Personal covid experiences

[Tree Frog]

I work in an elementary school. The reported cases are climbing very fast. We have seen entire class out. A teacher, 2 aides, and all the students who ride a particular bus are home. The superintendent of our district has requested that parents consider keeping their kids home for 2 weeks, but won't close schools. I believe it's a matter of time before all the teachers get it. Were not allowed to talk about who has it at school, so we watch to see which teachers are missing. It's incredibly frustrating.

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, Wilrunner3 said:

I work in an elementary school. The reported cases are climbing very fast. We have seen entire class out. A teacher, 2 aides, and all the students who ride a particular bus are home. The superintendent of our district has requested that parents consider keeping their kids home for 2 weeks, but won't close schools. I believe it's a matter of time before all the teachers get it. Were not allowed to talk about who has it at school, so we watch to see which teachers are missing. It's incredibly frustrating.

I'm sorry; that's awful 😞 . How's your school with precautions? Are they requiring masks?

[ktgrok]

Apparantly all the administrative staff and principal and all vice principals except one are sick or quarantined at one central florida high school. 24 teachers are out, and they don't have replacements for 12 of them. 

And yet the dashboard said they had no one in quarantine. 

[Spryte]

8 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Apparantly all the administrative staff and principal and all vice principals except one are sick or quarantined at one central florida high school. 24 teachers are out, and they don't have replacements for 12 of them. 

And yet the dashboard said they had no one in quarantine. 

I’ve wondered how effective the school dashboard in our county is, too.  

[Spryte]

DH’s coworker has been sick since Jan 3.  Nightly temps in the 102 range.  Pulse ox 89-90.  Two negative Covid tests so far, third is pending.  He says he’s planning to lose some IQ points.  
 

Can’t pinpoint where he got it, probably the Apple Store when he bought a watch, he thinks.  But it sounds like he’s out and about quite a bit, so who knows?  

[Amy Gen]

39 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Apparantly all the administrative staff and principal and all vice principals except one are sick or quarantined at one central florida high school. 24 teachers are out, and they don't have replacements for 12 of them. 

And yet the dashboard said they had no one in quarantine. 

This is why I just can’t buy the assertion that schools are not a significant factor in the spread of the virus. 
 

I believe that the benefits may outweigh the risks, but I know people who think that in person schooling doesn’t contribute to the surge at all. 
 

I don’t really trust the information we are getting from schools, based on what my friends who are teachers tell me. 
 

I feel like I’m edging toward conspiracy theories myself because there seems to be so much agreement that in person schooling is not an issue at all.

 

[saraha]

So update on us:

Dh who tested on Tuesday got a negative today! No symptoms ever

Me day five living on our couch, loss of breath just walking to the bathroom or talking for very long, still no smell or taste, still have congestion, chest pain is gone

Ds21- still no symptoms

Dd19 (patient 0 in our house)- still has cold symptoms only, tires easily, but is mostly functioning normally, no smell or taste

Dd17- no symptoms

Dd16- Cold symptoms, sore throat, no smell or taste, tires easily

Dd13- "fuzzy head" yesterday while trying to do school, woke up today and said she was feeling fine

Ds10- had a few days of occasional headache, "fuzzy head" now no symptoms

Can someone explain to me how my dh can test negative?!? Like I really can't understand how he can test negative if there has been a positive in the house and I have been so sick. If testing were easy here I would be tempted to get everyone tested just out of curiosity.

I do wonder if there is a genetic component, dh's brother in law tested positive with symptoms while his sister and niece tested negative.

Edited January 15, 2021 by saraha

[Not_a_Number]

47 minutes ago, Amy Gen said:

I feel like I’m edging toward conspiracy theories myself because there seems to be so much agreement that in person schooling is not an issue at all.

I think the problem is that it's really hard to measure. And there is more than one thing you can mean by "schools aren't a problem." I think one thing it might mean is that since those kids weren't going to be in hermetically sealed bubbles anyway, school is not a riskier place for them than, say, being in a pod or being watched by a nanny who brings them to playdates. 

