Band competition at Chinese New Year celebration - would you send your teen?

[Anonymous]

I'm the microbiologist who explained some basic comparative virology on another coronavirus thread.

Just as a matter of principle, I wouldn't encourage people to travel by air, internationally, or to a US city with confirmed cases of the virus. My concern is not with the Chinese community at the location, but simply that planes, airports and crowds in a city with confirmed cases is just increasing your risk unnecessarily.

This is out of an abundance of caution. There is a very small chance your child will be infected, and the mortality isn't has high as SARS or MERS. Adults still need to travel for work all the time. Unless your child has a respiratory fragility or an underlying medical condition, he will likely pull through anyway, even if he gets sick. But... why take that chance?

Now, if this concert counts towards a grade, I advise you to contact the organizers to see how amenable they are to changing their plans.

If your child goes, make sure he understands that he must wash his hands frequently, particularly before eating, and NOT TOUCH HIS FACE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you're magnifying the risk way beyond all proportion. Your kid is in far more danger getting in your car every day (and especially if driving him/herself) than of a) catching Wuhan coronavirus at a New Year's parade and b) dying of it.

Even in San Francisco, I wouldn't not go or not send my kid.

Well, a) there isn't growing news about people dying from the everyday flu and b) it seems to me that this is about more than my kid - it's about best practices and containment.

They are dying - this season has been terrible. They just don’t make headlines because it doesn’t sound like the plot to a movie.

I think I would send my kid and emphasize hand washing. There aren’t many cases in the Bay Area. Plus, worst case, most healthy people don’t die from this - it’s the elderly and already ill who actually die.

I just read that the "normal" flu has a mortality rate of .1% - where the CV is 2-4%. Is this really a situation where we are succumbing to sensationalism, or is it truly a risk that ought to be mitigated as best as possible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the microbiologist who explained some basic comparative virology on another coronavirus thread.

Just as a matter of principle, I wouldn't encourage people to travel by air, internationally, or to a US city with confirmed cases of the virus. My concern is not with the Chinese community at the location, but simply that planes, airports and crowds in a city with confirmed cases is just increasing your risk unnecessarily.

This is out of an abundance of caution. There is a very small chance your child will be infected, and the mortality isn't has high as SARS or MERS. Adults still need to travel for work all the time. Unless your child has a respiratory fragility or an underlying medical condition, he will likely pull through anyway, even if he gets sick. But... why take that chance?

Now, if this concert counts towards a grade, I advise you to contact the organizers to see how amenable they are to changing their plans.

If your child goes, make sure he understands that he must wash his hands frequently, particularly before eating, and NOT TOUCH HIS FACE.

Thank you for chiming in. Curious about infection and transmission - does a virus like this always make a person ill, or can they "just" be a carrier, and infect others unwittingly? Or is that not something that has been assessed yet?

I agree that adults are traveling for work - and hopefully taking best precautions wen they do. But this is a group of teens. We can tell them until we are blue in the face the best practices they should be using and yet, at the end of the day, they are teens. My confidence level of that happening is about nil.

[Anonymous]

Of course not.

I’m avoiding Chinese restaurants and Asian nail salons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If your child goes, make sure he understands that he must wash his hands frequently, particularly before eating, and NOT TOUCH HIS FACE.

Have you tried to go though a day without touching your face? It’s extremely hard to do because we do it unconsciously all the time.

We have a Chinese woman in the office and she hasn’t been to China recently. She says she stopped hanging out with Chinese people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the microbiologist who explained some basic comparative virology on another coronavirus thread.

Just as a matter of principle, I wouldn't encourage people to travel by air, internationally, or to a US city with confirmed cases of the virus. My concern is not with the Chinese community at the location, but simply that planes, airports and crowds in a city with confirmed cases is just increasing your risk unnecessarily.

This is out of an abundance of caution. There is a very small chance your child will be infected, and the mortality isn't has high as SARS or MERS. Adults still need to travel for work all the time. Unless your child has a respiratory fragility or an underlying medical condition, he will likely pull through anyway, even if he gets sick. But... why take that chance?

Now, if this concert counts towards a grade, I advise you to contact the organizers to see how amenable they are to changing their plans.

If your child goes, make sure he understands that he must wash his hands frequently, particularly before eating, and NOT TOUCH HIS FACE.

Thank you for chiming in. Curious about infection and transmission - does a virus like this always make a person ill, or can they "just" be a carrier, and infect others unwittingly? Or is that not something that has been assessed yet?

