Less than a week after my eight-month-old started daycare, he spiked a fever. No big deal, I told myself. Maybe he was teething. Maybe he had picked up a cold. I tried not to spin out thinking about the third possibility. Babies get fevers all the time. COVID seemed like the least likely explanation.
The fever began the Saturday before Labor Day. As fevers go, it was not so scary. It topped out at 101.8. I was optimistic. Pre-COVID, the rule had been that a child must be free of a fever for 24 hours before returning to school. Maybe this fever would be gone by Sunday and my son could go back to school on Tuesday.
But when I contacted his teacher I found out the rules had changed. Now my child would need to be free of a fever for 72 hours before returning. What’s more, he would either need to test negative for COVID or stay home for 10 days from the onset of symptoms.
These policies roughly align with guidelines from the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control. But whether they are enough to prevent the spread of COVID is anyone’s guess. For example, many centers — including my kids’ daycare — screen kids for fever at the door. But we know that fever is present in only about half of pediatric cases. Plus, we know that kids can spread the virus before they have symptoms and even after their symptoms resolve –-perhaps well beyond the ten-day isolation period. A study of South Korean children found that some kids still shed viral RNA weeks after they contract the virus (although the researchers couldn’t say whether those kids were necessarily infectious). That same study also identified 20 children infected with the new coronavirus that had no symptoms at all, kids who could have infected others without ever knowing they had the virus.
What would undoubtedly help is more testing. Lots more. With far faster results.
In Madison, Wisconsin, where I live, tests are available. I’ve been through the public drive-thru testing site twice. It’s quick and painless. Results usually come back in a day or two. But getting a little kid tested for COVID, that’s harder. The drive-thru site won’t take anyone under the age of five. My clinic is only open weekdays, and Labor Day they were closed. By Tuesday my son’s fever was gone. I called the clinic and the nurse told me I could forgo a test given that he was no longer symptomatic. But on Wednesday he developed a rash, which freaked me out, and I decided to take him in.
Our clinic has a single physician assigned to see everyone with COVID symptoms. Even though my son no longer had a fever, we had to enter through the special side door marked with a large teddy bear sticker. The COVID doctor strongly encouraged me to get my son tested, and I was game. But then she told me results would take 3-4 days. I hesitated. I asked if Saturdays and Sundays count. She couldn’t say. I was worried that not having results might keep my son out of daycare even longer. We were already on course to miss an entire week. “Well it’s just one more day,” she said dismissively.
One more day is not just one more day when you’re already missing a week of work. One more day is OH MY GOD ONE MORE DAY, even for someone who works from home. Sometimes one more day is an emergency. I am not in the position of losing my job if I miss a day of work — or even a week and a day — but many people aren’t so lucky.
What has become clear is just how untenable the current situation is for working parents. We’re stuck: Most of us can’t forgo childcare and hold down a job. But in many communities (mine included) cases are skyrocketing, so childcare doesn’t feel like a safe option either. There are no good choices. But you still have to choose something. Maybe it’s the path that seems safest, the one most likely to preserve your sanity, the one that will keep your kid from turning into a fiery ball of rage. You make your choice, you cross your fingers, and you hope for the best.
We chose daycare. But now I wonder how much daycare we can realistically expect to get. Kids will get sick. Will we miss a week with each illness? I am a freelance journalist, so I have a great deal of flexibility. But missing a week of work with little to no notice is still a hardship. I don’t know how to plan for that.
On good days, I muddle through and try not to think about it. On bad days, I am consumed with rage at the country’s disastrous pandemic response. Six months in, the virus is spreading unchecked and my kid still has to wait days to get his test results. (He was negative).
The kids may be all right, but working parents are not. We are drowning. And there is no rescue in sight.
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Image courtesy of anjan58 via Flickr