September is almost here, but little consensus on sending kids back to school

The NPC Podcast is on the air. The organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's guest this week is Robin Hunter of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma.

⇒ Issue #97 (In numerology, 97 represents spirituality, introspection, wisdom and intuition.)
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 08/19: 125,084*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 08/19: 9,090*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 08/19: 22,164,232*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 08/19: 781,520*

August 19, 2020—It’s about Week 20 of this coronavirus craziness, and reporting this Wednesday from Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula is Editorial Director Allan Ryan.

Here it is nearly back-to-school time, but few are certain about how the return to the classroom may play out during Covid-19. The patchwork system across the country—provinces have taken varied approaches to the resumption of schooling and school boards within each province have added their own requirements—is causing consternation among parents concerned about the safety of their children.

In Alberta, a parent group called Project Safe September is dissatisfied with the government’s approach to school re-opening and is pressuring the government to limit class sizes to 15 students and implement additional safety precautions, among other demands. Carla Davidson, a co-founder of Project Safe September, told Calgary’s 660 News Radio, “We’re running out of time to really have some clarity on what the school year is going to look like. Parents still don’t have the information that they need to make an informed decision.”

Similar advocacy groups have sprung up in other provinces to address issues they claim have been hastily dismissed by governments and school boards, including neglected upgrades to school ventilation systems. In the Yukon, mental health workers and school officials have recognized that these ever-evolving school standards (wear a mask indoors or/outdoors? In the hallways? Go to school for the full day, or a half-day? Attend remotely or in-person?) have served to increase nervousness and anxiety among students. The Yukon chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association is holding an online workshop to advise parents on how best to cope with this additional stress on their children.
Added Stephanie Hammond, executive director of Whitehorse’s Learning Disabilities Association of Yukon Centre for Learning: “It’s not just about content and academic skills. It’s about how we feel about ourselves as a learner and all the emotions that are going on with that.”

She told the Yukon News, “Anxiety has already been increasingly on our radar, in terms of the barriers that it can pose for learning. With Covid, we recognized that this is really going to exacerbate things."

Even school bus drivers are worried they have become a forgotten part of the education system during the Covid-19 back-to-school plans. According to a report in The Sherbrooke (Que.) Record, drivers may choose not to return, and say loading students on buses is a recipe for outbreaks. While the Quebec government has developed plans for a full return to school this fall, transportation to and from the schools seems to have been overlooked, according to the drivers. A 20-year veteran bus driver told The Record that buses make social distancing an impossibility, and the plan is a disaster waiting to happen.

COVID CHRONICLE 08/19/2020

• A third-year pre-med student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario has developed a video game to combat disinformation about Covid-19. Ridhi Patel was alarmed by the misinformation and conspiracy theories she encountered online about Covid-19, and in response developed Quarantrivia, a game that tests players on their Covid-19 knowledge. She plans to update the game as information about the coronavirus is discovered.
• An analysis of 194 countries published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum has determined that countries led by females have handled the coronavirus situation better than others. The Guardian reports the authors of the paper suggest the better outcomes regarding Covid “may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses” adopted by female leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Finland’s Sanna Marin.
• An Australian study has determined—for the second time—that there appears to be an association between lower humidity and an increase in community transmission of Covid-19. The paper was published in the journal Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. "This second study adds to a growing body of evidence that humidity is a key factor in the spread of COVID-19," said Professor Michael Ward, an epidemiologist in the Sydney School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney. Climatic conditions conducive to the spread of COVID-19 present a challenge to public health, he added.

WHAT CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

Senior Editor John Evans is working on an article about the development of a Patient Charter for people living with conditions such as psoriasis, scheduled to be published in an upcoming issue of The Chronicle of Skin & Allergy.

TONIGHT WE ARE LISTENING TO

This new podcast by Tyler Shultz documents his early involvement in Theranos, the U.S. company that claimed to have developed a new, better and quicker technology using small automated devices to analyze blood samples. Valued at US$10 billion in 2013, by 2015 the company’s claims were under scrutiny and later proved to be false. Shultz was introduced to Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes by his grandfather, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, and talks about his early insights that there was something wrong with the testing being performed at Theranos.

HOW IS YOUR WEEK GOING?

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Stay in touch, stay safe and enjoy your day. Publisher Mitch Shannon will carry us through Thursday tomorrow.