* EXPLANATION: In a previous version, CDC data from April on the number of cases for children under the age of 18. The recent data show that 10.3% of all cases are for the children.
On November 12, the Government of Missouri, Mike Parson, issued amended guidelines redefining the need for student guarantees: A student does not have to be quarantined if the student comes in contact with someone who has COVID-19, but a mask wear. It’s part of Parson’s ongoing effort to keep children in schools rather than give up.
This guidance is in violation of the Centers for Disease Control and Guidelines, which recommends quarantine for anyone who has spent at least 15 minutes inside an infected person.
Revealing the guidelines, Parson said, “Schools that consistently implement COVID-19 mitigation strategies remain one of the safest places for our students.”
Which made us wonder: what are these strategies, and do they do enough to assume that the schools are safe?
Mitigation Strategies
The CDC says schools may consider applying different strategies to encourage behaviors that reduce the spread of COVID-19. The CDC proposes that all reopening plans for schools address compliance with behaviors that prevent the spread of COVID-19. When used consistently and correctly, along with important mitigation strategies, masks are important to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Other important guidelines noted by the CDC are social distance, hand washing and regular cleaning and disinfection of surfaces that are frequently affected in schools and buses.
Rachel Orscheln, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, joined Parson to announce the policy.
“We also know that some of these children are likely to be in school at some point in their illness,” she said. “However, we have learned that in schools where students and staff always wear masks and physically distance themselves, this virus does not spread as easily as in other places where these strategies are not always used.”
Parson’s team also sent us to CDC Director Robert Redfield. At a briefing by the Coronavirus Task Force on November 20 to November 20, he said: “The truth is that children K-12, from our perspective, are one of the safest places to stay in school.”
According to the CDC, children under the age of 10.3% account for cases in the US, although this represents 22% of the total population. An international research study from Spain also found that the reopening of the school is not the cause of the coronavirus outbreaks in the community.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the minimum protocols that schools follow must carry selection, physical distance, and mask wear. These techniques prove that it reduces the spread of the virus if it is implemented. A study by Syracuse University found that careful use of surgical masks and good ventilation reduced the estimated infection rate to 2%. Missouri’s protocols are in line with the CDC’s recommendations on how to run schools safely during COVID-19.
Missouri has no mandate to ensure that these recommendations are followed; there is no mandate for the whole mask in schools.
Additional data found that children are less likely to get and distribute COVID-19 at school. Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, studied infection data from 47 states at the school in late September. Among more than 200,000 students and 63,000 staff who returned to school, Oster had an infection rate of 0.13% among students and 0.24% among staff, compared to a national average of 4.8%.
In a research study by the American Association for Medical College (AAMC), associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine Benjamin Linas said: ‘You can only open your school safely if you have COVID under control in your community . . ”
The Missouri communities with the two highest COVID-19 rates, for example, are St. Louis County and St. Charles County. Their schools have implemented mitigation strategies, but there is still evidence that students contract COVID-19 in their communities and bring it to the classroom. About 3,066 of the coronavirus cases in St. Charles County has been linked to exposure in schools. The Department of Health in St. Louis noted that ‘schools in the St. Louis County has seen significant COVID-19 transfers among teachers and students. ‘
There is a clear link between the safety of a community’s school and the number of cases in the community. ‘You can have the best plans in classrooms, but if children do not take social distance and follow the use of mask outside of school, they will take COVID with them in school,’ says the AAMC study.
Our verdict
Parson said, “Schools that consistently implement COVID-19 mitigation strategies remain one of the safest places for our students.”
Parson is correct in confirming the data and statement of CDC Director Robert Redfield on COVID-19 and children in schools, but Parson’s statement does not reflect the risk of opening a school with mitigation strategies in areas where there is a high COVID -19 rate is not. the community. We review this claim Mostly true.