Lots of talk about schools and #COVID19 today, which is no surprise!

Time for a bumper thread on the evidence we have so far on schools, children, teachers, and #SARSCoV2 plus some additional thoughts/considerations

Lets go!

1/15
First, off to Australia https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="๐Ÿฆ˜" title="Kangaroo" aria-label="Emoji: Kangaroo">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ" title="Flagge von Australien" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Australien">

Tracing of 18 confirmed cases in schools (9 kids, 9 teachers) found that of 863 contacts, only 2 (kids) were positive and not clear if they were infected in school or elsewhere

2/15

http://www.ncirs.org.au/covid-19-in-schools">https://www.ncirs.org.au/covid-19-...
Finally Singapore https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ" title="Flagge von Singapur" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Singapur">

3 +ve cases:
-12yo in secondary school. 8 classmates symptomatic, all tested negative
-5yo (sibling of https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="โ˜๏ธ" title="Zeigefinger nach oben" aria-label="Emoji: Zeigefinger nach oben">) in primary school. 34 classmates tested, all negative
-16 staff in pre-school cluster. 70% of kids tested, all negative

6/15 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa794/5862649">https://academic.oup.com/cid/artic...
Small numbers, but some early lessons:

-Kids/teachers can catch #SARSCoV2 in school
-Transmission appears mostly rare
-Teenagers may be higher risk for transmitting (consistent with evidence of higher case loads, plus lots of close social mixing)

What else to consider?

7/15
First, there is almost no controversy that children& #39;s safety is not the concern from being in school

Their risks of becoming infected and severely unwell are incredibly low (even accounting for the extremely rare hyperinflammatory syndrome)

8/15

https://medium.com/wintoncentre/what-have-been-the-fatal-risks-of-covid-particularly-to-children-and-younger-adults-a5cbf7060c49">https://medium.com/wintoncen...
The risk is primarily of increasing community transmission by spreading infection to each other, parents, grandparents etc who will in turn spread it on

Children seem less likely to transmit than adults, but they certainly can transmit

10/15 https://twitter.com/apsmunro/status/1272612343726440449?s=20">https://twitter.com/apsmunro/...
Most people worry about kids transmitting similar to other resp viruses, like influenza

This does not appear to be the same for #COVID19 as nicely pictured in this modelling study

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0962-9

So">https://www.nature.com/articles/... good news, but we shouldn& #39;t be complacent

11/15
A number of excellent articles this week emphasise the need to drive down community transmission, get and keep schools open and *prioritise them* over pubs, cinemas etc

14/15

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/opinion/coronavirus-schools.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/0... href=" https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/01/reopen-schools-close-bars/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2... href=" https://slate.com/technology/2020/07/school-reopening-medical-case.html">https://slate.com/technolog... https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/7/1/21306816/coronavirus-pandemic-reopen-schools-economy-social-distancing">https://www.vox.com/future-pe...
Kids are suffering lifelong damage from lack of schooling. They are safer in school than out of it

There is always risk of increasing transmission, so we must prioritise schools over other social mixing

Lets make it happen, make it safe, and make it good!

End

15/15
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