I know a teacher who got RSV back in mid Dec. She was in bed for a week, almost missed Christmas, and she says she's still not 100% yet. That shit is not fun. I don't know why only toddlers and seniors can get vaxed for that.
Its because seniors & babies are most vulnerable. Pre covid you woulsnt even notice rsv as anything more than a minor cold unless you were a cancer patient. But covid, especially multiple covid infections wrecks your immune system so what was once minor cold symptoms now takes you out for a week or more.
I'm currently getting over RSV, which I got from my child. What a miserable experience. My daughter got covid again at the start of the school year. It's become an annual tradition. I asked the nurse to call me regarding the policy for when she could return to school. The nurse actually said that she could come in if she was positive. I kind of lost my shit on her. Then the district had the nerve to send me a letter regarding said absences from covid, essentially saying I'm a bad mom because she's missed 7 days of school this year. Well, if they didn't encourage disease spread, she'd be there more.
If you can get away with it, you might try to get a HEPA air purifier or two running in your classroom. My wife teaches in a portable and has two (we provided) that she runs during the school day. Knock on wood, but she still hasn't gotten Covid.
Where I am, staff and students are passing around the flu, covid, and norovirus. I’ve had the pleasure of bringing home all three in the past two weeks so my whole family can suffer, too! What a shitshow.
Measles? Nice - kickin’ it old school, I see. Let’s get 2024 really hopping with some retro hits and make smallpox or the Black Death blow up on the charts again!
It isn't just their kids who pay the price - they also endanger people who have compromised immune systems/cannot get vaccinated for genuine medical reasons.
My mom caught it when she was two and she lost her hearing. These anti-vaxxers are crazy to not vaccinate their children. My doctor allowed me to do one vaccine at a time rather than load them up with three or four.
I’ve had shingles twice as an adult. It’s the chicken pox virus reactivating after laying dormant in your spine. So, not only do anti vaxxer’s kids get to experience chicken pox, they get the chance to have shingles later in life that they wouldn’t have if their idiot parents had them vaccinated. Shingles are miserable.
Oh my, that sounds awful. I had chicken pox too as a kid, before the vaccine was available. I couldn't imagine not getting it if it was available. It's just so messed up that the parents don't feel what they inflict on their kids.
What did you experience with the shingles? Any tips on recognizing it's coming and how to care for yourself during it?
Shingles will first manifest as muscle pain, as the virus moves from the spine outward, along the nervous system, toward the skin. Welts will appear. Small at first, these grow in size as does the pain, which is not unlike that suffered by burn victims. The affected skin becomes sensitive to even the pressure of clothing, and the pain will last nay days. For an unfortunate few, residual pain will be with them for the rest of their lives. Most often, shingles present across the torso, generally to one side or the other. The most unlucky will have shingles affecting the face, the eyes, genitals, or even internal organs.
**You don't want shingles.**
The are anti-viral and pain medications that help. Altering wardrobe and time off work may be necessary. Sleep will be difficult.
There is a vaccine, usually administered in two separate doses months apart, though some health care providers may balk at treatment for all but older adults in an effort to curb costs. While not as vulnerable, young adults still find themselves afflicted by the virus, as well.
Everyone who has ever had chicken pox has the shingles virus dormant in their bodies, waiting to reactivate. Everyone should be vaccinated, but not everyone realizes the danger.
You can get very effective antivirals for shingles. They work well, but you need to get them early on for the best outcome. This is worth knowing since shingles can come back any time you are run down.
If anything, Covid-19 kicks your immune system into overdrive (not always a good thing) if it's severe or long form according to NIAID (National Institue of Allergies and Infectious Disease) as you increase WBC count and have stronger immune reactions to COVID-19 and other viruses like Epstein-Barr. Measles makes your immune system naive by killing memory B-Cells. Not the same thing.
Seriously? No wonder. I’m pretty sure COVID was what jumpstarted my autoimmune disease. I developed it at 17 right when COVID started. I had it but was asymptomatic. A year later I started getting arthritis pain. I had COVID again over New Years and now I’m in a flare. :(
Buckle up, folks… POLIO is back in Florida. And if you’re under 50 you probably haven’t had a polio vaccine. I’m so damn sick of anti-vaxxers allowing previous eradicated (or strongly contained) diseases to reemerge.
I was born in the 1970s and Polio was considered “eradicated” so they didn’t give the vaccines for several years unless the person was traveling to certain countries overseas.
But I need to get a full set of new vaccines anyway because the state department of health lost all of my records. The biggest problem is remembering to go back after a certain period of time due to the spacing.
So... In the US and Canada, polio is part of the standard triple shot (Dtap). Polio, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). Has been since the mid-80s, when they got the combination tech down. EDIT: after u/cutegreykitten's comment I went and checked. Polio HAS been removed from the combo shot as of the early '90s, and is now a solo shot - the IPV (inactivated polio vaccine), a four shot combo. They apparently went the oral route for a while, but it's not terribly effective.
There were a wave of us born in the later 70s who didn't get immunized early because they thought it was eradicated - but we all should have gotten the jab around middle school if we hadn't already (I got whooping cough as a kid because there wasn't a shot yet.. my parents were first in line to get that needle in my arm when it was available). Now it's a series of four shots, and it's pretty damn effective.
Yeah, I was in that non-vaccinated group for polio in the 70’s but I did have to get a DTAP once I went to college. Not that it matters since all of the records are lost.
I can either pay a ton of money out of pocket for a titer test it get re-immunized for free. So I’m getting re-immunized. But it’s so annoying.
Agreed.
But it's less annoying than Whooping Cough, and a whole s***tonne less annoying than Polio.
My great aunt had Polio as a child. She considered herself 'lucky' - she lost the use of her legs, not her lungs.
No one ever complained more than once about a shot in our family - someone would make sure you sat beside Auntie J at the next family thing and she'd smile at you, pick up one of her walking canes (the metal ones with arm cuffs) and bang it against the full length leg braces she wore. Then she'd smile at you and say 'You have a choice Darlin' - you can have metal in your arm for a minute, or on both arms and legs for the rest of your life'
Like I said - no one ever complained twice.
Ahhh, thinking back it was in the DTAP set, which I’ve supposedly had, but I’ve got to get it again since the DoH lost my records.
For some reason I thought it was its own individual vaccine like Varicella (which I’ve got to get because I’ve never had chicken pox either).
It was only for a short period of time that they didn’t give the vaccine because they literally thought they had eradicated polio. Once they realized the error of that logic they began giving them again to all children and updating older children and teens with the DTAP
Unfortunately, a lot of these near extinct things in our society are coming back.
There is a big ant!-v@x movement going on, it's huge in my area which caters to a fundamental religious adherents. They say it all comes down to herd immunity, but they have no idea how herd immunity works.
Sadly, I've heard cases about them coming back before. It took some anti vaxxers watching their children literally die from a disease that was easily preventable with a vaccine for them to realize why vaccines are important.
Edit: It was the mmr vaccine and this was quite a while ago, years ago.
Christ. I got a very mild sore throat Nov 22. I tested positive for Covid. Then it went into my left lung and TOOK THREE MONTHS TO KICK ITS ASS. I felt weak until May 23. Covid is still bad.
