Schools Reopening?

[ClimbDad]

A major, peer reviewed study into transmission in South Korea has established that tweens and teenagers spread the SARSCOV2 virus more than any other age group.

The study involved more than 65,000 people and used South Korea’s exceptionally effective contact tracing system to look at who brought the virus into households. Tweens and teenagers were the highest index case age group. Younger children transmitted at the same rate as 20-somethings.

This is a large scale, rigorous piece of research that proves children are effective at transmitting the virus. It was conducted in a country that implements strict social distancing and mask wearing among children. The authors say the rate of transmission would have been higher if children weren’t subjected to those measures.

Plans to reopen schools more or less as normal in September will place many lives at risk, and increase the likelihood schools will have to close again. The government needs to acknowledge schools will be highly efficient vectors of viral transmission and change its reopening plans.

Published Paper:
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/10/20-1315_article

Article on the paper:

www.bloombergquint.com/business/covid-19-spread-fastest-by-teens-and-tweens-korea-study-finds

@TimeForLunch we have been trying. Schools have not been shut. But teaching 159 kids a day from Sept, every day, will not end well. Is your office full of 1800 people in close contact every day ?

This is not about deaths. This virus is proving to be very good at leaving people, young people, with long term damage.

@mumsneedwine what do you suggest? That we don't try and just carry on as we are?

We have been trying. We have been teaching year 10,12 and key worker kids for weeks. We have done remote learning, having set this up from scratch in 2 days.
What do I suggest ? Masks. Everyone in masks. Because it's a virus and if you can't spread it, I can't catch it. So masks for all students and protective screen like in shops for teachers. Then we can do our best,

So what are working families supposed to do in your grand plan of keeping kids off school for the foreseeable? What is going to happen to kids’ education and socialisation? Do you realise how impractical your suggestion is?

Here’s the reality - we will be living with coronavirus for years. Even IF we get a vaccine, it’s not going to be given to everyone worldwide. How could it? Who is gout to pay for that ? And even if it could be paid for, how long will it take to vaccinate 60% of the world population? Years probably. We are all going to have to live with this and children cannot stay at home for years isolated from wider society.

@mumsneedwine

We have been trying. We have been teaching year 10,12 and key worker kids for weeks. We have done remote learning, having set this up from scratch in 2 days. What do I suggest ? Masks. Everyone in masks. Because it's a virus and if you can't spread it, I can't catch it. So masks for all students and protective screen like in shops for teachers. Then we can do our best,

There are steps we can take between pretending everything is normal and opening up to let the virus rip, and locking down. Mask wearing is one such step.

@Rosewhite12

So what are working families supposed to do in your grand plan of keeping kids off school for the foreseeable? What is going to happen to kids’ education and socialisation? Do you realise how impractical your suggestion is?

Here’s the reality - we will be living with coronavirus for years. Even IF we get a vaccine, it’s not going to be given to everyone worldwide. How could it? Who is gout to pay for that ? And even if it could be paid for, how long will it take to vaccinate 60% of the world population? Years probably. We are all going to have to live with this and children cannot stay at home for years isolated from wider society.

Better be prepared for shorter life expectancy then...

@ClimbDad exactly. It's not no school or normal school. We need a new school.

Just posted to a different thread but the article at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-19/covid-s-spread-in-schools-is-questioned-in-latest-nordic-study suggests little spread within a school environment and no increased risk of infection in teachers.

@@Rosewhite12 are you prepared for your children to have long term lung and heart conditions ? Because that's what Covid is proving to offer them. I'm not.

@commentatorz because schools have been closed !!!! And our schools are not like Scandinavia- much more crowded. Oh and they all wear masks (thanks for proving my point so well).

If youre concerned about the risk then don't take it and homeschool your kids. That option is always there.
I have to work, and my kids want to go to school. I want them to go to school and am comfortable with the risk.

There is less than 1% chance of death from coronavirus for healthy people and it’s even lower for children. There’s probably a higher risk of death from getting in your car to drive to the school in the first place.
This is hysteria. Yes coronavirus can be deadly, but people face the risk of death every day. It is an uncomfortable truth I know.
That said some people are much higher risk of the disease and they have every right to be worried and take precautions.

100% everything you have said Rosewhite12

@mumsneedwine

No. But we can add precautions to try and keep risk to a minimum. Masks are such an easy solution that work in other countries.

Masks are not an easy solution for many school children.

Also FYI mumsneedwine - Sweden has had schools open throughout their peak. The article showed no difference in transmission where schools were open or shut

@Rosewhite12 this is not about deaths. But about the long term damage of the virus. Of teenagers now needing lung transplants and heart and brain issues that are just coming to light. Our generations polio is what researchers are calling it.

But it did in Israel, so what do we go with?

commentatorz could do well to read the whole of the article she cites.

@tobee why ? Other countries kids can manage, so why are ours different. My mum managed a gas mask for her childhood so why is a small mask such an issue ?

@Juststopswimming have you seen Swedish schools ? Lots of space, small classes and oh, kids wear masks.

“The month of June, which began exactly two weeks after Israel’s school system was suddenly and shambolically reopened, “caused the second wave,” Khatib says. “Whatever else we say, the fact is that schools were not prepared to take students back under the necessary conditions to contain the epidemic.”

“The reopening happened too fast. It was undertaken so quickly that it triggered a very sharp spike, and the return to more conservative measures came too little, much too late,” Khatib says, summing up Israel’s dilemma.”

www.thedailybeast.com/israeli-data-show-school-openings-were-a-disaster-that-wiped-out-lockdown-gains

It certainly isn’t clear that reopening schools will be fine.

@Piggywaspushed I did read it thanks, in the thread I created I made clear it applied to primary schools, whereas the Israel report was for secondary.

Separately the Telegraph is reporting an internal government report saying lockdown will cost 200,000 lives (or 155,000 more lives than related to Covid deaths). Thus is due to various factors including treatment delays for things like cancer as well as 185,000 medium and long term deaths.

But you don't mention Israel in your other thread. It's rather selective to say the least.

I am not clear what your second paragraph has to do with schools reopening in September or why the stats about secondary age pupils seem irrelevant?

..are you prepared for your children to have long term lung and heart conditions ?

And the frustrating and terrifying thing is that this has been so very

Commentatorz - never mind about those deaths though eh? Covid is the only important thing to worry about