I’ve been reading some articles lately and thinking, oh my god yes, finally someone is saying what I’ve been thinking.
The thing is, they are saying things that I think a lot of us have been thinking, but we’ve been too afraid to mention them, lest we be cast down by the social media powers that be for being stupid or callous or uncaring or selfish or… well you know can probably guess where this is going.
I’ve been wondering if, when and how we’d ever revisit mask mandates at school. Then I read The Case Against Masking Kids in School in The Atlantic:
Many public-health experts maintain that masks worn correctly are essential to reducing the spread of COVID-19. However, there’s reason to doubt that kids can pull off mask-wearing “correctly.” We reviewed a variety of studies—some conducted by the CDC itself, some cited by the CDC as evidence of masking effectiveness in a school setting, and others touted by media to the same end—to try to find evidence that would justify the CDC’s no-end-in-sight mask guidance for the very-low-risk pediatric population, particularly post-vaccination. We came up empty-handed.
…
Therefore, the overall takeaway from these studies—that schools with mask mandates have lower COVID-19 transmission rates than schools without mask mandates—is not justified by the data that have been gathered. In two of these studies, this conclusion is undercut by the fact that background vaccination rates, both of staff and of the surrounding community, were not controlled for or taken into consideration. At the time these studies were conducted, when breakthrough infections were much less common, this was a hugely important confounding variable undermining the CDC’s conclusions that masks in schools provide a concrete benefit in controlling COVID-19 spread: Communities with higher vaccination rates had less COVID-19 transmission everywhere, including in schools, and those same communities were more likely to have mask mandates.
I have to admit, while I knew that masks were not required in school in Britain (for students under 12), I did not realize they were also not required in many other European countries. I also did not know that there was so little conclusive evidence that masking in schools significantly reduces rates of community spread.
I have been very thankful that I live in a state where mandated masking in public spaces, as well as in schools, has been part of the public health response from day one. I felt much safer (finally!) returning to in person learning in the fall knowing that my students and colleagues, as well as my kids and their peers, would be masked. But I have to admit I don’t have faith in our ability to follow the science and put an end to masking in schools at an appropriate time.
When I run in a huge open park near my house most of the people that pass me are masked, even though no person or group is anyone near anyone in this huge open space for more than the few seconds it takes to pass someone on the (very wide) ample path. We are clearly wearing masks in San Francisco for reasons other than protecting the health and safety of ourselves and others. The fact that we’ve spent the last year deriding the governors of Republican states like Florida and Texas for banning mask mandates in school (which to be clear, I view as dangerous public health policy), leads me to believe it will be very hard for us to separate mask wearing in classrooms with our political identities as public health-minded progressives. I just don’t think we’re going to be able to make a rational decision about this for a long time.
Which brings me to this episode of NYT’s The Daily from last week, that aimed to be “a statistically sound effort to take the temperature of the American public on exactly how it’s thinking about Covid at this moment that might or might not be a pivot in the pandemic.” The overall argument of the episode was that “when you look at all this, what you end up seeing is that people’s attitudes toward risk doesn’t seem to be driven by rational thought or scientific evidence, so much as it seems to be driven by political belief.”
An exchange from the episode:
Michael Barbaro: Right. What’s interesting about what you’re saying, David, is that it’s not only showing that partisanship is dictating whether people get vaccinated, which I think we did know. It’s also showing that even those who do get vaccinated, who do believe the science that shows vaccines are protective, are still having a pretty high level of fear that suggests they actually don’t really feel protected. And that’s counterintuitive.
David Leonhardt: That’s right. So if you believe the science, you should go get the vaccine, because all the science says the vaccines are very safe and very effective at preventing serious Covid illness. But let’s focus on that second beat just for a second. The science says vaccines are very effective at preventing serious Covid illness. So if you believe the science, it doesn’t argue only for getting vaccinated. It also argues for living your life in a way that reflects that you’ve been vaccinated.
I understand that we’re only just starting to come out of the omicron wave (in some parts of the country), which has put huge strains on hospitals health care professionals. Obviously the most important thing that people need to be doing right now is getting vaccinated and boosted. I do think there were moments in the episode when they put the ideas of “Republicans aren’t getting vaccinated” and “Democrats aren’t acting like they are vaccinated” next to each other like each side was complicit in the same degree of “not following the science.” That is a false equivalency that wasn’t stated but implied, and I think it should have been clarified. The US has a far higher death toll than any other large, wealthy nation precisely because we have so many un- or under-vaccinated people, especially older people who are at high-risk for getting seriously ill or dying from Covid. The unvaccinated are straining our health care system and endangering the lives of others who need medical care for unrelated reasons. They are prolonging the pandemic by keeping hospitalization and death rates high.
