*Big Sigh* The news around Covid-19 for the last 2 weeks has not been good. (Understatement of the year.) Nationally, the 2 week case increase has been 200%. In my county in NC there’s been a nearly 400% jump and the highest numbers we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic. 

I’ve taken to posting some Well Made Health Instagram Stories over the last few days about my own thoughts around the Covid case increase and what this means for families. Many people have chimed in about their own concerns, fears, and untenable circumstances. For those with kids under 5 that are ineligible for vaccination there’s a lot of risk/benefit calculations going on. Here’s what I’ve been hearing:  

“I work in healthcare, I have to send my kid to daycare, but I’m worried about the spike and double exposure at work and daycare.” 

“I’m losing my mind after 10 days home with my kids, but it doesn’t feel safe for them to be at daycare after the holidays. I’m trying to cobble together family support and PTO to keep them out of daycare for another week.” 

“Why haven’t public schools extended the break, moved to remote learning for a week, or required testing before returning to school?” 

“I’m keeping my kids home because I’m fairly certain daycare will have Covid cases this week, and I’d rather be home and healthy than home and sick.” 

To add to the stress of case increases, our testing infrastructure is completely overwhelmed. It’s nearly impossible to find rapid home tests, and testing sites are backed up days for PCRs coupled with a jump from a 12 hours turnaround time to a 72 hour turnaround time. The jury is out on whether home tests can detect Omicron as well as the Alpha and Delta strains of Covid-19. Hospitals are changing testing protocols for asymptomatic patients prior to surgery simply because there are not enough tests to go around. Elective cases are being cut again. Staff shortages are at an all time high. 

After swirling around the proverbial mental drain for a week, there are a few things that have helped me. Vaccinated adults contracting Omicron are seeing less severe symptoms. (Key word: Vaccinated.) Otherwise healthy kids continue to be less likely to be hospitalized for Covid complications. Risk of hospitalization for kids age 0-4 is 1.6 per 100,000.

So if you are a vaccinated adult with unvaccinated children under 5, there is a small likelihood of serious illness in the case of infection. 

However, there is a 100% chance of family disruption in the event of a positive case within the household, which is where a lot of the fear stems from among the conversations I’ve had. No childcare and work demands. The daunting prospect of caring for a sick kid while sick yourself. The inability for kids to play with their pod friends and the social isolation and negative behavior that comes out of that. After over 2 years of this, a lot of parents are out of tricks to entertain their kids while they work. 

To end this note, for all the other parents out there. I want to offer solidarity, and my ear/ data if you are struggling with the right path forward for your family over the next month. Emily Oster’s newsletter is one of the best sources for data-driven decision making for your family. Sign up if you don’t already get it. 

Finally, I’m thankful for the memes and sarcastic responses to the CDC guidelines reducing quarantine from 14 to 5 days. I get some joy out of the way the internet seems to be an endless source of silliness. Last year we had a good time with the Bernie memes, and now CDC memes are having their moment. Send them ALL to me. 

Take care of yourself. I try to get in a daily walk and some reading time as a means of coping with the uncertainty and stress of raising a business and two tiny humans under five. And I’ve upgraded my masks to N95s.

Virtual hug, 

Katie

*This was originally distributed January 4, 2022 via the Well Made Health email list.