Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

"Slower to unmask" - so much slower, in fact, that masks will be required again before they do unmask, because of all the transmission among those who really needed a month-long mask break.

Your mask does not make you a better person. Enough with the virtue signaling- I respect your choice, you respect mine.

But ya don't - you accuse people of masking their children as being child abusers and cherry-pick pieces of studies or omicron-focused stats - and discourage vaccination. You have no virtue to signal.

I see the people who are allowing their kid to unmask to be more cognizant of 1) the protective aspects of the vaccine, and 2) the low risk to kids to begin with. So the people wanting mask choice have all vaccinated their kids, and are not anti-vaxxers. I think there are some that have read the recent study that the 5-11 vaccine did little in terms of reducing transmission, and that has impacted their thinking about whether it should be required or used as a metric in deciding when schools should unmask.

PP, I think you might be thinking of people that are largely not in DC.

My kids have had the vaccine (5-11). We are still masking and will be for at least the next couple of weeks. Husband and I are highly educated and we understand the science. We chose to continue masking. I don’t particularly care what your kids do. It’s extremely hard to judge why others are still masking or not masking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

...And I think you will also find a strong correlation between a willingness to unmask and sky-high vaccination rates. If you aren't willing to get vaccinated then, yeah, you should probably keep wearing a mask. I'm no longer interested in protecting a population from my vaccinated children who aren't even willing to protect themselves.

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Anonymous wrote:It's hard to un-scare people once you have scared them for two years, and politics are a powerful force especially in this town, so I'm not surprised it's hard for parents and even kids to let go of masks.

Maybe kids who lost a parent or guardian were scared of that and not a simple common sense public health measure.

At this point their parents and guardians should be triple vaccinated and shouldn't need to burden their children with the fear of transmitting the virus to somebody vulnerable.

At this point you can have an unmasked child so maybe you stop telling people how to feel. I’m sure you have no fears of anything and are incredibly socially adjusted and full of empathy for others.

NP. The forever-maskers I know are overwhelmingly anxious introverts who spend way too much time on Twitter and aren’t what I’d call “socially well adjusted” but I’m sure you got lots of likes and retweets in your head for this comeback, so as long as you don’t hassle my unmasked kid for their “selfishness” or whatever the f** then I’m glad you’re happy.

I’m the OP to this “comeback” and my kid went unmasked all day. He said it was great. I told him to do what felt comfortable and he walked to the playground masked. I picked him up I masked. He said half his friends were unmasked and half were masked.

The kids I know still masking are doing the same w their kids, letting the kids decide when they feel comfortable. But after a week of their kid is still masking they will start a nudge. One kid walked out of the school unmasked and she put the mask on to hug her dad. As her dad said “it’s her body so her choice”.

If we lived in Florida or Georgia we would all feel differently. But we are here and vaccinated and we cautiously move forward and will not shame anyone who is taking a step slower than us.

And I am the PP whom you were previously accusing of being socially maladjusted and not having empathy for others. I also don't shame people for unmasking more slowly, but I do judge parents who have instilled an unreasonable amount of fear in their kids. I have a lot of empathy for those kids, but not for the adults who did this to them because they refuse to look at the data or get vaccinated. Putting on a mask to hug her dad? Unless the dad is severely immunocompromised, something has gone horribly wrong here, and it can't be brushed off with a slogan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

"Slower to unmask" - so much slower, in fact, that masks will be required again before they do unmask, because of all the transmission among those who really needed a month-long mask break.

Your mask does not make you a better person. Enough with the virtue signaling- I respect your choice, you respect mine.

But ya don't - you accuse people of masking their children as being child abusers and cherry-pick pieces of studies or omicron-focused stats - and discourage vaccination. You have no virtue to signal.

I see the people who are allowing their kid to unmask to be more cognizant of 1) the protective aspects of the vaccine, and 2) the low risk to kids to begin with. So the people wanting mask choice have all vaccinated their kids, and are not anti-vaxxers. I think there are some that have read the recent study that the 5-11 vaccine did little in terms of reducing transmission, and that has impacted their thinking about whether it should be required or used as a metric in deciding when schools should unmask.

PP, I think you might be thinking of people that are largely not in DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

We go to Watkins park in Upper Marlboro frequently - all of the AA masked, all of the Asian families masked, only a few white families unmasked - this is outdoors. People make their own decisions about how risk-adverse to be.

