Almost like they thought: Who does it harm the most? Who spreads it the fastest? Lets go with those options.
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They’re trying to weaponize the virus against POC and poor folks; not realizing (or not caring) that it will negatively impact just as many members of their base, if not more.
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They aren’t wrong. Sentient fomites.
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I don’t think that’s the point of the article. Of course kids spread germs. The insight of the article (and I still don’t it’s much) starts with the backdrop that:
- Research seems to indicate those with lesser/no symptoms are lesser transmittors than those with heavier symptoms
- Kids are generally faring better (lesser symptoms) than adults
The topic addressed by an article is can we assume a kid with symptoms is less likely to be a transmitter than an older person with symptoms, and that answer appears to be “no.” That seems logical to me in that a kid with symptoms (whose system should otherwise be a better defender) would need more of the virus to yield symptoms. More virus --> higher transmitter seems logical.
But 1) there are going to be far fewer kids (older teens/adults) showing symptoms, and 2) kids with symptoms simply shouldn’t be in school. Parents shouldn’t send them, and I’m reasonbly sure schools won’t let them in. So whether they actually pose an outsized transmission risk is still unaswered. And hence the article isn’t all that insightful.
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How do you reconcile
with
when a big problem with COVID spread is asymptomatic carriers.
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Because that’s not what the study/article was about. If you read the article it discusses symptomatic kids as carriers vs symptomatic teens/adults. My point is the transmission rate of symptomatic kids isn’t all that relevant if they are home. The question of risk of transmission from assymptomatic kids is a lot more relevant, but not touched by this article.
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At this point I’m sufficiently baffled as to what point you’re trying to make. Good day.
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I’ve always liked broccoli. What would you do to ward off a kid like I was?
@Melizmatic: School will still start after Labor Day in Ann Arbor, but it will be online. I’m hearing similar for other districts in the county, which likely means this was a county level decision. Good.
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Good for Michigan; stay safe.
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Nothing in the research in the article is about assymptomatic spread. A lot of this chain is. I’m not sure what you are driving at either. But thanks for the well wishes.
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Same here re broccoli. I would identify the food you hate, but don’t expect me to hang up egg salad wreaths.
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Eggs don’t like me, but my grandma made awesome egg salad! So, that won’t work, either…
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Broccoli was like a tiny tree and I could pretend I was a giraffe! I always loved it. My kid does too.
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Can’t speak for other counties. A colleague in Wayne County says his district is seriously considering sending kids into school buildings. Their kids will be home-schooled if that happens - they’re not willing to risk their extended family over political point-scoring.
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FYI: although it happens to be generally in agreement with the current AAP position, that article represents the position of Benjamin Lee and William V. Raszka, the authors of that commentary, not the position of the AAP.
“Opinions expressed in these commentaries are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the American Academy of Pediatrics or its Committees.”
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I can’t believe we, as a world superpower, are arguing about whether children spread disease. It’s like asking if a lightbulb glows.
The rest of the world has benefited from our advances in medicine for the last century. We went back to the dark ages!
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A (small, admittedly) part of me really hoped covid would finally force us to confront both the extremely serious childcare policy problems in the US, and the decades of research showing that (while exceptional teachers are tremendously valuable) formal schooling, on average, has almost no impact on life outcomes, or even on how much kids know by the time they graduate high school. Also, on how useless lectures are as a medium for teaching, especially in a world where we’ve invented so many better ones. You know, the whole legacy of schooling-as-factory-worker-indoctrination in a world where success increasingly relies on soft skills, adaptability, lifelong learning, and creative problem solving.
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I know it shouldn’t surprise me (general innumeracy being what it is) but I’m still amazed that ideas like viral load, severity of infection, and how those affect transmission are just not part of the public conversation. Like, if getting infected by an asymptomatic carrier likely leads to a greater proportion of mild or asymptomatic cases, that seems potentially ridiculously important as a way to inoculate the least-at-risk populations and get closer to herd immunity faster and with many fewer deaths. And yet the only people I know of how have discussed this as a possibility just get angrily shouted down as monsters.
Back to the whole “essential employees” discussion. I suspect most of them do not give a damn about education, but it’s daycare for their “servants,” and who cares if a few die? They are totally replacable! I grew up in WV and heard this exact line about miners more than once. Never thought it would be a national thing.
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Lesser viral load does not necessarily equal lesser risk of transmission. Think of it this way: Young kids may have fewer viral particles per gram of snot, but holy shit are they generous with that snot! That “generosity” is the root of the fomite comments above. If you have half the concentration (made up numbers, just to be clear) but 10x the volume, the you still get 5x the particles. First lesson in pediatrics is that kids are different. Adult rules do not translate well.
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