But on the other hand, it's totally obviously riskier than just being home and not going to see other people much. And there's also a LOT of incentive not to test and to hide the facts. 

The study I saw (out of Ohio, I think) suggested that kids with a classmate that tested positive weren't any more likely to be positive than other kids. Anyone seen that? 

[saraha]

On a side note, another family that had members attend that dinner has tested positive.

[ktgrok]

12 minutes ago, saraha said:

 

Can someone explain to me how my dh can test negative?!? Like I really can't understand how he can test negative if there has been a positive in the house and I have been so sick. If testing were easy here I would be tempted to get everyone tested just out of curiosity.

I do wonder if there is a genetic component, dh's brother in law tested positive with symptoms while his sister and niece tested negative.

well, we know that there are false negatives a lot. And we know that some people seem more resistant to the disease than others. There are a LOT of stories of one person in the house being positive and others negative. 

[regentrude]

6 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

well, we know that there are false negatives a lot. And we know that some people seem more resistant to the disease than others. There are a LOT of stories of one person in the house being positive and others negative. 

my friend's parents are in an assisted living facility and share a room. mom is positive with symptoms, dad is negative and has no symptoms. Go figure. This is the strangest virus.

[mommyoffive]

26 minutes ago, saraha said:

So update on us:

Dh who tested on Tuesday got a negative today! No symptoms ever

Me day five living on our couch, loss of breath just walking to the bathroom or talking for very long, still no smell or taste, still have congestion, chest pain is gone

Ds21- still no symptoms

Dd19 (patient 0 in our house)- still has cold symptoms only, tires easily, but is mostly functioning normally, no smell or taste

Dd17- no symptoms

Dd16- Cold symptoms, sore throat, no smell or taste, tires easily

Dd13- "fuzzy head" yesterday while trying to do school, woke up today and said she was feeling fine

Ds10- had a few days of occasional headache, "fuzzy head" now no symptoms

Can someone explain to me how my dh can test negative?!? Like I really can't understand how he can test negative if there has been a positive in the house and I have been so sick. If testing were easy here I would be tempted to get everyone tested just out of curiosity.

I do wonder if there is a genetic component, dh's brother in law tested positive with symptoms while his sister and niece tested negative.

Did anyone in your house test positive?   That really sucks that you can't get everyone tested.  How sad is it that one year after the virus came to the US that everyone still doesn't have easy access to testing.   

[saraha]

Just now, mommyoffive said:

Did anyone in your house test positive?   That really sucks that you can't get everyone tested.  How sad is it that one year after the virus came to the US that everyone still doesn't have easy access to testing.   

Dd19 who we are sure brought it home tested positive, Dh tested negative, no one else tested

[kokotg]

1 hour ago, Amy Gen said:

This is why I just can’t buy the assertion that schools are not a significant factor in the spread of the virus. 
 

I believe that the benefits may outweigh the risks, but I know people who think that in person schooling doesn’t contribute to the surge at all. 
 

I don’t really trust the information we are getting from schools, based on what my friends who are teachers tell me. 
 

I feel like I’m edging toward conspiracy theories myself because there seems to be so much agreement that in person schooling is not an issue at all.

 

I think a lot of it is that people very much WANT it to be true that schools aren't a problem. 

There's so little standardization of....anything that it's really difficult to draw conclusions. Every school system has different (or no!) safety protocols in place, every school system reports data (or doesn't!) in a different way, and every school system exists in a community with a different and constantly changing level of community spread. 

There's a new study out of North Carolina that's making the rounds here to show how super safe school is. But it's of I think 11 schools that all followed a set of safety protocols (hand washing, distancing (possible because all were hybrid), and masking). And it followed them for 9 weeks at the beginning of the school year, when numbers were relatively low, and found no evidence of significant transmission in schools. Great, but not all schools are following those protocols (I don't know of ANY near me that are still hybrid, and many don't even have a mask requirement), and you can't compare schools when community spread was low with schools when it's out of control. 

