That’s the kind of week we are having as well!!! 3 emails this week saying My DD13 is a close contact of 3 different positive cases from last week! Luckily she is vaccinated and they are masked at school. Negative on the rapid home test but PCRs were booking 3 days out so that isn’t until Thursday. She gets her booster next week so hopefully no more exposures so as not to screw that up. Thankfully we already made the decision to only see my parents outside when cases went crazy here.
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At my elementary of 16 classroom teachers plus specialists (so 21 total teachers), we had 5 teachers out today. We have 1 sub. We were -4 teachers today…. Lots of people wearing different hats today.
I do appreciate the effort to avoid remote learning. It’s a very difficult thing to do with primary students. Plus it makes things very challenging for parents.
Worse case scenario, I think we will close for a couple days before we would go online.
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Our school reported “more than 5 individuals” a couple of days ago. I was like…why aren’t we counting past 5?
I guess in the long run it doesn’t matter since no further action will be taken regardless but I was still very 
about it.
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In our area, five is the magic number for an “outbreak” that triggers having to send a notice to a broader group of people. So like if there are just a few cases in school, only people in those classes get notified. But once it’s an “outbreak” the whole school gets notified.
Every notification is just a form letter with like person/persons though. So to hear they just had something generic about at least five does not surprise me – it’s probably all they’re required to say.
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We’re not doing terrible. Students returned last Thur. Staff were on campuses starting that Monday.
Cases from students/staff that have been on campus since winter break:
Th 1/6 - 39
F 1/7 - 30
M 1/10 - 48
Tu 1/11 - 23
Plus 192 active cases of students/staff that haven’t returned from break yet.
Cases are fairly well scattered across the different campuses. (Masks optional. Not much in the way of mitigations.)
I haven’t received any of the required “classroom contact” emails yet.
Maybe the less self restricted families all had it over the break? My kids’ teachers are all present and accounted for.
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My sister in The Woodlands is reporting similar to you for the school she works at. The working theory floating around there is that everyone has already had it.
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I’m in this area and seriously lost count of the number of people I know that had it over the break.
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I quite seriously need a mental break from my whole family but omicron caused me to cancel the 3 days in a hotel alone I had planned for next weekend (planned for months, for after the holidays decompression…). Any ideas how to get a little break? I’m sort of thinking of staying in my bedroom an entire day and early evening and not allowing anyone to come in, but it has the pitfalls of 1. Also DH room and 2. DD10 would probably freak out thinking I’m sick when I’m not. I’m sure people would be banging on the door all day. It’s cold enough here that I don’t want to go hang around outside a long time either. I’m usually very good at coming up with breaks like this for when I’m overwhelmed but I like to be inside and right now inside is the devil.
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This reminds me of a story I heard - maybe Mark Twain talking of his mom.
When she wanted alone time, she’d be sure to have a damp cloth nearby. When a kid would come to her with something to show she’d get the cloth and say, just a minute darling, there’s something on your face . . .
Peace and quiet
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This is the encouragement HCW are getting now. I am in tears. This is not how healthcare is supposed to work. I have never in my entire career seen a system-wide email like this. This is desperation.
“To our dedicated co-workers,
As we experience together the strains of this pandemic and we transition from conventional, to contingency, to crisis standards of care, we want you to know you have our support. Both now and into the future. Even when things go wrong and we have bad outcomes. That support includes your local and system risk teams and senior leadership. It also includes malpractice insurance and legal defense if ever needed. We have a well-deserved reputation for the strongest representation of our team members, even when mistakes are made.
We are in this together. And, we are committed to stay with you in the roughest of times. We will not abandon you.”
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I am so sorry that HCW are in this position. To someone who took up a career because they wanted to help people, it must be heart wrenching to know that bad outcomes are likely coming despite your best efforts. 
(I wish there was a hug pic without the big smile.) I know that what you really need is additional qualified personnel and fewer patients, but is there anything that a layperson could do to help? And if so, where that would do the most good? (Regional hospital, hospital in major metro area, etc.)
