Coronavirus Outbreak: Part 2

It appears they are making masks optional in most Florida school districts. Each district school board has been making their own decisions with a lot of parental protesters at the open meetings.

Yeah, my prediction is that the school district we live in, where my DH teaches and my two boys attend, will be maskless by Monday, since they have been very loose with the rules as it is. The district where I teach, which is only 20 minutes away, will probably keep masks in place. So basically their school is Universal, mine is Disney :woman_shrugging:

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Iā€™m expecting that my kids, in the fall, will go back 5 days a week in person. But, I do wonder if they will have masks. I could be wrong about the 5 days, but the #s are falling so well, and my older 2 will have been fully vaccinated for a long time by then, like a lot of others. What I want most is for my DD9 to be able to be vaccinated to go to school, so Iā€™m hoping that the estimate that they can get that in Sept will come to pass (even earlier would be great but I donā€™t expect it from what Iā€™ve read). I do wonder if Iā€™m being too Pollyannaish thinking theyā€™d go back full time, when their school only offered going back 2x per week in mid April and early May this year. We didnā€™t take them up on that b/c for the middle schoolers it would have only meant 8 days of school in person, and was not worth it when #s were still bad and we didnā€™t have the bottom half of the uniforms etc. It wasnā€™t just our school either; I followed several public school systems around here, and most of them didnā€™t offer a small amt of hybrid until late spring either.

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Youā€™re from Maryland, correct? Since your state has reached at least 70% of adults having one dose, I would think school would be 5 days per week in the fall. Philly plans to in the fall and they have some of the biggest school districts in PA and have been some of the most restrictive this past school year.

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Yes, Iā€™m from Maryland, although my county has lagged far behind others with all sorts of reopening things b/c weā€™ve had the worse #s in the state.

So has Philadelphia. They have been much more restrictive than the rest of the state. Iā€™m actually here now visiting with my family. Most of the buildings, other than the National Park (Independence Hall and such), require masks indoors, vaccinated or not. The rest of the state allows no masks for those vaccinated.

Has anyone watched the Netflix series ā€œ Sweet Toothā€? Why am I asking here? Watch it to understand.

So, itā€™s the day of the outdoor grad party I asked about (I think on this threadā€¦). Unfortunately there will be extreme record heat. :frowning: So, weā€™ll probably be forced indoors, by that and also cicadas. I donā€™t know how long weā€™ll stay, but I am asking my kids to wear masks, which will be weird for them but I hope theyā€™ll understand that theyā€™re doing it for their unvaccinated 9 yr old sister.

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From Your Local Epidemiologist this morning, if you are not following her already.

New results available studying hospitalized children across 14 states - an area that contains 10% of the population.

Interesting to note that 5-11 year olds are hospitalized at a much lower rate.

Nearly1/3 of kids hospitalized for covid ended up in the ICU.

70% had underlying issues - mainly obesity and asthma.

Also, kids hospitalized at 2.5-3 x more for covid as for past years with the flu.

Your Local Epidemiologist provides more details here.

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:joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

ā€œThe year we all wore PJ bottoms to school!ā€

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Well, now I know what itā€™s like to go to a party with about 40 other people and be the only family there wearing masks. Itā€™s awkward is what it is. Very, very awkward. At least nobody said anything negative about our masks. Overall my 3 kids did a good job of keeping theirs on. I let them take them off when outside away from others (mine too). Most of the guests were old enough to have had the first dose of a vaccine, but I have no idea if they had them.

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wellā€¦ I want to continue to wear a mask, in public, during flu season. I guess if ppl do it regularly enough it will get less awkward. They wear them regularly on the Asian Continent :woman_shrugging:

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Sorry it felt awkward. Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d even notice if people were wearing masks where they didnā€™t need to.

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I went to a store, yesterday, and didnā€™t wear a mask. (Iā€™m vaccinated). That was awkward for me, too. I also want to continue wearing a mask when ā€œthe yuckā€ is going around.

I just hope weā€™ll all get a lot of leeway, now, to do what weā€™re most comfortable with.

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I got an alert from the weather service last week that there would be an increase in Flu cases in my area. Since when does the Weather Service issue warnings about Flu? I clicked on the link and sure enough they had a graph, data, the works. I thought wow, this will help me to know when to don a mask :mask::rofl::rofl:

edited to add: It was my app: The Weather Channel

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My daughter started her Summer day camp program yesterday, which she loved (and Iā€™m really happy about that because she had a really rough last couple of months at school and we are in the process of getting her evaluated for ADHD, and sheā€™s started seeing a therapist). But this morning when we got ready to leave the house, she sounded a little sad when she said that most kids are not wearing masks. Not because sheā€™s sad theyā€™re not wearing them, but because she has to wear one. I just told her what weā€™ve been saying since the governor signed a bill that doesnā€™t allow anyone to require them - ā€œin our family we will wear them until kids can get the vaccine because itā€™s the right thing to do.ā€ Iā€™m grappling with this decision a lot now. Though I still feel like itā€™s the right thing to do, if no one else is wearing them then what is the point. If it makes her feel like an outcast, is that worse? We did tell her that she could take it off outside, which we are fine with. I donā€™t know, man. I am worried itā€™s going to be a long summer.

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I feel ya. DD had her recital this weekend. 100 people in a tiny packed room. She was there all day, with all the kids. I tried to make her mask up. By the end of the day, it was useless to keep trying. ugh!

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This is likely going on all over and it is scary with the Delta variant looming and vaccination rates lagging.

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I completely agree. My reaction is to stay masked, at the moment, b/c my DD9 canā€™t be vaccinated, and to avoid public stuff where there will be a lot of people indoors if we can avoid it. We havenā€™t 100% been able to avoid it with all the end of year school events, but they werenā€™t as bad as could have been. And Iā€™m glad we didnā€™t miss them. Iā€™m glad to feel free to do more stuff, albeit with precautions.

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Here is a strange event for you .

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