1) Government is making life-and-death call on schools reopening - it has to get it right

The significance of this new study cannot be overstated: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/more-70-us-household-covid-spread-started-child-study-suggests

"In-person school contributed to transmission: More than 70% of transmission in households with adults and children were from paediatric index case...Once US schools re-opened in fall 2020, children contributed more to inferred within-household transmission when they were in school and less during summer and winter breaks".

In a bid to amplify the ongoing threat children face in schools with no SARS-C0V-2 mitigations/protections, I'm re-posting articles I wrote from August 2020 warning of evidence that children DO get infected with SARS2, they DO transmit to others & that schools were/are NOT safe.

Please feel free to use the evidence I've set out in the following 7 articles to demand clean, bio-hazard free air in schools.

Just dropping this incredibly powerful video with Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Rae Duncan here: "We are knowingly allowing our children to go into school buildings & breathe in a CDC level 3 biohazard that's airborne" : https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxVWm9ME95RsOPqSQb0kC9UPyfgn3xUISi

I wrote this in August 2020, incredulous that schools were about to open with no clear guidance & Education Minister, Norma Foley, nowhere to be found. 

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/government-is-making-life-and-death-call-on-schools-reopening-it-has-to-get-it-right/39451430.html

Excerpts:

"Listening to Leo Varadkar on RTÉ, "guaranteeing" outbreaks of coronavirus in schools when they open, reminded me of the mayor in Jaws...."

"Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said "children don't transmit very effectively to others". He should know that the ECDC report published last week states: "When symptomatic, children shed virus in similar quantities to adults and can infect others in a similar way to adults."

"In fact, there are numerous documented studies outlining the scale of risk associated with reopening schools.

In Israel, where class sizes are big (like Ireland), the virus spread to students' homes, other schools and neighbourhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Across the country, thousands of students and teachers were quarantined.

Israel's deputy director of public health services, Dr Udi Kliner, said that "schools, not restaurants or gyms, turned out to be the country's worst mega-infectors".

A large new study from South Korea shows that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.

Cases among children in Germany have increased by 50pc since they reopened schools, and researchers in Berlin tested more than 3,700 coronavirus patients and found that children carried the same viral load as adults".

"Our Government seems unaware of these facts given the 'roadmap' for school reopening does little to mitigate them.

Aerosol transmission, for example, is not acknowledged. This raises questions about proper ventilation, face masks, and the efficacy of the roadmap's 'pods' - none of which are ­adequately addressed.

Another gaping omission from the roadmap is how to accommodate the many children who have underlying health conditions or whose family members are high risk. What virtual/remote alternatives will be provided for those children who cannot attend school but remain entitled to an education?"

Community transmission is another key risk factor. The safe opening of schools was always contingent on levels being low.....With an R-rate now of almost 2, how can it possibly be deemed safe to reopen schools? 

It's crucial that schools reopen but it has to be done safely.".