In the midst of the great things, I become sidetracked by masks.

I strongly prefer paper masks, yet feel guilt about the loss of trees.

I dislike the feel of cloth masks, and so wish Redbubble.com sold paper masks.

I don't know one person under 18 years of age who has been vaccinated. Why is that?

Posted by: @the-old-maid

I don't know one person under 18 years of age who has been vaccinated. Why is that?

Has the vaccine been made widely available to under-18s where you are? In the UK, the vaccine rollout has been to those considered "most vulnerable" first, starting with key workers (doctors, nurses, care home workers, etc.), the very elderly and those with severe medical conditions. Then the rest of the rollout is based on age, in stages — I think it was first the over-80s, then the over-70s, then the over-50s, and we've just recently started on those over 32 (why 32 exactly, I don't know).

As far as I've heard, the evidence shows that children and young adults are significantly less likely to become ill from the virus and more likely to recover without serious complications if they do, so they're last on the list to be offered vaccines unless they fall into one of the priority categories (severe medical conditions, being a carer for someone vulnerable, etc.). So in many cases, under-18s simply haven't been offered the vaccine yet. There could also be a stereotypical "it won't happen to me" invincible youth sort of attitude going on with some as well, I don't know! That's the best explanation I can think of, anyway.

You're spot on @Courtenay. In the USA it opened up from most vulnerable to least vulnerable. Kids, teens, and young adults are least vulnerable so therefore they're last on the list. 

It also depends on the available vaccine. In the USA J&J and Moderna are 18+ so nobody younger than that can get it. Pfizer was recently approved down to 12+ so there have been dozens of young people here getting that one. 

I can't speak for other countries because I don't know where they are on the list of vaccinations or which ones are available to them. 

Here where I live, numbers are as low as they've been since this whole thing started. Enough people have been vaccinated (apprx 40% full vaccinated and 34% with at least one dose), plus natural immunity for those who already had Covid, that we are sitting right at 15-40 new cases per day in my county and we've been that way for months. Hardly any deaths at all. 

On the flip side, I'm hearing more and more about a NASTY case of the stomach flu starting to circulate here in the USA. I don't think it's where I live yet, but I'm not sure. I do not want that though....I hate the stomach flu.

Everybody please stay healthy!  

Posted by: @courtenay

Has the vaccine been made widely available to under-18s where you are?

Yes, In fact where I live, the vaccine has also been available to not only every adult and 18's but also 12-15 yr olds. But every place spreads the vaccine at different paces, some take slower and other's take longer. Like, you said, It may be because youth and young adults are less likely to become sick because their immune system proves stronger than elder people. That just may be the reason too. 

@kingedthejust Yes, it does vary in different countries or states — I know under-18s have been offered vaccines in some parts of America. I was just asking @the-old-maid specifically because she was wondering aloud why she doesn't know any under-18s who've been vaccinated so far.

Meanwhile here in Britain, they've just opened it up to 30- and 31-year-olds, which makes me wonder why they left them out in the first place! I'm still (just) in my 30s, but was able to get vaccinated early on, due to being a care home worker.

@johobbit: How were your vaccines,@waggawerewolf27? We received our first dose this morning (Pfizer).

Husband and I were both finally booked in for Friday for our covid shots. We had our flu shots over a month ago. It should have been earlier for the covid one, but then Rachel broke her leg, & we had other things on our mind that was more urgent. We are taking things a day at a time at the moment. Rachel is out of the heavy cast now & is getting around with a moon boot over the broken leg. There have been more cases mainly in Melbourne, & perhaps due to the influx of people trying to return back to Australia from India where it has been bad. I hope it soon goes away again. 

It is good that you are okay now. Best wishes everyone, & stay well.  

to you, @waggawerewolf27!

