2022-23 Flu/covid/RSV season

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by Nancy

I also am going through my first bout of COVID. I tested positive on Thursday, and had slight chills and headache through the weekend that were largely controlled by Tylenol (ended up switching to Advil which worked better). I started feeling better yesterday, am no longer taking Advil, and my only symptom currently is slight congestion plus about 75% loss of taste and smell. I had the Moderna Bivalent 2 months ago, so disappointment there I guess.

Sorry, don't want to pick on you but why is that disappointing? Sounds like the booster is helping to keep the worst of it at bay.

My boosters are up to date but I was planning on getting my bivalent a bit early for the holiday season -- unfortunately covid found me first. I'm now on day 14 - have lost two weekends, had to take all of last week off work, and still have lingering flu-like symptoms and a positive test result that is keeping me cooped up at home.

(Ps you can also alternate Tylenol and Advil if you need something more potent. Nyquil was a godsend for me for getting to sleep with the congestion. Hope ya feel better soon!)

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

If daycares could only charge on days when you're kids were there and your fees were rebated when they were sick, I wonder if we'd see less illness at daycares.

Daycares are one of the craziest rackets I'd never known about until recently. It's basically legalized gouging.

But understandable because finding a good childcare provider is so important and because there seems to always be crazy high demand.

Still though, the things daycares/dayhomes require of their clients is insane.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Daycares are one of the craziest rackets I'd never known about until recently. It's basically legalized gouging.

But understandable because finding a good childcare provider is so important and because there seems to always be crazy high demand.

Still though, the things daycares/dayhomes require of their clients is insane.

It's a very labor intensive business. They're not making a huge amount of money with the child:teacher ratios required especially for the younger children. They're not going to be able to keep their staff if they have to cut them every time too many kids are out sick.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

There are no teachers in dayhomes and not in most daycares either. It's childcare, not preschool.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

There are no teachers in dayhomes and not in most daycares either. It's childcare, not preschool.

They are "educators" in all daycares and some day homes.

[nfotiu]

No one running a dayhome is getting rich unless they are trying to pack in 10-15 kids without any help (which I assume is illegal). Otherwise, it is a pretty tough job for the money.

A daycare will have to have about a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio for the infant rooms, and something more than that as they get older, but the good ones usually hire people with some kind of educational education, and have to pay some kind of premium over min wage.

If you go the Nanny route, then, you are looking more like 4000-5000 a month, so the other options are definitely cheaper in comparison.

I'm not really seeing the legalized gouging. It's more like a fairly low margin business that can get under water pretty quickly if not run well.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

I would point out that I think this point fits a political narrative that benefits an opposition party or parties, but might not really be all that truthful (I'm not one to defend the federal government on red tape issues, but I'm more interested in facts than narrative).

In my recent experience visiting Palm Springs, CA in early to mid November we tried many pharmacies looking for children's Ibuprofen and Tylenol. We were successful in procuring the last bottle of such in one of the pharmacies, but otherwise every last place we checked in Palm Springs and Oceanside CA was cleaned out much like the situation here in Calgary. While that's only a couple places in one region in the US, I have my doubts about describing the situation in the US as 'without shortage.'

I could be traveling this week to Michigan & Ohio and will check there and report back.

I have friends in a few large cities in the US and most of them were surprised there was a shortage in Canada. It's not like their shelves are overflowing, but they certainly think that they wouldn't have an issue procuring around a dozen bottles within an hour or two.

[CASe333]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Daycares are one of the craziest rackets I'd never known about until recently. It's basically legalized gouging.

But understandable because finding a good childcare provider is so important and because there seems to always be crazy high demand.

Still though, the things daycares/dayhomes require of their clients is insane.

There are no teachers in dayhomes and not in most daycares either. It's childcare, not preschool.

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Look at the ratio of caregivers to children in daycares. Look at how much money daycares charge per hr. Daycares are not one of the "craziest rackets" ever, if so show me the margins that are even possible based on the fees charged per month and ratio of caregivers. Its such a ridiculous thought you haven't clearly done the math and realized how little you are paying per hour for some human being to take care of your snot nosed virus pod. If you think its such a racket take care of your kid yourself or get a nanny. You can also get fee for service daycare when needed but they are usually much more expensive or just a crappy service.

Given my kid has missed ~50% of his daycare since mid September I would love if they gave rebates for missed time but I completely understand that all of their overhead doesn't go away just because my kid doesn't show up. They have to plan everyday he is going to be there, the expenses don't change for them.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I have friends in a few large cities in the US and most of them were surprised there was a shortage in Canada. It's not like their shelves are overflowing, but they certainly think that they wouldn't have an issue procuring around a dozen bottles within an hour or two.

What is causing the shortage? Is it just a supply issue? Why only Canada?

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Locke

What is causing the shortage? Is it just a supply issue? Why only Canada?

I've seriously heard that the shortage is due to a shortage of French and English documentation on the medication. It sounds so bull#### though.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I've seriously heard that the shortage is due to a shortage of French and English documentation on the medication. It sounds so bull#### though.

You know...I was going to say that, because I've heard that also, but that sounds like full-on nonsense.

Its not like bilingual labels were just instituted yesterday or anything.

[D as in David]

Sacre bleu!

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I've seriously heard that the shortage is due to a shortage of French and English documentation on the medication. It sounds so bull#### though.

No that's not the problem. The shortage is a combination of supply chain issues that everyone is feeling, mixed with Canada being a smaller market and having fewer vendors to pick up the slack. The bilingual packaging issue is a separate one that makes getting stock from other vendors difficult because it needs exemptions which it easily gets. In fact, there's US stock coming this way any day now

[bigtmac19]

Our Shopper's in my town in Southwestern Ontario got some supply yesterday and word quickly spread.

However, they didn't put a limit on how much people could buy!!! What fresh hell is that? The stupidity is mind-boggling.

[The Fisher Account]

Originally Posted by CASe333

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Look at the ratio of caregivers to children in daycares.

I'm almost certain that my daycare only makes money by hiring 90% TFW's

[RedHot25]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1595447137768247297

[Matata]

I have a buddy who ran a daycare with his wife from their home and they said it was great money. I can see how it would be hard to scale up and maintain profitability, but she made more money watching their kid plus 3-5 other kids than she would have working full-time.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by bigtmac19

Our Shopper's in my town in Southwestern Ontario got some supply yesterday and word quickly spread.

However, they didn't put a limit on how much people could buy!!! What fresh hell is that? The stupidity is mind-boggling.

We're all told to put a limit of one per customer, so that's on store management

[Knut]

Originally Posted by Matata

I have a buddy who ran a daycare with his wife from their home and they said it was great money. I can see how it would be hard to scale up and maintain profitability, but she made more money watching their kid plus 3-5 other kids than she would have working full-time.

Overhead is pretty low when its out of your own home.

[BrolyTheUnholy]

Originally Posted by calf

This probably isn't helpful, but the constant sicknesses in the first while of daycare was a pretty normal occurrence before this tsunami of germs as well. Anecdotally, it seems either kids get constantly sick in those first few months of daycare, or if they're kept home in the younger years, get it when they start school. Personally, I think parental leave should cover the transition period as well to deal with the sicknesses, figuring our your new logistics, things like that.

Love that idea. Our son started daycare a year ago and it was only around late August that we noticed we were finally all feeling fairly healthy for two straight weeks. I started a new job 5 months after he started at daycare and have had to take more sick days, both from him being sick as well as myself, than I think I've taken in the past 10 years combined.