Dropping the school mask mandate and rise in Covid cases - looking at local data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

or its not a minor cold for you. know two friends who got it this month having a really rough go. i don't mind if you aren;t worried about it, but please stop assuring people its a teensy little nuisance when there is NO WAY to predict if it will be for you or a family member as individuals.

+1 I feel like this is being missed. Many people only have minor cold symptoms, but some people are sick for days and even weeks. I've only had the flu once in my life, but it knocked me out for a good week. When we are dealing with an airborne virus that is much more transmissible than any of the other viruses we regularly encounter, those days and weeks of sickness add up and have a disruptive impact throughout society.

Right, but we don't maks for the flu. And masksing isn't cost-free.

We don't mask for the flu because the flu is seasonal, less transmissible, is not a novel virus, and has a lower mortality rate than COVID.

DP. The latter has never been true for kids, and frankly isn't even true anymore for vulnerable vaccinated and boosted people either. Dr. Monica Gandhi was just making this point - in addition to very effective vaccines, we also have very effective treatments for Covid, as well as preventatives such as Evusheld, while we have nothing for other common viruses such as rhinovirus, which can also kill a vulnerable person. Tamiflu is useless against the flu compared to Paxlovid against Covid.

I cannot believe anyone listens to Monica Gandhi. She has been wrong so many times. But never in doubt. It is gross.

All experts have been wrong at one point or another during this pandemic. Do you have any evidence that she is wrong on this specific point, or are you just trying to smear her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

But that's due to the restriction, not the virus.

Hopefully we start treating covid like other illnesses -- stay home if you are sick.

People do not. Today at school, in a class of 20, I sent 3 kids home because they were sick. All within the first 3 hours. I find it highly suspect that these children were fine this morning before school. People send their kids to school sick even now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

But that's due to the restriction, not the virus.

Hopefully we start treating covid like other illnesses -- stay home if you are sick.

People do not. Today at school, in a class of 20, I sent 3 kids home because they were sick. All within the first 3 hours. I find it highly suspect that these children were fine this morning before school. People send their kids to school sick even now.

You might be right, but I’ve talked to several people recently who had COVID with a sudden onset of symptoms. My high school aged son went to school mentioning any symptoms a few weeks ago and tested me at 11 am saying that he felt really sick and needed to come home. Rapid test was positive and he had not mentioned being sick before that.

[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:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

or its not a minor cold for you. know two friends who got it this month having a really rough go. i don't mind if you aren;t worried about it, but please stop assuring people its a teensy little nuisance when there is NO WAY to predict if it will be for you or a family member as individuals.

+1 I feel like this is being missed. Many people only have minor cold symptoms, but some people are sick for days and even weeks. I've only had the flu once in my life, but it knocked me out for a good week. When we are dealing with an airborne virus that is much more transmissible than any of the other viruses we regularly encounter, those days and weeks of sickness add up and have a disruptive impact throughout society.

Right, but we don't maks for the flu. And masksing isn't cost-free.

We don't mask for the flu because the flu is seasonal, less transmissible, is not a novel virus, and has a lower mortality rate than COVID.

DP. The latter has never been true for kids, and frankly isn't even true anymore for vulnerable vaccinated and boosted people either. Dr. Monica Gandhi was just making this point - in addition to very effective vaccines, we also have very effective treatments for Covid, as well as preventatives such as Evusheld, while we have nothing for other common viruses such as rhinovirus, which can also kill a vulnerable person. Tamiflu is useless against the flu compared to Paxlovid against Covid.

PP here. To be clear, I wasn't advocating for mandated masks for young kids. However, watching COVID spread like wildfire from my kids' high school it's really disruptive to staff, teachers, and students, and many kids are sick enough to be out for more than a day or two. And I wasn't talking about forever, or even in the long term, but when there is such a light level of community spread, masks might allow more normalcy.