Our province's Stay-at-home order is up next week on June 2. We shall see what the premier and his team decide. The daily case numbers sure have come down from the serious state in March, but the chief medical officer would like to see them well below 1000 consistently before opening up too much. Right now the new cases are just above 1000 every day. We heard today that BC's plan is to open up quite rapidly, while Ontario's is a much slower three-step process, which we appreciate. We are figuring that we will not be having our family 2020 Christmas until into the Autumn now. The Christmas decorations are fun to have up when it's over 30C. And it saves me putting them up in November again this year.  

Hoping to have an outdoor Father's Day gathering here with my dad for the first time since Christmas. But we shall see what our Premier announces next week. We are all learning a great deal of patience and consideration. We only wish more people were respectful of this entire situation.

We are still loving our family video chats every Sunday, along with periodic outdoor visits to my dad's to support him and bring him groceries.

We are grateful the final member of our nuclear family had her first vaccine dose yesterday, so we are all eager for our second dose in July or August. Ontario has opened up to 12-17 for vaccines: good news!

Continuing to keep in contact with those locally who are lonely and struggling during this unusual year. We're all in this together!

@waggawerewolf27 Hooray, glad to hear you're getting your jabs! My mum and dad have just recently had their first doses too. Also lovely to know Rachel is on the mend.  

@johobbit: Hoping to have an outdoor Father's Day gathering here with my dad for the first time since Christmas. But we shall see what our Premier announces next week. We are all learning a great deal of patience and consideration. We only wish more people were respectful of this entire situation.

Thank you for your good wishes. Tomorrow 12.40pm is the day. Our youngest daughter, Nicole, has had her jab, but the other two of our three daughters still have to have theirs. I'm not seriously worried about Rachel, the eldest since she is here, & too incapacitated at the moment to go anywhere. There was a fair bit of argy bargy about the Astra Zeneca jab that we are most likely to have. People worry when others are getting blood clots, & in New South Wales a lot of this sort of difficulty is political, especially when we have these Anti-Vaxxers around. There are 15 new cases in Australia according to the COVID-19 world-o-meter, mostly in Victoria, but the main worry is with the odd sod who crosses the Murray into NSW. It feels like the 4th tape of Groundhog day as one news commenter said. I can't remember all of the three small towns in the Riverina mentioned, which I heard on this morning's news, not having heard of them beforehand.  But one is called .....wait for it....Goodnight. At least that is what I think I heard, Courtenay. I thought Nevertire on the Western Plains, not to mention Come-by-chance, were bad enough.  

@Courtenay: My mum and dad have just recently had their first doses too. Also lovely to know Rachel is on the mend.

It is encouraging that some people, like your parents, are getting their jabs, too. Trouble is, that because we have been having a relatively easy time of it, people tend to get complacent. Thank you also, Courtenay, for your good wishes for Rachel. She hasn't been employed & is staying with us as a result. But in the interim, as she does courses & looks for work,  I've really appreciated how much she has been doing to help support both my husband & myself in our daily lives, whether getting shopping done or getting the lawn mowed.  

It drags on slowly here, with almost normal life, most cases reported in quarantine facilities, and a gradual 'travel bubble' with Australia, and some Pacific Islands. (Meaning two way travel with no quarantine).

Vaccination began with border workers and health workers, then an older age group in certain areas. I should be eligible for a jab soon, but apparently our province has had a delay in supply! Far away and safe from the rest of the world, but mail and deliveries, and all sorts of items in shops are unavailable. And now we just have to wait for vaccines.

Regarding the youngsters, my concerns were two-fold.

One, the adults are impatient to return to their "real" lives. They aren't quite willing to wait for the youngest generation to receive vaccines. This is a problem, since the children are entirely dependent upon the adults' self-control to not spread the disease ... and that self-control is weakening.

Two, there is no proof that children naturally catch a milder form of COVID-19. There is a very nasty outcome that looks like Kawasaki's Disease, though it is still COVID not Kawasaki's.

