I'm no good at math..... hate math..... so I tend to rely on others for the big calculations and problem solving.....
The other day I was reading a report on how safe our kids will be when they re-enter school.......... and we all know it's a big crap shoot........ so many variables like ventilation in the schools... numbers of children ... masks or no masks.... it boggles the mind........
BUT the article I read broke the numbers down to something I could understand...
Remember the AIDS scare ... and the warnings about safe sex... and the line "you are actually having sex with all the people your partner has had sex with"... that one boggled my mind BUT made sense to me ya know?
Well the article I read about kids and school said something to the effect... 'your child will be in a 'bubble' in the class room of about 6 children. Sounds relatively safe and reasonable right? Except each of those 6 children are in bubbles out side of school and those bubbles probably have their own bubbles - and so forth'. The person did the math - for that safe class room bubble your child is actually 'bubbling' with over 200 people!!
Now add the children on the bus...... and if they are in before and after school care add more people........ do you honestly believe your child is safe??
Last week 9,000 children tested positive for the virus in Florida ........ in Quebec the french schools started last week and this week over 80 children were sent home from one school to quarantine because of a confirmed case in the school.
I do understand we need to get the economy up and running again - and so people have to go back to work. I do not have any answers but I do know our children are not going to be safe........
I wonder if the pro school folks - the 'kids don't get as sick as the adults' folks - read any of the reports coming out about the 'side effects' of getting this virus? It was all over the news at one time.. the heart damage, the kidney damage, lung damage, the blood clots. I just heard about a young healthy nurse who caught covid back in April..... wasn't hospitalized .. wasn't that sick - had a mild dose... was back at work in under a month. In July she had a heart attack......... in August she had another mild heart attack......... the doctors believe her heart was damaged from covid. AND there is no cure for the side effects.
I am no angel for wanting to keep the lil one home with us... I am not doing this to be a good step mom... (though your kind comments brought a tear to my eyes) I am doing it for very selfish reasons..... I DO NOT WANT TO GET IT! I cannot afford to take the chance - I am most definitely in the high risk category: asthmatic, cancer patient, going to be 70 in October.
Life is good when you make the hard choices........
Oh Morningstar,
ReplyDeleteToday, I went to work at my new job in Education. I think this is going to blow up soon. Especially in the elementary grades. I am also high risk and am totally freaked out at the idea. Sigh. I also have a new understanding of the education system. Nobody knows ANYTHING! While we might have the safest return to school plan in the great white North, but wow, it is still scary.
I am trying to remain positive, but my gut says we will shut down by Christmas (and I am being optimistic with that guess).
Wish me luck.
Boo
We don’t know enough yet to know how dangerous this is for kids... I SUSPECT the direct impact to children will ultimately not be as horrible as we fear. A few kids are going to die. I know how heartless that sounds. But it will probably (I mean maybe? No one really knows for sure) end up being fewer kids than die of the flu.
ReplyDeleteAs you says the long term health consequences are another big unknown, and probably going to end up being more of a factor in terms of DIRECT impact to children.
But... here’s the thing I don’t understand when everyone keeps talking about how safe this is for kids... even IF you assume the best case scenarios: that I’m right about fatalities being low, that long term health impacts don’t end up being as dire as they might be... direct effects are not the only thing that impact children. Bringing a virus home that kills your parent or grandparent is really freaking damaging. Having a teacher die is really damaging. If we get through this year of in person school with kids more or less physically healthy, it’s still a pretty good bet that exposing them to this virus IS going to damage them indirectly.
And hey, call me selfish, but I’ve got asthma, and even without considering the impact my death would have on my children, I really don’t love the idea of rolling the dice on a disease like this.
I don’t have any answers either... I get that we can’t stay home forever, and at least in the US we’ve entirely blown any opportunity to actually control it. I don’t know. My kids are going to be home for the first 6 weeks at least, but it kind of just feels like hitting the snooze button, because it doesn’t seem like anything is going to magically be BETTER in mid October.
((Hugs)) Morningstar, I can totally understand you wanting the lil one wt home rather than at school.
ReplyDeleteHugs
Roz