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> Before that they sneeze, cough, whatever, together with the rest of the pupils. This is not a good thing - repeated infections with the same virus only cause

> Before that they sneeze, cough, whatever, together with the rest of the pupils. This is not a good thing - repeated infections with the same virus only cause damage. Then they infect parents or grandparents. Especially now that covid is about, and life expectancy has fallen across the world by several years. Schools could install air purifiers for a few hundred bucks per room and greatly reduce infections PS: a lot of responses perpetuate the urban legends about immunity. So I thought I would respond here: 1 - getting many infections as a child does not keep you safe when you are a pensioner. Immunity does not last the rest of your life. Most vaccines need to be refreshed every 10 years. The proper term is Immunological memory, and is a complicated subject I don't fully grasp. That's why we had booster shots for COVID, immunity from it disappears quickly. 2 - getting infected is not consequence free. Just because you gully recovered does not mean you have no lasting damage. Serious infections cause microscopic damage in your organs. That damages is patched by connecting tissue / scar tissue. That tissue is not functional - if it patches a kidney, that kidney is less capable. You don't need to get Ebola to suffer damage - even a serious case of flu takes a toll. 3 - many immunities are worthless - for example the flu mutates every year, and if you want immunity from it, in UK we do flu vaccines. So if you want immunity from it, take every vaccine when it's offered. But if you got a vaccine 3 years ago, chances are that particular mutation will not reoccur in your life, and it offers no particular benefit ever again. 4 - pathogen load is a thing - you don't need to fall ill to generate immunity. When you are walking about, your body is getting tiny amount of pathogens - and most of the time the quantity is too small to get you sick, but your immune system deals with them. You do not get infected because someone sneezed 20 miles downwind and you inhaled 1 virus particle. Schools / kindergartens with poor ventilation create pathogen hot-tubs with unnaturally high pathogen loads. This is like an infection hot boxing. We know ventilation is terrible because often have CO2 concentration in excess of 2000. There is nothing natural about this, cavemen did not encounter such conditions. Improving ventilation reduces how many pathogens are floating in the air, even if the same number of kids are sneezing. Bottomn line is, immune system is not like a dog that you train once, and it's also dangerous because you can get allergies or autoimmune diseases. There is no evidence that subjecting people to excessive number of infection by creating disease petri-dish conditions in school has any benefit. Also Kurzgesagt has many videos on immune system: https://youtu.be/M-K7mxdN62M https://youtu.be/M-K7mxdN62M

DoingIsLearning 3y ago
> Schools could install air purifiers for a few hundres bucks per room and greatly reduce infections That may be true for teenagers and up and perhaps more crowded workplaces or university halls. But I think you are greatly underestimating how nasty and excessively touchy most kindergarten and primary school kids are, that really is not fixable with just HEPA filters. Kids will always be a bio-hazard agglomerate of disease vectors it is kind of unavoidable when you put them all together.
hutzlibu 3y ago
"This is not a good thing - repeated infections with the same virus only cause damage." Or not, if immunisation was achieved, like it usually does. If you would keep the kids at home, everytime they have to sneeze, then the schools would be pretty empty in winter, general education level drops further and everyone will get sick again anyway, the first time they interact with other people outside their home, as they let their immune system without work. The situation in the kindergarten was and is quite horrible after covid. All the diseases they did not get, while in lockdown - they got now and concentrated (that means, now it slowly seems to be moving towards normality). So air purifiers might still be useful, but I think it is an illusion to think to be able to prevent all or most diseases. Sure, some very dangerous strains are to be taken with caution and if a lockdown would be really necessary, so be it. But infections are just a normal thing. Especially for children. This way they train their immune system step by step. So removing that step will be actually dangerous later on as there are quite some diseases that are quite mild for children, but deadly for adults, if they did not catch it as a child.
- bugglebeetle 3y ago
  For Coronaviruses, there’s no long-term immunity that would prevent reinfection, nor does it confer immunity that would last into adulthood. It’s measured in weeks and months. In the case of COVID, infecting children over and over again does not result in “training” their immune system, but instead weakens it, resulting in things like the pediatric care crisis we’ve seen in the US over the past year or so (as children were made more vulnerable to other diseases after having COVID).

DoingIsLearning 3y ago

> Schools could install air purifiers for a few hundres bucks per room and greatly reduce infections That may be true for teenagers and up and perhaps more crowded workplaces or university halls. But I think you are greatly underestimating how nasty and excessively touchy most kindergarten and primary school kids are, that really is not fixable with just HEPA filters. Kids will always be a bio-hazard agglomerate of disease vectors it is kind of unavoidable when you put them all together.

hutzlibu 3y ago

"This is not a good thing - repeated infections with the same virus only cause damage." Or not, if immunisation was achieved, like it usually does. If you would keep the kids at home, everytime they have to sneeze, then the schools would be pretty empty in winter, general education level drops further and everyone will get sick again anyway, the first time they interact with other people outside their home, as they let their immune system without work. The situation in the kindergarten was and is quite horrible after covid. All the diseases they did not get, while in lockdown - they got now and concentrated (that means, now it slowly seems to be moving towards normality). So air purifiers might still be useful, but I think it is an illusion to think to be able to prevent all or most diseases. Sure, some very dangerous strains are to be taken with caution and if a lockdown would be really necessary, so be it. But infections are just a normal thing. Especially for children. This way they train their immune system step by step. So removing that step will be actually dangerous later on as there are quite some diseases that are quite mild for children, but deadly for adults, if they did not catch it as a child.

bugglebeetle 3y ago
For Coronaviruses, there’s no long-term immunity that would prevent reinfection, nor does it confer immunity that would last into adulthood. It’s measured in weeks and months. In the case of COVID, infecting children over and over again does not result in “training” their immune system, but instead weakens it, resulting in things like the pediatric care crisis we’ve seen in the US over the past year or so (as children were made more vulnerable to other diseases after having COVID).