Please know how much I admire you and all of the HCW that are doing their best to help us weather this storm at great personal cost. Things would be so, so much worse without your help and care.
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Sending ALL the hugs. I’m so sorry. What’s being asked of HCWs right now is just beyond.
#medtwitter is in despair. We have broken our healthcare system. Specifically the irreplaceable part, the staff.
Even if people don’t give a flip about them as people, you think they’d selfishly at least want a functional healthcare system to exist for them and their loved ones in the future.
Many medical people are leaving, or are gallantly just trying to hang on until the pandemic ends.
I just don’t know how they’re holding it together, honestly. Whatever most of us have been asked to endure for this pandemic pales in comparison.
It’s just 
. They are basically at war for us, and instead of rallying support on the home front, there’s just broad spread myopic apathy.
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Just got this in my email. We are members for a year, as it was more cost effective than buying regular tickets last summer for our family of 5. We were planning on going 1/26, so this should be interesting.
This is the aquarium in Baltimore.
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Wow reading that made me tear up. I am so sorry that you are working under such crippling circumstances. I wish there was more I could do to show support for you and all our other hcws.
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To echo the others, thanks for all you do. I can’t comprehend the stress involved with having to ration care and services and be woefully understaffed in such a critical operation.
I thought of you when I stopped by a couple pharmacies this week, and I made sure to share my appreciation with the pharmacists, who seemed grateful. That doesn’t make much of a difference, but I guess it’s better than nothing.
Everyone handles stress and frustration differently, but if I were in your position, I would stubbornly try to block out the frustration and look at myself knowing I’ve done everything I personally can, and there are just too many things out of my control. Of course easier said than done. Some people will be sick that didn’t have to be. Some people will die that didn’t have to. People just blatantly don’t care about the same things others care about. Sad but reality. You don’t feel it now, but this experience for you will become a positive at some point and you will end up stronger than you ever thought you could be. That’s going to benefit you, your DH, and the kids in the future. Hugs. You are very loved, respected, and appreciated here. 
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To add to the hospitalizations data convo, this is just a blip in time but seems a decent way of comparing now to delta wave in San Francisco.
UCSF is the prestige research hospital here. I think they are testing all hospital patients for covid right now.
I will say the ER doctor quoted who basically opines against quarantine policies being what they are — this is the first doctor in media or who I know personally who I have heard opine that way so I don’t think that opinion is consensus locally. I have heard there are staff shortages locally getting in the way of medical care as usual. But the biggest message from public health has been don’t gum up the 911 and ER for testing or because you’re worried well, keep us available for the life threatening stuff.
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The City where I work has a population of about 96,500. This was sent out regarding covid here:
The daily average is now 298 cases. Since 1/11/22 there has been 28 new cases.
Eight new hospitalizations since 1/11/22. In the last 7 days there have been 44 hospitalizations, a 91% increase from the prior 7 days.
Two new deaths since 1/11/22. Four deaths in the past 14 days.
At first I though 1/11 had to be a typo as that was yesterday. But with 44 new hospitalizations in 7 days, 8 since yesterday seems reasonable.
Take away for me … Omicron may be milder, but I believe these to be the worst number for hospitalization and deaths we’ve seen. Could it be Delta? Or a mix of Omicron and Delta cases? I just do not know.
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Hmmmm. I’m struggling with this reporting.
Whether intentional or through lack of due diligence, it definitely leaves a much different impression of the hospitalized with/from Covid situation at UCSF than the data that UCSF has released. I find it very troubling they didn’t include that data, but instead anecdotal data implying the opposite.
The UCSF data in the tweets I shared is from this verified source:
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Another possibility … many, many unreported Omicron cases which lead to an increased raw number hospitalizations (compared to Delta) even if the percentage of hospitalizations is lower (compared to Delta).
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