piratecat
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Post by piratecat on Aug 25, 2020 7:26:22 GMT -6
I don't know, I don't feel that scandalized by people trying to come up with a longer term solutions to continue activities they are passionate about in a safer manner. At least they are not pretending the virus is fake and going on about their lives like nothing's happening.
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RajahMD
Amethyst
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Post by RajahMD on Aug 25, 2020 7:26:41 GMT -6
Ok. Some of you have never been in band or orchestra, clearly. Playing alone at home is not the same. Like, not even close. I agree if they can play outside, that would be better. But they are trying to make it safe with the masks and covers. I’m not sure what the problem is. ETA: that sounds more aggressive than I meant. I disagree that music is nonessential. I can’t get it up about music teachers trying to keep their kids playing together in schools that are open. There’s real assholes out there to be mad at. 🤷🏼♀️ I was in band for all of middle school and part of high school. So yeah, I do get it. It sucks, but that doesn't make it an essential activity. I see it as the same as contact sports- during a pandemic, resources should not be devoted to non-essential activities. All that time and material being spent on making masks and bags for instruments could be spent making masks for health care workers who are still dealing with PPE shortages. Priorities people. Right now our priority needs to be reducing risk of transmission as much as possible. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can get back to normal. All this bullshit trying to get back to normal immediately is only going to make the pandemic last even longer.
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stepho
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Post by stepho on Aug 25, 2020 8:17:18 GMT -6
Ok. Some of you have never been in band or orchestra, clearly. Playing alone at home is not the same. Like, not even close. I agree if they can play outside, that would be better. But they are trying to make it safe with the masks and covers. I’m not sure what the problem is. ETA: that sounds more aggressive than I meant. I disagree that music is nonessential. I can’t get it up about music teachers trying to keep their kids playing together in schools that are open. There’s real assholes out there to be mad at. 🤷🏼♀️ I was in band for all of middle school and part of high school. So yeah, I do get it. It sucks, but that doesn't make it an essential activity. I see it as the same as contact sports- during a pandemic, resources should not be devoted to non-essential activities. All that time and material being spent on making masks and bags for instruments could be spent making masks for health care workers who are still dealing with PPE shortages. Priorities people. Right now our priority needs to be reducing risk of transmission as much as possible. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can get back to normal. All this bullshit trying to get back to normal immediately is only going to make the pandemic last even longer. I get what you're saying. However, in MY area (and YMMV here), we don't have issues with PPE shortages. My little volunteer group has made over 50,000 cloth masks for adults and kids, which have been distributed to clinic and hospitals for patient distribution, free clinics, dentist offices, OTR truckers, factory workers, low income people, pregnant women, etc etc. The demand from these places/people has dropped substantially because, well, you can wash and reuse cloth masks. We're still filling requests, but at a much lower rate than before. We are now turning our attention to the schools. In addition to churning out hundreds of kid-sized cloth masks, several school districts have asked us to work with them to find a solution to this problem. So we are. No, it's not more important than protecting health care workers. But, for now, they are good here. So this is the next problem to solve.
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leahcar
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Post by leahcar on Aug 25, 2020 9:15:41 GMT -6
Our district really put a lot of thought into band (very, very limited #s of kids inside. Mostly outside practices, still with limited #s of kids. No marching season competitions this year), but I still don't feel it's safe. Even though it is truly not at all the same- my freshman daughter is doing band remotely. Band is my very favorite high school memory and I'm so sad for her.
But- it's a pandemic and this is a necessary sacrifice. Maybe my math would be different if Houston's #s looked different or MH wasn't high risk.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2020 9:45:32 GMT -6
I was in band for all of middle school and part of high school. So yeah, I do get it. It sucks, but that doesn't make it an essential activity. I see it as the same as contact sports- during a pandemic, resources should not be devoted to non-essential activities. All that time and material being spent on making masks and bags for instruments could be spent making masks for health care workers who are still dealing with PPE shortages. Priorities people. Right now our priority needs to be reducing risk of transmission as much as possible. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can get back to normal. All this bullshit trying to get back to normal immediately is only going to make the pandemic last even longer. I get what you're saying. However, in MY area (and YMMV here), we don't have issues with PPE shortages. My little volunteer group has made over 50,000 cloth masks for adults and kids, which have been distributed to clinic and hospitals for patient distribution, free clinics, dentist offices, OTR truckers, factory workers, low income people, pregnant women, etc etc. The demand from these places/people has dropped substantially because, well, you can wash and reuse cloth masks. We're still filling requests, but at a much lower rate than before. We are now turning our attention to the schools. In addition to churning out hundreds of kid-sized cloth masks, several school districts have asked us to work with them to find a solution to this problem. So we are. No, it's not more important than protecting health care workers. But, for now, they are good here. So this is the next problem to solve. Thank you for what you are doing. ❤️
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Post by orangebird2020 on Aug 25, 2020 10:17:13 GMT -6
I wish there was another way to do all of this. School, band, sports, and life. I just feel like we are missing some great solution and are just stuck.