I also listened to Dr. Gandhi's interview. She's obviously well-informed and she made some very good points, but many of her colleagues do not agree with her dismissal of long COVID risks in vaccinated people.

I'm not mandating masks either. I do like open windows. improved ventilation and air purifiers, and regular community testing (both PCR on a schedule and rapid in the case of symptoms or before events) and reporting of results. Testing keeps everyone safe. If you have Covid and learn that through a test, you can obviously take measures to not infect others (break the chain). Oh, and you can take Paxlovid if you are above 12 and make that choice for yourself or child with your doctor. You have to take it early in the progression for it to be effective and stop the virus from replicating in your body, so testing may let you know within the window, before you have a full blown case. The "it's just a cold" people are very all or nothing (typical in our polarized society--such a knee jerk, default position on everything).

Regular asymptomatic PCR testing of kids causes a lot of unnecessarily missed school, so no, that is not a good strategy in the face of an endemic virus.

And giving your low risk teen Paxlovid is unnecessary and has costs to the community, because the drug is expensive. But I'm sure Pfizer executives are right with you on that one.

It's a fine strategy, because they don't then give it to ten other kids. And how you treat your teen is between you, your kid and your doctor. But it is available to 12+.

Sounds like you don't understand the problems with PCR testing in this context. PCR tests identify lots of "cases" that are not actually contagious. There is a cost to that, and it's missed school. Given that Covid is such a low-risk virus for kids, the harm of those missed days of school for non-contagious kids outweighs the benefits of potentially prevented spread. There is also a financial cost to this strategy, and the money would be better spent on other things (such as tutoring to make up for the massive learning loss the school closures caused).

This argument was already made by some experts last spring, and it's even more valid now that kids can be vaccinated and most have already had Covid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/04/19/schools-covid-testing-cost/

Clearly though, you don't care about costs to society, financial or otherwise, if you think healthy 12-year-olds should receive Paxlovid while it is still expensive and scarce.

I don't currently have a child in DCPS, but I am interested in how different schools do things. Ours tests everyone every week, but exempts those who have had Covid for 3 months from PCR. A rapid test would work, but they don't substitute that - though they should if symptoms arise. Folks can get reinfected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The data is wrong. It is wildly underreporting the number of cases at my kids' school, so I have no reason to trust the rest of it.

Agreed. My kid and at least 2 others tested positive in random asymptomatic testing a few weeks ago (and it may have been more), which ended up in 50% of two different classes being quarantined... and those cases were never reported to the school community. We did receive ~5 other positive notifications over the next week, but none with matching numbers or dates.

That said, all 3 kids I know about were totally asymptomatic, tested negative on PCRs within 24 hours of the initial test, never got a positive rapid and never spread it to anyone (including, in 2 of the case, unvaccinated family members)... so I am also somewhat skeptical of the testing. Are we sure they're matching student to test correctly? That there's no contamination? It just seems so strange that it happened in 3 cases in the same round of testing.

I doubt there are many mix-ups or lab errors. Your story is evidence of the needlessness and harmfulness of asymptomatic testing in schools. We all need to opt out of that racket.

THIS!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

But that's due to the restriction, not the virus.

Hopefully we start treating covid like other illnesses -- stay home if you are sick.

People do not. Today at school, in a class of 20, I sent 3 kids home because they were sick. All within the first 3 hours. I find it highly suspect that these children were fine this morning before school. People send their kids to school sick even now.

Agree with pp that it can hit fast. I wasn’t home this morning, but apparently my dh did not believe my ds when ds said he wasn’t feeling well and just thought he was trying to weasel out of school. Ds insisted on taking a Covid test and it turned up positive. He apparently looked fine in the morning, but was miserably sick a couple of hours later and slept all afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

But that's due to the restriction, not the virus.

Hopefully we start treating covid like other illnesses -- stay home if you are sick.

