- Fri Nov 19, 2021 9:05 pm
#132371
"No, unlike the Spanish Flu of 1918, covid-19 was not dangerous to kids nor could they transmit it readily.
So the only medical case for masking kids is to take their risk from almost zero to almost zero."-johnfibs
Aside from the fact that COVID actually IS dangerous to kids, children in school should mask up if only to prevent exposure of school staff and other children with compromised immune systems. johnforbes apparently believes vulnerable children simply shouldn't go to school because other children are just too spoiled and selfish to wear a mask of almost zero risk to themselves in order to protect vulnerable children at high risk, as well as their communities and families.
"6,625,847 total child COVID-19 cases reported, and children represented 16.8% (6,625,857/39,397,035) of all cases
Overall rate: 8,803 cases per 100,000 children in the population" [That's nearly 9% of all children have already caught COVID.]
"Among states reporting, children ranged from 1.7%-4.1% of their total cumulated hospitalizations, and 0.1%-1.9% of all their child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization"-American Academy of Pediatrics
This is what johnforbes considers "near zero risk" to children. And those numbers would all be higher if children are packed into schools unmasked. When children DID go back to school, over 1400 schools were forced to shut down the following two weeks for outbreaks that endangered other students, staff, and families. Just because few children died from COVID doesn't mean hospitalizations are insignificant.
"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects."-AAofP
This is what johnforbes considers an insignificant threat worth exposing thousands of immunocompromised children and staff to. He couldn't care less about the risks of long-term physical health of infected children, nor its emotional and mental health effects. There is little downside to children wearing masks in schools, but a huge threat contributing to larger COVID spikes around the country, as we are seeing right now in mostly unvaccinated people.