I just received mine today. I also got 2 boxes of BinaxNow.
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I greatly appreciate all the answers to my Q about braces. Everything everyone is saying sounds like our experience here with our dentist and the new orthodontist. Since we live in a city area we have a choice of many orthodontists and have already rejected one partly b/c she always has tons of people in her waiting room, not very well spaced. I am very pleased with the one we chose and I think they may be even being too careful, b/c if one of my kids is a close contact (even if it isn’t the one being seen) then we can’t be seen in their office for 10 days. The office is very clean and they didn’t have very many people waiting either time we came there. I really have to do this for DS13 and now with your responses I feel more confident to get my other 2 kids evaluated again (they were seen a few years ago and DS15 absolutely needs braces while the younger child might still be too young). Like others responding, we have kept our regular dental appts and most routine appts and screenings since things reopened. My most traumatic experience of the pandemic (that was definitely pandemic related) was when DH broke a molar tooth very early on, I think during summer 2020, while almost all dentists here were still closed. I have a relative who’s a dentist (far away) and he recommended that we sacrifice the tooth (extraction, which is the only thing our dentist would do) b/c the risk of catching the virus was too high. He also thought maybe DH could just wait a month or two for the virus to go away (ha!). DH decided to save the tooth and it took awhile but we found a dentist who would actually do a crown. It’s such a basic thing to need and it was awful not having it readily available. I remember that at the same time people on this forum (the 1st thread) were saying that they had kids who had braces who couldn’t get them adjusted, and it was difficult even when there was an emergency to get treatment for the braces. That’s been in the back of my head during these decisions. But, I truly don’t see things shutting down like that again.
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Well, for anyone trying to stalk BA.2 
, the CDC is annoyingly lumping all the Omicron variants together.
I found this alternate site:
An assorted sampling of states…
ETA:
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2/2 White House briefing. The slide pack wasn’t linked like it usually is, so I grabbed screen shots of the more interesting slides where possible.
Cases slide wasn’t shown so verbal description:
“The current seven-day daily average of cases is about 446,400 cases per day, a decrease of about 36 percent over the previous week.”
Dr. Fauci went over a couple recent studies showing vaccinations do NOT have a negative impact on fertility. (Infection may temporarily have a negative impact.)
Q …When you said “short order” for the availability of those kid vaccines, I was hoping — do you mean like a week or a few days?
MR. ZIENTS: Yeah, so, on the vaccines for kids under five, we’re doing all the preparation now that we can do to be ready so that it’ll be available at trusted locations as soon as possible, post — I want to emphasize again — FDA and CDC recommendations.
We cannot begin actually packing and shipping until the FDA authorization, and then there’s the CDC ACIP process, which generally takes place a matter of days after the FDA.
So, we’re talking, you know, a matter of several days to a week or so, based on the 5- to 11-year experience from FDA authorization to when the first doses will start to be shots in arms. But we’ll move as fast as possible, pending the decision of CDC and FDA. And I think the preparation we’re doing now will enable us to do so.
SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: …Something that many parents may be wondering about, which is: What’s changed between December when Pfizer shared their news and now?
And they’re — it’s a big change that’s happened, which is we experienced the Omicron surge. And with many children in particular, as well as adults, being infected and ending up in the hospital during the Omicron surge, it turns out that has actually facilitated the collection of important clinical data, additional clinical data that we did not have in December. Whether that changes the risk-benefit profile is what the FDA will be assessing. But there has been developments since December on the data front.
Q Is there a sense yet that you can offer the American public based upon your studies, based upon what you now know about Omicron — you know, is this the last wave? Is there enough that you can say, by a point certain, COVID will not impact people’s daily lives anymore? And if not, you know, why not? What else do you need to know?
DR. FAUCI: Well, we have to be totally honest that we don’t know whe- — we believe that we are now going in the right direction. And the best-case scenario, as I and my colleagues have often described, is that with the tools that we have — the vaccination, the boosting, the testing, the masking, and all the other mitigations that we know about — when you have a level of community protection, which is the level of immunity throughout the community, that we will reach a stage — and I hope that it’s sooner rather than later — when, as you have said, this will not dominate our lives. In other words, it will be similar to the assimilation of this virus, in the group of viruses that we have learned to live with, without disruption of our society.
You know, the RSVs, the parainfluenzas — the influenzas where it’s there, it’s present, it hasn’t been eradicated, it hasn’t been eliminated, but it isn’t at a level that it essentially dominates what we do and dramatically influences our lives.
We believe we will get there.
We can’t guarantee that there will not be another variant that challenges us, but the best that we can do with that is to be prepared for it. And that’s why we’re doing all the things that we’re doing with regard to getting better, more advanced vaccine. For example, different platforms, different immunogen designs, development and discovery of new drugs — all of that will be part of the armamentarium that will ultimately, even with the appearance of additional variants, will get us to the point where we will not be dominated by this virus; where we can return to a degree of normality that we all crave for.
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Just FYI - here in the city where I work (same county as Seattle, WA), our cases are down 42% in the last week. Deaths are also down by 18% (4 deaths since 1/31 as of 2/2). But hospitalizations are up 21% - 16 new hospitalizations since 1/31 (as of 2/2). Our city has about 96,000 residents. Do you think we are starting to see Omicron hospitalizations?
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FDA VRBPAC is meeting to discuss on Feb 15.
ACIP is already scheduled to meet on Feb 23-24, but I’m not seeing this topic on the draft agenda (yet, anyway).
