Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been following all the recommendations but I draw the line at Halloween. FU Gayles. My kids have suffered enough. If you can be creative about opening bars and restaurants you can find work arounds to this. Disposable gloves for ringing the door bell; no touch candy distribution etc. We are going out and will have the lights on.

My child will be out, too! This is ridiculous!

Halloween is outdoors with masks and with limited interactions - yes you are going up to doors but it is for 10 seconds max and can be done holding out a bag from a distance.

My child has been home for 6 months and hasn't been doing any social activities, sports, etc while other people and their children eat out at restaurants, go outside with packs of other kids, and travel on tournaments to sports teams out of state.

We are going trick or treating - it is much less risky than eating indoors or going to a bar, all of which are allowed in MoCo.

I will also add that i worked the census in MoCo and had plenty of safe door-to-door interactions. If trick or treating was so dangerous, there would have been an outbreak of COVID among the 400,000 census workers in the U.S. - didn't happen.

Read your post. Not safe at all. You are proposing going to someone's door, close up and getting handed candy. The issue is your child being contagious and bring it to each house.

I'm a census worker. I've gone to hundreds of houses in this area, maybe even yours. When you wear a mask, keep your distance and are outside it is not high risk. It's lower risk than going to the grocery store or the gym. If this was really high risk, you'd be reading about large outbreaks of covid among census workers but you're not. Because there is a way to go door to door safely and it's been done for months. And yes, I've been tested multiple times.

I don't go out to eat, I don't go to bars, I don't hang out with friends. I'm very cautious in my personal life. But trick or treating with masks on, staying outdoors, and socially distanced is no more dangerous than activities most people are already doing in their lives.

If all people are wearing masks and the interaction is outside and short (it only takes 30 seconds to hold out a bag and have candy dropped in) it is absolutely low risk. Adults can put a table outside so kids don't even have to go up to the door, and parents can walk with their kids to make sure no one is crowding a door or table at the same time.

It's the difference between telling everyone not to have sex vs giving them instructions on how to wear a condom and use it every time. People are going to have sex, so teach them how to do it safely.

Kids sit at home while adults hang out at bars until midnight in moco. Surely truck or treating with masks and precautions is less risky than that

I think that’s what annoys me about this and other aspects of the reopening (or lack thereof) in the county. Activities for kids constantly get the shaft. Took playgrounds and outdoor pools forever to reopen. Now the Brookside light show is cancelled too? Just sell tickets ahead of time for reduced capacity and axe the indoor stuff.

Anonymous wrote:This article is so misleading. Come on liberal media - we can do better than this. Gayles issues a recommendation. We still plan to trick or treat and offer contactless candy at our house.

I don’t like his recommendations that involve everyone driving around. That’s all we need are more cars on the road on a night when you also have kids walking around. May be revisited now but my neighborhood proposed having neighbors put candy in a table outside - not in a bowl, just on the table. They were even thinking of compiling a list of participant houses. I don’t see what’s so risky about something like that.

We're in Virginia and everyone is doing Halloween. My entire neighborhood has planned for bonfires at the end of every driveway and individual candies (no communal bowl). DH and I made a candy shoot that will drop candy into bags. All trick or treaters will have masks on

Guys, the original version of this article was wrong, and it's since been updated. https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2020/10/montgomery-co-calls-off-trick-or-treating-over-virus-concerns/ (although I wish they'd fix the link).

Trick or treating is NOT CALLED OFF, and never was. Traditional trick or treating, where the kids crowd around the door and grab candy, is "not recommended." There are lots of ways to modify trick or treating so it's safer. People can still trick or treat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been following all the recommendations but I draw the line at Halloween. FU Gayles. My kids have suffered enough. If you can be creative about opening bars and restaurants you can find work arounds to this. Disposable gloves for ringing the door bell; no touch candy distribution etc. We are going out and will have the lights on.

My child will be out, too! This is ridiculous!

Halloween is outdoors with masks and with limited interactions - yes you are going up to doors but it is for 10 seconds max and can be done holding out a bag from a distance.

My child has been home for 6 months and hasn't been doing any social activities, sports, etc while other people and their children eat out at restaurants, go outside with packs of other kids, and travel on tournaments to sports teams out of state.

We are going trick or treating - it is much less risky than eating indoors or going to a bar, all of which are allowed in MoCo.

I will also add that i worked the census in MoCo and had plenty of safe door-to-door interactions. If trick or treating was so dangerous, there would have been an outbreak of COVID among the 400,000 census workers in the U.S. - didn't happen.

Read your post. Not safe at all. You are proposing going to someone's door, close up and getting handed candy. The issue is your child being contagious and bring it to each house.

