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wathe

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Posts posted by wathe

  1. @Pen

    I administer mRNA vaccines at a mass vaccination site.  Nobody is getting placebo!

    Our process doesn't involve any signatures.  Consent to receive vaccine is verbal.  Age 12+ consent for themselves, unless there is a capacity issue.

    Patients register (demographics and insurance) online or by phone when booking their appointment.  Information about the vaccines is available for review at that time.

    In clinic, vaccinators identify the patient, ask the screening questions, answer any questions, get explicit verbal consent for covid vaccine (specifically for either Pfizer of Moderna, whichever product we are using that day), and document all of this electronically.  There are paper copies of the product monograph and product information sheets on site for patients to review if they wish (I have yet to have a patient who has wanted to do this).  After their vaccination, patients get a printed and/or electronic receipt with their name and other demographics, product name, lot number, injection volume, injection site, location of the clinic and name of the vaccinator.  They also get a paper handout with a list of common side effects, a list of symptoms to watch that might suggest a serious reaction, and what to do about them.

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  2. My oldest is 13.  So far, we've gone into the room with him, but I think he might be ready to go alone next time.  He'll decide for himself.

    I do all the booking, since I'm the one driving and I'm the one with the tricky schedule.

    Our family doctor is both sex-matched and race-matched to our kids (well, matched to the POC parent.  The kids are mixed race).  We didn't actively seek this, but I'm glad that's how it's worked out.

    Mine are boys.  But, regarding gynaecologists:  they don't do primary care here.  Pap tests, birth control, STD screening and management and other primary female reproductive health care is all done by family doctors here.  Gyne would be by referral only, generally only for issues that require surgical management or complex medical management.

  3. DH has and electric fly swatter.  He loves that thing.  It makes a very satisfying zapping noise.

    No insecticide in the house!  

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  4. I've tried to inoculate mine (mixed-race kids) by formally studying racism and social justice at home, through a CRT lens.  We homeschool, but DS 13 (finishing grade 7) will likely go to public high school.  I figure that if he already has a thorough grounding in antiracism through a CRT lens at home, then that will be protective against any poorly taught antiracism content that might happen at school.  

    He understands that structural racism is a systemic problem wth historical roots, and not the fault of any one person.

    He understands the concepts of bias (we all have some), privilege (we all hold some), and intersectionality.  

    He understands that privilege is often invisible to those who hold it.  We talk about how our privilege or lack-there-of plays out in real life.  He and his father hold male privilege and I don't, I hold white privilege and they don't.  How structural racism has influenced our family's history.  All of this happens quite organically, without anyone feeling threatened or labelled as an oppressor.  

    He understands that systemic/structural racism is the disease, and that internalized and interpersonal racism are the symptoms.  

    I actually think that mixed families may have an advantage with this.  There are opportunities to do this teaching quite organically at home in a very real-life way that maybe same-race families don't have.

    ETA: One of my kids is white-passing, and the other isn't.  That has also added layers to the conversation.

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  5. Just now, mommyoffive said:

    wathe,

    I would  go with the first dose you can get.  I am in the states and haven't heard of mixing doses here at all so I don't know anything about the science of that.   

    Delta becoming the main strain there this month is so scary.  Ugh.  

    I think so too.  I will feel terrible if he gets VITT though.  But I will also feel terrible if he gets covid while waiting......

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  6. You can weight a bedsheet by picking open the side edges of the top hem (which is usually wide)and sliding a broom handle in there.  Makes it a bit wind-resistant,  and hang nice and straight without wrinkles.

    Edited for clarity:  Hang it upside-down so that the broom handle is at the bottom, of course.

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  7. 9 hours ago, Not_a_Number said:

    Yes, I see that, although that would often wind up with kids with LDs being reviewed. This is why I worry about sticks and not carrots. Perhaps we should make sure everyone gets reviewed and that the process isn't scary... 

    For sure.  But if there is a cut off, it should at lest make some kind of mathematical sense!

    i’m fortunate enough to be in a province that’s very low regulation, so I don’t have any personal experience.  But it seems that 33rd percentile is used as a cutoff to trigger a review in several states , and it just doesn’t make any sense to me to be flagging kids whose test results are well without the range of normal.  

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  8. 14 hours ago, maize said:

    This is NOT true when looking at percentile score. To get 25th percentile you need to score better than 1 out of every 4 students--better than 25 out of every 100 students--either in the actual test group or the sample the test was normed on, depending on how percentile is determine for a particular test.

    This is not at all the same as getting one out of every four questions right, unless the test was normed on a group where for every hundred students answering 100 questions on average one student got 1 correct and 99 wrong, another student got 2 correct and 98 wrong, another student got 3 correct and 97 wrong, etc. with precisely one out of every hundred students getting each possible score. That is an exceedingly implausible scenario.