Everywhere I've seen reliable data shows a higher incidence rate for teachers and staff than for the community as a whole, even when the same is not true for students (and kids aren't tested nearly as often as adults, so I find numbers for kids less trustworthy). I have a hard time believing that's not because teachers are indoors with a whole bunch of people all day every day. 

[regentrude]

35 minutes ago, kokotg said:

Everywhere I've seen reliable data shows a higher incidence rate for teachers and staff than for the community as a whole, even when the same is not true for students (and kids aren't tested nearly as often as adults, so I find numbers for kids less trustworthy). I have a hard time believing that's not because teachers are indoors with a whole bunch of people all day every day. 

That is one possible and plausible explanation.
However, it is also possible that people whose job forces them to have high exposure anyway don't think it makes a lot of sense for them to go to the trouble of isolating otherwise, and may consequently have more exposure outside of their job than another person.  Only strict contact tracing could tell.

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by regentrude

[Bootsie]

36 minutes ago, kokotg said:

Everywhere I've seen reliable data shows a higher incidence rate for teachers and staff than for the community as a whole, even when the same is not true for students (and kids aren't tested nearly as often as adults, so I find numbers for kids less trustworthy). I have a hard time believing that's not because teachers are indoors with a whole bunch of people all day every day. 

I can't speak from a elementary/high school perspective, but I can from our university. The rate among our employees is higher than the broader community.  We finished classes before Thanksgiving.  The campus has been closed; buildings are locked with only a few people working on campus.

You could look at our numbers and say, "See universities cause spread"  But these people are not getting it at the university because they haven't set foot on campus in a couple of months.  I look at the numbers and wonder what in the world they are doing.  Sometimes I think it would be better for them to be spending the day at work under more controlled circumstances than for them to be doing whatever they are doing.  

There is a big difference in reporting the numbers of people affiliated with a particular school that have COVID and reporting the numbers of people getting COVID because of their interaction at that school.  

[kokotg]

6 minutes ago, regentrude said:

That is one possible and plausible explanation.
However, it is also possible that people whose job forces them to have high exposure anyway don't think it makes a lot of sense for them to go to the trouble of isolating otherwise, and may consequently have more exposure outside of their job than another person.  Only strict contact tracing could tell.

 

oh, the terrible irony--if teachers aren't ACTUALLY at increased risk, but they THINK they are, so they go out and make themselves higher risk by hitting the bars after work! I have had fleeting thoughts that maybe we should just go ahead and book a Disney trip, because if we're going to get covid anyway I'd rather it was because we went to Disney than because my husband brought it home from math class 😂

The opposite is true for our family--we are MORE cautious, particularly around high risk family members, but also just in general--because my husband has a higher level of exposure. I guess I want to think well of other teachers and hope they're doing the same, but, yeah, who knows? I will say it's difficult to imagine teachers taking MORE risks than average in my area, because the average I observe is so terrible. Like I'm not sure how you'd even manage more to find more risk than what I see a lot of my neighbors doing. 

[ktgrok]

With schools and data I can say that most people don't get their kids tested if exposed, so we have no idea on data. My niece was exposed but never tested, just did the quarantine since she'd have to quarantine anyway. 

[regentrude]

10 minutes ago, kokotg said:

oh, the terrible irony--if teachers aren't ACTUALLY at increased risk, but they THINK they are, so they go out and make themselves higher risk by hitting the bars after work! I have had fleeting thoughts that maybe we should just go ahead and book a Disney trip, because if we're going to get covid anyway I'd rather it was because we went to Disney than because my husband brought it home from math class 😂

The opposite is true for our family--we are MORE cautious, particularly around high risk family members, but also just in general--because my husband has a higher level of exposure. I guess I want to think well of other teachers and hope they're doing the same, but, yeah, who knows? I will say it's difficult to imagine teachers taking MORE risks than average in my area, because the average I observe is so terrible. Like I'm not sure how you'd even manage more to find more risk than what I see a lot of my neighbors doing. 

