Answers to An-School Arguments

In an efort to disregard the overwhelmingly evidence -- including Sweden, which has 1.8 million children aending school normally with no social distancing or masks and had zero pediatric deaths and no evidence o pediatric transmission and inecon rates among teachers no higher than other occupaons -- and 22 other countries that have had open schools or months with no adverse consequences or children or community spread, an-schoolers have advanced our arguments, oen stated without explanaon as i they are conversaon-enders. Each is deeply awed.

Mass General

You saw it everywhere: "Mass General Study Shows Children Are Silent Spreaders"This me is wasn't even just the media's ault; Mass General itsel put out a mendacious press release that drove this latest an-school hype cycle.But the study itsel  -- which they orgot to even *link to* in the press release -- well, it's embarrassing or a once-great hospital.To begin with, the press release ailed to menon that the paper expressly says "transmissibility was notassessed in this study." Oops.It's all speculaon based on viral load and ignoring the now vast body o empirical evidence. A redux o the Drosten paper that got savaged in Germany and slammed by every major medical society beore Germany went ahead and reopened schools.And the claim that children have higher viral loads than adults was based on a comparison o children at days 0 to 2 rom symptom onset to adults at 7+ -- when viral loads have declined signicantly. It is a meaningless comparison o me points that are not comparable. The lead author admied it:But it's even worse than that. The Mass General paper says: "Children ages 0-22 years parcipated in this study."What the heck? 22-year old children?

 

And how many potenal "silent spreaders" are among the 49 age 0-22 "children" in this study?"O the 11 asymptomac children presenng or SARS-CoV-2 tesng based on exposure to an inected individual rather than symptoms, 3 (27%) tested posive or SARS-CoV-2 inecon."That's three.The paper's lead author also tweeted the "Age and viral load o asymptomac were similar to averages o whole group." So was one o the three asymptomac "children" 22 years old? What is this nonsense?A recent study rom the demography unit at Stockholm University looks directly at household transmission by age in Sweden, where 1.8 million children went to school every day without social distancing or masks through the enre epidemic. Here's what they ound:We'll take 1.8 million kids under 16 over three "kids" up to age 22.The weakness o the data being marshalled by the an-schoolers says a lot about where all the real evidence is piling up. But the media is always ready or another an-school hype cycle.

 

UPDATE: Mass General deleted the alse "silent spreader" claim rom their press release.