People do not. Today at school, in a class of 20, I sent 3 kids home because they were sick. All within the first 3 hours. I find it highly suspect that these children were fine this morning before school. People send their kids to school sick even now.

Agree with pp that it can hit fast. I wasn’t home this morning, but apparently my dh did not believe my ds when ds said he wasn’t feeling well and just thought he was trying to weasel out of school. Ds insisted on taking a Covid test and it turned up positive. He apparently looked fine in the morning, but was miserably sick a couple of hours later and slept all afternoon.

One might have felt ok this morning. The other two were coughing upon arrival.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

But that's due to the restriction, not the virus.

Hopefully we start treating covid like other illnesses -- stay home if you are sick.

People do not. Today at school, in a class of 20, I sent 3 kids home because they were sick. All within the first 3 hours. I find it highly suspect that these children were fine this morning before school. People send their kids to school sick even now.

Agree with pp that it can hit fast. I wasn’t home this morning, but apparently my dh did not believe my ds when ds said he wasn’t feeling well and just thought he was trying to weasel out of school. Ds insisted on taking a Covid test and it turned up positive. He apparently looked fine in the morning, but was miserably sick a couple of hours later and slept all afternoon.

One might have felt ok this morning. The other two were coughing upon arrival.

I think people are actually more likely to send mildly sick kids to school right now since they have missed so much school this year (and last, obviously) because of COVID. Each day seems so much more important when you've been out or remote or had no actual teacher 40 days already this year.

[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:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

or its not a minor cold for you. know two friends who got it this month having a really rough go. i don't mind if you aren;t worried about it, but please stop assuring people its a teensy little nuisance when there is NO WAY to predict if it will be for you or a family member as individuals.

+1 I feel like this is being missed. Many people only have minor cold symptoms, but some people are sick for days and even weeks. I've only had the flu once in my life, but it knocked me out for a good week. When we are dealing with an airborne virus that is much more transmissible than any of the other viruses we regularly encounter, those days and weeks of sickness add up and have a disruptive impact throughout society.

Right, but we don't maks for the flu. And masksing isn't cost-free.

We don't mask for the flu because the flu is seasonal, less transmissible, is not a novel virus, and has a lower mortality rate than COVID.

DP. The latter has never been true for kids, and frankly isn't even true anymore for vulnerable vaccinated and boosted people either. Dr. Monica Gandhi was just making this point - in addition to very effective vaccines, we also have very effective treatments for Covid, as well as preventatives such as Evusheld, while we have nothing for other common viruses such as rhinovirus, which can also kill a vulnerable person. Tamiflu is useless against the flu compared to Paxlovid against Covid.

PP here. To be clear, I wasn't advocating for mandated masks for young kids. However, watching COVID spread like wildfire from my kids' high school it's really disruptive to staff, teachers, and students, and many kids are sick enough to be out for more than a day or two. And I wasn't talking about forever, or even in the long term, but when there is such a light level of community spread, masks might allow more normalcy.

I also listened to Dr. Gandhi's interview. She's obviously well-informed and she made some very good points, but many of her colleagues do not agree with her dismissal of long COVID risks in vaccinated people.

I'm not mandating masks either. I do like open windows. improved ventilation and air purifiers, and regular community testing (both PCR on a schedule and rapid in the case of symptoms or before events) and reporting of results. Testing keeps everyone safe. If you have Covid and learn that through a test, you can obviously take measures to not infect others (break the chain). Oh, and you can take Paxlovid if you are above 12 and make that choice for yourself or child with your doctor. You have to take it early in the progression for it to be effective and stop the virus from replicating in your body, so testing may let you know within the window, before you have a full blown case. The "it's just a cold" people are very all or nothing (typical in our polarized society--such a knee jerk, default position on everything).

Regular asymptomatic PCR testing of kids causes a lot of unnecessarily missed school, so no, that is not a good strategy in the face of an endemic virus.

And giving your low risk teen Paxlovid is unnecessary and has costs to the community, because the drug is expensive. But I'm sure Pfizer executives are right with you on that one.