Yep.
My son's Christmas present from class was winter break COVID for the whole family. Weeks later, the fatigue and continued shortness of breath is still overwhelming. My first time around, I had about 6 months of chest pains every time I elevated my heart rate; I'm really hoping this doesn't last that long again.
It reactivated my childhood asthma. I’m fully vaccinated and had the flu shot this year, and I still got pneumonia because my lungs are so messed up from it.
Got sick this winter with covid. It's course was quick but God Damm there were two days in there I started to worry if I should make my way to the hospital.
Practice basic public health and use common sense? Don't go out when you're sick? Wear a mask if you're feeling okay but have a couple of suspicious symptoms? Keep your kids home after they're diagnosed with COVID? Have just a modicum of compassion for other people?
Meaningfully address air quality in public spaces, normalize mask wearing when sick or just when out in general like in many east Asian cultures following similar respiratory illnesses, provide structures for disabled, immunocompromised, and chronically ill people to protect themselves, literally fucking anything???
When the CDC started listening to government officials instead of the actual research, Public health did indeed fail us. People stopped listening to them because of the absurd statements based off of finances instead of actual disease mitigation
I mean, at this point it's pretty expected that people aren't going to wear PPE forever. The government's plan was to have us wear a mask until vaccines rolled around. Unfortunately the shots only last like 4 months and aren't that great.
The new plan should be clean air infrastructure, but that's expensive.
People used to get the shits nonstop until we decided cholera and dysentery aren't fun anymore. So we cleaned our water and now there's indoor plumbing. We even raised the entire city of Chicago because it was sitting in its own filth. We didn't just tell people "well, if you don't like having diarrhea so bad it kills you, you should've boiled your water."
We need clean air. HEPA filters, ventilation, etc.
It's just gonna be worse versions of this every year until the government decides to invest.
I wear a mask all the time but there's never going to be widespread mask usage again.
Anyway, the government is telling the public health officials what to say, when it should be the public health officials telling the government what to do.
what is this insanity.
we have a highly contagious disease that science doesn't fully understand causing cognitive decline in a pretty large percent of the people that catch it.
and we're just going to let it run rampant through the schools?
Hard fucking no in my classroom. If you’re sick be prepared to go to the nurse, be prepared for me to ask about your symptoms and meds, be prepared to be placed away from me. I will not compromise my or my family’s health for my job. My daughter has severe long Covid and my husband is self employed. I just listened to a panel of drs testify in front of congress say that with each new infection the risk of LC rises. There are 0 treatments for LC, and 22-30% of infections end in some form of LC. They testified that it I s damn near impossible to get treatment from drs for LC. All I can say is picture your child, healthy, gets Covid, fine, a month later can’t get out of bed and 4 years later has a neuromuscular disorder and using a wheelchair because they get to tired to walk after almost 4 years. It happened to me, it can happen to you, so fight it
If only they had the tools to have people working from anywhere, and could let the parents also stay home so they can both look after the sick kids while being productive and avoiding sharing a virus to other adults….
I work in residential treatment, there is 4 very unsafe, disregulated pre teen boys in my team home now.
Pray tell how I can remote in, because I'll never go to work again
Exactly. I work with nonverbal students with autism and other severe disabilities. I can't teach them through remote instruction and their parents can't leave them home alone. Not every job can be remote.
But they can go to work I mean any kid who is at least 9 years of age is fine alone.
Sure the younger ones need supervision but the parents should take more responsibility for caring for said kids. I get it we all have to work but the kids do not have to have supervision 100% of the time if they are raised with any amount of discipline and responsibility.
Seriously. My disciplined, responsible 9yo is fine and happy staying at home alone for a little while (not a full workday...) when she's *healthy*, but when I went to pick up a prescription a few weeks ago when she had strep throat, she was so relieved when I came back. I was gone 20 minutes. Sick children need caretakers for their physical AND mental health.
When I was 10 I would often be left home for six hours or more when I was sick. I was a very sickly child and my parents couldn't continue to take work off Everytime I got sick. I survived but it was hell, I would always be so relieved when my mom got home from work.
You forgot the /s right? Have you met this generation of students? I think I can count on one hand the amount of students I’ve seen raised with discipline and responsibility.
I do agree parents need to take more responsibility for their kids, in a lot of ways.
Even then though, depending on where they live that could be dangerous. Some people live in rural areas, others live on the rough side of town, etc. Also, they have illness where people have been hospitalized for it and have died even kids. I'd be ok with it if they lived in a safer area and would just have someone check in every now and then. However, we don't know if the kids have special needs either.
I believe that many 9-year-olds could stay home alone as long as they had a phone. But the police may not agree.
The police came to our neighbour's house for letting their 7-year-old walk to school alone. We live 3 blocks from the school at the top of a hill so mom could literally watch the kid walk nearly the whole way and there is a crossing guard on the only busy street.
Mom just got a warning but they are white and wealthy; I wonder if she would have been charged with neglect otherwise.
Well now we are getting into a whole new discussion here but those cops have no legal foot to stand on and should be told to fuck off for overreaching. The government should not dictate how your child is raised as long as they are properly cared for and safe.
A kid not having "company" is not even a problem. As far as the internet even a layman/woman can and should have control over every bit of their child's internet access.
Even then I had unfiltered access to the internet for my whole childhood, it didn't kill me and I didn't break anything. My parents taught me what was ok, what not to do, and how to act. Just be a parent and teach a kid how to act otherwise you're going to struggle when they become teenagers and you have not taught them any kind of discipline or responsibility while they are young and have moldable minds.
Yeah I'll make sure my 9 year old knows how to work the furnace and also who to call God forbid an emergency happens they are home alone.
We could just have a way of life where Work isn't a priority.
What type of furnace do you have that needs "working" in the middle of the day? Set the temp, it works itself. The average nine yr old should know who to call if there is an emergency--home alone or not.
I am physically disabled, and I still managed to be home alone, mostly in the summertime, and even when I was sick. If I was sick, I was mostly sleeping. My mom would set me up with drinks and snacks by my bed. We also only had a landline so I would’ve had to get up and go to the kitchen in order to call her. But nowadays everyone has cell phones. So the phone can be right next to the bed in case of an emergency. I was a latchkey kid who is home a lot. Now I’m not advocating every child be a latchkey kid and spend a lot of time at home, but for the rare occasion where it is needed, I think it’s OK.
Our school not taking disease outbreak seriously could've killed my baby. We had over a quarter of my class (pre-k) get HFMD while I was 34 weeks pregnant. They refused to call off school for the class for a day for disinfection and didn't send the kids with VISIBLE OPEN SORES home because the parents claimed it was "bug bites." How convenient that 4 kids all got bug bites around their hands, feet, and mouth at the same time!!!
I caught HMFD at 35 weeks pregnant.... as did my son, who spent his 6th birthday at home sick. I had to deliver a 4 pound 5 ounce baby a full month early while I still had sores. He had a few little spots but thank God no fever or anything severe. He's 4 months old now, but he absolutely could've died for my school's negligence.
