Open the Playgrounds (city hall, HOA, homes)

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by wac_432

I agree. Elderly and immunocompromised should continue to stay off playgrounds and away from the rest of the public, especially children.

Yoga and meditation may be sufficient for the elderly, but not for children. Kids need a lot of high energy athletic play, including climbing, swinging (monkey bars) and other upper body exercise from play structures.

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous that they are still closed down. I too see most playgrounds roped off by yellow caution tape. The fields are open, but not the play structures. I wish families would just disregard the yellow tape and take their neighborhood structures back. Everything you said about transmission is accurate; the risk is low.

[wac_432]

My county just issued guidelines for Halloween.

No:
Outdoor Trick-or-treating
Outdoor Gatherings
Outdoor "Trunk-or-treating"

Yes:
Eating at restaurants and breweries
Buying overpriced pumpkins from a pumpkin patch
Going non-essential shopping indoors for Halloween decorations.

Suprise, suprise. You can go out and spend money, but anything cheap or free is banned, regardless of the risk of spreading COVID.

While children--who rarely show symptoms or transmit the disease--will be banned from trick-or-treating, adults will be free to go (in non-family groups) get drunk at their favorite brewpub, and spread the virus freely to dozens of people, because shelling out $$$ to stuff your face with nachos is much more important than exercise and play.

I agree with the trick-or-treating ban, because it would necessitate interactions between adults and children, which means lots of transmission chances to children. What bothers me is the unfair distribution of the burden of this disease onto the elements of society who are least likely to be affected by it.

Every single study of contact tracing shows that adults spread the virus more readily than children. Children need exercise more than adults. Banning ONLY children's activities does almost nothing to slow the spread of the virus. After 7 months of arbitrarily leaning on children and families against clear and overwhelming scientific evidence, I am sick of the mercenary logic of the government's response. (Money > Life and Health)

Stop Harming the Children:
Open the Playgrounds.

Stop Killing the Elderly:
Close the restaurants, nail salons, hair salons, and retail shopping.

[stablegenius]

People will probably do it anyway. Not sure how they can enforce that...

[wac_432]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

People will probably do it anyway. Not sure how they can enforce that...

I know.

I won't be handing out candy (kids are away), because I don't want to make a viral link to dozens of families from my workplace and the grocery stores at which I shop.

All the adults handing out candy can easily transmit it to the kids, some of whom will transmit it to their families. Just for one night of diabetes and obesity promoting fun.

Meanwhile brief kid-kid interactions on playgrounds are very unlikely to transmit the virus. Plus the fitness and mental health benefits can't be overstated.

Yet my town is up in arms over Halloween, but barely a peep about playgrounds and schools!

With such screwed up priorities, we'll never beat this virus.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Cloudydaysahead

How about look up the definition of class and consider who's lives are at stake which is the immune compromised and elderly people. Also take note, normal healthy adults are also dying. Please dont spread information like this. Children are very unhygienic and touch everything. You want your children to get exercise, take time out of your life and do yoga and meditation with them. Stretching the limbs especially, will help they grow taller at an earlier rate. Do us a favor and stay away from the public.

Obviously you do not have children who are being almost locked up now for 7 months. Yes, Yes, COVID can affect any of us, but the germs living outside seem to die off faster and then inside. WE can't stop living because people will be exposed and some will become very ill. If you have been paying attention you would know 90% or more of those who have died have had 2 or more underlining conditions.

You say, do yoga with your kids: Come on, get real, that might be fine, but kids need kids activities as well and need to socialize with other kids, not just mommy!!!!!

[citizensadvocate]

Do you live in LA county? they pulled back on that a week ago. Interesting they will mention it in the first place as no California community ever tried to stick their noses on trick or treating unlike some communities I heard in the east coast.

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by nmnita

You say, do yoga with your kids: Come on, get real, that might be fine, but kids need kids activities as well and need to socialize with other kids, not just mommy!!!!!

I know right? As if kids can sit still for yoga.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by wac_432

Every single study of contact tracing shows that adults spread the virus more readily than children.

Contact tracing has been unsuccessful here. So we can't use that to explain anything about the virus.

The Most American COVID-19 Failure Yet/ Contact tracing works almost everywhere else. Why not here?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...ing-us/615637/

Why hasn't contact tracing managed to slow the massive surge of coronavirus in the US?
https://www.livescience.com/covid19-...us-states.html

And the U.S. hasn't done enough studies of how children transmit the virus. We have relied on other countries' data, some of it from way back in February, and/or in countries that have not had as high rate of confirmed cases as the U.S. has had.

The true incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is not known due to lack of widespread testing and the prioritization of testing for adults and those with severe illness.

It is unclear whether children are as susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2 compared with adults and whether they can transmit the virus as effectively as adults. Recent evidence suggests that children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults7 and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings.8,9

Due to community mitigation measures and school closures, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to and among children may have been reduced in the United States during the pandemic in the spring and early summer of 2020. This may explain the low incidence in children compared with adults. Comparing trends in pediatric infections before and after the return to in-person school and other activities may provide additional understanding about infections in children.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...atric-hcp.html

[animalcrazy]

I feel sorry for the kids. I know how hard this isolation is, and it has to be twice as hard for the kids. Our friends chose remote learning for their 8 year old, our single mother neighbor chose a combination of 2 hours in class and remote. Our single mother neighbor now has Covid brought home by her asymptomatic daughter. She went to live with her father for a few days until her test came back positive. I don't know if her father and his wife have it now or not.

Kids playing on playgrounds? They get close and transmission is possible outside as well. Our beaches were closed all summer because people weren't doing the right thing and cases were spiking. If you can't get adults to do the right thing, how do you get children to do the right thing?

I've seen kids playing in our park, and even playing baseball. Our cases are going up in our village and it's the young ones spreading it now. How is that good?

[wac_432]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Contact tracing has been unsuccessful here. So we can't use that to explain anything about the virus.

While it's true that "Track and Trace" is an utter failure due to only 10% of cases being detected by testing, that doesn't mean that we can't glean some useful data from what tracing has been done. In fact, that's almost the only useful thing to come out of our "army of contact tracers"

This CDC study indicates that 3 adults infected 12 children in child care facilities. Those 12 children then infected 12 adults at home.

The math is simple. 1:4 infections for adults. 1:1 infections for children. Clearly adults spread it more readily than children. The ratios are actually much worse if you consider that those 1:4 spreaders were just in casual temporary contact in environments with masking, distancing, and sanitation in place, while the 1:1 spread by children was at home with extended contact with family members and presumably no precautions in place.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e3.htm


Yet it is ONLY children's activities and institutions that are closed. Most of the state is going to work at nonessential jobs, shopping, dining/drinking, etc, while children are forced to stay off playgrounds and out of school. It is this sort of ass-backward response that is causing the virus to continue to spread.

The playgrounds and schools should be open, while everything else should be closed. Not the opposite. Our behavior defies the science, because children's activities are the low-hanging fruit. Politicians can lean on children and families to appear to be doing something, without actually doing anything to stop the virus.

Closing adult institutions and activities is the hard but necessary step our leaders refuse to take. So they hurt children's health just so they can look good. Shame!