But ultimately the vaccinated might prolong the pandemic in their own ways, by pushing for policies that aim to reduce the risk of transmission without taking into account the negative affects to our health and well-being those policies present.
And I think this is very important to emphasize. The steps we have taken to minimize the spread of Covid had big benefits. They saved a huge number of lives. But they also have had enormous costs. And by almost any measure, American society just isn’t functioning very well right now. Violent crime has soared and it started soaring shortly after the pandemic began.
There was just this interesting study out that showed Americans’ blood pressure had gone up. Many people have just been working from their homes. Mental health problems have gone up. Drug overdoses have soared. And so the idea that we’ve all isolated ourselves and we’ve sublimated these normal human interactions, that has had huge costs. And so I think the thing we need to grapple with is at what point do the costs of pandemic precautions outweigh the benefits?
And then, of course, there are school closures and the untold ways they have harmed children. I absolutely believe that we kept kids at home for WAY too long in California, and especially in the Bay Area. We were not following the science, but instead were following our fear, and our children paid dearly for it. I don’t think we’re truly willing to be honest with ourselves about what a huge policy failure it was for students to be in remote learning for 15 months. And if we aren’t willing to admit to our mistakes, we certainly can’t learn from them.
And we need to learn from them, because things aren’t going to get better for a long time. At least, the decisions aren’t going to get easier. Another article from The Atlantic, helped me to understand how messy and unsatisfying the definition of endemicity is. That ultimately it means nothing, and “achieving it” will never be something experts agree has happened, nor will it matter much even if they do, because “reaching endemicity” doesn’t actually help us understand what our future with the novel coronavirus might hold.
Endemicity, then, just identifies a pathogen that’s fixed itself in our population so stubbornly that we cease to be seriously perturbed by it. We tolerate it. Even catastrophically prevalent and deadly diseases can be endemic, as long as the crisis they cause feels constant and acceptable to whoever’s thinking to ask. In a rosy scenario, reasonably high levels of population immunity could bring the virus to heel, and keep it there; its toll would be roughly on par with the flu’s. As coronavirus cases drop from their Omicron highs in the United States and other countries, there’s at least some reason to hope things are bending in that direction. But at its worst, endemicity could lock us into a state of disease transmission that is perhaps as high as some stretches of the pandemic have been—and stays that way.
If the end game of this pandemic is us figuring out how to live with Covid – how to live with the risks of Covid that will always be somewhat unknown – then we have a lot of work to do in figuring out how we’re going to assess risk and live with this. If omicron presents as much, or less, risk to me (as a double vaxxed and booster adult with no underlying conditions) than the flu or an auto accident, does it really makes sense for me to continue avoiding all the things I’ve been avoiding not to catch it? Yes, I understand that we can’t all get sick at the same time; society will come to a screeching halt if there aren’t enough “essential” workers showing up at their jobs. But once the case numbers come down and we don’t have to be so worried about too many people calling in sick for society to function, does it make sense to maintain all these safety measures? And if so, for how long? If endemicity doesn’t guarantee anything, at what point do we start living with the risk? Because it seems like we could be stuck in this limbo for many more years to come.
I’m sure this post will be unpopular. I remember being called “Trumpian” back when I balked at the closure of open park spaces early in the pandemic, so I can only imagine how poorly this post will be received. And I’m sure I did a piss poor job of saying most of this, and that the parts of the articles I picked are lacking in some way. I want to say more but it’s late and I know if I don’t just publish this it will never go up. And I want it to go up because I think we need to start talking about this stuff. So many of us are so unhappy. We talk about burnout and chronic stress and depression and the terrible weight of “no end in sight,” but we aren’t willing to talk about how our current pandemic response is contributing to, or causing, how horrible we feel. We tell ourselves it’s okay to feel hopeless because it has to be, but maybe it doesn’t have to be anymore. Or at least maybe it doesn’t have to be, soon.
I just think we need to start talking, and thinking, about an off ramp. It’s going to be a long time before public health policies change (at least where I live). Maybe if we start the conversation now, we’ll be ready to accept those changes, even embrace them, when they happen. Maybe we’ll even be thankful that they’ve finally been made. Maybe if we start changing lanes now, slowly and with caution, we’ll be ready to approach the off ramp when it’s finally revealed.