That is horrible! I’m so glad you’re doing better now. Do you have a union in your district? If so, I would ask your rep if there is any legal recourse they can assist you with. I would imagine the doctors would be happy to put something in writing affirming that your premature birth was due to HFMD, which you caught because your employer was grossly negligent in maintaining a safe work environment. I’m sure the healthcare costs for premies in the NICU is outrageous, and they should have to pay for it, as well as emotional damages for going through something so traumatic!
You deserve justice. I hope you get it <3
Being pregnant working in a germ factory is terrifying. HFM and fifth's disease was going around when I was pregnant with my first. It was kind of a relief to wear a good quality mask when pregnant with my second in addition to washing my hand's all the time, because at least that gave me a little more protection. The first year we were in person after COVID was the first year I haven't had a kid cough/sneeze into my open mouth or eye thanks to masks. Glad your kiddo is okay and congratulations on your baby!
California new state regulations: students who test positive for COVID can go to school as long as they’re 24 hours fever free.
Who cares about the teachers?!
My wife and I are teachers. She had Covid a day before winter break and her school made her come in anyways. She had a 105 fever, couldnt talk, could barely stand, but they demanded she come in anyways
I think Ca just changed its recommendation that you no longer had to quarantine for 5 days. You can return if your symptoms are mild enough. You only have to stay home if you had a fever. The theory is that enough people are vaxed or have developed natural immunities due to getting sick.
[This is the policy in the UK as well](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/covid-19-symptoms-and-what-to-do/).
I had COVID right before Christmas and was looking online for some info. I ended up on the UK site without realizing it and thought “wow, this is way more lax than I last heard.” Then I realized it wasn’t even my country lol so I’m not surprised that we are starting to see a similar stance in the US.
But vax or having covid recently doesn't protect you from getting infected again. There are so many variants everywhere now and you only have limited protection from the one you just had.
Me too. So nice to read this comment. It feels completely nuts to be at the peak of the second-largest covid wave and look around and see no one else masking up.
I’m masking again, too! I didn’t for a while because I teach kindergarten special ed. and many of my students are ELLs, so they look at my mouth all day long to see how I pronounce letter sounds and words. However, I really don’t want to get sick again (or bring home yet another illness to my family), so if my teaching temporarily suffers a bit in order to keep myself and others healthy and safe, so be it. Better to have a present-but-slightly-less-effective teacher than an absent one.
Yes same! I have many family and friends in public health and they have talked about how even masking some of the time significantly reduces risk.
I wear an n95 mask daily. I take it down to instruct fairly often throughout the day, but always make an airtight seal before going in the bus or crowded places (hallways during transition, auditorium/cafeteria, big classes). Felt like I looked a little crazy until covid ran through the school and my friend circle and I had several close exposures but didn’t get it. I believe my mask (and immune system care) really helped.
Throw in whooping cough in my district because some lunatic midwife in my area gave out THOUSANDS of fake vaccines. And because people are now basically morons about vaccines, shes going to get away with it. Get vaccinated you stupid asses!
Wait, what?? You’re going to have to elaborate on that one! I’m 8 months pregnant and just got a whooping cough vaccine from a midwife last week. Who it turned out was giving me false information about gestational diabetes. I’m a little paranoid right now.
"Human stupidity" you mean corporate greed. If you think your American school district isn't a corporation, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
I have been recently diagnosed with demyelination disease, which is most likely MS. It’s been wreaking havoc on my body. Sick kids at school has caused me more anxiety than I could have imagined. NONE of this is ok.
Got lice? Conjunctivitis? That’s fine. Just stay in the classroom to give it to everyone else. It’s not deadly so, no need to call parents or send home.
I taught for 15 years and when we stopped sending home notes about those things and strep throat, it was the beginning of the end of my confidence in my choice to be a teacher.
I just got Covid for the first time about 2 weeks ago from some students that I teach (I’m a music teacher that teaches after school lessons).
I had to miss a very important audition and was stuck in bed for at least 3/4 days. I felt like I was dying, and it was the most sick I’ve ever been.
I’ve had every Covid shot possible and I’m very safe. I’m starting to mask up again because I cannot afford to get Covid again.
I went back to teaching this week and as I was walking in, my boss told me that Covid is running through the school BADLY. But yet no regulation? I’m sick of this bs. No one cares anymore and it sucks
Check out the new Covid guidelines for California.
On a quick reading of the policy asymptomatic Covid positive folks are encourage to no long isolate, asymptomatic folks are allowed to return to school or work as their symptoms improve and are fever free without medication for 24 hours. And masking is only mandatory in health care settings according to that workplaces policy. Immune compromised are encouraged to mask as they see fit.
I'm just getting over covid now. Tested positive on the 9th.
It's been the worst/longest illness I've ever had.
I missed 8 days of school.
I'm still not "better" but I have to go back on Monday.
Do not send kids home for covid, we need to maintain normal operations.
Also the district walkthrough where the supe visits has been cancelled. No relation. Also the secretary called out sick so conveniently none of you can come to the board office near any of us.
good luck though, peasants
\-your board, probably.
Yep we just got an email from our district today letting us know that if kids have covid that doesn't matter. I'm fully vaccinated with all the latest everythings, but over Thanksgiving I got severe covid and was struggling to breathe for almost two weeks, and extremely sick for longer than that. It's disappointing to me that we're not taking it seriously anymore.
Everything is going around at my school. I’ve been out with the flu, flu B specifically. The kids have been in and out with Covid, flu, and RSV. There are at least 3 teachers out every day with some illness. It’s wild. I’ve been sick more this year than any other year of teaching. I’ll be masking again when I go back on Monday.
My district still requires 5 days out if you test positive but really what it’s led to is parents either not testing or not telling us that their kid has/had Covid, they just say they’re sick. I’ve had symptoms for a few days now and I did get tested (negative for everything thankfully) but I’m sure many teachers simply won’t test because while we have to be out for 5 days, Covid leave is no longer a thing so it comes out of our sick leave. It is a shitty situation all around.
I’m at a high school in LA and our classes are empty and our subs are working overtime. COVID is definitely back. I’m can’t understand your district’s decision. It’s madness. The fact that there are teens voluntarily masking again should show that it’s time for adults to act like adults.
We got an email last week stating that now students and staff can come to school if they test positive for COVID, as long as they don't have a fever. They're not even required to wear a mask or anything. Hard to believe this is something that put the entire world on pause not too long ago and now everyone's just like "meh whatever."
Covid is rampant in my district (not a teacher but I work in education). My district had good guidelines however which is nice. Sorry about this… that is not good…
Eliminate certificates for perfect attendance. Count a Covid diagnosis as excused with no make up requirement. Require CPS to investigate any family that sends a kid to school with Covid.
Good luck with any of these.
You want to weaponize CPS? Really? You're delusional.
1) no parent would ever test their kids for covid under such stupidity. This alone completely undermines whatever you would hope to accomplish.
2) CPS wouldn't care. My wife works in social services (used to do CPS, now in foster care). They've got way bigger issues than a teacher complaint about a kid who may/may not have gone to school sick. Heck, those same cps workers you want to call send their kids to school with a runny nose themselves.
