Hellobee Boards

We're in a similar situation. My dad and step mom are both fully vaccinated and had and recovered from covid in the fall, but also are both working with exposure--my step mom is a school nurse and my dad works in state government in NY, where he is regularly in groups of people. They live far enough away that any visit requires an overnight, so there's not really an option to have a visit without indoor close contact. There's no perfect answer, but we chose to allow visits starting 3 weeks after their second doses (early March) even though DH and I are just now eligible to get vaccinated. DD is 17 months and obviously not going to be vaccinated for some time.

I'm reassured by the study that came out recently of 3900 vaccinated and unvaccinated healthcare workers that was conducted from January-March. They tested everyone weekly and found that among those that were fully vaccinated there were only 0.04 infections per thousand person days, which extrapolates to about new 1 covid infection per 25000 fully vaccinated people on any given day, which I consider a very small risk.

For us (all low risk) the risk of them bringing covid (very low) times the risk of one of us getting moderate or severe covid (also low) make the risk of both of those happening very very low, so we feel like the benefits outweigh the risks.

Personally, I'm not concerned with my kids being around people who are vaccinated. Even though we don't know everything about the covid vaccines, based on how vaccines function in general and the info that we do have (so far) about the covid vaccines specifically, the risk of transmission from a vaccinated person is most likely very low.

For us, just as an example, this means that my husband and I are willing to eat out in a restaurant just the two of us, because we're vaccinated. But we would not bring our kids into a restaurant. We also will all spend time indoors with extended family who are vaccinated, which we did not do at all pre-vaccination -- we were outdoor only.

Here is a timely article from the NYT today https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/briefing/european-soccer-league-mars-helicopter-navalny.html?smid=url-share.

I personally am not at all concerned about my children being around vaccinated people at this point. The risk to them from being in a car accident is much higher than from covid and we still get in a car every day.

@MrsSCB: Good point about the local rates. Our rates are still relatively high compared to last summer, but much better than a couple of months ago. For reference, we're right on the border of two towns that are each about 30K people. Last summer, the active cases in each town was about 25-30. This winter it was *400*, and now it's about 150.
I would agree that for the foreseeable future we'll be sticking to outdoor, masked playdates.

I think knee jerk reaction is to be scared in a situation like that but the science is solid that that is super super low risk. Since every adult and friend in our circle is vaccinated (🤙) we have been having indoor playdates, gone out to dinner, gym, etc. I'm a teacher with 19 kids in my classroom (high school). All our schools are full time since September, and I have been shocked how rarely kids spread covid. We do sleepovers with grandparents all the time.
It's like I had to retrain my brain to not be terrified. But I am not concerned about the kids spreading covid. It's been awesome!!

My kids are in elementary school so they've been around unvaccinated adults most of the year. The schools haven't had outbreaks, just some isolated cases. So I really don't worry about them being around vaccinated adults. Or adults who already had Covid. We just had a get-together with two families who all had it and recovered. The kids are all classmates but I'd have been nervious inviting the adults over if it wasn't for that.

Also, the lot of us may or may not have had Covid a year ago. Didn't have a chance to confirm, but maybe there's less to worry about than I think.

@pachamama: I'm 100% with you. My kids have been in school this whole year and while there have been cases that pop up here and there (we actually just got an email about a positive case in DS1's class this week), there have been no outbreaks. Now that our friend group has been fully vaccinated, we're starting to get out more and be more comfortable doing things we used to do. I'll still be more comfortable eating outside at a restaurant but that's more fun anyways. Even so, we're meeting family at a restaurant tonight for my nephew's birthday and I'm not worried about eating inside (why is it snowing today???). But I'm just not as worried about Covid and kids.

@foodiebee: Absolutely - I think that it is easy to have internalized a lot of irrational fears and overstated risk in the last year.

This essay today was also a great read https://www.theinsight.org/p/how-one-epidemiologist-decided-whether

We have been very cautious throughout the pandemic, and my husband and I are both now fully vaccinated. I am now comfortable seeing other fully vaccinated adults and having them around our children. The vaccines are very effective.

For us, that means that we can see our vaccinated parents and my vaccinated sister and her fiancé. My SIL is pregnant, and not going to get the vaccine until she is 16 weeks (and her brother and SIL aren’t getting the vaccine 🙄), so we are holding off seeing them until she is vaccinated.

I am more nervous about seeing other unvaccinated children. Our kids are not in daycare or school, so they are not exposed. My oldest can wear a mask, but not super well (2.5 years), and my 13 month old obviously can’t wear one, so I don’t take them to any stores and any indoor areas besides the doctors. We saw one friend with children outdoors, and they are also very cautious and their children were doing school virtually. I am honestly waiting for the numbers to get lower where we live. We are planning on putting the kids in swim this summer, hoping things are better then.

I'm not concerned about vaccinated adults...the risk is super small.

My kids are in daycare, and I am concerned about that. So far we've been lucky, but with the variants + lots of people returning to normal now that adults are getting vaccinated, I think it will be harder to avoid. Especially for my one year old who sticks everything in her mouth....

My daughter got sent home with a runny nose this afternoon and we had to take her in for a test. Probably just a cold, but it's still stressful and going to happen many more times before 2022 or whenever kids can get the vaccine. Plus dh and i just got vaccinated this past week, and of course I'm thinking "wouldn't it be our luck to get covid right before the vaccine starts to kick in..." ugh....

I thought this article was interesting/helpful and wanted to share! https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/04/young-kids-vaccines-covid/618650/

"The biggest risk factor to consider for unvaccinated kids, experts told me, is simply how much COVID-19 is spreading in the community. The U.S. is currently vaccinating at a good clip, and even partial herd immunity will slow transmission of the coronavirus. Seasonal effects may drive case numbers even lower in the summer. “If there’s very little virus circulating, that’s a pretty low-risk situation,” says Sean O’Leary, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

"Experts have pegged the threshold where general restrictions can relax at 5,000 to 10,000 cases per day—the point at which risk of COVID-19 is roughly comparable to risk of the flu. (For context, the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. reached a low point of 20,000 last summer and peaked at 250,000 during the winter surge; that number has since plateaued at 70,000.)"

@bhbee: you’re welcome, I’m so glad it was helpful!