In the U.K., a new paper published in The Lancet found that partial school reopenings this summer were associated with a low risk of cases; out of more than 57,000 schools and nurseries, the study found just 113 cases associated with 55 outbreaks. These cases were correlated strongly with local infection rates, showing how important it is to reduce community transmission to keep schools safe. “Transmission will occur in schools, just as it will anywhere that people mix,” Munro says. “But children aren’t the drivers of disease.” Instead, it’s increasingly clear that in many countries, it’s people in their 20s and 30s who spark outbreaks that then spill over into both older people and children.
The best way to understand how transmission might occur between children and adults would be to constantly monitor healthy families with school-age children to see if they get infected. By testing frequently, scientists would catch infections as they occur, making it clear who got sick first.
Iceland and deCODE put this into practice by conducting comprehensive testing and tracing, screening more than half the country’s population: Anyone who was potentially exposed was quarantined, sealing them off from the community, but often exposing their families. By looking at the difference between adults and children in these quarantines, deCODE found that children play a minor role in transmission.
Germany, South Korea, UK and just about everywhere that has and continues to study it still finds that the world is not flat.
I have 4 kids under 12yrs and an underlying condition - no first vaccine yet - I know this is emotive for you - you’ll never see the study you’ll need to see before sending your kids back unvaccinated, which I guess you won’t do - it’s never going to be risk free but it way lower risk than you attribute (IMO).
Just fine and dandy to see some in the thread release the kids, now Ma and Pa have their vaccine