Coronavirus spreads in schools. Just like it spreads everywhere else.
Over the past 10 months, debates have raged over how to keep the coronavirus in check. What to open? What to close? Where does the virus spread, and where are we relatively safe? Through it all, one kind of space in particular has been the subject of vigorous debate — and, starting a few months into the virus, a kind of unexpected conventional wisdom emerged: that schools were relatively safe. In the midst of the darkness, it brought some welcome light: kids are safe! They can go to school! While other institutions closed, countries around the world — particularly in Europe and the UK — kept their schools open.
And yet, in response to rising rates and a new, more contagious variant, many of those same countries have since closed their school doors. It turns out that, if you believe the epidemiologists, schools do, in fact, bring risk of transmission. How could we ever have thought otherwise? Rachel Cohen has been covering the debates around school closings and openings, most recently at The Intercept. In this week's podcast extra, she tells Brooke about how the school transmission narrative has evolved since the beginning of the pandemic, and how our understanding of the issue came to be so muddled.
Tag: public health
In a district where parents are epidemiologists and health policy experts, the meltdown happened one Zoom meeting at a time.
Fascinating to see how the school reopening question is playing out in a wealthy school district with some serious resources most school systems don’t have.
Covid-19 has drawn new attention to indoor air pollution. Science has long considered gas appliances to be key culprits.
Ryan Barrett (snarfed.org)One could write an entire book on what this chart shows us. – Max Roser
Holy crap! This graph indicates something is dramatically broken in America. And we wonder why healthcare is such a hot button issue. Obviously someone (or many someones) is making a lot of money keeping the American portion so horribly out of whack.
Ed Yong (The Atlantic)As the U.S. heads toward the winter, the country is going round in circles, making the same conceptual errors that have plagued it since spring.
This is possibly one of the best overviews I’ve seen on the United States’ multiple problems with handling the pandemic.
Efforts to stop covid-19 have had at least one welcome side-effect
I’ve been wondering when we might start to see this sort of data and effects.
University administrators should have seen this coming.
Sadly, I still keep reading articles about schools wanting to open up in a month or so… sigh.
Sponsored by the Healthcare Affinity & Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
At a time when the nation is looking to the healthcare industry for leadership and service, the pandemic has led to a significant impact on the U.S. healthcare job market. Historically, the healthcare industry has been relatively immune from recessions. However, as services have been cut, income streams have been lost. Join us as our panel of speakers discuss the economic impacts of the pandemic on the healthcare industry. This event will be presented on Zoom.
September 16, 2020 at 03:00PM - September 16, 2020 at 04:00PM
Airlines are fine-tuning their cleaning procedures — where they clean, how frequently and with which tools. This is what the new processes look like.
The science is clear: Face masks can prevent coronavirus transmission and save lives.
Interesting initial study. I’ve been wondering about this as well as the physics of droplets which needs more work as well.
As campuses reopen without adequate testing, universities fault young people for a lack of personal responsibility.
I love the attempt to reframe what is happening here. Administrations should be in a better place to see second and third order effects here, even if they don’t want to take responsibility for the costs themselves.
Engineer Peter DeCarlo discusses evidence of airborne transmission, particle behavior, risks, and why he added his name to an open letter urging WHO to revise their guidance
Its decision to carry on in the face of the pandemic has yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage — a red flag as the United States and Britain move to lift lockdowns.
Interesting to watch these mini-experiments being run out in real-time.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals are curious about the proper use of medical masks. WHO released updated Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19 on 5 June 2020. Watch this video to learn more about which individuals should consider wearing a medical mask and how to properly put on, take off and dispose of the mask.
Learn more: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks