Buffalo, NY (WBEN) While the number of COVID cases from schools has been lower than thought, medical experts say that's because of important measures taken, justifying concerns schools could be a superspreader.
They also note we're not out of the woods just yet.
The big reason why COVID cases have not been prevalent in schools is masks, according to Dr. Nancy Nielsen with the University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and former President of the American Medical Association. "Wearing masks in school is a very smart move," says Nielsen. "It appears at least from the Erie County data that the kids are contracting illness outside of school and that's what we expected."
Additionally, Nielsen hopes kids older than 12 are getting vaccinated, now that they can.
Nielsen doesn't believe concerns about schools becoming a superspreader were overblown. "I think we did see some pretty significant clusters last year, particularly among junior high and high school kids. But remember there's a bigger issue, it's not just the cases diagnosed, it's the close contacts being quarantined. This is really quite disruptive even though the cases aren't terrible," says Nielsen. She adds Erie County's changes to COVID testing are welcome.
When do we stop worrying about COVID? "When more people are vaccinated," says Nielsen. She notes Pfizer announced it has submitted data on the vaccine on children ages 5-11 to the FDA, though it has not asked for emergency use approval. "Once that's approved, it's important to have as many kids vaccinated as possible, and then we can significantly relax the concerns we have," says Nielsen.
Dr. Tom Russo, also with the Jacobs School of Medicine, agrees with Nielsen that the mask mandate has helped to minimize the spread of infection. "Masks are not perfect, they're really quite good when worn properly," says Russo. He says it's the combination of mitigation measures that are rigorous than in other parts of the country and vaccinations of students that are minimizing the spread.
Russo says having good mitigation plans have helped keep COVID infection rates down in schools. "Vaccinations, ventilation and hygiene measures have helped minimize spread and avoid those events," says Russo. He says other parts of the country aren't doing so and that's where the outbreaks are being seen.
Russo says we haven't reached the point where we can relax. "We're still on the backside of the Delta wave, so we need to continue the game plan. We also have the Halloween/Thanksgiving/religious holiday combination as well, which puts us at risk for a bump in cases," says Russo.
Russo hopes cases will be down by early 2022 to start about relaxing current restrictions.
