MCPS Community COVID update

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Except for the people for whom it is worse than influenza.

C’mon. You know we’re talking about the vast vast majority of people. Why do you keep saying that?

I guess you don’t drive either. Because driving is relatively safe - most people don’t die in an accident. I know I know - except for the people who have died in a car accident

Do you use seatbelts? Airbags? Drive the speed limit? Obey traffic lights? Use car seats? Layered mitigation does wonders. We are g doing the same for covid

Part of layered mitigation, for covid, is staying home when you're sick, to reduce the possibilities of infecting other people with an infectious disease. Masks are another part of layered mitigation, especially in health care settings.

High-quality masks are used as personal protective equipment to protect staff from acquiring illnesses from patients known to have highly infectious diseases.

There wasn’t universal masking in health care settings before covid, and there isn’t now. If you’re worried, wear a mask to protect yourself— just like doctors and nurses who did so while directly treating unmasked patients with covid.

There's a lot more now, and it really ought to be standard, just like gloves are standard in health care settings. As you know, masks are more effective when everyone is wearing a mask.

Gloves aren’t standard in every health care setting or interaction. And there certainly isn't universal "gloving" for providers and patients. Like masks, gloves are primarily personal protective equipment to protect health care workers from acquiring infections from bodily fluids.

Are masks more effective at preventing transmissions when everyone wears them? Intuitively you would expect so, but there really isn't good data demonstrating a practical effect at reducing transmissions in real-world settings. Even if we assume there is a benefit, we very regularly make choices that are less than the best available protection. Did you install a five-point harness in your car for yourself, or do you continue to use a three-point seat belt?

I'm really, really tired of the argument that we should accept easily-mitigable risks in health care, on grounds that we accept uniquely (compared to other wealthy countries) high risks in driving.

At the basis of all of these arguments against masks, in limited settings, to prevent transmission of communicable things, is: "I don't wanna wear a mask." Which, ok, you don't wanna wear a mask. So say so. Don't dress it up. We know that masks would work, if people would wear them.

no we do not know that masks would work in a classroom of kindergarteners. nobody is going to put 5 year olds in fit-tested n95s that stay on 100% of the day. and we also know that covering up kindergarteners and their teacher’s faces has repercussions on learning and socializing. and we also know that covid is low risk now. ignoring all this and insisting that “masks work!!!” is idiotic.

Protecting the health of your community is never idiotic.

Failing to protect each other is idiotic.

No one knows the long term impact of covid on 5 year olds. Failing to protect them now is idiotic, cruel, inhumane and barbaric.

If you want to protect your 5yo from Covid at the expense of everything else, you have choices. Use them. Don’t attempt to impose your choices on everyone else though.

DP. What, exactly, are you arguing about? If your child is sick with an infectious disease (covid or any other infectious disease), keep your child home. You're imposing your choices on everyone else when you send an infectious child to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

While there might be one poster is that is proposing broad, permanent universal masking, there are a few others that are attempting the justify masking based on a belief or perception that *currently* COVID poses a significant risk. But, again, if you compare the *current* situation with COVID to the typical situation with influenza in the winter, the current situation looks fine.

Hey, what if the same actions that reduce the risks of transmitting COVID also reduced the risks of transmitting seasonal influenza? That would be a win-win.

OK, but understand that you're not only only changing the goalposts on COVID, you're going against society's longstanding views on what are considered reasonable and practical measures for mitigating respiratory illnesses.

Surely you knew masks existed before COVID, didn't you? And even if you were one of the few that wore them, you surely noticed almost no one else did. We've never viewed universal masking, even in targeted settings, as a measure worth the cost and discomfort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

Or maybe we were doing the wrong thing in the winter, and now we have the opportunity to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

While there might be one poster is that is proposing broad, permanent universal masking, there are a few others that are attempting the justify masking based on a belief or perception that *currently* COVID poses a significant risk. But, again, if you compare the *current* situation with COVID to the typical situation with influenza in the winter, the current situation looks fine.

