Back to School Special! How to stop Covid from harming students and crushing families!
Plus a healthy dose of “What are we even doing?”
Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter! This time it’s all about back to school! In the Covid era, we need more than copybooks and pencil cases, we need resources to help us understand and cope with Covid surging. Most places school has already started in the last couple of weeks -- from mid-August to after Labour Day -- and we’re already seeing a ton of media reports about outbreaks and closures in schools.
And there’s more to come. This fall has the potential to be at least as disease-ridden and chaotic as last year, with flu and RSV coming in waves alongside Covid. Schools are vectors for transmission and children are also at risk for bad outcomes from Covid, including Long Covid, even if somewhat less than in older demographics.
The good news is that there are organisations that advocate for safer schools. I’m sure that they exist in many different jurisdictions. I won’t try and list them all, but I will point to Ontario School Safety, which is the advocacy organisation where I live. In some places, it’s more general public health advocacy organisations that take up that mantle, such as PoPBC and PoPNB,
Basically the key themes for this issue are the main themes for coping with back to school: vaccines, air quality and masks. This newsletter hasn’t had an issue focused around vaccines (yet!) but I’ve had a few around masks, mask mandates and, of course, air quality. Check them out! Borrow a CO2 monitor from your local public library.
First up, there are some key resources for what’s going on and how to cope. I’ve also got some extra information on air quality and some of the general media coverage of Covid and back to school. And speaking of media coverage, some of it has ranged from dire to rage-inducing. I’ve included some of that by way of “what are we even doing?” It can be useful to know what bad ideas are circulating to be prepared to counter them. Luckily, all the resources at the beginning should help with that.
And, of course, at the end there’s a musical interlude as a reward for sticking around -- and an opportunity to buy me a Ko-fi!
Will Back-to-School COVID Crush Families? by Michelle Gamage and Katie Hyslop / The Tyee
The public has stopped paying attention to COVID, teacher and POP BC co-founder Jennifer Heighton said. It’s important that the government get the message out that COVID is still here and long COVID has lasting health consequences for kids and adults, she added, beyond the 30 days B.C. COVID mortality reporting considers people to be impacted by COVID.
“The general public has no idea it’s not like a cold or flu,” Heighton said, adding COVID infections have been linked to increased rates of heart attacks among adults under 45, while adolescents with multiple COVID infections are at an increased risk of developing post-COVID conditions, better known as long COVID, that include chronic fatigue, organ swelling and Type 1 diabetes.
“Two weeks before school starts, people think that COVID’s benign, that if you’re vaccinated you’re fine, that we’re in a different stage of the pandemic, when actually, we never left,” Heighton said.
COVID-19 will harm students by Geoffrey P. Johnston / The Kingston Whig Standard
Can COVID-19 harm children?
“Yes, unequivocally,” Zoutman replied. “But the mortality of acute COVID is much lower in younger people, and certainly in children. But children who have lung disease, heart disease, cancer, immune compromised — they are at much higher risk.”
However, children spread the virus “very readily,” he added. “If you look at household outbreaks of COVID — which is one of the more common ways to get COVID — 70 per cent of the time is it’s because of children bringing it home from school.”
Zoutman’s statement is backed up by a study published by the Jama Network Open on June 1, 2023. The authors — Yi-Ju Tseng, Karen L. Olson, Danielle Bloch et al — found that “children were important viral vectors in households during the pandemic, particularly when school was in session.” The study — “Smart Thermometer–Based Participatory Surveillance to Discern the Role of Children in Household Viral Transmission During the COVID-19 Pandemic” — revealed that 70.4 per cent of households afflicted with COVID-19 “had a pediatric index case.” Moreover, “rates dropped during school breaks.”
Safe September Toolkit 2023 / PoPNB
PoPNB first created the Safe September toolkit in 2022 for parents, teachers, and administrators to understand SARS-CoV-2, how it spreads, and how to protect against it. This year we have updated and expanded the toolkit to better assist people to understand the virus and to safeguard themselves and their families.
In the revised kit, you will find information on the Covid virus, RSV, Strep, questions for school administrators, information about masks, air purifiers, preventing household transmission, and a link to obtain free masks and rapid tests from PoP NB.
The New Brunswick government and Department of Education and Early Childhood Development have again left New Brunswickers to fend for themselves without even the most basic information on the airborne and vascular nature of SARS-CoV-2. We're hopeful that with accurate information, New Brunswickers will be able to protect themselves and their children.
Thank you for taking the time to read the toolkit. Links within the slides are posted following each slide for easy navigation. Resources and information sources are included at the end.
Keeping Kids in School with Clean Air using ASHRAE 241 by Joey Fox / It’s Airborne
Ventilation and filtration are the two main tools to remove airborne pollutants and improve indoor air quality. Some methods of using UV, including in-duct UV and UV in portable air cleaners can be replaced by filtration. Filtration has the added benefit of removing all particulate matter and not just pathogens. Both upper room UV or far-UV are effective methods to provide very high clean air delivery rates to spaces above capabilities of many ventilation or filtration systems, however they are currently not approved for use in Canada, so cannot be currently considered as viable options.
