1 in 4 parents lied about child's COVID infection status

[NullTuples]

"About a quarter of parents have lied to others about their child’s COVID-19 positivity status, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. The national, online, noprobability survey in December 2021 asked parents if they had ever engaged in seven types of misrepresentation and nonadherence behaviors regarding COVID-19 public health measures for their children: Yes, they'd been dishonest about their child’s health or vaccination status, roughly 1 in 4 told the researchers. And 1 in 5 allowed their child to break quarantine rules at the height of the pandemic.

The findings were based on the responses of 580 parents of children under 18 surveyed in late 2021, when cases were surging and schools switched to remote learning. About 10% of the adults said they lied about their child’s vaccination status, 20% avoided getting their child tested when they thought they were infected, and another 10% lied about their child’s age to get them vaccinated. Researchers were from Middlesex Community College in Connecticut, the medical schools at University of Utah, University of Colorado and University of Iowa, the Veterans Affairs Denver Center for Information and other academic institutions."
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/covid-coronavirus-pandemic-california-17821551.php

Link to published paper pdf (open acess): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2802004

[Silent3]

1. We should have told people the virus could not only kill you, but it could turn you gay

The former the "right to life" party doesn't give a shit about. The latter would terrify them into compliance.

Okay, either compliance or even crazier quack remedies.

[Ms. Toad]

2. Please don't use being gay as a threat. n/t

[Silent3]

3. I'm merely projecting how right-wingers take it that way n/t

[Ms. Toad]

4. You suggested using my life to coerce right-wingers to get vaccinated.

That's not OK.

[Silent3]

5. Are you taking the suggestion as a serious suggestion?

Really?

[Ms. Toad]

6. Frankly, it's even worse if you're just using my life as a throw-away line.

Would you have suggested, even in jest, that we tell Republicans that vaccinations would turn them black? It's the same principle.

In case it's not good enough coming from someone who is impacted by being treated as a joke, here's EarlG's take on a similar "joke":

While I'm on the subject, please knock off the "Lindsey Graham is gay/a woman" jokes. Most of you have figured this out by now, and DU Juries actually have a pretty solid track record of removing these posts, but you know what would be even better? If we didn't have to send such bigoted "jokes" to Juries in the first place.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215969127

[Silent3]

12. I've never heard a right-winger worry that this or that would turn people black

On the other hand, I have definitely heard fretting that this or that thing would turn people gay.

If I had ever heard many people fret about being turned black, or that black people were trying to "recruit" other people into being black, I probably would use that as the basis of a joke under the right circumstances. And I'd think it a bit weird if I made a joke like that if someone took it as if I were saying being black would be a bad thing.

But perhaps not on DU in the future, where some people seem to be looking for reasons to take offense.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Not the point.

There are too many people on DU who believe using being gay as the butt of a joke, or as a tool to bludgeon folks we don't like is just hunky dory. It makes DU feels like a hostile place to those of us who are LGBTQ. It has been a problem for years, and it is currently a significant enough problem that EarlG recently changed the TOS and started two threads telling people to cut it out.

When someone who is being used as the butt of your joke says, "can you please stop," the appropriate response is, "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." Not continued rationalization, or accusations that we're looking for reason to take offense.

[Silent3]

15. I will conform my behavior to avoid the ban stick

I still hold that this kind of excessive word-policing is exactly the kind of thing that made "woke" too easy to parody and sneer at. (Not that Republicans wouldn't do that anyway, but I hate making their job easier.)

[Ms. Toad]

16. Well, fake it until you make it is at least a step in the right direction.

I hope at some point that you will change your behavior because you actually care about the people for whom such jokes make DU one more place where we have to constantly be on edge.

[ForgedCrank]

18. I think

you may have missed the intent entirely. No one suggested being gay was something bad. The point was, it's something that they are scared of, even more than dying from covid.
The joke is about them really being that stupid.

[Ms. Toad]

20. I think you don't have experience in having your life used as a weapon.

Repeatedly. In spaces that are supposed to be supportive.

Using my life as a joke, as an insult, to illustrate someone's hypocrisy, stupidity, etc. is NOT OK. Period. Not to mention that EarlG has finally, expressly said it is not permitted on DU. It has taken years to get to this point - and even after an OPs by EarlG telling people to cut it out, I still wander into it about every other day - on average.

And, again, the caring response when someone whose life is being used in any of the above ways points it out is to say, "Sorry, I wasn't thinking." Not to tell us that we don't understand when the use of our lives is offensive, and makes DU a hostile place for us. Do you have any idea how patronizing it is to be repeatedly told, "But you just don't understand" - it's not really hostile. We weren't aiming at you. etc. etc. etc.

[NullTuples]

7. Yeah, don't normalize suggesting that even "just as a joke". It's morally and ethically wrong.

[Initech]

8. I seriously wonder what the percentage of those parents who watch Fox News is.

I'd be willing to bet at least 99% (with a +-1% margin of error).

[NullTuples]

9. I live in a dark blue area & parents here lied, too.

I'm surprised the percent isn't higher, but if someone lies why would they admit to it?

Maybe - tied to what you are suggesting - the only ones who said yes were proud of their lying, as if they saw it as wielding personal power b/c they got away with it. That is a very Republican trait these days.

[Initech]

13. I was thinking more in terms of r/HermanCainAward.

And also that even the New York Times said that a disproportionate number of people who voted MAGA / conservative were the ones who were most likely to contract COVID and end up in the hospital, because they were the ones who believed in the anti-vaxxer crap that was being passed around social media.

But the thing is that MAGA people are everywhere. Even in counties that are bright blue. I unfortunately live in the reddest part of California but you still see them all over the place.

[hippywife]

10. Damn, some people really suck.

So glad we've been pretty much isolated from people out here in the red middle.

[AwakeAtLast]

17. All Teachers everywhere: We know!!!

[orleans]

19. oh come on...

why should adults give a SHIT about other people's children when their kid can attend a birthday party
(they probably didn't infect ALL the other kids there anyway)
or
when they can go to school because they're not *that* sick and that extra week to ten days of socialization is SO IMPORTANT (and kids don't really get sick anyway. and neither do teachers)




i work with kids and while this is absolutely no surprise it still pisses me off.

The participants were asked additional questions about choices they made on behalf of their kids.

Researchers found that, overall, about 26% misrepresented a child’s COVID status in some way.

About 60% said they had lied about vaccination status when they wanted their unvaccinated children to participate in an activity that required shots.

More than 50% of those who admitted misleading others about their child having COVID or not following health recommendations said they did so because they wanted the freedom to do what they thought best.

About 43% said they didn’t tell others that their kids had COVID because they didn’t want them to miss school.

About 35% said they didn’t disclose that their child had COVID because they could not afford to miss work.

snip

“Yet, at the same time, they’re potentially exposing other kids to a serious illness," Fagerlin said in a university news release. "So, it’s tricky because what you might think is best for your child might not be best for other children in the classroom.”

Researchers said this deception could have contributed to the spread of the infection and added to high rates of hospitalization and death.

snip

Researchers also suspect some parents may have been less than honest in their survey answers.

“Lying about lying is certainly a possibility,” Fagerlin said. “If anything, 26% is probably the minimum number of parents who misrepresented their children’s COVID-19 status during the pandemic.”



https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-03-06/1-in-4-u-s-parents-lied-about-a-childs-covid-status