Risk to under 20’s

[Alex50]

So five people have died from Covid who are under 20 so far in the UK, 3 of those had under lying health issues, so only 2 with unknown health issue have died. There are over 4 million school age children in the UK. Do you think children are at risk if they return to school? Children are the least at risk category, surely a strategy should be put in place so they can return to school?

Is that the Australian study based on 9 children?

I’d want more evidence than that before opening schools!

Agree Appu and so many questions.

How big are school corridors in NSW?

How many per class?

Its there summer? Were they outside a lot?

How many weeks were they in school?

When will it be peer reviewed?

What age were the children? Primary? Secondary?

How much testing was done of others?

And a few others

It is a good sign but I want stronger conclusions before my dd goes back.

I think even if there was proof children didn’t spread it as much, the government would still have a hard time persuading parents to send their children to school.

It can mutates in differing ways and so to compare us to Australia and how they are doing things is incomparable.

www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/preliminary-study-suggests-coronavirus-has-gained-mutations-capable-of-changing-its-virulence/

metro.co.uk/2020/04/21/coronavirus-mutated-30-strains-deadliest-raging-across-europe-12586269/

Good point Bats

It also said in all that the risk to adults is a concern and as often said it takes a lot if adults and parents to run a school.

So it could mutate, that means the vaccine won’t work as they will need to develop a new vaccine each time, so we keep over 4 million school children locked up? Like I said even if there was proof children didn’t spread it as much as adults, there would be another reason some parents will find not to want schools to open. The government are going to find it a hard job to get children back to school.

@Keepdistance Are the cases on the table you posted only hospitalised cases?? Could you tell me where you found the table please?? I can never seem to find these things!!

So it could mutate, that means the vaccine won’t work as they will need to develop a new vaccine each time

This isn't necessarily true as the flu mutates too. I am not totally clear on this though so I could be wrong.

What this means for a vaccine
The mutations likely won’t interfere with the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In fact, the slow and mild nature of the mutations is good news for a vaccine.
“The virus is still so similar now to the initial sequence that there isn’t really much reason to think the differences will matter in terms of vaccine,” Neuman said.
Vaccines, in general, tend to target an early version of the virus.
Take the flu vaccine, for example.
“The H1N1 annual vaccine is still using a strain from 2009. It’s the ancestor of the various forms that have come after, and while there are differences now, a response against the ancestor seems to give good results against all the descendants,” Neuman said.

Where is the evidence for it mutating? One of the scientists who has been involved in developing a vaccine was saying on radio 4 last week that one of the good things about this virus in comparison to others is that it seems to be not changing at all which gives them a really clear target.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/26/children-unlikely-to-transmit-coronavirus-says-study-cited-in-pms-push-to-reopen-schools

I think even if there was proof children didn’t spread it as much, the government would still have a hard time persuading parents to send their children to school

Some parents maybe, but I think it’s mostly teachers who are opposed spurred in by the unions who always want a fight!

Starry interesting but

Study-In NSW, from March to mid-April 2020, 18

*Notes

It is notable that on 23 March 2020 the NSW Premier advised that although schools remained open, parents were encouraged to keep their children at home for online learning. After this date face-to-face attendance in schools decreased significantly and this may have impacted the results of this investigation. Furthermore, school holidays commenced in NSW on Friday 10 April for two weeks.

You think!*

Unions want to protect their members, Starry, funny that.

Children don't live in a bubble. They may not be at risk of dying from COVID, but if they go to school they will come into direct and indirect contact with those who are. People on buses, in the street, Teachers and other staff. People who don't live in a bubble either. That's the true risk.

it’s mostly teachers who are opposed spurred in by the unions who always want a fight!

While I would normally agree with this, I have great sympathy for anyone not wanting to expose themselves to possible infection. I completely understand why teachers might be opposed to schools reopening without serious consideration of the risks and the benefits.

@ Jaxhogso do you man that means they will spread it or they can catch it and get sick?

Jaxhogso do you man that means they will spread it or they can catch it and get sick?

Probably both and take it home to vulnerable family

Children get sick from all sorts of things, doesn’t mean we lock them away. Over 6000 children died in the Uk in 2018, Covid so far is 9 and most of those children had under lying health issues, it also doesn’t say if these children died because of Covid or they just had it in their system? Spreading it is s different matter. I don’t think the government closed schools because of the risk to children.

Children get sick from a sorts of things

Not generally things that risk killing their teachers or parents though.

Its interesting that you are so focused on COVID only killing children "with underlying health conditions" though. Does it scare you that some of the dead may have had no underlying condition at all? What is classed as an underlying condition btw?

I did say it’s not just about children getting it

I think it’s 2 children without any health condition.

That's not how you put it though, you talked about 2 children with an "unknown health issue". Point is, maybe they had no health issues at all.

www.pasteur.fr/fr/espace-presse/documents-presse/covid-19-premiere-etude-serologique-france-deja-beaucoup-enseignements

Can anyone translate French?