Bizarre explanations for the school absence crisis & teacher shortages, Household spread, The greatest trick and more
Exactly the blend of wryness, fact, and fury this era merits
Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter!
First of all, all the thanks in the world to Xitter buddy Indehisce for the newsletter’s new slogan/motto/tagline: “Exactly the blend of wryness, fact, and fury this era merits.” With their kind permission, I will be using the heck out of this new slogan! It’s perfect!
Somehow we’ve ended up in a YOLO timeline. A “too little too late” timeline. An “it’s all a big joke” timeline.
If we want to bend the arc of the timeline towards justice, we have to start somewhere. And for me, that little bit of arc-bending is what this newsletter is all about. This time around, we have some readings about Covid and schools. We’ve seen a lot recently about the absence crisis in schools, mostly misinformation and disinformation.
I hope that today’s readings will help us all understand what’s really going on in schools: what’s caused the “crisis,” what it actually looks like and, most importantly, what we could genuinely do about fixing it.
We also have some additional readings about how Covid is actually bad for our health. We’ll end with a musical interlude, to give us all the strength to keep on fighting for justice.
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Top Five Articles Everyone Should Read on Covid
Real Impact of COVID-19 Infection and Why We Should Care by Jeff Gilchrist, PhD
What COVID-19 Does To The Body (Fourth Edition, March 2024) / Pandemic Accountability Index
Let's Face It, Covid Trashed Our Immune Systems by Jessica Wildfire / OK Doomer
How the press manufactured consent for never-ending COVID reinfections by Julia Doubleday / The Gauntlet
Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores by Ziyad Al-Aly / The Conversation
NYTimes invents increasingly bizarre explanations for pandemic-era student absence crisis by Julia Doubleday / The Gauntlet
The story here is that COVID was prematurely declared over; that there is no long-term immunity; that kids are thus stuck in a carousel of constant reinfection; that that constant reinfection is harmful. It’s a much more straightforward story than “at some point during the lockdowns there was a mass psychological shift away from schools as a priority and therefore individual adults are choosing to keep individual kids home to do….something but don’t ask us what.” At the Times, the urgency of exculpating the failed pandemic reopening strategy combined with a neoliberal worldview that consistently blames individuals for social problems has birthed an absurd narrative that cannot withstand even the mildest scrutiny.
Study: Kids with COVID but no symptoms play key role in household spread by Stephanie Soucheray / CIDRAP
A study today in Clinical Infectious Diseases conducted across 12 tertiary care pediatric hospitals in Canada and the United States shows that asymptomatic children with COVID-19, especially preschoolers, contribute significantly to household transmission.
The researchers discovered that 10.6% of exposed household contacts developed symptomatic illness within 14 days of exposure to asymptomatic test-positive children, a rate higher than expected.
"We determined that the risk of developing symptomatic illness within 14 days was 5 times greater among household contacts of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2–positive children," the authors wrote.
Probe links COVID spread to school bus riders from sick driver by Mary Van Beusekom / CIDRAP
The proportion of children infected with COVID-19 while riding a bus to a school in Germany was about four times higher than in peers who didn't ride the bus, illustrating efficient transmission during multiple short rides on public transport, finds a study published this week in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
A team led by researchers from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin and public health officials used surveillance data, lab analyses, case-patient and household interviews, a cohort study of all students in grades 1 to 4, and a cohort study of bus riders to investigate a 2021 COVID-19 outbreak that involved an infected bus driver and his passengers. The rides lasted 9 to 18 minutes, and multiple schools in a single district were involved.
Study links air quality improvements to fewer school COVID cases by Lisa Schnirring / CIDRAP
Efforts to improve air quality at a special education school in Rochester, New York, were associated with fewer COVID-19 cases in staff and students, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical School reported yesterday in PLOS One.
The Mary Cariola Center enrolls more than 450 students ages 3 to 21 who have severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. The research team noted that the population is at increased risk of COVID complications and may also struggle with protective measures such as social distancing and mask wearing.
During the pandemic, the school took extra steps to keep kids in school safely, given that the school provided such important therapy and services. The school focused on air filtration and improving airflow.
In a press release from the University of Rochester Medical School, Martin Zand, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the school and the study's coleader, said, "One thing that COVID taught us is that there isn’t one single magic solution that will prevent all infection from all viruses. Rather, a combination of approaches is most effective, including masking, vaccination, ventilation, and air filtration."
Ventilation during COVID-19 in a school for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) by Martin S. Zand, Samantha Spallina, et al. / PLOS ONE
There was a statistically significant correlation between rooms with CO2 levels ≥1,000 ppm and SARS-CoV-2 cases in an IDD school. Rooms served by HVAC systems with in-line MERV-13 filters had a lower incidence of SARS-CoV-2-positive PCR tests. This research partnership identified areas for improving in-school ventilation and the use of in-line, high efficiency air filtration.
Can Cleaner Classroom Air Help Kids Do Better at School? by / The Brink | Boston University
When caregivers meet with teachers, they want all the details on how their children are doing in school: Are they making friends? What subjects do they need a little extra help with? Where are they excelling? But they’re probably not asking about something that could be having an outsized impact on their kids’ education: How’s the classroom air quality?
