Folks,

I've noticed fewer people posting on here the last few days about having Omicron / Covid. If this is a bell weather, I'd say we will observe the peak this week when the reported cases catch up with actual day of testing.

My sons just tested positive. My daughter probably will, too. Lots of COVID at their school.

This wave, that is.

Father in law and a patient of mine just tested positive.

combat wombat said:

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My sons just tested positive. My daughter probably will, too. Lots of COVID at their school.

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Sorry to hear that. Same thing here with local schools, but it seems to be abating.

Clob94 said:

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The faster everybody gets this strain, the sooner this will all be over.

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Hopefully. But from what I understand, the more infections, the more chance of mutation

$30,000 Millionaire said:

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The problem is the parents who don't care and send their sick kids to school anyway.

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This has definitely always been an issue, and while this attitude will likely offer some assistance to Omicron, the biggest factor (IMO) is that a huge number of folks are infected with marginal to no symptoms. The assymptomatic positivity rate for many locations across the nation is well over 10%! Tarrant county calculates the prevalence of current infections at over 1% of the population, but considering most infections are mild, and the lack of tests, this is probably a severe underestimate.

Omicron is everywhere. We are all about to get innoculated/boosted over a short period of time.

SamHou said:

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Clob94 said:

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The faster everybody gets this strain, the sooner this will all be over.

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Hopefully. But from what I understand, the more infections, the more chance of mutation

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True, but any mutation will have to out-compete Omicron in terms of contagion. That would be very unlikely with R values north of 7 for Omicron.

my mom was brutal about making us go to school every day.

She was a retired teacher so she had heard every excuse.

She made my dad go to work when he had terrible stomach pain... turned out he had appendicitis
and had to be operated on later that night

jopatura said:

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combat wombat said:

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My sons just tested positive. My daughter probably will, too. Lots of COVID at their school.

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Yeah, the schools are screwed right now. At my daughter's elementary, every class has at least one case as of Friday afternoon. Only good thing is this is a 3 day weekend so hopefully it'll give the kids time to show symptoms by Tuesday.

If natural immunity is worth anything, hopefully this is it.

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My sister's school in Houston has 25% of the faculty out with covid at the moment

25% positive or is it also an issue with "contact tracing"?

Still pretty wild numbers and hopefully everyone bounces back soon.


We got 4 notifications from my daughter's classroom alone last week....

25% out with positives, not contract tracing related

Me and my entire extended family have it right now and none of us got it from each other. It's everywhere.

There was a day last week where 1 in 300 people IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY tested positive. Assuming that's a pretty massive undercount, everyone is getting omicron.

CorpsTerd04 said:

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Me and my entire extended family have it right now and none of us got it from each other. It's everywhere.

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Same here.

The rule in our family growing up was that fever was the key. Fever = no school. No fever = school.

$30,000 Millionaire said:

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The problem is the parents who don't care and send their sick kids to school anyway.

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Though I understand it. People have massive covid exhaustion. Sure, if your kid is sick with a fever, you do not send them to school. Duh. But the issue boils down to the quarantining and not just letting the kiddo go back 24 hours fever free. People do not want to go get the test, spend the whole day doing it in some cases and for many, it's just not realistic when both parents have jobs and now that they can work from home, they still miss work having to go get tested and spend a few hours doing it. No test, no covid and schools around here are not forcing parents to get tested. Its not as easy as blaming parents for the spread.

CNN is reporting 1 in 5 have test positive for COVID over the course of the pandemic. In terms of real numbers, I bet 1 in 5 caught it over the last week.

$30,000 Millionaire said:

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The problem is the parents who don't care and send their sick kids to school anyway.

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Or their schools are crappy about not allowing a few days of "online" attendance with a positive test.

What if your kid is In HS honors classes and has to miss 2 weeks of class because of a positive test? I for one would lie and send my kid if no fever.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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The problem is the parents who don't care and send their sick kids to school anyway.

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Kid wakes up…. I have the sniffles, aches, stuffy nose, or headache, etc. Okay let's take your temperature.

No fever = No Staying Home.

Load em up with Children's cold medicine and send em on their way.

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Again, given all the things parents have to do regarding protocols, people should understand this. While I totally appreciate the ones who take kids with symptoms to get tested, it just isn't feasible to do for many working and I totally get it. Especially in places where the wait times are so long to be tested. There goes your workday. Or work from home, watch kiddo during the day or 2 then back to school. seems the obvious choice to many and maybe the only choice.

Our district doesn't require covid testing if the kid is out. So the moment the kid is well, they can come back unmasked. The district doesn't require masking so the quarantine is still 10 days to get around that issue. Honestly, while I get that many are very uncomfortable with this (though most in this district would go crazy if a masking mandate and strict testing policy were to be enforced), it is probably the only way to realistically do this since this has been 2 years running. I get a few months. But try to tell folks 2 years in to this and the push back is expected.

Look, I do not want to spread this to a person severely at risk. But I also follow a very healthy and fit lifestyle. I do all the right things, train up to 6 days a week, eat extremely controlled and well, have a very strong immune system even though I take an immuno-suppressant. I am double vaxed and am open to the booster but just had my 2nd covid infection 2 weeks ago so gotta wait on that one and getting covid=booster. To ask me to continue to "do my part" to limit the spread at this point gets a little old. I never had a fever either times I had covid. And this time was back out the day after I had felt bad. Honestly didn't mask either. Maybe its wrong. Can't really and won't argue that. Obviously I am not the guy to hang with if you live with a severely ill grandparent (I also purposefully avoid those friends as well and am upfront with them when I was ill). But, and I think many do, understand that a lot of people have had enough of all of this. In TX, we have a choice to live our lives mitigation free, as if covid isn't going on. I think as time goes on, more and more will start to take this approach, unless obviously there is a much more dangerous variant. Probably a large portion already has.

Horrible parent. Horrible member of the community. Horrible science denier.

If my kids aren't barfing or melting, here's some tylenol/benadryl, off you go. Go spread some natural immunity.

Recently, my 7 y/o had a 3-4 week long sinus infection...a few weeks later he, my 10 year old, and my wife (teacher) all started exhibiting cold-like symptoms. I got a stuffy head/nose/sinus for a day or 2. We kept the 10 y/o home for one day (he looked, sounded and felt miserable), no one else missed anything. And no one got tested. Omicron? Cold? Flu? Allergies? We'll never know. They're wearing masks, so everyone is protected anyway.

My brother got covid for the second time last week.

Wife told me last week that 8% of their workforce was out with it.

Should be on the downside quickly if not already.