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?

Somehow, I just can't imagine us achieving that in this country and foresee something much more like this.

All the photos I’ve seen seem to have classes of about 10, in the school hall! Schools only usually have one hall!

I also haven’t seen a classroom with single desks like that in since I took my A levels.

They all look completely unworkable to me - or maybe, look like extensions on our keyworker schooling, rather than a full reopening. I can't see how you could get many children back to school, or at least not for very long per child, under those conditions.

There are only 2-3 toilets per 60 kids at dc school. Just a q for that would spread it.

Maybe carrying on like this and only 50% timetable more parents will go private.

I reckon some schools could have 25% whose parents can manage wfh or pt or sahp.

But if you got down to 20 then you could have 2x10.
There will be shielding kids with cancer even just asthmatic/diabetes etc parents might choose not to send in.
Tbh i think too if the content for bitesize and work sent home there will be more willing to keep kids off.
Especially if schools did do more zoom lessons etc.
Or if teachers were going to mark written work.
Secondary maybe less so as parents can support less and work is harder.
But for them the parents can just leave them unsupervised.

Switzerland have now said children under 10 can hug their grandparents as young children don’t have the capacity to pass the infection on to adults.

Yes just seen this being reported across the media. This is huge if they have found under 10s can’t pass it on to adults. So promising.

But scientists have poured cold water on the move, warning of no consensus in the scientific community.
Professor Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "We don't think that it would be a good idea for children to hug their grandparents in the UK without more data.

I guess just because there’s no consensus yet doesn’t mean that it’s not a step in the right direction with all the research being done in this area. In fact all the research On children generally is positive, all adding in the pieces of a complex jigsaw. No we don’t have the answers yet but we are getting there.

I doubt the Swiss would be so careless as not to have researched this thoroughly . We’re not there yet. But I think it’s good news. Scientists often disagree doesn’t mean you can trust one set over the other.

Our ‘science’ has been somewhat lacking in our approach to this really..

I'm in Switzerland and the government's told everyone to stay at home, but for the last month parents haven been encouraged to allow children to play outside in small groups of up to 5. The parents must maintain social distancing, but not the children. The number of new infections has continued to fall to around 150 a day, only 120 children under 10 have tested positive for the disease and there have been no deaths in this age group.

Thanks @beresh that’s really interesting to hear. And very good news! Must be so good for the childrens’ mental health too, getting to play with a group of friends.

Switzerland have now said children under 10 can hug their grandparents as young children don’t have the capacity to pass the infection on to adults.

I'm not in the UK and know of 2 mothers who got Corona from their daughters (who were best friends and got it from each other). Admittedly they were exactly 10, but I doubt that there is a switch that goes off on their birthdays so they probably can still pass it on before that.

I do have to say that the mothers were tested and not the kids, but their experience was that the kids passed it on to them. They just can't prove it because they don't test kids here.

Let’s just think this through logically. WTF do we think happens between the age of 10 and 18 that changes our entire bio chemistry and stops us transmitting a virus. Gee I knew puberty was gruelling but I simply do not believe you go from a non spreader to a potential host as a result it’s completely illogical

Looked up the Swiss news
"The health ministry's infectious diseases chief Daniel Koch said scientists had concluded that young children did not transmit the virus.
However, he said such meetings should be brief and not involve babysitting."

Scientists don't know for sure why under 10's don't (or as less likely to) transmit the virus, but here are some possible explanations I've read in the Swiss press:

• Children don't have enough receptors to corona virus for the virus to fix and spread in their bodies
• We know of other viruses that don't affect children, eg Epstein-Barr
• Children's immature immune systems don't have antibodies similar to Covid antibodies, so they launch a non specific stronger defence before the virus takes hold in their bodies

I don't really understand the Swiss comments and maybe something is missed in translation as the article I read said children don't catch it. But children under 10 have died of the virus, so we know some definitely catch it. I'm not sure how he has this certainty that even in a bad case they don't transmit the virus, but I couldn't find any relevant scientific reports. Has anyone seen any?

Koch's comments were not properly translated but also they were rather subtle and caused confusion in Switzerland too.

He said that young children were not major transmitters of the disease, they shed very little virus even if they get infected, so an occasional hug with hand-washing straight after has next to no risk for grand-parents and does a lot of good for grand-parents' mental wellbeing.

However grand-parents are at risk from catching infection from their own children, so intergenerational contact is difficult to do safely. Grand-parents shouldn't be doing any childcare, because they would soon slip into bad habits of not hand-washing after every physical contact with the child.

Thanks for all your help with the translations and understanding of this @beresh

Hopefully in time we can take these learnings and apply them here.

That makes a lot more sense, thanks @beresh.

Ds will not be going back until the risk has significantly dropped, schools open or not, we are living with my 81 year old mum & I'm not risking her for anyone.

So many kids, teachers and families returned from half term holidays abroad in February and spent a further 4 weeks in packed schools with no reports of cases spreading following this. The odds of some kids having the virus in schools during this period were quite high and yet there was spread despite how things usually spread in a school environment. I believe the risk in schools is pretty low.

I read the other day in the Times Ed that 26 teachers had died of COVID up to 30th April. And that's not including any over 65s still working and obviously that's quite an out of date figure. We don't know if that was contracted at school though. Some areas are still to reach their peak too. Where I teach the rate is rising at the moment and R rate is reckoned to be over 1.

I got sick at the end of Feb, might have been Covid, might not. How on earth would I know where my pupils went to on holiday?
If the child themselves showed bad symptoms I can see that being traced back to them, but if they were not particularly ill I don't see why staff (or parents of other dc) would have made the connection.

(Backintime I really, really hope you are right by the way)

“ So many kids, teachers and families returned from half term holidays abroad in February and spent a further 4 weeks in packed schools with no reports of cases spreading following this.”

Now you’re re-writing history!