Sarah Ross21 said:Because the flu isn't anywhere near as contagious. It doesn't multiply nearly as fast. Period.
But unfortunately, it kills way more kids. That’s where the real danger lies. During those few months—say, December through February—the absolute bare minimum we could do is move schools to online learning... shut down birthday parties and anything else that isn't strictly essential. Look, I get it—dance classes, sports practice, music lessons—those can stay open. There has to be a reasonable line somewhere. Certain things should be allowed to happen in person, even during flu season.
Gerald Chavez7 said:We're likely looking at a pretty nasty wave—not necessarily in scale, just because everyone tends to catch it all at once—but it should be over quick. Honestly, I still have a feeling we'll be through the worst of it by March 15th.
We’re all going to kick the bucket eventually, yet people act like the vaccine is some kind of catastrophic disaster—it's honestly exhausting. 🙂
What on earth does "he has to convince us" even mean? Honestly, I’m sitting here laughing my head off just reading it. The sheer audacity of the phrasing—it's almost poetic in its absurdity.
Why on earth does my post keep getting nuked over there? I’m just pointing out that someone totally faked Vlatko’s profile—honestly, what’s the big deal? You guys dragged Vlatko into this whole thing as if he’s some kind of lead actress or something, when in reality, he’s got nothing to do with it. That’s why I keep trying to get the word out. My post has been deleted 3 times now. 🤷
I was actually just posting over on Reddit about how last year's variants didn't exactly achieve any massive breakthroughs. You get one positive case show up in a first-grade classroom and suddenly—miraculously—none of the kids who were isolating at home catch it, only for them to end up getting sick three separate times during the school year.
And then you have those daycare groups where chickenpox hits; everyone ends up catching it within a month or two, and it happens in three distinct waves.
When the flu sweeps through a class, it’s totally normal for at least 10 out of 25 students to be completely wiped out. A couple of years back, it was literally half the class out of commission.
Yet they claim Delta is more contagious than the flu, but somehow less infectious than chickenpox.
I can't quite remember the exact R-naught values I saw mentioned—it might have been around 3 to 5 for the flu, maybe 10 for chickenpox, and Delta sitting somewhere around a 7 reproduction factor. Or something like that, anyway; that's how I recall reading it.
fadedranger162 said:If I remember correctly, someone posted a study from either Austria or Germany earlier in this thread about how masks affect kids of different ages—assuming it hasn't been deleted yet. Basically, it suggested there might be more harm than good after just thirty minutes or an hour, something like lowered oxygen levels and all that stuff that people used to dismiss as conspiracy theories. It seemed to hit the younger kids harder, but generally, the results were negative.
Maybe try talking to the doctor first. If that doesn't work, maybe look into getting a mask made from a more breathable material. 🤔
The ones from CVS are suffocating. We even picked up some colored ones—yellow, purple—and oh my god, they smell absolutely atrocious. I've never had the blue ones smell that bad, not even after wearing them for a week straight.
Cotton ones are much easier to deal with; actually, she mentioned feeling fine this week while wearing cotton. Though, her glasses keep fogging up.
I honestly don't care what everyone else's specific take on masks is—I'm just trying to get some clarity here. Should high schoolers in an American school be required to wear them during class, or not?
I get the feeling people are just tearing this whole group apart—or whatever you want to call them—simply because they’ve been dragged into the spotlight by the media and now everyone’s jumping on them. And from what I understand about this particular school, masks aren't even mandatory in the classrooms, just in the hallways. This kid and his dad aren't even willing to wear them in the halls. Fine, whatever.
My point in posting this is to find out what you all think about wearing masks when it's required constantly. We're talking 6 or 7 periods of school!
The reason I'm asking is that my daughter has been dealing with constant headaches. She comes home every single day complaining of a headache, saying the mask is making her feel like she can't breathe. And I believe her—I mean, I've worn a mask for maybe two hours and felt like I was going to pass out. She's stuck in one for five.
So, where do I even go from here? How do I start fixing this? Do I go to her pediatrician to see if she can get a medical waiver?
nimbleranger17 said:And we're talking about the one school where the parents are actually staging protests and making a huge scene. In that particular place, the kids aren't even wearing them in class; they only have them on in the hallway for that brief minute between walking through the front doors and getting to their desks.
Look, I'm just describing how things work at our local school here in the States, and frankly, I can't help but wonder where this pressure is coming from—the demand to abolish them entirely—when students are essentially required to wear them during class hours anyway.
nimbleranger17 said:Let’s just recap the reality of this situation: you see kids wearing masks longer while they're grabbing snacks at the local 7-Eleven or wandering through the aisles of a Target than you ever see them wearing them in the school hallways.
Kids wear them in stores. Seven hours a day.
