OMG Omicron

[Ed Vette]

One of the other issues is that both parents work and one would have to stay home. Unfortunately in Jenn's situation, school becomes child care. Ultimately each school will have to make its own decisions. Remote may actually expose some children more as they will be out on the streets with friends. They are judging it by a day by day case evaluation.

[MightyGiants]

One of the other issues is that both parents work and one would have to stay home. Unfortunately in Jenn's situation, school becomes child care. Ultimately each school will have to make its own decisions. Remote may actually expose some children more as they will be out on the streets with friends. They are judging it by a day by day case evaluation.

That is another issue.  It's sort of funny.  Long before Covid, I remember principles complaining about making the call for a snow day.  It seemed regardless of the decision made there would be angry parents criticizing the decision.  If they stay open then parents would complain you but their children's safety at risk and if they closed parents would complain about having to care for their children.

In many ways, I see this with the calls being made to keep schools in person or going remote.  Regardless of which decision is reached there were be an angry group of parents complaining that it was the wrong decision. Like snow days, it's truly a no win choice.

[DaveBrown74]

I will add I have heard some school districts are taking the "first 2 weeks remote" so that the holiday surge from the holidays doesn't blow up the schools in terms of outbreaks.   I have to say there is merit in the idea, even with the negatives.   One of the other issues not mentioned in the article is how a school or classroom can be completely disrupted by an outbreak.    You get a bunch of kids infected and exposed they will have to stay home and if you don't have remote learning options they fall behind even worse.  Remote learning may not be as good as in-person but no learning is certainly the worst.

For sure these are very valid points. While I think virtual learning is not a good substitute, it is clearly dramatically better than nothing at all. Protecting against the latter is a worthwhile objective indeed. Not to mention if a critical number of teachers in a school catch it, then it's hard for the school to do much of anything (plus older ones or less healthy ones could be in real danger).

It's not an easy problem to solve or an easy set of issues/priorities to juggle. I just know that requiring kids to wear masks every second of the day in school (even during sports in my daughter's school's case) brings with it a real price to pay for kids, and I hope they are not overly conservative around this policy in the future, especially if this strain continues to prove to be very mild.

I do get the point about the impact of a huge outbreak in a single school though. With that said though, if everyone in the school gets it at the same time and they have to shut down for say 10 days, while that won't feel ideal at the time, that might not be so horrible once that event has passed.

[MightyGiants]

For sure these are very valid points. While I think virtual learning is not a good substitute, it is clearly dramatically better than nothing at all. Protecting against the latter is a worthwhile objective indeed. Not to mention if a critical number of teachers in a school catch it, then it's hard for the school to do much of anything (plus older ones or less healthy ones could be in real danger).

It's not an easy problem to solve or an easy set of issues/priorities to juggle. I just know that requiring kids to wear masks every second of the day in school (even during sports in my daughter's school's case) brings with it a real price to pay for kids, and I hope they are not overly conservative around this policy in the future, especially if this strain continues to prove to be very mild.

I do get the point about the impact of a huge outbreak in a single school though. With that said though, if everyone in the school gets it at the same time and they have to shut down for say 10 days, while that won't feel ideal at the time, that might not be so horrible once that event has passed.

I liked your post because I like and agree with much of what you said.  I am not in agreement on the detrimental impact on mask-wearing.   I have not really seen a peer-reviewed study that proves such an assertion.   Although admittedly there have been few studies on the matter and most focused on the physical impact

I would suggest reading this article on the topic as it's rather interesting although a little dated

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211025-how-face-masks-affect-young-children

[MightyGiants]

Here is an interesting article and a way for many to control their risk from Covid

Can weight loss help protect against Covid-19?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/03/health/covid-weight-loss-wellness/index.html


Admittedly it might not be the most practical advice at this point in the pandemic, but it is interesting.

[Ed Vette]

From The NY Times

On the day President Biden was inaugurated, the advisory board of health experts who counseled him during the presidential transition officially ceased to exist. But its members have quietly continued to meet regularly over Zoom, their conversations often turning to frustration with Mr. Biden

[MightyGiants]

I found Ed's article interesting, but it seemed to be tainted.  The articles seemed to be heavy on commentary about qualified people feeling like they should be part of the federal government's Covid leadership.  Still, as is my habit, I found the comments interesting enough to remove the NYT filters and slant and go to the horse's mouth


https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2787944#related-articles-tab

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2787945?resultClick=1

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2787946?resultClick=1

That links to the actual published (in JAMA) articles that are the subject of the NYT's article Ed posted.

I thought there were a lot of good and compelling ideas put forth.   I think some of the ideas may be more wishful thinking than sound policy.    As the author's admitted the timing of their advice may be less than ideal (much of what is discussed is long-term type concepts that are best addressed when the nation isn't in the middle of a crisis).

I think it was a good read with good ideas.   Although I will admit the words of my late mentor were running through my head.   "you can only have one captain steering the ship or one driver driving the bus".   While the group represented in this article are certainly qualified people, I am mindful the government currently have their own groups of qualified people meeting and setting the sorts of policies discussed in the series of 3 articles.

My personal opinion is that I think the authors would have been better served to wait a couple of months before publishing, as my sense is that in a couple of months from now we will have a much better idea of what the future holds than we do today.

Still, I appreciate Ed sharing the article as I do enjoy public health policy discussion

[Ed Vette]

Here is the link to that article:

Advisers to Biden Transition Team Call for Entirely New Domestic Covid Strategy
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/06/world/omicron-covid-vaccine-tests#former-biden-advisers-call-on-the-administration-to-change-its-covid-strategy

[MightyGiants]

Here is another excellent article that is worth reading


What we know about the symptoms

[Bob In PA]

Here is another excellent article that is worth reading


What we know about the symptoms

[MightyGiants]

ICNARC have updated their analysis of COVID patients in critical care in England, Wales and NI. They now show boosted patients as well.
They are shown in green.
Yes, I've put them on the chart.
You have to squint. pic.twitter.com/51nVHbxl6s

— Paul Mainwood (@PaulMainwood) January 7, 2022

[Blue4Life]

Here is another excellent article that is worth reading


What we know about the symptoms

[DaveBrown74]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ICNARC have updated their analysis of COVID patients in critical care in England, Wales and NI. They now show boosted patients as well.

They are shown in green.

Yes, I've put them on the chart.

You have to squint. pic.twitter.com/51nVHbxl6s</p>

[chiller99]

This has been so trying personally with losing almost 3 years of time being locked down due to lack of immunity. Its both physically and mentally trying in being safe during these extensive outbreaks and being a chemo patient has me suffering more than I can put into words.

[DaveBrown74]

This has been so trying personally with losing almost 3 years of time being locked down due to lack of immunity. Its both physically and mentally trying in being safe during these extensive outbreaks and being a chemo patient has me suffering more than I can put into words.

I am very sorry to hear about this. While this has been challenging for almost everyone, very few can claim anywhere near the struggles you have clearly had to endure. I hope you recover both quickly and with as little discomfort as possible.