Boston University environmental health researcher Patricia Fabian has studied indoor air quality for more than 20 years and says the better the air in a school, the better kids perform: improved ventilation has been associated with reduced absences due to illness and higher scores on math and reading tests. Now, a new research collaboration between Fabian and Boston Public Schools (BPS) could lead the way in helping schools improve their indoor air quality.
Long Covid 'extremely debilitating' for teachers, union says / RNZ News
Potter said teachers were experiencing brain fog and extreme fatigue, making a challenging and demanding job even more so.
It was "difficult to sustain" and the workforce was already stretched, he said.
Relief teachers were critical to help schools when teachers were unwell, and even they were hard to find these days.
Being around children made teachers more exposed to ailments and illnesses, Potter said.
But they did not have the same safety measures hospital staff had.
Potter was calling on the government to think about the report and see what it can do to minimise the risk teachers faced and prevent the likelihood of catching Covid-19.
When masking, vaccinations were used, schools were not a major source of COVID-19 transmission, review finds by Adam Ward / McMaster University
However, masking, vaccinations and test-to-stay policies were the most effective at mitigating COVID-19’s spread in schools and daycares. Test-to-stay allowed children who tested negative after a confirmed case in a class to still attend school instead of everyone being part of a two-week quarantine at home.
“It is important to understand which measures mitigate transmission so that schools can remain open as much as possible, given the negative impacts that were found during COVID-19 when they were closed. If there were to be another wave where community transmission was increasing and straining the health-care system, strategies such as masking, vaccination, and test-to-stay interventions are effective in fighting transmission, allowing schools to stay open.”
Teacher shortages are leaving educators with no 'good options' — and they say students are paying the price by Jessica Wong / CBC News
The precarious employment of many newly graduated teachers — leading them to string together daily supply-teaching gigs or short-term contracts for years at a time — has also contributed to a high rate of teacher attrition: more than 30 per cent in the first five years in the profession, said Nathalie Reid, an education researcher at the University of Regina.
However, COVID-19 made everything even worse.
The pandemic drove myriad senior classroom teachers to leave the profession early, and kept others home sick. Their retired colleagues, "who in the past might have come back to substitute teach two or three times a week," made different choices, Reid said.
"They weren't putting themselves at risk and coming into classrooms where COVID had been present, which is why the classroom teacher was out."
Kids missing more school since pandemic, CBC analysis finds by Tara Carman, Andreas Wesley / CBC News
It's a typical weekday in Beth Acton's Montreal home. Two of her children are at school, but another, 12-year-old Connor, is asleep upstairs under a pile of Squishmallows.
Acton logs on to an app on her phone to report Connor's latest absence to his school, something she's been doing regularly since the fall of 2022, which was the second time Connor got COVID-19.
"He is ill very, very frequently. You know, kind of catches anything that's going around," she said. "He sometimes just can't even complete the school day."
Connor, who is struggling to pass his Grade 7 year, has not been diagnosed with a chronic condition, but his delicate health has meant he's missed most of the last four weeks of school. …
Acton says her eldest son Jacob, who is 15, has told her there are a lot of kids that are absent quite frequently from his Grade 9 class. Acton also says her daughter Tessa who is 9, had a day in December where less than half her Grade 4 class was present.
As for Connor, Acton suspects he has long COVID, but he has yet to get an appointment with a clinic that could make that diagnosis. Acton says she looks forward to having his health challenges resolved so he can get back in the classroom. Every day, she says she feels forced to choose between her child's education and his health.
The Greatest Trick / John Snow Project
In 1836, John Wilkinson wrote, “One of the artifices of Satan is to induce men to believe that he does not exist.” The sentiment was echoed in the 1995 movie The Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” For those who are not of a religious disposition, the greatest trick ever played might be the attempted disappearance of COVID-19 as a cause for public concern.
Governments are trying to assimilate COVID-19 into our lives by ignoring it. They are assuming it will just fade into the background as it becomes part of the landscape of common illnesses we face. Scientists who specialize in Long Covid30, public health agencies22 and others who are responsible for safeguarding health are warning that this is not happening17, and that the virus poses a significant ongoing risk. Until governments are prepared to confront reality and adopt clean air policies that make life safer for all31, we must continue to participate in the greatest confidence trick, in which governments and certain sections of the media, aided and abetted by scientists who have staked their reputations on optimistic pronouncements, pretend we don’t need to make lasting changes to adapt to a novel pathogen.
Covid-19 Brings Down Healthy Life Expectancy In The U.K. by Katherine Hignett / Forbes
People born in England and Wales in recent years can expect to spend fewer years of their life in good health than those born over a decade ago, official figures show.
Covid-19, healthcare delays and an increase in long-term sickness are likely factors in this decline. But the Office of National Statistics figures also reflect deeper social issues like widespread inequality, say experts. …
The overall drop in HLE is likely driven in part by Covid-19, “as there had been minimal change in healthy life expectancy up to 2017–19,” according to Veena Raleigh, senior fellow at health think thank The King’s Fund.
