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There's so much fighting about how to open schools safely with Covid. We asked 175 pediatric infectious disease experts what standards matter. Here's what they said: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html @clairecm @KevinQ
They do not think vaccinating teachers or students is important. They do not think schools should close based on community spread of the virus.
By large margins, they think schools can be open, in person with masks and distancing and ventilation. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
By large margins, they think schools can be open, in person with masks and distancing and ventilation. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
We do a lot of survey work at @UpshotNYT. The size of the majorities for some of these measures really stood out. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
These were experts in pediatric infectious diseases--so people whose job is caring for kids who get sick from illnesses like Covid. Yet many of them said they were much more worried about other aspects of children's wellbeing. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
To be clear, these experts did think open schools need to be different now than they were before the pandemic. We will need to vaccinate a lot more Americans before masks can come off, most said.
Majorities supported mask wearing, physical distancing, limiting group gatherings, frequent handwashing, and good ventilation. Measures like deep cleaning of buildings and installation of plexiglas barriers were less popular. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
The use of small, part-time student cohorts was not very popular. But the experts acknowledged there may be situations where they were necessary to ensure enough space between students. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
Many school districts are opening or closing based on how much Covid is in the community. The experts rejected this approach--across various measures. Instead, most said cases of Covid *inside* schools is more important. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/upshot/schools-reopening-coronavirus-experts.html
I want to clarify one thing I said upthread. I said the experts said that vaccines were not "important" for school opening. I should have said "necessary." This group is pro-vaccine. They just think schools can operate safely in the meantime if they use other precautions.