I don’t think you did a piss poor job of anything here. I think these are things that are important to talk about and I hope people are more open to doing so.
Thanks, I hope people are more open to doing so too. It’s so hard, and I’m certainly no expert, not at Covid or public health or even writing about Covid or public health.
I think you did a great job of framing these issues. I live in another area where schools were closed for almost 18 months (Northern VA). The effects on children are staggering. Working parents here are frustrated beyond belief. We need to be having these discussions, and now! I was also angry about park closures. Our parks were closed from March 2020 until June 26, 2020. I remember because my oldest turned 5 and we celebrated by going to the playground! I think pieces like those in the Atlantic and the interview on the Daily will help frame the risk for individuals going forward. More importantly we need to move to a system where individuals can gauge their own tolerance for risk in different situations.
“More importantly we need to move to a system where individuals can gauge their own tolerance for risk in different situations.” Amen to this.
Totally (well , almost totally) agree!
Probably just because I’m viewing this through my own dirty lenses, but I really had zero problem with the school closures last year. In fact, even after the schools opened up, I kept my kids at home, learning remotely. My kids did fine and I did fine. But I understand that’s far from the case for everyone.
This year, the kids are vaccinated and are in school in-person. There’s a mask mandate, but it seems totally ineffective, since every week I get multiple emails about kids and teachers with Covid.
So, yeah, I’m ready to move on…
My kids handled distance learning better than most. Well my daughter did. My son was miserable and he made us miserable, but over all he was “fine” because we made sure he went outside every day and saw friends outside when that was allowed. But so many kids didn’t have parents who could do that. The stuff I saw on my son’s zoom’s – the spaces kids were trying to learn in, and situations they were stuck in, it was just heartbreaking. And those were the kids who showed up and turned on their cameras.
I’m so tired of the self righteous people proclaiming that anyone who questions the trade offs of things like masking is just throwing up their hands and deciding they are done with COVID. No. What I’m done with is people deciding that we are going to put a huge burden on our kids as “an abundance of caution”.
My son’s school re-instituted outdoor masks in December due to the Omicron surge. This despite the fact that the kids take off their masks indoors for 2 snacks, lunch and rest time everyday. Not long after this he started talking about how he doesn’t have any friends and protesting going to school. We had multiple conversations with the preschool and the teacher flat out said she can’t understand several children, including mine, in their masks so she has them pull them down to talk to her. But they can’t do that to talk to the other kids so no one can understand him. So yeah he doesn’t have any friends, how can he when no one can understand him aside from mealtime. And apparently he sits and draws out his snacks and lunch as long as they will possibly let him so he can talk to people across their tables with out a mask on. We got on a waitlist immediately for speech therapy (even though the dr doesn’t think it’s indicated behind articulation issues are age appropriate but we were told the waitlist even for evaluation is weeks long. So I’m praying and praying they at least let them take off their masks outside soon so he can talk to the other kids when he’s playing. I’m beyond furious at this point. We live in one of the most vaccinated places in the country and our hospitals never reached capacity even during the worst of this winter. There’s no emergency here. Everyone is vaccinated as much as they can be based on their age. I’ll wear a mask myself forever if I have to. But seeing pictures of people crammed into bars and parties and concerts while my child is literally unable to be understood at school is pushing me to my limit. I wish I knew what to do to effect change in some way…
The downsides to masking young kids is very, very real. And we are only just starting to talk about them, so many months too late.
My son’s preschool teacher has recommended speech therapy a few times because she says he doesn’t talk at school! He is also in PT and the PT doesn’t require masks and she told me that she thinks he has a great vocabulary because he talks to her! I think he doesn’t talk at school because he is in a mask and his articulation isn’t that great so he knows there is basically no way anyone will understand him! I really wish people would acknowledge the very big costs to masking such young children.
There are plenty of studies showing the UK is a shitshow for kids due to that policy, etc. but you and your readers won’t care so I won’t bother finding/listing. Leonhardt is one of the worst Covid minimizers/data cherrypickers there is. This attitude is exactly why we are still fucking here. It’s not endemic! People are misusing that word; at this point it basically means “I’m done.”
I’m confused by your comment about “readers” here given by own views on COVID which I’ve shared here numerous times (and many others are of a similar mindset). I think many of us would be interested in the studies you mentioned to bring some balance to the excerpts from the two Atlantic articles and The Daily comments shared in the post.
