Soi.....Who is pulling out?

[Anonymous]

Just to reiterate how dumb and unnuanced the travel quarantine is:

You can take an unvaccinated child to a Nationals game and then out to dinner in DC, where they will come into contact with countless numbers of total strangers, mostly unmasked, with no way of verifying if any of those people are vaccinated (and even if vaccinated, they could still be carrying Covid). And then your kid could go to school hours later, in total compliance with the rules, which place no restriction on unvaccinated kids going to crowded and indoor public spaces with lots of massless individuals.

But if you drive to North Carolina or Pennsylvania, stay in an AirBnB, and interact exclusively with vaccinated family members, you have to quarantine for 10 days before your kid can attend school.

I am being self-interested here, I know. We have family members who are incapable of traveling to see us because of their age and finances, and who have seen our children either not at all or just once since March 2020 because we were very cautious about waiting for vaccination. And now we're talking about either having our kids miss weeks of school after being out of the classroom for over a year, or going 2-3 years with them barely seeing grandparents. I'm bitter and sad for everyone involved. I HATE this policy and it really feels like just another way to rest the burden of the pandemic on families with young children while not even inconveniencing anyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel quarantine is for unvaxxed only.

Which is all kids under 12. Most of the school system. Why are people so obtuse?

I get that it really sucks to not be able to get younger kids vaccinated. But it also sucks for those kids to get COVID, especially given mounting evidence that the Delta variant is resulting in more, sicker kids. So the travel quarantine—which as another poster notes can be shortened via testing—seems like a reasonable way to help stem spread. Most travel is a choice, and we’re all having to make hard choices right now.

All of that said, I agree that the travel quarantine could be more refined/nuanced than it is. It is silly that you can travel to the VA-TN border, where vaccination rates are likely quite low and COVID-19 rates much higher, but not to Philadelphia or NYC or Boston, where the opposite is the case.

The delta variant is more contagious, but in the past day or so I've seen quotes from pediatric infectious disease specialists saying that the delta variant is not necessarily resulting in a more severe case of COVID than either original COVID or other variants, though it is early.

If that is not correct, can you point to the information on severity?

And before this potentially goes off the rails, I'm not saying I want anyone's kid with underlying health conditions (or anyone else) to get COVID or denying that MIS-C exists.

Still anecdotal, but reports from hospitals are that they are seeing more, sicker children:

https://www.newsweek.com/12-children-arkansas-hospital-delta-variant-many-covid-pneumonia-1611843

https://www.al.com/coronavirus/2021/07/this-is-an-emergency-right-now-uab-doctor-on-delta-variant-rising-cases-in-alabama.html

Certainly possible this is just a matter of numbers—more infectious variant, thus larger number of kids infected and more kids severely sick (rather than severity rate). But it doesn’t seem like anyone is sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to reiterate how dumb and unnuanced the travel quarantine is:

You can take an unvaccinated child to a Nationals game and then out to dinner in DC, where they will come into contact with countless numbers of total strangers, mostly unmasked, with no way of verifying if any of those people are vaccinated (and even if vaccinated, they could still be carrying Covid). And then your kid could go to school hours later, in total compliance with the rules, which place no restriction on unvaccinated kids going to crowded and indoor public spaces with lots of massless individuals.

But if you drive to North Carolina or Pennsylvania, stay in an AirBnB, and interact exclusively with vaccinated family members, you have to quarantine for 10 days before your kid can attend school.

I am being self-interested here, I know. We have family members who are incapable of traveling to see us because of their age and finances, and who have seen our children either not at all or just once since March 2020 because we were very cautious about waiting for vaccination. And now we're talking about either having our kids miss weeks of school after being out of the classroom for over a year, or going 2-3 years with them barely seeing grandparents. I'm bitter and sad for everyone involved. I HATE this policy and it really feels like just another way to rest the burden of the pandemic on families with young children while not even inconveniencing anyone else.

Its pretty clear NOBODY is going to follow it because it's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

and when your child mentions what they did in morning meeting - the teacher will need to send your child to the nurse's office for pick up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to reiterate how dumb and unnuanced the travel quarantine is:

You can take an unvaccinated child to a Nationals game and then out to dinner in DC, where they will come into contact with countless numbers of total strangers, mostly unmasked, with no way of verifying if any of those people are vaccinated (and even if vaccinated, they could still be carrying Covid). And then your kid could go to school hours later, in total compliance with the rules, which place no restriction on unvaccinated kids going to crowded and indoor public spaces with lots of massless individuals.

But if you drive to North Carolina or Pennsylvania, stay in an AirBnB, and interact exclusively with vaccinated family members, you have to quarantine for 10 days before your kid can attend school.

