Posted on by Californiacontrarian

“O Canada” – Part 1


For those of you who have never been to a National Hockey League game, “O Canada” is the name of Canada’s national anthem. (FYI: At NHL games, they play both our National Anthem and ‘O Canada’ irrespective of where the game is being played.)

Okay, so what could possibly be a segue between all that is going on these days in the U.S. and ‘O Canada’. . . after all it isn’t even hockey season. 

A recurring line in that song is:

“O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”

Here I asked myself, who is standing guard for our children these days. Are they going back to school? When? How? . . . Who knows? Who’s in charge? In Canada, they know, as last week SickKids.org published it’s recommendations that were developed by experts from SickKids and Unity Health Toronto, with input from scientists at the University of Toronto and SickKids’ Family Advisory Network. . . . It’s titled:
“Covid-19, Recommendations for School Reopening”

(This was the most well thought out, and the most rational plan for school reopening that I have seen. It is over nine pages long, and has over a page of references. The recommendations include important topics such as screening, hand hygiene, physical distancing, use of non-medical masks, and more.)

The stated goal was to balance direct infection and transmission of Covid with the harms of school closures on the physical and mental health of children.

Worldwide, children account for 5-10% of SARS Co V-2 (Covid-19) infections, and deaths in children are rare. In Canada the incidence in those 0-19 years old is 6.9%, and there have been zero deaths, up to 6/15/20.

This paper starts out right at the beginning clearly stating that the impetus to the reopening of schools is to optimize the health and welfare of children. It is not about jobs and the economy. Health measures that were taken months ago to “flatten the curve” may have been necessary at the time, but “these measures have had significant adverse health and welfare consequences for children with an adverse impact on children’s behavioral and mental health.”

The authors emphasize that children rely on structure and schedules for stability, and this supports the need for a daily school model.

To start with this position paper argues against on-site temperature taking as fever occurs in only about 50% of the cases. They also advise against the screening of the students by school staff, as both of these require lines of children, and take a lot of time – time that can better be used elsewhere. If students are sick, they should stay home, and parents and caregivers should be responsible for deciding if a child is sick.

“Virtual learning or other forms of structured learning should be put in place for children who are required to stay home because they are sick or in isolation due to SARS-CoV-2 infection or exposure.”

So far what you have heard “practical” and common sense advice.

Part 2 will go over many more of their common sense (CS) recommendations.

Stay tuned!

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