<
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/covid-safety-schools-course-sick-days-teachers-long-covid/104319032>
'There wasn't a dramatic "lightning bolt" moment when Colin Kinner realised he
needed to roll up his sleeves and start tackling what he'd come to see as a
pernicious problem: the largely unchecked spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Australian
schools.
What spurred him to act, in the end, was the growing pile of evidence that
COVID was a serious health threat, and his concern that school communities
seemed to be shrugging their shoulders at it.
He was tired of hearing about schools allowing teachers to come to work while
COVID positive. Of sick children being permitted to stay in class and infecting
others. Of schools asking parents not to tell them if their child had COVID,
but routinely sending home letters about head lice or chickenpox. Of teachers
and kids catching the virus and not recovering.
"As a parent, I want my son to be safe at school, so that was a key part of my
motivation to do this," says Mr Kinner, the Brisbane creator of
COVID Safety
for Schools, a free online course that aims to correct misinformation and
teach school staff and parents how to reduce the risk of the virus spreading.
"But also, having spoken to lots of other parents and teachers, it's clear that
most schools are lacking an understanding of some of the absolute basics of
COVID. And in the fifth year of the pandemic, I find that very troubling."
Every week in Australia too many students and teachers are catching COVID at
school, Mr Kinner says, resulting in disrupted learning, teacher shortages,
increased transmission in the broader community and disabling chronic illnesses
like long COVID. It's hardly surprising: a packed classroom can be the perfect
place for an airborne virus to thrive, with one US study finding more than 70
per cent of COVID transmission in homes began with an infected school-age
child.
Schools aren't necessarily at fault: in most states they've been starved of
good public health guidance, Mr Kinner says — they've been told "they can treat
it like any other respiratory illness, so that's exactly what they're doing".'
Via Violet Blue’s
Cybersecurity Roundup: September 24, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-24-112648173
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