    Multiple choice tests can be tricky because the "wrong" answers are often specifically chosen to mirror common student errors. My sister teaches at a Title I school where a majority of the students score lower than would be predicted if they filled in the bubble sheet at random--or chose B for every answer. A majority of the students. More than 50%.

    That means that, if her school sample were used to determine percentiles, someone who answered B to every question would be ABOVE the 50th percentile.

    By contrast, if more than half the kids in a group got 3 out of 4 answers right a kid who got 75% of the answers right would score below the 50th percentile for that group.

    We really do need to be careful not to conflate percentile scores with "percentage correct" or even with material mastery. All percentile scores do is compare the test taker's performance with that of other test takers.

     

    Yes.  Percentile is a measure of rank within a group.  Very different than a percent correct score.

    By definition, one third of kids are going to rank 33rd percentile or less.  33rd percentile is well within the range of normal, statistically speaking (well within one standard deviation from the mean).

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  9. 49 minutes ago, KSera said:

    I agree if they had to place a bet, they thought it was likely vaccinated people weren’t going to transmit Covid. But they can’t lift public health measures  in a pandemic based on a hunch that the research would eventually show something. I really do think it was necessary to wait for evidence rather than changing recommendations based on a guess. (And besides that, again, it isn’t true that fully vaccinated people don’t transmit Covid. They do so at a vastly lower rate, but the fact it’s not 100% illustrates why they really did need to wait and see how well that worked in the real world.)

    Yes.  Because the cost of being wrong would have been very, very, high, and the cost of maintaining the status quo (continue masking) was relatively low.  Also, they did "bet" wrong against asymptomatic/presymptomatic spread being a thing, back in Feb/March 2020 when PPe was in short such supply and public health officials advised the public not to wear masks, and instead to stay home if symptomatic, to cover coughs and wash hands, based on experience with SARS not spreading when asymptotic/presymptomatic.  How wrong they were.  And how hard it was to recover from that, both from a pandemic out-of-control point of view, and a public trust point of view.  

     

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  10. 5 hours ago, TCB said:

    @wathe do you know anything about so called studies in Canada showing the dangers of Covid vaccinations? Saw something about it on the dreaded FB but no details or links or anything.

    Not until you mentioned it.  

    It looks like Byron Bridle is a PhD who teaches at a veterinary college, with experience in vaccine research.

    A quick google shows him mentioned on this topic recently in tabloid-y newspapers and christian websites - not the sorts of places I read.  The few interviews I looked at seemed somewhat sensational and lacking references.

    I see a few mentions on David Fisman's twitter that debunk Bridle's claims (Fisman is an epidemiologist and actively practising infectious disease specialist who has been super-active in my province's covid response and on social media wrt covid.)

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  11. 26 minutes ago, FuzzyCatz said:

    I totally agree.  Honestly I can’t imagine a scenario with vaccinated people I know where a non vaccinated person comes into a public setting saying they want to try a magnet on your arm and everyone just agrees.  She got 7/7 to “stick”.  And you evidently need medical training to do it right?  Sounds legit.    🤔

    ITA.  And "in the medical field" is a pretty meaningless statement. That could mean just about anything.

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  12. 33 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

    Okay, first I have to acknowledge how sad this is. Then...

    I bet she'd like a stockbroker grandson. Since she won't fund a 529, how about some stocks, with information on investing, and some money to choose more on his own? Maybe at least he'll get some use out of them in the future, and he might have fun figuring out how to let his money make more money.

    I know nothing about this, just found it in a cursory Google search, but I bet there's more out there:

    Stocks kids might like: https://www.giveashare.com

    I'm a shareholder kit: https://www.giveashare.com

    More info: 

    https://www.kiplinger.com

    https://www.fool.com

    [Ugh, these ^ links don't go to the pages I was looking at. They both do have specific information on stocks for kids somewhere on the sites.]

    And if a book makes it seem more educational to her: https://www.amazon.com1

    Appealing investments for kids = Gold and Jewels.  AKA precious metals mutual fund.  (at least my D&D loving kids think this is great)

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  13. 3 hours ago, Pen said:


    no

     

    having a reaction to vaccine does not guarantee immunity  - having no reaction to vaccine does not mean no immunity

     

    ALso

     

    “relative risk reduction” was calculated as being around 95%  (what was looked at for reduction of what risk in trials I looked at was very specifically defined — basically was reduced risk of having a severe case — Not Immunity  . Absolute Risk Reduction “ was roughly only around    1%    for the various main vaccines I was following.

     

    The 95% was not based on “immunity”  - though perhaps some will have immunity .

    And in general a 95% Relative Risk Reduction does not mean what most people think it means. Does not mean 95% of people who take vaccine are now Immune . It’s a  mathematical formula to compare treatment group with control group, or sometimes to compare several treatments to each other - and comparison is based on the trial protocol.  (Some trial could have been looking at immunity, but the ones I read were not.)

