I think you are correct - see ‘neoplasms’ in this study.
Yeah I understand the “they’re harder to manage” element. But what is the actual risk of children getting Covid? I know we don’t have the full studies yet to establish but I thought they were the at lowest risk age bracket with very little effect. They also have their schools socially distanced a lot better than some industries can practically implement.
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Source:
OK,
“Cancers remain the most common cause of death for children aged 1 to 15 years, accounting for 20.6% of deaths in 2016.”
Not the same as 2 out of every 10 children dying of cancer.
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I don’t know but I believe you are correct they are lowest risk category (generally - there are exceptions) in terms of the effect on them. There are of course also teachers and school staff who may be worried \ affected.
I think what is more unknown is transmission, and so I assume the potential might be large.
Either way, parents are just trying to follow government and school guidance to get tested when their children have symptons, but they can’t do that, and if they then follow guidance they have to isolate at home for 2 weeks (or is it 1 now?) for what might just be a seasonal cough for a 24 hour temperature, which all parents will be more than familiar with and would normally just brush off.
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My issue is with parents who’s kids have a slight cough and have had it for a day or a slightly raised temperature. Kids get colds.
It’s about measured proportionality.
As I have said, the symptoms are really really well known.
If your child has these then get tested. But you can’t because people are panicking again.
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Are they though - I’ve seen (but in fairness without checking them yet) that symptoms in kids can be a bit different to adults.
This has been circulating but not sure on it’s accuracy in fairness https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/back-to-school
From the article linked
The top five symptoms in school aged children who test positive for COVID are; fatigue (55%) headache (53%), fever (49%), sore throat (38%) and loss of appetite (35%). This was different compared to the App’s data on adults; fatigue (87%), headache (72%), loss of smell (60%), persistent cough (54%) and sore throat (49%). In addition to this, research from the app has also found that one in six (15%) children who test positive for COVID also present with an unusual skin rash.
People often seem to get different answers calling 111 etc.
Well I know for sure one parent has been told their child has symptoms, but they will not book them a test as they have run out, so they have to quarantine now…
I’m not sure you can definitively say this is all down to people panicking (or maybe you can!). I suspect this is a combination of not enough tests available for the post school surge, and other surges as peak covid areas emerge as well as some people getting tests who should not - where that balance lies is hard to say but I can’t believe this is all down to people asking for tests who don’t need them.
Fundamentally we are going to need a huge increase in testing and \ or some revised guidance no who gets tested.
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But what about a 37.8 temperature? Or a cough that, no matter how mild, has had them sent home from school?
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I posted it up there here earlier but here it is:
It’s all out there:
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We had this at nursery and primary school. It took both of us an hour to leave work and get to the school only to find a very happy child with a slightly elevated temp. This is pre Covid.
These days a sneeze seems to panic people.
A sense of proportionality and a level headedness seems lacking sometimes.
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This seems to be it. Splashed all over the news. Tests are the new toilet paper. I had one a couple of weeks ago, drove to Gatwick, and the huge test centre was almost empty. The next day there was some story about how they were moving testing up North, mentioned test availability for some reason and from then on it’s been non stop coverage.
Having said that, 6 months down the line you’d think they had the process sorted already. Last week we were extolling the fact the positive numbers were so high and deaths were low because we were so great at testing.
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If only it was that easy. The link below says 37.8 - I was wondering if that exceeded your threshold of ‘slight raised’.
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@oakr Just seen this on Twitter. Might be worthwhile one of the parents who can’t get a test contacting BBCLondon News!
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I’m actually wondering if the guidance has changed from 37.8 to 38…
I know at Center Parcs they will not let you in the Tropical Paradise with a temp of 37.8 or above 
and the same at my little one’s nursery, but these might be legacy decisions.
Ha - I just saw the same/similar article:
Plans to prioritise coronavirus tests and put NHS staff at the top of the list will be published in the coming days, the justice secretary has said.
People in care homes would also be a priority, while schools could also be considered, Robert Buckland said.
Emphasis mine.
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This is current testing levels. So unless everyone decided to get Covid all of a sudden this seems to be our glorious press at work again.
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213k/243k tests vs capacity (pillar 1&2 is the swab test) is 87% capacity so the bottleneck is clearly getting people in for testing, although 87% isn’t a disaster - still capacity for an extra 30k a day.
I’m surprised the antibody testing is so underused, although I guess a positive result here means what… you’ve had it, so then what - do you walk around like a superhuman and not worry?
Less likely but I don’t think we really know. Personally I wouldn’t risk it.
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Right - that was why I suspect it’s underused in relation to the pillar 1&2 - because the implications of either +/- outcome are unclear.