Hey, what if the same actions that reduce the risks of transmitting COVID also reduced the risks of transmitting seasonal influenza? That would be a win-win.

OK, but understand that you're not only only changing the goalposts on COVID, you're going against society's longstanding views on what are considered reasonable and practical measures for mitigating respiratory illnesses.

Surely you knew masks existed before COVID, didn't you? And even if you were one of the few that wore them, you surely noticed almost no one else did. We've never viewed universal masking, even in targeted settings, as a measure worth the cost and discomfort.

When I was a little kid, at the dentist, the dental hygienists wore no protective equipment of any sort. The last time I went to the dentist before covid, the dental hygienists were wearing gloves, masks, and face shields. "We've always done it that way so we should keep doing it that way" is not a good argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

Or maybe we were doing the wrong thing in the winter, and now we have the opportunity to do better.

Look around. Nearly everyone disagrees with you.

But you're still free to wear a high-quality mask to protect yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Except for the people for whom it is worse than influenza.

C’mon. You know we’re talking about the vast vast majority of people. Why do you keep saying that?

I guess you don’t drive either. Because driving is relatively safe - most people don’t die in an accident. I know I know - except for the people who have died in a car accident

Do you use seatbelts? Airbags? Drive the speed limit? Obey traffic lights? Use car seats? Layered mitigation does wonders. We are g doing the same for covid

Part of layered mitigation, for covid, is staying home when you're sick, to reduce the possibilities of infecting other people with an infectious disease. Masks are another part of layered mitigation, especially in health care settings.

High-quality masks are used as personal protective equipment to protect staff from acquiring illnesses from patients known to have highly infectious diseases.

There wasn’t universal masking in health care settings before covid, and there isn’t now. If you’re worried, wear a mask to protect yourself— just like doctors and nurses who did so while directly treating unmasked patients with covid.

There's a lot more now, and it really ought to be standard, just like gloves are standard in health care settings. As you know, masks are more effective when everyone is wearing a mask.

Gloves aren’t standard in every health care setting or interaction. And there certainly isn't universal "gloving" for providers and patients. Like masks, gloves are primarily personal protective equipment to protect health care workers from acquiring infections from bodily fluids.

Are masks more effective at preventing transmissions when everyone wears them? Intuitively you would expect so, but there really isn't good data demonstrating a practical effect at reducing transmissions in real-world settings. Even if we assume there is a benefit, we very regularly make choices that are less than the best available protection. Did you install a five-point harness in your car for yourself, or do you continue to use a three-point seat belt?

I'm really, really tired of the argument that we should accept easily-mitigable risks in health care, on grounds that we accept uniquely (compared to other wealthy countries) high risks in driving.

At the basis of all of these arguments against masks, in limited settings, to prevent transmission of communicable things, is: "I don't wanna wear a mask." Which, ok, you don't wanna wear a mask. So say so. Don't dress it up. We know that masks would work, if people would wear them.

no we do not know that masks would work in a classroom of kindergarteners. nobody is going to put 5 year olds in fit-tested n95s that stay on 100% of the day. and we also know that covering up kindergarteners and their teacher’s faces has repercussions on learning and socializing. and we also know that covid is low risk now. ignoring all this and insisting that “masks work!!!” is idiotic.

Protecting the health of your community is never idiotic.

Failing to protect each other is idiotic.

No one knows the long term impact of covid on 5 year olds. Failing to protect them now is idiotic, cruel, inhumane and barbaric.

If you want to protect your 5yo from Covid at the expense of everything else, you have choices. Use them. Don’t attempt to impose your choices on everyone else though.

DP. What, exactly, are you arguing about? If your child is sick with an infectious disease (covid or any other infectious disease), keep your child home. You're imposing your choices on everyone else when you send an infectious child to school.

I was responding to the previous post about failing to protect 5yos from long term impacts of Covid.

I’m not testing for a stuffy nose, sorry. If they have a fever or gastrointestinal issues, of course they stay home, just like before. We never stayed home for mild colds before, not doing it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

Or maybe we were doing the wrong thing in the winter, and now we have the opportunity to do better.

