The report was published online in BMJ magazine on September 1.
It’s not surprising that teachers are no more at risk than other groups, said Douglas Harris, chairman of the Schlieder Foundation for Public Education at Tulane University in New Orleans and director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans.
Schools that require masks and social distancing will dramatically reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, he said.
“I think the schools are mostly sensible about it, and I think it’s mostly reasonable to leave the kids in school when it’s safe,” Harris said.
Of course, vaccinations are key to fighting the pandemic, he added.
“I think there is an ongoing debate in the US about whether vaccines can be made mandatory. That’s the elephant in the room. I think that almost has to happen if we really want to get back to normal, ”said Harris.
Harris believes that school systems should mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers and all students, including young children, once a vaccine has been approved.
“We’re already doing this because children already need to be vaccinated against other things,” he said. “It’s hard to understand why you don’t need it. In this case, and really only like this, we can get back to normal, it could go on for years.”
As more adults get vaccinated, the virus will primarily attack the unvaccinated, especially children, Harris said.
But everything should be done to minimize the spread of the virus and keep schools open, he said.
“School closings have health implications,” Harris said. “We tend to focus on the immediate effects of opening up and spreading the virus in schools, which is clearly important and probably the first consideration, but when you close schools you create a new set of problems, mental illness and child abuse and all sorts of ways. ” of economic side effects. “
More information
For more information on COVID-19 and schools, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: David McAllister, MD, MPH, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Informatics, Institute for Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Scotland; Douglas Harris, PhD, Professor, Economics and Schlieder Foundation Chair, Public Education, Tulane University, New Orleans, and Director, Education Research Alliance for New Orleans; BMJ, September 1st, 2021, online
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