I wasn't talking about going to bars or to Disney. But about viewing everyday activities in a different light when weighed relative to required exposure one cannot avoid.
I am teaching in person and am face to face with 250 different young people every week. That certainly influences how I view the risk of other daily activities. I shop for my own groceries because it makes no sense to me to avoid the grocery store when I am in a classroom every day. I walk outside with people. I go into the tire place to have my car serviced. 

The folks I know who completely isolate and have everything delivered and don't even socialize outside are the ones working from home. This level of caution may make no sense to a person who has regular exposure at work. YMMV.

Edited January 15, 2021 by regentrude

[kokotg]

...it does seem to me that in-school transmission in schools with strong safety protocols in place is fairly rare (although at a certain point when community spread gets high enough no amount of safety protocols can overcome staffing issues. And then who knows where the new variants take us). I wish that people would emphasize THAT more rather than just yelling that schools are safe. I'm not sure people in parts of the country where such safety protocols are the norm realize just how many kids are going to schools that are doing pretty much nothing to control spread. 

[kokotg]

19 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I wasn't talking about going to bars or to Disney. But about viewing everyday activities in a different light when weighed relative to required exposure one cannot avoid.
I am teaching in person and am face to face with 250 different young people every week. That certainly influences how I view the risk of other daily activities. I shop for my own groceries because it makes no sense to me to avoid the grocery store when I am in a classroom every day. I walk outside with people. I go into the tire place to have my car serviced. 

The folks I know who completely isolate and have everything delivered and don't even socialize outside are the ones working from home. This level of caution may make no sense to a person who has regular exposure at work. YMMV.

Well, again, it makes MORE sense to me to be more cautious in those circumstances to reduce the chance of passing covid along to people we come in contact with, given our relatively high level of unavoidable exposure through my husband's school.

ETA: not that we haven't been in a store or socialized outside at all; for the most part we were pretty cautious before school started and we're pretty cautious now, but we do leave the house. 

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by kokotg

[RootAnn]

Since school activities here are in full swing, it would be difficult to know if a middle or high school student was exposed through class, choir, speech, play practice, or basketball. I believe that masks are now mostly required for everything except sports.

I, too, believe there is a genetic component. If I catch Covid, I hope I'm more like my sibling who didn't have a break in their cardio workout during any of their covid-positive timeframe.

[Kanin]

6 hours ago, Wilrunner3 said:

Were not allowed to talk about who has it at school, so we watch to see which teachers are missing. It's incredibly frustrating.

What? Like you have to whisper secretly to each other??

[Not_a_Number]

2 hours ago, regentrude said:

This level of caution may make no sense to a person who has regular exposure at work. YMMV.

I guess that makes sense from a personal perspective, but if everyone who already had exposure decided they didn't care as much about other exposures, the chance of exposure in a classroom really goes up. 

[Martha in GA]

19 minutes ago, Kanin said:

What? Like you have to whisper secretly to each other??

My dh has seen this at his workplace, too (teacher). Because of HIPAA, they aren't allowed to say who tested positive...which seems a bit silly to me, but that is the way it is.

[fairfarmhand]

Just got back from my stepmother's fathers' funeral. 

And I'm hoping that my dad nor my stepmom come down with covid due to that funeral. I know you're not supposed to hug, but when someone is crying and grieving, hugging happens and I get it.

During the service, the whole time, there was a man behind me who was breathing very loud, congested chest sounding breaths. I am praying he did not have covid.

[Kassia]

7 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

Just got back from my stepmother's fathers' funeral. 

And I'm hoping that my dad nor my stepmom come down with covid due to that funeral. I know you're not supposed to hug, but when someone is crying and grieving, hugging happens and I get it.

During the service, the whole time, there was a man behind me who was breathing very loud, congested chest sounding breaths. I am praying he did not have covid.

I am sorry for your loss.