It would be a great item for a project based learning competition across all schools.
I always wonder how our children will bring better ideas and solutions to the way things are done now.
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Post by blablabirdie on Aug 25, 2020 12:16:57 GMT -6
Our schools have been open 1 week. One school in our town now has 6 teachers that got Covid during prep week and 15 more teachers with symptoms waiting for test results..
No plans to close the school and the principal is very nonchalant. Says only difference from the spring is that we are testing. No other schools can close if their staff isn’t affected.
Friggin Sweden.
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AmyG
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Post by AmyG on Aug 25, 2020 12:55:18 GMT -6
I was in band for all of middle school and part of high school. So yeah, I do get it. It sucks, but that doesn't make it an essential activity. I see it as the same as contact sports- during a pandemic, resources should not be devoted to non-essential activities. All that time and material being spent on making masks and bags for instruments could be spent making masks for health care workers who are still dealing with PPE shortages. Priorities people. Right now our priority needs to be reducing risk of transmission as much as possible. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can get back to normal. All this bullshit trying to get back to normal immediately is only going to make the pandemic last even longer. I get what you're saying. However, in MY area (and YMMV here), we don't have issues with PPE shortages. My little volunteer group has made over 50,000 cloth masks for adults and kids, which have been distributed to clinic and hospitals for patient distribution, free clinics, dentist offices, OTR truckers, factory workers, low income people, pregnant women, etc etc. The demand from these places/people has dropped substantially because, well, you can wash and reuse cloth masks. We're still filling requests, but at a much lower rate than before. We are now turning our attention to the schools. In addition to churning out hundreds of kid-sized cloth masks, several school districts have asked us to work with them to find a solution to this problem. So we are. No, it's not more important than protecting health care workers. But, for now, they are good here. So this is the next problem to solve. I would be very cautious with the claim that there is no PPE shortage in your area. 50,000 masks sounds like a lot, but not enough for people to actually wash their masks and change them frequently enough. Sure numbers are down, then they may have sufficient PPE for right now. But It takes a school wide or nursing home large outbreak and then there isn't enough PPE to go around to be using the materials, fabric and time to make bags for instruments. Also they'll say there's plenty of PPE in the hospitals, but you talk to the paramedics that are reusing N95 masks, the nursing homes without sufficient numbers of mask to actually change them every patient, the in home care providers for the elderly and they don't have what they need. But the numbers reported makes it seems ok. Remember PPE is not just masks, it's gowns and surgical drapes and gloves and more. with the force that air is expelled from instruments, cloth masks are not slowing much of that spread. to think that a 3 layer cloth mask on an instrument is going to really do much to a full on band of wind instruments belting out songs? Like sports, some kids really really need that outlet. But we need to figure out how to do it safely, not just make it looks safe from a distance but up close it's just security theatre.
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Post by chocolatecake on Aug 25, 2020 13:00:56 GMT -6
blablabirdie, I'm sorry, that's frustrating and concerning. I'm due to send my kiddos back to school in person on Monday so I've been following news to see how other schools have faired. One of things I was using as a pep talk to myself was that 'Sweden never closed anything and we haven't been hearing about large outbreaks/deaths in children." Sweden was giving me hope that perhaps slowly working towards herd immunity might work. I think it's inevitable that we will see more outbreaks/hotspots with schools opening in another a couple weeks. As long as each city/country/area can manage the crisis is what really matters because not having access to healthcare should we need it is what really scares me.