Yes, I would also love to see the studies. I try to read a lot about this stuff, but I’m sure I’ve missed many, many things.
I think we could have a thoughtful conversation about the “cherry-picking of data to minimize” Covid and how disingenuous generalizations can be; but if we’re starting with the equally disingenuous generalization that attitude’s like Leonhart’s are “exactly why we are still fucking here,” we probably aren’t ready to have a thoughtful conversations about the nuances of risk at this point. If you really think attitudes like that are what are prolonging the pandemic I think you are cherry-picking the data for your own purposes.
I had also heard it was a shitshow in the UK. I know kids in the UK were hit really hard in November/December 2020. I wonder how that compared to kids in the US who were in school, masked, during that winter surge. That said, we have vaccines now! So if COVID sweeps through a school, staff, parents, and kids 5+ should be protected from the worst outcomes. So, maybe it is time to take off masks?
But how many of those 5+ have siblings at home who are not yet vaccinated that they will carry it home to?
I’m having many of the same thoughts (we can’t go on like this/how does it end/when do the negatives outweigh the positives) but, for me, the conversation is ill-timed until (nearly*) EVERYONE who wants a vaccine can get one. My four year old is STILL in the same position we were all in back in March 2020; in much of the world many adults are as well. As long as vaccinated individuals can spread COVID, the conversation of my lead sentence should be a non-starter. It’s great the vaccinated individuals are protected from severe desease but can we continue to protect those who want to be vaccinated but aren’t yet, please? (*I realize some people who want the vaccine will never be able to get it due to allergies or whatnot but that’s a tiny, tiny % of the still very large population I’m speaking of).
Also, re: this – “The science says vaccines are very effective at preventing serious Covid illness. So if you believe the science, it doesn’t argue only for getting vaccinated. It also argues for living your life in a way that reflects that you’ve been vaccinated” … the problem is NOT just getting severe illness from initial infection; I am friends with TWO formerly healthy women my age (40/41) who are now awaiting liver transplants from what were mild COVID infectons. My friend’s teenage son has long-COVID from a mild infection and is suffering terribly. All of them were vaccinated!
So, yes, once my 4 y.o. is fully vaccinated we will feel MORE comfortable doing more things/a lot of the “fear” will dissipate but I can guarantee we won’t go back to living life like pre-pandemic times, not while a pandemic is still raging.
That is fair. And I know it has been especially difficult for parents waiting for vaccines for their children under 5. And if I knew people who had severe negative outcomes from mild Covid cases I’m sure I’d be doing a different risk analysis in my head. But without that kind of personal, anecdotal evidence I am relying on statistics to gauge my own risk and that if my family’s. I think moving forward we’ll all have to figure out what works for us, and luckily wearing medical grade masks properly protect the wearer, so precautions can be taken even when policies change. But if we’re not required to wear the masks that actually prevent spread, and we’re not wearing them effectively enough to prevent spread, at what point does wearing them stop being a true public health and start being theater. That is the question I think it will be really hard to answer. I’m glad I’m not the public health official that has to answer it.
I also have a 4 year old and truly do not understand the concern. His risk from COVID is far lower than that of my fully vaccinated parents. I am not worried enough about his COVID risk to maintain masking him. I am addressing the things he is actually at risk for by putting him in a high quality car seat, driving carefully and teaching him about water safety. There is a good chance vaccines will not be an to show efficacy in this age group because their starting risk is so low. I am not going to wait forever for that to happen.
I feel exactly the same way as you and I have a three year old. I do not understand the concern. I didn’t want my toddler getting covid in March 2020 because I didn’t want him to spread it to me! I find the hysteria of parents with kids under 5 to be baffling. The school closures for one case in a preschool class are horrible. But I’m not worried about health outcomes should he get covid. I will definitely vaccinate him (as vaccination DOES decrease the risk of infection and transmission, just not that much) and getting vaccinated is basically costless. But right now I’m not concerned about him getting sick (other than being out of school).
I think it is important to have a thoughtful discussion about this, and I applaud you for writing a post about it when it can also be very controversial and elicit strong emotions.
One piece of this that jumps out for me is gauging your own family’s risk and risk tolerance. I think this is something you’ve struggled with (as have I! As have many of us!), and I think that’s an important thread to keep pulling on.
Some of these decisions are broader and rest with policymakers (whether that’s school officials, government, etc.). But other things you can reasonably make a personal decision about.
