My 85 year old mother is the opposite 
Sheās been vaccinated but still wonāt even see her children outside masked. Over the top scared and completely depressed. Has been locked in her home alone since the beginning.
The CDCās own numbers arenāt very clear on this issue. First of all, when looking at disease burden estimates for Covid vs. Influenza, they havenāt yet broken out the 0-17ās into very young (0-4) vs school-age (5-17) the way they have for the Flu. Flu tends to have worse outcomes for the very young than the older children, so I guess Iād like to see a similar comparison with Covid. Second, while it appears that the symptomatic illness rate for Covid is indeed higher, as is the rate of hospitalization, the death rate is lower - typically a good deal lower. - than with Flu. Now, these estimates for Covid are probably very preliminary, and they donāt include the impact of the Delta variant. On the other hand, they happen to span a period of time equivalent equivalent to three flu seasons. Maybe Rochelle Walensky was referring to additional evidence when she mentioned that Covid was significantly worse than the Flu for kids. If they have concluded the same, they really need to show it in their own numbers.
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Around here, a major fear has to do with the fact that so many university employees have children below vax age, some of whom also have physical disorders, or live with immunosuppressed people, or are immunosuppressed themselves. Iām just flat-out frightened for my bossās family, which has lots of people in those categories. At least I can hunker down at home and not have to worry about transmitting to anyone else, and when D comes over we can mask. Iāve asked my boss if maybe she can rent an apartment for herself for the duration if she feels she must come in, but sheās very much her familyās glue and main breadwinner, and I think weāre days or weeks away from losing her to a remote government job, where she can go on working, taking care of her family, and not putting everyone in danger from home. Unfortunately sheās also our departmentās glue and main connection to administration.
Chair of a large, complex department is also gone, found out about that one this morning. Theyāve apparently got another deptās chair subbing in, maybe permanently? Even though she doesnāt know anything about the field? It seems sheās not answering emails, so I guess weāll justā¦manage without answers and permissionsā¦
This is a nightmare. Meanwhile, it turns out the local school districtās had to hire 140 new teachers this year. Itās a decent-sized district, but thatās madness. I donāt know how many people quit last year. This is a desirable district to teach in, so I imagine they were able to fill most of those jobs fairly readily, but Iām wondering about quality. And the diversity business is out the window, the big page of hires looks like the inside of a snowstorm. Itās whoever they can get fast.
So I get that youāre looking at this as āhad my fun, had my time, Iāll risk it for the kids,ā and Iām assuming that if something happens to you, your kids will still be pretty well taken care of. Other competent people are there to step in, make sure they can get through school financially, will be there for them to lean on till theyāre done growing up, etc.
Thatāsā¦not how it is for everyone.
If you just stop and think about how many autistic children alone there are, how many are going to go on needing their parents for a long time, you might get a sense of how many 50+ people are afraid not just for themselves but for their kids. Others, for their frail parents who arenāt so well-off that they can find nice assisted living and nursing situations. How many adult Downs kids are there? Physically and otherwise cognitively disabled?
Itās a lot of people. Itās frequently one person who stands between a disabled person and serious trouble, and thereās no one else who can and will step in to do the job. If there were, if even there were someone available to help routinely, caregivers wouldnāt be nearly as strung out as they are.
If something happens to me, my kidās pretty screwed. She has no other responsible family there to back her. Sheād just have to try to be an instant grownup, and sheād be chained to me as a caregiver. Do I think thatās an acceptable price for teaching in a classroom instead of on a screen, or for holding superspreader events in the name of school spirit? Nope.
And hey, weāre back to complexity.
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We have no way of knowing about these things yet. For now Iām willing to go by the word of the frontline docs, who have most experience with it and are making it clear from their pov: younger sicker quicker.
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The doctors at the worldās largest hospital, Texas Medical Center, just released a statement that schools must be open in person and everyone should be masked and vaxxed. Seems reasonable.
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Ironically the Texas Medical Center is directly across the street from Rice which after having about 1500 students on campus for a week for orientation moved to temporary online classes and pretty strict restrictions.
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It has been so chaotic on campus but today word is trickling out that the high positivity rate seems to be due to some issue in a lab. There are 3 different locations on campus and the tests in each location are administered by different labs. Apparently a large number of the positives seemed to be coming from one location. They retested a bunch of kids today and we are hearing about a lot of negatives. Itās still a fluid situation and exact numbers have not been released, but parents are reporting some of their kids have been released from isolation after retest results and others say their kids received negatives on their retest today and are being asked to retest again tomorrow.
95% or so of undergrads are fully vaccinated so the numbers they were first experiencing were a little frightening.