My FIL died last summer and my MIL insisted on a traditional funeral w/services and a meal after the burial.  After being careful for several months, I was horrified to see how the funeral home handled the services (no distancing, food and drinks left out, masks not enforced, etc.) and how people gathered as if covid was not a thing - and this was mostly older people coming from all different areas.  I thought for sure my MIL would end up sick, but she didn't.  As far as I know, no one did.  Of course, we were just very lucky.  DH and I did not participate in much of it and I know it was very hard on him to do that.  

I hope you and your family all stay healthy.

 

[Tree Frog]

19 hours ago, kokotg said:

I'm sorry; that's awful 😞 . How's your school with precautions? Are they requiring masks?

Yes, masks are required except for those special needs students who won't keep them on. We're encouraged to enforce them being worn with the younger students, but many students wear them under their chin or they're just not snug against their face. Yesterday, staff was encouraged to wear face shields if in close contact with younger children.

[Lecka]

Bootsie — do you think university employees might be more likely to be tested than the general population?  Is there a high positivity rate?

That is what I would assume locally.  
 

If it’s a really believable statistic — I also wonder what they are doing!

[PeterPan]

20 hours ago, Amy Gen said:

I believe that the benefits may outweigh the risks, but I know people who think that in person schooling doesn’t contribute to the surge at all. 

Our autism school where we do services has done pretty well, but they divided both schools (elementary and upper) into smaller pods to limit cross spread. No parents in the building, temps every day, lots of caution. And it's a population where it would be unlikely to have all the kids masked, kwim? These are typically level 2 and 3 support kids. So it *can* be done and for them the gains were worth the risk.

But they're REALLY THANKFUL that the entire school staff is getting vaccinated under the 1B schedule. I don't think that's happening for regular school teachers, as they're coming later. But because of the population, this school's staff is getting it earlier. I was psyched for them. That's a lot of strain that will lift as the vaccines push through. They didn't require them, but I think most staff are choosing to take them.

Edited January 16, 2021 by PeterPan

[Tree Frog]

13 hours ago, Kanin said:

What? Like you have to whisper secretly to each other??

Very quietly spoken. 

[ktgrok]

19 hours ago, kokotg said:

...it does seem to me that in-school transmission in schools with strong safety protocols in place is fairly rare (although at a certain point when community spread gets high enough no amount of safety protocols can overcome staffing issues. And then who knows where the new variants take us). I wish that people would emphasize THAT more rather than just yelling that schools are safe. I'm not sure people in parts of the country where such safety protocols are the norm realize just how many kids are going to schools that are doing pretty much nothing to control spread. 

We have masks, etc at schools here, but still this is the scenario we are seeing (and keep in mind, the teachers are getting tested, but students typically don't bother so who knows how many have it) 

[regentrude]

20 hours ago, Bootsie said:

I can't speak from a elementary/high school perspective, but I can from our university. The rate among our employees is higher than the broader community.  We finished classes before Thanksgiving.  The campus has been closed; buildings are locked with only a few people working on campus.

You could look at our numbers and say, "See universities cause spread"  But these people are not getting it at the university because they haven't set foot on campus in a couple of months.  I look at the numbers and wonder what in the world they are doing.  Sometimes I think it would be better for them to be spending the day at work under more controlled circumstances than for them to be doing whatever they are doing.  

There is a big difference in reporting the numbers of people affiliated with a particular school that have COVID and reporting the numbers of people getting COVID because of their interaction at that school.  

Our campus actually did much better than the general population in terms of Covid infections per capita all semester long. My school does very aggressive contact tracing and has not traced any infection to a class or lab. 
But we also have much more stringent safety measures. Masking is mandatory and all classrooms have lowered capacity to allow distancing. It is much safer to work on campus than to participate in daily errands in the community.

