I came across a news article about a super spreader prom event and the takeaway from the article was that the worst that happens from getting covid at prom is having to quarantine!
Nearly 100 students get COVID after California high school’s prom
“You have to just weigh ‘are we willing to sacrifice what will happen if you do get COVID and you have to quarantine’ versus ‘is it worth it just to go out and have a good time for something you can do only twice in your life really,'” said Del Balso.
My Unpublished Letter to the Editor, April 25th 2022
I was disturbed when I read in the news “Nearly 100 students get COVID after California high school’s prom” and it’s suggested the only consideration in deciding to go to gatherings is “the sacrifice of having to quarantine if you get covid” – as if quarantine is the worst that could happen to people or their loved ones. No expert was quoted, only a series of people connected to the event who seemed unaware of important medical facts. There are serious potential outcomes of infection. Of course we all hope the worst doesn’t happen to anybody, but during this pandemic the worst too often happens – COVID being the third leading cause of death in the U.S. with millions suffering from complications that cause long term problems, including for some with no prior conditions. I would like to see a 6 month, 1 year, and 5 year follow-up on the students who got covid at prom before jumping to the conclusion that this super spreader event was mostly harmless. How many will be disabled by Long Covid? How many will have lost family? And as far as we know there has been no case count or contact tracing among the staff who worked that event. We do not know all the long term risks from an illness that’s only been around since 2019, and some risks we do know about are alarming. And if prom is worth a quarantine, it would’ve made more sense to quarantine before the event.
Chloe in Scranton