Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #76

[Trino]

Missing school is 'worse than virus for children'

Children are more likely to be harmed by not returning to school next month than if they catch coronavirus, the UK's chief medical adviser says.

Prof Chris Whitty said "the chances of children dying from Covid-19 are incredibly small" - but missing lessons "damages children in the long run".

Millions of pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to return to school within weeks.

Prof Whitty also said Covid-19 would be a challenge for at least nine months.

He said it was unlikely there would be a vaccine in 2020 but there was a "reasonable chance" of a successful jab being ready for the following winter in 2021-22.

• Will pupils do a full school day next term?
• Could reopening schools spread coronavirus?
• Pubs 'may need to shut' to allow schools to reopen

The government has said all pupils, in all year groups, in England will be expected to return to class full-time in September. Schools have already reopened in Scotland.

Prof Whitty, who is also England's chief medical officer, said "many more [children] were likely to be harmed by not going than harmed by going" to school.

"There's also very clear evidence from the UK and around the world that children much less commonly get a severe illness and end up having to be hospitalised if they get symptomatic Covid," he added.

Continued at link above.


Below is a report about Scottish schools. Some cases reported but appeared to be outside school transmissions.

Advice 'may change' on face coverings in schools

Wonder what the traumatic effect is going to be on kids because of social distancing and wearing masks at school. No data yet, of course, but it has to have an effect.

 

[CSIDreamer]

UofL requires COVID-19 test for all students, faculty on campus | whas11.com

Beginning on Monday, individuals on campus are required to get tested by Sept. 4. UofL has offered free testing at a number of locations since the semester started.

 

[10ofRods]

Kinda amusing about self-check. When it first appeared, i.e. think Walmart, there were those who were very opposed, said they would insist on a personal checker. Well, since the pandemic, most have changed their tune.

Because some of us wanted local workers to retain their jobs.

 

[10ofRods]

I’m Im in a very rural midwestern community. Most of the schools started back about a week ago. And one by one, they are shutting down, down, down. It’s just a matter of time, IMO, before those who are still in denial end up closing their doors, too.

More than 700 schools affected at this point.

And now, the research is saying that for older teens and young adults (say 16 and above), 1 in 3 will have a serious case in which either an ER visit or hospitalization occurs. Younger kids still seem to be mostly asymptomatic or have few symptoms (sniffles). Fatigue is a symptom often missed in younger kids, as well.

I think we're seeing several new patterns, alongside permanent closing of schools. One is sending small groups of kids home, a few at a time, but how schools expect sick kids to effectively use online learning on a drop-in/leave basis, I do not know. That's absolutely a poor practice.

Another is that parents are personally opting for homeschooling, sometimes in groups with other parents, forming their own (potentially transmissive) bubbles, but in many cases it's just the kids of one household.

A third is private schools.

And...I'm reading about people who feel a return to the elite practice of boarding schools should be reinvented. In that model, there would be much less of a chance of transmission between household members and then the school. It isn't as hard to set up as it sounds.

 

[10ofRods]

UofL requires COVID-19 test for all students, faculty on campus | whas11.com

Beginning on Monday, individuals on campus are required to get tested by Sept. 4. UofL has offered free testing at a number of locations since the semester started.

How often will they repeat the mandate, I wonder? I hope they are also requiring masks and allowing single occupancy dorm rooms.

 

[doublestop]

Wonder what the traumatic effect is going to be on kids because of social distancing and wearing masks at school. No data yet, of course, but it has to have an effect.

Or having their classmates or teachers die. That would be a lot more traumatic than missing school.

 

[doublestop]

A third is private schools.

And...I'm reading about people who feel a return to the elite practice of boarding schools should be reinvented. In that model, there would be much less of a chance of transmission between household members and then the school. It isn't as hard to set up as it sounds.

How is it any better in private schools? It's still the same situation. Boarding schools just give more chance to transmit among each other, although not affecting the families as much.

 

[CSIDreamer]

Or having their classmates or teachers die. That would be a lot more traumatic than missing school.

Semi related. I just realized every year I was in high school we lost at least one fellow student. We drew comfort from being near each other.

 

[Sundog]

I feel for you folks that don't have in your area the option of ordering online and they put in your trunk without having to go into the grocery. Still have not since February. Kroger is doing trunk deliveries at no charge, and I just got comfortable with it in the past month or so.

