Anonymous wrote:I will never do "preventive quarantine" type stuff again. Ever. It was the hardest part of 2020. I had sick relatives who needed us to do that pre-vaccine so we could visit. It was worth it but absolutely horrible for my & spouse's wellbeing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a bad habit to fall into to sacrifice the kids' education to "protect" older family members. If the family member were that vulnerable, we'd visit with masks or outside or arrange a visit when kids would already be home for a few days. Even shifting later to winter break if necessary.

+100000. Children have already given up so much for a virus that hardly affects them. Meanwhile most elderly people moved on years ago. We aren’t Covid cautious and back in 2011 when we went out to eat it was mostly retirees dining out.

Posted from June 2020.

DP - and one who agrees entirely with the need to prioritize kids’ education over “protecting” the elderly: RSV is not particularly harmful to school-aged kids. Nor is COVID (still). The flu can be, but the vaccine prevents most severe cases.

So, what are you talking about? Sacrificing kids’ educations has profound and long-lasting consequences. It also teaches them that education doesn’t matter. That’s not the message we want to send.

Covid is not generally harmful to school-aged children - but for some children it is. For example, children who get long covid. And for those children, "hardly affects" is just plain wrong.

Now, what are you talking about? The OP is not talking about sacrificing children's education. The OP is asking about keeping a third-grader and a seventh-grader home from school for the 4 days before winter break, to reduce the risk of them getting infected and in turn infecting their grandmother.

Because it’s not just four days. What about next year? What about subsequent years? What about before other trips to see grandma?

This behavior needs to stop because it’s making things worse. There’s an article today how the CDC is acknowledging that kids being distanced and wearing masks has resulted in strep A being a problem this year. We have to accept kids are going to get sick and not revolve our lives around not getting common illnesses.