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macirish's avatar

Has anyone collected data on RSV in school systems that were shutdown more than systems that stayed open? Or is the level of RSV and its severity roughly the same as it would have been before the pandemic.

BTW - it may get tiresome to hear this - But Thank you to the Free Press for reporting on important, useful subjects.

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sc_out's avatar

ItтАЩs probably hard to know because testing for RSV in school-age kids was fairly uncommon in the past. RSV tends to hospitalize the littlest ones - infants and toddlers so thatтАЩs where testing efforts are focused. Many parents donтАЩt take their older kids in to be tested with every head cold which is how RSV usually presents in normal, healthy school aged kids. This year was a little different than last years in that our regional hospitals had more older kids hospitalized with RSV than weтАЩve seen in years past.

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macirish's avatar

Thanks for the reply - so any data is lost in the noise.

My family has begun to wonder if it is VERY important to insure that children are exposed as much as possible. We know that the immune system has to be "trained" i.e. kids need to get into the dirt - perhaps it needs to be challenged constantly - or the result is a weakened immune system?

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Anne Emerson Hall's avatar

Your comment reminded me that IтАЩve read that in the 20th century polio struck harder in middle and upper class communities precisely because they had better sanitation. In the lower class neighborhoods, kids were exposed at early ages--precisely because polio was present and excreted. Gross but fascinating. Prior to improved sanitation, if I recall correctly, there were no epidemics of polio.

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macirish's avatar

Thanks for your reply - I hadn't run across this before.

You are correct. The internet says there are two stages of infection - if you got polio when you were a baby (and had maternal-immunity) it was mild - and you developed long-term immunity. But when better sanitation prevented that early infection - then if you got polio later in childhood - it could be much worse.

FWIW - there were epidemics in 1916 and 1932.

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vernon's avatar

Maybe a weakened immune system is the point.

Our medical industry is built on sickness. More sick people equals more money

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macirish's avatar

3 years ago I would have said you were wrong. Now I say, trust but verify. No unquestioned trust to the CDC, NIH or FDA. They may never recover my trust - which doesn't mean much - but my impression is that a lot of people feel the same way.

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vernon's avatar

IтАЩm in the donтАЩt trust but verify place myself. I feel that way about the media too. There have been too many lies and / or mistakes тАж. But dismissing everything outright would be foolish

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