The were positioned prior to pandemic with such, but now it is free. I have had 2 hiccups on the trunk delivery... e.g. last night I wanted 10 pounds of potatoes... I got home and not in my trunk/nor on my reciept. I called immediately and they said a new person should have put in two 5 lb bags which were available. I had planned on cooking a casserole for this evening.. prepping last night... so I just went in and did a 7 am pick up reorder for JUST the taters this am.

Again... blessed to have trunk delivery here and so sad that many areas don't have that option and folks must go into store vs. trunk delivery.

Not everyone is using this option, even though it is available in their area. Some prefer to go in the store to get groceries and also pick up items that are not available at Kroger for pick up, only in store. Masks, googles, gloves, sanitizer, and in and out in 10 minutes is the routine by many on here. I am still doing pick up with Kroger, but that could change when the numbers in our county go down.

 

[dmac55]

Kayleigh McEnany@PressSec
US government account

News conference with President @realDonaldTrump at 6 pm tomorrow concerning a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus. Secretary Azar and Dr. Hahn will be in attendance.
8:21 PM · Aug 22, 2020

Fox News: Trump to reveal coronavirus 'breakthrough' therapeutic, WH press secretary says.
Trump to reveal coronavirus 'breakthrough' therapeutic, WH press secretary says

 

[Sundog]

Kayleigh McEnany@PressSec
US government account

News conference with President @realDonaldTrump at 6 pm tomorrow concerning a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus. Secretary Azar and Dr. Hahn will be in attendance.
8:21 PM · Aug 22, 2020

Fox News: Trump to reveal coronavirus 'breakthrough' therapeutic, WH press secretary says.
Trump to reveal coronavirus 'breakthrough' therapeutic, WH press secretary says

Looking forward to it. We need some good news!

 

[tresir2012]

Looking forward to it. We need some good news!

Here's the link to the WH live if that is where it is going to be.

Live | The White House

I am wondering if it is anything to do with the interferon beta trial.

NIH clinical trial testing remdesivir plus interferon beta-1a for COVID-19 treatment begins

 

[10ofRods]

Or having their classmates or teachers die. That would be a lot more traumatic than missing school.

No kidding. And for others to label "missing school" as being traumatic puts in a league "home burned to the ground in a fire" or "parent hospitalized on ventilator for a month" (or worse).

How is it any better in private schools? It's still the same situation. Boarding schools just give more chance to transmit among each other, although not affecting the families as much.

Yes, the Boarding School model is predicated on the fact that kids of a certain age do not have symptoms and don't die, and some teachers are much less likely to die as well. So you put all of them together and let CoVid rip through the school (if it does - and it will). The people I know who are organizing this are venture capitalists, highly successful doctors and lawyers, and a few others. One group is looking for a property right now (a hotel in the mountains). In theory, what would happen is that the kids go off, have a time-honored type of education with outdoor activities and lots of science/math/engineering/logic and then, get CoVid at school without passing it to their aging parents. The teachers being sought are graduate students in various subjects, young and unlikely to die of CoVid (and very desirous of work right now since of course there are no TA positions for the most part).

Private schools have entirely different ways of dealing with CoVId. I live near 4 of them. One is basically using the Sweden or Georgia model, the rest are highly committed to reducing spread of CoVid (because the kids go home every day). Here are some things they are doing that most public schools cannot:

• Nearly all education outdoors. Awnings (not tents) put up in case of rain. I don't know why more public schools can't do this, but I don't actually know of many who have a firm commitment to outdoor education. I think the data show that socially distanced outdoor events have a very low level of transmissi.
• Smaller 'pods' of students. Student groups in the public schools in California are average 20 students - private schools range from 5-10 students per group (so if 10 students, half the risk right there)
• No teachers' unions, so no need to rehire the same teachers. No lawsuits about that. They're just hiring much younger teachers
• Way more money for testing and PPE. Clearly not all private schools can do this (the Catholic private school in my own town has closed, apparently for good). But the type of private school I'm talking about has monied parents.
• Way more compliance at home. Since the parents are now opting to pay $$$$$ to educate their kids, many are doing it precisely because of CoVid and a very strong desire not to die from it. Poorer people are still learning about CoVid, where I live. There are tons of kids whose parents are vastly uninformed and wouldn't take them for testing no matter what. There are parents who don't take their kids to doctors or dentists no matter what. They tend to be less well-educated and poorer.

