Sending children to school in the fall if a parent has a health condition

[Anonymous]

DH has cancer. We have two teenagers. They are very concerned and so far have been good about masks and hygiene. We’ll see how we feel in August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those conditions, yes, but I'd also really work on the diabetes and high blood pressure as those can be manageable. For other conditions, no.

Diabetes as a condition can be managed, but the comorbidity cannot from my understanding.

My understanding is for things like HBP or diabetes, if you use medication to control it then it doesn’t reduce the r
I have HBP, autoimmune disorder, and asthma, so my plan is to set myself up in the basement while the rest of the family goes about its life. I will visit them outside, 6 ft apart. It’s awful, but they have to live their life and I want to be there to see it. Eventually we will have herd immunity or a vaccine, though 1 year seems optimistic...

Wow, really?? Have you been given this guidance by a doctor, PP?
I have an autoimmune disorder and asthma, but both are well controlled. I've been told I'm high risk, the told I'm not, then I got a "maybe" out of another doctor. Can't get a straight answer.
I'm scared to get covid, but I will have to return to work eventually, and we have 2 young children (4yo and infant) who will be in daycare. I can't imagine quarantining myself from them. Maybe if they were older...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally I wouldn’t, schools will be a vector of disease spread. There is no way around it. One less year of socialization to have a lifetime with your kid (see weddings, grandkids, etc) would be worth it

I think this is a slippery slope. What guarantee do you have that it's going to be just one year?

I'm the PP with the kid with lung disease above.

We actually pulled our healthy kids out during flu season. My kid was just back from a hospital stay during which he nearly died, and I couldn't handle the thought of flu.

You know what? Homeschooling turned out to be a great fit for our family. I could absolutely see us doing it through high school graduation even if covid went away and my kid was magically cured.

Plus, while I would have said in early March that homeschooling was, to my surprise, as good as the school my kids previously attended, it has been, without a doubt, far better than the distance learning our school put together. And my guess is that next year school will be disrupted and chopped up in some way or another. So, while I hope this doesn't last for more than a year, for a whole bunch of other reasons, keeping my kids home isn't really one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally I wouldn’t, schools will be a vector of disease spread. There is no way around it. One less year of socialization to have a lifetime with your kid (see weddings, grandkids, etc) would be worth it

I think this is a slippery slope. What guarantee do you have that it's going to be just one year?

I'm the PP with the kid with lung disease above.

We actually pulled our healthy kids out during flu season. My kid was just back from a hospital stay during which he nearly died, and I couldn't handle the thought of flu.

You know what? Homeschooling turned out to be a great fit for our family. I could absolutely see us doing it through high school graduation even if covid went away and my kid was magically cured.

Plus, while I would have said in early March that homeschooling was, to my surprise, as good as the school my kids previously attended, it has been, without a doubt, far better than the distance learning our school put together. And my guess is that next year school will be disrupted and chopped up in some way or another. So, while I hope this doesn't last for more than a year, for a whole bunch of other reasons, keeping my kids home isn't really one of them.

Yeah, I don’t expect much actual instruction in a social distanced, small groups of bored and lonely kids with terrified teachers, shutting down every now and then when.a student falls sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those conditions, yes, but I'd also really work on the diabetes and high blood pressure as those can be manageable. For other conditions, no.

Diabetes as a condition can be managed, but the comorbidity cannot from my understanding.

My understanding is for things like HBP or diabetes, if you use medication to control it then it doesn’t reduce the r
I have HBP, autoimmune disorder, and asthma, so my plan is to set myself up in the basement while the rest of the family goes about its life. I will visit them outside, 6 ft apart. It’s awful, but they have to live their life and I want to be there to see it. Eventually we will have herd immunity or a vaccine, though 1 year seems optimistic...

Wow, really?? Have you been given this guidance by a doctor, PP?
I have an autoimmune disorder and asthma, but both are well controlled. I've been told I'm high risk, the told I'm not, then I got a "maybe" out of another doctor. Can't get a straight answer.
I'm scared to get covid, but I will have to return to work eventually, and we have 2 young children (4yo and infant) who will be in daycare. I can't imagine quarantining myself from them. Maybe if they were older...

Well, it causes pneumonia which compounded with asthma can be deadly. And cytokines storms which seem related to autoimmune disorders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those conditions, yes, but I'd also really work on the diabetes and high blood pressure as those can be manageable. For other conditions, no.

Other than old age, diabetes and hypertension are two of the biggest risk factors

[Anonymous]

We are electing for 100% distance learning for our kids because we have one who is a Type 1 Diabetic and has asthma. This was the recommendation of his Dr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those conditions, yes, but I'd also really work on the diabetes and high blood pressure as those can be manageable. For other conditions, no.

Diabetes as a condition can be managed, but the comorbidity cannot from my understanding.

Correct. Even if your diabetes and blood pressure are under excellent control, you’re still considered “high risk” for Covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, my wife is on immunosuppressants for a transplant and we'll be sending our kids back. Though, perhaps surprisingly, taking immunosuppressants doesn't necessarily mean you fall into a particularly high-risk category.

https://www.kidney.org/coronavirus/medication-management#do-immunosuppressive-medications-increase-risk-complications-covid-19

From the National Kidney Foundation website:

Do immunosuppressive medications increase the risk of complications from COVID-19?