One example that comes to mind is your internal debates over indoor play dates for you kids. As you have described, there is huge value in this for your kids (and for you in the instances it provides socialization with your friends… or a parenting break). If your family can reasonably assume the risk (four vaccinated, otherwise healthy people) and the others can do, this seems to be a reasonable thing to engage in (maybe even with reasonable guardrails- everyone is asymptomatic, no known exposures, maybe even community spread is below a certain point).
I know there are always risks. Even people following all the best practices can unknowingly spread the virus to someone who is at high risk or has a statistically unlikely bad outcome.
BUT, it does seem very appropriate to start contemplating these questions and adjusting your family’s own choices.
Your 4 year old is just as likely to get severe illness from rsv, adeno, enterovirus. Your understanding and fear of covid and which ever variant is flying around is up to you but the world needing to wait, 2 years post onset, with reassuring data is ridic. Buy a blow up bubble
Yup, I agree with so much of what you wrote here (as I’ve said time and time again and definitely been lambasted for by some commenters).
Even though I generally avoid all political/COVID discussions on social anymore, I recently shared a NYT article on my FB wall (https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20220125&instance_id=51211&nl=the-morning&productCode=NN®i_id=81962054&segment_id=80658&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F472591ba-17ee-53fc-83c1-e3923dd33062&user_id=18c73b963b5a7f8518e2cf018347c43a&fbclid=IwAR12hZQYqcjM6LCmQdMFLZmbOtjYeYp52eykqN5h90aqhAcfhNy-7exwlnM) because the stats are SO clear yet people on both “sides” seem to be determined not to come to any realistic middle ground based on reality. This quote struck me deeply – “On Covid, both political tribes really do seem to be struggling to read the evidence objectively. As a result, the country is suffering thousands of preventable deaths every week while also accepting a preventable crisis of isolation that’s falling particularly hard on children.”
I’m in the elementary school fairly often volunteering and watching presentations and no way in heck are those kids masking correctly. It’s such a waste and high time to do away with that requirement, especially in an area like mine with high vaccination rates and low case rates. I send my kids to school on a bus (higher danger than COVID) and don’t worry about influenza (don’t actually get that vaccine for them), and I sure as shit am not worried about them getting COVID (they are fully vaxxed). My very liberal friends (which I used to consider myself one pre-pandemic) have gone done the rabbit hole of misinformation and unfounded fears that we tended to mock the conspiracy theorists about.
That quote really speaks to me. We are not looking at the evidence objectively. And I think we think that is okay because we can fall back on an “abundance of caution” and we think that makes it okay. But there are real downsides. And just because they are harder to quantify doesn’t mean they aren’t important or worth addressing.
I remember the outrage when the cdc said hcw could return to work 5d after a positive Covid test. Now, having seen multiple hcw take a pcr because their family member was sick, test positive, but remain completely asymptomatic, it honestly irritates me a bit that I had to pick up their slack. Remember we are all (except the nurses because: union) supposed to be vaccinated at the hospital. And I suppose it made sense before we discovered omicron was generally mild in the vaccinated, but now it annoys me. However maybe this all comes from a place of selfishness. Idk.
I will say, our school district has been amazing this year with their handling of Covid, but that’s due in part to high rates of community vaccination in kids and adult.
I also hear you about the virtue signaling with masks. I have no problem wearing a mask at the grocery store, but when I’m on a hike… no. But sometimes you will encounter people who literally run away from you if you’re not wearing one.
It’s all gotten so politicized that people don’t know who to trust.
The outrage about the CDC guideline change is exactly the kind of think we need to reconsider (in my opinion). If we really believed masking worked we wouldn’t worry about the possibility of a person being somewhat contagious five days after being positive (remaining masked was also part of the guidance). And yet… people seem to think we should still be responding to positives like we did with delta and before widespread vaccinations. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to be evidence based outrage.
It’s not evidence based outrage. Truer words have not been spoken.
Masking works *if done correctly* but if that COVID positive person is still contagious after day 5 (studies I’ve seen saying 31-46% likely) and wearing a mask with their nose hanging out then…?
Nose hanging out of the mask isn’t really a thing at the hospital where I work. If they do it someplace where I am not near them, my ability to care declines precipitously.
One BIG issue (for me) with masks and children and schools is community vaccination rate. Also rate of tourists/visitors who come ‘because your location has a high vaccination/low case rate’ …. but are not vaccinated themselves.