Improve air quality, protect students by Geoffrey P. Johnston / The Kingston Whig Standard
According to Nabuurs, who also serves as spokesperson for Ontario School Safety, the Ontario government is aware that indoor air quality in schools requires improvement. “COVID was the canary in the coalmine, per se,” she told the Whig-Standard in an in-depth telephone interview. “We don’t actually have to accept constant illness in children.”
Improving the air quality in schools and school buses will help to mitigate COVID-19 and other harmful airborne viruses, such as RSV and Influenza, Nabuurs asserted. However, she maintains that the money allocated by the provincial government to improving indoor air quality is inadequate. Moreover, she said that the $655 million investment cited by the Ford government is “still a little bit murky,” because some of that funding is federal money.
In addition, Nabuurs alleges the money may not have been spent responsibly. “They tout all the time that they have purchased 100,000 HEPA filters. But we have questions.” For example, has the government studied the effectiveness of the HEPA units?
Should This Be Back-to-School Wear? by Michelle Gamage / The Tyee
So how can we keep kids safe when they head back to school in the fall?
Protect Our Province is calling to improve classroom ventilation and require that students and teachers mask up. The group also wants to see the government better inform people about the risks associated with reinfection and long COVID.
The group wants to see teachers lead by example by wearing masks in the classroom and helping create strategies to reduce transmission during lunch hours, such as eating outside or opening windows.
School mask mandates again? Why some experts believe it’s a good idea by Katie Dangerfield / Globalnews.ca
But as students head back to school in the coming weeks, experts are cautioning about the looming risk posed by three prominent viruses: respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and COVID-19. They argue reinstating mask mandates within schools may help mitigate the transmission of these viruses.
“The province should step in and mandate masks, we know that masks work,” said Dr. Catherine Clase, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
Back-to-school booster? What to know about fall COVID-19 vaccine guidance by Saba Aziz / Globalnews.ca
Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) released fall booster guidance last month, recommending a dose of the new formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine for the authorized age groups.
NACI says all Canadians aged five years and up should get a COVID-19 booster in the fall if it has been at least six months since their last vaccine dose or infection, whichever is later.
The agency also continues to strongly recommend that anyone five years of age and older who hasn’t yet been vaccinated be immunized with a primary two-dose series of an mRNA vaccine.
Schools Already Closing Due to COVID — Just Weeks After Starting by Hannah Murphy / The Messenger
Just two weeks into the start of their school year, officials in Kentucky have called off school for the rest of the week “due to student and staff illness.”
The district of Lee County announced on Tuesday, August 22 that in-person classes, extra-curricular practices and games in the district had been canceled for the remainder of the week.
Public Health Director for the Kentucky River District, Scott Lockard, told news outlets local to the area that there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases throughout the district.
Group warns of ‘tripledemic’ repeat without B.C. government action to combat COVID-19 in schools by Bob Mackin / Business in Vancouver
With less than a month until schools reopen, a coalition of doctors, nurses, health scientists and advocates for pupils and teachers is warning the NDP government about a repeat of the so-called “tripledemic.”
“In short, we are on track for a rinse-and-repeat of last year,” Protect Our Province B.C. (PoP BC) said in a Tuesday open letter to Premier David Eby, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Education Minister Rachna Singh.
Last August, PoP BC sounded the alarm about a coming triple whammy of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and another COVID-19 wave. Eventually, six children in the province died and emergency rooms were jammed throughout winter.
What Are We Even Doing
Looking to skip class for sniffles? LAUSD says “mildly” sick kids should still attend school
No mask mandate in Philadelphia schools for 2023-24 school year
Many parents not concerned about COVID-19 as children head back to class
Biden welcomes students back to school as US math, reading lag pre-COVID levels | Reuters
Despite rising COVID cases in Ontario, masks will not be mandatory in schools
New COVID variant no cause for parental panic, says doctor, but kids need flu shot
More on Air Quality in Schools
Inside these parents’ long, nerdy struggle over how to improve air quality in Calgary schools
Covid Closed the Nation’s Schools. Cleaner Air Can Keep Them Open. - The New York Times
Various Media Stories
No to teaching in unsafe UK schools and yet more education cuts! - World Socialist Web Site
Children are not immune to Covid, so we must pull out all the stops to protect them
More than 3 years since pandemic started, some still take advantage of virtual school
As schools resume, CDC reports new rise in COVID emergency room visits from adolescents - CBS News
Doctors urge parents to ensure kids' vaccines up to date as they head back to school
Oregon kids return to school — and the festival of viruses begins - OPB
Will back-to-school season make the summer COVID surge worse?
As new COVID variant arrives in NYC, here’s how to track the back-to-school surge - Gothamist
As kids go back to school, experts say a 'tripledemic' looms — COVID, RSV and the flu
As most have probably noticed, there is no paid subscription option for this newsletter. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few kind subscribers have made that pledge. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here.
What I’ve decided to do on a trial basis is to set up a “tip jar” on the Ko-fi platform. This will allow people to leave me a small gratuity. The tips start at $3.
I’m not anticipating a huge surge of income from using Ko-fi but whatever revenue I do end up with, I plan to spend what I do raise on popular science books for this ongoing project and to support artists on Bandcamp.
Christine Jensen is one of the stars of the Canadian jazz scene. This is something from her latest project
Great read, well done John!