Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social class achievement gap

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by bachmeier on Monday September 27, 2021 @11:48AM (#28672159)

Just FYI, this idea that the only impact of covid is deaths in people over 65 and obese people is simply bad reporting.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics

If you want to stick to deaths, we have by age

Under 5: 183

5-11: 119

12-15: 152

16-17: 125

That's a total of 579 deaths among kids 17 or less in spite of the fact that schools and most activities were closed. We don't know what the total death count would have been with everything open, but 579 child deaths used to be considered a lot, and it would have been a lot higher without the precautions that were taken.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by orangecat on Monday September 27, 2021 @12:37PM (#28672854)

That's a total of 579 deaths among kids 17 or less in spite of the fact that schools and most activities were closed.

Schools stayed open in half of the US and many other countries, and they didn't have noticeably worse results.

579 child deaths used to be considered a lot

Bluntly, it's not. There were over 20,000 childhood deaths in 2016 (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmsr1804754). That level of risk doesn't remotely justify shutting down schools and massively disrupting their lives.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by ghoward on Monday September 27, 2021 @12:04PM (#28672437)

For the number of children in America, those numbers are tiny. Really. And do we have the data on the comorbidities those children had?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by henrikschroder on Monday September 27, 2021 @02:46PM (#28674443)

Pretty much every single one of those kids had at least a comorbidity, usually diabetes, obesity or cancer.

There's also a slight problem of overcounting covid deaths in the US, so a few of those kids actually died of car accidents, and then tested positive for the virus, so into the pile of covid deaths they went...

The actual risk of death from covid for a healthy child is 1:1000000. There are so many things in life that are much riskier than that, and yet many places closed schools over such a tiny risk. It's absolute insanity.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by vmception on Monday September 27, 2021 @06:33PM (#28676898)

> There's also a slight problem of overcounting covid deaths in the US

Recounts already happened like a year ago due to this specific criticism, revised down for miscounts and further resulting in a greater total due to missed ones. This is such an old argument that never got updated, just added to the pile of frustrations that never get revisited.

The other issue with this argument is that the numbers are for indicative seriousness, and all other diseases especially respiratory illnesses have the same counting flaws, which means for relative seriousness everyone is still getting an accurate signal, compared to other ailments.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by ghoward on Monday September 27, 2021 @04:26PM (#28675571)

Agreed, and it's even more insane when you consider the fact that the lockdowns increased the comorbidity of obesity among children!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by henrikschroder on Monday September 27, 2021 @05:45PM (#28676416)

In the US, for 2020, kids and teenagers seeking help for suicidal thoughts doubled, suicide attempts in that group increased by 50%, and successful suicides increased by 20%.

Can we have a sane debate about the drawbacks of lockdowns and school closures? Weigh the pros and cons? Estimate the cost of each option?

Nope! Hysteria it is, and if you disagree you're a grandma-killing science-hating Trumper.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by kingkawn on Monday September 27, 2021 @11:34AM (#28671959)

Indeterminate impacts of long-covid on people, including children, also played a role in the extension of the initial lockdowns.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lockdown, distance learning likely to increase social cla... by nradov on Monday September 27, 2021 @11:50AM (#28672181)

There is no reliable scientific evidence of significant "long Covid" effects on many children. Even before the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, children were commonly infected by the other four endemic coronaviruses. A small minority experienced post viral syndrome but the vast majority made full recoveries.

[ Parent | on HN ]