Not only that, but sometimes even the threat of an outbreak can hamper the availability of childcare. Last winter, a few staff members were exposed to a close contact, so they held them out of work as a precaution - but that resulted in one of the rooms having to close for a week.

I assume the parents and staff at my daycare just have a collective unspoken agreement to not test for covid.

The remaining Covid policies are stupidly inconsistent anyway.

RSV is far more dangerous to children, but that is allowed to go unchecked. Hell, you have to pay $250+ just to get tested for it. Rhinovirus/influenza/norovirus/rotavirus/other coronaviruses are all OK, with kids leaking from both nostrils in the classroom.

But one kid or adult gets Covid and things have to close? Covid tests are paid for by government, but testing for all the other viruses costs hundreds of dollars? What a farce.

> Covid tests are paid for by government, but testing for all the other viruses costs hundreds of dollars? What a farce.

Could you imagine if there was some test that showed you all the viruses that are circulating in your system at any given moment? If we applied the same rules as we do for covid to such a test, people would literally never be able to leave their house...

> Covid tests are paid for by government, but testing for all the other viruses costs hundreds of dollars? What a farce.

None of the other viruses have caused a pandemic, and changed the course of human history (except influenza, but that was almost a century ago).

Have people literally forgotten that entire countries' health systems were overwhelmed by this virus? Seems like it would be prudent to keep infected individuals out of our public school systems for a few more years.

RSV is overwhelming some hospitals:

https://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/ydhvbs/how_are_my...

Although, the whole hospital volume thing is now wrapped up in pay shortages and rationing of healthcare, so do not really know how much the spread of virus is contributing and how much the lack of resources being put towards healthcare, and specifically pediatric healthcare is contributing.

> Seems like it would be prudent to keep infected individuals out of our public school systems for a few more years.

This is not possible unless you quarantine toddlers and young kids from each other for years, and I am not willing to pay the price of my kids’ development.

Not to mention that parents need to earn incomes to shelter and feed their kids.

> I am not willing to pay the price of my kids’ development.

I mean, sooner or later the people working in schools are going to be fed up with parents' constant refrain of "The whole world needs to sacrifice their health so I don't have to keep my kids at home for an extra week."

This is exactly why many people intentionally avoid testing themselves or their children. If you don't have a positive test then officially you don't have COVID-19 and can continue your normal life (symptoms permitting). (I'm not claiming that this is a good practice necessarily but it's what most parents do.)

They could do home tests though. But PCR would be “on the record”

It depends on if you are willing to lie about it. I won't lie.

But I just won't give the kids the test either unless the school or some other authority requires me to.

It depends if you are willing to lie about it. I won't lie.

But the huge, unavoidable disruption that comes from a positive test result certainly doesn't encourage frequent at-home testing. I think at this point most daycare parents test when the school tells them to, and don't test otherwise.

sounds like washington state lol. one of the reasons we moved from there.

now at my kids preschool, if a kid gets sick they stay home, if they are better the next day they come back. no PCR tests, no missing 2 weeks if any member of the family was sick, its great

Would you be willing to share the preschool? I would like to avoid sending my kids to a preschool that pretends asymptomatic spread of diseases doesn't exist.

Between pinkeye, RSV, influenza, hand foot and mouth, it's just one more thing your kids can get at daycare.