Speaking with family & friends, I'm aware that many parents are feeling uneasy about their kids returning to school and daycare on Monday. As a paediatric doctor and mum of two, I thought it might be helpful to share why I'm feeling relaxed and where I get my info from 1/9

I’m going to fly through this and put my reference at the end. Firstly, people might be worried that it’s not safe for their children. So far, evidence from overseas studies shows that COVID is less common in children. Children are less likely to be infected after exposure /2

When they do get COVID, most recover very well. There’s been only a small number of deaths in children with confirmed COVID. So kids tend to do very well in general 3/9

Second, people might worry children will transmit the disease. Children are rarely the index case in a household cluster, and overall children seem to have a much lower secondary attack rate than adults 4/9

Third, in NZ our absolute case numbers are very low, and there is a very low risk of community transmission. All in all, my kids are much more likely to catch COVID from me, an essential worker, than they are from school 5/9

Fourth, people may wonder about the Kawasaki-like syndrome that has been reported and makes kids unwell and need ICU. But Kawasaki disease affects 25 in 100K children at baseline, a risk that predates COVID. 6/9

This Kawasaki-like syndrome appears to be very uncommon, so in the context of very low case numbers, I’m relaxed again 7/9

Where do I get my info from? There are 100s of COVID papers in pre-print and published, it’s hard to keep track. I read trusted rapid evidence summaries by the @DFTB team of paediatric doctors. Find them at https://dontforgetthebubbles.com/evidence-summary-paediatric-covid-19-literature/ 8/9

Finally, I follow @apsmunro and @alisonboast, two of the key reviewers on the @DFTB team who put out careful and trustworthy tweets on the latest scientific papers.

Looking forwards to kissing my kids bye at the school gate 9/9

PS: I also look after children with disabilities. Parents of kids with chronic conditions might think 'what about us?'. The DFTB website I've linked to is updated frequently and has info on kids with comorbidities. There's always the friendly doctor who looks after you too

Thanks to people to pointed out that should’ve been @DFTBubbles in the thread above fantastic team and worth a follow