Opening schools increase the spread of COVID-19 ~24%

Yes, know one is arguing that. The people in Texas, Florida and the South and West to that matter are getting hit hard right now because of seasonality. If Texas had the same vaccination rate as Massachusetts we would still expect Texas to have a higher infection rate than Massachusetts. So quit comparing TX and MA and saying see, Texas is higher because it has a lower vaccination rate. Texas is WAY higher because of seasonality AND vaccination rate.

I can’t tell if this is supposed to be in red font or not, but I sure hope it is.

At least some of it should be in red font…

At the county level, my state is seeing the same thing. Low Vax counties ramped up to record highs, high Vax counties saw increases but are peaking at a fraction of the records. There may be seasonality across the state in that its hot and people are dining indoors while taking fewer precautions, but there is a clear connection to vaccination rates.

Are we making Florida jokes? I love Florida jokes

Florida specifically, but also the rest of it confuses me. I hear of plenty of people travelling to Florida in the winter to escape the Northern cold. I hear far less about travelling to Florida in July/August. People travelling should increase COVID, people not travelling should decrease it.

1 Like

I think it’s the indoors vs outdoors thing. People are all indoors in Florida in the summer and outdoors in the winter.

1 Like

I’ve heard of this ā€œoutdoorsā€ā€¦ It sounds unappealing.

4 Likes

I traveled to Florida from parts north and west of there this summer. Based on the difficulty of getting hotel rooms and the traffic jams on the interstates, there are plenty of people traveling to Florida in the summer. And almost no masks. (Including us. At the time our vaccines made us feel safe…)

just to add a data point on schools:

There are 12 schools in my county. earlier this summer they all posted that masks are optional for the school year. This week, the first district tipped back to masks are required.

this is out in podunk land. The one school requiring masks is the closest to a suburban school we have.

Case counts, deaths are both low here. Vaccination rate is surprisingly high for the area given the demographics.

I would rather see masks optional at school here. However, I know a lot of people out here are antivax hardcore covid is fake folks. Those folks are going to be very high risks when their kids are throw in the mix.

I don’t find that particularly surprising. Children don’t live in a bubble. The vaccination status of the people they interact with matters.

I live in a county with over 80% of eligible people having at least one shot. Yet our case rate is spiking. It can’t just be because of Delta. I think a big factor is vaccinated parents scheduling play dates for their unvaccinated kiddos. Kids going back to school with proper masking and social distancing should push the COVID rates down. It’s just a shame that it’s become a political issue.

Believe it or not, like adults, we children are also subject to the seasons.

*

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the horror movie ā€œWar of the Worlds,ā€ but it’s actually just a documentary about a normal week in the state of Florida.

Florida is the only state in the union where zombie-like face eating is a legitimate concern, and where a category-four hurricane is considered a mild weather condition and COVID-19 is just a mild health issue.

1 Like

This is why we can’t have nice things.

6 Likes

Have you seen how others - especially kids - are wearing their masks? You’re going to put your health in their grubby hands?

No idea about child-size respirators. I haven’t looked into it because they’re not actually effective & they have many costs/harms.

Can anyone explain to me why young American children need to be masked while their counterparts in virtually every other part of the world are recommended not to cover their faces?

If the child was actually sick, and not just a PCR+ ā€œcaseā€ then the mother was irresponsibly negligent by sending him/her to school.

Unless any of the rest of the kids gets sick, they shouldn’t need to quarantine for 2 weeks. That’s ridiculous.

Your friends may be less skilled at wearing masks than mine. I’ve said it before: with the single exception of a severely autistic older teen, i don’t know a single friend who is okay with wearing a mask whose children have any trouble with wearing masks. Kids learn to wear pants, they learn to wear shoes, they learn to wear masks.

Personally, i often take off my shoes before my mask when i get home.

:man_shrugging:

1 Like

Indeed. An part of the changing of seasons is going back to school. Areas that require masks in school will see at least some decline. Areas where masks are optional, not so much. Mark my word.

1 Like

https://twitter.com/JerriJamz/status/1426052914255106049

This is the level of crazy that many anti-vaxxers are showing. It’s like performance art gone wrong.

Damn can’t seem to link the video.

This is what I know about my local area:

Last year kids wore masks. There were also a large number doing virtual school so it was easier to social distance. Cases went up from August thru January and then sharp decline in Feb. My town had little spread of Covid at school. Same with the two neighboring districts where my husband works. Another district nearby had a significant outbreak related to sports teams.

My husband got Covid at work (I believe) but it was before kids were in school. I strongly believe that he got it from coworkers who wore masks improperly. I suspect his own mask also didn’t fit well since he has a beard. (He has better fitting masks now.)

Why am I worried about this year? The kids aren’t masking. There are not many doing virtual school so they aren’t able to distance as much either.

That the kids aren’t likely to get super sick is nice, but they are going to expose teachers and staff, who will expose the rest of the community. I don’t know what % of school workers are vaxed, and if that’s higher than the rest here.

Our hospitals are already at capacity without the surge that is likely to come in the next 2-4 weeks.

As usual, I hope I’m wrong.