In short, richer, better educated parents and their kids are leaving this system (private schools here are pivoting to allow more students - they're doing well financially). Parents who can work from home and have moved from California to, say, Wyoming can also enroll their children in online private schools or even have them start taking college courses (which is quite beneficial to the kids educationally). Some private colleges are trying to survive by offering courses online specifically for high school students - but the production values can be much higher than in our public schools.

This is why I keep talking about the unintended consequences of what the educational systems are choosing to do. Most of my friends who have school age kids are well educated, and they simply won't send their children into a physical school right now.

It's already a factor in our public schools (wealthier, more organized households whose parents are highly educated take their kids out of public schools - a subject that has been a personal interest in my own research).

I believe it's legal in all 50 states to homeschool kids (and better off families hire online tutors - which has been a thing for years now; many retired teachers or teachers who want to stay home with their own kids are teaching other people's kids all around the world - online). Some of these online "schools" have international students, teach several foreign languages, and use much more advanced assessment measures than the public schools. For example, some aim to have all their 5th graders certified in various software that adults go to school to learn - to get a job. They're already engaged in international software and engineering design contests by the age of 12. Other parents choose modalities that focus on the arts and it's been amazing to me to see those kids wind up with fairly successful careers in The Business, as we call it in California.

Sorry for the long post, but it's something very dear to my heart. My students do not come from privileged backgrounds. The loss of better students from the state university system is ongoing - but it's also true for the public high schools and elementary schools.

Kids learn better when there are a range of students in a class, and they can see that other children already know their shapes and the alphabet (in kindergarten). This experience creates better learners lifelong. When no one in the class knows the alphabet, it's harder to teach.

At that sweet spot when half the class is now humming along, the stragglers either work to catch up (most do) or get educational plans, thereby heading down the path of being labeled "educationally challenged" (which they are at that point).

 

[24Roses]

Iowa news today: As of 10:30-11:00 a.m. today, we had 661 new confirmed cases for a total of 56,157 total confirmed cases of which 43,489 have recovered (+127). 5 more had passed away for a total of 135. Five more COVID-19 deaths reported as total cases exceed 56,000
Iowa COVID-19 Information
Twin Cedars schools temporarily close after multiple positive COVID-19 cases IMO-this school district started on Wednesday August 19, so 3 days before they had to close. Many smaller school districts are starting back the week of August 24th with those with storm damage and larger districts with virus concerns staring after Labor Day. IMO-this school district is very small with less than 200 students in elementary school (PK-6). I really do have great concern for the children and staff in the larger districts. I know there are great concerns (as there should be) for children being abused while not in school, but I just don't see how it's going to work.
One DMPS teacher explains why they oppose online-only plan

 

[IceIce9]

Kinda amusing about self-check. When it first appeared, i.e. think Walmart, there were those who were very opposed, said they would insist on a personal checker. Well, since the pandemic, most have changed their tune.

I have been a fan of self-checkout lanes ever since they first appeared. I would much rather scan and bag my own groceries. And I like seeing the prices as I scan to make sure they are correct.

My goal when grocery shopping is to get in and get out as quickly as possible. I’ve been held hostage in line by chatty cashiers too often.

 

[tresir2012]

More than 700 schools affected at this point.

And now, the research is saying that for older teens and young adults (say 16 and above), 1 in 3 will have a serious case in which either an ER visit or hospitalization occurs. Younger kids still seem to be mostly asymptomatic or have few symptoms (sniffles). Fatigue is a symptom often missed in younger kids, as well.

I think we're seeing several new patterns, alongside permanent closing of schools. One is sending small groups of kids home, a few at a time, but how schools expect sick kids to effectively use online learning on a drop-in/leave basis, I do not know. That's absolutely a poor practice.

Another is that parents are personally opting for homeschooling, sometimes in groups with other parents, forming their own (potentially transmissive) bubbles, but in many cases it's just the kids of one household.

A third is private schools.

And...I'm reading about people who feel a return to the elite practice of boarding schools should be reinvented. In that model, there would be much less of a chance of transmission between household members and then the school. It isn't as hard to set up as it sounds.

