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September 17, 2020 - 3:46pm
My eldest kid has been back at school for nearly two weeks; my youngest has her very first day on Monday. As usual, the first few days of term are an absolute crucible for colds and flu.
“At this time of year children get colds and viral infections,” says Dr Sunil Bhopal, a paediatrician and epidemiologist at Newcastle University. “I spend the whole summer in paediatric A&E with hardly any children, and then in September we get an onslaught. It’s totally normal.”
But what’s not normal is that now, if a child has a runny nose or a sore throat, there is a risk it might be Covid-19. And, depending on the school, that child might be sent home — or, in some cases, their whole class might be. In my children’s school, if a child persistently sneezes, he/she has to self-isolate; in another school up the road, literally any sort of feeling-unwellness will get them sent home.
Education is absolutely vital and repeated disruptions will be damaging, especially to vulnerable children. But the risks to health are worth being aware of. So what can we know?
First, says Bhopal, the risks to children themselves are vanishingly low, and it seems to be — mercifully — the case that they do not spread the disease as much as grownups. That’s not certain yet but early signs from Sweden, Norway, Iceland and places that had no or shorter school closures suggest it.
Second, just as with adults, core symptoms are more diagnostic than things like runny noses and sneezing. There appears to be no clinically reliable way (short of testing) to distinguish paediatric Covid from colds and flu, but a cough, a fever or anosmia/loss of taste are a stronger signal. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), for which Bhopal is a spokesperson, advises that children should isolate and be tested if they have a core symptom, but that they should continue to go to school if they have a runny nose or sore throat.
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SubscribeThe biggest predictor for younger children is apparently a runny tummy. But the point is that we don’t know because the range is wide and, ofcourse, includes no symptom at all. What I find inexplicable is how little prepared we are to respond through test and trace. We have known for ages when schools were reopening and we all know that back-to-school has always resulted in viral infections. So what didn’t happen during the summer to make it so embarrassingly awful now?
It is the same thing. LOL.
I’m afraid that we are in danger of accepting certain propositions without evidence.
Eg.
1) Blended learning – part time attendance supplemented with online learning – is a hindrance to education and not an opportunity; and that applies to every age group. Says who?
2) Part time attendance would not address safeguarding concerns. Where’s the evidence for that?
3) The return to a normal timetable has prevented a mental health crisis in children and adolescents that could not be solved by any other means. And the data for that is….?
We’re also treating children from the ages of 4-18 as one demographic when we talk about infection rates etc; treating every school in the country as they all operate in the one context; we’re ignoring Israel’s experience (which was not at all like Iceland’s); and relying on experts at the expense of those with front line experience.
Government policy and expert advice all seem unimaginative, poorly researched and badly out of touch with how schools actually operate.
It’s all rather depressing.
GV
Why oh why don’t they look at Sweden, which never shut schools below 16 at all? In order to catch up we should not be sending kids home, but locking them in with their class mates a bit like the chicken pox parties mums have when you want to get your kids through that little tribulation before they hit school age.