I'm a census worker. I've gone to hundreds of houses in this area, maybe even yours. When you wear a mask, keep your distance and are outside it is not high risk. It's lower risk than going to the grocery store or the gym. If this was really high risk, you'd be reading about large outbreaks of covid among census workers but you're not. Because there is a way to go door to door safely and it's been done for months. And yes, I've been tested multiple times.

I don't go out to eat, I don't go to bars, I don't hang out with friends. I'm very cautious in my personal life. But trick or treating with masks on, staying outdoors, and socially distanced is no more dangerous than activities most people are already doing in their lives.

If all people are wearing masks and the interaction is outside and short (it only takes 30 seconds to hold out a bag and have candy dropped in) it is absolutely low risk. Adults can put a table outside so kids don't even have to go up to the door, and parents can walk with their kids to make sure no one is crowding a door or table at the same time.

It's the difference between telling everyone not to have sex vs giving them instructions on how to wear a condom and use it every time. People are going to have sex, so teach them how to do it safely.

Kids sit at home while adults hang out at bars until midnight in moco. Surely truck or treating with masks and precautions is less risky than that

Anonymous wrote:This article is so misleading. Come on liberal media - we can do better than this. Gayles issues a recommendation. We still plan to trick or treat and offer contactless candy at our house.

+1

Read the article people. It didn’t say you’re not allowed to trick or treat. Media loves drama.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been following all the recommendations but I draw the line at Halloween. FU Gayles. My kids have suffered enough. If you can be creative about opening bars and restaurants you can find work arounds to this. Disposable gloves for ringing the door bell; no touch candy distribution etc. We are going out and will have the lights on.

My child will be out, too! This is ridiculous!

Halloween is outdoors with masks and with limited interactions - yes you are going up to doors but it is for 10 seconds max and can be done holding out a bag from a distance.

My child has been home for 6 months and hasn't been doing any social activities, sports, etc while other people and their children eat out at restaurants, go outside with packs of other kids, and travel on tournaments to sports teams out of state.

We are going trick or treating - it is much less risky than eating indoors or going to a bar, all of which are allowed in MoCo.

I will also add that i worked the census in MoCo and had plenty of safe door-to-door interactions. If trick or treating was so dangerous, there would have been an outbreak of COVID among the 400,000 census workers in the U.S. - didn't happen.

Read your post. Not safe at all. You are proposing going to someone's door, close up and getting handed candy. The issue is your child being contagious and bring it to each house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. Kids are outside, in masks. They stop by a door for 10 seconds at most.

I mean does any of this nonsense make sense to you? Families have been vacationing and eating out for months. Kids still not in school.

And if MoCo had allowed trick or treating, you’d use that as evidence schools should physically open.

Look, now here’s something else that isn’t happening.

Anonymous wrote:We have been following all the recommendations but I draw the line at Halloween. FU Gayles. My kids have suffered enough. If you can be creative about opening bars and restaurants you can find work arounds to this. Disposable gloves for ringing the door bell; no touch candy distribution etc. We are going out and will have the lights on.

My child will be out, too! This is ridiculous!

Halloween is outdoors with masks and with limited interactions - yes you are going up to doors but it is for 10 seconds max and can be done holding out a bag from a distance.

My child has been home for 6 months and hasn't been doing any social activities, sports, etc while other people and their children eat out at restaurants, go outside with packs of other kids, and travel on tournaments to sports teams out of state.

We are going trick or treating - it is much less risky than eating indoors or going to a bar, all of which are allowed in MoCo.

I will also add that i worked the census in MoCo and had plenty of safe door-to-door interactions. If trick or treating was so dangerous, there would have been an outbreak of COVID among the 400,000 census workers in the U.S. - didn't happen.

From WTOP issues a correction https://www.google.com/amp/s/wtop.com/montgomery-county/2020/10/montgomery-co-calls-off-trick-or-treating-over-virus-concerns/amp/?fbclid=IwAR01v-n9K05_jBk4rh5xcCsLJ0PshXOnRaWuo3zEu3v777MIPEPtKTWchNU

Halloween was not called off.

Come to AA County, the holiday is on and private schools are open. Not much else is better, but...well, we'll have candy?

Yea until they close bars and restaurants, I don’t think anyone really takes them seriously.

Anonymous wrote:My neighborhood is doing the individual teats on a table idea. I think it is dumb because the risk seems the same as picking up candy from a bowl (surface transmission is NOT how this spreads), but I will play along.

And close the bars if you want me to respect your Irish assessment, Dr. Gayles.

I'm also doing this, even thought I completely agree with you. I think some parents believe otherwise and won't let their kids take candy from a bowl, so I'm basically just trying to help out those kids.

How is contactless trick or treating different from doing contactless pickup at a restaurant or a grocery store?

And to think some people respect these clowns ...

You do you, but if my lights are off, please don't send your kids up my driveway even if you know we're home. Thank you!