Look around. Nearly everyone disagrees with you.

But you're still free to wear a high-quality mask to protect yourself.

Do we have the opportunity to do better? Yes. That is not a question of opinion, that is a question of fact. It is a fact that we have the opportunity to do better.

Do people want to use the opportunity to do better? Apparently not. It's just one of many opportunities to do better that we as a society in the US apparently don't want to use. Compared to other high-income countries, we die at much higher rates due to guns, we die at much higher rates due to cars, we die at much higher rates due to drug poisonings, and we die at much higher rates due to pregnancy and childbirth (among others), and I guess that's just how it is, nothing to be done, people don't want to wear masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

Or maybe we were doing the wrong thing in the winter, and now we have the opportunity to do better.

Look around. Nearly everyone disagrees with you.

But you're still free to wear a high-quality mask to protect yourself.

Do we have the opportunity to do better? Yes. That is not a question of opinion, that is a question of fact. It is a fact that we have the opportunity to do better.

Do people want to use the opportunity to do better? Apparently not. It's just one of many opportunities to do better that we as a society in the US apparently don't want to use. Compared to other high-income countries, we die at much higher rates due to guns, we die at much higher rates due to cars, we die at much higher rates due to drug poisonings, and we die at much higher rates due to pregnancy and childbirth (among others), and I guess that's just how it is, nothing to be done, people don't want to wear masks.

Yes this is how things are now. You can blather on here as much as you want but this is how things are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have hoped that by now we would mention air ventilation, air filtration and masking as things that would actually help reduce transmission in the classrooms. Covid is Airborne, we fight it by concentrating on keeping it out of the air, diluting it, or removing it from the air.

If you want your kid to have more time in the classroom, think about masking at least some of the time during this uptick in cases, so it doesn't increase to a full surge.

Ask your schools to make sure their ventilation is bringing in fresh air. The CDC recommends 5 air changes an hour. Fans and open windows help. Air filters help when bringing in more fresh air is impossible.

We know the tools to keep kids healthy and in the classroom. We just need to use them

So open the windows and let the 100 degree air into the classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

Comparing to winter only would only make sense if COVID was seasonal. AT this point, it is not. We have waves and surges throughout the year. Influenza on the other hand is primarily seasonal for winter.

But if you are interested:

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230410/A-comparison-of-death-rates-associated-with-COVID-19-versus-influenza-during-fall-winter-2022-23.aspx

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-omicron-carries-4-times-risk-death-flu-new-data-show

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have hoped that by now we would mention air ventilation, air filtration and masking as things that would actually help reduce transmission in the classrooms. Covid is Airborne, we fight it by concentrating on keeping it out of the air, diluting it, or removing it from the air.

If you want your kid to have more time in the classroom, think about masking at least some of the time during this uptick in cases, so it doesn't increase to a full surge.

Ask your schools to make sure their ventilation is bringing in fresh air. The CDC recommends 5 air changes an hour. Fans and open windows help. Air filters help when bringing in more fresh air is impossible.

We know the tools to keep kids healthy and in the classroom. We just need to use them

So open the windows and let the 100 degree air into the classroom?

.

Yes. Rooms are still air conditioned and windows only have to be opened a crack to improve ventilation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have hoped that by now we would mention air ventilation, air filtration and masking as things that would actually help reduce transmission in the classrooms. Covid is Airborne, we fight it by concentrating on keeping it out of the air, diluting it, or removing it from the air.

If you want your kid to have more time in the classroom, think about masking at least some of the time during this uptick in cases, so it doesn't increase to a full surge.

Ask your schools to make sure their ventilation is bringing in fresh air. The CDC recommends 5 air changes an hour. Fans and open windows help. Air filters help when bringing in more fresh air is impossible.

We know the tools to keep kids healthy and in the classroom. We just need to use them

So open the windows and let the 100 degree air into the classroom?

.

Yes. Rooms are still air conditioned and windows only have to be opened a crack to improve ventilation.

