county had 56% of school-related COVID cases. And even better, I just realized the numbers that the school is reporting on their dashboard for cases in the district are 4 times less than what is being reported by the news, who get their data from the state health department. (And if anything, the district’s dashboard should be reporting *more* cases than what’s in the news, because they should have every case listed, whereas the news is only reporting on outbreaks of 3 or more linked cases.) But no changes are expected to be made to how the district or county are doing anything.

I believe if there are additional cases that can be traced back to a school outbreak, even if they didn't happen at school, the health department would report those as part of the outbreak, but the school wouldn't know about them. Say there was an outbreak in a classroom that got several kids sick, and they each infected ~3 other family members, I think those infected family members count as part of the outbreak even if they didn't ever set foot at school.

[macmars45]

Yesterday afternoon on the way home from getting DS(5) a covid test we saw some assholes waving signs about how covid is an agenda and vaccines kill kids. One guy shouted through his megaphone that Bill Gates put a chip in the vaccines to track us.

[osulori]

A couple weeks ago we had two consecutive days of "there has been a positive case in your kid's class or on the bus but they're not considered a close contact" emails. Since we weren't told to quarantine our 3rd grader or do anything else extra we assumed it was kids at a different table or maybe on the bus? Nope. He casually mentioned this past weekend that his friend X was back in school after having COVID...and her desk is next to his. I think a combination of timing of symptoms with the weekend plus masking in class plus distancing at lunch is what kept it from spreading but damn that was too close for comfort!

[noodleoo]

I need some kind of update on the vaccine approval for kids 5-12. It is killing me being so close but it feels like it will never come. They are discussing it on Oct 26th, right? One week to go....

[aprilsails]

Oct 19, 2021 13:21:54 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

I need some kind of update on the vaccine approval for kids 5-12. It is killing me being so close but it feels like it will never come. They are discussing it on Oct 26th, right? One week to go....

The formal application just went into Health Canada and their first response was that they would be doing a very thorough review and taking the time necessary. Waiting is going to kill me.

[dutchgirl678]

Oct 19, 2021 13:21:54 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

I need some kind of update on the vaccine approval for kids 5-12. It is killing me being so close but it feels like it will never come. They are discussing it on Oct 26th, right? One week to go....

The FDA meeting is on October 26. But then there is an advisory committee meeting on Nov 2-3 that advises the CDC, so I think we have to wait until after that meeting before it can be approved. I do know that Pfizer says they are already producing vaccines, so the rollout should be smooth once they get approval. I want this to happen asap as well for my 10-year old.

ETA: link: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/index.html

[bears]

Oct 19, 2021 13:30:11 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

Oct 19, 2021 13:21:54 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

I need some kind of update on the vaccine approval for kids 5-12. It is killing me being so close but it feels like it will never come. They are discussing it on Oct 26th, right? One week to go....

The FDA meeting is on October 26. But then there is an advisory committee meeting on Nov 2-3 that advises the CDC, so I think we have to wait until after that meeting before it can be approved. I do know that Pfizer says they are already producing vaccines, so the rollout should be smooth once they get approval. I want this to happen asap as well for my 10-year old.

ETA: link: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/index.html

My kids are so excited to get vaccinated and they really don't like shots. We promised them ice cream for each dose, but they are more excited about having more freedom to visit family.

[pugz]

My daughter is getting 3 shots today (flu and 5 year shots) and asked if she could have the “cwonaviwus” shot too. Soon baby. Soon.