I am being self-interested here, I know. We have family members who are incapable of traveling to see us because of their age and finances, and who have seen our children either not at all or just once since March 2020 because we were very cautious about waiting for vaccination. And now we're talking about either having our kids miss weeks of school after being out of the classroom for over a year, or going 2-3 years with them barely seeing grandparents. I'm bitter and sad for everyone involved. I HATE this policy and it really feels like just another way to rest the burden of the pandemic on families with young children while not even inconveniencing anyone else.

This. If interacting with unvaccinated people is so dangerous, bring back a mask mandate and have restrictions on indoor dining here, at home. Don't keep kids from seeing their grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and when your child mentions what they did in morning meeting - the teacher will need to send your child to the nurse's office for pick up

Eh, good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and when your child mentions what they did in morning meeting - the teacher will need to send your child to the nurse's office for pick up

Eh, good luck.

My younger has no sense of what happened a week ago versus two days ago, so I'm not worried about what they'd say.

[Anonymous]

We are following it. We'll return from our last trip 10 days before the first day of school. This isn't hard and you have ample time to plan around it. We don't take our kids to baseball games or for indoor dining with strangers, because covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and when your child mentions what they did in morning meeting - the teacher will need to send your child to the nurse's office for pick up

Eh, good luck.

My younger has no sense of what happened a week ago versus two days ago, so I'm not worried about what they'd say.

Exactly. And if asked, we will deny everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:and when your child mentions what they did in morning meeting - the teacher will need to send your child to the nurse's office for pick up

My kids are mortally afraid of Covid tests, so they will keep the trip to see relatives in NYC quiet, because I tell them if the school finds out, they will need to test. We aren’t taking risks - no indoor time with unvaccinated adults - so I have no problem teaching them not to mention our trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are following it. We'll return from our last trip 10 days before the first day of school. This isn't hard and you have ample time to plan around it. We don't take our kids to baseball games or for indoor dining with strangers, because covid.

Are you feeling superior? We aren’t taking the kids to baseball games or indoor dining either, but we will still go on Covid cautious travel whenever we want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are following it. We'll return from our last trip 10 days before the first day of school. This isn't hard and you have ample time to plan around it. We don't take our kids to baseball games or for indoor dining with strangers, because covid.

Are you feeling superior? We aren’t taking the kids to baseball games or indoor dining either, but we will still go on Covid cautious travel whenever we want.

You only have to do 3 days, you know. You don't need to be EXTRA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to reiterate how dumb and unnuanced the travel quarantine is:

You can take an unvaccinated child to a Nationals game and then out to dinner in DC, where they will come into contact with countless numbers of total strangers, mostly unmasked, with no way of verifying if any of those people are vaccinated (and even if vaccinated, they could still be carrying Covid). And then your kid could go to school hours later, in total compliance with the rules, which place no restriction on unvaccinated kids going to crowded and indoor public spaces with lots of massless individuals.

But if you drive to North Carolina or Pennsylvania, stay in an AirBnB, and interact exclusively with vaccinated family members, you have to quarantine for 10 days before your kid can attend school.

I am being self-interested here, I know. We have family members who are incapable of traveling to see us because of their age and finances, and who have seen our children either not at all or just once since March 2020 because we were very cautious about waiting for vaccination. And now we're talking about either having our kids miss weeks of school after being out of the classroom for over a year, or going 2-3 years with them barely seeing grandparents. I'm bitter and sad for everyone involved. I HATE this policy and it really feels like just another way to rest the burden of the pandemic on families with young children while not even inconveniencing anyone else.

This. If interacting with unvaccinated people is so dangerous, bring back a mask mandate and have restrictions on indoor dining here, at home. Don't keep kids from seeing their grandparents.

Or, you know, require that teachers/staff be vaccinated.

DCPS doesn't care that your kids are going to be masked, indoors around unvaccinated teachers/staff. That's probably far greater risk than driving to visit vaccinated relatives.

[Anonymous]

Don't you remember how recently DC's position was "EVERY DAY COUNTS"?

https://attendance.dc.gov/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are following it. We'll return from our last trip 10 days before the first day of school. This isn't hard and you have ample time to plan around it. We don't take our kids to baseball games or for indoor dining with strangers, because covid.

Are you feeling superior? We aren’t taking the kids to baseball games or indoor dining either, but we will still go on Covid cautious travel whenever we want.

You only have to do 3 days, you know. You don't need to be EXTRA.

What does being EXTRA mean? I do care if my kids miss ANY extra days of school after this past year for no good reason at all.