It’s not just the hallways, either. Honestly, it depends entirely on which school you're looking at.
They end up filthy—probably taken off ten times a day. They’re shoved everywhere—in bags, stuffed in pockets... just useless, grime-covered scraps of fabric.
Is there actually any serious initiative out there yet, and more importantly, where does one even begin? Let’s say, for example, a group of parents in a single grade level collectively decides they aren't interested in masks—how does that even play out? You can't really tackle this at the classroom level because once the principal makes a call, it supersedes whatever the teacher thinks, right?
jadetinker85 said:Personally, I think having three smaller waves would be the better way to go.🤔
The price tag is just way too steep. Honestly, the whole benefit seems questionable at best—if not completely non-existent. We aren't going to see more than 4,000 people in hospitals during the first wave, nor more than three during the second. Maybe 1,500 at most. And even that is something we can handle—much more intelligently, in fact—without causing so many collateral casualties. -mellowskipper:
Ashley Davis6 said:Have any of you actually walked into a school and seen how things work there?
It just doesn't work. As students, we really hate this way of learning, especially when it's for extra help or tutoring. There are constant technical glitches, and too much time gets wasted just trying to share screens and type since most people aren't using touchpads—they're struggling with mice. Plus, like 99% of us don't have great internet, so everything lags. The audio is always out of sync with the video. You just can't do math, chemistry, or physics this way. We really miss face-to-face classes. Staring at a screen isn't the same thing.
jadetinker85 said:When people claim screen sharing eats up all their time, I start questioning if they’re actually students. It's usually someone who doesn't know where to click; for anyone else, it's a split-second task.
I suggested sharing the screen and typing things out because... look, screen sharing is easy enough, but if you’re stuck staring at someone’s monitor while they’re fumbling around clumsily or struggling through some awkward task, you’re just wasting precious time. Plus—and this is a big one—if the connection starts acting up, the audio tends to get all glitchy and cut out anyway.
Yeah. Honestly, what does it matter if someone from this forum ended up in the hospital? Right now, there are nearly 400 people hospitalized across the country.
It would be a lot easier on all of us if we just treated this like the flu. If you're high-risk, go get vaccinated. Everyone else can do whatever they want. Some flu seasons are worse than others—it fluctuates. We regularly lose 80 and 90-year-olds to it. Sometimes even younger folks catch a nasty infection that leaves them with long-term issues. It never crossed anyone's mind to shut down businesses or force social distancing because of the flu. People wear masks if they think it's a good idea, or if it’s pouring rain and they’re coughing like crazy. So, let's not throw everything away just for the sake of it. Life goes on 🤷 what's the point of obsessing over death certificates?
I honestly can't even wrap my head around it. Instead of actually welcoming a little breathing room and some much-needed normalcy—because, let’s be real, two miserable years of this should have been more than enough—it feels like there's a certain group of people who are still practically begging for more restrictions 🤷
About 15% cruised through it without a single symptom. (The other 85%? Just mild stuff.) But then... one. Two. Three. A handful actually ended up developing myocarditis.
So, my Uber driver started bragging to me about how many people he’s hauled around who were totally "infected"—he was acting like his track record is spotless because he hasn't caught anything himself. He mentioned using some kind of essential oil or something to stay protected, but honestly, I wasn't really paying attention to the specifics.
How exactly do they handle quarantine checks, and under which specific law are you actually required to open the door for a cop?
I mean, seriously—under what law am I obligated to get off my couch just because someone rings the doorbell? You could be halfway across the yard, tucked away in the garden, hiding in the garage, or even out in the barn—plus if you have a high privacy wall and two Belgian Malinois, and a doorbell that barely works...
Look, just because the school sent out an official survey doesn't mean they forced him to withdraw—it certainly doesn't mean he needs to be re-enrolled from scratch. The average parent might not realize there’s a deadline to submit withdrawal papers by, say, August 15th, or before the final board meeting. Most parents don't even track when those meetings happen. For us, once school wraps up in June, we basically check out—there's nothing happening until September when everyone starts stressing about next year's grade level or buying textbooks. We're mentally "out" by June. So, honestly, it isn't a bad idea for them to reach out and confirm if a student actually intends to show up next term. They probably just want to avoid those nightmare scenarios where they realize in September that they should have acted months ago.
So, I finally realized that > is actually asking about the upcoming school year. You can't just go pulling kids out mid-term—that’s just not allowed under the rules.
Regarding this survey question about whether you're sticking with last year's electives... I've heard whispers that some schools are doing this and others aren't—you know, things like religious studies or German class.. I mean, was there some specific law I missed that prohibits that?
Regardless, you're always free to withdraw a student... whether you fill out the survey or not. The reasons behind it shouldn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.