The stats are clear that higher vaccination rate countries have lower case rates than lower vaccination countries …. and the US is a low vaccination rate country. So far the states/counties with the lowest vaccination rates also have appeared to be the ones with the most objections to masks and the fewest people wearing them in public areas and the highest deaths per 100,000 population. Apparently because of politicization of a viral disease.
Being a person with several reasons to be highly wary of catching covid (I am vaxxed and boosted) I am diligent about masking around unknown people, even outdoors. I knew people who died from covid and know others who are suffering seriously from long covid who are young and were very healthy prior.
I think local community vaccination rate needs to be a factor in dropping masks … but I do not think it will be. I also think some people will need to continue to mask, and would love it if anyone with ‘cold or flu symptoms ‘always masked in public, but i do not believe that will happen.
Good and interesting conversation. THANK YOU for a thoughtful and thought provoking post. I hope Working Mom of Two will share the information and sources she has.
I think about all of these issues a lot. I have mixed feeling on masking in school. Until omicron, there had not been a single case of in-school transmission at their school which I assumed was due to masking. So, did masks protect the kids in 2021? Kids definitely came to school positive occasionally and didn’t spread it to anyone. Another issue I am struggling with is how to protect people who are still vulnerable, even if vaccinated. If COVID will never go away, then what is the long term plan for protecting such people? Should I still do my part and mask up indoors to keep spread low to protect the immunocompromised? Forever? That’s a big ask! Or do I do indoor dining when cases are low and stay home during surges? Also, I CANNOT BELIEVE PEOPLE IN SF ARE RUNNING OUTDOORS MASKED!! I am in a progressive part of LA and while people consistently wore masks outside in 2020, that stopped by spring 2021. I only wear a mask outside if I am about to walk into a building.
I live in a conservative part of the country and flew into San Francisco a few weeks ago because my husband needed to be there for work. We were shocked to land and find the airport mostly empty. We were the only ones on the train to the rental car pick up and one of a handful of people renting a car. The streets of San Francisco were empty and the few people we did see were fully masked outside even if walking alone. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen because life for us is back to normal and has been for quite some time. My family is vaccinated and boosted. We have always complied with all the state guidelines for masking and social distancing but the stark contrast in those guidelines between my conservative state and San Francisco was crazy. We don’t need masks or proof of vaccine anywhere at home but needed it everywhere in San Francisco. I don’t feel like my little part of the world has faired worse than San Francisco despite lower vaccination rates and no mask requirements but in some aspects, I feel our quality of life was better. Our kids have been back in school full time since August of 2020, and back to all extra curricular activitities about the same time, we can eat at indoor restaurants, go to movie theaters, concerts, pretty much anything we want without fear. Maybe that is where the politics come into play. I don’t know. I do know that my husband who has travelled this entire pandemic with the exception of April and May 2020, when everything was locked down, holds his breath as he comes into liberal cities. There were times, especially early on when there were no bathrooms available for him to use, no food that he could eat because you can’t pull a giant truck through a drive through window, or sometimes no hotel rooms open to rent. He didn’t find these issues in the conservative areas.
Thank you for sharing your point of view and experience.
Can you share the number of excess deaths and/or covid deaths in the last two years per 100,000 population in your state/area? Also the % of population over 5 that is vaccinated. (Without telling your location as I do not want to be intrusive on your privacy.)
Are you an epidemiologist?
Good grief, let the woman LIVE without trying to undermine her comments – school full time since August 2020 and living with no significant disruption to life – does happen in many places.
“Please give me the data of deaths in 100 000” what a thinly veiled attempt to tell her she’s just been lucky and doesn’t actually realize the carnage she’s living in.
This is not the place to flex online population health buzz words.
I feel the same as Aunt V. Things are pretty normal where I live in Colorado, and our death rate is 121 per 100k (though not all of those were DUE to COVID but simply WITH Covid, so the excess rate would actually be lower). It looks like 275 per 100k is the average for all of the US and 195 per 100k for Colorado specifically, so we are well below both of those numbers. We’ve been fairly normal here since last spring, with sports, movies, concerts, bars & restaurants, etc. all happening like before (kids are masked in school, but that’s about to go away I believe). It’s been very interesting traveling to other places and realizing how differently we’ve all been experiencing this pandemic (as the OP said).
Oh – and vaccine rate is about 70% fully immunized in the state with my particular county being 75% and almost everyone boosted who is eligible. We also have a lot of tourists here, but it hasn’t really caused any issues.
We have one of the lowest death rates in the country. There may be only a handful of states that are lower than us. 70% vaccination rate.