Kids are Covid superspreaders

[Summerfreeze]

Interesting article. Largest contact tracing study to date of half a million finds that kids really are key to spreading this. Not a surprise really, is it.

www.princeton.edu/news/2020/09/30/largest-covid-19-contact-tracing-study-date-finds-children-key-spread-evidence

Currently the uni lot are locked in together giving it to each other like mad. As long as that's contained I think it's probably a good thing.

I live in a uni town and the quarantine is absolutely not happening. Nor the rule of 6, nor any of it. Concerning.

But it isn't just universities, is it? It's secondary and (maybe to a lesser extent?) primary schools too. And they are not contained and there are no measures in place that are effective at halting the spread.

Oh, it’s that Indian study. It does not in anyway mean that kids are superspreaders.

@ContraIndicated

Oh, it’s that Indian study. It does not in anyway mean that kids are superspreaders.

No but it does prove that children are very efficient transmitters of the virus....basically exactly the opposite of what the government have been saying so that they don’t have to spend a penny on making schools safer.

So little point in wrecking the economy with all this Tier nonsense when it will do nothing while schools are as they are.

What do you propose @Starlight101?

Please just get back into your box until you actually have something that is relevant to the UK. We've already screwed our kids over for 6 months - if you don't want to come into contact with anyone who might have glimpsed someone who knew someone who has had the virus then just stay at home with your family and let our kids get on with their education

So little point in wrecking the economy with all this Tier nonsense when it will do nothing while schools are as they are.

I don't think the Tiers have zero impact & I thought the tiered approach was to limit economic damage (who knows if that will work). Absolutely more funding should be available for schools but I hope the closing schools will be the last resort.

Yup, have to agree, teenagers especially, not their fault particularly.
3 out of 5 of us in this house currently down with it, middle son picked it up from secondary school, large outbreak there.

Indian kids have been home since March and no Indian school (public or private) has reopened. They are all being homeschooled with far far more limited technology.

It’s not just British kids who are somehow being uniquely disadvantaged.

Children are superspreaders of...everything. Literally. Starting from common cold ending with lice, probably. There is no way out of this, though. I feel like all the measures are just that - to show that "we are doing something". Close schools, children will spread it somewhere else. It is not going away.

Close schools, children will spread it somewhere else. It is not going away.

There is that

It’s like they have been engineered to kill the older generation to make room for them

@ChaBishkoot there are a lot of rich families in India.

Plus if you

Erm if you have been following the news you’ll know that India’s GDP has fallen below that of Bangladesh.
I am looking at WB stats and 32.9% of India’s 1.7 billion live in poverty. That’s a 1/3 of the country. For every 1000 babies born in India 37 die before their 5th birthday.

It’s not hugely relevant if there are some rich people. Even for the middle classes access to technology isn’t as widespread and relatively inexpensive as it is in the West.

@Londonmummy66

Please just get back into your box until you actually have something that is relevant to the UK. We've already screwed our kids over for 6 months - if you don't want to come into contact with anyone who might have glimpsed someone who knew someone who has had the virus then just stay at home with your family and let our kids get on with their education

How bloody rude and stupid. Lots of children in the higher Tier areas are already not getting on with their education as they are isolating more often than not.

You may not want the schools to close but once hospitals are getting overwhelmed then they will have to.

So tough

@Starlight101 are you worried about getting Covid personally?

Yep! Definitely worried about getting it as I’m vulnerable and have 2 elderly vulnerable parents who I have to take care of. I also have 2 children who have loved getting back to school so I certainly don’t want schools to close. But what we have now isn’t safe or sustainable. I just want a little bit of effort and money put into schools. But I think it’s too far gone now for that.

I’m also worried about all of my teacher friends, some very vulnerable who are being forced to work without any health and safely protections that are afforded to almost every other worker in the country.

Do you feel your dc are safe in their school?

They are as safe as they can be in any school. There has been no cases and they are in bubbles of 15 so better than other schools in the country. But our area has rocketed up since September.

But there is no doubt at all that schools and universities as we have now are fuelling the spread and schools are leading to more community spread and then vice versa. Schools may be ‘safe’ for children as they are unlikely to get ill but they are not safe for their vulnerable family members or teachers.

@ChaBishkoot So stupid to think India doesn’t have the same resources as western countries. Lol. Fair enough the poorest won’t, but you can be sure the Indian children in the cities are being educated. They have the internet, intelligent minds and parents who give a damn.

It is absolutely school kids who are spreading this. Closely followed by uni kids. I give no suggestions on how to stop this.

Rather than the ‘schools are responsible for spread’ and ‘schools are normal’ teams constantly sniping at each other we should be bloody furious at the government for making such a hash of the school return.

For allowing cases to rise right before schools went back with stupid eat out schemes and encouraging holidays. And then not putting any money into schools that are already on the bones of their arse. They absolutely do not give a shit whether children are in school or not. They just wanted to try to remain popular. If they genuinely cared they would have put in place many of the measures that could have allowed schools to tick along with less disruption. There was a team of supply teachers and retired teachers happy to return to the classroom or online to support children, most of them for free! They couldn’t even be arsed to make use of them.

Hi, I grew up in India. I visit twice a year. My parents have Internet (both University Professors) but if you think their access to technology is ANYTHING like what I have in the US, you are delusional.
I don’t think I need a lecture on middle class life in India. My parents were intelligent and gave a damn, I went to some pretty elite institutions in India. I then came to the UK and realised quite how far behind I was in some ways (not at everything but I certainly did not have access to many many things British kids take for granted, despite my cushy upbringing).
Also 30% of the country lives in dire poverty.

I agree that more funding should have been put in place for schools but do you think restaurants should have remain closed over the Summer & no holidays allowed?

I also think there is an element of personal responsibility so if going away makes you anxious don't go but its not necessarily the right thing to stop others.