90,000 kids in school. Zero cases of child-to-adult transmission.

[Anonymous]

I am so sick of people who find exactly one counterexample and suggest that this basically invalidates scientific consensus.

[Anonymous]

There is no scientific evidence or consensus that there have been “zero transmissions” in schools. That is a ridiculous claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no scientific evidence or consensus that there have been “zero transmissions” in schools. That is a ridiculous claim.

Sure. Perhaps there has been one or two. But the consensus is that it's extremely limited and the researchers struggled to identify any clear cases. And yet, somehow on this board, people are taking the absence of evidence as evidence that there are just many really sneaky infections out there. That's preposterous. It's conspiracy theory thinking.

That's the same as saying that the fact that we haven't found any elephants hiding in trees is because they're really good at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:90,000 kids in school. Zero cases of testing on school grounds for Covid+ status.

The study even says this is all inferred based on contract tracing polling.

In the first 9 weeks of in-person instruction in North Carolina schools, we found extremely limited within-school secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2, determined by contact tracing.

My kid was tested in school today at a MoCo private. It is happening.

Families also need testing.

I don't think you could require mandatory testing in a public school, let alone testing of students and families. If that's the requirement to reopen, then schools will stay closed for years. Stop dismissing every study and devote all of your time your to advocating for daily testing of every person engaged in essential and non-essential activities.

Us reopening goes by numbers. So, as long as the positives remain high we aren't opening but yes, everyone should be tested given how contagious COVID is and the new strains. If people want schools to reopen, they need to do their part. Their individual lives are more important than the greater good, so we remain closed. Pretty simple.

This is your opinion. It is not a rule or a policy. Public education exists for the greater good and frankly, right now positives aren't that high. Families have done their part, and frankly, many have hurt their children by doing everything possible to control spread, passing on in person interaction, sports, and activities. There is no policy requiring testing for opening any particular segment of society, so testing should not be the standard for school either.

Public education has never stopped being provided.

The rest of what you wrote is just YOUR opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no scientific evidence or consensus that there have been “zero transmissions” in schools. That is a ridiculous claim.

Sure. Perhaps there has been one or two. But the consensus is that it's extremely limited and the researchers struggled to identify any clear cases. And yet, somehow on this board, people are taking the absence of evidence as evidence that there are just many really sneaky infections out there. That's preposterous. It's conspiracy theory thinking.

That's the same as saying that the fact that we haven't found any elephants hiding in trees is because they're really good at it.

"One or two?"

Laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Doesn't everyone remember this photo where the high school girl was suspended for taking a picture of kids not wearing masks in a crowded high school?

Look how that school district is doing:
Around 2,000 in person students and 3,000 staff members
COVID cases:
Week of Dec. 7- 131 cases
Week of Dec. 14- 169 cases
Past two week in Jan. 99 cases with 592 close contacts found

Who can still think no one is passing along Covid in schools? Europe is now closing schools.

No one is saying COVID doesn’t pass at schools- it just tends to be at levels reflective of the community at large. In the community you are referencing- I doubt the residents care. I say this because I have extended family in similar communities down south, and they don’t care. They’ve all been leading normal lives since the summer, they’ve accepted COVID as just something to live with.

You might also look at the COVID-19 data for the county where this picture was taken - Paulding County, Georgia. This picture was taken in AUGUST.

The numbers didn't really go up there until November, aligned with colder weather and holidays. To be sure school positivity aligns with positivity in the community. But it is interesting that even in a district where people are generally not taking COVID seriously and in public schools were protocols were so lax, they didn't see major spread in school. In fact, COVID numbers wend down in the months after school started.

https://covidactnow.org/us/georgia-ga/county/paulding_county/?s=1566506

It’s because they weren’t testing. At this point probably all of the kids and teachers there have had it so maybe that’s why numbers are down now, they e already peaked. Probably a lot of teachers with lasting damage too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Doesn't everyone remember this photo where the high school girl was suspended for taking a picture of kids not wearing masks in a crowded high school?

