Not to brag or anything but… I did it! I got through first grade! Yup, I am pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay impressive.
My kid did a good job too, I guess.
It’s weird, apart from my considerable relief that distance learning is over for the moment, our 6-year old finishing first-grade is depressingly uneventful. We took him out for pizza and ice cream, tried to make a thing out of it… but I’ll always feel bad that his year was so heavily impacted by the pandemic. The time he missed out on in school with teachers and friends…
Better in first grade, than in high school, dont get me wrong. I feel awful for the kids who missed proms, graduations, didnt get to finish their final football season, etc. In comparison my first-grader missed some… recess, I guess. Still, it’s just weird to think that this is part of their childhood story now. “That year everything shut down.”
Sadly it will probably not be the only time… This thing is far from over. I don’t even dare to dream yet if things will ever be the same. God I miss festivals…
It only won’t be if people choose to live in fear.
Ah, you’re one of those. Got it.
Dying from a fucking pandemic is a perfectly reasonable fear.
Yeah, if you have a worse than 98 percent chance of survival. COVID is not as lethal as the media would have you beleive.
Our real problem is that our current life style will invite many future pandemics, some probably worse than Corona, as our meat production is over the top and the medicines to keep all the animals healthy living so close together in dirt and sickness are failing year by year. A couple years ago we had dozens of anti-bacterial medicines for that industry, now we got less than a dozens and some of them are already in the “will not always work” rubric. We might get some real nasty shit in the next fifty years.
What is sad is that there is an actual need to stuff animals (be it meat or fish) with antibiotics to keep them alive till they are large enough to kill, more than “we had a lot of medicine for that but now they’re not working anymore”
What you’ve described explains the epidemic. The thing that turns it into pandemic is the fast-transit global travel without quarantine periods. Given how increasingly connected the world is and how much travel goes on, an infected individual can be in Beijing one day and around the other side of the world in less than a day. This is something we need to think about slowing down. It would put a damper on much travel for vacations if you had to undergo a 15 day quarantine at each end, but it might stop the spread and as we see more of… Read more »
I wouldn’t say slow down but put people under mandatory quarantine if it’s a virus like Covid 19 where it can take weeks for you to actually get sick and you can potentially spread it before then. Trump didn’t do that really. Also, his travel ban on China was way too weak and ineffectual and was put in place too late. Same with the travel bans on Italy and the reset of Europe. By the time they were put in place we already had too many cases in the US to contain the virus in my opinion. South Korea is… Read more »
@TomB – that would help, but at the same time, can you imagine that? For some people, their entire vacation might be two weeks. Now, they spend the entire time in quarantine, then back to work.
You were probably thinking about that with the “damper” comment, but I wanted to spell it out. It would suck to effectively rule out travel for all but the people who could afford that much time away.
The Year has been terrible for many, you have my empathy for the challenges faced this year, i’m currently home schooling 2 children in the UK one of whom has missed all transition days for moving to his upper school. Covid-19 has bought the whole of the world to a standstill and it more than likely will not be changing anytime soon.
It’s nothing in comparison to the pandemic, but I missed grade 9 orientation after a bike accident that broke my wrist. ??
Just imagine that in a global setting with high mobility of carriers to any place on the globe in no time… yarr… and when you add in people trying to make this stuff worse and more weaponized…. My mom lived through 2nd world war – in and out of bomb shelters, subway shelters for larger groups if you weren’t at home, etc. – it had the same character (didn’t know when you or your friends might get hurt or killed, no idea when or even how it wold end, disruptive to so many aspects of what otherwise would have been… Read more »
@Tim: May I ask, why do you think it was safe to have a family lunch/dinner out? What’s the situation like, in your town/city?
Well gee. Probably like everywhere else in the world, they’ve opened things back up with reduced capacity and increased safety and cleanliness.
Hope everyone is remembering to wear masks.
Why would we wear masks? It is not required, nor is it by any means helpful.
