Strict call from parents: In-person schooling or not?

Throughout the summer, as information about how coronavirus affects children has dwindled, I update the balance sheet in my head. Every study I read, every expert I spoke to filled in the blanks on this sheet: Reasons to send my children back to school and vice versa come in September.

A Chicago study in the Con Column found that children carry large amounts of the virus in their noses and throats, perhaps even more than adults. Also in the con column: Two South Korean studies, as they were, suggest that children can spread the virus to others – and I wondered if my sixth-grade at least, should stay home.

Reports from Europe indicated that it was possible to reopen schools that were safely tilted to the pro side of my account. But can we match the precautions of those countries or their low community levels of the virus?

I live in Brooklyn, where schools open after Labor Day (if they open this year), so my husband and I have more time than most parents in the country to think. We also have the advantage of having a computer and reliable Wi-Fi for our children to learn remotely.

But when other parents asked me what I was thinking of doing, I turned to real experts: What do we know about coronavirus and children? And what should a parent like me do?

The virus is so new that there are no definitive answers yet, experts told me. Dr. Brown University adolescent health expert. Dozens of coronavirus studies arise every day, but that’s not all good literature, and it’s hard to share wheat from hunger, Megan Renny said.

But she and other experts were clear on one thing: schools should only be opened if the level of transmission of the virus in the community is low – that is, if less than 0% of people tested have a positive result. With this move, most school districts in the nation cannot reopen without problems.

“The No. 1 factor is your local transmission,” said Helen Jenkins, an infectious diseases and statistics specialist at Boston University. “If you’re in a really difficult part of the country, chances are that someone coming to school will get infected at some point.”

On the questions of how often children get infected, how often they get sick and how much they contribute to the spread of the community, answers were much needed.

Children are less likely to be infected than adults. But childhood infections are not uncommon.

In the early days of the epidemic, there were so few reports of sick children that it was unclear whether they could all be infected. The researchers also speculated that young children might have caught the coronavirus, but most survived the severe symptoms.

That guess has come true. “There is very clear evidence that children can be infected,” said Dr. Runny.

As the epidemic spread, it also happened that young children were less likely – probably only half – to be infected than adults, while older children were at the same risk as adults.

But it is impossible to be sure. Most countries have been hit hard by coronavirus, with lockdowns and school closures leaving young children at home and away from sources of infection. And when most of those countries opened up, they did so by carefully adhering to masks and physical distance.

Children may have a lower risk of infection, “but it’s not so different in the sense that I’ll take comfort in it or use it to make a decision,” said Dr. Ashish Zai, dean of Brown University School of Public Health.

In the United States, children under the age of 19 still represent more than 9 percent of all coronavirus cases. But the number of infected children has risen to nearly half a million this summer and the incidence in children has risen much faster than at the beginning of this year.

Former Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. “And those are the only children who have been tested,” said Liana Wayne. “It’s quite possible that we lose many cases of children with asymptomatic or mild symptoms.”

In the two-week period between August 6 and August 20, for example, the number of children diagnosed in the United States increased by 74,160, an increase of 21 percent.

“Now that we’re doing more community testing, we’re seeing a higher proportion of infected children,” said Dr. Ran. “I think our scientific knowledge about this will continue to shift.”

Children get sick with the virus, but deaths are very low.

Even with the growing number of infections, the chances of parents panicking that their children could become seriously ill or die from the virus are still uncertain.

Children and adolescents represent less than 0.3 percent of coronavirus-related deaths up to 20 years of age (definitions and statistics vary by state), and no deaths among children in 21 states.

“It remains the silver lining of this epidemic,” Dr. Zhae said.

But adult reports increasingly indicate that death is not the only serious consequence. Many adults show mild symptoms for weeks or months after first becoming ill.

“What percentage of infected children have long-term consequences that we worry about more than adults?” Dr. Ran.Runny was surprised.

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a mysterious condition associated with coronavirus, has also been reported in about 700 children and by August 20, 11 people have died. ”Dr. Said Renny. “But a growing number of children, period, are being hospitalized.”

Children can spread the virus to other people. How many more times is unknown.

Coronavirus transmission has been the most challenging aspect to detect in children, making it more difficult to keep at home with a lock.

Because most children are asymptomatic, for example, home surveys and studies that test people with symptoms often miss children who may have a potential infection. And when schools are closed, young children do not venture; They tend to catch the virus more than adults, than any other way around.

To confirm the direction of spread, scientists will create a sequence of genetically viral samples to understand where and when children are genetically infected, and whether they have passed it on.

“I tell people, ‘It’s so hard to study transmission – it’s really, really hard.'” Dr. Jen. Jenkins said.

However, based on studies so far, “I think it still seems that younger children are less likely to be carried than older children, and older children are probably more similar to adults in that respect.”

Unfortunately, with schools reopening in large numbers of infected children in the United States this question may actually provide some real data.

So what do parents have to do?

It’s a tough one to answer, as parents everywhere now know. Much depends on the special circumstances of your school district, your immediate community, your family and your child.

“I think it’s a really complex decision, and we need to do everything we can as a society to enable parents to make this kind of decision,” said Dr. Wayne said.

There are some precautions that everyone can take – getting out as much as possible, maintaining a physical distance and starting to wear a mask.

“I wouldn’t send my kids to school or home activities where the kids aren’t all masked,” Dr.

Children. “When you consider the benefits versus the risk, Balance assumes that children can both become infected and spread it,” Renny said, adding that there is uncertainty about whether children will be infected or spread the virus.

For schools, the decision will also come down to maintaining good ventilation – even if it only opens windows – small capsules, which can limit how widely the virus is spread from an infected child, and frequently tested to cut the transmission chain.

Teachers and school nurses will also need protective equipment, Dr. Jen said. Jenkins said: “Good PPE makes all the difference, and school districts must provide it at least for teachers.”

As long as these are the right precautions, “there is better for children than out-of-school,” Dr. Zhae said. “Even teachers are reasonably safe in that environment.”

But community transmission is the most important factor in determining whether children should go back to school, the researchers agreed. “If the community is the center of infection, we can’t just keep the school free of coronavirus,” said Dr. Wayne said.

In New York, the numbers are so low that my husband and I really have a choice to make. And our Children’s School, focusing on social equality, has stated that the children of frontline workers and people with disabilities will have the first place to learn individually.

We have individually qualified for school education two days a week. My mother-in-law lives downstairs in a separate unit and may be more susceptible to the virus. But my kids, who are 11 and 8, need to learn face-to-face and they are eager to see their friends. We have decided to send our children back to school.