andrewducker | Interesting Links for 04-09-2021

I teach in a middle school and oddly enough, last year, nobody *seemed* to get contaminated at our school. We got zero clusters, we couldn't trace any contact case or positive case back to someone at school, children got the virus from older family members in most if not all cases. Granted children were wearing masks all day except during lunch and we made sure to keep everything aired out and disinfected as regularly as possible. And since symptoms are often hard hard to spot or mostly absent the younger you are and tests aren't foolproof it's very likely that some kids came to school while infected. But still. We were a bit baffled. Some studies done in some areas seem to suggest we weren't an exception. This goes against most things we were told for more than a year. I wonder if more children being at school means more adults at work or in contact with other adults, which means more adults getting contaminated and then kids getting the virus from their parents. And not the other way around.
An article in Nature mentioned a study stating that more vaccinated adults meant fewer contaminated children.

Edited 2021-09-04 16:51 (UTC)

Eminently possible. I am startled by how very quickly Scottish rates have seemed to climb but there may be other factors or some systemic combination. Thank you!

This is the best thing I've seen on the subject.

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1346362159446577154

Thank you!

Sorry for all the edits as I'm reading more data. My issue with this thread is that it takes data showing that closing schools is effective and jumps to the conclusion that 'children & schools have always played an important role in transmission.' Here's what the ECDC has to say about these two topics:

'It has generally been concluded that SARS-CoV-2 transmission in school settings is not a primary determinant of community transmission. During first and second waves of the pandemic, research showed limited spread of SARS-CoV-2 in schools. While outbreaks have been documented in preschools, primary schools and secondary schools, it has also been generally observed that there are low secondary attack rates in these settings when appropriate mitigation measures are in place, and that the risk of students affecting family members is also diminished if effective combinations of in-school mitigation measures are in place.'

At the same time: 'The evidence on effectiveness of school closures have been highlighted in previous ECDC reports. Based on assessments from the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, school closures were generally assessed to contribute to a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 transmission but not deemed sufficient to prevent the spread of COVID19. The effectiveness of school closures is likely driven by two factors. Firstly, children at home have fewer social contacts, secondly and, potentially more significantly, school closures have the indirect impact of parents needing to stay home with their children and thus curtailing their social mixing. Importantly however, models have not generally been able to decipher between these two factors.'

I suggest reading the whole report because it is way more comprehensive and nuanced than what I just quoted (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/children-and-school-settings-covid-19-transmission)

Edited 2021-09-05 00:04 (UTC)

Interesting Links for 04-09-2021

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