Thanks. How much is a crack exactly? Like an inch? And how many windows? Like if there are fewer windows in one classroom would you need to open them higher to compensate? Just want to make sure I have my ducks in a row before asking, I imagine there will be resistance…but it seems important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have hoped that by now we would mention air ventilation, air filtration and masking as things that would actually help reduce transmission in the classrooms. Covid is Airborne, we fight it by concentrating on keeping it out of the air, diluting it, or removing it from the air.

If you want your kid to have more time in the classroom, think about masking at least some of the time during this uptick in cases, so it doesn't increase to a full surge.

Ask your schools to make sure their ventilation is bringing in fresh air. The CDC recommends 5 air changes an hour. Fans and open windows help. Air filters help when bringing in more fresh air is impossible.

We know the tools to keep kids healthy and in the classroom. We just need to use them

So open the windows and let the 100 degree air into the classroom?

.

Yes. Rooms are still air conditioned and windows only have to be opened a crack to improve ventilation.

Thanks. How much is a crack exactly? Like an inch? And how many windows? Like if there are fewer windows in one classroom would you need to open them higher to compensate? Just want to make sure I have my ducks in a row before asking, I imagine there will be resistance…but it seems important.

Are you a teacher? Which school? Which room? Dimensions matter and HVAC matters. If you actually cared you consult an expert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless my kid is exhibiting symptoms, my kid going to school. At this point, it's no worse than the flu, and we should treat it as such.

It is no worse than influenza except for when it is worse than influenza.

For the vast vast majority of people, it is not worse than the flu.

If you didn't quarantine for 5 days after being exposed to the flu but had no symptoms, then you don't need to with covid.

Every year, some people die from complications from the flu, yet we didn't force kids to quarantine for just being exposed.

I get that we needed to quarantine when covid first hit because we didn't know enough about the virus, and also we did not have a vax, but we do now, and it's no worse than the flu.

Way more people die of covid than flu. Stop parroting unhelpful talking points

Look at the recent covid death rate and compare it to influenza deaths in winter months.

Before covid, did you lock yourself down in the winter? Wear masks? Or did you instead go Christmas shopping and attend holiday parties?

1. More people die of covid than influenza
2. Influenza is seasonal covid is not yet seasonal
3. Who said anything about locking down? We are discussing staying home when ill. And yes I was cautious in flu months. That’s what a double lung transplant due to LAM does to you

The US has been at or below 100 covid deaths/day for several months now. Influenza killed about 28,000 during the 2018-19 flu season, which wasn't a particularly bad year. Nearly all of those deaths are over a 3 month period in the winter. That comes out to about 300 influenza deaths per day.

Influenza is more deadly in a typical winter than covid is right now.

You're comparing annual rates for covid to seasonal rates for seasonal influenza. Bad comparison. Estimates of covid deaths in the US in 2022 are on the order of 250,000, compared to the number you provided of 28,000 flu deaths in 2018-2019.

Shhhhh don’t let those pesky denominators get in the way of keyboard pseudo epidemiologists

That doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Looking at the "denominator" is a reference to rates-- incidence over time-- instead of totals. If you're making a decision based the situation at any given time, you look at the rate at that time. The current rate of COVID deaths is lower than rate of influenza deaths in the winter. So, unless you're changing your goalposts on risk, it doesn't make sense to do more than we would typically do in the winter.

Comparing to winter only would only make sense if COVID was seasonal. AT this point, it is not. We have waves and surges throughout the year. Influenza on the other hand is primarily seasonal for winter.

But if you are interested:

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230410/A-comparison-of-death-rates-associated-with-COVID-19-versus-influenza-during-fall-winter-2022-23.aspx

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-omicron-carries-4-times-risk-death-flu-new-data-show

If you wanted to talk about the compare the overall risk that COVID poses to people compared to the overall threat of influenza, I would agree that you should compare annual rates. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about whether it is sensible to mask (or take other NPIs) right now based on the threat that it immediately poses. So unless you're proposing we mask all year, you should be looking at weekly or monthly rates.