I am wondering what everyone else thinks.
With 5K cases a day and out of control spread of the virus, are schools a safe area where the virus won’t spread or is it a high risk activity.
I personally think that public health always closed schools before because it was a place where people congregated and keeping people home stopped disease spread. But suddenly in 2020 they realised this created other issues because parents can’t work if the kids are not in school. Obviously in other centuries mothers were always home. And with Covid the risk of serious illness and death increases with age, so if kids get sick there is less risk of serious illness and if the grandparents are not called in for childcare there is less chance of them catching Covid.
But as far as I understand the kids still catch Covid at the same rate as other age groups so the risk of spread is identical? So 30 kids in a classroom with an SNA and a teacher, compared to 30 over 80’s in a carehome with 2 care assistants. If one is Covid + is there less risk of spread in the classroom compared to the care home? My view is the risk of spread is higher in the classroom because small kids are poorer at following rules and they are together, closer, for 6 hours, whereas in the care home they can move from their bedrooms to living areas to dining areas but are together 24 hr a day.
The outcomes are more serious for the care home with risk of death being significantly higher, but is the risk of catching Covid the same as the classroom.
And the other thing that worries me is that the 30 kids and teacher and SNA go home and spread the virus to 32 more families.
If I was the decision maker I would ask most kids learn remotely, but allow kids of frontline workers or deprived kids still come to school.
I realise none of us are public health experts but what do people think?
With 5K cases a day and out of control spread of the virus, are schools a safe area where the virus won’t spread or is it a high risk activity.
I personally think that public health always closed schools before because it was a place where people congregated and keeping people home stopped disease spread. But suddenly in 2020 they realised this created other issues because parents can’t work if the kids are not in school. Obviously in other centuries mothers were always home. And with Covid the risk of serious illness and death increases with age, so if kids get sick there is less risk of serious illness and if the grandparents are not called in for childcare there is less chance of them catching Covid.
But as far as I understand the kids still catch Covid at the same rate as other age groups so the risk of spread is identical? So 30 kids in a classroom with an SNA and a teacher, compared to 30 over 80’s in a carehome with 2 care assistants. If one is Covid + is there less risk of spread in the classroom compared to the care home? My view is the risk of spread is higher in the classroom because small kids are poorer at following rules and they are together, closer, for 6 hours, whereas in the care home they can move from their bedrooms to living areas to dining areas but are together 24 hr a day.
The outcomes are more serious for the care home with risk of death being significantly higher, but is the risk of catching Covid the same as the classroom.
And the other thing that worries me is that the 30 kids and teacher and SNA go home and spread the virus to 32 more families.
If I was the decision maker I would ask most kids learn remotely, but allow kids of frontline workers or deprived kids still come to school.
I realise none of us are public health experts but what do people think?