I’m not a health care professional. I am not qualified to make decisions about what we should and should not do about the COVID-19 situation. I still wonder if closing the schools is the right thing to do.
Children up to the age of 19 are 24% of our US population.
These two statements from the United States Centers for Disease Control are interesting:
Pediatric cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have been reported. However, there are relatively fewer cases of COVID-19 among children compared to cases among adult patients.1-5
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- In the United States, 2% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 were among persons aged <18 years.4
and
As of March 8, 2020, just one pediatric death was reported among confirmed COVID-19 cases in China,15 and as of March 15, 2020, none of the 1,625 deaths associated with COVID-19 in Italy were among children aged <18 years.2 In Spain, no pediatric deaths were reported as of March 16, 2020.5 In the U.S., as of April 2, 2020, there have been three deaths among children with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection that have been reported to CDC, but the contribution of SARS-CoV-2 infection to the cause of death in these cases is unclear.4
It seems that school age youngsters have an easier time with COVID-19 than infants and seniors. In fact according to the CDC they are seeing that some kids with COVID-19 don’t even develop symptoms:
There have been multiple reports to date of children with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.3,6,14,15 In one study, up to 13% of pediatric cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection were asymptomatic.16 The prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and duration of pre-symptomatic infection in children are not well understood, as asymptomatic individuals are not routinely tested.
Should the schools really be closed? I would appreciate your thoughts.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
No, we should totally send the kids to school so they can become infected and come home to their families who may not be as resistant. This way, all the weak people in society die.
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I agree, the more people who can spread the virus the better off we are as a society.
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Make sure grandma’s life insurance is up to date.
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They should give the children blankets infected with the virus to take home to their families, old school, so to speak.
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What about the kids who will die? Low risk is not zero risk, so if 1 out of every 200 children (0.5 death rate) that would, when extrapolated nationally, be a lot of children.
Literally, sending them to school would be a death sentence for some.
I guess it is okay in a late-term abortion context. As long as they don’t get shot with an AR-15 who cares how they die?
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Our Republican Texas Attorney General said we should be willing to let a few of our relatives die in order to get the economy going again, so why not throw in a few kids into the mix?
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Technically, he said he was willing to risk infection to get society going again. If you have to lie and misrepresent to make a point, is your point worth making?
Your Democrat candidate for President sexually assaulted at least one woman who was his aide in the Senate. So why not add her to the mix? That way he won’t have to answer any questions, not that any of the traditional media is asking.
While we are assigning blame, care to apologize for Democrats owning slaves and forming the Ku Klux Klan? How about for the string of serial rapists/Democrats like Clinton/Epstein/Weinstein, etc.
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If the EPISD’s educational technology group knew what they were doing, our kids would get a better education while schools are closed.
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Do you have first hand knowledge? Do you know what they are doing? It’s actually been quite impressive.
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Yes,I do. Impressive seems like a reach.
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Ok I agree. Maybe impressive was a bit over stated but they are doing a good job. My kids have been busy engaged and working on assignments everyday.
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My experience is that it comes down to the teacher. Some are doing great Others aren’t. However, it doesn’t seem like the district is offering a range of resources.
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I agree somewhat Bruno, but what about the teachers and other staff? Many staff members on any given campus are well into their 50’s and 60’s and not of the greatest health.
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That’s a thoughtful point.
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Thank God. We have a grown-up on here today.
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Do we get a refund on our EPISD taxes since they will be closed for some months? Pay for play? Or do they keep it all 🙂
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Juan is floating in his pool with a cocktail in his hand and a big smile on his face because his big paychecks keep being deposited directly to his account.
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Anonymous says: Yes indeed, his annual salary is now $410,918 which includes his Incidental Stipend. Then you have his phone, car, annuity, health insurance, retirement, life insurance, and he was paid up to $35,000 moving expenses plus they paid the closing costs on his over $500,000 home. But he is still working as student parents are getting e-mails from Vendors pushing Virtual Education in the future.
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I work in a public high school in EPISD and I’ve got to tell you – El Paso teenagers do NOT wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Working in, or attending, a school in El Paso (and probably anywhere in the U.S. and probably anywhere in the world) means you’re hanging out in a petri dish of germs, bacteria, and viruses. If we reopen schools any time in 2020 then we’re definitely going to be spreading coronavirus to hundreds of thousands of El Pasoans, many of them of course, asymptomatic who will spread it rapidly to others. Abbott’s decisions to leave schools closed was absolutely the right decision, even if he’s stupidly trying to reopen business.
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I work in a public high school in EPISD and I’ve got to tell you – El Paso teenagers do NOT wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Working in, or attending, a school in El Paso (and probably anywhere in the U.S. and probably anywhere in the world) means you’re hanging out in a petri dish of germs, bacteria, and viruses. If we reopen schools any time in 2020 then we’re definitely going to be spreading coronavirus to hundreds of thousands of El Pasoans, many of them of course, asymptomatic who will spread it rapidly to others. Abbott’s decisions to leave schools closed was absolutely the right decision, even if he’s stupidly trying to reopen business.
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Stupidly trying to reopen business? FDGFG, I’m guessing you don’t teach economics. Here’s the reality: while taxpayer supported entities can shut down indefinitely and continue to pay most of their people, private businesses don’t have that luxury. Look around. We’ve been sheltering in place here for nearly a month and our cases are growing. Why? Because we have a bunch of idiots who refuse to take basic precautions to stop the spread. The reality is that unless we want total economic collapse we need to move to a new normal where folks take personal responsibility for masking up, staying home when sick and avoiding large gatherings and nonessential travel. Businesses need to mask up and temp check employees every day at shift start. People should continue to minimize the number of shopping trips they make and do it with one person. In short, limit exposure to areas where large numbers of untested people visit daily. The government can expedite approvals on treatments and vaccines, but only we can engage in practices that minimize spread. It’s time to stop punishing businesses willing to do that because stupid folks refuse to change their behavior. If lockdowns worked, I’d be in favor of them. But they aren’t working. Countries that have recovered are doing what I’ve mentioned here.
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Which countries are you talking about? You’re full of shit.
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China, Korea and Sweden for starters. Most other countries in Asia are doing some form of this with success.
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