Hunkering down: the long haul

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My husband and I (geneticist and virologist) are probably not sending our tween and teen to school until we’ve been vaccinated. We are anticipating Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths to surge with each attempt to open, and hope a vaccine will be available in 2021 (Dr. Fauci predicted early 2021).

Excellent. More room/attention for my kids who will be going back in the fall if schools reopen with in person classes.

Signed,
A doctor married to a virologist

“... if schools reopen”. With all your training, you’re going to let local government officials decide for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My husband and I (geneticist and virologist) are probably not sending our tween and teen to school until we’ve been vaccinated. We are anticipating Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths to surge with each attempt to open, and hope a vaccine will be available in 2021 (Dr. Fauci predicted early 2021).

Excellent. More room/attention for my kids who will be going back in the fall if schools reopen with in person classes.

Signed,
A doctor married to a virologist

“... if schools reopen”. With all your training, you’re going to let local government officials decide for you?

You’re right. I will bust into the school come September no mater what the gubmint says. You so smaht!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would be interesting to see how many of those epidemiologists can work from home. How would doctors respond? Or nurses?

Ha, ha. I don't know anyone " hunkering down" any more. People are getting together, which is great. There's always the "let's wear masks and keep 6 feet", but noone really does. The ones with their masks and gloves get a side eye.

Sorry, I’m one of the ones who wear a mask, and we are not getting together with people. I do not want this virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep thinking that we’re going wrong in believing that returning to our previous before corona lifestyle is the only answer. I totally feel the stress too but that can’t justify just giving up and pretending the virus doesn’t exist.

People generally have trouble changing (for want of a better word) paradigm. At first, they just think about going back to the way it was and not accepting that it will never be the same again. Eventually, most accept the change and move forward. I have no idea how long it will take most people to accept the change.

I work with parents of children with special needs and there is a very wide range of acceptance timelines after the first diagnosis. I see some similar reactions to the Covid threat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep thinking that we’re going wrong in believing that returning to our previous before corona lifestyle is the only answer. I totally feel the stress too but that can’t justify just giving up and pretending the virus doesn’t exist.

This. We have to find other ways to live and thrive.

“Other ways to live and thrive”?? Like what? What does this even mean?

Not interacting with other humans?
Not socializing?
Not receiving an education?
It’s Orwellian! And people don’t want it, and I don’t blame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep thinking that we’re going wrong in believing that returning to our previous before corona lifestyle is the only answer. I totally feel the stress too but that can’t justify just giving up and pretending the virus doesn’t exist.

People generally have trouble changing (for want of a better word) paradigm. At first, they just think about going back to the way it was and not accepting that it will never be the same again. Eventually, most accept the change and move forward. I have no idea how long it will take most people to accept the change.

I work with parents of children with special needs and there is a very wide range of acceptance timelines after the first diagnosis. I see some similar reactions to the Covid threat.

I somewhat see the similarities but at with this life will in fact go back to normal. All through out history it has after pandemics - we will either find a vaccine or reach herd immunity and sports, concerts, parties, and normal school will all resume or if they do change it’ll be bc there were innovations that people want to keep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep thinking that we’re going wrong in believing that returning to our previous before corona lifestyle is the only answer. I totally feel the stress too but that can’t justify just giving up and pretending the virus doesn’t exist.

This. We have to find other ways to live and thrive.

“Other ways to live and thrive”?? Like what? What does this even mean?

Not interacting with other humans?
Not socializing?
Not receiving an education?
It’s Orwellian! And people don’t want it, and I don’t blame them.

NP here and it’s not about what people want!! People didn’t want to go through the Blitz or the rationing during the war. But they didn’t deny it was happening just to get back to normal or because it was too stressful.

Not going back to school, socializing, parties, etc is temporary.

And it’s so far from Orwellian.

[Anonymous]

I prefer to think of it as adapting. We are:

--allowing outside playground visits
--having 10 yo play outside with neighborhood kids
--joining our local zoo because that's outside time too, it reopening with timed entries
--buying lots of masks in different styles, which we do not wear while outside
--stocking up on hand sanitizer now that you can find it again
--planning to attend whatever in-person ES instruction is available while making plans to supplement with homeschool curriculum (maybe even a coop depending on how it goes)
--figuring out how to get 3 year old back into preschool, maybe not full time but at least back part time
--saving money in case of future job loss, but also trying to spend locally to help our little town bounce back

We are not:
--flying (didn't really do this anyway)
--traveling (same as above)
--eating in restaurants (take out only)
--participating in marches or rallies, although we support what they are doing
--going to crowded indoor areas

Things I'm uncertain about include public pools and libraries when they reopen. Honestly, they were pretty big in my rotation of life with kids before all this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prefer to think of it as adapting. We are:

