Schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic: The facts

(November 18, 2020. Hi Reader: We’re devoting this edition of KidsTravelDoc to help you cope with an important aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic: elementary schooling. Hopefully, we’ll soon return to our main – and more pleasurable – topic: helping you to keep families healthy, safe, and comfortable for travel and fresh air activities. )

1. When reading about COVID-19, note the date and source of the material. Also note the frequent use of words such as “likely” and “probably.” We don’t know as much as we would like to know about this pandemic. And what we do “know” can be outdated overnight. Moreover, some “experts” lack “expertise,” with opinions based on emotions and politics, rather than on science. (All our information comes from the US Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics – accepted “best sources available.”)

2. Transmission of COVID-19 in schools may be less common than initially feared. That thinking was largely based on data concerning the influenza virus. Experience is showing that school-based transmission of COVID-19 is far less common than with influenza. Each virus has its own “personality.”

3. School closures may not have to be a foregone conclusion. This is particularly true for elementary school-aged children who appear to be at low risk of infection. Closures alone may be insufficient to halt epidemic spread and have only a modest overall impact on infection rates compared with broader, community-wide physical distancing measures. However, traditional schooling may not be an appropriate option in communities where the virus is spreading rapidly. Local public health professionals must make decisions.

4. As of November 12, 2020, in the US, just over one million children tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. In the one-week period ending Nov. 12th, there were 111,946 new cases in children, which is substantially larger than in any previous week. However, these numbers are not necessarily alarming. They are mainly due to an increase in the number of children being tested. (In the US, the definition of a “child” in regard to COVID-19 varies state by state, from 0-14 years to 0-20 years.)

5. Children are infected far less often than adults. More important comparisons are the percentage of infected children that require hospitalization (only about 2% of adult admissions), rate of admissions to intensive care units (one in three hospitalized children), and deaths (extremely rare in children and usually only in children with serious underlying conditions). Overall, the risk is low, but not negligible.

6. Children most frequently acquire COVID-19 from adults, rather than transmitting it to them. And children are generally not the individuals who bring the virus into households; adults generally do. Limited information indicates that teachers are unlikely to become infected by young children. However, this may not be the case for teachers with predisposing health issues.

7. The consensus among educators and parents is that remote learning is a poor substitute for in-person schooling. This is especially true for children in the early elementary school grades. Remote learning seems to slow the development of social and emotional skills, eliminates schools as safe places while parents are working, and keeps many children from having healthy meals and access to the internet, to mention just a few.

8. A COVID-19 vaccine for children is NOT “just around the corner.” The vaccine most advanced in development is being studied only in adults, not in children. Likely, this vaccine, in adults, will require two doses given several weeks apart, and then require more weeks until it provides optimal immunity. Only then will it be considered for children and probably only after more testing, to establish lower age limits of effectiveness, for example. Furthermore, the most promising drug to treat COVID-19 infections has a tentative lower age limit of 12 years.

9. The risk of infection for children in school settings can be reduced with simple measures. Improving air circulation, for example, by keeping windows and doors open. And placing desks all facing in the same direction rather than sitting children around tables. Three feet (one meter) of separation of desks may be sufficient to minimize spread. Other measures include having teachers, not children, move from classroom to classroom to avoid crowding halls and stairways, and having children eat lunch at their desks.

10. For your information: Becoming infected with COVID-19 by touching virus-contaminated objects and then placing ones’ fingers in ones’ mouth/nose – common habits among children – are uncommon means of spreading the virus… The necessity of storing and transporting the vaccine currently furthest in development at extremely low temperatures will likely delay the widespread availability of that vaccine… Children, like adults, should be isolated for two weeks after being in close contact with individuals testing COVID–19 positive – regardless whether that contact individual has symptoms… Close contact is generally defined as being within six feet (two meters) of such a person for at least 15 minutes, whether or not that person was wearing a mask.

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