It's a fine strategy, because they don't then give it to ten other kids. And how you treat your teen is between you, your kid and your doctor. But it is available to 12+.

Sounds like you don't understand the problems with PCR testing in this context. PCR tests identify lots of "cases" that are not actually contagious. There is a cost to that, and it's missed school. Given that Covid is such a low-risk virus for kids, the harm of those missed days of school for non-contagious kids outweighs the benefits of potentially prevented spread. There is also a financial cost to this strategy, and the money would be better spent on other things (such as tutoring to make up for the massive learning loss the school closures caused).

This argument was already made by some experts last spring, and it's even more valid now that kids can be vaccinated and most have already had Covid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/04/19/schools-covid-testing-cost/

Clearly though, you don't care about costs to society, financial or otherwise, if you think healthy 12-year-olds should receive Paxlovid while it is still expensive and scarce.

It's hard to sift through all of your points when you lean hard on the BS that kids can be vaccinated. Our 4 year old cannot yet be and when ignorant folks like yourself say it over and over it ignores that there are many kids who cannot yet be vaccinated and could in fact get COVID and be ill, and we as parents might have divergent beliefs about best practices because we do not yet have your "vaccine privilege."

[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:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

or its not a minor cold for you. know two friends who got it this month having a really rough go. i don't mind if you aren;t worried about it, but please stop assuring people its a teensy little nuisance when there is NO WAY to predict if it will be for you or a family member as individuals.

+1 I feel like this is being missed. Many people only have minor cold symptoms, but some people are sick for days and even weeks. I've only had the flu once in my life, but it knocked me out for a good week. When we are dealing with an airborne virus that is much more transmissible than any of the other viruses we regularly encounter, those days and weeks of sickness add up and have a disruptive impact throughout society.

Right, but we don't maks for the flu. And masksing isn't cost-free.

We don't mask for the flu because the flu is seasonal, less transmissible, is not a novel virus, and has a lower mortality rate than COVID.

DP. The latter has never been true for kids, and frankly isn't even true anymore for vulnerable vaccinated and boosted people either. Dr. Monica Gandhi was just making this point - in addition to very effective vaccines, we also have very effective treatments for Covid, as well as preventatives such as Evusheld, while we have nothing for other common viruses such as rhinovirus, which can also kill a vulnerable person. Tamiflu is useless against the flu compared to Paxlovid against Covid.

PP here. To be clear, I wasn't advocating for mandated masks for young kids. However, watching COVID spread like wildfire from my kids' high school it's really disruptive to staff, teachers, and students, and many kids are sick enough to be out for more than a day or two. And I wasn't talking about forever, or even in the long term, but when there is such a light level of community spread, masks might allow more normalcy.

I also listened to Dr. Gandhi's interview. She's obviously well-informed and she made some very good points, but many of her colleagues do not agree with her dismissal of long COVID risks in vaccinated people.

I'm not mandating masks either. I do like open windows. improved ventilation and air purifiers, and regular community testing (both PCR on a schedule and rapid in the case of symptoms or before events) and reporting of results. Testing keeps everyone safe. If you have Covid and learn that through a test, you can obviously take measures to not infect others (break the chain). Oh, and you can take Paxlovid if you are above 12 and make that choice for yourself or child with your doctor. You have to take it early in the progression for it to be effective and stop the virus from replicating in your body, so testing may let you know within the window, before you have a full blown case. The "it's just a cold" people are very all or nothing (typical in our polarized society--such a knee jerk, default position on everything).

Regular asymptomatic PCR testing of kids causes a lot of unnecessarily missed school, so no, that is not a good strategy in the face of an endemic virus.

And giving your low risk teen Paxlovid is unnecessary and has costs to the community, because the drug is expensive. But I'm sure Pfizer executives are right with you on that one.