--allowing outside playground visits
--having 10 yo play outside with neighborhood kids
--joining our local zoo because that's outside time too, it reopening with timed entries
--buying lots of masks in different styles, which we do not wear while outside
--stocking up on hand sanitizer now that you can find it again
--planning to attend whatever in-person ES instruction is available while making plans to supplement with homeschool curriculum (maybe even a coop depending on how it goes)
--figuring out how to get 3 year old back into preschool, maybe not full time but at least back part time
--saving money in case of future job loss, but also trying to spend locally to help our little town bounce back

We are not:
--flying (didn't really do this anyway)
--traveling (same as above)
--eating in restaurants (take out only)
--participating in marches or rallies, although we support what they are doing
--going to crowded indoor areas

Things I'm uncertain about include public pools and libraries when they reopen. Honestly, they were pretty big in my rotation of life with kids before all this.

Eh, if you live in small town how many cases do you even have. It’s different for the urban contingent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jimmy Kimmel had a good take on this after looking over LA guidelines for school opening. Basically jail with some geometry on a side. All the fun stuff, PE, band, theater, music, etc. will be severely constrained, so kids are left with stuff that can be done from anywhere.

For us it does not make sense to send kids back until it is back to truly normal because of a vaccine and effective treatment. In the meantime it just means that I have to deal with kids more than usual. Of course, if both of us worked, it would be different.

Professor here. This is how my department views it, considering what we teach and how we teach it. We are aiming to offer everything online with in-person opportunities where they actually add value, regardless of what our university says it is doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I prefer to think of it as adapting. We are:

--allowing outside playground visits
--having 10 yo play outside with neighborhood kids
--joining our local zoo because that's outside time too, it reopening with timed entries
--buying lots of masks in different styles, which we do not wear while outside
--stocking up on hand sanitizer now that you can find it again
--planning to attend whatever in-person ES instruction is available while making plans to supplement with homeschool curriculum (maybe even a coop depending on how it goes)
--figuring out how to get 3 year old back into preschool, maybe not full time but at least back part time
--saving money in case of future job loss, but also trying to spend locally to help our little town bounce back

We are not:
--flying (didn't really do this anyway)
--traveling (same as above)
--eating in restaurants (take out only)
--participating in marches or rallies, although we support what they are doing
--going to crowded indoor areas

Things I'm uncertain about include public pools and libraries when they reopen. Honestly, they were pretty big in my rotation of life with kids before all this.

Eh, if you live in small town how many cases do you even have. It’s different for the urban contingent.

Suburban Boston....not exactly a low case area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep thinking that we’re going wrong in believing that returning to our previous before corona lifestyle is the only answer. I totally feel the stress too but that can’t justify just giving up and pretending the virus doesn’t exist.

People generally have trouble changing (for want of a better word) paradigm. At first, they just think about going back to the way it was and not accepting that it will never be the same again. Eventually, most accept the change and move forward. I have no idea how long it will take most people to accept the change.

I work with parents of children with special needs and there is a very wide range of acceptance timelines after the first diagnosis. I see some similar reactions to the Covid threat.

I somewhat see the similarities but at with this life will in fact go back to normal. All through out history it has after pandemics - we will either find a vaccine or reach herd immunity and sports, concerts, parties, and normal school will all resume or if they do change it’ll be bc there were innovations that people want to keep.

we will get to a new normal, but it will be in terms of years, not months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would be interesting to see how many of those epidemiologists can work from home. How would doctors respond? Or nurses?

Ha, ha. I don't know anyone " hunkering down" any more. People are getting together, which is great. There's always the "let's wear masks and keep 6 feet", but noone really does. The ones with their masks and gloves get a side eye.

Given that cases are increasing in 21 states the people without masks should be getting the side eye. We're not even though the first wave yet. Just because we're bored with the virus doesn't mean it's over.

+1.

[Anonymous]

It is going to be a long haul. I’ve stopped fighting it and complaining about it. I’ve been talking to my 7 yr old about doing the same - just accepting it and making the best of it. My younger child is just two and is fine with it all. I don’t even think school will be back (private school). We just keep going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:30% of epidemiologists surveyed say that they would not personally send kids back to school until this winter, at the earliest (with half of those saying this date would be a year or more out).

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/upshot/epidemiologists-decisions-children-school-coronavirus.html

We think that if schools reopen, they are likely to do so in conditions that are either intolerable from a public health standpoint or that are so diminished/constrained that they're bad for kids' mental health (and probably adults').

We're considering what to do about this information. If you are also considering this, come on in to chat.

Note that they had a 8-9% response rate and 300+ epidemiologists signed a letter stating they had concerns over the way the survey was phrased in chronological categories. The truth is that epidemiologists don’t think in terms of months but in terms of empirical conditions. There is too much uncertainty to predict even what will happen next month. If everyone flouted the rules we could be looking at another shutdown, for example, in a matter of weeks or months. We did not manage to get close to eradication and are on the cusp of more outbreaks in many places.