Thread by @StephTaitWrites

This report says EXACTLY what so many of us were criticized for saying: that not only do kids cause the overwhelming majority of transmission, but specifically that *SCHOOLS* cause the majority of transmission. The proof is when they chart the timeline…
cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/more-…

“Once US schools reopened in fall 2020, children contributed more to inferred within-household transmission when they were in school, and less during summer and winter breaks, a pattern consistent for 2 consecutive school years."

Also look at the breakdowns from this section, I’ll take them one by one:

“Pediatric transmissions reached a high of 68.4% the week of September 27, 2020, and fell to a low of 41.7% the week of December 27, 2020 (0.61 times less frequent).”

So when the 1st wave of kids started to return to in-person school, it went up. With winter break, it went down.

“The next high was 82.0% the week of May 23, 2021, which stayed stable until June 27 (81.4%) and then declined to 62.5% by August 8 (0.77 times less frequent).
The percentage of household transmissions beginning with a child then rose to 78.4% by September 19, hovering there…

… until November 14 (80.3%) and then dropping to 54.5% the week of January 2, 2022 (0.68 times less frequent)”

This says the next high started when most adults were getting vaccinated but young kids weren’t able to yet, so kids naturally made up a higher % of primary cases. BUT

…that summer was the first great “unmasking” the CDC/Biden admin pushed for, and so lack of masks + Delta arriving mean by the end of the summer we see adults starting to be the primary cases again more often than before, so the kids % drops again.

But then when the school year starts back up the % of kids as the primary case shoots back up again, and stays that way all the way until November - when it’s starts to drop again with school holidays, reaching another low in Jan by end of winter break.

“By March 6, the proportion rose to 83.8%, fell to 62.8% the week ending July 24 (0.75 times less frequent), and then climbed to 84.6% the week of October 9.”

That Spring (‘22) was when most all schools dropped any remaining mask requirements, and we see the percentage of…

…kids as primary cases climb again. By the middle of summer it has dropped again, as school was out and as more and more adults had dropped masking that summer so they make up more primary cases again as a result. But once school started back up?

The percentage shot WAY up this time, as schools had not only eliminated masking but this time had also eliminated quarantine protocols and testing requirements - ensuring rampant spread amongst school age kids, which this data shows.

Keep in mind that across that entire timeline, the ONLY time kids didn’t make up the majority of primary cases was winter of ‘20 - when not only were they out of school, but that was the yr we had been urged to cancel our holiday travel/gatherings because transmission was SO high

That was the ONLY time that the combo of kids being out of school + adults (many of whom had no choice but to risk exposure for work) were being exposed at record numbers + most kids activities were still not happening in person at that time. It was only then that…

…adults simply had SO much additional exposure opportunities compared to children that they managed to make up more of the primary cases than kids.

Every other time, while the % goes DOWN when school is out, it wasn’t enough to stop kids from being the majority still.

Combine all of this information with the fact that kids as a group have a higher percentage of asymptomatic/mild enough to miss it infections - & you’re left with overwhelming evidence that kids who attend school have likely had MANY more infections than the official counts.

I also need folks to remember that the FIRST thing Biden did on Covid when he took office, was announce that all schools would be back in person within his first 100 days in office - before we even had vaccines approved for kids yet.

Then Delta hit and what did they advise schools to do that fall? They actually rolled back the first round of protections. Then after Omicron? They dropped masks and told teachers with positive tests they should still come in to work if it had been 5 days.

Why? Because each step of the way the schools have been the lynchpin for the campaign to convince everyone Covid infections are inevitable ergo you shouldn’t/can’t hold them responsible or ask them to do better.

That’s why reopening schools was the FIRST priority.

They used your children to infect you and convince you that “everyone gets Covid eventually, so taking these precautions is really just making our life harder for no reason. Might as well give up and learn to accept it.”

What is the good news here though?

It means schools provide a unique focal point where advocacy can make an exponentially compounding impact.

There no single place that taking steps to stop transmission would have such a HUGE impact - on not just the kids, but on EVERYONE.

These numbers means that fighting for clean air in schools would go further than literally other place. If schools had the same sort of air filtration upgrades and safe UV devices that places like the Pentagon are installing? We’d stop so many transmission chains at the source.

Our kids deserve the same level of protection that the billionaires @ #DavosSafe & our government officials get. Not only b/c they’re our most precious resource, but b/c these #’s prove that protecting them would be the single most effective way to protect literally everyone else

PS. To folks already arguing with this by claiming I’m advocating to close all the schools again, that’s a strawman. There are a myriad of choices between close all schools and have literally zero precautions whatsoever and allow Covid+ kids to come to school - as we have now .

Folks out here claiming that if you supported the early school closures, you don’t care about the welfare, health, and education of children.

And yet you’re out here actively arguing AGAINST making schools safer for kids right now, so uh… your math isn’t mathing.

You wanna talk about how in person school is so essential to kid’s well-being that no amount of death EVER justified closing for ANY length of time? Then explain to me how excluding medically vulnerable kids/kids from medically vulnerable families from school indefinitely is ok?

So excuse me if I don’t for two seconds buy any of your “we care about the kids” schtick. There’s a reason there is huge overlap between the “school closures were evil” and the “ban these books/fire the woke teachers” crowd. The kids are just a useful prop to you. Nothing more.