It's a fine strategy, because they don't then give it to ten other kids. And how you treat your teen is between you, your kid and your doctor. But it is available to 12+.

Sounds like you don't understand the problems with PCR testing in this context. PCR tests identify lots of "cases" that are not actually contagious. There is a cost to that, and it's missed school. Given that Covid is such a low-risk virus for kids, the harm of those missed days of school for non-contagious kids outweighs the benefits of potentially prevented spread. There is also a financial cost to this strategy, and the money would be better spent on other things (such as tutoring to make up for the massive learning loss the school closures caused).

This argument was already made by some experts last spring, and it's even more valid now that kids can be vaccinated and most have already had Covid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/04/19/schools-covid-testing-cost/

Clearly though, you don't care about costs to society, financial or otherwise, if you think healthy 12-year-olds should receive Paxlovid while it is still expensive and scarce.

It's hard to sift through all of your points when you lean hard on the BS that kids can be vaccinated. Our 4 year old cannot yet be and when ignorant folks like yourself say it over and over it ignores that there are many kids who cannot yet be vaccinated and could in fact get COVID and be ill, and we as parents might have divergent beliefs about best practices because we do not yet have your "vaccine privilege."

I have an unvaccinated 3.5 year old. The vaccine has not been approved because there are so few serious outcomes from COVID for kids in this age group that they can't get numbers big enough to get the statistical significance they need for the decrease in serious outcomes post-vaccination. I wish they'd go ahead and approve the vaccination anyway, largely because of the rules around quarantining for unvaccinated folks. For what it's worth, however, my doctor spouse thinks they should probably never approve -- and thinks they won't in socialized medicine countries -- because the risk of COVID to this population is SO small that any side effects and adverse outcomes are basically impossible to justify in terms of the kid themselves. Kids this age just aren't at much risk from COVID. The risk to *this specific demographic* from the flu is actually MUCH higher.

[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:Ger your kid vaccinated, and lets all just move on. Our family just had COVID as have most of the families we know in the last 4 months. Its a minor cold. Are kids going to start wearing masks full time forever to avoid a cold?

Minor cold or not, Covid still means your kid stays home and misses 5-10 school days and I miss work. Or if their teacher gets sick, the kid has a week with the PE teacher as a substitute.

But you’re right, it’s just a minor cold! Who cares???

or its not a minor cold for you. know two friends who got it this month having a really rough go. i don't mind if you aren;t worried about it, but please stop assuring people its a teensy little nuisance when there is NO WAY to predict if it will be for you or a family member as individuals.

+1 I feel like this is being missed. Many people only have minor cold symptoms, but some people are sick for days and even weeks. I've only had the flu once in my life, but it knocked me out for a good week. When we are dealing with an airborne virus that is much more transmissible than any of the other viruses we regularly encounter, those days and weeks of sickness add up and have a disruptive impact throughout society.

Right, but we don't maks for the flu. And masksing isn't cost-free.

We don't mask for the flu because the flu is seasonal, less transmissible, is not a novel virus, and has a lower mortality rate than COVID.

DP. The latter has never been true for kids, and frankly isn't even true anymore for vulnerable vaccinated and boosted people either. Dr. Monica Gandhi was just making this point - in addition to very effective vaccines, we also have very effective treatments for Covid, as well as preventatives such as Evusheld, while we have nothing for other common viruses such as rhinovirus, which can also kill a vulnerable person. Tamiflu is useless against the flu compared to Paxlovid against Covid.

PP here. To be clear, I wasn't advocating for mandated masks for young kids. However, watching COVID spread like wildfire from my kids' high school it's really disruptive to staff, teachers, and students, and many kids are sick enough to be out for more than a day or two. And I wasn't talking about forever, or even in the long term, but when there is such a light level of community spread, masks might allow more normalcy.

I also listened to Dr. Gandhi's interview. She's obviously well-informed and she made some very good points, but many of her colleagues do not agree with her dismissal of long COVID risks in vaccinated people.

