BC EDUCATION
Saved by @SteveeRogerr

Time for some thoughts on schools given the revised SickKids document and the fact that ON decided to leave most schools closed. ON is not the only jurisdiction to do so, but important to note that many jurisdictions would not have done so -even with higher incidence rates.

 As outlined in the tweet by @NishaOttawa yesterday, the situation is complex, and not a simple right or wrong https://t.co/DO0v3j9wzr. And no one needs to list all the potential risks and downsides of prolonged school closures.
On the other hand: while school closures do not directly protect our most vulnerable in long-term care at all, one cannot deny that any factor potentially increasing community transmission may have an indirect effect on the risk to these institutions, and on healthcare.
The question is: to what extend do schools contribute to transmission, and how to balance this against the risk of prolonged school closures. The leaked data from yesterday shows a mixed picture -schools are neither unicorns (ie COVID free) nor infernos. https://t.co/m74rtKp6qZ
Assuming this data is largely correct -while waiting for an official publication of the data, it shows first and foremost the known high case numbers at Thorncliff, while other schools had been doing very well -are safe- reiterating the impact of socioeconomics on the COVID risk.
Who is affected most by closed schools? Likely not the affluent folks with well-paid jobs that can mostly work from home. Maybe inconvenient, but able to support and supervise their children in learning virtually, or homeschooling, help by private teachers/tutors, learning pods.
Mostly affected by schools closures are kids of those that have underpaid jobs, have less resources for their kids, that require them to go work in crowded settings, and have as such also the highest risk to contract COVID -at work, at home, and possibly school (ex. Thorncliff).
In summary, prolonged school closures will further harm equity, will harm those that are already mostly affected by COVID. Structural inequities are playing into this, lockdowns and school closures will not solve this problem, paid sick days would. https://t.co/90LcGbZ8el
Solution for this complex problem? Do EVERYTHING to make schools as safe as reasonably possible, and open schools throughout the province ASAP. https://t.co/T1ubqDsOoJ
Having schools shut because of lack of surveillance testing , "inability" to offer smaller class sizes etc. is the easy way out. An arbitrary cut-off such as "it is safe <40/100k/week in a PHU" is inappropriate: we all know that within a PHU, there are huge discrepancies in COVID
Needless to say: the last time that we had been below 40/100k/week as a province was beginning of October. Has the government decided now that school had been unsafe and an inferno ever since? While it is not a unicorn environment, we can agree that it is not an inferno either.
Instead of focusing on keeping schools shut as long as it can justified with some arbitrary threshold, focus on re-opening ASAP with appropriate measures in place. We are in a different spot in terms of testing capacity than in November, we have rapid testing, simply use it!
The younger the kids are, the less virtual school is working out for them. If unable to get JK-Grade 8 back in class in smaller classes, start off with JK-Grade 5, but not only once below a overtly conservative magic <40 threshold, invest into schools and open up.
I supported extended school breaks despite being pro-opening school: I value schools very highly as one of the most important public goods for the future of our society, but epi and risk from Holiday gatherings prevailed in my mind over the last few weeks.
But now is the time for action, make schools as safe as possible rather than simply moving the goalpost to a lower and lower arbitrary threshold for re-opening school. Currently, we are on track to make the same mistake as last year, keeping schools closed for far too long.

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Now, what exactly is an applied epidemiologist, and why are they needed? In the late 90s- early 2000's there were a series of articles in AJPH, AJE, JECH, and IJE dedicated to answering these questions. I'll focus on Stephen Thacker's review.

He states, “The applied epidemiologist is by definition an activist, moving rapidly from findings to policy, putting epi knowledge to good use. The 21st century epi must do all these things while maintaining a foundation of high-quality epi research and practice.”

Susser warns the field of what he considers “the black box paradigm… the current international focus on risk factor epidemiology.” He advocates for expanding our academic training to include socializing epis to “keep the improvement of the public’s health as a primary value”

Morabia argued that epidemiology has historically found its balance in the tension between the search for causal relations and the improvement of public health; overemphasis on either perspective puts epidemiology at risk of losing its value.