Don’t sweat it, Jörgen, in few years they’ll either understand or push it to some ‘ignore it, it’s past’ part of the memory with the latter, unfortunately, being more probable. Explaining to most is just a loss of time because it’s human nature to protect your own beliefs, however they would be and critical thinking is not widespread. It’s too hard for some to spot red flags, too tiresome to search for information and then add 2 to 2.
Jörgen, preaching to the deaf is futile.
Yeah so it seems.
1. Here in the Netherlands wearing masks is not required, unless in public transport.
2. WHO has already stated that spreading of the disease outdoor is next to impossible (yes they tried to cover it up).
3. Only medical masks are actually capable of stopping “drops”. Anything else is useless. And here in the Netherlands you are actually fined if caught wearing medical masks outside a hospital and such.
On one hand, I can’t help but look at the Netherland’s numbers and acknowledge you’re doing something right.
On the other hand, I have a feeling that culturally, you guys are probably practicing better, safer habits than a good portion of the community here, and haven’t cooked up a fantasy about how it’s a scheme to get Rutte out of office.
just curious… you DO know that the WHO has been hand fed by the Chinese government for… oh.. i dont know… 30-40% of their donated funding for the passed few years.
And you do know that part of that is the failure of support from other channels? Of course they’ll go to other sources. And the Chinese want to be a global player, so they will fund some of these things.
The problem with WHO funding (much like UN funding) didn’t originate in China, they are just the benefactor.
Ignorance is not bliss, Jorgen. The virus cannot be stopped by a fabric mask, but an N95 mask can stop it. That acknowledged, what a fabric mask can do is capture most of the larger droplets being flung out in breathing or sneezing or coughing (vs. the smaller amount of aerosol drops that travel less far from the body in any case) and thus reduce the risk to all around them. To wit, the mask you wear is for everyone else’s benefit, just as the ones they should wear are for your benefit (not theirs). Reducing the larger droplets that… Read more »
An Excerpt from the Mayo Clinic website, link at the bottom. “So why weren’t face masks recommended at the start of the pandemic? At that time, experts didn’t yet know the extent to which people with COVID-19 could spread the virus before symptoms appeared. Nor was it known that some people have COVID-19 but don’t have any symptoms. Both groups can unknowingly spread the virus to others. These discoveries led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to do an about-face on face masks. The CDC updated its guidance to recommend widespread use of simple cloth face coverings… Read more »
1. Neither is it in the US. Some businesses require you to wear them when inside their building though. 2. It’s not impossible, just a lot less likely. If you are within 6 yards of people then you are dramatically increasing your chances even if you are outside. 3. Medical masks are best for protecting you from droplets for sure but that’s not why you wear masks. They are to prevent you from spreading the virus as much as you would without a mask if you have the virus. You could be asymptomatic and spread it around while being pretty… Read more »
My wife is an RN, and has spent the last three months taking care of COVID patients. The worst cases ended up on her floor, in her care, the ones that required ECMO, that required being proned. Watching them deterioriate and die more often than they recovered. Having to gown up with double masks, double gloves, double robes, and then sit in their rooms with them, wearing all that gear, for a full twelve hour shift because it was safer than de-gowning and re-gowning every time she left the room. Three months of coming home from a shift, stripping down… Read more »
My cousin’s daughter in Scotland just graduated from nursing and now she’s front line in the Covid fight there. She does the same thing. She’s petrified of bringing it home to her frail 83+ year old grandma (my aunt). I’ve got an 84 year old diabetic, an 85 year old with shingles in the eye and a frail constitution, a wife at 45 who has had 3 major surgery cycles in 5 years and is stuck in recovery from this one due to a lack of physio, and I’m not the best when it comes to respiratory stuff. The household… Read more »
Tim, there was no political stance nor measurement of intelligence whatsoever. Wonder how you came up to such conclusion, really. To me it seems way too many people started thinking in a binary way. If someone says something that sounds supportive, then he definitely means/is A, if it’s the opposite then it’s definitely B. Both A and B predetermined by your previous analysis of the situation and/or by narration heard from someone else. Not an actual analysis of the message. And that’s also one of the things I addressed by writing about critical thinking. Start being a critical thinker in… Read more »
Utterly not true. It does tend to contain a lot of the emissions from the wearer (it doesn’t protect you, unless it is N95 or better) but it does protect the other people from you if you are sick and asymptomatic but contagious. Most of what makes this virus spread so fast is that asymptomatic but contagious phase – SARS and MERS lacked that. There are studies showing the impact of distancing (and why 1 m isn’t enough and 2 m probably is) but when you add a mask in, the odds of getting it (if everyone masks) is much… Read more »
Nope, not everywhere. There are places under strictier levels of lockdowns, where all gatherings are forbidden.