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Well, as I said, there might need to be an adjustment for the Delta variant. Younger sicker quicker really applies to a variety of ages, particularly young adults who are responding relatively poorly to the Delta variant in comparison with prior versions. However, when it comes to children, these frontline docs are also treating an unusual surge of RSV right now, in addition to Covid - the double whammy is really taxing some of the pediatric hospitals around the country, particularly in the south. Of course it should have been expected that when masks come off and people stop social distancing, some of those other cruddy viruses are going to return. Some docs are saying they didnāt see much of any RSV this past winter.
We know several in this situation who are sandwiched between a special needs kid and a special needs parent or two. But honestly, I donāt believe they have quite the same amount of concern or fear of falling victim to Covid as expressed in this comment. Usually there are other diseases that take priority in their panoply of worries: cancer, for instance, or early-onset Alzheimers. Things that tend to run within the family, that have popped up and knocked someone out in their prime during a previous generation. These were around before the pandemic, and they will remain when the pandemic ends. I imagine that most people live with these fears at least in the back of their minds at all times, and in their own way, come to terms and make peace with them. The one thing Iāve never heard a parent express is how screwed their kid would be should something happen to them or that they are the only thing that stands between their child and serious trouble. Or that they would have to be chained to their parent as caregiver. Iām not sure that burdening my child with such thoughts is even healthy. I guess Iād be working to see what I could do to help my child mature into a capable and loving individual. If they are instilled with the right virtues, they just might choose to care for me w/o my asking.
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Well, sure. You also, if your earlier comments hold, believe that Godās going to fix everything if you canāt, and youāre surrounded by money and people youāre sure will take care of things for you if you canāt and Godās busy.
Other people have to plan ahead.
That would be something youād added to the conversation yourself. I donāt believe anyone here has mentioned burdening children with such thoughts.
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Can you move your Covid discussion to the Inside Medicine thread please and keep this one about Covid and college? I started this thread over a year ago and Iād prefer it stay focused. @bennty is continually off track and making it personal. The other option is to take those discussions to DMs or start your own thread.
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RIT right now has 45 beds available for Q and or I. Last year it was close to 200, as they bought an old hotel. You have to expect that on campus housing is about 6K of the student body. So if someone tests positive do they stay in their on campus housing and the roommate/floor gets tested ? 45 beds with asymptomatic delta could fill up fast.
My apologies if I misinterpreted your post! Kids are perhaps more astute than given credit for so IMO itās easier to burden them than we might think, but YMMV. Nevertheless, most parents try their best and that of course includes planning ahead, even if one believes that Godās going to fix everything and that relatives will step in with boatloads of money 
I will now take @homerdogās advice and return to the main topic:
What did they do with the hotel? My kidās college closed a couple of smaller dorms last year and converted them to isolation housing. Fortunately, they had a huge new dorm going live at the same time so were able to de-densify and still accommodate everyone who requested housing. Dorm capacity appears āback to normalā this year with no mention of quarantine housing or anything beyond masking and mandatory vaccination. School doesnāt start for another six weeks.
I am surprised that no one is talking about Rice University.
They have an extraordinary vax rate of 98.5% among students yet they are seeing significant outbreaks.
Quote from the dean: (From New York Times Rice University Turns to Online Classes to Fend off Virus - The New York Times)āIāll be blunt: The level of breakthrough cases (positive testing among vaccinated persons) is much higher than anticipated,ā Bridget Gorman, the dean of undergraduates, wrote in a letter to the schoolās 8,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The university did not release figures on the breakthrough cases.
If Rice is seeing such outbreaks when they are highly vaxed and require masks it makes me fear for other colleges. Most schools believed that requiring vaccinations and masks would ensure a return to normal college life so many got rid of quarantine housing and streaming classes. Now youāre going to have a mess if students have nowhere to quarantine and no way to keep up with classes.
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As far as I can tell, Rice doesnāt mandate vaccination for COVID for students or faculty/staff. Iām not sure I believe that 98.5% vaccination rate.
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I thought someone posted on another thread that maybe one of Riceās labs made mistakes in the testing?
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Yes, I believe it was this response just upthread that was talking about the issue at Rice. My fingers are crossed for them that it turns out to have been lab-mistakes!
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According to this website, Rice asks for vaccination status in an online survey and not all have responded, and nor were they asked for proofs.
I think the quoted vaccination rate is highly misleading.
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Johns Hopkins has perhaps become the first university to recognize only FDA-approved COVID vaccines. All international students who have received WHO-approved (but not FDA-approved) vaccines would have to be revaccinated when they arrive on campus.
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