Look how that school district is doing:
Around 2,000 in person students and 3,000 staff members
COVID cases:
Week of Dec. 7- 131 cases
Week of Dec. 14- 169 cases
Past two week in Jan. 99 cases with 592 close contacts found

Who can still think no one is passing along Covid in schools? Europe is now closing schools.

No one is saying COVID doesn’t pass at schools- it just tends to be at levels reflective of the community at large. In the community you are referencing- I doubt the residents care. I say this because I have extended family in similar communities down south, and they don’t care. They’ve all been leading normal lives since the summer, they’ve accepted COVID as just something to live with.

You might also look at the COVID-19 data for the county where this picture was taken - Paulding County, Georgia. This picture was taken in AUGUST.

The numbers didn't really go up there until November, aligned with colder weather and holidays. To be sure school positivity aligns with positivity in the community. But it is interesting that even in a district where people are generally not taking COVID seriously and in public schools were protocols were so lax, they didn't see major spread in school. In fact, COVID numbers wend down in the months after school started.

https://covidactnow.org/us/georgia-ga/county/paulding_county/?s=1566506

It’s because they weren’t testing. At this point probably all of the kids and teachers there have had it so maybe that’s why numbers are down now, they e already peaked. Probably a lot of teachers with lasting damage too.

Oh are we just making up random stuff without supporting evidence now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Doesn't everyone remember this photo where the high school girl was suspended for taking a picture of kids not wearing masks in a crowded high school?

Look how that school district is doing:
Around 2,000 in person students and 3,000 staff members
COVID cases:
Week of Dec. 7- 131 cases
Week of Dec. 14- 169 cases
Past two week in Jan. 99 cases with 592 close contacts found

Who can still think no one is passing along Covid in schools? Europe is now closing schools.

No one is saying COVID doesn’t pass at schools- it just tends to be at levels reflective of the community at large. In the community you are referencing- I doubt the residents care. I say this because I have extended family in similar communities down south, and they don’t care. They’ve all been leading normal lives since the summer, they’ve accepted COVID as just something to live with.

You might also look at the COVID-19 data for the county where this picture was taken - Paulding County, Georgia. This picture was taken in AUGUST.

The numbers didn't really go up there until November, aligned with colder weather and holidays. To be sure school positivity aligns with positivity in the community. But it is interesting that even in a district where people are generally not taking COVID seriously and in public schools were protocols were so lax, they didn't see major spread in school. In fact, COVID numbers wend down in the months after school started.

https://covidactnow.org/us/georgia-ga/county/paulding_county/?s=1566506

It’s because they weren’t testing. At this point probably all of the kids and teachers there have had it so maybe that’s why numbers are down now, they e already peaked. Probably a lot of teachers with lasting damage too.

Oh are we just making up random stuff without supporting evidence now?

It's the same poster, over and over, possibly a troll, who keeps focusing on the fact that they weren't testing. Yes, the person is making stuff up. Apparently large numbers of people contracted COVID and died in that county without being accounted for in the county numbers, which somehow explains why the numbers declined for months after schools reopened. In fact, positivity in that county was at its lowest two months after school reopened, which suggests that testing was adequate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Doesn't everyone remember this photo where the high school girl was suspended for taking a picture of kids not wearing masks in a crowded high school?

Look how that school district is doing:
Around 2,000 in person students and 3,000 staff members
COVID cases:
Week of Dec. 7- 131 cases
Week of Dec. 14- 169 cases
Past two week in Jan. 99 cases with 592 close contacts found

Who can still think no one is passing along Covid in schools? Europe is now closing schools.

No one is saying COVID doesn’t pass at schools- it just tends to be at levels reflective of the community at large. In the community you are referencing- I doubt the residents care. I say this because I have extended family in similar communities down south, and they don’t care. They’ve all been leading normal lives since the summer, they’ve accepted COVID as just something to live with.

You might also look at the COVID-19 data for the county where this picture was taken - Paulding County, Georgia. This picture was taken in AUGUST.