Rolando: We ordered a pizza for takeout and went to the beach. We were like 30ft from the nearest person. I wore a mask both when I picked up the pizza and when I got the kids ice cream at the snack bar.
So the reason I thought it was safe was because we acted safely.
Pizza, a sub without vegetables (meatball with cheese), fried chicken and fries… as long as you are careful with the packaging (where contact happens after heating), then you are likely okay. We usually do take out and microwave them again for 45 seconds just as a precaution or warm in oven. I would not eat a salad from any kitchen right now unless it was a hot one. Growing your own veg, if you have the option, is one way to secure supplies of leafy greens that haven’t been touched by people out of your household. Our municipality is giving… Read more »
It’s the middle of June! How is school over already lol
Grade schools in the US generally run from the 2nd Wednesday in September to mid-June. Some of them even ended a week earlier this year because a lot of them skipped Spring Break and continued to distance learn because of the Covid outbreak.
My schools were closer to mid-August through mid-June.
Same here. I was always envious of the kids who lived in places where school didn’t start until September.
Actually, depending on the state you live in, some schools in the US start anywhere from the middle of August to the end of August. Of course there are those that start in September as well.
I don’t recall finishing first grade being that big of a thing. That scene from The Incredibles immediately jumped to mind. “It’s not a graduation. He’s moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade.” 🙂
I’m sure the perspective changes when you’re a parent. Congrats to your son.
Yeah, when I was in grade school in the 80s and 90s, my elementary school did a graduation ceremony for those leaving the school to go to middle school. I didn’t go because I thought it was silly.
The perspective is a big change when you are the parent AND the teacher. Now that Summer is here you can go back to just being a Parent and get some of that mysterious “free-time” people talk about. I did just hear that some schools in California are talking about just keeping the distance learning going through the Summer as well.
I hear you, my daughter graduated on Tues here in CT and there was nothing for the senior year no sports, prom, awards nights, and concerts. She was very depressed about the whole thing but its over with a whimper and off they go to something hopefully, nobody really knows for sure.
Considering that my wife and I made the decision to homeschool ages ago, it didn’t really impact us a whole lot, other than she missed out on playing with friends after school. My town, geniuses that they are, made the decision to open up long before official, legal changes were made, ignoring the governor’s orders. Almost nobody wears a mask, practices social distancing, etc. I feel bad for the teachers in our district who will have to make the hard decision to retire early or work in the petri dish that is public school, but I know even if the… Read more »
They said it couldnt be done, but Ive done it
The entirety of the 2020 Senior year: * nods, depressed *
In my country we don’t have any proms, football seasons and what not, it’s just school and almost no one wants to see each other again.
I refer to 2020 as “The Year That Stood Still”
I’m getting a Doctor Who vibe from that title.
You are wrong there: in high school a kid is almost a functional member of society. Yes, it’s a bummer to miss all those events, but you basically can study and learn with minimal human contact.
First grade on the other hand: teachers focus on different skills, they basically teach a kid how to learn and how to be separated from their parents.
I would not at all have minded school from home in first grade. Or second. Or third. Or… pretty much every school year except 12th and Kindergarten.
My schoolmates were largely dicks. Particularly in 1st-3rd and 6th-8th.
No More Pencils, No More Books, No More Teacher’s Dirty Looks!
Love you comic, but I’m unhappy that you’ve put out one that joins the ‘Dad is a moron’ narrative that pervades the current marketing norm.
I feel bad for my soon to be roommates daughter. They moved to a new town and she was in the school for two days before the lock down.