     

    I recommend spending a while reading about “Absolute Risk Reduction” versus “Relative Risk Reduction.”     I posted a few articles on that some time in past. But I don’t know on what thread . 

     

    If you want help finding information about absolute versus relative risk reduction let me know and maybe I can help. I think it is very important to understand.

     

     

     

    A good article from BMJ summarizing relative risk reduction and absolute risk reduction.

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  14.  

    What about awesome books on topics of high interest with some cool stuff to go with?

    LEGO:  Yoshihito Isogawa's technic books (they are awesome and educational) and some technic pieces/sets or LEGO education simple machines sets?

    Cooking: turn it into science with Howard McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, and some appropriate kitchen gadgets to go with?

    Fire:  Daniel Humes Fire Making: The Forgotten Art of conjuring Flame with Spark, Tinder and Skill, accompanied by a mag striker, some char cloth,  or a char cloth kit, or a really old-fashioned flint and steel set, or fire bow kit, or materials to make your own, or vaseline and cotton balls to make the world's simplest fire starter that will catch a spark and ignite. (We got really into this as a family and made our own char cloth using old jeans and a mint/candy tin, and also made waxed jute fire starters.  Young scouts will spend all day at my "light stuff on fire" activity station at camp - there is something deeply satisfying about making a spark and kindling a fire without matches or a lighter)

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  15. I first heard of it about this time last year.  I'm Canadian.

    We didn't learn any American history really, except for bits that were also part of Canadian history (ie War of 1812, Seven Years War, Acadian deportation).  There was the option to take an American History course in my high school, but I was a math and science nerd and took only what history was compulsory.  Which was Canadian history up to about World War 1.  Repeated over and over through elementary, middle, and highschool.

    ETA I also first heard of Juneteenth about this time last year.  Same "I'm Canadian" excuse.....

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  16. 3 hours ago, Not_a_Number said:

    I honestly don't even think the tests SHOULD have cut-offs. It's not, in my opinion, reasonable to decide that kids below a certain proficiency level can't be educated at home. I think it's much more reasonable to just require the test for the parent's information and maybe to have a non-confrontational conversation with a knowledgeable teacher (not even evaluation) triggered when a test score is low. 

    This all assumes the kind of goodwill between parent and state that doesn't currently exist most places, frankly. I know @lewelma has described that it exists in New Zealand, though, and it probably does exist in some states... but it definitely couldn't happen in a place like NY, where the homeschoolers are constantly fighting with the school system. 

    As I said, I've started leaning towards carrot and not stick for most homeschooling situations. 

    I think that's what is supposed to happen in most places; a score below cut-off triggers some sort of  review/inspection.  I don't think it gets you kicked out of homeschooling.  But I'm only parroting what I've seen posted here before, so take it for what it's worth 🙂

  17. 18 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

    Our state requires 15%. I think we should require higher as just picking a standard answer should trigger a score of 25% or so if you just choose one answer in a multiple choice test. I came to this position after several moms one year decided to just have their kids report the answer B on the exams. They scored higher than 15%. They were advising that other moms do the same this year. *sigh* 

    I agree, my system requires a nonconfrontational process. My state does not have homeschoolers interacting directly with schools, we register with education districts. That does minimize tension.

    Percentile (ranking) is different than percent of answers correct though.  I understood that the cut-off for flagging a kid was 33rd percentile, not 33% score/answers correct?  15th percentile makes perfect sense to me as a statistical measure of "normal".  Arbitrary raw score cut-offs do not.

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  18. A question about 33rd percentile cut-offs as evidence for an adequate education, and 33rd percentile considered a low bar (I'm in a very low regulation province, and my kids have never written a standardized test, so please bear with me):

    It seems to me that 33rd percentile is actually a pretty high bar.  1 in 3 of all kids writing the test are going to score 33rd percentile or less. 33rd percentile is well within the range of normal, no? (if one accepts normal as within 1 or 2 standard deviations of the mean).  15th percentile would seem a more useful screening cut-off (roughly one standard deviation from the mean).  I can't think of any other developmental (or medical) screening test that would accept classifying fully one third of kids as having a problem.

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  19. 20 minutes ago, Kanin said:

    People in India and Brazil and Africa and all over the world are desperate to get the vaccine, and here in the USA there are all sorts of suspicions about how it's being used to "control" people, making them magnetic, secretly inserting microchips, etc. So many people have suffered and died. Why are more people not jumping for joy that brilliant scientists have finally gotten us out of this mess? 

    Wondering if these sorts of things are happening in other countries, or if it's a phenomenon unique to the US. 

    I think it's both.  A certain amount of skepticism, mistrust of government, and susceptibility to conspiracy theories is universal.  I think its also true that the USA is a bit of a special case, where these sorts of beliefs are way more mainstream than in other places.

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