BACK TO SCHOOL… FOR SOME

When the COVID Panic broke out, 186 countries forced 1.5 billion students to stay home, which represents over 91 percent of all children, according to UNESCO estimates.

Now, with the virus at its half-year mark, scores of nations, including Denmark, Germany, Austria, Norway, Finland, Singapore, South Korea, and New Zealand are sending children back to the school room. And one of Canada’s largest pediatric hospitals recommended the country’s schools be reopened in the fall.

To date, neither Denmark, Germany, Finland, or Norway have registered significant coronavirus cases since reopening schools.

CDC Recommends Schools Open 

The CDC agrees with the reopening of schools.

When they did a study in early July, they concluded just 16 of the 130,250 Americans who have died of coronavirus were children aged 5 to 14.

Yes, just 16 of 21 million 5-to-14-year-old children died from the virus!

In addition, a 19 May study from Australia’s National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance found that “SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) transmission in children in schools appears considerably less than seen for other respiratory viruses, such as influenza.”

Further supporting the reopening of schools, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on 9 July, “Having the schools actually closed is a greater public health threat to the children than having the schools reopen.”

TREND FORECAST: In America, the CDC recommendation to reopen schools is characterized as a political move. For example, on 25 July, the Wall Street Journal wrote: 

“The health agency, under pressure from the White House to support the full opening of schools, added language to its previous recommendations stressing what it called the importance of students returning to classrooms. The revised material also said Covid-19 poses lower risks for children than adults and that limiting instruction to remote learning could hurt students.”

As we had forecast, retail sales of back-to-school clothing, sporting goods, and the wide array of school items will sharply suffer as more students learn from home.