I don't mean bias in a negative sense, by the way.
Among the parents at work, there's been a significant shift in attitudes towards taking sick kids to see the doctor since the Wuhan Flu escaped Wuhan. In the past, when kids got sick, the parents would grimace about the inconvenience and just keep them out of school until they got better. Unless the thing lasted a long time or was very acute, taking them to the doctor was avoided. After all, the hospital was a huge hassle and the kid was going to get better anyway, given rest and fluids. What was the doctor going to do for them other than recommend rest and fluids?
All that has changed. Parents are now rushing to get their kids tested for the WuFlu and visits to the hospital are the norm rather than the exception. The kids still get well - no one I know has had a fatal or even a serious case so far. None of them receive any extra care other than the normal rest and fluids, either.
To me, this indicates a new, strong bias towards hospital visits. You can't have hospitalizations without going to the hospital, so I'm inclined to believe that a non-trivial number of pediatric hospitalizations are precautionary, driven by the parents' newfound fears, driven by the prevalent publisher-peddled panic porn.
How's that for alliteration?
Anywho, my advice is Biblical. Be not afraid. If South Africa is any guide and they're about a month ahead of us in the Wuhan Sniffles outbreak, our current spike will be very steep, relatively short and fairly mild. The Danes think the Sniffles signal the end of the pandemic.
Tyra Grove Krause said on Danish TV 2 that a new study from Denmark’s State Serum Institute found that the risk of winding up in the hospital with Omicron is half that seen with the previous Delta variant. She also said that like the emergence of the variant in South Africa, cases will rise, then quickly fall.
“I think we will have that in the next two months, and then I hope the infection will start to subside and we get our normal lives back,” she said on Monday, according to the Daily Mail.
Sounds about right.
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| Who are we to argue with the Danes? After all, they gave us the Danish. |
Alliteration - my big word for the day. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I posted a comment that Omicron is not a SARS virus. Here is a much better explanation of that point ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk5NfMh0xtI&list=WL&index=3 ), also claiming that the pandemic is "scientifically over". It's nice to know that I'm not the only person to think so.
ReplyDeleteNow we need the rest of the world to regain their senses.
A couple things. Parents did not "just keep kids home", they gave them "the pink medicine" and sent them to school. That way, they could get into work for 4 hours and not have to deal the sick kid for the morning.
ReplyDeleteThat was a positive change with Covid. Parents are more inclined to keep kids home when they are sick. My wife and I did not have even a cold from March 2020 until May 2021.
As I said yesterday, parents are very concerned to not get anyone in the family exposed before going on vacation, but now they have no concerns about spreading every virus they received on the cruise ship or at Disney World, the next day at school.
This mornings text to teacher. The mother is keeping the kid home because he had a couple bouts of diarrhea last night. Not because he was sick but because she didn't want to make the teachers have to deal with that. But then, wondered if he was feeling better could he come for the afternoon?