The science shows schools can re-open safely
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Summary
In this episode, I talk about why I don't think there's much to be worried about when it comes to going back to school, and why the school system doesn't need to worry about kids getting infected with coronavirus.
Transcript
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Perhaps the most contentious debate that is underway in Canada right now about the different
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reopenings of aspects of society is the one pertaining to the school system, and to what
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degree we reopen schools in September, and what protocols we put in place to keep them safe.
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Now, in some respects, I totally get this. I speak as a parent of some young children myself,
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and we all know that caring for our children, that is top priority for everyone, for all parents out
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there. So I get that there's going to be extra alarm, extra caution when it comes to things
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involving our kids. But at the same time, I feel like this is one of those subjects that has been
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completely lacking all evidence-based decision making, all science, as the liberals like to
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proclaim, as if everything is science, until the moment it's not. When Dr. Theresa Tam says masks
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don't work, that's science. And then the next day, when she says they do work, and I want to mandate
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all of you to wear them, suddenly that is also science. Okay, fine. But where is the science when
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it comes to the school debates? Because we have a lot of concerns out there, a lot of fear-mongering
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going on. And look, I get there's a lot of conflicting stuff going out from experts. You
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turn on the cable news, and at one moment you see some senior epidemiologists saying this thing,
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and then in the very next program, you see another epidemiologist saying the exact opposite. So it's
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really frustrating. And sometimes you're not able to take basic facts with assurances that you can
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actually take them to the bank, that they are going to be 100% valid come the week after or the week
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after that, when some new evidence comes along and pushes the old evidence aside. I do think, though,
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the school system and how coronavirus affects children is one of those that we've been pretty
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consistent on throughout. And we're seeing a lot of evidence that tells us, relax. There's really
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not that much to be afraid of when it comes to going back to school. A lot of studies out there
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that tell us children hardly get coronavirus at all. And if they get it, they are not particularly
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hard hit by it. And there is no indication that they are actually really spreading it to adults all
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that much. Very little evidence of it. So when I've spoken about this or written about this before,
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some people say, okay, fine, the kids themselves, they're not going to get it. But what about the
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teachers? And what about the kids taking it home to their parents and their grandparents,
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people who might be immunocompromised? Well, right now, the evidence just doesn't show that
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that's something that's happening. Although you better believe the teachers unions are latching on to
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whatever fearmongering facts they can to justify more and more from the school system, from the boards,
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and from the taxpayers. Now, I think one of the most probably slam dunk statistics that tells us
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we don't have to be worried about our particular kids per se, regardless of whether or not they
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spread it to adults, is the numbers of kids who have been infected in Canada, and more particularly,
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the number who have been hospitalized and the number who have died. There have only been 100 kids
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who have been hospitalized in Canada. And by kids, I actually mean people under the age of 19,
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under the age of 20. So that includes teenagers. The number of people under the age of 20 who have
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died in Canada from coronavirus, get this, one. And it's believed that person already had another
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underlying illness. So maybe you can't actually chalk their death up to coronavirus. Maybe their
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death was more caused by something else. Because we have this weird accounting mechanism in place,
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where if you die while you have coronavirus, but you have actually died of that other thing,
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it's counted as a COVID death. So there you have it. All the facts, the statistics, research them,
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look around. They really suggest that while there are some things we should be more concerned about
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than others, like our elderly and long-term care facilities, the school system doesn't seem to be
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the case. So yes, let's try and implement as many measures as we can, enhanced hygiene, hand washing,
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and so forth. But I really don't think we need to be afraid of kids and the return to school.