Yes – according to the CDC, taking immunosuppressive drugs does increase your risk for developing severe disease from the coronavirus due to an underlying medical condition.
Kidney transplant recipients

Doctors at a New York City hospital have reported that kidney transplant recipients are at significantly higher risk for developing serious, life-threatening COVID-19 illness due to taking chronic immunosuppression drugs and having co-existing medical conditions. While their sample size was small (36 transplant recipients), their results showed that kidney transplant recipients had a COVID-19 mortality rate of close to 30% as compared to 1% to 5% mortality in the general population and 8% to 15% mortality in patients with COVID-19 who are 70 years of age or older.
Continue taking your medication

Kidney transplant recipients should not stop taking immunosuppressant medication or lower their dose, unless instructed by their kidney doctor or transplant team. Stopping your immunosuppressants will most likely lead to the loss of your donated kidney. Contact your transplant team for any questions or concerns.

Follow precautions as recommended by the American Society for Transplant located here.

Believe it or not, my wife is a doctor and has obviously been talking with her doctors about it, in addition to staying on top of the literature herself. The feedback was consistent: it makes sense to be careful, but there's no data suggesting there's a significantly higher risk for otherwise healthy individuals. At least for her organ (not kidney).

Keep in mind transplant patients very often have other serious comorbidities (such as in the case of that NYC study of kidney transplant recipients).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, my wife is on immunosuppressants for a transplant and we'll be sending our kids back. Though, perhaps surprisingly, taking immunosuppressants doesn't necessarily mean you fall into a particularly high-risk category.

https://www.kidney.org/coronavirus/medication-management#do-immunosuppressive-medications-increase-risk-complications-covid-19

From the National Kidney Foundation website:

Do immunosuppressive medications increase the risk of complications from COVID-19?

Yes – according to the CDC, taking immunosuppressive drugs does increase your risk for developing severe disease from the coronavirus due to an underlying medical condition.
Kidney transplant recipients

Doctors at a New York City hospital have reported that kidney transplant recipients are at significantly higher risk for developing serious, life-threatening COVID-19 illness due to taking chronic immunosuppression drugs and having co-existing medical conditions. While their sample size was small (36 transplant recipients), their results showed that kidney transplant recipients had a COVID-19 mortality rate of close to 30% as compared to 1% to 5% mortality in the general population and 8% to 15% mortality in patients with COVID-19 who are 70 years of age or older.
Continue taking your medication

Kidney transplant recipients should not stop taking immunosuppressant medication or lower their dose, unless instructed by their kidney doctor or transplant team. Stopping your immunosuppressants will most likely lead to the loss of your donated kidney. Contact your transplant team for any questions or concerns.

Follow precautions as recommended by the American Society for Transplant located here.

Believe it or not, my wife is a doctor and has obviously been talking with her doctors about it, in addition to staying on top of the literature herself. The feedback was consistent: it makes sense to be careful, but there's no data suggesting there's a significantly higher risk for otherwise healthy individuals. At least for her organ (not kidney).

Keep in mind transplant patients very often have other serious comorbidities (such as in the case of that NYC study of kidney transplant recipients).

Heh heh. this is funny. You just got DCUM-splained. Hope you and your family do fine through all of this mess.....

[Anonymous]

Recent studies are showing that kids don’t spread it to adults. Adults spread it to kids, but not the other way around. So yes.

Different answer if the kid were medically fragile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally I wouldn’t, schools will be a vector of disease spread. There is no way around it. One less year of socialization to have a lifetime with your kid (see weddings, grandkids, etc) would be worth it

I think this is a slippery slope. What guarantee do you have that it's going to be just one year?

What guarantee? Do you have a crystal ball, PP??

We have to act on the knowledge we have now and our comfort with taking risks wrt this virus.

My spouse has asthma, and no, we are not sending our middle schooler back to her overcrowded middle school (trailers, extremely packed halls, etc.) I'll homeschool if I must, but so far, the district has not decided what they are going to do.

Even if this takes 4 years, so what? It's better than losing your life, no? My kid has a good 75 or 80 years ahead of her, and DH has another 40 at least. No way do we want to risk all those years.

You deal with what you have to. If you want to risk your life, go ahead, but I'm not risking mine or my family's lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recent studies are showing that kids don’t spread it to adults. Adults spread it to kids, but not the other way around. So yes.

Different answer if the kid were medically fragile.

But teachers... and staff... they're all adults... therefore... they can spread it to the kids, and the kids can bring it home...

my kid stays home. autoimmune disease and asthma. not worth it. some homeschooling, some distance learning, some whatever education we can fashion at home. not worth someone in our family becoming seriously ill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will you send your children to school this fall if you or your spouse has a serious medical issue (diabetes, high blood pressure)? I worry about isolating my kids indefinitely, and they really don’t want to be homeschooled (I offered them this option). But how do we protect the parent with a serious health condition?

I am grappling with the same issue, as we both have those conditions. My kids are 7 and 4 , too young to socially distance from us at home. If they catch it at school and preschool, DH and I will get it too. What level of controlled diabetes is similar to those without diabetes? A1c of less than 7? So many uncertainties. I'll ask my endocrinologist and report back.