g-f(4)3 For children, during the coronavirus pandemic, according to science, schools are the best place to be

VIRAL KNOWLEDGE: The “genioux facts” knowledge news 

Extra-condensed knowledge

When it comes down to where children are safest during the coronavirus pandemic, CDC Director Robert Redfield says schools are the best place to be.

• Redfield said evidence shows that students are contracting the respiratory illness from family gatherings and local events rather than schools.
• Political leaders and school administrators are once again shifting millions of American kids back to virtual leaning as coronavirus cases mount.
• In both Europe and the United States, schools have not been linked to substantial transmission, and teachers and family members have not been shown to be at extra risk (this is more clear of elementary schools than of high schools). 

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image. 

Condensed knowledge

1. Fox News. CDC director says schools are among 'safest places' kids can be. When it comes down to where children are safest during the coronavirus pandemic, CDC Director Robert Redfield says schools are the best place to be.
• At a coronavirus task force briefing held at the White House on Thursday, Redfield said evidence shows that students are contracting the respiratory illness from family gatherings and local events rather than schools.
• “The infections that we’ve identified in schools when they’ve been evaluated were not acquired in schools. They were actually acquired in the community and in the household,” he explained, citing task force coordinator Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who believes Americans are getting comfortable in removing protective face masks.
• “The truth is, for kids K-12, one of the safest places they can be, from our perspective, is to remain in school, and it’s really important that following the data, making sure we don’t make emotional decisions about what to close and what not to close,” Redfield continued. “I’m here to say clearly the data strongly supports that K-12 schools — as well as institutes of higher learning — really are not where we’re having our challenges.”
2. WaPo. The Health 202: The evidence doesn't support closing schools to stop the coronavirus. Political leaders and school administrators are once again shifting millions of American kids back to virtual leaning as coronavirus cases mount.
• Yet data from the fall semester indicates schools aren’t a big vector for the virus after all.
• “We have not seen schools as a major source of transmission for covid, particularly in the low-prevalence areas,” said Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University. “I think that suggests it’s possible to reopen schools safely, probably more than we are currently doing.” 
• Infection rates are extremely low among students and teachers in both public and private schools. That’s according to a database created by Oster, who noticed there was no central place to track how the virus was spreading in elementary, middle and high schools and wanted to fill that need.
• The nation's top infectious disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, said last night he too was a proponent of keeping schools open if at all feasible. 
• In schools that have opened classrooms full or part time, there are 17 daily cases for every 100,000 students.
• A new UNICEF report underscores Oster’s findings. The U.N. agency said data from 91 countries shows no consistent link between reopening schools and higher rates of infection from the coronavirus. The report, which warns of a “lost covid generation,” says children are more likely to get the virus outside of school settings.
3. NYT. When Trump Was Right and Many Democrats Wrong. Children have suffered because many mayors and governors were too willing to close public schools.
• I’ve been writing since May about the importance of keeping schools open, and initially the debate wasn’t so politicized. But after Trump, trying to project normalcy, blustered in July about schools needing to open, Republicans backed him and too many Democrats instinctively lined up on the other side. Joe Biden echoed their extreme caution, as did many Democratic mayors and governors. So Democrats helped preside over school closures that have devastated millions of families and damaged children’s futures. Cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have closed schools while allowing restaurants to operate.
• In both Europe and the United States, schools have not been linked to substantial transmission, and teachers and family members have not been shown to be at extra risk (this is more clear of elementary schools than of high schools). Meanwhile, the evidence has mounted of the human cost of school closures.
• One child in eight in America lives with a parent with an addiction — a reflection of America’s other pandemic. I’ve seen kids living in chaotic homes, and for them the school building is a refuge and a lifeline.
• America’s education system already transmits advantage and disadvantage from one generation to the next: Rich kids attend rich schools that propel them forward, and low-income children attend struggling schools that hold them back. School closures magnify these inequities, as many private schools remain open and affluent parents are better able to help kids adjust to remote learning. At the same time, low-income children fall even further behind.

Category 4: Coronavirus and other viruses

[genioux fact extracted from Fox News, Wapo, NYT]

Authors of genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

1. CDC director says schools are among 'safest places' kids can be, Cortney Moore, November 20, 2020, Fox News.
2. The Health 202: The evidence doesn't support closing schools to stop the coronavirus, Paige Winfield Cunningham, November 20, 2020, WaPo, The Washington Post.
3. When Trump Was Right and Many Democrats Wrong, Nicholas Kristof, November 18, 2020, NYT, The New York Times.