Originally Posted by
Johnson85
Who knows. It appears the likelihood is much less once they get younger than around 12, but there's limited data. Some examples indicating maybe under 12 do spread it (like summer camp and Israel examples) but hard to say because there are adults and older children that could be doing the spreading. For asymptomatic people in general, obviously some don't spread it, but not all of the spread is by ass holes that are going about their normal activities while symptomatic. But regardless, because of the uncertainty, the approach should be the same. If the parents feel like they or other people in their household aren't in a position ot take that risk, they shouldn't send their kids to school. Hopefully the district offers a distance learning option.
I think eventually people probably loosen up their quarantine procedures. When people are actually sick, it very likeliy could make sense to send everybody home for a couple of weeks, but not because you are choosing to quarantine people. Maybe we should look into the feasibility of going distance learning for a week or two at a time during flu season going forward, but we just don't have the support systems in place right now and it would be too disruptive.
It will absolutely impact the hospital. You're not going to have people gather like that and there not be some spread. There's a question of how much it will impact the hosptial, but schools are wayyyy down the list of things that should be shut down. You don't shut down schools while allowing dine-in at restaurants for example. If you shut down all the other less essential stuff and can't keep the hospitals from being overwhelmed, then you look at the impact the schools are having.
Unless we find out that the virus has mutated to where kids are at more risk than they are from the flu, you just chug ahead and do your best to accommodate people for whom that doesn't work. Do your best with virtual learning. Try to utilize any good teachers with risk factors or family with risk factors in the distance learning to keep them. Do your best to limit the spread knowing that there is just a limited amount you can do with students, especially young ones, and try to help employees that can't stomach the risk and that can't be utilized in a role with risks they can stomach to find other jobs. Not sure what else you can do. Pandemics suck and they make people's lives worse, even those who don't get sick. But you have to minimize the damage the best you can.