Are the 700 schools affected ( do you mean with Covid cases ?) that you quote just in your county, or the whole of CA ?

 

[10ofRods]

Semi related. I just realized every year I was in high school we lost at least one fellow student. We drew comfort from being near each other.

Me too. One boy died of an illness that made his brain swell. One died in a terrible accident involving creek diving.

But one of my classmates made national news after she lost her leg to cancer when she was 13. She was a cheerleader and went on to compete nationally, and was the subject of inspiring news articles and television coverage. She got to cheer at some national level college games, when she was in high school. She was one of my best friends, in the car pool that took 5 of us to school every day, my Honored Queen in Job's Daughters (and the only reason I joined) and in orchestra with me for a few years

She died about a month after we graduated. It was traumatic. I drew comfort from throwing myself into studies, a lot of us found it very hard to hang out together right after her death, it was very painful to talk about it and be reminded of it.

Marilyn's battle encouraged me to study science and one of her sister cheerleaders went on to become 0ne of our nation's top specialists in breast cancer and pioneered the idea of reconstructive surgery. This wonderful physician has told me many times that had she not been inspired by Marilyn's courageous battle, she would never have decided to be a doctor. She decided to be a doctor while still in high school, while cheering alongside Marilyn - and that's what she did.

So yeah, people have trauma in school and it isn't necessarily detrimental. The friends of the boy who died diving did actually bond over his death (one of them died a year later while making a trip to visit the death site).

Bunches of studies show that 19-22 year olds who are depressed and suicidal in college are often ones who didn't have many negative things happen to them - not even a bad test score. Their parents managed their relationships. Then they go off to college and welp, there are lots of bumps in the road (including managing one's own health and illnesses).

We see it here on WS - people who have been victims of terrible crimes have a kind of resiliency and a complex point of view to go with it.

Today of course, lots of kids stay home indefinitely and their parents are still way too involved in protecting them, IMO. Thank god for FERPA. I have papers from 28-30 year olds who say they feel a bit triggered if they are called "men" and "women" as they think of themselves still as "boys" and "girls" or just "kids."

 

[anneg]

By August 15, the US had 700 incidents in which CoVid showed up in schools. Teacher tracks closures, cases, deaths in own database.

Same article is in the Washington Post, but the one above has no paywall. I think.

700 different schools, and it was only August 15 when that was published - one week in.

I looked at Alisha Morris's Google docs page at her spreadsheet and the Tableau map linked from her page, and for Orange County, NC, it shows 170 student cases at UNC-Chapel Hill. There are 5 cases at a private school in Chapel Hill. The public schools in Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro are having online classes only for the first 9 weeks (same in my county).

ETA: IMO this is going to be a great resource for seeing what happens in the schools all over the country.

 

[slowpoke]

Wonder what the traumatic effect is going to be on kids because of social distancing and wearing masks at school. No data yet, of course, but it has to have an effect.

It is oft repeated that kids are resilient and adaptable, so I hope it will be true in the case of this generation of children living through this pandemic.

When on my trail walks, I sometimes encounter families with their young kids in masks. I have been happily impressed that the kids have not been fussing with the masks at all! So, I think modeling and practice and the attitude of the adults in their lives can “normalize” the mask-wearing and physical distancing safety measures for the children.

 

[CSIDreamer]

Iowa news today: As of 10:30-11:00 a.m. today, we had 661 new confirmed cases for a total of 56,157 total confirmed cases of which 43,489 have recovered (+127). 5 more had passed away for a total of 135. Five more COVID-19 deaths reported as total cases exceed 56,000
Iowa COVID-19 Information
Twin Cedars schools temporarily close after multiple positive COVID-19 cases IMO-this school district started on Wednesday August 19, so 3 days before they had to close. Many smaller school districts are starting back the week of August 24th with those with storm damage and larger districts with virus concerns staring after Labor Day. IMO-this school district is very small with less than 200 students in elementary school (PK-6). I really do have great concern for the children and staff in the larger districts. I know there are great concerns (as there should be) for children being abused while not in school, but I just don't see how it's going to work.
One DMPS teacher explains why they oppose online-only plan

One of the things we saw when school first opened was students starting classes probably not knowing they had been exposed elsewhere.