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Post by blablabirdie on Aug 25, 2020 13:40:33 GMT -6
blablabirdie, I'm sorry, that's frustrating and concerning. I'm due to send my kiddos back to school in person on Monday so I've been following news to see how other schools have faired. One of things I was using as a pep talk to myself was that 'Sweden never closed anything and we haven't been hearing about large outbreaks/deaths in children." Sweden was giving me hope that perhaps slowly working towards herd immunity might work. I think it's inevitable that we will see more outbreaks/hotspots with schools opening in another a couple weeks. As long as each city/country/area can manage the crisis is what really matters because not having access to healthcare should we need it is what really scares me. This is true, it really doesn’t seem to have an immediate serious affect on kids. But our teachers do almost no social distancing and they can get hit hard. My sons teacher from las year got it in March and is still on reduced hours because she is exhausted and kids are carrying it all over. So my fear is really not my kids — we have them back at all activities for the start of the autumn. I live in an area where we have had low spread and I am afraid it will spread like wildfire here - and we still don’t have face masks in elderly homes or outside of Covid hospital wards.
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RajahMD
Amethyst
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Post by RajahMD on Aug 25, 2020 13:45:54 GMT -6
I was in band for all of middle school and part of high school. So yeah, I do get it. It sucks, but that doesn't make it an essential activity. I see it as the same as contact sports- during a pandemic, resources should not be devoted to non-essential activities. All that time and material being spent on making masks and bags for instruments could be spent making masks for health care workers who are still dealing with PPE shortages. Priorities people. Right now our priority needs to be reducing risk of transmission as much as possible. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can get back to normal. All this bullshit trying to get back to normal immediately is only going to make the pandemic last even longer. I get what you're saying. However, in MY area (and YMMV here), we don't have issues with PPE shortages. My little volunteer group has made over 50,000 cloth masks for adults and kids, which have been distributed to clinic and hospitals for patient distribution, free clinics, dentist offices, OTR truckers, factory workers, low income people, pregnant women, etc etc. The demand from these places/people has dropped substantially because, well, you can wash and reuse cloth masks. We're still filling requests, but at a much lower rate than before. We are now turning our attention to the schools. In addition to churning out hundreds of kid-sized cloth masks, several school districts have asked us to work with them to find a solution to this problem. So we are. No, it's not more important than protecting health care workers. But, for now, they are good here. So this is the next problem to solve. So why not make masks for other areas that are having shortages? It just seems shortsighted to me, on top of the fact that I doubt cloth bags would do anything to stop the spread of the virus from instruments.
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piratecat
Diamond
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Post by piratecat on Aug 25, 2020 13:51:03 GMT -6
I get what you're saying. However, in MY area (and YMMV here), we don't have issues with PPE shortages. My little volunteer group has made over 50,000 cloth masks for adults and kids, which have been distributed to clinic and hospitals for patient distribution, free clinics, dentist offices, OTR truckers, factory workers, low income people, pregnant women, etc etc. The demand from these places/people has dropped substantially because, well, you can wash and reuse cloth masks. We're still filling requests, but at a much lower rate than before. We are now turning our attention to the schools. In addition to churning out hundreds of kid-sized cloth masks, several school districts have asked us to work with them to find a solution to this problem. So we are. No, it's not more important than protecting health care workers. But, for now, they are good here. So this is the next problem to solve. So why not make masks for other areas that are having shortages? It just seems shortsighted to me, on top of the fact that I doubt cloth bags would do anything to stop the spread of the virus from instruments. Your frustration feels a bit misdirected. She and her group have made 50,000 masks to distribute in her area, which is amazing. It's not up to them to supply masks for HCWs in the entire country. The PPE shortage isn't happening because individuals are not making enough masks.
