Posted by Virtual school didn’t work for us. Sure, we muddled through, but virtual school left a lot to be desired:
- Limited social interaction
- Only 15 minutes of time with a teacher each week
- Difficulty staring at screens and worksheets
- Lots of uncertainty – were we doing things correctly?
- Trying to work and teach at the same time
We are sending our kids back to school in September, and I wanted to look at the risks.
The risk of kids getting COVID-19 is close to zero
In King County, there have been VERY FEW infections of COVID-19 for kids. Only 287 kids under 10 in the state have been infected – that’s 112 per 100,000 kids. That’s one-fifth of the infections vs. people in their 40s. One-thirteenth of the infections vs. people 80 and older.
The research says this is not surprising. Kids haven’t developed the receptors in their throat to contract the virus, so it’s very hard for kids to catch it and spread it. Great news!
Science!
This flows through to hospitalizations. Only 4 kids under 10 have been hospitalized in King County. That’s 1.6 per 100,000 people.
Even better news on deaths. No one under 20 has died from COVID in King County.
Using “science” and data – the risk seems minimal.
So, what should parents actually be afraid of?
The flu is actually a much bigger risk to children than COVID-19. Here are the number of hospitalizations for the flu last flu season: 2018-2019.
For kids 5-17, 20 kids out of every 100,000 were hospitalized for the flu. Compare that to COVID – we’re sitting at 4.3 hospitalizations for every 100,000 kids in King County 11-19. So that means kids are 5 times more likely to be hospitalized for flu vs. COVID-19.
So, parents: stop worrying about COVID-19. If you’re going to be worried about anything, be worried about the flu.