Totally anecdotal but I’ve noticed a similar trend in the playgrounds we frequent in DC. In 2020 and the early part of 2021, the white kids were masked and the black and Hispanic kids were not. Now it’s the opposite.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

"Slower to unmask" - so much slower, in fact, that masks will be required again before they do unmask, because of all the transmission among those who really needed a month-long mask break.

Your mask does not make you a better person. Enough with the virtue signaling- I respect your choice, you respect mine.

But ya don't - you accuse people of masking their children as being child abusers and cherry-pick pieces of studies or omicron-focused stats - and discourage vaccination. You have no virtue to signal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

We go to Watkins park in Upper Marlboro frequently - all of the AA masked, all of the Asian families masked, only a few white families unmasked - this is outdoors. People make their own decisions about how risk-adverse to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

"Slower to unmask" - so much slower, in fact, that masks will be required again before they do unmask, because of all the transmission among those who really needed a month-long mask break.

Your mask does not make you a better person. Enough with the virtue signaling- I respect your choice, you respect mine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is still masking because we have two younger, unvaccinated children.

Who are at zero risk, barring extreme existing health issues.

So, good job teaching your kids to ignore science.

Sadly, you are wrong about that.
The latest CDC report says that during the omicron wave, 63% of hospitalized infants and children had no underlying medical conditions.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7111e2.htm

If you read the study, it is a story about babies (under 1), who are at a higher risk of hospitalization for all diseases including Omicron. Ages 3 and 4 -- those relevant for the preK discussion here -- are literally the safest, least at-risk population in the country. The study also does not do a good job distinguishing between hospitalizations WITH Covid and hospitalizations BECAUSE OF Covid. A ton of kids got Omicron, so with the same number going into the hospital for flu or RSV or various other things, many of them will also have had Covid and thus have been coded accordingly. The people having heart palpitations because their PreK kid can't get vaccinated yet need to calm the f down. Your 3-year-old is better off than you with your three vaccines doses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

As a counter anecdote my 50% white HS had very few kids unmasked regardless of race. The ones who were unmasked were a mix of various races and genders.

Anonymous wrote:JKLM, 2-4 masked kids per class.
Most teachers unmasked.

For context and a good sense of what DMV hospitals will look like in June:
This past 'unmasking' week in DC, 9 out of 220ish democratic representatives tested positive, along with one former president and the vice-president's husband.
The country supplying us all of our stuff shut down hard.
BA2 is now 23% of all sequenced covid samples in the US.
Pfizer has requested authorization for a necessary 4th dose of vaccine.
CDC published a report on deaths of kids under 5 in the omicron wave.

Doug Emhoff having Covid this week tells you what about how DMV hospitals will look in June? These are nonsensical statements alone or put together when it comes to context or what we might expect in the future.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.

"Slower to unmask" - so much slower, in fact, that masks will be required again before they do unmask, because of all the transmission among those who really needed a month-long mask break.

Anonymous wrote:Curious what kids at different schools chose. At my HS every single kid I taught was masked today with a small number of noses poking out that used to be covered . No student was completely unmasked.

Multiple students commented they just don’t understand why adults are making a big deal about this and don’t understand why the decision was made now with cases going back up in Europe.

Did any school have a big change in masking % today?

I'm surprised they are such good maskers in general. My friend teaches at a DC high school and gave up on telling students to pull their masks up MONTHS ago.

And, I'm surprised teenagers are tracking European case rates.

Sounds quite adult minded.

We've made it clear to our kids that they can decide whether to mask or not, and that they are not to pressure their friends one way or the other. I don't intend to nudge them to unmask in situations where they feel they'd rather mask; the older one reported masking more today than the younger one.

My approach in my own office has been to wear a mask if the person I'm talking to is wearing a mask. Does that make sense from a public health standpoint? Probably not -- if I'm unmasked at all in the office, wearing a mask occasionally probably doesn't do me any good. But I'm perfectly happy respecting the preferences of the people near me, and I'm also perfectly happy if my kids value that, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lafayette there were maybe 2-3 masked kids per room, everyone else had them off.

Wow, I definitely think you will notice a difference between predominantly white schools, and predominately black schools. My school is 90+% black, everyone wore a mask.

I noticed in my predominantly white ES that a much larger percentage of black students were masked than white. That makes sense to me, however. If your community has felt the effects more, and lives with a heightened sense of threat on a daily basis, you might easily be slower to unmask. Our black students who really never fully/effectively masked during the pandemic were unmasked today however.