ETA: (A rural conservative community where the city council members who wanted to institute a mask mandate were told they are doing the Devil's work and where there was an immense pushback. Mandate exists on paper but isn't enforced. Our state does pretty much nothing. Now our state legislature went on hiatus because the capitol is infected with Covid but by golly, they are not going to wear no darned masks! Because Covid is just the flu and nobody gets to tell them what to do. Don't get me started. )

Edited January 16, 2021 by regentrude

[kokotg]

19 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

We have masks, etc at schools here, but still this is the scenario we are seeing (and keep in mind, the teachers are getting tested, but students typically don't bother so who knows how many have it) 

Yeah, it's not much different here (DH's county has been virtual since the break was over mostly because of staffing issues; they are supposed to go back Tuesday, but who knows?) But they CLAIM that this is a reflection of increased community transmission, not transmission in schools. I've run the numbers in our county and in the county north of us with no mask requirement, and there's a HUGE difference. The incident rate in our county is tracking pretty similar to the county overall. This isn't super comforting because the county overall is terrible (and the school community is, of course, part of the overall community and thus part of those numbers). There are a lot of caveats about comparing incidence rate in schools to the overall population. And our county doesn't break things down by staff vs. students. Purely anecdotally, my husband feels fairly safe personally, as a high school teacher who wears a good mask himself (two of them even), stays at least 8 feet away from any students, and strictly enforces mask use in his classroom. But not all teachers can do the same things--it's much harder for elementary school teachers to distance, for example. The schools are still doing things like sports and band practice without masks. They eat in the cafeteria without masks, obviously. 

I don't think it's truly safe for schools to be open at all right now in most of the country, with numbers as out of control as they are, and with a population apparently totally unwilling to make trade-offs like closing bars and restaurants and skipping the annual Christmas party this year to make schools safer. But I do see it as something reasonable people can disagree about; I can understand the argument that keeping schools open is worth some increased risk if that increased risk is fairly small. And I guess I'm just kind of in crisis mode thinking at the moment, where, sure--I'd rather my husband could teach online right now--but the people in far more danger are his friends at the school he used to teach at where they have full classes and no mask requirement (and very few students wearing masks, according to reports from his friends who are still there)...and, shockingly, way more sick teachers than his school. 

ETA: the current staffing issues in DH's county are definitely community transmission related, since teachers haven't been in classrooms in nearly a month.

Edited January 16, 2021 by kokotg

[Not_a_Number]

42 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Our campus actually did much better than the general population in terms of Covid infections per capita all semester long. My school does very aggressive contact tracing and has not traced any infection to a class or lab. 
But we also have much more stringent safety measures. Masking is mandatory and all classrooms have lowered capacity to allow distancing. It is much safer to work on campus than to participate in daily errands in the community.

Yeah, the same thing was true in my sister's college -- they did a LOT of testing and contact tracing, and I think they shut down anything that caused infections (I think they shut a few frats.) Everyone who was in a dorm got tested every week, and other people could opt in for this as well, which my sister did. 

So as a result, they did way better than the surrounding community. 

[Bootsie]

5 hours ago, Lecka said:

Bootsie — do you think university employees might be more likely to be tested than the general population?  Is there a high positivity rate?

That is what I would assume locally.  
 

If it’s a really believable statistic — I also wonder what they are doing!

The university publishes positive cases reported to them, but there is no record of number of tests.  There is no employer based testing.  There is a community-based drive up testing site in a parking lot at the university, but that is not anything limited to or tied to employment.  

Because the university has been closed over recent weeks, the only time the university would know that someone had COVID is if the person reports to HR to receive any support/benefits.  There are some people who work in housing, security, etc. that have been working on campus over the break, that would result in contact tracing/quarantine.  

I have no idea if university employees are more likely than the general public to be tested, and I am not sure what the breakdown is between faculty/staff.  I would think that they tend to have children and be of an age that makes them out-and-about in the community more than the average person.  

[Bootsie]

3 hours ago, regentrude said:

Our campus actually did much better than the general population in terms of Covid infections per capita all semester long. My school does very aggressive contact tracing and has not traced any infection to a class or lab. 
But we also have much more stringent safety measures. Masking is mandatory and all classrooms have lowered capacity to allow distancing. It is much safer to work on campus than to participate in daily errands in the community.

