With most schools set to reopen next week, should we be worried about a wave of coronavirus outbreaks?
28 Aug 2020 | Facts and news from Full Fact
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** FACT CHECK
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** Coronavirus infections in schools: what do we know?
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With most schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland set to reopen next week, we have reviewed what we know so far about coronavirus transmissions in schools.
During the nationwide lockdown earlier this year it was largely only the children of key workers who attended schools, and from June some other students were allowed back into classrooms.
Because not many children have attended school since the pandemic began, the evidence is incomplete. However, what we do have suggests that schools probably don’t play a major role in spreading the virus. Although some risk does exist.
Infections in schools are likely, and while the evidence suggests the number of infections will mostly be relatively low, some significant clusters of infection have been linked to schools around the world.
Adults in the school setting (teachers, other staff, and potentially parents) risk both catching and passing on the virus, and older children seem to be linked to infections more than younger children. The overall risks are likely to be higher when the virus is already spreading more generally in the area around the school.
A closer look at the evidence ([link removed])
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** Flu isn’t killing more people than coronavirus ([link removed])
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Last week, the erroneous claim that influenza, or in some cases “influenza and pneumonia” is now causing more deaths than Covid-19 was repeated by several national newspapers, magazines and broadcasters.
This is a misunderstanding of figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which show the number of deaths where influenza, pneumonia or Covid-19 are mentioned on the death certificate—not those where they were listed as the underlying cause of death.
It’s misleading to say that these are cases where people necessarily died “of” the disease, or were “killed by” it.
Although we don’t have detailed data on recent deaths, there are almost certainly fewer deaths where flu is identified as the underlying cause compared to Covid-19. With pneumonia included, the total number of people dying of pneumonia or flu is probably higher than the number dying of the new coronavirus at the moment, but not by the margin that suggested in some headlines.
How deaths are categorised and the latest figures ([link removed])
** FACT CHECK
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** Infrared thermometers will not harm the pineal gland in your brain ([link removed])
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A Facebook post shared hundreds of times has claimed that infrared temperature guns can damage the pineal gland in the brain.
These devices have become a common sight during the coronavirus pandemic, with a number of businesses using them to screen customers who may have a fever.
But it is incorrect to say that these devices can do any damage to your brain.
Infrared is a form of radiation that is invisible to the naked eye but can be sensed by humans as warmth or heat.
Non-contact infrared thermometers work by measuring the infrared radiation given off by an object or person and converting this into a temperature.
As these devices measure infrared rather than emitting it, the person whose temperature is being taken isn’t subject to any extra infrared radiation. The red light seen on these devices is just that: a beam of light to help the user aim it correctly.
How infrared works ([link removed])
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** Also this week...
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* Ukrainian soldiers have not died after having an American Covid-19 vaccine ([link removed])
* Matt Hancock misstates the proportion of Test and Trace contacts being reached ([link removed])
* This study doesn’t show that children are ‘silent super-spreaders’ of coronavirus ([link removed])
* Claims that Warburtons now gets its wheat from the USA are wrong ([link removed])
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** Stop the spread of bad information ([link removed])
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