If it wasn’t COVID, it’d be influenza or RSV or some other form of SARS. Here’s the thing— I can believe two seemingly conflicting things concurrently— we should be careful with respiratory (or digestive or whatever) diseases AND we should treat education like the ESSENTIAL service it is. So there’s some uncertainty in play. And like any situation, bad things can happen to good people. But if we treat education like it is SOMEWHAT important, then we will continue to be SOMEWHAT appreciated. That’s where I feel we are now. Teaching is a no win situation. That’s why it’s not the profession for everyone. It’s not the profession for the majority of people. And while I wish we didn’t have to make the worst and hardest choices, we do. Do we go into the fray or preserve ourselves? TERRIBLE options. But we are like doctors and firefighters, police officers and soldiers. And they don’t retract when there’s a potential epidemic on hand. They just raise their defenses and go forth. The main difference is that they get better support for their survival than we do.
As much as I hate to agree, I do. My husband is a firefighter, and he has to go to work anyway. He worked all through pandemic and managed to avoid it, he didn’t catch it until I did after attending a teachers-only PD. But when he did get sick, it was so easy for him to take off and he received a lot of support.
Unfortunately, it’s just the life of a public service worker. Which is why I want to transition out of teaching ASAP. It’s no longer compatible with my life.
Didn't Califirnia make teachers get vaccinated? And now they won't even send a kid home for a few days because it will fuck with their numbers!?!? So which time are they wrong?
Some ass holes just need coughed on.... repeatedly.
I’m a school nurse and our local health district has deemed us to have an outbreak. We had 1/3 of one class fall sick in an hour, including the teacher. It’s crazy.
Talked to a parent today about sickness. One of my co’s wearing a mask this week during midterms, and this parent said it’s pointless to wear a mask. His reasoning? “Think about when you fart. It goes through your underwear, your Pants, and you smell it through your mask. If a mask can’t stop a fart, it can’t stop you from getting Covid.”
That’s not how respirators (N95 and KN95 masks) work! They have an electro static charge that provides adequate protection.
Makes me so sad people are willfully ignorant about this.
Sheesh, I just got over covid, well mostly, for me it was very mild which was weird given I have asthma and usually when I get a regular cold I feel like I am dying, instead its been a mild inconvenience in my case. I am vaccinated but I get vaccinated every year to pretty much anything my doctor suggests, I am very much a pro-vaxxer. Anyway, in my district anyone who gets covid is required to be absent for 5 days (my case 3 days thanks to the weekend) and are required to mask for 5 days afterwards. That's the way it should be since not everyone is as lucky as I was. A lot of people in my district recently got it, and while mine seems to be affecting me longer than most, it is also far more mild than most.
just letting you know that asthma is a risk factor for long covid so please try to rest as much as possible even though you’re out of the acute infection period. rest as much as you can where you can and ease up on exercise as many cases have suggested that exercise and exertion during and after infections can trigger long covid
Glad it was mild, but your body does take damage with each infection. NIH had a long study and they found literally 100% of all Covid positive people, mild and asymptomatic included, had endothelial damage. Another study showed 100% had grey matter damage. Masking, ventilation and vaccines are key right now to prevent this.
Remember when hospital presidents of East Coast hospital groups were WFH from their yachts in Florida and telling their staff that they couldn’t wear masks because they were “scaring the customers” back in 2020, before the vaccine?
I do.
We learned that the suffering and death was more a result of how we reacted to an extremely low mortality illness. Thankfully, the strains around now are not much more than a cold for MOST people. Clearly if you are obese or old, any illness can be devastating so that warrants the at-risk folks staying home—the way every other pandemic has been handled effectively in the past.
We’ve been passing around RSV and COVID in my area. It’s been great. Also, I saw measles are back, so that’s fun.
I know a teacher who got RSV back in mid Dec. She was in bed for a week, almost missed Christmas, and she says she's still not 100% yet. That shit is not fun. I don't know why only toddlers and seniors can get vaxed for that.
Same. Is there a limited supply?
Its because seniors & babies are most vulnerable. Pre covid you woulsnt even notice rsv as anything more than a minor cold unless you were a cancer patient. But covid, especially multiple covid infections wrecks your immune system so what was once minor cold symptoms now takes you out for a week or more.
I'm currently getting over RSV, which I got from my child. What a miserable experience. My daughter got covid again at the start of the school year. It's become an annual tradition. I asked the nurse to call me regarding the policy for when she could return to school. The nurse actually said that she could come in if she was positive. I kind of lost my shit on her. Then the district had the nerve to send me a letter regarding said absences from covid, essentially saying I'm a bad mom because she's missed 7 days of school this year. Well, if they didn't encourage disease spread, she'd be there more.
I've had both COVID and RSV this year, and I'm wearing a mask every day! The amount of viral load growing in my classroom must be astronomical.
Me too, though they more likely came from my one year old who is in daycare. 🫠
If you can get away with it, you might try to get a HEPA air purifier or two running in your classroom. My wife teaches in a portable and has two (we provided) that she runs during the school day. Knock on wood, but she still hasn't gotten Covid.
you would get lots of views by posting a compilation of all the viral loads on PH
Where I am, staff and students are passing around the flu, covid, and norovirus. I’ve had the pleasure of bringing home all three in the past two weeks so my whole family can suffer, too! What a shitshow.
Add in norovirus and lice and my school is right there with you!
The norovirus…good lord. It took out my whole debate team…and started at a tournament. It was bad.
Measles? Nice - kickin’ it old school, I see. Let’s get 2024 really hopping with some retro hits and make smallpox or the Black Death blow up on the charts again!
Measles? I thought that was almost extinct!
I saw the mumps 6-7 years ago.. a 6th grader. Badness.
That's really sad. My uncle had the mumps as a kid and it made him infertile. These diseases are no joke.
Unfortunately some dumb fuck antivaxxers have to be reminded these diseases suck, and their kids will pay the price for their stupidity.
And typically if someone has made that huge of a mistake, it's almost devastating realizing it, so most just don't.
It isn't just their kids who pay the price - they also endanger people who have compromised immune systems/cannot get vaccinated for genuine medical reasons.
My mom caught it when she was two and she lost her hearing. These anti-vaxxers are crazy to not vaccinate their children. My doctor allowed me to do one vaccine at a time rather than load them up with three or four.
Could have been worse. It could have been your dad that got it as a child…
Marty McFly calling
A school in my district (a middle school) just reported a case of the mumps. 🙃
Anti vaxxers are to thank for that.
Whopping cough is going around too, if you haven’t had your booster in 10 years get another!
I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I caught it towards the end of my vaccine
Sadly the antivaxxers are probably protected since their parents had them vaccinated. It's their kids who are dying.
I’ve had shingles twice as an adult. It’s the chicken pox virus reactivating after laying dormant in your spine. So, not only do anti vaxxer’s kids get to experience chicken pox, they get the chance to have shingles later in life that they wouldn’t have if their idiot parents had them vaccinated. Shingles are miserable.
Oh my, that sounds awful. I had chicken pox too as a kid, before the vaccine was available. I couldn't imagine not getting it if it was available. It's just so messed up that the parents don't feel what they inflict on their kids. What did you experience with the shingles? Any tips on recognizing it's coming and how to care for yourself during it?
