Via the Wall Street Journal, a statistic from a new comprehensive study that should be cited early and often whenever anyone starts making noises about reverting back to distance learning when kids go back to school in autumn: “Some 99.995 percent of the 469,982 children in England who were infected during the year examined by researchers survived.” Underlying health conditions, especially serious brain or nerve-related disabilities, increased the risk of dying of COVID-19. No child with a stand-alone diagnosis of asthma, diabetes, epilepsy or Down syndrome died from COVID-19.
Would we prefer kids not catch COVID-19? Sure. If they are infected, do we have to worry about any serious health consequences? In very rare cases, yes; we know which kids are most at risk because of their preexisting serious disabilities. In those cases, we can take steps to keep kids safely distanced and protected — and in some cases and ages, vaccinated.
The researchers added that there as yet no evidence that the Delta variant causes more severe illness or death among children.
Add it all up, and there really isn’t any good reason for every school in the U.S. to not reopen fully, five days a week, full-time, when summer ends.