Back to school time - What are your kids doing?

[Snydley]

Overall death rate is 0.5%, similar to the flu. With a vaccine, it could be even lower. Yes it is scary to many people, but it is no black plague or small pox or any sort of many other diseases that literally wiped out huge amounts of population in the US and world wide. BUT it does seem to be more contagious than the flu and asymptomatic spreading the disease is the bigger risk.

Now that we're entering flu season, one of the bigger challenges is when someone catches BOTH diseases, especially elderly, whos deathrate due to flu is already high.

It's possible the deathrate is even lower than this. The airborne nature of transmission is scary but I think we've figured out how to prevent outbreaks with masks, etc. I should clarify that Ebola transmission would have been preferable, as it's not airborne, but we didn't know if you picked it up off door handles etc which is why there was so much caution with going in public, disinfecting, etc.

I'll be interested to see what happens with flu season coming. With all the mask wearing, people working from home, kids not going back to school (at least in the Northeast)..will flu be an issue this year?

[disneysteve]

Overall death rate is 0.5%, similar to the flu.

What are you basing that number on?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Total cases: 24,372,132
Total deaths: 830,567

That's a death rate of 3.4%.

[rennigade]

With a vaccine, it could be even lower.

Is the vaccine even going to work. So they're doing trials as we speak. Some are getting dosed, others are getting the placebo. The issue is, they're telling everyone to still wear a mask and social distance. Ok...so how exactly are they going to test out a vaccine if they're telling everyone to keep to themselves? Has no one thought of this?

Dont count on a vaccine working at all. Once its released to the public, whether it works or not, mainstream is going to say how awesome it is and that everyone should take it. They wont even report on covid cases anymore.

[disneysteve]

Now that we're entering flu season, one of the bigger challenges is when someone catches BOTH diseases, especially elderly, whos deathrate due to flu is already high.

Another issue is that COVID testing is still grossly inadequate. What's going to happen with all of the people showing up at their doctor's office with "flu" symptoms and now they have to figure out if it is flu, COVID, or some other random virus?

[james.hendrickson]

What are you basing that number on?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Total cases: 24,372,132
Total deaths: 830,567

That's a death rate of 3.4%.

I want to point that that Disneysteve's figure is the AGGREGATE death rate. Its actually higher for some age groups. Covid is not a joke.

[~bs]

Another issue is that COVID testing is still grossly inadequate. What's going to happen with all of the people showing up at their doctor's office with "flu" symptoms and now they have to figure out if it is flu, COVID, or some other random virus?

Exactly my point. To correct you, flu, COVID, or some other random virus or a combination.

[~bs]

What are you basing that number on?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Total cases: 24,372,132
Total deaths: 830,567

That's a death rate of 3.4%.

That death rate is fake news. CDC estimates including those undiagnosed is 0.5%, similar to seasonal flu. Once (or if) an effective vaccine is developed, the rate will drop below the flu.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html

[bjl584]

I saw school buses for the first time yesterday.
I think they are doing one kid per seat and staggering bus runs. Multiple runs maybe

[moneybags]

Is the vaccine even going to work. So they're doing trials as we speak. Some are getting dosed, others are getting the placebo. The issue is, they're telling everyone to still wear a mask and social distance. Ok...so how exactly are they going to test out a vaccine if they're telling everyone to keep to themselves? Has no one thought of this?

Dont count on a vaccine working at all. Once its released to the public, whether it works or not, mainstream is going to say how awesome it is and that everyone should take it. They wont even report on covid cases anymore.

I'm not well versed on vaccines, but don't the trials measure antibodies in the blood to determine the effectiveness? It doesn't seem possible even without masks to just release the vaccinated into the wild and see if they remain healthy. You wouldn't know if they had been exposed or not.

[disneysteve]

I'm not well versed on vaccines, but don't the trials measure antibodies in the blood to determine the effectiveness?

Yes, they measure the immune response to the vaccine. Do the vaccinated patients develop antibodies, to what extent, and how long do those antibodies last? And how does that compare to the patients who had the disease? Ideally, the vaccine should induce a greater immune response than natural exposure to the illness and be longer lasting.

There was just an initial report of the first possible case of reinfection in the US. I haven't read the details but if folks who have already had COVID can get it again after recovering, that isn't good at all.

Bloomsburg University in PA just announced they are shutting down and going all virtual 2 weeks after starting in person classes due to the spike in COVID cases.

We have friends in upstate NY. Their three kids were supposed to return on a hybrid schedule. They were just notified yesterday that those plans have been scrapped and they will now be all virtual instead. While it's definitely the right decision, they're upset that it wasn't made weeks ago rather than waiting until the last minute. Now everyone has to scramble to find childcare that they didn't think they'd need.

[kork13]

I've been really happy with how our school district is handling their hybrid option, and the communication about it all. No situation like this will be perfect, but they've been pretty good about it overall.

They recently emailed us with their procedures for notifications, and actions for anyone who tests positive. Less restrictive than some might prefer, but still in accordance with CDC guidelines. What I like most, though, is that we'll be notified of any positive cases in the school, regardless of if it's in our son's class or assessed as putting our son at risk of infection. To this point (2 weeks in), there have be no positive cases reported, which obviously is good news. Certainly there may be undetected cases, but thus far, it appears that their preventative measures are at least largely effective.