I'm not mandating masks either. I do like open windows. improved ventilation and air purifiers, and regular community testing (both PCR on a schedule and rapid in the case of symptoms or before events) and reporting of results. Testing keeps everyone safe. If you have Covid and learn that through a test, you can obviously take measures to not infect others (break the chain). Oh, and you can take Paxlovid if you are above 12 and make that choice for yourself or child with your doctor. You have to take it early in the progression for it to be effective and stop the virus from replicating in your body, so testing may let you know within the window, before you have a full blown case. The "it's just a cold" people are very all or nothing (typical in our polarized society--such a knee jerk, default position on everything).

Regular asymptomatic PCR testing of kids causes a lot of unnecessarily missed school, so no, that is not a good strategy in the face of an endemic virus.

And giving your low risk teen Paxlovid is unnecessary and has costs to the community, because the drug is expensive. But I'm sure Pfizer executives are right with you on that one.

It's a fine strategy, because they don't then give it to ten other kids. And how you treat your teen is between you, your kid and your doctor. But it is available to 12+.

Sounds like you don't understand the problems with PCR testing in this context. PCR tests identify lots of "cases" that are not actually contagious. There is a cost to that, and it's missed school. Given that Covid is such a low-risk virus for kids, the harm of those missed days of school for non-contagious kids outweighs the benefits of potentially prevented spread. There is also a financial cost to this strategy, and the money would be better spent on other things (such as tutoring to make up for the massive learning loss the school closures caused).

This argument was already made by some experts last spring, and it's even more valid now that kids can be vaccinated and most have already had Covid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/04/19/schools-covid-testing-cost/

Clearly though, you don't care about costs to society, financial or otherwise, if you think healthy 12-year-olds should receive Paxlovid while it is still expensive and scarce.

It's hard to sift through all of your points when you lean hard on the BS that kids can be vaccinated. Our 4 year old cannot yet be and when ignorant folks like yourself say it over and over it ignores that there are many kids who cannot yet be vaccinated and could in fact get COVID and be ill, and we as parents might have divergent beliefs about best practices because we do not yet have your "vaccine privilege."

The fact that you think my post "leans hard on the BS" that kids can get vaccinated, when I only mentioned it in passing as one of several reasons for why constant asymptomatic testing does more harm than good, proves that you have really shut off your prefrontal cortex on this issue due to your fear. As the PP's doctor spouse above said, kids in the below-5 age group are at extremely low risk. The vaccine will only be approved, under EUA, to appease worried parents like you, not because there is an actual medical emergency. My kids are vaccinated but I would feel exactly the same way about this if there was no vaccine available for them.

[Anonymous]

Let's first figure out whether PP's spouse doctor is a pediatrician or dentist before we follow his/her advice on vaccination.

[Anonymous]

asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission is a thing - why would we ever think testing, particularly unvaccinated, kids is a bad thing? Why can't we instead focus on implementing "test to stay" city-wide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission is a thing - why would we ever think testing, particularly unvaccinated, kids is a bad thing? Why can't we instead focus on implementing "test to stay" city-wide?

We are all going to be repeatedly exposed to COVID. You have the tools to manage your own risks via vaccination, masking, and treatment, but putting resources at this point into prevention of cases among the population which has the lowest risk of serious outcomes, vaccinated or not, is a bad idea that keeps kids masked and out of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission is a thing - why would we ever think testing, particularly unvaccinated, kids is a bad thing? Why can't we instead focus on implementing "test to stay" city-wide?

We are all going to be repeatedly exposed to COVID. You have the tools to manage your own risks via vaccination, masking, and treatment, but putting resources at this point into prevention of cases among the population which has the lowest risk of serious outcomes, vaccinated or not, is a bad idea that keeps kids masked and out of school.

Exactly. I'm sick of my kids bearing the burden of overly anxious grow ups.