A group of parents with kids in Ontario classrooms is calling on the province to take further action to improve air ventilation, filtration, and purification in its schools.
Comments closedTag: children
Topic: CalgaryView all posts for the topic: Calgary
Absence rates due to illness double in first week and a half at Calgary public schools
Absence rates at Calgary public schools have more than doubled after the first week of school, as concerns loom over respiratory illnesses this fall and hospitals deal with an E. coli outbreak.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Parents call for better air quality in schools to protect against viruses, wildfire smoke
Several grassroots groups of parents, health-care workers and teachers have sprung up across Canada to lobby for safer schools, including improved air quality.
Comments closedTopic: outdoor teachingView all posts for the topic: outdoor teaching
The government is absent from keeping students safe from COVID-19
COVID-19 is still here, and classrooms still represent a place where infection can spread, but there are other ways to learn and engage with students.
Comments closedTopic: New YorkView all posts for the topic: New York
New York State sending masks, COVID-19 tests to schools for start of classes
New York State is sending masks and COVID-19 rapid tests to school districts that request them for the start of the 2023-24 school year.
Comments closedAs the school year begins, it is past time to talk about the threat that SARS-CoV-2, the highly transmissible airborne virus that causes COVID-19, poses to the health of students.
Not only can the disease cause acute illness in youth, it can also lead to debilitating lingering symptoms, known as long COVID.
Comments closedTopic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
School mask mandates again? Why some experts believe it’s a good idea
“Children are not going to wear masks unless there’s a mask mandate, because we saw how quickly kids stopped wearing masks when they didn’t have to. The peer pressure that affects children in school, it’s really extraordinary. We’re still going to need to make it a rule for children and young adults to wear masks in school.”
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Long COVID is debilitating children. Doctors worry there aren’t enough centers to treat them
Last month, the National Institutes of Health updated its considerations for long COVID to say the burden of the condition in children “may be quite large.” Studies estimating its prevalence in pediatric populations are limited and conflicting, estimating up to 25% of children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could go on to develop long COVID, though it’s more likely between 2% and 10%. Older children with existing chronic diseases or who had a more severe COVID-19 infection have an increased risk.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Parents’ group wants more COVID protections in B.C. classrooms ahead of new school year
Protect Our Province is asking for HEPA filters, mask mandates, and fast-tracked COVID vaccinations.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Dozens sign open letter urging ‘safe return to school’ amid respiratory illness concerns
With students returning to B.C. classrooms in four weeks, an open letter to the province is outlining five things the signatories say must be addressed to ensure “a safe return to school.”
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Study: 1 in 6 kids have persistent COVID symptoms for 3 months after infection
Comments closedIt was thought at first that the pediatric population was relatively spared from the long-term effects of COVID-19 after infection. But this changed rapidly with increasing reports and studies of pediatric patients not fully recovering from acute COVID-19.
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Long COVID Is Disabling Kids. Why We Ignore It
Yet we may have disastrously underestimated one of the most serious sequelae: infection of the brain and nervous system. And we may have missed the neurological damage done to children and young adults who seem to have recovered from COVID-19.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Should This Be Back-to-School Wear?
Health-care workers are warning a lack of masking could lead to a new COVID wave come fall.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Parents ask Ottawa’s largest school board to monitor air quality
As children are on the list of those most affected by wildfire smoke, some parents are concerned about sending their kids to school due to poor air quality.
During Tuesday night’s Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) budget meeting, Ecology Ottawa Board Chair Katie Gibbs requested that funds go to ensure better ventilation in schools.
Comments closedTopic: childrenView all posts for the topic: children
More than 70% of US household COVID spread started with a child, study suggests
According to a recent study, over 70% of nearly 850,000 US household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child. The researchers concluded that children had an important role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and that in-person school also resulted in substantial spread.
Comments closedTopic: researchView all posts for the topic: research
Long COVID: The impact on language and cognition
COVID-19 continues to have profound health and economic consequences around the world. Aside from the large number of deaths from this viral infection, there is…
Comments closedTopic: JapanView all posts for the topic: Japan
Over 10% of children in Japan with COVID-related brain disease died, survey finds
More than 10% of children in Japan who developed acute brain syndrome after infection with COVID-19 have died, results of a nationwide survey recently announced by a health ministry research team has shown.
The survey identified 34 cases of acute encephalopathy associated with COVID-19 infection among those under 18 between January 2020 and May 2022. The team analyzed 31 patients who did not have any underlying illnesses that could be responsible for causing the brain disease.
Comments closedTopic: childrenView all posts for the topic: children
Opinion: Treating kids as invulnerable is treating them as disposable
Comments closedAre we OK with children being hospitalized for infectious diseases at far higher rates, as they have recently been? Are we fine with COVID being the No. 1 cause of infectious disease-driven death in children? Also, what if there is a number of reinfections at which average outcomes really start to worsen?