COVID-19 and Family Life Advice on School, Staying Healthy and Masks by Emily Webb
Dr. Andi Shane
With the school year approaching, Atlanta Parent talked to Dr. Andi Shane, a mother and a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University. She answered our questions on how to handle our new normal with online and in-person school, and how you can enjoy the last few weeks of summer in a safe manner.
n What is your advice to parents
who choose to send their kids back to a physical school vs. parents who choose online schooling or homeschooling? The infectious disease community would recommend choosing one or the other. If your children are going back to school, we want to keep all the same children together as much as possible. That way, there’s less chance of transmission. When you mix groups, transmission is more likely to occur. Try to commit to a decision, which seems very challenging for a parent to do now, but it makes the most sense. Whatever is chosen, it should be something parents can adhere to most of the time. Some schools are doing half-days or every other day, which could be more difficult. When children are not in school, they may be mixing with other peers outside of school, with the potential for transmission. When they’re engaged in school-related activities, there’s a structure for what children have to do every day and that is more likely to keep infections down. When there’s free or unsupervised time, that makes it more challenging. If they choose 16 Atlanta Parent August 2020
online, that choice should be respected, and they should maintain it throughout the school term, for all the reasons we have talked about. When the child goes outside of the home or interacts with other children, make sure they’re masking and social distancing, and try to keep the same group of children the child socializes with together. n How can parents distinguish
between COVID-19 and common colds? Be attuned to your children’s symptoms. It can be hard to know what is a regular cold and what might be more involved than that. Use symptoms to decide whether or not to keep the kids at home. If the child has a temperature or fever, keep them at home. Have them remain at home for 24 hours to see if symptoms progress. If a child has had contact with someone with known or suspected COVID-19, they should follow public health guidance and remain isolated at home. They might not have the COVID-19 infection; we’re coming up on the respiratory virus season, and they could have influenza, cold viruses, other viruses. A symptom-based approach is the optimal way to determine the child’s illness.
n Any other health tips?
As we’re entering the respiratory virus season, it is very, very important for parents to make sure that they and their children receive their flu vaccines as soon as it becomes available. It’s not perfect, but it does the best it can at preventing and decreasing severity, hospitalizations and death. It’s something parents can actively do to protect children and themselves. Make sure children are up to date on other vaccines, and get up to date before they go back to school. Whether or not they go back to school, they’re going to interact with other people, and vaccinations help prevent other infections. Many parents feel overwhelmed at their inability to control much during the COVID-19 pandemic, but hand hygiene, masks, social distancing and immunizations are things you can actively do to prevent diseases. n What would you tell parents
who are trying to determine if it really is safe for them to go out and about, even with the new protocols in place? Attractions have done a nice job adhering to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health. At most places, you have to make an appointment or sign up, they’re limiting the number of people, and children older than age 2 wear a mask. Outdoor attractions are a little different – there’s less chance of transfer. n Are playgrounds, pools, splash
pads and waterparks safe? In those situations, there’s not normally a ticket or reservation. Parents have to use their own judgement. The recommendation is to limit gatherings to less than 10 people,
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