Is there an expert here to explain what's going on wrt colds vs coronavirus ...

[chocciechocface]

Scotland - DC are going into their third week of school now.

About 75% of DDS class are already off with sick bugs. Yes, as many as that.

I know one child has been tested and it's negative. My DC have also already had time off school but haven't had any of the COVID symptoms requiring a test.

And, anecdotally, speaking to work colleagues, similar seems to be happening at other schools in Scotland.

I have three questions:

1. If lockdown has suppressed the spread of the coronavirus, why has the same not happened with coughs and colds? Why are children going down like skittles?

1. If cleaning, hand washing, fogging, windows open etc will limit spread of coronavirus, why is it not doing the same for coughs and colds?

1. If the coronavirus enters the school, are we likely to see the same type of spread as we are with colds?

Children are more susceptible to coughs and colds as they don’t have strong immune systems. I suspect lockdown would have made them more susceptible, not less.

That’s a lot. I was wondering if by limiting our exposure to any illness for the past 5 months and through lockdown we may have weakened our immune systems? Just a thought. Normally in our school coughs/ colds/ sick bugs go round but you wouldn’t get as many as that off and mine normally escape any illness.

I guess you’d hope the extra hygiene measures would reduce incidents of colds and bugs but it seems not if they are highly contagious?

Some people only have gastro symptoms with Corona so you have to wonder if all of them actually have sickness bugs. But the guidelines only say to test for temp, cough etc.

If schools are now such hygienic places with constant handwashing as they keep telling us, how come so many have caught bugs?

@justanotherneighinparadise

Children are more susceptible to coughs and colds as they don’t have strong immune systems. I suspect lockdown would have made them more susceptible, not less.

But in spite of the weakened immune system, they're apparently less susceptible to coronavirus...? It doesn't make sense to me.

In general children have still been mixing with their friends, so not completely living in a sterile bubble for the last few months.

And the school should close for deep cleaning if so many have bugs.

It’s not uncommon for bugs to affect some of the population more than others. It’s happens frequently with flu strains for instance. It’s perfectly plausible for kids to get colds without being particularly susceptible to CV.

My DC weren't in on the day at least 75% were off. But I was told lots of children didn't go in that day, and quite a few were subsequently sent home during the day. To the point afterschool activities were cancelled to try stop more children catching it.

This, against a backdrop of intensive cleaning. The only other time I can remember so many off at one time was an e-coli bug, and that was at a time of normal cleaning.

@PaquitaVariation

It’s not uncommon for bugs to affect some of the population more than others. It’s happens frequently with flu strains for instance. It’s perfectly plausible for kids to get colds without being particularly susceptible to CV.

But why? How is this explained in science?

I asked DH (who is an ID doctor) and he gave me some word salad. But what I understood from this is that a) we don’t fully know why kids don’t fall as badly ill b) kids do get COVID but not the worst variety c) adults with comorbidities do worst d) a ‘clean’ and ‘young’ immune system seems to cope better with COVID.

There was more. I am not a scientist. I didn’t fully get the rest of it! 🤦🏽‍♀️

Both mine have had bad colds one week into school, one had a new cough (they always gets coughs) so got them tested.

Apparently flu is very likely to be low numbers this year, that is what Australia is reporting, but it seems the common cold is unstoppable.

I'm wondering if the answer is that the common cold is highly contagious - more so than corona - but overall not as dangerous...?

I've not seen any discussion of this anywhere though.

It is incredibly unnerving sending kids into school, during a pandemic, where other sicknesses are so obviously prevalent.

Yes the common cold is also highly contagious. But coronavirus is also fairly contagious and possibly more than people had realised in January/February (DH was v relaxed about it at that point). So I think many researchers and scientists (and doctors) were a little taken aback by how quickly it spread.
The main thing we need is repeated and accurate testing. Where we live our teachers are being tested every 2 weeks and any student with a cold is being tested (results available quickly) so they can come back to school the next day.

We have just finished nearly 8 weeks of summer camp and we had no outbreaks or anything. Older kids (above 8) in masks and teachers in masks- kids outdoors as much as possible, hand washing, some social distancing (age appropriate) and lots of testing made the whole system relatively seamless so far.

We're apparently running out of tests!

John Swinney was on the radio yesterday asking people to not request a test unless they had one of the three top symptoms.

I feel the wheels could fall off the cart quite rapidly.