The numbers didn't really go up there until November, aligned with colder weather and holidays. To be sure school positivity aligns with positivity in the community. But it is interesting that even in a district where people are generally not taking COVID seriously and in public schools were protocols were so lax, they didn't see major spread in school. In fact, COVID numbers wend down in the months after school started.

https://covidactnow.org/us/georgia-ga/county/paulding_county/?s=1566506

It’s because they weren’t testing. At this point probably all of the kids and teachers there have had it so maybe that’s why numbers are down now, they e already peaked. Probably a lot of teachers with lasting damage too.

Oh are we just making up random stuff without supporting evidence now?

It's the same poster, over and over, possibly a troll, who keeps focusing on the fact that they weren't testing. Yes, the person is making stuff up. Apparently large numbers of people contracted COVID and died in that county without being accounted for in the county numbers, which somehow explains why the numbers declined for months after schools reopened. In fact, positivity in that county was at its lowest two months after school reopened, which suggests that testing was adequate.

bUt ThEy DiDnT tEsT lItErAlLy EvErY sInGle HuMaN

[Anonymous]

Actually, I gotta say that if the researchers somehow found a sampling strategy that managed to miss the vast majority of infections, that would be the subject of a fascinating and no doubt well-published paper.

[Anonymous]

Schools are magical places. Kids can infect parents at home, but the virus dare not enter a school building. It knows better! Even in those districts that refuse to enforce student masking. We could end this pandemic now if we just declared all public places school buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools are magical places. Kids can infect parents at home, but the virus dare not enter a school building. It knows better! Even in those districts that refuse to enforce student masking. We could end this pandemic now if we just declared all public places school buildings.

You are the one who doesn't understand. No one is saying that schools are magical places where transmission does not occur. At the same time, if widespread transmission was happening, SOME students would be getting sick. If widespread community transmission was happening because unidentified asymptomatic student spreaders were spreading COVID-19 throughout the community, as the poster claims, SOME of the families of those students would be getting sick. That's not what has been observed. Actually the magic is in the PP's version of the facts, which suggests that magically, every student is an asymptomatic superspreader AND every member of the students' family remains healthy or asymptomatic.

[Anonymous]

The issue is also doctors know how medicine works but not how people interact in a school. Its is thrown back to their own childhood not reality - kids take buses, kids go to aftercare, hvac systems don't work, there are no substitutes, teachers have illnesses, etc.

They say open schools which is great but is it safe to get to school, so then create a system to make that happen safely for families.

Etc.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes it is so disheartening when you realize how ignorant most people are about how to read and critically think about scientific literature.

Let me state for the record that I think schools can be open for in-person learning, but, as has been recommended, there must be all the mitigation strategies in place. Not all school systems can do this as effectively as would be needed.

The other big piece that people gloss over is community spread. When this data was collected in August-October, community spread was lower than it has been in the past few months. Community spread has been higher almost everywhere. Thankfully it seems to be finally starting to drop week by week and with the vaccines, hopefully school openings will increase.

This study did not indicate ZERO spread in schools, as the OP indicated. It concludes that *with mitigation factors in place and enforced* it did not INCREASE spread in the community. They are very clear in the limitations section that testing was not universally enforced and they could not analyze child-child and adult-child transmission.

So the study is good news, but it is not this blanket endorsement of opening all schools without careful planning right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes it is so disheartening when you realize how ignorant most people are about how to read and critically think about scientific literature.

Let me state for the record that I think schools can be open for in-person learning, but, as has been recommended, there must be all the mitigation strategies in place. Not all school systems can do this as effectively as would be needed.

The other big piece that people gloss over is community spread. When this data was collected in August-October, community spread was lower than it has been in the past few months. Community spread has been higher almost everywhere. Thankfully it seems to be finally starting to drop week by week and with the vaccines, hopefully school openings will increase.

This study did not indicate ZERO spread in schools, as the OP indicated. It concludes that *with mitigation factors in place and enforced* it did not INCREASE spread in the community. They are very clear in the limitations section that testing was not universally enforced and they could not analyze child-child and adult-child transmission.

So the study is good news, but it is not this blanket endorsement of opening all schools without careful planning right now.

Finally, someone sane weighs in.