W.H.O. Recognizes Airborne Transmission/ In-Depth Analysis: The W.H.O.'s Tool for Evaluating Airborne Transmission Risk in COVID-19 / TACT
The recent release of an official document by the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledging airborne transmission marks a significant milestone. Although some WHO officials had previously acknowledged the airborne nature of SARS-CoV-2 in public statements, this aspect had been omitted from official documents until now. Backed by science and data, this acknowledgment represents a crucial step forward.
Don't let TV soaps make Covid reality a casualty by Jane Stevenson / West Country Voices
The storyline involved Aisling, who has overdosed on her anti-anxiety medication. Aisling was wearing an FFP2 respirator mask. The ambulance crew asks if she wants to take off the mask, reassuring her that they are vaccinated.
During handover at the hospital, we learn that Aisling has been living in isolation for a long time and is described as having “post-Covid anxiety”. Later, a medic says to her: “The risks to you from Covid are smaller than the situation you are actually in.” The medic, in reference to Aisling’s anxiety, says there is “no magic cure,” though she wishes there were.
I’m sure this storyline looked completely valid and innocent, but from the perspective of those of us who, with good reason, wish to avoid repeat Covid infections, it was far from harmless.
Aisling’s condition is labelled as “post-Covid anxiety”. We are indeed post- the acute stage of the pandemic, but we are not post-Covid. At the time of broadcast, one in 143 people in England had Covid. As the disability support organisation BuDs UK notes, this would typically equate to two people in a busy supermarket.
From imprecise “immune debt” to nuanced “immune shortage”? By Luwen Zhang / Infectious Diseases Now
The notion that our immune system can accumulate a “debt” that it “owes” to a pathogen like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is scientifically flawed. First, for a given pathogen, infection can be divided into primary and recurrent infections based on the sequence of exposure to the pathogen at the individual level. Primary infections are the first and often more severe encounter, while recurrent infections are subsequent encounters with milder symptoms due to pre-existing immunity [7]. Recurrent infection can also be described as re-infection or breakthrough infection at an individual level. At the population level, similar infection phenomena are also present, and the COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the primary infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and recurrent infections of various SARS-Cov2 variants [8]. The word “debt” basically freezes infection status as “recurrent” at the population level. Omission of the primary infection event at the population level is a major cause for concern.
UN report highlights growing global inequality following COVID-19 pandemic by Jean Shaoul / World Socialist Web Site
While the advanced countries are experiencing record-high levels of human development, half of the poorest countries have failed to reach their pre-COVID-19 levels. The pandemic has led to at least 15 million deaths (and counting), the report states, more than all the recent pandemics combined (Asian Flu, Hong Kong Flu, Swine Flu, SARS, Ebola and MERS). The HDI’s estimate of global COVID deaths is a conservative one with the more accurate Economist survey estimating approaching 30 million excess global deaths up to the end of 2023. The pandemic not only reduced life expectancy at birth in most countries but also impaired other components of the HDI, interrupting access to education and leaving enduring scars on the economy.
This was compounded by what the report described as the “mismanagement of global interdependencies,” more accurately described as the criminality of the major powers in the interests of the financial oligarchy. It cited the refusal of the most advanced countries and pharmaceutical companies to ensure the universal and equitable access to effective COVID-19 vaccines—whose development was the result of international scientific cooperation—both within and between countries. Similarity it referred, without explanation, to “the huge disparity in measures taken by governments,” meaning the refusal of all governments to take the stringent measures initially embraced by China that would have stopped the virus spreading.
Covid Is Bad for You
COVID's Hidden Legacy: Thyroid Disorders Threaten UK Population
Higher rates of hospitalization, deaths among MS patients with COVID-19
Covid-19 Linked To Higher Risk Of Developing Autoimmune Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases
New study reveals increased risk of allergic diseases after COVID-19 infection
Global life span increased since 1990 but took a COVID hit | CIDRAP
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. 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 on supporting artists on Bandcamp. Sadly, who knows how long that will seem like a good idea.
The Allman Brothers. Into the Mystic.
I’m sure you have looked at the ventilation system Boston Public Schools use, but here is the link for people who aren’t.
Some of the schools have more details than others, for example one elementary school just shows you the air quality overall each day, but a high school near Boston allows you to drill down to the individual classroom and it will show you the air quality at any given time you can look at the history and the current air quality.
WHY COULDN’T EVERYONE HAVE THIS??
https://bostonschoolsiaq.terrabase.com/
There’s also a great Death Panel podcast episode where they talk about data they obtained regarding masking because some of the schools with his ventilation kept masks and some did not and they were able to show that masks actually do work (duh)
I think it was this episode but if I am wrong this one is still totally worth listening to anyway.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/death-panel/id1444679141
If it’s not this one, it was the one in February right before this one called something about how liberals killed masking.
I hope you don’t mind me dropping links here in your comments section please feel free to delete this if I am being inappropriate