A cautionary COVID about exposure, elementary school, asymptomatic infections, household transmission, school vs. community transmission, and the need for paid sick days. A real life family story shared with permission. 1/11

An adult friend developed a bit of a stuffy nose last week. She works from home and has no contacts outside of the home except to purchase groceries. Husband works outside of the home, and they have 2 kids attending in-person school. 2/11

No extracurriculars and no other community contacts for the kids. She decided out of an abundance of caution to book a COVID test. Test is +ve. The family quarantines and tests are booked for the other 3 family members (despite having no symptoms). 3/11

They work hard to try to isolate from each other within the home while waiting for testing appointments (not easy with 2 small kids). Husband and youngest kid test-ve. Husband will need to quarantine for 14 days but has no paid sick days. 4/11

Older kid (primary grade) tests +ve but is asymptomatic. So with limited non-household exposures outside of school where did it come from? The most likely scenario is that the child was infected at school and transmitted to Mom. 5/11

BUT, this student will not be counted as a kid infected at school. Yet, I would be willing to bet that this represents a school chain of transmission that was just not identified until a parent tested positive. 6/11

How many more students and families are out there that have no symptoms or mild symptoms and are going about their business as usual and potentially infecting others? 7/11

This child was in a school setting during their infectious period. The dismissal of this class has likely broken an ongoing school transmission chain that was happening undetected. 8/11

The actions of this family (which means 14 days with only 1 income due to a lack of paid sick days) have protected other families at their school, and their community. 9/11

This positive student will not be counted in the school case counts and the infected parent will not be included as an infection associated with school transmission. 10/11

ON politicians, @Sflecce, and @fordnation really need to stop patting themselves on the back about how safe schools are. If you don’t make any attempt to collect the right data you can tell whatever story suits your narrative. 11/11 @OntarioSafe @parentaction4ed @imgrund