ETA: (A rural conservative community where the city council members who wanted to institute a mask mandate were told they are doing the Devil's work and where there was an immense pushback. Mandate exists on paper but isn't enforced. Our state does pretty much nothing. Now our state legislature went on hiatus because the capitol is infected with Covid but by golly, they are not going to wear no darned masks! Because Covid is just the flu and nobody gets to tell them what to do. Don't get me started. )

I think our campus has probably done better than the rest of the community.  The university has required masks, has socially distanced classrooms, provided a lot of outdoor space for study, taking classes, outdoor activities, and has done a lot of contact tracing and testing among students.  

The problem has been that anyone who has affiliation with the university is counted as a university case.  Seeing how many university cases there have been when no one has been at the university, I tend to believe the university when they say that there has not been any evidence of classroom transmission. 

[fairfarmhand]

10 hours ago, Kassia said:

I am sorry for your loss.

My FIL died last summer and my MIL insisted on a traditional funeral w/services and a meal after the burial.  After being careful for several months, I was horrified to see how the funeral home handled the services (no distancing, food and drinks left out, masks not enforced, etc.) and how people gathered as if covid was not a thing - and this was mostly older people coming from all different areas.  I thought for sure my MIL would end up sick, but she didn't.  As far as I know, no one did.  Of course, we were just very lucky.  DH and I did not participate in much of it and I know it was very hard on him to do that.  

I hope you and your family all stay healthy.

 

My dh and kids and I got covid from an exposure at my mother in laws funeral in mid december. (I got sick and they got it from me) That was another small family only funeral too...

We'd been so careful up till that funeral.

I just really really don't want my dad and sweet stepmom to get sick. They are both 64, so it may be another little bit before they can get vaccinated.

[Ausmumof3]

I realise this is more personal experience thread than data but this from a few days ago is relevant to the discussion about universities I think.  Some universities may be doing it well but in general they seem to have been associated with an increase in Covid when they reopened.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7001a4.htm?s_cid=mm7001a4_w
 

[regentrude]

59 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

The problem has been that anyone who has affiliation with the university is counted as a university case. 

yes, and that makes no sense.

[Bootsie]

1 hour ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I realise this is more personal experience thread than data but this from a few days ago is relevant to the discussion about universities I think.  Some universities may be doing it well but in general they seem to have been associated with an increase in Covid when they reopened.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7001a4.htm?s_cid=mm7001a4_w
 

I haven't been through this article thoroughly, but it seems to be saying that in the county where there was in-person instruction (which that definition varied so much from school-to-school I don't know that it is very meaningful) the rate of COVID  increased.  But, this does not mean that the university being open lead to an increase in COVID overall or that there was more spread in society--it may have just concentrated spread to certain counties.  .  If you have young people who, because of their stage in life tend to be out and about more, and have more exposure, and then you put large groups of them in a population that is being frequently tested, you are going to get a high rate in that population.  

It is like saying red balls are more likely to have chipped paint than blue balls because of the paint quality.  Now, lets disproportionately put red balls in particular bags (students going to a university county)--look, the percentage of balls in those bags have higher rates of chipped paint--and then concluding it is the BAGS causing the chipped paint.  

 

[Ausmumof3]

34 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

I haven't been through this article thoroughly, but it seems to be saying that in the county where there was in-person instruction (which that definition varied so much from school-to-school I don't know that it is very meaningful) the rate of COVID  increased.  But, this does not mean that the university being open lead to an increase in COVID overall or that there was more spread in society--it may have just concentrated spread to certain counties.  .  If you have young people who, because of their stage in life tend to be out and about more, and have more exposure, and then you put large groups of them in a population that is being frequently tested, you are going to get a high rate in that population.  

It is like saying red balls are more likely to have chipped paint than blue balls because of the paint quality.  Now, lets disproportionately put red balls in particular bags (students going to a university county)--look, the percentage of balls in those bags have higher rates of chipped paint--and then concluding it is the BAGS causing the chipped paint.  

 

But presumably gathering a large group of young people together is an inevitable part of in person University?

[Bootsie]

3 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

But presumably gathering a large group of young people together is an inevitable part of in person University?

