Social distancing after 7 months into covid

[twowhat?]

I think part of the reason we've been fairly cautious (aside from DH's germ-phobia) has to do with DD's heart - we met with her cardiologist in September for her (rescheduled) annual checkup, and the Journal of the American Heart Association echoed his report that the evidence does not currently point to an increased risk of COVID complications in patients with congenital heart disease/defect.

While I was reassured by his confidence and the evidence he could report based on patients cared for at CHOP, I remain concerned that there are things we haven't seen yet because of school closures, families' isolation, and other exposure-reduction strategies that were implemented early in the pandemic and persist across our respective states.

However, the evidence of clotting in major organ systems in autopsied deceased COVID patients scares the cr@p out of me, so ... I'm struggling with balancing that fear with the ability to work through risk in a rational, scientifically-based way.

I hear ya and that's where I am too. Perhaps nothing is proven yet, but we are also still learning and learning about this virus. I've decided that since DD1 has 2 potential risk factors, that's enough for us to want to be extra careful. Since we're able to be pretty cautious without anyone going crazy or suffering significant emotional decline, then we will just keep doing what we've been doing for now.

[lizzywednesday]

I hear ya and that's where I am too. Perhaps nothing is proven yet, but we are also still learning and learning about this virus. I've decided that since DD1 has 2 potential risk factors, that's enough for us to want to be extra careful. Since we're able to be pretty cautious without anyone going crazy or suffering significant emotional decline, then we will just keep doing what we've been doing for now.

I don't blame you one bit for wanting to be more cautious and I really hope that my response didn't make you feel called out or shamed, because that wasn't my intention.

I respect the desire to keep your family safe. NJ was really bad in March/April, so I went from being very laissez faire about things to "if my brother sends me a package from his home at one of the epicenters for the state, how long do I have to isolate it before bringing it into the house?" and learning as much as I could about epidemiology, infection control, and why R0 is a thing.

We are still quarantining groceries, mail, and packages for a couple of days, despite the evidence so far that fomite spread is very rare, but that "so far" feels like it's doing a lot of heavy-lifting!

And the great thing about 1:1 therapy is that it translates pretty well to telehealth, so if either of our families begin to show cracks at the edges of our ability to keep sane, we can go that route. (I really need to seek out the telehealth counseling option for DD, because as the weather gets cooler, she'll have less in-person time with her bestie for various reasons.)

[twowhat?]

I don't blame you one bit for wanting to be more cautious and I really hope that my response didn't make you feel called out or shamed, because that wasn't my intention.

I respect the desire to keep your family safe. NJ was really bad in March/April, so I went from being very laissez faire about things to "if my brother sends me a package from his home at one of the epicenters for the state, how long do I have to isolate it before bringing it into the house?" and learning as much as I could about epidemiology, infection control, and why R0 is a thing.

We are still quarantining groceries, mail, and packages for a couple of days, despite the evidence so far that fomite spread is very rare, but that "so far" feels like it's doing a lot of heavy-lifting!

And the great thing about 1:1 therapy is that it translates pretty well to telehealth, so if either of our families begin to show cracks at the edges of our ability to keep sane, we can go that route. (I really need to seek out the telehealth counseling option for DD, because as the weather gets cooler, she'll have less in-person time with her bestie for various reasons.)

Oh no, your post did not make me feel that way at all! Quite the opposite...it was nice to hear other people are wrestling with the same thing on figuring out what risk they're comfortable with with regards to any potential health risk factors, and also reassuring to hear that your cardiologist at a great hospital has not seen anything concerning.

[wendibird22]

We are definitely an outlier in our town. DD1 has been invited by several friends to sleepovers. They are 13yr. She’s the only kid to not go. We do hair cuts, dentists, docs. Both DDs are playing soccer and the season ends next week. School soccer requires masks 100 percent of the time, even during games. Rev soccer does not. We’ve only gathered outside at our house with SIL and BIL and ILs. We did let SIL drive DD2 to a soccer game (only 1 spectator allowed) but we requested the windows be down.

DH works OOTH 5 day a week and I do 2 days a week. DD1 is hybrid and DD2 is in school all 5 days. To us, work, school, and soccer is enough risk. We don’t need to add voluntary socializing to it. When we decline we just say “Thanks for the invite but we cannot make it.” I don’t give further explanation. I do worry about the social impact to DD1. Teenage yrs are hard enough and then be the sole outlier friend who turns down invitations and I worry she’ll be ostracized by her friends.


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[lizzywednesday]

Oh no, your post did not make me feel that way at all! Quite the opposite...it was nice to hear other people are wrestling with the same thing on figuring out what risk they're comfortable with with regards to any potential health risk factors, and also reassuring to hear that your cardiologist at a great hospital has not seen anything concerning.

Then I'm glad it made you feel less alone - it's so hard when it feels like "everybody" isn't following best practices in your area.

We are fortunate that, where we live, people are generally following state mandates and other precautions. There are pockets of noncompliance in certain communities, but they haven't yet impacted us here.

That's not to say that I don't expect a surge here - between cooler weather finally arriving and the holidays coming up, I can't see any way we won't be facing another stay-at-home order within the next couple of weeks. I planned my Girl Scout year accordingly; it's been a real lesson in clear communication, advanced planning, and pre-scripting!