I agree that adults are traveling for work - and hopefully taking best precautions wen they do. But this is a group of teens. We can tell them until we are blue in the face the best practices they should be using and yet, at the end of the day, they are teens. My confidence level of that happening is about nil.

It is highly likely that some cases are asymptomatic and infect others unknowingly, just like for nearly all viruses, apart perhaps from the ones that have a mortality rate upwards of 60%, like Ebola.

Yes, I agree with you re:teens, which is why I'm not too hot on the idea of traveling to a city with confirmed cases for a high school concert.

[Anonymous]

My DH (who is Chinese) wouldn't even allow us to go to the Chinese grocery this weekend. Too many recent arrivals from China, he said, mainly students just back from Christmas holiday.

Fox DC did a story how business is off at many places catering to Asians, and the Chinese school cancelled their weekend classes.

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/coronavirus-fears-hit-asian-american-businesses-in-the-dmv

[Anonymous]

wow.

LA Times recently published a story about coronavirus... and xenophobia.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-03/coronavirus-outbreak-narrative-xenophobia?fbclid=IwAR2Kf4xrWTZeMTFoFuCFcDJu4GbwFd5qnkryfzh8u-virrKzQUZUo2kkNUU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would absolutely cancel.

+1
OP, the people making light of this and saying, “FFS, just go!” are probably the same people who called the McLean parents “racist” when they spoke up and insisted the Chinese student visits be canceled (in light of the virus). And it turns out, the McLean parents were absolutely right to cancel. Trust your gut, not anonymous posters trying to shame you.

Thanks, pp.

I'm not familiar with visits being cancelled. These were exchange students?

Yes. Longfellow Middle School in McLean was preparing to host some students from China - same province as Wuhan. The virus had just been reported there, and some of the parents at Longfellow thought it would be prudent to cancel the visit due to the possibility of contamination among the Chinese students. Ultimately, the visit was cancelled, but not before these parents were called “racists.” And the students were still allowed to stay in a hotel and go sightseeing here. Of course, if the situation had been reversed, our students would never have been allowed into China in the first place, if a virus was suspected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would absolutely cancel.

+1
OP, the people making light of this and saying, “FFS, just go!” are probably the same people who called the McLean parents “racist” when they spoke up and insisted the Chinese student visits be canceled (in light of the virus). And it turns out, the McLean parents were absolutely right to cancel. Trust your gut, not anonymous posters trying to shame you.

That case was different. Completely different. Shame on you.

Shame on YOU for try to shame people in the midst of a health crisis. Do you live under a rock??

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t have an issue with this at all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Would you eat in a Chinese restaurant?

Chinese around here with Salvadoran kitchen staff and Gweilo diners? Maybe.
Authentic Chinese place with predominantly Chinese diners? Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course not.

I’m avoiding Chinese restaurants and Asian nail salons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would absolutely cancel.

+1
OP, the people making light of this and saying, “FFS, just go!” are probably the same people who called the McLean parents “racist” when they spoke up and insisted the Chinese student visits be canceled (in light of the virus). And it turns out, the McLean parents were absolutely right to cancel. Trust your gut, not anonymous posters trying to shame you.

That case was different. Completely different. Shame on you.

Shame on YOU for try to shame people in the midst of a health crisis. Do you live under a rock??

Do you... not think that people use legitimate health crises to indulge in their (perhaps latent) xenophobia and racism? Two things can be true at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow.

LA Times recently published a story about coronavirus... and xenophobia.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-03/coronavirus-outbreak-narrative-xenophobia?fbclid=IwAR2Kf4xrWTZeMTFoFuCFcDJu4GbwFd5qnkryfzh8u-virrKzQUZUo2kkNUU

OP here.

I can't read the link, as I don't subscribe to the LAT - but I am cognizant enough to know that my intentions are not based in xenophobia. I am not interested in avoiding this event, Chinatown or Chinese people because they are Chinese. I am interested in avoiding the situation because there is a likelihood (albeit small) that there is a connection in this location and I am conscious of putting my child, and over a hundred other children, in the path of something they otherwise might not be exposed to. I would think that our, and other, schools would be rethinking their participation. It's one year.

I consider that smart and preventative, not xenophobic. In my mind, it would be the same if there was an outbreak of something in, say, Seattle, and I was vetting the idea of sending my kid on a trip there.