Thread by @AyishaKurji

Covid, omicron, kids, and schools. A 🧵:

There’s still lots to learn about omicron. We do know it’s more infectious. Even if it’s less severe than delta, with so many people getting infected, even a small % needing hospital/ICU has the potential to overwhelm our system.

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While kids generally do well with COVID-19, many places are seeing more kids in hospital. Time will tell us more, but we know that when numbers of those infected goes up, more kids will need hospital, just like adults. We need to take the risk seriously.

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What happens in schools is a reflection of what’s happening in our community. More cases everywhere means there will be more cases in schools. Less cases in the community means less cases in schools.

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If we want to keep schools safe, the best thing we can do is keep cases down EVERYWHERE. That means limiting contacts, wearing masks everywhere, and vaccines-including everyone getting booster doses when eligible.

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Should we delay starting school? It depends on our goal for the delay. If it’s to get schools prepared and to put more safety measures in place, great. That means we need a plan for what we are going to do, and how we are going to achieve it.

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If a delay is to decrease spread, if we don’t tackle this at the larger community level, school delays aren’t likely to do enough. Provinces across Canada that are delaying school also have other restrictions in place to tackle spread as society.

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We have seen through the pandemic how much kids NEED in-person school. Some kids can’t access on-line school. There have also been devastating increases in depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, to name a few. Schools should be the last to close and first to open.

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So what can we do as parents to minimize the risks?

Keep contacts low. Rapid test regularly. Every 1-2 days for the kids if you have access to enough tests.

If they have symptoms, even just new sniffles, keep them home. Remember-symptoms mean you need a true PCR test.

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If your kids aren’t vaccinated, take them. Now is time to think about timing of the second dose-consider getting it earlier than the original 8 week plan. There’s no right or wrong-we took ours this past week b/c we know their exposure risk will be higher back at school.

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Lastly, if keeping school open is important to you, write to your MLA. Ask them to prioritize our kids in this wave. They have already given up so much. They deserve to be put first.

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