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Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

All things COVID
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schmittel
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Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#1

Post by schmittel »

According to the IT: Primary school-aged children now have highest coronavirus incidence of any group

The numbers come from an HSPC report:
“The risk of onward transmission from undetected asymptomatic cases within the school setting remains low”...

...It states that increases in the disease incidence among school-aged children, or the detection of an outbreak in a school, does not of itself indicate that transmission occurred within the school....

“Clusters of cases may be detected within a particular setting despite exposure and transmission having occurred elsewhere,” it adds.
Obviously there are a number of different environments other than a school in which young kids could catch Covid, but does anybody here believe that anywhere other than school is the most likely source of most cases in this age group, and if so what is that source?
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PureIsle
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#2

Post by PureIsle »

My understanding is
You do not 'catch Covid'. You get infected with the virus and if unlucky go on to develop the Covid "disease".
So let us not confuse the two.
Cases are infection events and not disease events.

A very small percentage of school kids who are exposed to the virus will develop such a serious case of Covid that it requires medical attention. An even smaller percentage will require hospitalisation.

IF my understanding is correct what is the concern?
Is that concern sufficient to warrant injecting healthy kids?

In answer to you question ...... IMO, kids are most likely to be exposed to the virus wherever there are groups of them gathered in indoor settings.
schmittel
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#3

Post by schmittel »

Have just been reading some interesting info released by the HSE - [urlhttps://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus ... ersion.pdf]Epidemiology of COVID-19 Outbreaks/Clusters in Ireland Weekly Report[/url] - basically some revealing numbers on where and when group outbreaks of covid are taking place.

It's principally concerned with those in the current spike, from Week 26 to week 47 of this year. At a glance:
Screenshot 2021-12-05 at 19.45.07.png
Screenshot 2021-12-05 at 19.45.07.png (68.71 KiB) Viewed 1814 times
The number that jumps out there is schools at 412 clusters, or 11.6%, which seems high for such a safe environment, according to government.

Last week schools accounted for 45/151, or 30%, of all clusters. Also seems high for a safe space.

Indeed once you consider that this data is from week 26 - 47, but schools have only been open from week 35, it is pretty clear that schools are by some distance the number one source of clusters.

And this is even before you factor in the fact that this data was collected during the time that contact tracing in schools was abandoned, but remained for the other settings.

So what is NPHET/government seeing in these numbers that indicates low transmission in schools?

Or are they just lying?
490808
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#4

Post by 490808 »

When you look at those figures what jumps out at me is 51.2% "a range of other settings". Why, because what do kids at school do when they are not at school? They are in a range of other settings.

Certainly more than one way to look at those figures.
kadman
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#5

Post by kadman »

Seems we have come along way from the days when the all knowing government told us children were the least likely to suffer any major problems with covid, now they are the number one reason. Its like we have no one else to blame now. Children and the unvaccinated .....
schmittel
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#6

Post by schmittel »

The Continental Op wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 10:13 pm When you look at those figures what jumps out at me is 51.2% "a range of other settings". Why, because what do kids at school do when they are not at school? They are in a range of other settings.

Certainly more than one way to look at those figures.
Sure and no doubt they spent even more time in a range of other settings when they were off school in weeks 26 - 35, and were contact traced in that range of other settings to boot.

Interestingly in last weeks figures which included 45 outbreaks in schools, 29 outbreaks were in a range of other settings.

I'd agree there's more than one way to look at the figures in the screenshot posted above, but reading the whole report it's not quite so easy.
490808
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#7

Post by 490808 »

One reason I'd consider children as a vector is because of the number of parties, play dates and activities on top of school that I see some local kids go to.
schmittel
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Re: Are primary school kids catching Covid in schools?

#8

Post by schmittel »

Embarrassing u-turn from the government or finally some common sense?

New masks advice: No child to be excluded from school 'in first instance'
New advice to schools issued this morning has stressed that children in third class and above should not be excluded from schools “in the first instance” for not wearing masks.

Instead, it says, the school should engage with the parents and, if no progress is made, then contact an inspector from the Department of Education.

The new guidance also says that where a school agrees with parents that a mask is not appropriate for the child, no medical certification is needed for an exemption.
Either way, a welcome development.
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