There has been a lot of anxiety around whether or not it’s safe for parents to send their students back to in-person learning amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Dr. Emily Landon, chief epidemiologist for the University of Chicago, said the situation is complicated.
“Kids really are pretty safe in the classroom," said Landon, "but at the same time, we don't want to forget the fact that kids are getting hospitalized more with this omicron version of COVID than they have been in the past."
Landon said parents need to weigh the cost of their child risking a COVID-19 infection compared to the cost of missing out on in-person learning.
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“In order to protect kids from COVID, we need to protect them not just from COVID, but from the sort of collateral damage of COVID, which is some of the social, emotional, and the learning problems that are going to come from having spent so much time outside of school,” she said.
Landon said she expects to see classrooms and even some schools briefly shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks, but in the meantime, there are several ways for schools to keep classrooms safe.
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“We need to do everything we can to keep schools the safest that they possibly can be," said Landon, "by getting kids vaccinated, by using masks, by having plenty of distance between kids at lunchtime, by doing testing regularly, to make sure that sick kids aren't in the classroom. If we do all of those things, classrooms should be the lowest risk they can possibly be.”
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