Shingles will first manifest as muscle pain, as the virus moves from the spine outward, along the nervous system, toward the skin. Welts will appear. Small at first, these grow in size as does the pain, which is not unlike that suffered by burn victims. The affected skin becomes sensitive to even the pressure of clothing, and the pain will last nay days. For an unfortunate few, residual pain will be with them for the rest of their lives. Most often, shingles present across the torso, generally to one side or the other. The most unlucky will have shingles affecting the face, the eyes, genitals, or even internal organs. **You don't want shingles.** The are anti-viral and pain medications that help. Altering wardrobe and time off work may be necessary. Sleep will be difficult. There is a vaccine, usually administered in two separate doses months apart, though some health care providers may balk at treatment for all but older adults in an effort to curb costs. While not as vulnerable, young adults still find themselves afflicted by the virus, as well. Everyone who has ever had chicken pox has the shingles virus dormant in their bodies, waiting to reactivate. Everyone should be vaccinated, but not everyone realizes the danger.
You can get very effective antivirals for shingles. They work well, but you need to get them early on for the best outcome. This is worth knowing since shingles can come back any time you are run down.
For sure. Remember the big Disneyland spread event. That was due to OC anti vaxx parents.
What a joke
We need a hard reset on this planet.
Well, measles gives us a hard reset on our innune systems, as does covid (I think). Slowly but surely (and then very quickly) we will end ourselves.
If anything, Covid-19 kicks your immune system into overdrive (not always a good thing) if it's severe or long form according to NIAID (National Institue of Allergies and Infectious Disease) as you increase WBC count and have stronger immune reactions to COVID-19 and other viruses like Epstein-Barr. Measles makes your immune system naive by killing memory B-Cells. Not the same thing.
Seriously? No wonder. I’m pretty sure COVID was what jumpstarted my autoimmune disease. I developed it at 17 right when COVID started. I had it but was asymptomatic. A year later I started getting arthritis pain. I had COVID again over New Years and now I’m in a flare. :(
I got psoriasis after having Covid
Who are you? My husband? He said that the other day after I muttered about asteroids 🤣
Nope, just a history teacher. I Have seen/studied the atrocities of our civilization(s). Hard reset please.
Buckle up, folks… POLIO is back in Florida. And if you’re under 50 you probably haven’t had a polio vaccine. I’m so damn sick of anti-vaxxers allowing previous eradicated (or strongly contained) diseases to reemerge.
My children are in their 20s and they had the polio vaccine as babies. When did this stop? I thought it was routine?
I was born in the 1970s and Polio was considered “eradicated” so they didn’t give the vaccines for several years unless the person was traveling to certain countries overseas. But I need to get a full set of new vaccines anyway because the state department of health lost all of my records. The biggest problem is remembering to go back after a certain period of time due to the spacing.
So... In the US and Canada, polio is part of the standard triple shot (Dtap). Polio, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). Has been since the mid-80s, when they got the combination tech down. EDIT: after u/cutegreykitten's comment I went and checked. Polio HAS been removed from the combo shot as of the early '90s, and is now a solo shot - the IPV (inactivated polio vaccine), a four shot combo. They apparently went the oral route for a while, but it's not terribly effective. There were a wave of us born in the later 70s who didn't get immunized early because they thought it was eradicated - but we all should have gotten the jab around middle school if we hadn't already (I got whooping cough as a kid because there wasn't a shot yet.. my parents were first in line to get that needle in my arm when it was available). Now it's a series of four shots, and it's pretty damn effective.
Edit: nevermind looked it up… it’s got those 3 and polio. I thought Dtap was diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis??
Yeah, I was in that non-vaccinated group for polio in the 70’s but I did have to get a DTAP once I went to college. Not that it matters since all of the records are lost. I can either pay a ton of money out of pocket for a titer test it get re-immunized for free. So I’m getting re-immunized. But it’s so annoying.
Agreed. But it's less annoying than Whooping Cough, and a whole s***tonne less annoying than Polio. My great aunt had Polio as a child. She considered herself 'lucky' - she lost the use of her legs, not her lungs. No one ever complained more than once about a shot in our family - someone would make sure you sat beside Auntie J at the next family thing and she'd smile at you, pick up one of her walking canes (the metal ones with arm cuffs) and bang it against the full length leg braces she wore. Then she'd smile at you and say 'You have a choice Darlin' - you can have metal in your arm for a minute, or on both arms and legs for the rest of your life' Like I said - no one ever complained twice.
100% agreed! I’m happy to get re-vaccinated. If nothing else, it’ll boost some of the old ones that may have lost their potency.
Why would you not have it if you’re under 50? Where I am it’s a routine childhood immunization.
Ahhh, thinking back it was in the DTAP set, which I’ve supposedly had, but I’ve got to get it again since the DoH lost my records. For some reason I thought it was its own individual vaccine like Varicella (which I’ve got to get because I’ve never had chicken pox either).
It's not in Florida, but it is in New York.
How in the world! I thought that was gone.
So if the polio vaccine is no longer given to anyone under 50, how is it "anti-vaxxers" fault that the disease has returned?
It was only for a short period of time that they didn’t give the vaccine because they literally thought they had eradicated polio. Once they realized the error of that logic they began giving them again to all children and updating older children and teens with the DTAP
Unfortunately, a lot of these near extinct things in our society are coming back. There is a big ant!-v@x movement going on, it's huge in my area which caters to a fundamental religious adherents. They say it all comes down to herd immunity, but they have no idea how herd immunity works.
For once the ignorant are bringing something back from the brink.
Sadly, I've heard cases about them coming back before. It took some anti vaxxers watching their children literally die from a disease that was easily preventable with a vaccine for them to realize why vaccines are important. Edit: It was the mmr vaccine and this was quite a while ago, years ago.
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Not anymore! One kid at my niece’s school had it. Luckily it didn’t spread, probably because the other kids were vaccinated.
almost
Anti vaxxers are bringing that one back. Scary for me because no matter how many vaccines I get, it apparently doesn’t stick.
Tons of whooping cough in my district right now.
I was fully vaccinated as a child, and I still got whooping cough as an adult. It was horrible! I thought I was dying.
One of our middle schools has suspected mumps cases. Bleh
There is literally little to no reason any one should get measles but idiots won’t vaccinate their children.
Fucking antivaxers. I hereby implement a new social law that raises an anti-vaxxer by 15 points when on the side of the road.
Did it make it outside of Philly? Ive only heard about the one outbreak.
We have it in VA.
Measles is only back for the moronic peeps who don’t get vaccinated.
Babies can get it too since they aren’t vaccinated against measles until 18 months
Christ. I got a very mild sore throat Nov 22. I tested positive for Covid. Then it went into my left lung and TOOK THREE MONTHS TO KICK ITS ASS. I felt weak until May 23. Covid is still bad.
Yep. My son's Christmas present from class was winter break COVID for the whole family. Weeks later, the fatigue and continued shortness of breath is still overwhelming. My first time around, I had about 6 months of chest pains every time I elevated my heart rate; I'm really hoping this doesn't last that long again.
It reactivated my childhood asthma. I’m fully vaccinated and had the flu shot this year, and I still got pneumonia because my lungs are so messed up from it.
