Your math is wrong. First, there are 56M students in the US (5-18 year olds, pretty much). Second, while you quoted the % of cases that belong to children, that is the wrong stat. You want the number of kids that would ever get COVID, which is probably all of them, although there is evidence that 20-50% of people have some sort of resistance. So, for worse case estimates, if all students get covid, then 56M * 0.018 = about 1M kids hospitalized. However, CDC also has evidence that there are 5-10x the number of cases in general out there. So if it is 10x, then it is 100,000 kids hospitalized because the hospitalization rate is commensurately lower. Still not a good number.
If we look at mortality, it is better. The current estimate for IFR in kids is about 1 in 300,000. That gives about 220 estimated deaths if every school age kid gets Covid. Cars kill more kids per year driving to school.
This is all horrendously tough to decide on, but we need to use the best data we can and understand the dangers and comparisons to other dangers.
Finally, kids are going to spread it anyway, so I think kids getting it is really a non-issue, except for the very vulnerable.
Staff/teachers are another concern. An even worse concern is people at kids' homes. That's the really tough part.
You need the Infection Fatality rate for mortality.
If we look at mortality, it is better. The current estimate for IFR in kids is about 1 in 300,000. That gives about 220 estimated deaths if every school age kid gets Covid. Cars kill more kids per year driving to school.
This is all horrendously tough to decide on, but we need to use the best data we can and understand the dangers and comparisons to other dangers.
Finally, kids are going to spread it anyway, so I think kids getting it is really a non-issue, except for the very vulnerable.
Staff/teachers are another concern. An even worse concern is people at kids' homes. That's the really tough part.
You need the Infection Fatality rate for mortality.