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Eames
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Post by Eames on Aug 25, 2020 14:18:25 GMT -6
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Post by chocolatecake on Aug 25, 2020 14:26:01 GMT -6
blablabirdie, I'm sorry, that's frustrating and concerning. I'm due to send my kiddos back to school in person on Monday so I've been following news to see how other schools have faired. One of things I was using as a pep talk to myself was that 'Sweden never closed anything and we haven't been hearing about large outbreaks/deaths in children." Sweden was giving me hope that perhaps slowly working towards herd immunity might work. I think it's inevitable that we will see more outbreaks/hotspots with schools opening in another a couple weeks. As long as each city/country/area can manage the crisis is what really matters because not having access to healthcare should we need it is what really scares me. This is true, it really doesn’t seem to have an immediate serious affect on kids. But our teachers do almost no social distancing and they can get hit hard. My sons teacher from las year got it in March and is still on reduced hours because she is exhausted and kids are carrying it all over. So my fear is really not my kids — we have them back at all activities for the start of the autumn. I live in an area where we have had low spread and I am afraid it will spread like wildfire here - and we still don’t have face masks in elderly homes or outside of Covid hospital wards. I’m sorry if I came off as dismissive of educators contracting it, I certainly don’t want anyone to get or die from it. I share your concern for our teachers because as of the study released last week it shows kids are almost like super spreaders but hardly experiencing the effects themselves. It does make me worry how our children will spread it among adults near them, especially teachers without proper PPE. In my original response, I more was speaking of trying to psych myself up for sending my kids but in reality me sending them could lead to complications for the adults teaching them. Gosh, there are no good choices here.
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Post by blurnette989 on Aug 25, 2020 17:17:16 GMT -6
Herd immunity without a vaccine is a pipe dream. I know it sounds nice, but it isn't really feasible. Because of a few factors. So in 6 months you can look at a state like Virginia. 8.5 million people and 115k confirmed cases. They've recently been confirming between 800-1000 cases per day. Even if you become immune to this virus 100% (which does not seem true for everyone), this rate of cases is too slow.
Assuming you only need 60% for herd immunity that is 5.1 million people. Even if we guess that twice as many people have gotten covid so far than was caught, that is only 230,000 people. So 5.07 million have to get it to reach 60%. At 1000 cases per day, that would take 13 years.
Natural herd immunity just isn't possible. Also nobody wants to get sick and be a part of that herd- so naturally when numbers go up, people tend to self regulate behavior which causes numbers to go down, which also increases the amount of time it takes to spread.
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Post by bunnyfungo on Aug 25, 2020 18:06:45 GMT -6
Re: instruments and band and stuff. I think it’s important to remember that we aren’t living in a perfect world. Sure, in a perfect world, or even one with competent direction at the federal level, band isn’t an essential activity. But where we’re at right now, it’s happening. So it seems like attempts to make it safer is better than....not doing that and just letting them get their droplets all over each other in practice.
Idk. It’s hard AF. If you have school aged kids you are dealing with a lot right now. It certainly isn’t made easier by you kids seeing their peers continuing to participate in activities that they are desperate to be involved in. Obviously, at the end of the day it’s our job as parents to make the final call, but that doesn’t make it easy.
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Aug 25, 2020 21:45:09 GMT -6
Caution. This thread is scary AF. Only read it if you are up for it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2020 22:48:54 GMT -6
Herd immunity without a vaccine is a pipe dream. I know it sounds nice, but it isn't really feasible. Because of a few factors. So in 6 months you can look at a state like Virginia. 8.5 million people and 115k confirmed cases. They've recently been confirming between 800-1000 cases per day. Even if you become immune to this virus 100% (which does not seem true for everyone), this rate of cases is too slow. Assuming you only need 60% for herd immunity that is 5.1 million people. Even if we guess that twice as many people have gotten covid so far than was caught, that is only 230,000 people. So 5.07 million have to get it to reach 60%. At 1000 cases per day, that would take 13 years. Natural herd immunity just isn't possible. Also nobody wants to get sick and be a part of that herd- so naturally when numbers go up, people tend to self regulate behavior which causes numbers to go down, which also increases the amount of time it takes to spread. And hundreds of thousands of people die in the meantime. Preventable deaths.
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adelbert
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Post by adelbert on Aug 25, 2020 23:15:18 GMT -6
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Post by blurnette989 on Aug 26, 2020 0:42:06 GMT -6
Man, this virus defies our expectations in many ways so it is always possible. As long as governments don't use it as an excuse to do nothing, I'd be interested to see what research plays out.