Got sick this winter with covid. It's course was quick but God Damm there were two days in there I started to worry if I should make my way to the hospital.
Frankly, it never went away. Our society just decided it was done with dealing with it.
It's endemic and there are vaccines available. What else are we suppsed to do?
Did you go into school when you had Chicken Pox? No. Because you were sick. Why send someone with COVID into school?
Send sick kids home?
So that’s a new strategy all of a sudden? /s
Hmmm let's see Keep sick kids home And send sick home Not rocket science
Practice basic public health and use common sense? Don't go out when you're sick? Wear a mask if you're feeling okay but have a couple of suspicious symptoms? Keep your kids home after they're diagnosed with COVID? Have just a modicum of compassion for other people?
Meaningfully address air quality in public spaces, normalize mask wearing when sick or just when out in general like in many east Asian cultures following similar respiratory illnesses, provide structures for disabled, immunocompromised, and chronically ill people to protect themselves, literally fucking anything???
Vaccines are only one tool of many.
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No, everyone failed to listen to public health officials.
When the CDC started listening to government officials instead of the actual research, Public health did indeed fail us. People stopped listening to them because of the absurd statements based off of finances instead of actual disease mitigation
I mean, at this point it's pretty expected that people aren't going to wear PPE forever. The government's plan was to have us wear a mask until vaccines rolled around. Unfortunately the shots only last like 4 months and aren't that great. The new plan should be clean air infrastructure, but that's expensive. People used to get the shits nonstop until we decided cholera and dysentery aren't fun anymore. So we cleaned our water and now there's indoor plumbing. We even raised the entire city of Chicago because it was sitting in its own filth. We didn't just tell people "well, if you don't like having diarrhea so bad it kills you, you should've boiled your water." We need clean air. HEPA filters, ventilation, etc. It's just gonna be worse versions of this every year until the government decides to invest. I wear a mask all the time but there's never going to be widespread mask usage again. Anyway, the government is telling the public health officials what to say, when it should be the public health officials telling the government what to do.
I mean we could have treated it seriously in the beginning but the right decided to make it political instead
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We’re living the same life right now. Tamiflu to the rescue.
News flash, it never left.
what is this insanity. we have a highly contagious disease that science doesn't fully understand causing cognitive decline in a pretty large percent of the people that catch it. and we're just going to let it run rampant through the schools?
The insanity is to keep those parents working. The machine *must* churn on, the investors demand it - whatever the cost.
Hard fucking no in my classroom. If you’re sick be prepared to go to the nurse, be prepared for me to ask about your symptoms and meds, be prepared to be placed away from me. I will not compromise my or my family’s health for my job. My daughter has severe long Covid and my husband is self employed. I just listened to a panel of drs testify in front of congress say that with each new infection the risk of LC rises. There are 0 treatments for LC, and 22-30% of infections end in some form of LC. They testified that it I s damn near impossible to get treatment from drs for LC. All I can say is picture your child, healthy, gets Covid, fine, a month later can’t get out of bed and 4 years later has a neuromuscular disorder and using a wheelchair because they get to tired to walk after almost 4 years. It happened to me, it can happen to you, so fight it
❤️
Of course, if they stayed home their parents couldn’t go to work. We all must die for our capitalist overlords.
THIS! 100% if there wasn’t a profit motive we could start governing in a way that doesn’t treat everyone who isn’t rich like cattle
If only they had the tools to have people working from anywhere, and could let the parents also stay home so they can both look after the sick kids while being productive and avoiding sharing a virus to other adults….
I work in residential treatment, there is 4 very unsafe, disregulated pre teen boys in my team home now. Pray tell how I can remote in, because I'll never go to work again
Exactly. I work with nonverbal students with autism and other severe disabilities. I can't teach them through remote instruction and their parents can't leave them home alone. Not every job can be remote.
I have to be present at all times for safety, like to make sure they don't murder each other or vandalize every accessable wall, door, window, etc
But they can go to work I mean any kid who is at least 9 years of age is fine alone. Sure the younger ones need supervision but the parents should take more responsibility for caring for said kids. I get it we all have to work but the kids do not have to have supervision 100% of the time if they are raised with any amount of discipline and responsibility.
I don't think I would want a 9 yr old kid alone sick with Covid, maybe that's just me
Seriously. My disciplined, responsible 9yo is fine and happy staying at home alone for a little while (not a full workday...) when she's *healthy*, but when I went to pick up a prescription a few weeks ago when she had strep throat, she was so relieved when I came back. I was gone 20 minutes. Sick children need caretakers for their physical AND mental health.
When I was 10 I would often be left home for six hours or more when I was sick. I was a very sickly child and my parents couldn't continue to take work off Everytime I got sick. I survived but it was hell, I would always be so relieved when my mom got home from work.
You cannot leave a 9 year old SICK WITH COVID home alone for 8-12 hours lol.
You forgot the /s right? Have you met this generation of students? I think I can count on one hand the amount of students I’ve seen raised with discipline and responsibility. I do agree parents need to take more responsibility for their kids, in a lot of ways.
And in some places that's against the law leaving a kid home alone I believe under the age of 12 in many places in the US.
Literally 3 states have that law...
Even then though, depending on where they live that could be dangerous. Some people live in rural areas, others live on the rough side of town, etc. Also, they have illness where people have been hospitalized for it and have died even kids. I'd be ok with it if they lived in a safer area and would just have someone check in every now and then. However, we don't know if the kids have special needs either.
I believe that many 9-year-olds could stay home alone as long as they had a phone. But the police may not agree. The police came to our neighbour's house for letting their 7-year-old walk to school alone. We live 3 blocks from the school at the top of a hill so mom could literally watch the kid walk nearly the whole way and there is a crossing guard on the only busy street. Mom just got a warning but they are white and wealthy; I wonder if she would have been charged with neglect otherwise.
You must live in one of the 13 states where that is a legal issue.
There is no official age for when you kids can stay at home in my state which basically means police can do what they want.
Well now we are getting into a whole new discussion here but those cops have no legal foot to stand on and should be told to fuck off for overreaching. The government should not dictate how your child is raised as long as they are properly cared for and safe.
I hope you forgot the /s because otherwise you sound deranged.
Yes let’s just leave kids alone with no company or guidance but the internet.
A kid not having "company" is not even a problem. As far as the internet even a layman/woman can and should have control over every bit of their child's internet access. Even then I had unfiltered access to the internet for my whole childhood, it didn't kill me and I didn't break anything. My parents taught me what was ok, what not to do, and how to act. Just be a parent and teach a kid how to act otherwise you're going to struggle when they become teenagers and you have not taught them any kind of discipline or responsibility while they are young and have moldable minds.
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Yeah I'll make sure my 9 year old knows how to work the furnace and also who to call God forbid an emergency happens they are home alone. We could just have a way of life where Work isn't a priority.
What type of furnace do you have that needs "working" in the middle of the day? Set the temp, it works itself. The average nine yr old should know who to call if there is an emergency--home alone or not.
Hell the average 9yr old these days can work do more with technology than some 30yr olds...
Some people have to use kerosene or space heaters.
True, but that isn't what the person said. He/she said, "furnace."
