Cases are down, deaths are down, hospitalizations are... whoops, wrong direction!
I got my 2nd booster a few weeks (four shots in total, now) ago. Side effects included a headache and fever, but definitely a milder one than I had with my first booster in 2021.
* * *
So the 2022-23 school year began a while back, and aside from a few scraps of evidence from last year's social distancing attempts still sticking to the hallway floors, there is very little to suggest that we're still in a pandemic.
We're back to packing the kids onto benches in the cafeteria. Last year we put six to a table. Now, it's at least 24.
Masks are optional -- and hardly anyone wears one. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's about 7%.
Last year, the district provided us with boxes of tissues. This year they were like "nah, you're on your own."
Hand sanitizer bottles are there, but we don't have to worry about running out of the stuff, because the bottles largely get ignored.
When a kid has a cough, we don't test them or call home anymore. We just check for a fever using the forehead scanner... and if it doesn't indicate that the kid's a walking space heater, we send them back to class.
It feels like we've just thrown out all precautions.
It really feels like we're asking for disaster.
Meanwhile, these kids... it's awful. I'm working a lot with fourth graders this year. They went to Kindergarten. Their first grade year got cut short. Their second grade year was spent mostly online. Their third grade year was in-person, but socially distanced. And now they're in fourth grade and all packed in, and teachers are like, "No talking!" "Sit up straight!" "Stop fidgeting!" and IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY. There are kids in these classes with both diagnosed and undiagnosed ADD who aren't "allowed" to fidget. There are neurodivergent kids who are stimming and self-soothing and being told off for doing it.
I bet some of them miss being online. I know I do.
I changed schools this year because I needed a new environment, but I've been quickly reminded the grass is never greener... it's the exact same grass, just on somebody else's lawn.
I did stop doing the weekly (eventually every-other-week) covid testing thing. I don't remember if I mentioned it here, but there was this program where educators could be tested twice a month, at home, and mail in their samples. I didn't mind taking the tests, but it was a pain getting to a UPS store and mailing them every 1-2 weeks. For a while I dropped them off at this auto repair shop (UPS drop-off point), until one day they said they couldn't take "bodily fluid" packages anymore. After that I made twice-month trips to a nearby convenience store/pot shop. This year, I decided if I needed to, I could use at-home tests and get my own results... and if I do get really sick, I'll go to a testing site... if there are any left.
Shout out to all the people still wearing masks in public.
Shout out to the people who can't go out in public.
Shout out to anyone who's made it to the end of this rambling post.
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