Kids almost never transmitted Covid in schools, a major new study shows

Reading the fine details this comes across as a vindication of agressive social distancing, mask wearing, and vaccination in a single small relatively well funded US state that played things "as safe as reasonably possible" from the get go.

Two comparison periods:

    Masking was required in classrooms during both periods; In both periods, available vaccines had high effectiveness in preventing transmission of circulating variants.

    During F20/S21, mask use of both the index case and contact was associated with lower odds of school-associated transmission relative to mask nonuse. With both individuals masked, there was an 88% decrease in relative odds of in-school transmission.

    During F21, classroom exposure and vaccination of the contact were associated with transmission. A fully vaccinated contact had a 96% decrease in relative odds of in-school transmission.

    Studies have shown that schools with mask policies had fewer cases of SARS-CoV-2 during the 2020-2021 school year,

     Interestingly, in F21, despite a more transmissible variant (Delta) and greater classroom density, mask use was no longer found to be associated with reduced transmission; instead, vaccination of the in-school contact was the most protective factor. 

The big take home was that (surprise, surprise) well funded communities saw lower infection rates than disadvantaged communities.

     this study is the first to our knowledge to show that students and staff exposed to SARS-CoV-2 at school were more likely to become infected if they lived in districts with greater social vulnerability, even when vaccination status, distance, and other factors of transmission risk were considered.

    Schools with more resources may have had more ability to implement ventilatory improvements, a factor known to reduce transmission in schools.

> Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important.

"Almost never" is an oxymoron that negates the meanings of these words. "My grandfather was almost never killed by mesothelioma, until that one time in the 80s." Try "rarely" instead, for the effect you want.

Hmm, here my experience is that once someone had it it quickly spread through the class...

The only person in our family who's caught is our son who clearly caught it from school since at the time life was only home, school bus, school.

Schools were hotbeds of transmission.