{"id":430,"date":"2021-01-23T04:30:39","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T04:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/?p=430"},"modified":"2021-01-23T04:30:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T04:30:39","slug":"school-uncertainty-and-covid-19-the-possibility-of-silent-transmission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/2021\/01\/23\/school-uncertainty-and-covid-19-the-possibility-of-silent-transmission\/","title":{"rendered":"School, uncertainty, and COVID-19; The possibility of silent transmission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Nick Parker<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/01\/adrianstory-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"playground caution taped off with visual effects.\" class=\"wp-image-435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/01\/adrianstory-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/01\/adrianstory-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/01\/adrianstory-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/116\/2021\/01\/adrianstory.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Playground taped off to prevent children playing during COVID-19. (Digital Composition by Nick Parker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On January 20, 2021, the provincial government announced its plans for the upcoming winter school term. Officials stated they would only be opening schools in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.ctvnews.ca\/schools-in-7-southern-ontario-regions-will-reopen-monday-rest-will-remain-closed-1.5274230\">seven specific districts around Ontario<\/a>\u00a0while the rest would remain closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the opening of schools in September of last year, COVID-19 cases in Ontario have gone from<a href=\"https:\/\/covid-19.ontario.ca\/data\">\u00a0averaging 100-200 infections daily, to almost 2,000-3,000 infections daily<\/a>, according to data from the provincial government site.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/5052802\/embed#?secret=YCafdhYVT7\" data-secret=\"YCafdhYVT7\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"575\" width=\"700\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Graph showing the new reported covid-19 cases in schools across ontario from September, 2020 &#8211; december, 2020, based on data released by the provincial government. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-wp-embed is-provider-flourish wp-block-embed-flourish\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/5044665\/embed#?secret=VMOOteTCd2\" data-secret=\"VMOOteTCd2\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"575\" width=\"700\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>GRAPH SHOWING THE daily covid-19 CASES ACROSS ONTARIO FROM august, 2020 &#8211; january, 2020, BASED ON DATA RELEASED BY THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>But does this correlation equate to causation? This idea is still under debate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Health Organization (W.H.O) acknowledged in a report late last year, that they\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/docs\/default-source\/coronaviruse\/risk-comms-updates\/update39-covid-and-schools.pdf\">do not fully understand the role children play in the transmission of the virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The W.H.O further acknowledged that children and adults are not affected equally by the virus. The report states that asymptomatic and mild cases in children are common and may be underreported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study also noted that \u201cEarly modelling studies suggested that closing schools reduced community transmission less than other social distancing interventions,\u201d though the province\u2019s COVID-19 data however, saw a large spike exactly two weeks after kids began school, which seems to contradict the W.H.O\u2019s statements about the transmission of the virus in schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the moment, we know little about COVID-19 and its transmission through children, but the notion that children bring home illnesses which make their parents sick is not an idea that is new to us.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their article, Vox details the various reasons why parents of young children are constantly sick. This article, it should be noted, was published in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The article states four main reasons;\u00a0kids\u2019 immune systems are developing, so they pick up everything; kids get sick with infections that parents don\u2019t develop lifelong immunity to; children spend their time in germ factories \u2014 a.k.a. day care and school; and parents are tired and run-down, and so are their immune systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though many argue that the spike in cases since the start of the school year was due to Ontario lifting restrictions and entering lighter stages of the lockdown. However,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontario.ca\/page\/reopening-ontario-stages\">most regions in Ontario entered stage 3 in late July<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"768px\" src=\"https:\/\/story.interviewjs.io\/nWuMoPw8v1csPhhApcASqm\"> <\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nick Parker On January 20, 2021, the provincial government announced its plans for the upcoming winter school term. Officials stated they would only be opening schools in\u00a0seven specific districts around Ontario\u00a0while the rest would remain closed. Since the opening of schools in September of last year, COVID-19 cases in Ontario have gone from\u00a0averaging 100-200 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":339,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[29,47,44,46,43,45],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-e-learning","tag-education","tag-lockdowns","tag-schools","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/339"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}