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Rule of thumb:
Hospitalizations lag cases by 2-3 weeks
Deaths lag hospitalizations by 2 more weeks
It’s going to get really confusing with BA.2 on the heels of BA.1, though.
I think some places are going to see their post BA.1 curve start to decrease then tick back up for BA.2. Others will likely see it as one combined wave if BA.2 takes hold before BA.1 peaks. I suppose 2 entirely separate waves would also be possible if there is a gap between the two.
Some examples of where they’re trying to sort BA.1 vs BA.2:
Hey @amvanhoose_701479 - you would be proud of me. I was having a conversation with a friend about the “personal liberty” considerations during the pandemic, and I used your metaphor of the dice rolls, specifically with respect to immunocompromised. I think it helped him understand my perspective, even if it didn’t change his mind. 
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FWIW, DS12.1 had a(nother) lunch table Covid exposure last Friday. He found out Monday evening through online chats with classmates (we haven’t even received a classroom notification from the school still, but she’s been absent all week and DS12.1 said he saw a message where she said she tested positive on Sunday).
We’ve been at-home testing him every day (all negative), and had a PCR done at 3pm yesterday at CVS (Day 5). It’s already come back negative, so yay! that he’s negative and also that results are coming back much quicker now.
I’m just too tired to contact the school to make sure the other parents at the lunch table know. Supposedly the kids all know. 
Also, at-home tests are available online all over the place now. Walmart.com, Amazon with 2 day delivery, Costco (5 for $40)…
And all private insurance companies in the US should now be covering, so check the process for yours. (We are still awaiting details, but ours told us to just hold on to our receipts. I’ve heard some may be requiring info from the boxes, though, so hold on to those if yours hasn’t specified.)
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Oh, forgot to include one bit:
Q Dr. Walensky, can you give us an update on BA.2 — its prevalence and your expectation for how it could affect, sort of, the curve of this Omicron wave?
DR. WALENSKY: So, our genomic surveillance now is detecting BA.2 projecting around 1.5 percent in this country. Of course, that varies for different parts of the country, but around one of — 1.5 percent projection of the sequences that we’re seeing.
What we know about BA.2 so far is that it does have a modest transmission advantage over BA.1. However, it’s not nearly the transmission advantage that we’ve seen between Omicron and Delta.
In terms of early studies, we have not seen any studies that suggest it’s more severe, nor have we seen studies that suggests that it will evade our vaccines any more so than Omicron has already — and, in fact, that our vaccines will work just like it has with Omicron.
So, in terms of how we anticipate this will impact cases: In many places we’ve seen BA.2 so far, cases have continued to come down, although at a slower rate.
In some case — in some countries, like Denmark, cases have gone up associated with BA.2, but that’s also in the context of relaxing mitigation strategies, mitigation measures, which is why we’re currently keeping those in place, among the reasons.
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Since potential side effects on menstrual cycles seems to be trending, here is the finding:
“It showed that cycles were extended on average by less than a day after one vaccine dose, or up to two days for people who got two doses within a single cycle.”
An overview the UK did:
So, I went ahead and booked a hotel room coming up soon for a solo staycation. Overall I’m feeling pretty safe re: the covid, it’s the potential winter weather that might postpone it again…I am still nervous about the covid, but when I went to the dentist and found that experience to be “fun” because I got away from the family for a little while I realized that I really need some actual me time, LOL. DH still works from home so even though the kids leave the house for school there is always someone there. The main thing I want it to not be expected to feed or clean up after anyone for a few days. When I try to explain to single friends what I want out of vacations they never seem to think this is enough, but it totally is. Although I did choose a location with a lot of interesting outdoor stuff to see–water, sculptures, easy walkable restaurants-- so if it’s not too cold there are photos to take. I’m also thinking of taking DD10 back to her tap classes again b/c if I don’t she’ll miss the day the parents get to see the class (virtual this time but still—it’s once a year). Covid #s have gone down rapidly here, and she does have the vaccine now. I hope she remembers how to do tap b/c she had just started and then there was winter break followed by just not going b/c of the virus. I’m going to have her do some tap this weekend so that she can remember what to do. If she’s too green we can just skip the parent day.
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A potential new WDW attraction???
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Oh, I am so in this club.
DD20 is back at UT-Austin (3 hours NW). Her BF is at Univ of Houston, so just 20 min away if no traffic. He graduated from national guard advanced training in December and doesn’t have a car (or license) yet. He has his first assigned weekend duty (Sat am-Sun pm) near Dallas this weekend…a 4 hour drive north from us.
I proposed to DH that I drive him up this evening and just stay nearby in an Airbnb solo for the weekend (rather than drive 4 hours home and almost right back again). DH thought that was brilliant. 
So here I am! I’ll drop him off tomorrow morning and then have about 32 glorious hours ALONE. I’m debating whether I even want to leave to get takeout.
There’s a nice deck and hammock and a few block walk to a lake. But.
Oh, well. There was “frozen mix” here yesterday, so at least it got warm enough today the roads were good.
^ Texas is not supposed to look like this!
Also, between Omicron and the weather, there were a few aisles of our grocery store definitely feeling it today. Hope no one needed fresh chicken or bulk dog food.
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Our current 7 day average of new deaths has now exceeded the max during the first surge. It is second only to last winter’s surge. Despite having vaccines readily available to all but under 5’s. 
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A few key slides below. If this applies to you or someone you know, you’ll probably want to follow the link at the bottom to review the whole slide deck.
Note: These were proposed. The post I saw said they passed ACIP. Look for CDC follow up to finalize.
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Enjoy your getaway! You definitely deserve it.
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