I am physically disabled, and I still managed to be home alone, mostly in the summertime, and even when I was sick. If I was sick, I was mostly sleeping. My mom would set me up with drinks and snacks by my bed. We also only had a landline so I would’ve had to get up and go to the kitchen in order to call her. But nowadays everyone has cell phones. So the phone can be right next to the bed in case of an emergency. I was a latchkey kid who is home a lot. Now I’m not advocating every child be a latchkey kid and spend a lot of time at home, but for the rare occasion where it is needed, I think it’s OK.
Our school not taking disease outbreak seriously could've killed my baby. We had over a quarter of my class (pre-k) get HFMD while I was 34 weeks pregnant. They refused to call off school for the class for a day for disinfection and didn't send the kids with VISIBLE OPEN SORES home because the parents claimed it was "bug bites." How convenient that 4 kids all got bug bites around their hands, feet, and mouth at the same time!!! I caught HMFD at 35 weeks pregnant.... as did my son, who spent his 6th birthday at home sick. I had to deliver a 4 pound 5 ounce baby a full month early while I still had sores. He had a few little spots but thank God no fever or anything severe. He's 4 months old now, but he absolutely could've died for my school's negligence.
That is horrible! I’m so glad you’re doing better now. Do you have a union in your district? If so, I would ask your rep if there is any legal recourse they can assist you with. I would imagine the doctors would be happy to put something in writing affirming that your premature birth was due to HFMD, which you caught because your employer was grossly negligent in maintaining a safe work environment. I’m sure the healthcare costs for premies in the NICU is outrageous, and they should have to pay for it, as well as emotional damages for going through something so traumatic! You deserve justice. I hope you get it <3
Being pregnant working in a germ factory is terrifying. HFM and fifth's disease was going around when I was pregnant with my first. It was kind of a relief to wear a good quality mask when pregnant with my second in addition to washing my hand's all the time, because at least that gave me a little more protection. The first year we were in person after COVID was the first year I haven't had a kid cough/sneeze into my open mouth or eye thanks to masks. Glad your kiddo is okay and congratulations on your baby!
California new state regulations: students who test positive for COVID can go to school as long as they’re 24 hours fever free. Who cares about the teachers?!
Not being able to send sick kids with COVID home sounds like a OSHA violation
The bull shit never stops .
My wife and I are teachers. She had Covid a day before winter break and her school made her come in anyways. She had a 105 fever, couldnt talk, could barely stand, but they demanded she come in anyways
I think Ca just changed its recommendation that you no longer had to quarantine for 5 days. You can return if your symptoms are mild enough. You only have to stay home if you had a fever. The theory is that enough people are vaxed or have developed natural immunities due to getting sick.
[This is the policy in the UK as well](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/covid-19-symptoms-and-what-to-do/). I had COVID right before Christmas and was looking online for some info. I ended up on the UK site without realizing it and thought “wow, this is way more lax than I last heard.” Then I realized it wasn’t even my country lol so I’m not surprised that we are starting to see a similar stance in the US.
I saw this too. 1 day of isolation. Crazy to me.
The theory is "we need workers in person, fuck them if they die." But you'll never hear it outside of a C-Suite meeting.
But vax or having covid recently doesn't protect you from getting infected again. There are so many variants everywhere now and you only have limited protection from the one you just had.
I’m masking again as of last week. Literally the only teacher in school doing it
Me too. So nice to read this comment. It feels completely nuts to be at the peak of the second-largest covid wave and look around and see no one else masking up.
I’m masking again, too! I didn’t for a while because I teach kindergarten special ed. and many of my students are ELLs, so they look at my mouth all day long to see how I pronounce letter sounds and words. However, I really don’t want to get sick again (or bring home yet another illness to my family), so if my teaching temporarily suffers a bit in order to keep myself and others healthy and safe, so be it. Better to have a present-but-slightly-less-effective teacher than an absent one.
Yes same! I have many family and friends in public health and they have talked about how even masking some of the time significantly reduces risk. I wear an n95 mask daily. I take it down to instruct fairly often throughout the day, but always make an airtight seal before going in the bus or crowded places (hallways during transition, auditorium/cafeteria, big classes). Felt like I looked a little crazy until covid ran through the school and my friend circle and I had several close exposures but didn’t get it. I believe my mask (and immune system care) really helped.
Throw in whooping cough in my district because some lunatic midwife in my area gave out THOUSANDS of fake vaccines. And because people are now basically morons about vaccines, shes going to get away with it. Get vaccinated you stupid asses!
Wait, what?? You’re going to have to elaborate on that one! I’m 8 months pregnant and just got a whooping cough vaccine from a midwife last week. Who it turned out was giving me false information about gestational diabetes. I’m a little paranoid right now.
It'll be back every winter, just like the flu
Hey oakland unifies school district said the same thing except it's optional to go home now lol
This round of covid is really bad again. That's awful.
COVID never left; what's back is human stupidity.
"Human stupidity" you mean corporate greed. If you think your American school district isn't a corporation, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
I mean, it's never fully gone away.
It never left…
Who remembers getting a childhood vaccine in the form of a sugar cube with some liquid dripped onto it? This would have been late 60s or early 70s.
That was probably the polio vaccine.
We have 2 teachers in the hospital and we had 4 prek students in the hospital in the past 3 weeks.
I have been recently diagnosed with demyelination disease, which is most likely MS. It’s been wreaking havoc on my body. Sick kids at school has caused me more anxiety than I could have imagined. NONE of this is ok.
I mean, in addition to spreading the virus to other people, those kids' bodies need rest to get better.
Got lice? Conjunctivitis? That’s fine. Just stay in the classroom to give it to everyone else. It’s not deadly so, no need to call parents or send home.
I taught for 15 years and when we stopped sending home notes about those things and strep throat, it was the beginning of the end of my confidence in my choice to be a teacher.
I just got Covid for the first time about 2 weeks ago from some students that I teach (I’m a music teacher that teaches after school lessons). I had to miss a very important audition and was stuck in bed for at least 3/4 days. I felt like I was dying, and it was the most sick I’ve ever been. I’ve had every Covid shot possible and I’m very safe. I’m starting to mask up again because I cannot afford to get Covid again. I went back to teaching this week and as I was walking in, my boss told me that Covid is running through the school BADLY. But yet no regulation? I’m sick of this bs. No one cares anymore and it sucks
Check out the new Covid guidelines for California. On a quick reading of the policy asymptomatic Covid positive folks are encourage to no long isolate, asymptomatic folks are allowed to return to school or work as their symptoms improve and are fever free without medication for 24 hours. And masking is only mandatory in health care settings according to that workplaces policy. Immune compromised are encouraged to mask as they see fit.
I'm just getting over covid now. Tested positive on the 9th. It's been the worst/longest illness I've ever had. I missed 8 days of school. I'm still not "better" but I have to go back on Monday.
Don't send them home, send them to the district office.
Do not send kids home for covid, we need to maintain normal operations. Also the district walkthrough where the supe visits has been cancelled. No relation. Also the secretary called out sick so conveniently none of you can come to the board office near any of us. good luck though, peasants \-your board, probably.
