Covid-19 concerns.md

Dear Ms. PRINCIPAL,

Hi, I'm a parent of CHILD, one of Ms TEACHER's (future) pupils in Senior Infants.

I hope this finds you and yours well, in these (almost) unprecedented times.

I'm writing to you because I am very wary of sending the Young One to school. Are you able to support parents who wish to continue schooling their children at home?

Below I justify said concern. In my own understanding of the situation, having read:

1. the DES plan for returning to school,
2. the HPSC Interim Recommendations,
3. and as much as possible on the state of the science re: Covid-19,

I think it's woefully optimistic to think that reopening schools is a good idea at this time, and that the measures to prevent further spread of the disease across the student body and teachers, as described in the DES plan, are not sufficient.

I am more than happy to clarify my concerns further, if you'd wish -- I can be reached on PHONE.

The specific concerns I have (you'll find the relevant sources listed below):

1. Other countries have had to re-close their schools after trying to open them too early. I'd myself discount the example from the USA (although it supports my argument) since they're statistically an outlier; I think the example from Israel, where they had to close schools a couple of weeks after reopening them, to be much more germane.
2. The relaxed 1m social distancing appears to me as a compromise to achieve the return of the whole pupil body within a school's effective capacity.
3. The HSE interim recommendations (see below for sources) state that "the virus is spread by droplets and is not airborne so the physical separation is enough". This statement doesn't reflect current knowledge: maybe it's not spread as easily as measles or TB, but it is indeed airborne (see study in Nature, below).
4. "Non-medical masks may reduce transmission from individuals who are shedding the virus" is a bit of the Interim Recommendations that I agree with unreservedly (section 5.2, "Students" heading). Having said that, any parent knows that children are infection vectors, and the Recommendations go on to say that "the extent of this benefit is unknown (especially in children)". This is preposterous: we know that face masks help reduce viral transmission, and such advice defies common sense. The Recommendations follow that with "face coverings are not suitable for children under the age of 13". Study below from the CDC in the USA says that children are as much of an infection risk. I've also added an article from Springer: a recommendation from the European Journal of Pediatrics w.r.t. children needing to mask up.
5. The Interim Recommendations state "a minimum of 1m and where possible 2m" for pupils while doing desk work; the DES then states "a distance of 1m" only, entirely foregoing the concept of "2 metre" distancing that everyone was encouraged to maintain during lockdown. My training in computer engineering leads me to strongly doubt that such a whopping margin of error of 100% is driven by scientific facts about the disease, but because the student population just won't fit otherwise.

Sources:

1. DES plan as of July 27th, available from https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/b264b-roadmap-for-the-full-return-to-school/ (direct link: http://assets.gov.ie/82145/40753991-21a5-4715-a5a1-0f193df95ade.pdf).
2. Guidance (Interim Recommendations) from the HSE's HPSC (version 0.8, from June 24th): https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/2020/07/interim-recommendations-for-the-reopening-of-schools-and-educational-facilities.pdf
3. Israel gov adviser: "definitely should not do what we have done": https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/when-covid-subsided-israel-reopened-its-schools-it-didn-t-go-well-1.4321658
4. Study from Nature, showing children are as much of an infection vector as adults -- I don't understand how this was ever questioned in the first place: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/10/20-1315_article
5. Article in Springer, masking children up in pediatric situations is necessary, schools & parents need to invest heavily to obtain child cooperation: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-020-03674-9
6. Hospitalized patients spread the virus not merely via droplets, but by aerosols (meaning: this disease is indeed airborne): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-69286-3

Thank you for your time. Again, I'd be happy to clarify any question.

Best wishes for yous and yours at SCHOOL in these circumstances, and kind regards,
YOURSELF
PHONE