Eielson: Covid and the Kiddos

Sooner04 · 08-11-2021, 01:33 PM

Eielson,

You were a great source of information at the beginning of the pandemic. Assuming you're still on the front lines, and in the pursuit of an open discussion, how worried should I be about sending my unvaccinated children off to elementary school? Both the Mrs. and I are vaccinated (Pfizer, thanks to Chickasaws), and I'm reading that the majority of kids in trouble right now have other health issues to go alongside living with unvaccinated parents.

Thoughts? Concerns? Mine will be masked, at least for a while.....just to see how it goes.

Eielson · 08-11-2021, 05:58 PM

Hey 04, hope all is well with you.

I'm happy to contribute what I know, though I'll preface it with the fact that I've only treated adults. I'm also no longer on the frontlines like I was in the beginning, as I've been able to transition back to what I specialize in. I still see some COVID patients, but if it's their primary issue, they go to a different hospital service.

As far as kids are concerned (again, I never treated pediatric cases), I think the primary concern was that they would contract it at school and then bring it home to their higher-risk parents. My understanding was that there was less concern for the kids themselves, as the overwhelming majority of young healthy people will do just fine even if infected. I'd be a lot more concerned about your children going to school if you were a 68-year-old unvaccinated grandparent.

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to send my kids to school. I have a lot of friends and family in education, and it sounds like most young kids are way behind in basic skills. Online schooling just doesn't get it done when you're trying to teach kids to read and write unless you have rockstar parents willing to put in a lot of extra time. I think the older you get, the less you need in-person teaching, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about high schoolers and online learning. I've actually been a strong advocate of undergrad and graduate lecture courses moving to more of an online format for multiple reasons even before COVID -- but elementary school is a different story.

Sooner04 · 08-11-2021, 10:22 PM

Thanks for the reply. My wife and I are vaccinated, and we’ll definitely be sending the kiddos to school. My apprehension stems from the track record my elder daughter has with viruses. She’s a bit of a local legend in central Oklahoma medical circles for having the worst case of hand, foot and mouth anyone had ever seen, so her immune system is calibrated to go ape**** when presented with a problem.

We’ll mask her up, hope for the best, and be front and center when her age gets the approval. Thank you very much for the opinions and info, and I hope all is well with you, too.

Does anyone else here share these concerns with their elementary aged kiddos?

BCSooners · 08-11-2021, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sooner04

Thanks for the reply. My wife and I are vaccinated, and we’ll definitely be sending the kiddos to school. My apprehension stems from the track record my elder daughter has with viruses. She’s a bit of a local legend in central Oklahoma medical circles for having the worst case of hand, foot and mouth anyone had ever seen, so her immune system is calibrated to go ape**** when presented with a problem.

We’ll mask her up, hope for the best, and be front and center when her age gets the approval. Thank you very much for the opinions and info, and I hope all is well with you, too.

Does anyone else here share these concerns with their elementary aged kiddos?

I got 3 elementary kids. None have previous concerns, but I’m still worried with Delta. I’m vaccinated, everyone in my family that is higher risk is vaccinated plus most healthy ones. I think in-person school is better for my kids with circumstances (which could easily change), but I understand other doing something virtual-based.

MsProudSooner · 08-12-2021, 06:38 AM

My grandkids are 11 and 7. My daughter will get them vaccinated as soon as it's available to them, which should be in the next 2 or 3 months from what I've read. All of their immediate family is vaccinated.

My son-in-law's family lives in Pretoria, South Africa. His parents are vaccinated but one of his sisters caught it before she was able to get vaccinated (everyone in her law firm got it.). One of his nephews got it this week. Both of his parents have had one dose of the vaccine but haven't had the other one yet.

SoonerBounce13 · 08-12-2021, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sooner04

Thanks for the reply. My wife and I are vaccinated, and we’ll definitely be sending the kiddos to school. My apprehension stems from the track record my elder daughter has with viruses. She’s a bit of a local legend in central Oklahoma medical circles for having the worst case of hand, foot and mouth anyone had ever seen, so her immune system is calibrated to go ape**** when presented with a problem.

We’ll mask her up, hope for the best, and be front and center when her age gets the approval. Thank you very much for the opinions and info, and I hope all is well with you, too.

Does anyone else here share these concerns with their elementary aged kiddos?

Our youngest is starting preK3. We have gone back and forth on him going. We ended up sending him (today was the first day). But in the past, he was hospitalized for several days fighting a respirtory virus. His oxygen got pretty low.

We have heard the delta variant is getting more kids sick but not sure if that is because it effects kids more or just because it is more contagious so more kids get it and get sick. The latest i read was that the severity in kids is the same as the first go around.

We ended up sending him because my wife and i both had covid last halloween and he never showed any signs and we were around him like normal