New study paints dire picture for unmasked, unvaxxed students

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

New study paints dire picture for unmasked, unvaxxed students

Reggie Wade · Writer
Mon, August 23, 2021, 9:44 AM

A new study on COVID-19 transmission done by researchers at Georgia Tech University and North Carolina State University paints a dire picture for students who go to school unmasked and unvaccinated. (1)

Model findings from the study found that in a 500-student school, an additional 70% of elementary school students may be infected with COVID-19 within three months without masks and 40% of elementary school students may be infected within three months with masks. Vaccinated middle and high schools face a 40% risk of infection without masks.

"Almost 160,000 new COVID cases have been reported on August 19. So COVID is not over as much as we would like it to be," Pinar Keskinocak, chair and professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, told Yahoo Finance. She joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss her recent research on the impacts of masking and vaccines on the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Keskinocak said that even though nearly 60% of Americans have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, those under 12 are at particular risk of contracting the Delta variant.

"Delta variant is very contagious. Unfortunately, younger people are getting infected at a higher rate than what we have observed before, and they're also getting sicker compared to what we have observed during the earlier months of the pandemic COVID-related hospitalizations are on the rise for all age groups and, unfortunately going up at a high rate for the zero to 17 age group, for kids," Keskinocak said.

"Younger children are not eligible for the vaccine yet. And even if you look at the 12 to 17 age group, the vaccination rates are still relatively low. So in Georgia, my home state, we have about 20% of the 11- to 13-year-old children who are vaccinated. These are middle schoolers. But this is definitely not enough to give us the kind of protection that we would need … we might be able to open the schools safely and give that in-person experience to our children, but we have to do it right," she added.

{snip}

(1) https://covsim.hosted-wordpress.oit.ncsu.edu/school-level-modeling-results/

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-study-paints-dire-picture-for-unmasked-unvaxxed-students-134456316.html

[GPV]

1. My school got off fairly easy with Covid last year. No catastrophic cases that I am aware of, but

who knows about the long term effects? I dread what Delta us going to wreak.

[NH Ethylene]

2. How does Georgia have 11-13 year olds vaccinated already?

It hasn't been approved yet for that age group.

[unblock]

5. Well it has for 12+

So the 11 year olds are out of luck but some of the 12 and 13 year olds have gotten it.

[NH Ethylene]

6. Yes, but oddly the quote from the article says 20% of 11-13's are vaccinated. n/t

[unblock]

8. Age range for middle schoolers in Georgia, or at least the district they're talking about

But yeah, it'll be zero for the 11s and around 30% for the 12s and 13s. 20% overall.

[NH Ethylene]

11. That makes total sense - haha!

My pre-coffee brain was like: 'This does not compute.'

[NH Ethylene]

3. My grandson is being packed into a classroom with 32 students.

He's 11, so can't get the vaccine yet. Luckily they have a mask mandate, but if this model is correct, he has a 40% chance of getting the virus.

Last year many schools worked hard to keep kids 6 feet apart, and later 3 feet. All that seems to be out the window now, just when it's needed the most.

[JCMach1]

10. Same for my 6th grade son with NO mask mandate and maybe 10%

Masking. And almost 0 effort at social distancing.

[groundloop]

4. It's NOT Georgia Tech University ..... It's The Georgia Institute of Technology

Or just Georgia Tech for short.

Sorry, it bugs me when "reporters" do that, kind of along the same lines as "the Democrat Party".

[Ford_Prefect]

9. Reporters have more "holes" in their collective vocabulary than when they had to do research.

Now that they're chasing the 15 second headline "close enough" gets by.

I found it insulting as well. I have friends who graduated from GT.

[Bayard]

7. So, they're a danger to other students,

Even if the other students are vaccinated and masked. If you're surrounded by a room full of swarming zombies, eventually you're going to get bit.

I don't get it. They wouldn't allow these kids to come to school if they had the measles or whooping cough. But, I don't understand parents not protecting their children either.