Yes, but then you are oversampling young people in that county.  Without controlling for demographic changes in the county brought on by the gathering of young people you cannot really draw conclusions.  If Ann, Bill, and and Cindy are college-aged and more likely to get COVID because of their age than the general population, then you put the three in a college county, the county will have a higher reported COVID rate because those three cases are being reported in the college count rather than in those three young people's home county.  There may not be any more COVID spread in society, it is just more likely to be concentrated in particular counties (which could be good or bad from society's perspective.

[Ausmumof3]

23 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

Yes, but then you are oversampling young people in that county.  Without controlling for demographic changes in the county brought on by the gathering of young people you cannot really draw conclusions.  If Ann, Bill, and and Cindy are college-aged and more likely to get COVID because of their age than the general population, then you put the three in a college county, the county will have a higher reported COVID rate because those three cases are being reported in the college count rather than in those three young people's home county.  There may not be any more COVID spread in society, it is just more likely to be concentrated in particular counties (which could be good or bad from society's perspective.

But aren’t young people typically testing positive at a lower rate because they’re less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to seek testing?  They did a fair bit of controlling for variables in there.

 

Edited to add this quote from the article 

“In the matched analysis, a regression-based difference-in-difference approach^§§ was used to quantify the impact of in-person instruction on COVID-19 incidence, with and without adjustment for transient student populations,^¶¶ and percentage test positivity.”

Edited January 17, 2021 by Ausmumof3

[Bootsie]

53 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

But aren’t young people typically testing positive at a lower rate because they’re less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to seek testing?  They did a fair bit of controlling for variables in there.

 

Edited to add this quote from the article 

“In the matched analysis, a regression-based difference-in-difference approach^§§ was used to quantify the impact of in-person instruction on COVID-19 incidence, with and without adjustment for transient student populations,^¶¶ and percentage test positivity.”

According the the CDC the 18-24 year old bracket has consistently seen the most cases per 100,000 people since June. COVID-19 Stats: COVID-19 Incidence, by Age Group — United States, March 1–November 14, 2020 | MMWR (cdc.gov)  (with 25-44 year old age group next). 

The adjustment for transient student population was that the population size of the county was increased (to get a case/100,000) but I do not see anywhere that there was an adjustment for the demographics of the population.   The composition of a college county probably changes when 25,000 students come to town.  

[Lecka]

Bootsie — the local college here has expedited testing on-site — I wondered if there was something like that.  Thanks for responding — I was curious 🙂

 

[Ausmumof3]

4 hours ago, Bootsie said:

According the the CDC the 18-24 year old bracket has consistently seen the most cases per 100,000 people since June. COVID-19 Stats: COVID-19 Incidence, by Age Group — United States, March 1–November 14, 2020 | MMWR (cdc.gov)  (with 25-44 year old age group next). 

The adjustment for transient student population was that the population size of the county was increased (to get a case/100,000) but I do not see anywhere that there was an adjustment for the demographics of the population.   The composition of a college county probably changes when 25,000 students come to town.  

Huh interesting.  I don’t know that age were testing positive at a higher rate (although it makes sense).

[Laura Corin]

The university where I work has had fewer cases proportionately than the rest of the county. Lectures were online but tutorials were in person,  distanced and masked for most of last semester.  There is a high proportion of overseas students though, which also meant considerable compulsory self-isolation at the beginning of the semester.

[Amy Gen]

Good news here. My son recovered from his illness after 12 hours, and his COVID test just came back negative. 
 

I’m glad we can go back to the pool on Tuesday. 

[fairfarmhand]

ANNNNDDDD....

Dad texted me this morning that my stepmom's sister in law tested positive on Saturday. After she sat on the sofa at the funeral home next to my stepmom.

So far, dad and stepmom both feel fine, but my kids have a shortage of grandparents. My mom is gone, my dh's mother and father are both gone. my mother died at 54, dh's dad at age 62, his mother at age 66. This is scary. Dad and stepmom are both 64.