Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Kids have been exposed all over the world. We do have 4+ months of data telling the medical community that kids are better off at school than at home according to thousands of pediatricians. Saying kids haven't been exposed is a guess. We have no idea how many kids have been exposed or not. And IF we knew we'd have a vaccine in 3-6 months, I could get behind home schooling or waiting. But using hope as a policy is a bad idea. It could be anywhere from 6 months to 3+ years. Anyone saying they know for sure is lying.

 

Tell that to Gavin Newsom. If shutting down schools, non-essential businesses and sheltering everyone in place didn’t stop the spread, meaningless gestures like closing bars and gyms sure as hell won’t. I guess he wants more people to die too.

 

What will happen with kids is very much an unknown and what is known looks like older kids spread more than younger ones. Here is good article on it. The bottom lime is that kids are less risky (again varying by age), but in hotspots the amount of virus floating around may offset their lowered risk. Texas say their kids cases quadruple when they opened back up. So Florida right now is a very different discussion than France for instance.

School openings across globe suggest ways to keep coronavirus at bay, despite outbreaks

 

Why is it funny?

 

U.S. Pediatricians Call For In-Person School This Fall

I'm going to listen to pediatricians when it comes to kids going back to school.

 

Let us all remember that what we do now is going to be the new normal. So anytime there is another potential pandemic............

 

Hopefully, next time, we will take it seriously enough in the equivalent of January and February to ramp testing up to find and isolate the early seeds, design quarantining systems for those coming from affected areas, stocking PPE, and starting containment strategies early. Then maybe we would look like South Korea, Germany, Canada, Australia, etc. Of course, every potential pandemic has different spread and death rates, so we probably can't just copy the playbook from this one. In the end, hopefully, this teaches us that governance capability matters.

 

I respect their POV. But it is mainly because they are worried about childhood development, the impacts of isolation etc., which is a completely valid concern and should be listened to. But they aren’t epidemiologists. Fauci said that how the virus is spreading locally should determine school plans, which was the point I was making above and a prudent approach. Opening a school when the virus Spread is Low is very different than when it is higher.

 

Feb 29th: “at this moment, there is no need to change anything that you're doing on a day-by-day basis." - Dr. Anthony Fauci

 

It’s not I just can’t say what I really mean or I’ll get banned again lol

 

it did help. Where have you been?

 

There is more to this than virus spread. California has been locked down forever and is having a huge breakout. There really wasn't any stopping this short of our Govt. stopping travel to and from anywhere starting in January. Our Govt. failed us, that much we know. But the time to get kids back to school is now. If a parent wants to home school their child, they have that right, if a teacher only wants to teach remotely, I hope we can accommodate them as well. And those who want to return to school should be allowed. The children's issues that seem to not being taken into consideration is wrong imo. We have to learn to live with this virus the best we can.

 

the federal govt response was a failure. Thanks for agreeing.

 

And what about his statement was false for the vast majority of Americans at that time? I'll hang up and listen.

 

see this I mostly agree with. Except for the stopping the spread. If individuals were just a bit more responsible we could slow the spread. But too many just don’t care

 

California was shut down for 3 months and it didn't stop. Govt. failed us for sure. Need to give those kids and parents who want to attend school the opportunity to do so, as well giving those who want to distance learn that opportunity as well. Not sure why this is so hard to come to grips with. If a teacher doesn't want to teach in person, then try to have them teach remotely. If there is too many that don't want to teach in person, then hire new teachers. We have a pool of 25+ million out of work. I know there are plenty who are qualified to be a teacher and would love the job.

 

PolitiFact - Tweet amplified by Trump misleads on Fauci’s late-February advice

A heck of a lot more context than the pull quote, that isn't even a complete sentence, to try to get rid of blame for Trump.

Also:

A timeline of what Trump has said on coronavirus

Fauci was a little too cavalier at that point, although was couching everything with warnings. Trump was far beyond that. I know you badly need it, deep down in your heart, to be somebody else's fault. But it isn't happening. You have to live with how wrong both you and Trump were.

 

While that is true I find it VERY hard to believe a young patient would not get intubated if he was that ill. The vast majority of young patients that die have severe hypoxia and end organ damage and are intubated to increase oxygenation and decrease system expenditure of energy.

 

Naturally, you miss the point. The point being that if on Feb 29th our nation's leading epidemiologist was saying this, I'm having a difficult time understanding what exactly Trump was supposed to be doing in JANUARY to stop this virus. Never before have a set up a massive testing program for a virus that had only a couple of dozen known positives. Trump's handling of this is simply a reflection of how flat-footed it caught our CDC and nation's leading epidemiologists. But don't tell me Trump was supposed to be doing something in January when the lead guy isn't saying anything about masks, social distancing or sheltering in place on Feb 29th.

 

i can respect that POV. As I said though, I think the discussion in Florida is and should be different than the discussion in Wyoming for instance. If the local infection rate is high, then even if a kid has 1/3 the risk of transmission, it’s still an elevated risk. I agree we can’t wait for for forever, but the flip side of that argument is that every time we open something up we make things worse and risk going back to square one with shut downs like California did this week. And schools are a potential massive impact given their Sheer numbers.
That’s all.