2/n I agree that protecting the elderly will probably reduce the overall death burden. I am a co-author on a study that demonstrates this exact point!https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.20160895v4 …
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3/n The problem is, what we've seen from around the world is that it is REALLY HARD to protect elderly people while relaxing all restrictions because (unsurprisingly) they are a part of society too
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4/n Most of the proposals are limited to some vague hand-waving about aged care, but we demonstrated that even relatively young people were at a pretty high risk from COVID-19pic.twitter.com/7saAXL2rkK
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5/n If we really want to reduce the death rate from COVID-19, it's not as important if really large numbers of 20 year olds get infected (although this is still obviously not ideal!) but even a relatively small % of 60 year olds drives up deaths substantially
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6/n People who are pushing for re-opening everything on the basis of "protect older populations" should first describe how we can prevent people aged 60+ from having risky contact with the rest of society
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7/n Because if the last 6 months have shown us anything, it's that stopping older people from getting COVID-19 is REALLY NOT EASY Saying "protect the elderly" doesn't cut it
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8/n And, of course, this is ignoring any impacts aside from death If there are substantial chronic impacts in the younger population - a definite possibility - then the situation gets even more complicated
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9/n I've written about potential long-term impacts even for young people, they are a real worry and potentially enormously problematic even if the death rate is lowhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/jul/13/as-covid-19-persists-around-the-world-death-is-not-the-only-outcome-to-fear …
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Yes, 100% this. How do you open schools without spreading viruses, to teachers, parents, and other care givers? We know it's low risk for the students, but they don't live by themselves. As a teacher I don't worry so much about me and my students, but colleagues and parents.
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Plenty of studies on this, including a widely circulated one from Sweden showing teachers had no increased risk compared to other working adults. Many schools in Europe - and indeed many daycares and schools in US - have opened safely.
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