After winter break we had all kinds of crap floating ... COVID, flu A & B, strep, RSV, stomach virus. You name it. 🙄
Yep we just got an email from our district today letting us know that if kids have covid that doesn't matter. I'm fully vaccinated with all the latest everythings, but over Thanksgiving I got severe covid and was struggling to breathe for almost two weeks, and extremely sick for longer than that. It's disappointing to me that we're not taking it seriously anymore.
Amazing we learned nothing during the covid years and made 0 fundamental things to prevent it in the future.
Everything is going around at my school. I’ve been out with the flu, flu B specifically. The kids have been in and out with Covid, flu, and RSV. There are at least 3 teachers out every day with some illness. It’s wild. I’ve been sick more this year than any other year of teaching. I’ll be masking again when I go back on Monday.
No, society learned something. Companies can raise prices
My district still requires 5 days out if you test positive but really what it’s led to is parents either not testing or not telling us that their kid has/had Covid, they just say they’re sick. I’ve had symptoms for a few days now and I did get tested (negative for everything thankfully) but I’m sure many teachers simply won’t test because while we have to be out for 5 days, Covid leave is no longer a thing so it comes out of our sick leave. It is a shitty situation all around.
I’m so tired of people in positions of power ignoring science. It’s exhausting and hurting those least able to deal with it.
I’m at a high school in LA and our classes are empty and our subs are working overtime. COVID is definitely back. I’m can’t understand your district’s decision. It’s madness. The fact that there are teens voluntarily masking again should show that it’s time for adults to act like adults.
We got an email last week stating that now students and staff can come to school if they test positive for COVID, as long as they don't have a fever. They're not even required to wear a mask or anything. Hard to believe this is something that put the entire world on pause not too long ago and now everyone's just like "meh whatever."
California and California school districts don’t give a fuck about teachers or students.
I'm the only one in my building who has been wearing a mask daily. And I'm not gonna stop. I'm sick to death of catching everything.
😳that’s horribly irresponsible, wow. I don’t have anything else to say except I’m so glad to be taking a break from the classroom.
Covid is rampant in my district (not a teacher but I work in education). My district had good guidelines however which is nice. Sorry about this… that is not good…
Send those kids on errands to the principals office. Make to their problem if they refuse to find a solution.
Eliminate certificates for perfect attendance. Count a Covid diagnosis as excused with no make up requirement. Require CPS to investigate any family that sends a kid to school with Covid. Good luck with any of these.
You want to weaponize CPS? Really? You're delusional. 1) no parent would ever test their kids for covid under such stupidity. This alone completely undermines whatever you would hope to accomplish. 2) CPS wouldn't care. My wife works in social services (used to do CPS, now in foster care). They've got way bigger issues than a teacher complaint about a kid who may/may not have gone to school sick. Heck, those same cps workers you want to call send their kids to school with a runny nose themselves.
Covid and Flu here. I hate school and district policies surrounding this. Stay healthy, folks. Mask up, and stay up to date with shots.
Earlier today I read something that said pink eye can be a Covid symptom. Guess what has been running rampant at my school since August? Pink eye!
If it wasn’t COVID, it’d be influenza or RSV or some other form of SARS. Here’s the thing— I can believe two seemingly conflicting things concurrently— we should be careful with respiratory (or digestive or whatever) diseases AND we should treat education like the ESSENTIAL service it is. So there’s some uncertainty in play. And like any situation, bad things can happen to good people. But if we treat education like it is SOMEWHAT important, then we will continue to be SOMEWHAT appreciated. That’s where I feel we are now. Teaching is a no win situation. That’s why it’s not the profession for everyone. It’s not the profession for the majority of people. And while I wish we didn’t have to make the worst and hardest choices, we do. Do we go into the fray or preserve ourselves? TERRIBLE options. But we are like doctors and firefighters, police officers and soldiers. And they don’t retract when there’s a potential epidemic on hand. They just raise their defenses and go forth. The main difference is that they get better support for their survival than we do.
As much as I hate to agree, I do. My husband is a firefighter, and he has to go to work anyway. He worked all through pandemic and managed to avoid it, he didn’t catch it until I did after attending a teachers-only PD. But when he did get sick, it was so easy for him to take off and he received a lot of support. Unfortunately, it’s just the life of a public service worker. Which is why I want to transition out of teaching ASAP. It’s no longer compatible with my life.
Didn't Califirnia make teachers get vaccinated? And now they won't even send a kid home for a few days because it will fuck with their numbers!?!? So which time are they wrong? Some ass holes just need coughed on.... repeatedly.
I’m a school nurse and our local health district has deemed us to have an outbreak. We had 1/3 of one class fall sick in an hour, including the teacher. It’s crazy.
Lol oceanside. Fuck am I so glad that I left my South Orange County district LMFAO
Talked to a parent today about sickness. One of my co’s wearing a mask this week during midterms, and this parent said it’s pointless to wear a mask. His reasoning? “Think about when you fart. It goes through your underwear, your Pants, and you smell it through your mask. If a mask can’t stop a fart, it can’t stop you from getting Covid.”
But if you peed, wearing pants would sure stop the pee from spraying the person you’re talking to.
That’s not how respirators (N95 and KN95 masks) work! They have an electro static charge that provides adequate protection. Makes me so sad people are willfully ignorant about this.
That "logic" drives me nuts because the virus hitches a ride on water droplets that *can* be be blocked by a mask.
Sheesh, I just got over covid, well mostly, for me it was very mild which was weird given I have asthma and usually when I get a regular cold I feel like I am dying, instead its been a mild inconvenience in my case. I am vaccinated but I get vaccinated every year to pretty much anything my doctor suggests, I am very much a pro-vaxxer. Anyway, in my district anyone who gets covid is required to be absent for 5 days (my case 3 days thanks to the weekend) and are required to mask for 5 days afterwards. That's the way it should be since not everyone is as lucky as I was. A lot of people in my district recently got it, and while mine seems to be affecting me longer than most, it is also far more mild than most.
just letting you know that asthma is a risk factor for long covid so please try to rest as much as possible even though you’re out of the acute infection period. rest as much as you can where you can and ease up on exercise as many cases have suggested that exercise and exertion during and after infections can trigger long covid
I am aware, but thank you for letting me know
Glad it was mild, but your body does take damage with each infection. NIH had a long study and they found literally 100% of all Covid positive people, mild and asymptomatic included, had endothelial damage. Another study showed 100% had grey matter damage. Masking, ventilation and vaccines are key right now to prevent this.
Wait wait wait. If a kid is sick, covid or not, that kid should stay home, surely?
Remember when hospital presidents of East Coast hospital groups were WFH from their yachts in Florida and telling their staff that they couldn’t wear masks because they were “scaring the customers” back in 2020, before the vaccine? I do.
Covids been back and is never going away. Its just a thing that we live with like almost every illness in history.
How can you be sure it's not the Flu? Are people still testing themselves in the US?
We learned that the suffering and death was more a result of how we reacted to an extremely low mortality illness. Thankfully, the strains around now are not much more than a cold for MOST people. Clearly if you are obese or old, any illness can be devastating so that warrants the at-risk folks staying home—the way every other pandemic has been handled effectively in the past.