How does this play out in real life? I’ve been an applied epi for 13 years, working mainly in local, state, and federal health agencies. My work has focused on conducting cool analysis that lead to policy or systemic change.
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Dr David Boyce
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If I finish all of the physics a lesson or two before the end of term, I like to use those spare lessons to do something fun. For the last 12 years I have done a boys vs girls engineering challenge and the girls nearly always win. Here is why...

So, my experience of this is normally allowing 5 or so classes do this activity in any given year, always with the same set up and always with me observing just how it goes. In total I must now have observed the experiment about 60 times.

To be clear I am all for students choosing their own teams and such and I am aware of the false dichotomy of the situation. But generally due to sports, boarding houses etc my crew are quite used to boys as one gang and girls as another.

The activity is bridge building. Two tables are set apart and each team must bridge the gap using only paper, string and 4 clamp stands. The bridge must have a roadway and each will be tested to destruction at the end with weights.


So, I split the class - girls vs boys. The rules are clear. They can't interfere with each other's bridges and they can't test their own bridge. They have about 45 minutes to build something. Let me tell you what then normally happens...
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Unexpected #Etymology

Words you wouldn't guess are etymologically linked.

An ongoing, continually updated thread 👇🏻

Medicine and remedy both come from the Latin verb medeor, meaning to heal.

Medicine comes from the Old French medecine, from the Latin medicina meaning medicine.

Remedy comes from the Old French remede, from the Latin

Feminism, fawn and fetus both come from the PIE root *dʰeh₁(y)-, meaning to nurse or

Pine (tree) & Piñata (papier-mâché container) both come from the Latin pinus—meaning pine.

Piñata (Spanish), came from piña meaning pineapple, as the paper-covered box resembles one. Piña comes from the Latin pinea meaning pinecone (derived from

Whiskey and wash both come from the Proto-Indo-Euro root meaning "water; wet."

Whiskey (Irish uisce beatha & Scottish uisge-beatha) literally means "water of life."

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Alex Griswold
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@HashtagGriswold
The Google Doc where the San Francisco school board did it's research for deciding which historical figures to cancel is public, and it's hilariously bad

The best part is the "Notes" tab, where someone lays out why the stated reasons are complete BS.

Case in point: "Lowell High School must be renamed because the namesake was a racist."

Notes: "Yeeeah, no, it wasn't named after that guy at all."

(they voted to rename anyway)


Another example: "Paul Revere led the Penobscot Expedition, which led to the colonization of the Penobscot."

Notes: "What? No. The Penobscot expedition was fought against the British, in Penobscot Bay. The natives weren't involved."

(voted to rename anyway)


"Dianne Feinstein was responsible for evicting an entire Filipino neighborhood!"

Notes: "That happened in 1977. She wasn't mayor until a year later."

(voted to rename anyway)


"Abraham Lincoln executed 38 Dakota Indians!"

Notes: "The Minnesota governor was going to execute *300*. Lincoln intervened when he had no obligation to, and saved the vast majority of them."

(voted to rename anyway)
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Andrew Lee
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Normally I enjoy the high standards of journalism in @guardian . Not today as disappointed with misleading headline that suggest infections are spreading fastest in children. It'll worry parents/teachers & I doubt most readers will unpick the

The latest REACT1 report shows prevalence of infection in ALL age groups has fallen, including children aged 5-12 from 1.59% in Round 8 to 0.86% in Round 9a. The authors of REACT1 report also (wisely) didn't try to interpret the prevalence figures.

If this were a research trial you wouldn't place much weight on the age differences in % prevalence because of the wide confidence intervals, i.e. differences weren't statistically significant.
3/

I've previously tweeted on the challenges (& dangers) of interpreting surveillance data. One would need lots more contextual info to make sense of it & arrive at sound


Undoubtedly some will extrapolate from the prevalence of infection figures in children to other settings i.e. schools based on the headline. I'd advise caution as there is a real risk of over-interpretation through extrapolation of limited data. Association is not causation.
5/
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