There's a good discussion on today's episode of the Daily podcast (Feb 27). Basically the theory is that children often get the 4x regular coronavirus strains and this provides a bit of protection against the new coronavirus strain. Therefore they tend to get subacute cases of coronavirus but can still spread.

Here's an unintended consequence of closing schools though. Who often takes care of children when schools are unexpectedly closed? Grandparents. So in a way, they could be making this worse.

Kids staying at home with grandparents means far smaller groups of people though.

When my daughter started preschool... boy did she ever bring home every type of disease known to science. We ended up pulling her out and just having her grandparents look after her, which worked out really well, because I kept getting sick and missing work myself.

>Kids staying at home with grandparents means far smaller groups of people though.

No, it means smaller groups of kids, but not for those seniors. They still go about their day, visiting with friends etc.

They can choose to not do that. Kids can't just take care of themselves on their own, they need an adult to take care of them. And seniors are a lot better about washing their hands and other things than young kids in big groups are.

But those preschools build immunity.

Being "immune" just means your body can fight the infection effectively. It doesn't mean you don't get infected and can't spread the disease for a short amount of time.

I believe in Japan most married women stop working when they have children (https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a04601/japanese-women-fac...) but in other countries where both parents are working, closing schools would be very disruptive.

You are correct, my view is very North American centric. I've never been to Japan so I don't know about childcare and parenting.

> Basically the theory is that children often get the 4x regular coronavirus strains and this provides a bit of protection against the new coronavirus strain.

If that is true, that would seem to imply that one could improve one's resistance of COVID-19 by deliberately infecting themself with one or more non-COVID-19 coronaviruses. (Not that I suggest anyone try this.)

Also tons of kids in Japan walk, take the train or bike to school, so having kids stay home would actually cut down on a chunk of possible vectors that go back and forth to busy places like train stations and schools. If this keeps up in Japan, the Tokyo Olympics are definitely getting postponed..

More like canceled. There is just no reasonable way to reschedule an event like that.

Children can spread to adults that’s why

are elders still living with children and grandchildren ? or is it a cliché .

Children grouping together for school is a massive transmission vector no? I don't think this is necessarily about protecting specifically kids and rather reducing transmission.

Over ~60 really, but schools are still amazing in terms of spread (to everyone), even if most of the kids would be fine after 2 weeks at home.

70-90. And the DJIA just dropped 500 pts.

Closed at down 1190.

Quarantines apparently are a way to stop spreading it. Now imagine a school with 800 kids, with parents and siblings from all kinds of backgrounds. One kids with the virus can spread to a lot of people who can then do the same...

2 of the 15 new cases in Japan are children. Seems like a reasonable precaution as children have a lot more physical contact than adults (example, lice spreads in children more easily).

think please! How old are parents of children?? Children can give the virus to their parents..

transmission is bad, as they might carry it to more vulnerable people, but also it gives the virus more opportunities to mutate, which could hinder vaccine/treatment progress

What an awful thing to say. You have any older people in your family? Think about them before you throw this kind of callous crap around.

This is seriously one of the worst things I've ever read on HN...

What a horrible way to look at things.

> If there is any 'plus' to this situation, its that Coronavirus will rapidly de-age many Western countries.

Jeez this is cold

I think many people will view a financial struggle to ensure the square deal of old and retired as a plus to modern democracies, and the burden of providing for it a desirable burden.

It's easy to hate on the elderly, until you become old yourself.

Absolutely brutal comment

So, 1% of 50 year olds is somehow supposed to be comforting? In today’s world, 50 is... not very old.

Also, not everyone gets diabetes, to take just one example. But the common cold — which this is similar to in many ways — lots of people get that.

Finally, while panic is bad — seriousness is good. And to me, I’m looking at the fact that so far most of the [critical] cases have happened in [China] where there are a lot more ventilator beds per hospital than in a place like the United States. So I think a healthy degree of caution and respect for this novel virus is more than warranted.

Would be interesting to see the normal yearly death rate of these age groups. Is Corona just advancing natural death rates for the old people (i.e. bringing forward by a few months), or do more old people die?

Or in the UK if your parents have not set up their wills properly, potentially land your kids with a large tax bill they have to pay now!

So I guess you hope you'll never get old?

> rapidly de-age many Western countries

We're talking about 10 people dieing in a country now. How would this lead to that? Where's the math?

You're spreading rumors. If it's not your intent to do so, consider deleting your post.

If you want to spread these kind of unsubstantiated claims around, go do it on 4chan or Reddit. It’s not welcome here.