[ad_1]
Dr. Sara Moran Bode, president-elect of the AAP School Health Council, tells Yahoo Finance what she recommends for schools regarding masking, vaccinations and other protocols before the school year.
Video transcript
– Patient, Dr Bode, from your perspective I think so many parents who are preparing to send their kids back to school in the next couple of weeks are very confused. They don’t know what’s safe and what isn’t at this point, only in terms of what they should be doing to better protect their children. So what’s your advice?
SARA MORAN BODE: Yeah, great question. Thank you. One of the things we know is that, first of all, we want to prioritize the return of children to school. It was really hard for the kids to learn online last year. It was not ideal for academics, for social and emotional learning. But the other thing we do know is that when the kids went back to school in person and the schools used these safety measures, they worked.
So when the kids are all wearing masks and it’s universal, with hand washing, good ventilation, we can get the kids back to school and do it safely. So as a parent I think it’s really important to understand, what is your school district planning to do to help promote these safety precautions, and what are they in place to protect your child. COVID?
AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Doctor, we have seen a lot of cases of children contracting COVID, haven’t we? So what do we know about the Delta variant, how is it different, and why the first instance of COVID didn’t have as much of an impact as the variant, did it? Lots of questions, can you help us out a bit on that.
SARA MORAN BODE: Absolutely yes. The Delta variant has therefore been the predominant variant that we have seen recently. And as COVID has progressed, we’ve learned a lot over time. And what we do know is that just like with adults and kids, this Delta variant is just more contagious, which means it’s easier to go from kid to kid or kid to parent. and adult. And so it’s worrying for us that we have kids back in school without any of these other protections in place.
We also know that because many of our seniors have been vaccinated and the vaccination rate is high, our children are not vaccinated. As we see the COVID trend, we are seeing more cases in children. A higher percentage of people with COVID are now made up of young adults and children. So this is a worrying trend that we want to watch out for and make sure we protect our children until they can get vaccinated.
AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: So what do you think of all those states like Florida saying it’s up to the school district to decide, some of them saying no, schools can’t even hide their kids. So it is a very difficult decision for parents to make. So how do you count with that, and do you think these southern states will ever follow CDC guidelines?
SARA MORAN BODE: So I think it’s really unfortunate, both for school districts and for parents, because we put school districts in a tough spot when we, number one, don’t back them up with these security measures. It worked last year. The students went to school. They wore their masks. We have complied well with that and we know it has been effective.
And so, I think if you’re a parent living in a community, it’s important that you have a voice. You should therefore contact your school district to make your thoughts and opinions known. We know that masking works, when everyone is wearing the mask. So setting those expectations and making them normative for the students, which everyone should wear a mask, whether it’s just the wait when they get on the bus, when they come into class, will go a long way not only to bring back children in school, but keeping them there, without there being another epidemic.
So for all these school districts, you know, one of the things that they have to take into consideration is that if they don’t put these mandates in place, and people don’t hide their students, then they can go. find themselves in an unfortunate situation where they are all back to virtual learning because they are experiencing epidemics in these classrooms.
– Doctor, I was reading this, I think it was the Shelby County School System in Tennessee that has invested a lot in renovating their ventilation systems. And I think they threw away these plastic barriers that different doctors tell me actually don’t do much. What questions do you receive at the school systems board. Do they involve ventilation? Do they involve other problems?
SARA MORAN BODE: All. So when we look at school districts and help support them, there are so many different measures that can be helpful. So one of them is just the school setup, isn’t it? So if you know you are in a high risk situation like having lunch time, for example, when no one is wearing a mask, because they are eating, then what can you do to maximize both ventilation and physical spacing during this time?
How about those super tactile surfaces like lockers and hallway flow. We work a lot with school districts at the Academy of Pediatrics and even the CDC, to help them navigate all of these different situations, and many schools have some specific setups. Some can afford to improve ventilation in a way, others are creative and use a lot of outdoor space to help, again, with this natural airflow.
– Doctor, I think this all raises the question of our children’s vaccination, what this timeline looks like and what it should look like at this point, since the Delta variant seems to be such a threat to our children. What do you think of the timeline, I guess, at this point, and do you think maybe we should be thinking about vaccinating our kids under 12, maybe a little earlier than originally planned?
SARA MORAN BODE: So I think, you know, the FDA is really going to go ahead and go through their typical process for that. We always say that children are not little adults, so these studies weren’t rushed. They were very well done and thought out. Pfizer in particular did some excellent studies initially, and now all the other vaccines are being applied to children. So I think it happens quickly.
And I also think we know that if we put these security measures in place, they work. So until this vaccine is available to all of our kids under 12, we can bring them back to in-person learning if we follow these steps. So I think we’re not going to rush. We will study it as we do everything else. We will make sure these vaccines are safe for children. And we’ll review and clear those as quickly as possible.
AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Doctor, going back to some of the cases we’ve seen before, what do we know about the symptoms of Delta COVID and the Lambda variant in children?
SARA MORAN BODE: So we also see symptoms similar to those of the previous variants. So it can be confusing in the winter especially, but even now, as kids go back to school, as the symptoms of COVID in kids can be like a lot of other viruses we see. So you may have mild symptoms of the common cold, then you might even progress to have more symptoms which seem more typical of pneumonia, and even some children, in rare cases, are hospitalized and also need assistance. sufficient breathing.
So one of the things we’re really talking about is that in addition to having these security measures in place, you need to have a rapid identification and testing process. So if you have a child who has a fever and cold-like symptoms, it’s really important to get it seen quickly, to have a COVID test to identify, is it COVID or is it something else, one of the other rhinoviruses or enteroviruses that we see at this time of year.
– Doctor, I realize that children born in the last six months since the vaccine regimens started rolling out are not eligible for school age. Do we know anything about their immune response, since their mothers may have been vaccinated while they were in utero?
SARA MORAN BODE: I think that remains to be determined. I don’t think we have definitive proof anyway. But the more we can get people immunized throughout the community, and there is often passive immunity so that can circulate in your community, the better we can protect these young people from COVID. So, again, I think it’s still extremely important that all adults get immunized and do their part to, once again, help protect those children who cannot yet get immunized.
– Dr Bode, nice to speak with you. Dr Sara Moran Bode from the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health and of course our thanks to Aarthi Swaminathan as well.
[ad_2]
Source link