Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has joined Mr Morrison at the media conference and he has confirmed schools are staying open under these measures, for these reasons:
"I think it is really important to recognise that, as we've said before, we think the risk to children with this virus is very low. Only 2.4% of all the cases in China in Hubei Province were under 19, and there have been very, very few significant cases. Obviously we do have some concerns that children may have a role in transmission but most children who have seemed to have got the virus have got it from adults as you've seen in this case. We think keeping children at home when there is relatively no community spread is probably disproportionate given they probably won't stay at home anyway. They may be cared for by elderly parents. There may be circumstances where there are outbreaks in an area where we do need to close schools for a period of time. Our strategy for the next six months is to keep schools open and we think that risk is appropriate."
Sorry, but I am sceptical of this advice, given that:
a. other countries and states are obviously not closing their schools without having their own medical advice that it's a worthwhile thing to do;
b. the advice from the same CMO keeps getting tougher on the recommended social distancing, it seems a bit nonsensical to say that the age group most notorious for having little "personal space" are to stay in the place where they are going to rub up against maximum numbers of people;
c. "...they probably won't stay at home anyway..." seems just a bit of guesswork, no?
d. as I argued yesterday, why not differentiate between high schools and primary schools: it doesn't have to be "all or nothing";
e. this advice is being given on the same day a student caught Covid-19 from a teacher in Adelaide. Are the State government immune from legal action by parents who kids catch it from teachers? I have my doubts. And, of course, transmission the other way is quite possible, too.
I don't know - I think the Teachers Unions might have to take this on....
We are still in Summer they are not. much harder to transmit in summer.
ReplyDeleteIt may change once winter starts but we shall see. Perhaps an extended scvhool holidays
Homer, it seems clear from my own daughter, and other parents with kids in other schools, that teachers are indicating that the government is definitely planning an extended Easter holiday - probably making it a month long. The question is whether you get more benefit from doing it now, ahead of Easter, or stick with delaying its commencement another two weeks.
ReplyDeleteBoth Hong Kong and Japan brought forward holidays. Both have pretty low transmission rates, don't they?, although proving how much school closures might or might not have contributed to that would be hard, I presume.
If you stop schools that will not come back for some time.
ReplyDeleteWho will look after the children?
I am not convinced about stopping them
Yeah its a tough one. Schools closed? Schools open? Maybe come July we'll know so much more about it and it will be time for everyone to take a one month holiday.
ReplyDeleteSlightly tangential: A woman who already had cancer got herself checked out for COVID. The medical mafia thieves hit her with a 34, 000 USD bill. This sector is a stealing machine that goes far beyond any arguments between capitalism and socialism. The quacks might need to be temporarily nationalised to get the insurance and finance thieves off their backs, re-regulate under more free enterprise lines, overstaff some areas without qualification requirements and so forth. UBI is a better way to go than free medicine. But the quack-machine capacity to overcharge and without service has to be clamped down on. Because they are not even acting like human beings any more.
ReplyDeleteWithhold service.
ReplyDeleteThe Coronavirus just destroyed the specious case for smaller government.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteThe odds of a teacher getting it is very low. Teachers would be onto 'social distancing' like a rat out of a drainpipe.
Students are more likely to affect family members are they are likely to get only a mild form of it.
But the quack-machine capacity to overcharge and without service has to be clamped down on. Because they are not even acting like human beings any more.
ReplyDeleteThe US medical system is a total disaster, completely captured by Big Pharma, insurance, the the medical lobby. It even starts in grad school, it can cost up to 1 million just to become a physician let alone a specialist so doctors have to charge huge fees just to pay their student loans. The whole system is a mess and the media doesn't help by using the pejorative "socialised medicine" as if it is inherently unworkable and evil even though it works very well in some countries.
Graeme this is very big money which has bought out many politicians on both sides of the house.