Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Cavebear]

The Covid variant B.1.1.7 (sometimes referred to as b117) has come to the US and is now in 33 states:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nco...cases.html

This variant spreads through children and schools. I found this English summary of an Italian article:

10% of the village of Corzano in Italy is positive to b117 variant of covid-19. 140 people on 1400 residents. 60% of cases are kids from kindergarten and primary school and the rest are their parents. Schools in the village have closed now

Predictably, we'll insist on keeping schools open anyway. The Biden administration is trying to force schools to open over the objections of teacher's unions. Opening school is critical to reopening businesses, after all.

My teacher / husband is scheduled to get his first shot in about 2 weeks. They've started vaccinating the elementary school teachers first then the middle school then the high school teachers which is what my husband teaches.   Then they have to wait for the antibodies to build up from the first shot and then schedule the second shot which will take another few weeks to schedule, and then after the 2nd shot the body has to make the antibodies that will effectively prevent Covid.  So we're looking at sometime in early April that he'll be back in the classroom. Those are the details of what is going on with teachers.  I read a few month ago that over 1000 teachers have died from Covid. I don't know what the current numbers are.

I've been following the debate about reopening schools. It doesn't affect me personally, but it does reflect some general issues for parents, businesses, and children. One side says that schools are some of the least likely locations for spreading Covid-19 and lack of in-class schooling is harming students (which makes some sense). The other side says that children deserve special protection and are more computer-comfortable than we adults realize (which also makes some sense).

A part of me says that teachers are around sick children all the time and it is part of the job. Another part of me says both that teachers are hard to replace when ill and that it is unfair to increase their risk to such a serious illness. OPK, there is a 3rd group that says the whole thing is fake, but let's ignore them for now.

I'm annoyed at my inability to resolve this issue in my mind; I feel like a fence-straddler. Help me resolve this uncertainty...