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Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

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Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#41

Post by vmchale »

roland35 wrote: post #19

Yeah this is definitely not surprising to the least! Even if I was laid off I am more worried about my children having long term health effects (or worse) than missing a few bills, and that is before considering how flexible lenders are claiming to be (I've gotten emails from all my major bills about covid related help they can provide). I am just so confused why some people are acting like kids are a different speci…

> I am just so confused why some people are acting like kids are a different species when it comes to covid.

That was what the Chinese data said - they had fewer cases so presumably they didn't see the full range of possibilities.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#42

Post by zozin »

This seems like a worthless comparison. One hundred percent of parents can get C19 and 100% of their children can get it too. How many of these parents still have jobs? The unemployment rate for parents is probably lower than the aggregate population. Again, this (5x!) is a worthless comparison.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#43

Post by debacle »

There is a massive, silent demographic who wants a return to status quo.

There was a conference call with the school district the other night. A friend in the district was in awe at how many parents want their children to return to school, are upset about sports, etc.

Many people want to look at this as a black and white issue - either you believe social distancing and masks are necessary, or you believe that Bill Gates wants to put a microchip in your head. The media is of course greatly to blame for this.

The reality is that there are many people who share different priorities than vocal groups on the Internet. Several times I have written blog posts about lay statistical analysis of the virus, and how more conservative states have the benefit of seeing reopening in action in states like Florida and Texas. Many of the responses assume I am against masks, against social distancing, trolling etc. No discourse is possible.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#44

Post by blakesterz »

darawk wrote: post #15
blakesterz wrote: post #5

The survey does say just enough about their methods to make it sound like it's not at all something that can be taken all that seriously. "In a recent survey, we asked about 1,000 parents what their biggest worry amidst the pandemic was, and what we found was a surprise. It turns out that the majority of parents are worried about their families being infected by the virus rather than finding work or paying the mortga…

Why do you think they all had jobs, or their jobs weren't at risk? All it says, afaik, is they asked 1000 parents.

Good question, I didn't really mean all those people had jobs, I guess what I really meant was more like if you're not careful in choosing who you ask you'll end up with 1000 people who have safe jobs, or just a way larger percent of people who have safe jobs than do in the general population.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#45

Post by gdubs »

miketery wrote: post #34
roland35 wrote: post #19

Yeah this is definitely not surprising to the least! Even if I was laid off I am more worried about my children having long term health effects (or worse) than missing a few bills, and that is before considering how flexible lenders are claiming to be (I've gotten emails from all my major bills about covid related help they can provide). I am just so confused why some people are acting like kids are a different speci…

It's all about risk. Humans are terrible at understanding probability. There must be a threshold where it becomes ok to take on the risk (e.g. driving a car everyday for most Americans). So where is that threshold? Another way to think about it is, what do we do if we learn that the pandemic will not end for the next 10 years? What activities do we allow and under what new mode of operation / conditions? It might be…

Risk and uncertainty go hand-in-hand. It’s clear what the risks are, generally, with cars. It’s unclear what the risks are with a novel pathogen.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#46

Post by gibrown »

roland35 wrote: post #19

Yeah this is definitely not surprising to the least! Even if I was laid off I am more worried about my children having long term health effects (or worse) than missing a few bills, and that is before considering how flexible lenders are claiming to be (I've gotten emails from all my major bills about covid related help they can provide). I am just so confused why some people are acting like kids are a different speci…

Plus we know nothing about the long term health consequences. Kids may not be dying at a high rate but they may suffer long term heart, lung, or organ damage. It feels like everyone is just assuming that if it isn’t death then it is fine. Just because you survive something doesn’t make you stronger.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#47

Post by bullebak »

It's an interesting thing to balance. The health risk of the disease vs the 'developmental' risk of a lack of 'normal' social interaction with other kids and teachers in a 'so-called' formal school setting. I am all for my kids returning to school, but that is easy for me to say and so I think everyone needs to have the space to make the decisions that they feel comfortable with. And that extends to the teachers as well, and this is where it gets really interesting. What happens if the teachers aren't comfortable with going back to a class full of little germ spreaders?

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#48

Post by birken »

miketery wrote: post #34
roland35 wrote: post #19

Yeah this is definitely not surprising to the least! Even if I was laid off I am more worried about my children having long term health effects (or worse) than missing a few bills, and that is before considering how flexible lenders are claiming to be (I've gotten emails from all my major bills about covid related help they can provide). I am just so confused why some people are acting like kids are a different speci…

It's all about risk. Humans are terrible at understanding probability. There must be a threshold where it becomes ok to take on the risk (e.g. driving a car everyday for most Americans). So where is that threshold? Another way to think about it is, what do we do if we learn that the pandemic will not end for the next 10 years? What activities do we allow and under what new mode of operation / conditions? It might be…

> Another way to think about it is, what do we do if we learn that the pandemic will not end for the next 10 years? What activities do we allow and under what new mode of operation / conditions?

Then we'd actually put real effort into controlling it so we could go back to life as normal even with the virus not fully eradicated.

The problem with all of these simple "risk profile" analyses is that we as a country are being forced to accept risk we don't have to. With cars, we understand there is some amount of risk but also we as a society also care about those deaths and make tons of regulations and improvements to make driving safer. As such, death rates have fallen over the decades even as miles driven have accelerated.

Whereas with the pandemic we seemingly are just accepting high death rates and hoping for the best instead of putting in the level of effort to fix it. That makes it not just about risk tolerance, but frustration with the level of concern the country is putting into fixing the problem.

Re: Parents are 5X as Worried about Infection and School than Work and Paying Bills

#49

Post by marpstar »

Not me. I'm more concerned about my kids going back to school so that I don't need to be here all day and try and monitor their education on my own AND trying to focus on my job. The risk of me or my children DYING from COVID is practically zero.

The average age of a COVID death is 70+ years old. The average life expectancy in USA is < 80 years old. People won't live forever, no matter how many masks we wear or how hard we lock down.

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