Children have not had as many opportunities to catch COVID-19 because:

a) School is their "job" and millions are "out of work."

b) Their recreational activities have been closed: from churches to malls to theaters to gyms to libraries to swim parks to the playgrounds to birthday parties to [long list]!

c) Children cannot drive themselves to a recreational activity. If they want to be naughty and disobey the rules of their parents or their local health officials, they have to walk.

Overall, there aren't enough sick children to assume that children are somehow magically less vulnerable, to make assumptions about what COVID will do when it blazes through their generation.

But I can name some children who did catch it, and died.

Children have not been catching COVID and spreading COVID because they have been more isolated than have adults. They have fewer tools with which to escape quarantine and commit foolish behaviors. Much like your brother-in-law who owes you money cannot repay you if he hides when he sees you coming.

So that's what I meant when I said I don't know any youngsters who have been vaccinated. It will still take a long time.

That is so sad. Personally I have lost one cousin in her 20s whose degenerating condition made her vulnerable to covid. A friend lost his elderly dad to it, and another friend with a large family (some still school age) lost her husband. None of these were in my country.

Apparently, it's been so long since someone's had COVID in my neighborhood that my Church has declared masks optional. I'm so relieved! For people like me, who tend to have stuffy noses, those things make breathing such a struggle. (Don't worry, Old Maid. There aren't that many kids in my congregation.)

@ The Old Maid: Children have not been catching COVID and spreading COVID because they have been more isolated than have adults. They have fewer tools with which to escape quarantine and commit foolish behaviors.

Most of the emphasis has been on nursing homes, where already vulnerable old people would catch COVID all too easily, not to mention their carers. But a children's vaccine is also being developed, especially because of fears about blood clotting, from the Astra Zeneca vaccine. We have had the first dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine & are due to have the second dose in August. We can't visit elderly relatives in nursing homes unless we can prove we have been vaccinated. 

Certain parents, known here as Anti Vaxxers, tend to oppose any vaccinations, rejecting the need to immunise against Mumps, Measles & Rubella, not to mention Diptheria, Tetanus & Whooping Cough. There has been talk of banning such people from leaving their children at nursery schools & day care centres unless the children have a certificate showing they have been fully vaccinated. 

So heart-breaking to hear of any deaths. It is too easy to view them as daily statistics, but every one is a person with an eternal soul. I can never forget that.

@col-klink, what a relief this must be. Really glad for your church!

Today Ontario, Canada is concluding its Stay-at-Home order, but with just under 600 people still in hospital with Covid, and just over 600 in ICU, we need to see these numbers much, much lower. However, they have significantly come down over these past few weeks: may this continue! Many restrictions are still in effect, with a slight easing up of some, and we officially enter our first phase of opening on June 14 ... possibly earlier, depending on numbers. There are three phases in our opening, all of which are very gradual and thought out with much care. Our provincial leadership says that they would rather go slowly, than rush into opening and have to shut everything down again. No one wants a fourth wave!

Apparently the variants of concern are still a huge worry around the world, particularly the India variant (B.1.617), so there is a ways to go yet to 'normal', whatever that will be.

Second doses here in Ontario have been moved ahead because of a generous vaccine supply coming in to Canada. So, we are hoping to receive our second dose around a month earlier than is currently booked—mid-late July instead of later August.  

Today our Premier and Education Minister will announce whether schools will return in-person before the end of the school year (June 24), but I doubt it. Schools have been out since March Break, which, mind you, was delayed until mid-April this year. [Edit later: schools will not be going back to in-class learning this year; kids won't be in class until September.]

Our family is excited, because we should be able to gather outside for Father's Day this year with my dad, my sister, two of our three kids. Our third child and his wife live in the next province over (east), and will most likely not be able to make it quite yet. But when they can, it'll be Christmas 2020 for us!   Back to Father's Day, though, our youngest son and daughter are planning to stay the weekend ... my heart leaps at this anticipation!