BACK TO SCHOOL: HOW DO WE KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE?
Summer vacation is coming to an end which means that kids are back in school. Whether you have kids still is grade school, high school or college, or have grand children in these schools, we all have the primary responsibility as parents to keep our kids safe.
There are still many unknowns about how COVID may affect our school year. Will there be mask mandates? Will kids be able to attend school in person? Will there be limits on engagement of activities?
While we can’t predict the future, especially when it comes to policy regarding our freedoms, we can take steps to ensure that our kids are safeguarded against COVID, other viruses and other more deadly diseases.
School is about more than text book learning
We can’t forget that total health involves physical, mental and social health and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
School provides social and personal skills that are a critical part of health and development. Kids need to have their friends and their social interactions. It builds confidence, teaches social skills and engagement and how to get along with others.
We now know the consequences of social isolation especially in young kids. From March to October 2020, the proportion of emergency department visits related to mental health increased 24 percent for children aged 5-11 and spiked 31 percent among adolescents aged 12-17, compared to the same period the previous year.
Suicides among teenagers is also up. Adolescents aged 12-17 made up the highest proportion of children’s mental health-related emergency department visits in 2020.
Keeping kids out of school has severe consequences. Encourage in person teaching this year.
Are masks safe and effective for kids?
Masks have become a mainstay in America and across the globe. Not all masks are created equal.
There are masks specifically made to prevent the penetration of a very small viral particle from entering.
However, these are rarely used. The typical mask will certainly prevent viral spread from liquid particulate during talking, breathing or sneezing but offers no real protection from any airborne virus as the mesh fabric is not tightly woven to prevent penetration of a viral particle.
A good analogy is putting up a chain link fence to keep the mosquitos out of your yard. This is similar to the mesh or cloth masked commonly used.
Studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that kids wearing masks are breathing in higher levels of carbon dioxide. Although the study concluded these higher levels of carbon dioxide posed no health risks, the fact that higher levels of carbon dioxide can be detected should be concern enough.
Kids learn communication by reading facial expressions and those kids with hearing disorders read lips in order to communicate. Wearing masks eliminates kid’s ability to read expressions and even communicate with one another.
It is important to consider all the information on risks and benefits so parents and school administrators can make informed decisions on what is best for the kids and the district.
The numbers in perspective
COVID has dominated the headlines for over 18 months now. It has shut down world economies and started an effort employing new mRNA gene therapy for mass vaccination that is not even FDA approved but rather has an emergency use authorization.
An Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is a mechanism to facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Under an EUA, FDA may allow the use of unapproved medical products, or unapproved uses of approved medical products in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.
That means these have not gone through full FDA approval for demonstration of safety and efficacy but can be used in life threatening situations.
COVID does not present a life-threatening situation in kids and therefore kids should not even be candidates for an EUA treatment.
Adults can get informed and make their own decisions about whether or not to take gene therapy to potentially protect from Covid infection.
However, kids should be off limits.
There is not enough (actually none) long-term safety data on the mRNA vaccines to warrant use in kids. Furthermore, the numbers do not warrant vaccination in kids, since kids typically do not get Covid and if they do, they typically rebound very well.
Let’s put this in perspective so we can be rational and objective about decisions we make for our kids.
In this year 2021, about 10,500 children in the United States under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer. Childhood cancer rates have been rising slightly for the past few decades. After accidents, cancer is the second leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 14.
About 1,190 children under the age of 15 are expected to die from cancer in 2021.
A recent article published in Nature reveals that death from COVID is extremely rare. In fact, only 2 out of every one million pediatric COVID case results in death.
With the U.S. population being roughly 331 million, this means that we can expect roughly 660 deaths from COVID in kids. This is about half of those expected to die from childhood cancer.
Childhood deaths from any cause is tragic and should not happen. Where is the government outcry on childhood cancer? Cancer is a disease that will kill more than twice the kids than of those with COVID. The risks and unknowns about mRNA technologies and the long-term consequences far outweigh the potential benefits in kids that are mostly protected from COVID.
Furthermore, we know that natural immunity last longer than any vaccine response. If you or your kids have had COVID, there is no need for the vaccine.
How to protect kids from infections (including COVID)
Our first priority as parents is to protect our kids and give them what they need to grow, prosper and be successful in whatever they choose to do.
That means that we, as parents, must educate ourselves and get the right information in order to make informed decisions.
At a time when information is restricted or blocked when it does not agree with messaging from the government or mainstream media, this can make it very difficult to get the right information.
However, there is sufficient clinical data available to know what is protective and what puts us and our kids at risk.
It is well established that people with nutrient deficiencies such as Vitamin D, Vitamin C and zinc have increased risk of infection. Obesity and physical inactivity also increase risk of COVID infection.
As you send your kids back to school, please consider the following steps to fortify their immune system and protect them from any infections including COVID.
1. Supplement with 5000 units of Vitamin D daily. Choose a vitamin D that also include Vitamin K2 so not to mobilize calcium.
2. Give your kids at least 1000 mg of Vitamin C daily either through increased consumptions of fruits and vegetables or a daily supplement
3. Consider a product that contains trace minerals and nutrients. Our diet is depleted of important minerals and nutrients such as chromium, selenium, B vitamins, magnesium, iodine and others.
4. Glutathione is extremely important for combatting COVID. Kids typically have sufficient glutathione but can be depleted if their diet is not great or they are overweight. Please consider supplement N-acetyl cysteine or NAC (600 mg) daily. This will help the body produce its own glutathione.
5. If your kid is sick and not feeling well, keep them at home.
6. Limit or eliminate sodas and high sugar, processed foods.
7. Encourage your kids to get outside and exercise. This will help with weight loss and build the immune system.
We all have a responsibility to protect ourselves, our kids and our community. This can be achieved without fear, without force and with common sense.
The most important position in any community is a school board member. Please share this information with members of your school board so they can become informed, get different perspectives and make decisions that are best for each individual community and each and every student.
Our kids are our future and our most important asset to our society and our way of living. We must protect them and our individual liberties, freedom and ability to make choices that are best for us and our family without coercion or force.
Faith, science and common sense over fear, propaganda and manipulation. Loss of freedom and our rights to choose what is best or us and our family are far scarier and more dangerous than COVID.