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Post by blablabirdie on Aug 26, 2020 4:03:53 GMT -6
This is true, it really doesn’t seem to have an immediate serious affect on kids. But our teachers do almost no social distancing and they can get hit hard. My sons teacher from las year got it in March and is still on reduced hours because she is exhausted and kids are carrying it all over. So my fear is really not my kids — we have them back at all activities for the start of the autumn. I live in an area where we have had low spread and I am afraid it will spread like wildfire here - and we still don’t have face masks in elderly homes or outside of Covid hospital wards. I’m sorry if I came off as dismissive of educators contracting it, I certainly don’t want anyone to get or die from it. I share your concern for our teachers because as of the study released last week it shows kids are almost like super spreaders but hardly experiencing the effects themselves. It does make me worry how our children will spread it among adults near them, especially teachers without proper PPE. In my original response, I more was speaking of trying to psych myself up for sending my kids but in reality me sending them could lead to complications for the adults teaching them. Gosh, there are no good choices here. I understand completely! I got a bit defensive as I have to deal with the nonchalance towards Covid every day and don’t feel it’s the answer either. Swedes are patting themselves on the back for being able to live an almost normal life and it is exhausting at times. I think there must be some kind of middle ground but I do t know what. My husband is going back to teaching martial arts this month and the parents voted for indoor contact training instead of outdoor separated and I am not amused. One day at a time...
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milano
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Post by milano on Aug 26, 2020 6:09:10 GMT -6
Caution. This thread is scary AF. Only read it if you are up for it. This is interesting info. However, almost every single Trump supporter that I "know" (and it is not a huge number) are either anti-vax or at least anti flu-vax. I don't see them getting the Covid vaccine even if Trump says so. People won't wear a mask but they'll line up to get a shot of a brand new vaccine? I just don't see that happening, at all.
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Aug 26, 2020 7:34:36 GMT -6
Caution. This thread is scary AF. Only read it if you are up for it. This is interesting info. However, almost every single Trump supporter that I "know" (and it is not a huge number) are either anti-vax or at least anti flu-vax. I don't see them getting the Covid vaccine even if Trump says so. People won't wear a mask but they'll line up to get a shot of a brand new vaccine? I just don't see that happening, at all. But that’s the problem. Anti-vaxers and T supporters who think this is a hoax won’t get it and now because it’s politicized, Dems will be skeptical if it’s announced by T in October (understandably). But then T can say “we did it!” and we are left with a mess on our hands.
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milano
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Post by milano on Aug 26, 2020 8:23:29 GMT -6
This is interesting info. However, almost every single Trump supporter that I "know" (and it is not a huge number) are either anti-vax or at least anti flu-vax. I don't see them getting the Covid vaccine even if Trump says so. People won't wear a mask but they'll line up to get a shot of a brand new vaccine? I just don't see that happening, at all. But that’s the problem. Anti-vaxers and T supporters who think this is a hoax won’t get it and now because it’s politicized, Dems will be skeptical if it’s announced by T in October (understandably). But then T can say “we did it!” and we are left with a mess on our hands. Ok gotcha, I misread a bit I guess. That does make more sense.
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piratecat
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Post by piratecat on Aug 26, 2020 9:32:16 GMT -6
It's been 6 months and Trump is still calling it the China virus. For FUCKS sake.
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Diordra
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Post by Diordra on Aug 26, 2020 10:53:48 GMT -6
Our mayor (R) flew to DC this week for the RNC. She is pictured all over social media not social distancing nor wearing a mask. It is being blown up all over my local social media feeds, people are pissed. It was also paid for by the city without anyone knowing.
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redbears
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Post by redbears on Aug 26, 2020 11:26:40 GMT -6
It's been 6 months and Trump is still calling it the China virus. For FUCKS sake. At this point, everyone should be calling it the America Virus
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Aug 26, 2020 13:15:33 GMT -6
Caution. This thread is scary AF. Only read it if you are up for it. This is me. I am pro vaccine and willing to get a covid vaccine, but yeah, not if it’s an October surprise. I hate that there is no trust anymore.
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jaygee
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Post by jaygee on Aug 26, 2020 13:26:02 GMT -6
Caution. This thread is scary AF. Only read it if you are up for it. This is me. I am pro vaccine and willing to get a covid vaccine, but yeah, not if it’s an October surprise. I hate that there is no trust anymore. Exactly. I’ve been saying I’ll be first in line, but I’m scared if it gets politicized and I have doubts.
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Post by goldenlove on Aug 26, 2020 14:47:06 GMT -6
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